Franco-Belge with twelve Pro-Tour teams

In the French city of Maubeuge the 66th edition of the four days stage race Franco-Belge will start today. The race has a strong field this year with twelve Pro-Tour teams. The first stage will take the riders from Maubeuge to Quievrain (173 kilometers). The second stage starts in the French city of Ghyvelde and finishes in the Belgian city of Poperinge. On saturday the third stage will go from Moeskroen to Dottenijs and sundays final stage will start in Cuesmes and ends in Doornik. Last years edition of the race was won by Italian rider Marco Zanotti. The twelve ProTour teams that will start in this years Franco-Belge are: Quick Step-Innergetic, Davitamon-Lotto, T-Mobile, Cofidis, Milram, Ag2r, Credit Agricole, Gerolsteiner, Bouygues Telecom, Rabobank, Team CSC and La Francaise des Jeux.

Valverde not at Zürich Metzgete & Paris-Tours

Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) told reporters of Spanish daily sports AS: "I started the season very early to arrive in form for the spring classics and later I raced in the Tour de France," Valverde continued by saying:"Later, I was second in the Vuelta and now I earned a medal at the world's. I believe that I need to stop." The Spanish rider continued with some light training and said he might start at the Giro d'Lombardia to be present for the ceremony for the 2006 Pro-Tour winner. Valverde will win the competition.

Swiss cycling federation: Ullrich would become license for 2007

Lorenz Schäfli told reporters of the German sports weekly"Sportbild" that Jan Ullrich would become a license for the year 2007 if he applies for one. According to "Sportbild" Schäfli said Ullrich could race again in the next season, "if he has a team." The German rider races with a Swiss license as he is living in Switzerland.

A suspesion for Ullrich seemed to be certain but Swiss cycling  has heard nothing from the world cycling federation after returning the documents on the investigation by Spanish Guardia Civil into the Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. 

Schäfli told  "Sportbild" there had been no progress in the case and his federation had heard nothing about the state of the investigation. Schäfli stated: "For disciplinary proceedings or a charge I need authenticated documents. That is Swiss law."

"But nothing has happened. If the UCI does not help us the affair is settled. At the moment in Switzerland we have no doping case, and no rider with a Swiss licence is being investigated."

There were rumours that Astana and Discovery Channel are intrested in signing Jan Ullrich, however the revised code of conduct forbid teams to sign or even negotiate riders under doping suspicion. Ullrich told reporters of Swiss daily "Blick" that he would find a new team if he would not be suspended last month, only a week ago Ullrich repeated this in an interview with German weekly "Bunte".

Tonight we will finally publish part two of our analysis of the Puerto documents.