Tour chiefs omit holder Contador

Contador joined Astana when his Discovery Channel team disbanded

Alberto Contador's hopes of defending his Tour de France title look to be over after his Astana team were left off the list of 20 official invites.

Tour de France organisers chose not to select the Luxembourg-based outfit because of their implication in doping scandals over the last two years.

Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden are also part of the Astana team.

The other 17 ProTour teams will race in this year's Tour, which gets under way in Brest on 5 July.

"I want to make clear that this decision is aimed at the team not at Alberto Contador, but he happens to wear the Astana jersey," said Tour director Christian Prudhomme.

We changed the team structure, we've done everything we could... the Tour de France is going to lose its value Philippe Maertens Astana spokesman

Astana spokesman Philippe Maertens was naturally unhappy with the decision.

"Where is the logic? There are other teams who have doping records. Rabobank and Cofidis have faulted in last year's Tour," he said.

"We changed the team structure, we've done everything we could. The Tour de France is going to lose its value.

"Maybe Cadel Evans will win it this year but people are going to say 'yes he won but Levi Leipheimer was not there, Andreas Kloeden and Alberto Contador were not there."

Spaniard Contador, 25, joined Astana when his Discovery Channel outfit disbanded.

Astana had a troublesome 2007. Not only did they miss the Tour de France, they were also excluded from the Tour of Spain.

Lead rider Alexandre Vinokourov was also fired after testing positive for a blood transfusion, while Andrej Kashechkin and Matthias Kessler also failed doping tests.

Astana claim to have cleaned up their act since then but have not done enough to convince Tour de France organisers to admit them.

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The decision of the Amaury Sport Organisation, which selects the participants, will upset the International Cycling Union.

The UCI wants all teams from its ProTour circuit to compete in cycling's major races.

Astana may have missed out, but Rabobank are among the chosen teams.

At last year's Tour, the Netherlands-based team kicked leader Michael Rasmussen out of the race just days before the end because he had lied about his whereabouts when missing pre-Tour doping tests.

Three ProContinental teams - Agritubel, Slipstream and Barloworld - complete the 20-team field.

Teams: AG2r-La Mondiale, Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis, Credit Agricole, Francaise des Jeux, Agritubel, Caisse d'Epargne, Euskaltel, Saunier Duval, Gerolsteiner, Milram, Quick Step, Silence-Lotto, Lampre, Liquigas, Team High Road, Slipstream, Team CSC, Rabobank, Barloworld.