Lance Armstrong will attempt to win his seventh Tour de France with
what he described as his strongest team ever, although the Texan admitted he would miss the presence of Viatcheslav Ekimov, who is injured.
Six of the eight men who will help Armstrong along the final leg of his career were with the 33-year-old during the recent Dauphine Libere, traditionally used by the team to fine-tune ahead of the Tour.
And, as a mark of the strength in depth available to Armstrong, Paolo Salvodelli, winner of this year's Giro d'Italia, the highest profile race after the Tour, has also been confirmed as a participant.
He joins American George Hincapie, Spaniards Jose Luis Rubiera, Manuel Beltran and Benjamin Noval, Pavel Padrnos of the Czech Republic, Portugal's Jose Azevedo and Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych.
Armstrong said: ‘I think we have fielded our strongest team ever with this formation.
