... Right. And it can only be a matter of time before the sidebars turn yellow! Let's look at some Tour rosters:
- CSC announce their Tour lineup: Ivan Basso, Carlos Sastre, Fränk Schleck, Jens Voigt, Giovanni Lombardi, Stuart O'Grady, Bobby Julich, David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde. O'Grady and Lombardi will be the token sprint force (sorry Stuey), while Schleck plays stage hunter extraordinaire. The rest are in service to Basso, and a fine praetorian guard it is.
Phonak, Gerolsteiner, Quick Step, Liquigas, Rabo... on the flip!
- Liquigas also announce: Garzelli, Danilo Di Luca, Luca Paolini, Manuel Quinziato, Michael Albasini, Patrick Calcagni, Magnus Bäckstedt, Kjell Carlström and Matej Mugerli. This is a solid stage-hunting lineup, though I can't see any of them switching jerseys, not even for green.
- Next up: Phonak... Floyd Landis, Miguel Angel Perdiguero, Axel Merckx, Bert Grabsch, Koos Moerenhout, Nicolas Jalabert, Robert Hunter, Alexandre Moos and Victor Hugo Peña. Hunter sprints, Perdiguero, Moos and Pena shepherd Floyd, not sure about the rest. Eurosport thinks this lineup sucks.
- And then there's Rabo: Michael Boogerd, Erik Dekker, Thomas Dekker, Joost Posthuma, Pieter Weening, Juan Antonio Flecha, Oscar Freire, Denis Menchov and Michael Rasmussen. Pretty loaded team, presumably riding for Menchov to take a top 10 on GC, Rasmussen to win the polka-dot jersey, Freire maybe making a run at the green jersey, and stages for Boogerd, either Dekker, or the Spanish Arrow. Rabobank have a team that could really make a mark on this Tour, if they have any sort of plan for once.
- Another fun one to watch: Quick Step! Tom Boonen, Wilfried Cretskens, Steven De Jongh, Juan Manuel Garate, Filippo Pozzato, Bram Tankink, Mateo Tosatto, José Rujano, and Cedric Vasseur. Pozzato and Tosatto do leadouts to Boonen, as if he needs one. Rujano and Garate try to double-team the climbs, and Vasseur makes a long breakaway on Bastille Day.
- Now comes Gerolsteiner... Levi Leipheimer, Georg Totschnig, Markus Fothen, David Kopp, Sebastian Lang, Ronny Scholz, Fabian Wegmann, Peter Wrolich, Beat Zberg. A full-on U27 stage-hunting squad! Oh, and Leipheimer, looking for the maillot jaune. Totschnig presumably takes the role of ace lieutenant here.