The 2005 Tour de France was the 92nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 2–24 July, with 21 stages covering a distance . It has no overall winner—although American cyclist Lance Armstrong originally won the event, the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced on 24 August 2012 that they had disqualified Armstrong from all his results since 1 August 1998, including his seven Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005. The verdict was subsequently confirmed by the UCI. The first stages were held in the département of the Vendée, for the third time in 12 years. The 2005 Tour was announced on 28 October 2004. It was a clockwise route, visiting the Alps before the Pyrenees. Armstrong took the top step on the podium, for what was then the seventh consecutive time. He was accompanied on the podium by Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, but in 2012 Ullrich's results were annulled. The points classification was won by Thor Hushovd, and the mountains classification by Michael Rasmussen. The race was seen by 15 million spectators along the road, and by 2 billion viewers on TV. Teams In 2005, the UCI had started the ProTour: 20 teams were given a ProTour licence, and were required to start in all ProTour races, which included the Tour de France. The Tour de France organisation was not happy with this rule, as they wanted to be able to decide which teams would join their race. While negotiations were still ongoing, it was decided to use the UCI rule for the 2005 Tour, so all 20 ProTour teams were automatically invited. The Tour organisation could invite one extra team with a wildcard, and used this to invite . All teams were composed of nine cyclists, so 189 riders in 21 teams commenced the 2005 Tour de France. Of them, 155 riders finished. The teams entering the race were: Pre-race favourites The main favourite was (then) six-time winner Armstrong (now stripped of all his victories). Armstrong had had doubts if he should start the 2005 Tour, but decided in February 2005 that he would race. His main rival Ullrich was happy with this decision, as he thought it would be a better race with Armstrong present. In previous years, Ullrich never had the full support of his team to win the general classification, as his team was also