Wildcards announced for this year's Tour de France, write-up at VeloNews and CyclingNews.

The wildcard list announced today:

• Ag2r
• Brioches La Boulangere
• Credit Agricole
• Domina Vacanze
• Lotto-Domo
• Phonak
• RAGT

Consequences: two contenders for overall victory are now confirmed; namely, Joseba Beloki riding for Brioches La Boulangere and Tyler Hamilton riding for Phonak. Oscar Sevilla is also a confirmed entry since he's riding for Phonak this year, but I'm not putting any money down on him for overall victory.

Additionally, Mario Cipollini will ride this year's Tour with his Domina Vacanze team. I read recently in the press that Cipollini had pledged to finish the Tour if Jean Marie LeBlanc would grant his team a spot. Seeing as he's never made it to Paris before, we'll see if he makes good on his promise.

The automatic team qualifications:

• Alessio-Bianchi
• Cofidis
• Team CSC
• Euskaltel
• Fassa Bortolo
• FDJeux.com
• Geroslteiner
• Illes Baleares Banesto
• Liberty
• Quick Step
• Rabobank
• Saeco
• T-Mobile
• US Postal Service

So we've got Lance with Postal, Roberto Heras with Liberty Seguros, both Jan Ullrich and Alexander Vinokourov with T-Mobile, and a dark horse in Bobby Julich who just signed with CSC. This year's Tour is gonna be great.