Saunier Duval/Prodir - Tour de France Team
Marchante, Millar, Mayo and De la Fuente head the Saunier Duval-Prodir "red bird" team for the Grande Boucle 2007

With just ten days to go before the start of the Tour de France 2007, Saunier Duval-Prodir has decided on its team for the contest, from 7 July, of the Grande Boucle.

Directed by Joxean Fernández Matxin and Sabino Angoitia, the yellow squad will be:

Saunier Duval/Prodir Squad:
José Ángel Gómez Marchante
David Millar
Iban Mayo
David de la Fuente
Juanjo Cobo
Iker Camaño
Rubén Lobato
Christophe Rinero
Fran Ventoso
The reserves will be David Cañada, Ángel Litu Gómez and Jesús del Nero.

The team is setting out to win a stage for the first time and to repeat the performance of last year, when David de la Fuente mounted the final podium on the Champs Elysées as the most combative cyclist in the race.

Squad Update - Marchante Replaced.
José Ángel Gómez Marchante has had a run of bad luck this year: despite his great performance, he hasn´t notched up any victory so far. Moreover, he suffered from different physical problems that made him miss some of the prime goals he had set for this season, for instance, the spring classics. Now, Gómez Marchante had to drop out of the nine-men SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR team who will take part in the Tour de France. He would have been the head of the "red birds" in France.

Lately, Gómez Marchante has been going through a period of exacerbated symptoms of ulcerative colitis, a form of the inflammatory bowel disease -IDB- he´s been suffering for three years now. The main symptom of this intermittent disease involving inflammation of the colon is usually diarrhea mixed with blood. The most recent symptoms were triggered during the final stages of the Tour of Switzerland, and the team were extremely worried about this. The rider is undergoing medical treatment, and his doctors recommended higher doses of medication and will perform further tests on Wednesday -a colonoscopy and a study to identify cell markers.

The rider and the team expect Gómez Marchante to be back for the Vuelta Ciclista a España, if lab test results turn out to be all right. At this edition of the Tour de France, the Madrid-born cyclist will be replaced by David Cañada, who was the first substitute in case something happened on the days before the race.