Serbian rider Ivan Stevic was still in great shape as he won the Road Race of the UCI B World Championships. The Toyota-United rider qualified himself for the 2008 Olympic games by winning this race. Chinese rider Hajun Ma  won the    Time Trial of the UCI B World Championships. Björn Glasner won the overall of the Tour of East-Java. The Tour de France had a fantastic start in London. CSC rider Fabian Cancellara took the prologue for thousands and thousands of enthousiastic fans. During the Tour the T-Mobile Team announced that Patrick Sinkewitz tested positive for testosterone. The sample was taken during a training camp in June. German TV stations ARD and ZDF stopped live broadcasting of the Tour. Sinkewitz crashed a few days before the announcement and heard the news while he was still in a hospital in Hamburg where he was treated for his injuries caused by his crash. We would like to thank the UCI for geoverning the sport. In the Alpes Michael Rasmussen grabbed the yellow jersey and it looked like he was going to win this Tour after he managed to defend the jersey at the Time Trial in Albi. The Time Trial was won by Alexander Vinokourov but during the second rest day in Pau, Vinokourov and the entire Astana team was sent home because the Kazach rider tested positive. The sample was taken after his winning Time Trial. We would like to thank the UCI for governing the sport. One day later Michael Rasmussen won the mountain stage at the Aubisque and it looked like the Danish Rabobank rider was going to win the 2007 Tour. But in the evening hours Rabobank send Rasmussen home and the Danish rider was sacked by his team. Rabobank manager Theo De Rooij said that the Danish rider leid to the team about his whereabouts in June. Rasmussen later admitted to have lied about his whereabouts to the UCI but also said that Team Rabobank knew that he wasn't in Italy. According to Dutch daily newspaper NRC, former UCI president Hein Verbruggen, called the the head office of Rabobank (the company)  in Utrecht, Netherlands. The bank should know that the UCI could easily have suspended Rasmussen from the race, Verbruggen told Pijpers: "according to the rules of the World Anti Doping Agency [WADA] the UCI should have done just that. Rabobank ought to be grateful." Why didn't the UCI suspend Rasmussen before the Tour?  Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said: "The UCI is trying to damage the Tour de France." A few weeks after the Tour de France Theo De Rooij stepped down and sponsor Rabobank installed a commission to´investigate the Rasmussen case. The findings of the commission are here. The Tour was officially won by Alberto Contador but for the second year in a row the Tour wasn't a real race, it was a soap. We would like to thank the UCI for governing the sport. In Tibet, the Tour of Qinghai Lake was won by Gabriele Missaglia and Stijn Devolder won the Tour of Austria. Borut Bozic took the Tour de Wallonie and Gerolsteiner's Davide Rebellin took the Brixia Tour.

 

Sung Baek Park took the Tour de Korea. Santiago Botero won the Vuelta a Colombia and Hernan Buenahora crowned his season with a second place in the overall after he had already won the Vualta Al Tachira in January. Thomas Voeckler took the GP Ouest France-Plouay. Rabobank's Denis Menchov won the Vualta Espana. Menchov already won the Vuelta 2005 after Roberto Heras was disqualified after a positive test during the 2005 Vuelta Espana. Levi Leipheimer won the road race of the US Pro national championships. Dutch young gun Bauke Mollema won the prestigous Tour de l'Avenir. Saul Raisin started at the US Pro national championships time trial, the time trial title was taken by David Zabriskie.

Agritubel's Romain Feillu won the Tour of Britain and Johan van Summeren took the Tour de Pologne. Discovery Channel made a farewell ride at the premier Tour of Missouri. The team will stop operations at the end of 2007. George Hincapie won the race. Robbie McEwen won Paris-Brussels for a record fourth time. Astana announced that Andrey Kashechkin tested positive for bloodtransfusion. We would like to thank the UCI for governing the sport. Rabobank's Thomas Dekker won the German stage race 3 Länder-Tour. The 2007 road World Championships in Stuttgart were full of chaos. The UCI tried to prevent Alejandro Valverde to start but the Spanish Cycling Federation won a case against the UCI before the International Sports Court (CAS), so Valverde was allowed to start. Danilo Di Luca was withdrawn by the Italian Federation. The organizing committee tried to prevent defending champ Paolo Bettini to start after Bettini refused to sign the riders declaraction for a new cycling. The declaration was an UCI pr move before this years Tour de France and wasn't worth the paper it was written on. We would like to thank the UCI for governing the sport. Bettini started at the road race and defended his title. Fabian Cancellara defended his time trial world title. Lars Boom won the U 23 men time trial. Slovakian rider Peter Velits won gold at the U 23 road race. Hanka Kupfernagel won the women's time trial and Marta Bastianelli took the title at the women's road race. The 2007 World's offered great sport but ended in a nightmare.  

