Tour de France officials assured an overall winner to the 2006 edition will be named and discounted speculation that the race would be left without a victor if Floyd Landis fails in his efforts to beat back doping charges.

“Of course there will be a winner. I don’t understand this debate. This is sport, not just a ride,” said ASO president Patrice Clerc at Thursday’s presentation of the 2007 Tour route. “The Tour is the most important bike race of the world, so it’s obvious there will be a winner. If someone cheats and it’s confirmed, then the cheater is not the winner and the second-place rider becomes the winner.”

Suggestions that the Tour was considering not naming an official winner if Landis loses his court battle to clear his name gained traction after L’Equipe – also owned by ASO – published a story Wednesday asking several pundits whether Landis should be replaced if he can’t demonstrate his innocence.

The story raised hackles in Spain, where runner-up Oscar Pereiro has been all-but-crowned as the Iberian nation’s fifth Tour winner in history. If awarded the yellow jersey, Pereiro would join Federico Bahamontes (1959), Luis Ocana (1973), Pedro Delgado (1988) and Miguel Indurain (1991-1995). Pereiro would also be the third Tour winner to emerge from the team structure that saw Delgado take the yellow jersey in Paris in 1988 as a Reynolds rider and Indurain take it five times under Banesto colors.

Pereiro, however, cautioned that Landis is still the official winner until Landis’s disciplinary hearing is concluded sometime next year.

“For the moment, I am here as second place in the Tour,” Pereiro told reporters. “The public is anxious to say what I cannot say and what’s still not the case. I understand the impatience, but you cannot say more than what there is.”

Valverde likes Tour look
ProTour champion Alejandro Valverde didn’t attend Thursday’s Tour presentation, but he still liked what he saw.

The Spanish rider won a mountain stage in the 2005 Tour, but has yet to finish the two Tours he’s started. Last year he pulled out with a bum knee and this year he crashed out with a broke clavicle in the first week.

“The mountains arrive earlier this year, on the seventh day, so it’s going to be a beautiful Tour from the start because I believe this route is fairly balances, with enough for climbers as well as time trialists,” Valverde told the Spanish wires. “After the first time trial there’s a very hard mountain stage and that’s where the overall challengers for final victory will be made.”

Millar dreams of yellow
Scot rider David Millar is dreaming of winning the yellow jersey next year in the Tour de France prologue in London. Millar – who won the maillot jaune in an opening-day time trial in the 2000 Tour – said the Tour opener will be the focus of his season.

“I will build my season on this prologue. I will benefit from what I’ve learned on the track. Track cycling gave me speed so I think I can go faster now,” Millar told reporters Thursday.

Millar was banned for two years after admitting to using the blood booster EPO and had his 2003 world time trial championship stripped. He returned to racing this season with Saunier Duval and competed in the 2006 Tour and later won a stage in the 2006 Vuelta a España.

“I would never have dreamed such a thing would happen in my career,” Millar said. “It is an opportunity for me to show this sport to my family and my friends, but also to show why I love it.”

Boonen dreams of green
Belgian sprinter Tom Boonen, who’s failed to finish the Tour de France in two starts, wants to arrive to Paris in 2007 and battle for the green points jersey.

Boonen skipped the unveiling ceremony Thursday, but said the course presents plenty of opportunities for sprinters.

“It seems a good and interesting route, even though I still haven’t seen full details of all of the stages. It’ll be exciting starting in London with a prologue where every second will count. The first stage arrives at Canterbury, I know this area pretty well and this type of route as I took part in the last edition of the Tour of Britain,” Boonen said. “Then on the Monday we’ll have the first stage on the continent from Dunkerque to Gand. This is a stage suited to riders like myself,” he continued. “This is the third year that the Tour goes into Belgium. It is always great riding in front of a home crowd but this fact itself also gives me a certain amount of responsibility."

"Generally the first week of stages are quite frantic, there will be lots of riders wanting to make their mark before the men in classifications take over," he noted. "I’d love to win a stage during the first week and then point towards leadership of the classifications. Last year it was just fantastic wearing the yellow jersey.

Boonen said he hopes he can finish the Tour for the first time since 2004. And if he does, he wants to be in the mix for the green points jersey. “The last two years I’ve not been able to finish the Tour for various reasons but this year it would great to get as far as Paris and even better still be able to fight right up until the end for the green jersey,” he said.

Davis Disco-bound?
Aussie sprinter Allan Davis could move to Discovery Channel for 2007 if he can get out of his existing contract, VeloNews has learned.

Sources confirmed Discovery Channel would like to sign Davis on the conditions that he is not implicated in the Operación Puerto doping investigation and that he can break out of the remaining two years with Active Bay Sports, the holding company co-owned by ex-team manager Manolo Sáiz.

Davis, 26, was one of five Astaná riders forced out of the 2006 Tour de France for alleged links to the blood doping ring operated out of Spain.

Davis denied any wrongdoing and a Spanish court formally cleared him of any legal proceedings in late July. ASADA – the Australian anti-doping agency – is currently reviewing the Davis case, but hasn’t made any statements since confirming the receipt of documents from the UCI.

A Spanish judge ruled earlier this month that evidence gathered in the Puerto investigation can’t be used to sanction riders until the investigation is formally closed.

If the Puerto links are cleared, Davis’ main hurdle would be trying to get out of his remaining contract with Active Bay.

Davis is caught in the middle of an ugly tug-of-war between Active Bay and a new parallel structure set up by Marc Biver under the name of Kazakh sponsors Astaná, which want a new team in 2007 without any connection to Sáiz.

Active Bay insists it still holds the current ProTour license as well as valid contracts with Astaná and two dozen riders, including Davis through 2008. The ProTour license commission addressed the complicated issue in a meeting this week, but a decision still hasn’t been made.

The team’s future was thrown into uncertainty when Sáiz was among five people arrested in May as part of the Operación Puerto doping investigation. Sáiz has insisted his innocence against links to an alleged blood doping ring, but he was forced to step down in his role as the team’s sport director.

Davis – who’s been compared to French all-rounder Laurent Jalabert - hasn’t raced since before the Tour.

Hamilton Tinkoff link confirmed, Petrov signed
Tinkoff team manager Oscar Piscina confirmed a story posted last week on VN.com that Tyler Hamilton could join the Italian-Russian team for the 2007 season.

“We spoke with (Hamilton’s) agent and we’ve made a proposal,” Omar Piscina, manager of the Tinkoff Credit Systems squad, told The Associated Press. “His agent said he's been training these two years and is in form. He's 35, so he's still got another couple of good years.”

Hamilton’s two-year ban for blood doping ended Sept. 22, but UCI officials say he cannot return to a ProTour team for another two years.

UCI officials said despite allegations that Hamilton is linked to the Operación Puerto doping investigation, the 2004 Olympic time trial champion is cleared to return to racing until USADA makes a decision otherwise. USADA is currently reviewing documents forwarded by the UCI they say demonstrate links between Hamilton and alleged Puerto mastermind Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes.

“Operación Puerto is currently blocked by Spanish authorities, so for us the only ban is the expired one of two years,” UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani said.

Hamilton would need a license from the U.S. cycling federation and cannot join one of the elite Pro Tour teams for another two years as part of his ban, Carpani added.

The team also announced the signing of former U-23 world time trial champion Evgeni Petrov.
Associated Press