France to Armstrong: Better be clean

PARIS - France's sports minister said Lance Armstrong would be "particularly monitored" in anti-doping checks during the Tour de France, which begins today.

Roselyne Bachelot, in an interview yesterday on French cable TV, sent the warning to the seven-time Tour winner, who has come out of retirement to race again in cycling's showcase.

Doping controls "will be multiplied, and I tell Lance Armstrong that he will be particularly, particularly, particularly monitored," Bachelot told i-Tele.

The American has denied having taken banned substances during his cycling career.

The head of France's anti-doping agency, which is working with cycling's governing body, the International Cycling Union, on doping checks for the race, has said Armstrong will be treated like any other rider.

The governing body, responding to the damage done to the sport by continual drug and cheating scandals, plans more than 500 doping checks in this year's Tour.

"There needs to be a really very, very active fight against doping," Bachelot said.

The three-week race will begin with a 9.6-mile time trial. This stage will be run along the hilly streets and hairpin turns of Monaco, a Mediterranean principality better known for Formula One than for huffing two-wheelers.

Specialists in the discipline include Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, who won gold in the time trial in the Beijing Olympics, and Bradley Wiggins of Britain.

They could capture the leader's yellow jersey, though they aren't expected to fare as well when the race reaches the Pyrenees in Stage 7.

The main race favorites - except Armstrong and American teammate Levi Leipheimer - will start last as the 180 riders set off one by one.

Defending champion Carlos Sastre of Spain, wearing the yellow jersey and No. 1 bib, will go last. Armstrong asked to be the first Astana team rider to go. He will ride 18th, nearly three hours before Sastre - time enough for the weather to change.