As the Grand Depart in Monaco draws closer, Team Astana remains a subject of great debate. With the recent struggles just to force their sponsors to pay the bills, Johan Bruyneel and co. have more than enough to distract them from the goal at hand: winning the Tour de France.

But being one of (if not the) best stage racing team in the world means having a few options for who can take the yellow jersey. So perhaps the question shouldn't be "Who will lead Astana", but rather "Who will emerge as Astana's leader?"

Check out Bruce Hildenbrand's recently updated (for post-Giro results) article,Who Will Lead Astana at the 2009 Tour de France?. Whatever happens between now and July 4, one thing is clear: It will be an exciting ride to the finish in Paris.

The route of the 2009 Tour de France was revealed yesterday in Paris. The 96th Tour will begin in the luxurious principality of Monaco on July 4 and finish in Paris on the 26th. Along the way it will cross into Spain, with stops in Girona and Barcelona, and Switzerland, with stops in Verbier and Martigny. In addition to two individual time trials, there will be a team time trial on Stage 4 in Montpellier.

The race will also feature two long transit days, one by air, the second by high-speed rail. This latter transfer is the result of the penultimate stage ending with a mountain-top finish on the legendary Mont Ventoux. It has been seven years since "the giant of Provence" has been included in the Tour.

For more on the presentation, click here . As far as Lance Armstrong's return to the Tour, Astana manager Johan Bruyneel says he is "50-50".

The Official Press Release from ASO

TOUR 2009: THE VENTOUX 24 HOURS BEFORE THE CHAMPS-ELYSÉES

The kick-off of the 96th edition of the Tour de France was symbolically given through the announcement of the course by Christian Prudhomme, at the Palais des Congrès of Paris, in the presence of Prince Albert II of Monaco, the 'Grand Départ' of the 2009 Tour taking place in the Principality. After the international stature of London in 2007, the heart of cycling's roots at Brest in 2008, the riders will look for their energy and inspiration next July in the prestige of Monaco.

The balance of difficulties, the choice of the climbs and the position in the course of each stage, are part of the elements that directly condition the confrontation between the champions. By deciding to spread the mountain stages on over two weeks, the teams of the Tour guarantee an intense battle to the fans until the penultimate day. From the finish at the Andorran resort of Arcalis, Friday the 11th of July to the fearsome climb up the Mont Ventoux, on the eve of the finish in Paris, the yellow jersey could change shoulders on numerous occasions.

To soften the "bonus to the time-trial specialists", the format of stages competed against the clock was thought over. The total of 55 kilometres covered during individual time-trials will be one of the smallest since the systematic introduction of the solitary effort in 1947. The 2009 Tour will also be marked by the return of the team time-trial absent since the 2005 edition.

A showcase of the French territory, the Tour is also keen to help discover the variety of landscapes throughout the country. This year, the theme of the sea will have a key role with the visits of three great lighthouses of the Mediterranean Sea: Monaco, Marseille and Barcelona. The itinerary designed in a clockwise way, will then lead the pack to the Pyrenees, go upwards towards the centre of France then the Vosges and the Alps before a decisive bend to the Giant of Provence.

Discover the course of the 2009 Tour de France and Christian Prudhomme's commentary at www.letour.com .

What a Tour de France we have seen this year! For the first time in a few years, I feel that this year's winner, the Spaniard Carlos Sastre, well deserves his victory.

Sastre, of Team CSC, has been in the peloton for ten years and has never been in a tricky situation regarding a doping case. This rider has built his victory this year not only with his legs but also with his brain, which I really like.

Besides that, this Tour de France was great for the French, who claimed a few stage victories. But what about the new king of massive sprints--the young British gun Mark Cavendish! This guy is awesome and I hope to see him again and again in big races.

I'll keep in mind, of course, the dismissal from the race of Riccardo Ricco and his Saunier Duval team. But I say, "Keep outing the cheaters. Cycling doesn't need you!"

I want to also mention Cadel Evans. Of course this guy could have been the winner this year, but he needed to attack and have a better team around him.

I believe that next year will be a great Tour de France, with, I hope, a great fight between Evans, Sastre, the Schleck brothers and Alberto Contador. A new generation has arrived and it will be awesome to see all those guys in the mountains next year!

