Cycling: Schedule for 2006 Tour de France looks promising for Ullrich

The route's unveiling here yesterday showed most of the difficult stages are in the third week of the event, with the race's high point being stage 15's mountain top finish on the infamous summit of Alpe D'Huez.

One traditional crowd-pleaser, the team time trial, has been excluded for the first time since 2000. Instead, two individual races against the clock, both over 50 kilometres and the last just 24 hours before the finish in Paris on 23 July, will prove decisive tests in the 3,600km, three-week event.

Officials from T-Mobile, the German team with the favourite, five times runner-up Jan Ullrich, were quietly optimistic, saying "he's got a route which suits him". Less satisfied was the Italian climber Ivan Basso, second in 2005. Basso said he would "have to go all out in the time trials to have any chance of victory".

The Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, tipped by Armstrong as "probably the future of cycling" said the race was "even more open than we already expect it to be."

Leading officials also yesterday called for increased pre-race random drug testing for all riders. As for Armstrong, he was mentioned only once.

Alasdair Fotheringham writes for Cycling Weekly