 

Jos van Emden took the Münsterland Giro and Gert Steegmans won the 67th Circuit Franco Belge. Francisco Mancebo won the overall of the Mexican stage race Vuelta a Chihuahua Internacional. Alessandro Petacchi won Paris-Tours. Unibet's Matt Wilson won the Herald Sun Tour and Carlos Lopez took the Vuelta Ciclistica a Guatemala. Michael Boogerd crashed during a traing ride and will not start at his final Pro-Tour race, the Giro di Lombardia. Boogerd retired. Damiano Cunego won the race. Cadel Evans secured his overall Pro-Tour win by finishing 6th. Di Luca lost his leading Pro-Tour position after the Italian rider was suspended for his ties with Italian Doctor Santuccione. We would like to thank the UCI for governing the sport. The Tour du Faso was won by Adil Jelloul and the Japan Cup was taken by Manuele Mori. Unibet.com announced that it will stop operations after the UCI Pro-Tour license of the team was worth absolutely nothing. The team wasn't allowed to start at several Pro-Tour races, including the Tour de France. We would like to thank the UCI for governing the sport.

 

Polish rider Robert Radosz won the overall of the Tour of Hainan and Hayden Roulston took the Powernet Tour of Southland in New Zealand. The 19th Tour de Okinawa was taken by Takashi Miyazawa. At November 27 Deutsche Telekom ended its sponsorship of the T-Mobile team with immediate effect. The team website was shut down on the same day. After 16 years one of cyclings biggest sponsors leaves the sport. Deutsche Telekom also sponsored the Tour of Germany, Tour of Austria, Rund um Köln and dozens of other races. The company also terminated the contracts with the races. Audi and Adidas also terminted their contracts with the T-Mobile Team. Bob Stapleton announced that the team will continue as Team High Road. Giant sticks with the team and will continue to be the bike supplier of Stapleton's Team High Road. We would like to thank the UCI for governing the sport. The state prosecution of Freiburg raided the university of Freiburg after Patrick Sinkewitz confessed to hace been doped at T-Mobile, Mapei and the German U 23 National team. Sinkewitz told the German Cycling Federation and the Geram Federal Police (BKA) that he received a blood transfusion at the Freiburg university after stage 1 of the 2006 Tour de France, only two days after Jan Ullrich and Oscar Sevilla were send home by Team T-Mobile. We would like to thank the UCI for governing the sport. Credit Agricole announced that US rider Saul Raisin will not be racing in the immediate future. Saul Raisin went a step further and said: "My dreams to be a professional cyclist are dead."  Brazilian rider Alex Diniz won the Brazilian stage race Volta Ciclistica Internacional de Santa Catarina. Rabobank announced that interim team manager  Henri van der Aat  will be replaced by Harold Knebel from March 1, 2008. Erik Breukink will stay with the team.

 

Henry Raabe won the 43rd Vuelta a Ciclista Costa Rica and Iranian rider Ahad Kazemi won the Tour of Thailand. The German Regiostrom-Senges team  took 3 of the 6 stages in Thailand. The stages winners for Regiostrom-Senges were Matthias Bertling, Malaya van Ruitenbeek and Christoph von Kleinsorgen.  Volksbank rider Andreas Matzbacher died in a car accident. Four time Tour de France stage winner Lucien Teisseire  passed away. Teisseire was 88 years old.

Wang Yip Tang took the Tour of the South China Sea. Björn Leukemans was sacked by Predictor-Lotto after he was tested positive for testosterone. One of the team doctors was sacked as well. At the end of this year dozens of riders retire, some of them voluntarily some not. Some of the retired riders are: Thomas Ziegler, Alexander Vinokourov, Axel Merckx, Joseba Beloki, Laurent Brochard, Niels Scheunemann, Scott Moninger, Roberto Heras and Iker Flores.