Now it's the time for all of us to raise a glass of Champagne to celebrate this year's winner.

Please do not hesitate to post your comments, as I will be glad to share ideas and comments with you. And remember, if you want to enjoy the Tour de France from the inside, do it with www.RonanPensecTravel.com , the official Tour de France operator. VIP passes, exclusive interviews with the pros, and so much more to live together!

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in 1990 while racing for Greg Lemond's Z team. He now operates +Ronan Pensec Events+, an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.

I was expecting today to be a real decisive day for the Tour, but, fortunately, nothing is obvious tonight.

Cadel Evans is 1:34 behind the yellow jersey, and while I think it won't be enough to prevent him from winning this Tour, it's not going to be that easy for him. The time trial is going to be decisive again, and I'm not sure that this is the best thing for the race. Playing the Tour on the time trial might help to celebrate one rider, but not a team.

But today was another CSC day. They are having such a great Tour de France that I feel like it's a bit of a shame for them to (maybe) miss the yellow jersey at the end of the week.

I think the weather conditions, with a lot of wind today, have really impacted the race. If the conditions had been better, the CSC team would have done a much better job and Evans wouldn't be as confident tonight. In an ideal world, CSC should have attacked very early. But given the weather, I think they realized they couldn't, and they decided to wait and launch Sastre on l'Alpe d'Huez.

Once again, l'Alpe d'Huez has hosted an incredible show. It is always completely crazy and fantastic to live through moments like that in sports. And more generally speaking, as I have been working with France2, the French TV channel that produces the images of the Tour, I can tell you that the audiences all around the world have been really high this year. Lots of people watch the Tour in France but also all around the world, and it's really good for cycling.

I will keep on predicting that the final result will be Evans No. 1 and Sastre No. 2.

Tomorrow will not be a "rest day," as I'm pretty sure CSC will try to keep a high pace just to show Evans that they will give everything until they cross the finish line in Paris. So keep an eye on tomorrow, there could be some surprises within the next 48 hours.

Please do not hesitate to post your comments, as I will be glad to share ideas and comments with you. And remember, if you want to enjoy the Tour de France from the inside, do it with www.RonanPensecTravel.com , the official Tour de France operator. VIP passes, exclusive interviews with the pros, and so much more to live together!

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in 1990 while racing for Greg Lemond's Z team. He now operates +Ronan Pensec Events+, an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.

What a great day at the Tour today, even if it much of it had to do with the weather conditions, which really impacted the race. Frank Schleck is now in yellow by only seven seconds and the top 6 is within 50 seconds of each other. Isn't it just great?

With a rest day tomorrow, all these guys should be OK for some great action in the Alps, which should lead to a fantastic finish in Paris. Many people today talked about Denis Menchov, saying that he could be the yellow jersey in Paris. It seems pretty interesting, and I invite you to re-watch his race today as he was always in the hunt but wasn't doing anything sensational...as if he was trying not to draw attention to himself. Pretty smart move if it really is the case.

Evans still has some reserve and such a strong motivation that losing the yellow jersey will not impact his mental state. I was able to see him right before the post-race doping tests and he was feeling very confident. I think he knew he would loose the jersey today, but I felt like these eight seconds conceded to Schleck were less than what he was expecting.

The Tour will now enjoy a well-deserved rest day. I told you yesterday that today would be important, and I was quite right. All the pros are really sore, and even some of the best guys, like Sylvain Chavanel, were pretty close to not making the cut. What a day and what a Tour de France!

Over these last two weeks, I feel like the performances are a little under the level from previous years and that we are getting back to a more human race. The audience is responding well to this Tour de France as the roads have been seriously packed since the beginning of the event. It's really nice to see that, and if we can finish the Tour without another doping case, we will be able to say that cycling is on the right track.

Please do not hesitate to post your comments, as I will be glad to share ideas and comments with you. And remember, if you want to enjoy the Tour de France from the inside, do it with www.RonanPensecTravel.com , the official Tour de France operator. VIP passes, exclusive interviews with the pros, and so much more to live together!

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in 1990 while racing for Greg Lemond's Z team. He now operates +Ronan Pensec Events+, an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.

