Tour de France: another top rider leaves

The biggest Tour shocker in years came on the eve of the race Friday when T-Mobile lead rider Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour champion, this year's Tour of Italy winner Ivan Basso of Team CSC, and fourth-place finisher last year Francisco Mancebo of AG2R were forced out over doping allegations.

Photo: Tour de France: another top rider leaves

Tour de France: another top rider leaves

A sick Danilo Di Luca pulled out Monday, decapitating his Liquigas team.

Young Spanish star Alejandro Valverde was the highest-profile casualty in the accident-strewn stage three on Tuesday. The Illes Balears leader fractured his right collarbone in a spill after hitting a teammate's tire.

George Hincapie, a longtime Armstrong sidekick who is trying to take over as Discovery Channel team leader, is riding two months after breaking his collarbone in a spill in the Paris-Roubaix race. He had a standout start to the Tour by taking over the race lead for a day, but succeeded Tuesday in staying out of trouble.

Gerolsteiner leader Levi Leipheimer of Butte, Montana, who finished sixth last year, is determined to avoid a repeat of his disastrous 2003 Tour, when a crash on the first stage put him out of the race, according to the AP.

Even in a race as storied as the 103-year-old Grande Dame of cycling, rarely have so many big names dropped out so quickly.

With the other stars out, Hincapie - currently third overall - Leipheimer, in 25th, and Phonak's American team leader Floyd Landis in seventh are among contenders to win the first Tour of the post-Armstrong era.

Wednesday will put the France back in the Tour de France.