OK, hes gotta do the Tour again now. . .
PARIS -- Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc has predicted an exciting 2006 race in the absence of Lance Armstrong and taken another shot at the seven-time champion.
Leblanc announced the next Tour setup, with the notable points being the absence of a team time trial and the return of L'Alpe d'Huez.
"It is a classical, well-balanced course. There are five wonderful mountain stages," Leblanc said Thursday. "It is a change of era. A period of long domination is over. The path is open. It is an exciting time."
The Tour director mentioned Armstrong only once, and the champion appeared only three times in a 10-minute video which looked back at the 2005 race.
Armstrong was shown pulling past Jan Ullrich in the prologue, when he crossed the line at the finish of the team time trial and standing on the Champs Elysees podium listening to the American national anthem at the end of the race.
Leblanc said the American was discredited by allegations printed in the L'Equipe sports newspaper on Aug. 23, which claimed that he used the banned performance enhancer EPO during his first Tour win in 1999. Leblanc said there was relief in the sport that Armstrong will not be returning.
"Without doubt ... what we have learned has increased the lassitude toward him," Leblanc said. "He was not irreproachable in '99. EPO is a doping product. So this tempers and dilutes his performances and his credibility as a champion."
Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong's team director on each of his seven wins, said the Tour presentation seemed to take a cheap shot at Armstrong.
"I felt targeted during the presentation," Bruyneel said. "They talk for 12 minutes about ethics rather than presenting the race itself. I would have taken a different direction.
"I'm conscious Lance won seven Tour de France titles and owes a lot to the race. But at the same time, the Tour de France became more important with an American who won seven Tours."
Armstrong vehemently denies any wrongdoing. Leblanc made similar comments in August, and Armstrong has said he is considering whether to sue L'Equipe, France's national anti-doping laboratory and the Tour director.
The 2006 Tour starts on July 1 in Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of eastern France, then passes through Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands, before winding counterclockwise through the Pyrenees and then the Alps and ending on Paris' famed Champs-Elysees on July 23, a total distance of 2,256 miles.
With five major mountain ascents -- including the Col du Tourmalet, Col d'Izoard, and Col du Galibier -- and three uphill finishes, the route is likely to favor the climbers.
In Armstrong's absence, 1997 Tour winner Ullrich of Germany, Ivan Basso of Italy, Alejandro Valverde of Spain and Floyd Landis of the United States will try to dominate.
Leblanc is to step down at the end of 2006 after 17 years in charge and will be replaced by deputy director Christian Prudhomme.
Both men took the opportunity to warn riders of the risks of doping and they called for tougher sanctions to rid cycling of its most serious problem.
Although Armstrong is retired, it doesn't mean the Texan will never appear at the Tour de France again.
Next year, fans may still see him stepping out of the Discovery Channel bus.
"Lance is still motivated by the Tour," Bruyneel said. "He is still motivated by planning things.
"His role inside the team is still to be decided. We will see if he comes next year."
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
