The Tour de France, cycling’s epic contest, begins tomorrow—and the two top riders, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, have been barred from the race: Tour favorites barred in doping scandal.

STRASBOURG, France - A doping scandal knocked Tour de France favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso out of the race Friday and threw the world’s most glamorous cycling event into chaos.

The decision to bar Ullrich, Basso and others implicated in a doping probe in Spain also sent a strong signal that cheating, or even suspicions of cheating, will not be tolerated.

Tour director Christian Prudhomme said organizers’ determination to fight doping was “total.”

“The enemy is not cycling, the enemy is doping,” he said the day before the start of the Tour.

Riders being excluded will not be replaced, meaning a smaller field than the 189 racers originally expected. And that’s not even counting the absence of Lance Armstrong, who retired after winning his seventh straight Tour last year.

Both Ullrich and Basso were potential winners, but it’s an even bigger blow to Ullrich. With Lance Armstrong not competing, this was one of Ullrich’s last chances to dominate the Tour.

I detect the scent of French perfidy.

UPDATE at 6/30/06 11:12:32 am:

More details at VeloNews: Tour in turmoil as Basso and Ullrich ejected.

Earlier in the day, T-Mobile suspended 1997 winner Ullrich and his Spanish teammate Sevilla when fresh evidence from the ongoing Operación Puerto doping probe in Spain - which has implicated a reported 58 riders to blood doping - was released late Thursday.

“I feel I’m a victim,” Ullrich told ZDF television. “I am in absolute shock. It’s the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my career. I can only say again that I have nothing to do with this thing.”