Evans starts favorite in wide-open Tour

(CNN) -- The three-week Tour de France starts on Saturday with organizers hoping that cycling's most prestigious race reaches the finish line without any doping scandals.

Drug use and cheating in recent years have depleted the race of many of cycling's biggest names, giving a new crop of would-be stars a chance to make their names.

Cadel Evans, Alejandro Valverde, Carlos Sastre, Denis Menchov and Damiano Cunego are seen among the most likely contenders to win the three-week race that takes riders over more than 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles).

The race begins with a 197.5-kilometer (122.7-mile) flat ride through Brittany and for the first time since 1967, the Tour will begin without an opening-day prologue.

It also starts without a defending champion for the second straight year. The team of 2007 winner Alberto Contador -- Astana -- were not invited because of doping scandals they faced in the last two years. American Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone.

Among other big names out this year are Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov -- who was removed from the Tour last year for a positive test for a blood transfusion which led to the exclusion of his entire Astana team -- and fellow- Astana rider, American Levi Leipheimer.

The 2006 Giro d'Italia winner and two-time Tour podium finisher Ivan Basso is also absent. The Italian is serving out the last few months of a two-year ban that he received after acknowledging involvement in the Spanish blood-doping probe known as Operation Puerto.

"People are talking about the ones who are absent, but once the race starts, people will stop talking about them and start talking about those who are here," said Patrice Leclerc, head of Tour organizer ASO.

"This race has never been as open as this year -- so I'm convinced that this Tour has everything it needs to be a great Tour. It's up to the riders to give us the answer," added Leclerc.

Some riders are making a statement about drug use. Italy's Cunego, winner of the 2004 Giro d'Italia, has tattooed "I'm doping free" temporarily on his left arm.

Meanwhile, Australian race favorite Evans, who will wear No.1, concedes: "I'd rate myself as a pretty good chance to win."

The 31-year-old heads bookmakers' lists after progressively improving from his eighth place finish in 2005, to fourth the next year and runner-up in 2007.

Evans is most worried about Russian Menchov, the Tour's best young rider in 2003 and the current Tour of Spain champion, and the Rabobank rider hopes the relative inexperience of his team will not prove a handicap to his ambitions.

"I hope we have a strong enough team, but I know my job and I know what I have to do to win," said Menchov. "I have big ambitions for this race, and have as good a chance as any of the contenders."

Sastre, a Spaniard who has finished in the top 10 in five of the last six Tours, has a strong CSC team including the Schleck brothers -- Andy and Frank.

The time-trial is Sastre's weakness and a poor run of results at the Dauphine Libere have left question marks over his form. However, CSC team manager Bjarne Riis is quietly confident.

"Our leader is Carlos but we have options with Andy and Frank, who can be up there with the best, especially Andy," said Riis. "I feel we can be very competitive, especially in the mountains."

Australian Stuart O'Grady, who will be racing to help Sastre beat the likes of Evans and Valverde but will then team-up with Evans for the Australian team at the Olympic Games, said the strength in depth of CSC has given them a distinct advantage.

"You can't win the Tour de France by yourself, and without having a strong team. Lance Armstrong showed that for seven years," he said.

"I don't see how our team could get any better. We really have every angle covered. And with Andy and Frank you can say we've got a three-pronged attack.

"Cadel will come into the race with a different kind of pressure. Now, the whole world is looking at him. But good luck to him."

Valverde, a 28-year-old Spaniard, is looking strong after winning the Spanish championship and the Dauphine last month. But due to crashes and other ailments, he only finished one of the four Tours he started -- with a sixth-place finish last year.

Valverde, a strong all-around rider backed by a solid Caisse d'Epargne squad, said he expects that the field of pre-race favorites will be whittled down to the true contenders during three days in the Alps in week three.

He has accepted he may lose time to Silence-Lotto team leader Evans in the race's two time- trials, but added: "I think the race is going to be won in the mountains. After the Pyrenees there are three tough days in the Alps. For me, it's the key to this Tour."