Si corre nella Valle della Loira, sulle strade della Parigi-Tours. Si preannuncia lotta tra titani: il “Folletto dell'Isola di Man” Mark Cavendish, fresco Campione Iridato da una parte; il neo-cannibale belga Philippe Gilbert, dall'altra. In mezzo a loro tanti altri corridori, veloci e meno veloci, pronti a lanciarsi in uno sprint o a tentare una fuga. Le speranze italiane sono riposte nelle mani, anzi nelle gambe, di Alessandro Petacchi (già vincitore nel 2007)e Daniele Bennati...

Ecco l'elenco completo dei partenti:

RABOBANK (1 Oscar Freire, 2 Jetse Bol, 3 Graeme Brown, 4 Rick Flens, 5 Bram Tankink, 6 Maarten Tjalingii, 7 Coen Vermeltfoort, 8 Maarten Wynants);

LAMPRE-ISD (11 Alessandro Petacchi, 13 Vitaliy Buts, 14 Massimo Graziato, 15 Denys Kostyuk, 16 David Loosli, 17 Simon Spilak, 18 Balint Szeghalmi);

TEAM RADIOSHACK (21 Robbie McEwen, 22 Matthew Busche, 24 Michal Kwiatkowski, 25 Geoffroy Lequatre, 26 Gregory Rast, 28 Jesse Sergent);

HTC-HIGHROAD (31 Mark Cavendish, 32 Lars Ytting Bak, 33 Matthew Brammeier, 34 John Degenkolb, 35 Zakkari Dempster, 36 Patrick Gretsch, 37 Martin Velits, 38 Danny Pate);

LEOPARD TREK (41 Daniele Bennati, 42 William Clarke, 43 Brice Feillu, 44 Dominik Klemme, 45 Stuart O'Grady, 46 Rudiger Selig, 47 Davide Viganò);

TEAM EUROPCAR (52 Yukiya Harashiro, 53 Sebastien Chavanel, 54 Damien Gaudin, 55 Said Haddou, 56 Vincent Jerome, 57 Alexandre Pichot, 58 David Veilleux, 60 Cyril Gautier);

VACASOLEIL-DMC (61 Romain Feillu, 62 Stijn Devolder, 63 Bjorn Leukemans, 64 Pim Ligthart, 65 Bertjan Lindeman, 66 Marco Marcato, 67 Marcello Pavarin, 68 Wouter Poels); FDJ (71 Frederic Guesdon, 72 Mickael Delage, 73 Arnaud Gerard, 74 Anthony Geslin, 75 Yauheni Hutarovich, 76 Matthieu Ladagnous, 77 Yoann Offredo, 78 Dominique Rollin);

QUICKSTEP (81 Sylvain Chavanel, 82 Kevin De Weert, 83 Dries Devenyns, 84 Nikolas Maes, 85 Davide Malacarne, 86 Andreas Stauff, 87 Gert Steegmans, 88 Guillaume Van Keirsbulck);

AG2R LA MONDIALE (91 Anthony Ravard, 92 Dimitri Champion, 93 Martin Elmiger, 94 Kristof Goddaert, 95 Yuriy Krivtsov, 96 Romain Lemarchand, 97 Julien Loubet, 98 Yannick Martinez);

OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO (101 Philippe Gilbert, 102 Adam Blythe, 103 David Boucher, 104 Jurgen Van De Walle, 105 Sven Vandousselaere, 106 Jelle Vanendert, 107 Jussi Veikkanen, 108 Francis De Greef);

SKIL-SHIMANO (111 Roy Curvers, 112 Thomas Damuseau, 113 Koen De Koort, 114 Johannes Frohlinger, 115 Roger Kluge, 116 Matthieu Sprick, 117 Albert Timmer, 118 Tom Veelers);

TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO (121 Roger Hammond, 122 Andreas Klier, 123 Daniel Lloyd, 124 Martijn Maaskant , 125 Gabriel Rash, 126 Daniel Summerhill, 127 Sep Vanmarcke. Non confermata la presenza del Campione del Mondo 2010 Thor Hushovd);

SAXO BANK-SUNGARD (131 Baden Cooke, 132 Kasper Klostergaard Larsen, 133 Gustav Erik Larsson, 134 Ran Margaliot, 135 Jaroslaw Marycz, 136 Andrè Steensen);

COFIDIS (141 Samuel Dumoulin, 142 Leonardo Fabio Duque, 143 Julien Fouchard, 144 Tony Gallopin, 145 Adrien Petit, 146 Aleksejs Saramotins, 147 Nico Sijmens, 148 Tristan Valentin);

SKY (151 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni, 152 Kurt-Asle Arvesen, 153 Russel Downing, 154 Matthew Hayman, 155 Gregory Henderson, 156 Ian Stannard, 157 Christopher Sutton);

BMC (161 Greg Van Avermaet, 162 Alessandro Ballan, 163 Marcus Burghardt, 164 Martin Kohler, 166 Taylor Phinney, 167 Mauro Santambrogio, 168 Michael Schar);

SAUR-SOJASUN (171 Jonathan Hivert, 172 Arnaud Coyot, 173 Jimmy Engoulvent, 174 Jeremie Galland, 175 Cyril Lemoine, 176 Guillaume Levarlet, 177 Rony Martias, 178 Julien Simon);

TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN-MERCATOR (181 Laures De Vreese, 182 Pieter Jacobs, 183 Stijn Neirynck, 184 Preben Van Hecke, 185 Michael Van Staeyen, 186 Steven Van Vooren, 187 Zico Waeytens, 188 Jelle Wallays);

EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI (191 Javier Aramendia Llorente, 192 Jorge Azanza Soto, 193 Pello Bilbao, 194 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas, 195 Pierre Cazaux, 196 Inaki Isasi Flores, 197 Miguel Minguez Ayala, 198 Juan Josè Oroz Ugalde);

BRETAGNE-SCHULLER (201 Guillaume Blot, 202 Jean-Marc Bideau, 203 Stephane Bonsergent, 204 Jean-Luc Delpech, 205 Renaud Dion, 206 Sebastien Duret, 207 Gael Malacarne, 208 Laurent Pichon);

LANDBOUWKREDIET (211 Dirk Bellemakers, 212 Davy Commeyne, 213 Sebastien Delfosse, 214 Matti Helminen, 217 Baptiste Planckaert, 218 Joeri Stallaert, 219 Reinier Honig, 220 Kevin Peeters);

TEAM TYPE1-SANOFI AVENTIS (221 Alessandro Bazzana, 222 Rubens Bertogliati, 223 Laszlo Bodrogi, 224 Aldo Ino Ilesic, 225 Valeriy Kobzarenko, 227 Javier Mejias, 228 Martijn Verschoor);

VERANDA'S WILLELM-ACCENT (231 Steven Caethoven, 232 Wim De Vocht, 233 Sjef De Wilde, 234 Jempy Drucker, 235 Staf Scheirlinckx, 236 Stefan Van Dijk, 237 Jurgen Van Goolen, 238 Evert Verbist);

BIG MAT-AUBER 93 (241 Fabien Bacquet, 242 Romain Bacon, 244 Maxime Mederel, 246 Ronan Racault, 247 Nicolas Rousseau, 248 Jonathan Thire, 249 Flavien Dassonville).