The pretenders to yellow

The shining star, and overall leader, of this year's UCI Pro Tour, Valverde hit the big-time with his astonishing Ardennes classics double this spring. The 26-year-old Spaniard's season has included stage wins at the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour de Romandie, as well as overall podium finishes and the points jerseys in both those races.

At last year's Tour, the Caisse D'Epargne leader won the Courchevel stage, beating Lance Armstrong in a sprint. He was then hailed by the seven-time reigning Tour king as the "possible future of cycling." Though Valverde excels in sprint finishes after long mountain slogs, he struggles on time-trials and will face two long ones this time around.

Predictions: Too young and too inexperienced to win it this year, a podium finish would be a great success for the Spaniard, and herald even greater things to come. Despite a strong showing in last year's race, he failed to ultimately finish his first ever Grande Boucle. This year, however, Valverde could successfully target the mythical L'Alpe-d'Huez stage. As the young man put it in an interview with Eurosport: "To win there is to write your name into the history books of the Tour."

The best positioned to keep the yellow jersey in American hands, and possibly even the best positioned of the underdogs, Leipheimer comes into the Tour with the wind at his back. Unlike George HIncapie, Leipheimer is his team's lone leader, and unlike Floyd Landis, Leipheimer surpassed expectations at this year's Criterium du Dauphiné Libéré, winning the race without a single stage victory.

The 32-year-old Gerolsteiner leader has finished in the top-ten three times at the Tour, but never cracked the top-five. He was able to join the likes of Lance Armstrong, Miguel Indurain, Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond, and Eddy Merckx with his overall win at the Dauphiné. Whether or not he can join their ranks as a yellow jersey victor at cycling's greatest race is an entirely different question.

Predictions: Leipheimer's previous best finish at the Tour came last year with a sixth-place finish. On a high from the Dauphiné, where he finished a strong third to claim the yellow jersey at the mythical Mont Ventoux stage, the American will crack the top-five, but a podium will remain elusive.

Going into the final days before the start of the Tour, the participation of Alexandre Vinokourov's embattled Astana-Wurth team was still in question. A third-place finisher at the 2003 Tour, Vino is one of the sport's most exciting riders to watch with his ability to attack at any time. A former victor at both the Dauphiné and at Paris-Nice, Vino's greatest moment in cycling came with a victory on the Champs-Elysees in the final stage of last year's Tour. With the clock ticking on his career, that memory may always remain the 32-year-old's finest.

Predictions: In spite of all the Kazakh support in the world, Vino will be too distracted to do anything in this year's race, that is if he's even allowed to race. Though he didn't show himself at the Dauphiné, Vino will, as always, be a break-away threat in the mountains. But both Basso and Ullrich will eat him alive in the two long time-trials. A stage win could be in the cards, however, perhaps in the Pyrenees.

Floyd started the season so strong, with a dominating early string of victories at the Tour of California, the Tour de Georgia, and the biggest win of his career, the yellow jersey at Paris-Nice. But at the Dauphiné, the American faltered, despite an excellent second-place performance in the race's long time-trial. The current Phonak leader won Tour de France stages when he was a soldier for Lance Armstrong at US Postal, but could only finish ninth overall when he went for the GC on his own last season.

Predictions: Unable to keep up on the critical sixth stage of the Dauphiné from Briançon to La Toussuire (practically identical to Stage 16 of the Tour), Landis should earn another disappointing top-ten finish.

Johan Bruyneel says his Discovery Channel team won't have one lone leader at the start of their first Tour de France without former commander Lance Armstrong. But as the best young rider at last year's Tour, the 26-year-old Yaroslav Popovych is Discovery's future, and the natural choice for the team's present. Popo took two podiums and a stage win, as well as third overall at the Tour de Georgia earlier this spring. Discovery may not have their leader determined until the late stages of the race, but that leader will be the young Ukrainian.

Predictions: Top-five finish for Popo. With Paolo Savoldelli, Jose Azevedo, and George Hincapie all trying for the general classification, Discovery have so many weapons to keep their eventual GC contender, i.e. Popovych, near the top.

Jose Azevedo and George Hincapie are the best poised to take the reins for Discovery should Popo falter. Azevedo is too weak on the time-trial, however, and time is running out on the 33-year-old Hincapie, though both men will put up a valiant effort.

Tour of Spain victor by default, Denis Menchov will lead the Rabobank assault on the general classification with the support of last year's mountain jersey victor Michael Rasmussen.

A podium finisher at last year's Vuelta a Espana himself, as well as a top-four finisher at the 2005 Tour, former white jersey victor Francisco Mancebo will have the chance to do great things for his new team AG2R.

The Giro D'Italia pretenders will all fight for stage wins at this year's Tour de France, but don't expect too much from Danilo Di Luca, Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego or Paolo Savoldelli.

A stunning victory at the Dauphiné for Iban Mayo (his first win in two years), could mean the Spaniard is back to the form which saw him place sixth overall at the 2003 Tour.

Andreas Klöden helped support T-Mobile Jan Ullrich to a victory at the Tour of Switzerland, and is hoping to have recovered enough from an early season injury to help his general to the German's second Tour de France victory. Should Ullrich fail, however, Klöden hopes for a repeat of his surprise second-place finish in 2004.