The selection of teams which will participate in the Tour de France 2007 has been announced today by ASO.

The organiser of the Tour de France today announced on its website that, in addition to the 18 Pro Tour teams (out of 20) which had already been selected on December 12th, 2006, 3 wild cards have been given out. These wild cards have allowed to select the French Agritubel, the English Barloworld and the Swiss Astana.

The wildcards for Agritubel and Astana aren't really surprising: Agritubel is a French team which already participated in last year's Tour and Astana's selection is in line with expectations as well with riders such as Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Klöden.
Barloworld's (an English team with a South-African sponsor) selection however is a little bit more a surprise, even though rumours about this selection had already been published on several websites the last few days. Barloworld is a Professional Continental Team and currently ranks second in the Europe Tour ranking (right behind Rabobank's Continental team).

With this selection, Unibet.com still remains out of all ASO selections, officially because they advertise for an online gambling service, which is forbidden in France (and Belgium).

The team selection is as follows (21 teams x 9 riders = 189 riders):

• Belgium:
  - Predictor - Lotto
  - Quick Step - Innergetic
• Denemarken:
  - Team CSC
• France:
  - AG2R Prévoyance
  - Bouygues Telecom
  - Cofidis, le Crédit par téléphone
  - Crédit Agricole
  - Française des Jeux
  - Agritubel
• Germany:
  - Gerolsteiner
  - T-Mobile Team
• Italy:
  - Lampre - Fondital
  - Liguigas
  - Team Milram
• Netherlands:
  - Rabobank
• Spain:
  - Caisse d'Épargne
  - Euskaltel - Euskadi
  - Saunier Duval - Prodir
• Switzerland:
  - Astana
• United Kingdom:
  - Barloworld
• United States:
  - Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team


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