Cavendish is just a star. He really impressed me today, and with his recent wins he's got so much confidence he is starting his sprint very early and still manages to finish up with a comfortable lead on his rivals. This guy is having some great performances. There was no one in the Tour to contest his leadership today.

He seems to be a very laid back guy. He is good looking. He is good with the media. He is just what cycling needs--some fresh air. We need to see some young guns more than ever. He is the perfect example of where cycling should go.

Look at today's stage: It was all set before they even took the start. We knew it would be a sprint, but you still had two guys running an echappée. For what? For their sponsors! I'm sorry, but that's just the truth. Today they rode for their sponsors as it was completely useless to do such a move. We all know that the Tour will be restarting tomorrow.

So we are at a stage where team managers tell their riders to run echappée to get some visibility and please the sponsors because these same team managers don't even know what to do to give cycling what it really needs. Some honesty, and some fun. It's a sport! It has to be fun to do and to watch.

It is time for a new generation to show up, and I'm not just talking about the riders. I'm talking about everybody--including the team managers. These are the same guys from 10, 20 years ago and we are still surprised when we have a doping case.

Take a look at Jonathan Vaughters, Garmin-Chipotle's team manger. This guy is what we need. He is young, smart, he comes from the cycling industry, and he is good marketer. He has the right profile. Between you and me, when a rider is taking doping products, we know that the team manager is aware of that. It's obvious. I was a pro; I know how these guys work.

We need some fresh ideas and new faces in cycling and I would be glad to share some ideas with you guys or anyone who wants to invest in a team. We can make some radical changes that will really benefit the sport.

Otherwise, we will have stages like we had today, a bit predictable and boring until we get to the sprint. Thankfully, we have Cavendish! He is one of a kind.

Tomorrow will be more exciting to watch as the course will be slightly hilly all the way to the finish line. The peloton will have to be careful, as the first echappée could be the right one.

Stay tuned and enjoy the show. The Alps are just around the corner.

Please do not hesitate to post your comments, as I will be glad to share ideas and comments with you. And remember, if you want to enjoy the Tour de France from the inside, do it with www.RonanPensecTravel.com , the official Tour de France operator. VIP passes, exclusive interviews with the pros, and so much more to live together!

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in 1990 while racing for Greg Lemond's Z team. He now operates +Ronan Pensec Events+, an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.

Today was a transition day, just as the next two days will be. It's a good time for all the teams to recover, and it's not a surprise that there has not been much change within the rankings today. I would bet that there won't be any change for the next two days either.

Everybody is waiting for the Alps to start attacking again. So, get ready to watch a massive sprint tomorrow and a pretty similar stage to the one we had today on Friday.

The only thing I noticed from today's stage is that the Silence-Lotto team is not putting any effort in the race, and I kind of wonder why. On the opposite end, I was surprised to see how fast CSC rode today. Given the fact that these three days are only transitional days, I don't see the point in going fast and tiring the body when the rankings don't even change. It will be interesting to see how they will perform in the Alps...so keep an eye on them.

Talking about performance, as I forecasted it, the pace is pretty slow right now so Cadel Evans can really recover from his crash. I would bet that he will be even stronger in the Alps than he was in the Pyrénées. I'm pretty sure it will be hard to take the yellow jersey from him. It means a lot to him, as you may have seen when he was on the podium, and I doubt he will let it go without fighting like a real leader.

You may have all heard about the doping case today. The Spanish rider Moises Duenas Nevado thought he would be smart enough to fool the controls, but I'm glad to see that the system is quite strong and that no one is being forgotten. Duenas is not fighting for the lead, so I think it was really stupid for him to take doping products during this Tour.

It's really sad to see that you still have some guys who don't understand that it's in their best interest to stop behaving like that. Honestly, when they get caught, these people should be banned from the pro cycling world right away with no return possible. These guys will just kill the sport! Anyway, I'm glad he is out and I hope that we won't have another case this year.

Please do not hesitate to post me your comments as I will be glad to share ideas and comments with you. And remember, if you want to enjoy the Tour de France from the inside, do it with www.RonanPensecTravel.com , the official Tour de France operator. VIP passes, exclusive interviews with the pros, and so much more to live together!

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in 1990 while racing for Greg Lemond's Z team. He now operates +Ronan Pensec Events+, an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.