Le Tour website is up and running with official facts and live news from the Tour de France.
Checking it this morning, I first learn that 176 riders are starting this Tour de France. Originally 189 cyclists were listed on the roster, so that means a total of 13 bicycle riders didn't start because of Friday's housecleaning, aka Black Friday.
There are cyclists from 26 countries; France lists the most with 38. The US (for some reason lumped in with the Netherlands) has 8. They are:
George Hincapie (Discovery)
Bobby Julich (Team CSC)
Christian Vandevelde (Team CSC)
David Zabriskie (Team CSC)
Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner)
Chris Horner (Davitamon-Lotto)
Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto)
Floyd Landis (Phonak)
The number “1”, worn by Lance Armstrong from 2000 to 2005, this year is worn by Jose Azevedo, a Portugese cyclist for the Discovery team. Lacking a team leader, Discovery apparently numbered their riders alphabetically.
With Ivan Basso's departure from the Tour, Bobby Julich, above, is wearing the team leader number “11” for Team CSC. Two other Americans are team leaders — Leipheimer at Gerolsteiner and Landis at Phonak.
At T-Mobile, Andreas Kloden is wearing number “21” for suspended cyclist Jan Ullrich.
While teams can bring 9 riders to the Tour, T-Mobile has only 7 after Ullrich and Oscar Sevilla's departure.
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