BREST (France): When 180 riders from 20 teams line up for the start of the 95th Tour de France in this coastal city in Brittany today, they will embark on a 3,529-kilometre journey of uncertainty: for themselves as riders, for the tour as an event and for cycling as a sport.

Twelve months ago, the tour limped to the finish line in Paris, seemingly on the verge of imploding over doping scandals.

In its final week, the race leader, Michael Rasmussen, was expelled by his own team for lying about why he missed drug tests during training, and two other teams dropped out after each had a rider fail a drug test.

Last year's winner, Alberto Contador, will be absent this year because the team he joined in the off-season, Astana, were excluded from this year's race after being enmeshed in doping scandals the past two years.

The champion two years ago, Floyd Landis, had his title revoked after failing a drug test and is serving a two-year suspension.
The sport itself is in danger of fracturing into two leagues amid an escalating feud between the Amaury Sports Organisation, which owns and organises the Tour de France and several other major races, and the International Cycling Union (UCI), the sport's governing body.

To Christian Prudhomme, the race director, this is the moment of truth. "Cycling is judged over three weeks in July," Prudhomme said.

"Without doubt, it's an important year for the image of cycling."

Tour officials have made several cosmetic changes, with two of them likely to affect the results in the first week, if not the entire outcome.

For the first time since 1967, the race will not start with a short prologue time trial. Rather, the riders will set out on a rolling, 193.9-kilometre trip from Brest to Plumelec.

Prudhomme has also eliminated time bonuses, meaning that the first three finishers in each stage and the winners of the on-route sprints used to allocate points for the best-sprinter competition will no longer benefit from having seconds shaved off their overall times.

Together, those adjustments mean that there could be several more lead changes than normal in the first week, at least until the fourth stage, an 28.8-kilometre individual time trial on Tuesday in Cholet.

This year's tour is also likely to bring to the fore several new contenders for the overall victory, because only three riders in this year's race have ever finished on the top-three podium in Paris.

One of them, Cadel Evans, a 31-year-old Australian rider for the Silence-Lotto team who finished second to Contador last year, is widely considered the favourite. He is likely to be challenged by Alejandro Valverde, a 28-year-old Spaniard riding for the Caisse d'Epargne team.

Neither rider, however, has a lock on victory.

Evans is known for his conservative -- not to say boring -- riding style, and Valverde has had bad luck with crashes in previous tours.

Another contender will probably emerge from the CSC-Saxo Bank team, although it is unclear who that will be.

The designated team leader, Carlos Sastre, finished third in 2006 (after Landis was excluded and everyone moved up a place) and fourth in 2007. But he can also lose time in the time trials.

His teammates Frank Schleck, who won the stage to Alpe d'Huez two years ago, and his younger brother Andy could emerge as threats to Sastre and the entire peloton.

Other riders who have a shot at finishing on the podium in Paris are Denis Menchov of Rabobank, Damiano Cunego of Lampre and, in a long shot, Christian Vande Velde, an American with Garmin-Chipotle.

Each of those riders, as well as the rest of the peloton, will be subject to intense scrutiny from anti-doping officials during the three-week tour.

Unlike in past years, however, that effort will not be overseen by the UCI, which has no official presence here because of its dispute with the Tour organisers.

Instead, the French Anti-Doping Agency will conduct the drug tests, a task it has performed at other races but rarely on a scale like that required by the Tour de France. -- NYT