Erik Zabel’s ongoing hunt for the green points jersey has often been a distraction from his team’s real mission at the Tour de France, T-Mobile manager Mario Kummer said Wednesday as the team announced its line-up for the race.

As expected, the 34-year-old Zabel was left off of the roster for next month's Tour de France and replaced by 26-year-old all-rounder Stephan Schreck, who is riding in his first Tour.

The move is intended to strengthen Jan Ullrich's bid to dethrone six-time winner Lance Armstrong.

Zabel, a six-time winner of the Tour's green jersey, has raced in 11 Tours.

Ullrich, winner in 1997 has been runner-up five times – three times to Armstrong - and he is determined to end the Texan's reign.

(L-R): Giuseppe Guerini, Tobias Steinhauser, Matthias Kessler, Andreas Klöden, Alexander Vinokourov, Jan Ullri

"I've always said winning the Tour against Lance Armstrong carries greater weight. That's why I plan to do it in his last year," said the 31-year-old Ullrich.

But Kummer warned: "Lance has a strong team and he will try to control the race from the start."

So the T-Mobile team decided there was little point in chasing the green jersey.

"All that interests us is the yellow jersey," said Ullrich.

Italian Giuseppe Guerini, 35, and Spain's Oscar Sevilla, 28, will be Ullrich's support riders in the mountain stages, as will Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov, third in the 2003 Tour, and German Andreas Klöden, 2004 runner-up.

It's a strong team, but the decision to leave the popular Zabel off the roster is not without controversy. As the nine riders lined up on stage of the T-Mobile auditorium in Bonn on Wednesday, one lone fan yelled from the back of the audience “Where is Zabel?"

Kummer, looked uncomfortable, shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know either.”

"This has been a possibility for a while,” said Kummer. “We first started discussing it back in the fall, but the final decision was made only two weeks ago. For us, a lot depended on the fitness of Jan Ullrich, on Vinokourov and Klöden. All three are showing great form – Vino’ was in great shape by May, Ullrich rode strongly in Gippingen and Klöden is improving. We had to make the decision to focus on the general classification.” Director Olaf Ludwig said that the decision to exclude Zabel from the team was a difficult one.

"It’s been a question for us for some time now,” Ludwig said. “When we made the decision, I was the one to call him and tell him that he wasn’t going to do the Tour. It wasn’t a pleasant conversation, but it was frank and honest.

“This was not just a question about Erik, though,” Ludwig added. “It would have not been easy for him fighting for the jersey. There would have been no one from the team working for him. He would have been on his own in the sprints. This year, he wouldn’t even have had Rolf Aldag with him."

The decision, noted Ludwig, does not reflect anything more than the team’s priorities for this Tour de France. Zabel has ridden his entire career with the team and that, said Ludwig, won’t change.

"Erik has a two-year contract offer from us,” he said. “That offer specifically refers to his career as a rider, but I know for a fact that T-Mobile is offering him a position that will continue beyond his retirement when that happens.”

Klöden, who has had a very public dispute with Zabel in last year’s Tour, said that he thinks it’s appropriate to focus on the race for the yellow jersey, adding that Ullrich is the rider for whom all of the team will ride.

“Now the pecking order is very clear,” Klöden said. “I am playing a support role again. I am riding for Jan Ullrich. I already said in the spring that in my opinion it would be good to leave Erik off of the Tour team and focus on the yellow jersey. I was asked my opinion, but it certainly wasn’t my decision to make.

“If a team wants to win the yellow jersey, a team needs to focus on that at the exclusion of everything else,” Klöden added. “It’s an argument I’ve made in the past. Still, Erik is one of the world’s best at what he does. I respect that and would have been happy had he been on the team, too. I plan to call him in the next few days and speak with him.”

Team chief Walter Godefroot said the team plans to put Ullrich, Vinokourov and Klöden at the front of the pack to prevent Armstrong targetting any one rider.

"But Jan Ullrich is our leader," he added.
Alexander Heflik, News Editor Charles Pelkey and Agence France Presse contributed to this story

T-Mobile for the Tour de France
Jan Ullrich (G), 31
Professional since 1995
Tour de France: 7 Tours – 1st in 1997, 2nd (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001,2003)
Giuseppe Guerini (I), 35
Professional since 1993
Tour de France: Nine Tours, 22nd in 1999
Stage win 1999: l'Alpe d'Huez (after getting past Erik the photographer)
Matthias Kessler (G), 26
Professional since 2000
Tour de France: Three Tours - 49th in 2003
Andreas Klöden (G), 30
Professional since 1998
Tour de France: Four Tours - 2nd in 2004
Danielle Nardello (I), 32
Professional since 1994
Tour de France: Eight Tours – 7th in 1999
Stefan Schreck (G), 26
Professional since 2000
Tour de France: Tour debut
Oscar Sevilla (Sp), 28
Professional since 1998
Tour de France: Four Tours – 7th in 2001
Tobias Steinhauser (G), 33
Professionnel since 1996
Tour de France: Three Tours - 113th in 1996
Alexandre Vinokourov (Kz), 31
Professionnel since 1998
Tour de France: 3rd in 2003