Quick Step selects Tour team

Belgian squad Quick Step has named eight of its nine riders for the Tour de France, beginning in Monaco on July 4. Stijn Devolder will lead the team in the overall classification and, depending on a court decision tomorrow, countryman Tom Boonen will lead the squad in the sprints.

Boonen must wait for the decision by a court in Nanterre, France, to know if he can race. He tested positive for cocaine on April 27 and Tour de France organiser Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) subsequently prohibited him from its race. Following negotiations between Quick Step and the ASO a decision will be announced at 3pm (CET) tomorrow.

Australia's Allan Davis will replace Boonen if the decision is made to exclude the triple Paris-Roubaix winner from the event. Davis won three stages at this year's Tour Down Under and has made a successful return to the ProTour with Patrick Lefevere's squad.

The other seven men selected are Spaniard Carlos Barredo, Italian Matteo Tosatto, Frenchmen Sylvain Chavanel and Jérôme Pineau, Dutchman Steven De Jongh, and Belgians Sébastien Rosseler and Jurgen Van de Walle.