Tour de France team selections revealed

It has been announced this morning that Tour de France stars Marco Pantani and Mario Cipollini will miss this year's race, with the news that their Mercantone Uno and Saeco teams have not been selected to ride the 2001 edition. The Tour de France organizers also made the somewhat controversial decision to bypass the burgeoning Mercury outfit, 11th in the world rankings, when they disclosed the five wild-card teams earlier today.

The confirmed selections are the Lotto-Adecco team of Andrei Tchmil, Laurent Jalabert's CSC-World Online squad, climbing specialists Euskaltel-Euskadi, plus the second division French outfits BigMat-Auber 93 and La Française des Jeux. These five bring to 21 the total number of teams to ride this year's race, which runs from July 7th - 29th. The recent doping allegations concerning 1998 winner Pantani are seen as a major reason for Mercantone Uno's exclusion, with the Tour de France authorities taking an increasingly tough stance against drug use in the race.

Earlier this year they announced a comprehensive list of measures to limit the use of performance enhancing substances. Pantani's poor early season form did little to convince race organizer Jean Marie Leblanc that he should be invited. The flamboyant Mario Cipollini, who has won 12 stages and wore the yellow jersey in 1993 and 1997, will certainly be missed. But the prospects of the Italian playboy were hampered by an increasingly weakened Saeco side and a disappointing 2000 season when he missed the Tour de France due to injury and was ejected from the Tour of Spain after a punch-up with Spaniard Francisco Cerezo.

However, the selection of eight French teams, five of which are second division sides, has drawn criticism from the excluded teams. Mercury team director John Wordin, stated that the final selections of the Societe du Tour de France. He insisted: "Their choice is not in the best interests of the sport. But it's their race, they should do what they want, and you have to respect their decision. But at the same time the race takes on a certain 'globalness' and by not having the best teams in the race, it's not in the best interests of the sport."

FINAL TEAM SELECTION FOR 2001 TOUR DE FRANCE:

France: AG2R PREVOYANCE, BONJOUR, COFIDIS LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE, CREDIT AGRICOLE, FESTINA, JEAN DELATOUR, LA FRANÇAISE DES JEUX, BIGMAT-AUBER 93

Germany: TEAM DEUTSCHE TELEKOM

Belgium: DOMO - FARM FRITES, LOTTO-ADECCO

Spain: IBANESTO.COM, KELME - COSTA BLANCA, O.N.C.E., EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI

USA: US POSTAL SERVICE

Denmark: CSC-WORLD ONLINE

Italy: FASSA BORTOLO, LAMPRE - DAIKIN, MAPEI - QUICK STEP

Netherlands: RABOBANK

Filed by Shane Murray