win the 2007 Tour de France was Alexander Vinokourov, who was unable to start in 2006 due to lack of team members, but did win the 2006 Vuelta a España. The main challengers were expected to be the 2006 Tour de France second-place finisher Andreas Klöden; and Alejandro Valverde, who dropped out of the 2006 Tour de France after a crash, but came second to Vinokourov in the 2006 Vuelta a España. Route and stages The organisers of the Tour and London mayor Ken Livingstone announced on 24 January 2006 that the start of the Tour would take place in London. Livingstone noted the two stages would commemorate the victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings, saying "Having the Grand Départ on the seventh of July will broadcast to the world that terrorism does not shake our city." The routes for the Prologue in London and the first full stage through Kent, finishing in Canterbury, were announced on 9 February 2006 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. This was the first time the Grand Départ was in the United Kingdom and the third time the Tour visited the United Kingdom, including Plymouth in 1974 and two stages in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire in 1994. Tour director Christian Prudhomme unveiled the 2007 route in Paris on 26 October 2006. In total, the route covered . The highest point of elevation in the race was at the summit of the Col de l'Iseran mountain pass on stage 9. Race overview Doping cases The first scandal arrived when it was made public on 18 July that rider Patrik Sinkewitz from the had tested positive one month before the Tour started. Sinkewitz had already withdrawn from the race having incurred an injury during the 8th stage. The scandal was big enough to prompt German TV broadcasters ZDF and ARD to drop their coverage. The Tour was dealt a major blow when the first-place team withdrew from the race on 24 July 2007, after team member and pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov from Kazakhstan tested positive for an illegal blood transfusion. Vinokourov's teammates Andreas Klöden and Andrey Kashechkin were in 5th and 7th place respectively at the time. At the start of the 16th stage on 25 July, some teams made a protest against the laxness of the official attitude to doping in the race. After the stage, race officials announced that team member