The Tour de France gets going in Monaco today and Brian Canty is intrigued by which reputations will be won and lost

WHEN organisers of the Tour de France said that last year’s event was a little sterile and it needed a shot in the arm to win back the public opinion, they could hardly have hoped for better.

Lance Armstrong and the entourage that he brings with him is back to do little more than “promote the LiveStrong message”. Now if you believe this is his top priority for the next three weeks you should also probably need reminding that it wasn’t the tooth-fairy dropping 50p under your pillow when you were small.

The King is back for a tilt at number eight and has had organisers salivating at the mouth since he announced he was to come out of retirement last September, but the question on everyone’s lips is, ‘what about Contador’?

Contador is the favourite to be standing tallest when the race rolls into Paris on July 26th but if Armstrong is anything like the Armstrong of old, he won’t be subscribing to any domestique roles. Directeur Sportif at their Kazakh financed Astana team is Johan Bruyneel, a man who sat beside Lance’s hospital bed in Indianapolis while cancer invaded his body. Bruyneel was there when no-one else was. Contador is the Prince with the pretty face and gleaming reputation. Armstrong is the grizzled warrior who knows he has a card that no-one else can play on any given day.

This year, that day will most likely be the mountaintop finish on Mont Ventoux on the next-to-last day - one of many changes to previous years.

It is unique also that four previous winners will be taking to the start line for today’s prologue: defending champion Carlos Sastre of Spain and his compatriot winners, Alberto Contador (2007) and Oscar Pereiro (2006). Other riders who will definitely be in the shake-up are Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov, who can both be either scintillating or sluggish on any given day, which raises the sport's constant companion: drugs.

We’re being told the Tour has got cleaner and this will be the cleanest yet. We were told the same last year when Riccardo Ricco came from nowhere and did the Pantani on it. In 2006 we saw Floyd Landis cruising up a hill at 40kph a day after he struggled to turn pedals. This year again there will be more scandal but does anyone really care?

For what it’s worth my 1, 2, 3 is Contador, Armstrong, Menchov.