Spain is an uproar Thursday night over alleged comments from Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre accusing Team CSC-Saxo Bank manager Bjarne Riis of trying to undermine his efforts to win the Vuelta a España. http://www.velonews.com/article/83352/tour-winner-denies-saying-that-his-team-manager-is

the interview

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.as.com%2Fciclismo%2Farticulo%2Fsastre-riis-ha-querido-equipo%2Fdasclm%2F20080918dasdascic_2%2FTes&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=es&tl=en

Inigo Cuesta agrees

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marca.com%2Fedicion%2Fmarca%2Fciclismo%2Fvuelta%2F2008%2Fes%2Fdesarrollo%2F1166401.html&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=es&tl=en

Update from Gav.
Here are the original Spanish articles:
Carlos Sastre on as.com
Carlos Sastre on marca.com
Iñigo Cuesta on marca.com

Intriguing story. More lates, if time permits.

All teams decide to leave UCI ProTour series

The UCI's ProTour series appears to be officially dead after all 17 teams at the Tour de France decided to leave the series and not renew their licences next season.

"It has been decided unanimously not to renew the ProTour licences for the 2009 season," read a joint statement from the teams.

The only ProTour team not present at the Tour de France, Astana, is also expected to leave the ProTour. "If everybody decides so, I can't imagine Astana will not follow," Astana chief press officer Philippe Maertens told Reuters.

UCI President Pat McQuaid told Reuters that all the teams could face exclusion from the UCI. "We'll deal with that according to the regulations," said McQuaid. "They face exclusion from the international federation. It is something we are going to discuss."

American legend Greg LeMond believes there have been enough positive changes in cycling that he can believe in the winner of the Tour de France.

LeMond, 47, returned to the Tour this week for the first since the late 1990s, when he become so disillusioned with cycling’s doping problems that he refused to even attend the race that he won three times.

LeMond is optimistic that increased anti-doping controls and changes within the culture of the peloton can deliver a clean winner of the Tour. VeloNews was there when LeMond spoke with journalists Sunday morning in the start village.

http://tour-de-france.velonews.com/article/79414/a-conversation-with-greg-lemond-at-the-tour-on-sunday

LeMond says cycling no longer needs the UCI

http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news?slug=reu-tourlemonddc&prov=reuters&type=lgns

Hervé Duclos-Lassalle, Sylvain Chavanel, David Moncoutié, Maxime Monfort, Amaël Moinard, Leonardo Duque, Stéphane Augé, Florent Brard en Samuel Dumoulin. From Wielrensite (Dutch):

Zeven Fransen in selectie Cofidis Vrijdag 27 Juni om 10:22 | Gepost door Rafael Stoker Cofidis gaat het deze Tour de France doen met zeven renners uit eigen land. Vorig jaar verliet de Franse ploeg de Tour voortijdig na een affaire rondom de Italiaan Cristian Moreni.

Maxime Monfort uit België en Leonardo Duque uit Colombia staan de zeven Franse renners bij.

Selectie Cofidis voor Tour 2008:
Hervé Duclos-Lassalle, Sylvain Chavanel, David Moncoutié, Maxime Monfort, Amaël Moinard, Leonardo Duque, Stéphane Augé, Florent Brard en Samuel Dumoulin http://www.wielrensite.nl/nieuws/8134

Stijn Devolder, Carlos Barredo, Matteo Carrara, Steven De Jongh, Sebastien Rosseler, Gert Steegmans, Matteo Tosatto, Kevin Van Impe & Jurgen Van de Walle.

Assente Tom Boonen, dichiarato non desiderato dalla Aso, la Quick Step per il Tour de France sarà imperniata attorno al vincitore del Giro delle Fiandre Stijn Devolder. Con lui al via da Brest ci saranno Carlos Barredo, Matteo Carrara, Steven De Jongh, Sebastien Rosseler, Gert Steegmans, Matteo Tosatto, Kevin Van Impe e Jurgen Van de Walle, diretti in ammiraglia da Wilfried Peeters e Dirk Demol.

http://www.tuttobiciweb.it/index.php?page=news&cod=17201&tp=n

No Bennati

Pozzato, Quinziato, Willems, Kuchynski, Beltran, Nibali, Kreuziger, Fischer & Chicchi.

These are the Liquigas men for the Grande Boucle, from 5th to 27th July: a well-honed team hungry for stage wins. Unfortunately without Daniele Bennati

With eleven days to go until the 95th Tour de France begins, Team Liquigas has officially announced the line-up that will be starting in Brest. «We’ve put together a competitive team that should do well on the different routes in the Tour, » said directeur sportif Stefano Zanatta, «We’re aiming to win as many stages as possible, and we’ve got the right men to accomplish this goal. » Following the orders of Zanatta and Dario Mariuzzo is Filippo Pozzato, the jewel in the team’s crown who will try to repeat last year’s success in the Chablis-Autun stage. He’ll be assisted by Manuel Quinziato, the team’s benchmark for the time trials, as well as Frederik Willems from Belgium and Aliaksandr Kuchynski from Belarus.
Battling it out on the race’s 19 hilly stretches will be the Spanish rider Manuel Beltran, a Liquigas veteran who is ready to offer his years of experience to help the two new boys to the Tour, Vincenzo Nibali and Roman Kreuziger, Roman has just won a superb victory at the Tour of Switzerland.
Murilo Fischer and Francesco Chicchi are the sprinters to watch out for: it’s their job to capitalise on the sprint finishes and fill in for Daniele Bennati. Daniele will be sorely missed at this year’s Tour de France, but he’s out of action due to an Achilles peritendinitis to his left ankle that flared up in the last stage of the Giro d´Italia. «I’m really gutted to miss the race, » said the Arrezzo rider. «Unfortunately the strain of the Giro has caused my left leg to suffer, which is the one that had slightly less training because I injured it at the start of the year. I’ve spoken with the team and we all agree that it’s better to rest now and not risk the end of the season. » But Bennati aims to be back in form for his next big outing on 30th August: the start of the Vuelta.

or is it all history now...

Continue reading this post »

• Ag2r-La Mondiale (Fra)
  
• Bouygues Telecom (Fra)
  
• Caisse d'Epargne (Spa)
  
• Cofidis (Fra)
  
• Crédit Agricole (Fra)
  
• Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spa)
  
• Francaise des Jeux (Fra)
  
• Gerolsteiner (Dui)
  
• Lampre (Ita)
  
• Liquigas (Ita)
  
• Quick Step (Bel)
  
• Rabobank (Ned)
  
• Saunier Duval-Scott (Spa)
  
• Team CSC (Den)
  
• Team High Road (VSt)
  
• Team Milram (Dui)
  
• Silence-Lotto (Bel)
  
• Agritubel (Fra)
  
• Barloworld (GB)
  
• Team Slipstream-Chipotle (VSt)

So this is where they're going:

Watch the video