Cycling's image at the crossroads

The Tour de France, still reeling from last year's doping affairs, will face the daunting task of restoring cycling's image when it starts its three-week journey of more than 3,500km on Saturday.

A scandal-free race would lift its battered reputation but another doping-hit edition in front of more than two billion television viewers would be disastrous for an event that more than any other crystallises the plague of drugs on sport.

"One month from now, we will not be the same, in one way or another," Tour director Christian Prudhomme said.

All doping tests will be conducted by the French Anti-Doping Agency since the race has been put under the jurisdiction of the French federation because of a long-standing row between organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) and the International Cycling Union over who decides on the teams taking part in their events.

ASO shook up the field by not inviting the Astana team because of their past doping record, consequently leaving out last year's champion Alberto Contador of Spain.

Astana were asked to leave the race last year after Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov tested positive following his stage win in Albi.

Then leader Denmark's Michael Rasmussen (left) was kicked out of the event for allegedly lying on his training whereabouts and the Cofidis team withdrew after Italian Cristian Moreni tested positive for testosterone.

Deprived of Astana, arguably the strongest outfit in the peloton, the race is expected to be wide open and favourite Cadel Evans of Australia will find it hard to clinch his first victory after finishing runner-up last year.

For the first time since 1967, there will be no prologue and sprinters will find it hard to shine in the first week, with mostly hilly stages favouring the audacious.

More of a wise tactician than an attacker, Silence-Lotto's Evans believes he will win the race in the time trials.

"Logically, the time trials are where I should do best, and where I should be able to win the Tour," he said.

However, with a team unlikely to control the race as seven-times winner Lance Armstrong's teams did from 1999 to 2005, Evans will be attacked from everywhere.

Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (in picture) of the Caisse d'Epargne team, who will be backed up by 2006 champion Oscar Pereiro, will be among the top contenders although he has been an under-achiever on the Tour. Sixth overall last year, he won the warm-up event for the Tour, the Dauphine-Libere, last month.

The Italian challenge will be led by Damiano Cunego, who has been impressive this season and leads the UCI-ProTour standings after winning the Amstel Gold Race.

The Lampre rider even decided to skip the Giro d'Italia this year to be fully focus on the Tour.

Cunego's compatriot Ricardo Ricc is expected to shake up the peloton in the mountain stages, with one of them ending in his country, in the Alpine resort of Cuneo.

The Giro runner-up should be one of the top contenders for the climbers' polka-dot jersey along with holder Juan Mauricio Soler of Colombia.

One year after the Rasmussen scandal, the Rabobank team are also likely to shine on the French roads with Russian Denis Menchov, but also three-times world champion Oscar Freire (in picture) and Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha.

Others to watch include the CSC team, whose challenge will be led by Spaniard Carlos Sastre and the Schleck brothers, Andy and Frank.

The sprinters' green jersey contenders will be battling it out without last year's winner Tom Boonen, who has been barred from entering the race because of his implication in a cocaine scandal.