teams for the Tour de France 2004 :
http://www.velo-club.net/article.php?sid=17735

Euskaltel :
Iban Mayo (ESP)
Haimar Zubeldia (ESP)
David Etxebarria (ESP)
Iker Flores (ESP)
Inigo Landaluze (ESP)
Iker Camano (ESP)
Egoi Martinez (ESP)
Gorka Gonzalez (ESP)
Unai Etxebarria (VEN)

Cofidis :
Frédéric Bessy (FRA)
Jimmy Casper (FRA)
Christophe Edaleine (FRA)
Jimmy Engoulvent (FRA)
David Moncoutié (FRA)
Dmitriy Fofonov (KZK)
Stuart O'Grady (AUS)
Matthew White (AUS)
Janek Tombak (EST)

Crédit Agricole :
Alexandre Botcharov (RUS)
Julian Dean (NZL)
Pierrick Fédrigo (FRA)
Patrice Halgand (FRA)
Sébastien Hinault (FRA)
Thor Hushovd (NOR)
Sébastien Joly (FRA)
Christophe Moreau (FRA)
Benoît Salmon (FRA)

Fdjeux.com :
Sandy Casar (FRA)
Baden Cooke (AUS)
Carlos Da Cruz (FRA)
Bernhard Eisel (AUT)
Frédéric Guesdon (FRA)
Bradley McGee (AUS)
Christophe Mengin (FRA)
Jean-Cyril Robin (FRA)
Matthew Wilson (AUS). Remplaçant : Nicolas Vogondy

La Boulangère :
Walter Bénéteau (FRA)
Anthony Charteau (FRA)
Sylvain Chavanel (FRA)
Maryan Hary (FRA)
Laurent Lefèvre (FRA)
Jérôme Pineau (FRA)
Franck Renier (FRA)
Didier Rous (FRA)
Thomas Voeckler (FRA)

RAGT :
Guillaume Auger (FRA)
Pierre Bourquenoud (SUI),
Sylvain Calzati (FRA)
Frédéric Finot (FRA)
Christophe Laurent (FRA)
Ludovic Martin (FRA)
Christophe Rinero (FRA)
Eddy Seigneur (FRA)
Gilles Bouvard // Nicolas Reynaud ?

AG2R :
Mikel Astarloza (ESP),
Laurent Brochard (FRA)
Samuel Dumoulin (FRA)
Stéphane Goubert (FRA)
Jaan Kirsipuu (EST)
Yuriy Krivtsov (UKR)
Jean-Patrick Nazon (FRA)
Nicolas Portal (FRA)
Mark Scanlon (IRL)

US Postal :
Lance Armstrong (USA)
George Hincapie (USA)
Floyd Landis (USA)
José Azevedo (POR)
Manuel Beltran (ESP)
Benjamin Noval (ESP)
Jose Luis Rubiera (ESP)
Viatcheslav Ekimov (RUS)
Pavel Padrnos (TCH)

Too bad Beloki and Vinokourov are not participating. :(

So, where are the other teams? Haven't they been anounced yet? And is the Cofidis team really gonna race the Tour? Or are they gonna leave only the riders that were stupid enough to get caught... er I mean, that doped?

I'll make a first proposal of the ratings until tomorrow for the our competition.

Yup, Cofidis is going to race and the Tour is risking a 2nd Festina case. It is more than strange that Kelme can't participate but Cofidis can. Two differences: Cofidis is French and Kelme is only out because of rumours, while Cofidis has 4 riders admitting use of doping.

If you want a good overview of participating riders: cycling4all.com

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2004/tour04 is quite complete too...

and their fantasy-game can give you indication about the costs of each one (based on UCI ranking) http://fantasy.cyclingnews.com/game/

Yup cyclingnews.com is the Mecca of cyclingnews on the internet. They were the first and still are the best. But cycling4all.com is earlier with their tour team announcements. Only important for cycling freaks...like me :)

I don't like very much the ratings by UCI points because I don't think they reflect the real value of the riders for a competition like the Tour, although not as dramatically useless as the FIFA Rankings. But I'm sure evryone agrees that say Jan Ullrich, Armstrong or Heras should have a higher price than Paolo Bettini if he was going to race it.

I think that cynclingnews is a great site, but for some info there's nothing better than cycling4all. They were about to close last year IIRC. Great that they stayed online.

I used the cycling4all lit to do a first proposal for the ratings. I think that they might be too high in average, but tell me what do you think. I used the same idea as last year to rate Armstrong with 105 Touros ;) and so on...

Gosh ! it's very "poco", 200 Touros !

Here is my team :
Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile 65 Ts
Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 55 Ts
Richard Virenque (Fra) Quick Step D 25 Ts
Bradley McGee (Aus) FDJeux.com 20 Ts
Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) AG2r Prevoyance 10 Ts
Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 10 Ts
Carlos Dacruz (Fra) FDJeux.com 5 Ts
Benoît Salmon (Fra) Credit Agricole 5 Ts
Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches B 5 Ts
TTT : USP

I have too take off Fabian Wegmann at the very last one, I hope I will not eat my fingers....

There's an english version on the official site : www.letour.fr

It's coming to Wallonia during 4 days !

Gosh ! it's very "poco", 200 Touros !

Here is my team :
Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile 65 Ts
Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 55 Ts
Richard Virenque (Fra) Quick Step D 25 Ts
Bradley McGee (Aus) FDJeux.com 20 Ts
Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) AG2r Prevoyance 10 Ts
Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 10 Ts
Carlos Dacruz (Fra) FDJeux.com 5 Ts
Benoît Salmon (Fra) Credit Agricole 5 Ts
Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches B 5 Ts
TTT : USP

I have too take off Fabian Wegmann at the very last one, I hope I will not eat my fingers....

So you think I should perhaps bring them down a bit?

When does the Tour start?

When does the Tour start?

Saturday 3.7