Last year's Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre will lead the Cervélo TestTeam at this year's Tour de France, which kicks off in Monaco on 4 July.
Sastre, 34, is the only real general classification rider in the squad, which also includes Tour green jersey winner Thor Hushovd and exciting young sprinter Heinrich Haussler. The other riders are Iñigo Cuesta López (Spa), Volodymir Gustov (Ukr), Andreas Klier (Ger), Brett Lancaster (Aus), José Angel Gomez Marchante (Spa) and Hayden Roulston (NZl).
An interesting omission is Australian Simon Gerrans, who was named as one of three reserves on the team. Gerrans was a stage winner in the recent Giro d'Italia and also has a Tour de France stage win to his name. According to a posting on his Twitter account, Gerrans was "pretty disappointed" with being left out of the Tour team.
Cervélo's team manager Thomas Campana said: "The decision for the final Tour de France Team was certainly not an easy one. Though we are fortunate to have many excellent riders who are in good shape and ready for the Tour, in the end only nine riders per team are allowed to start.
"The goal, for our first Tour de France, will be for a top result in the general classification with defending champion Carlos Sastre. The team will provide Carlos with their full support to help him achieve this goal. Another major goal for us will be
to help our sprint ace Thor Hushovd, win the green jersey. Thor won it in 2005 and we believe he can do it again."
