Jan Ullrich will fine-tune his preparations for next month's Tour de France by racing the Tour of Switzerland, which starts on Saturday.

The 31-year-old T-Mobile captain, who has finished second five times in the Tour de France, is still dreaming of repeating his 1997 Tour win. And six-time winner Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel), who is competing in this week's Dauphiné Libéré in France, has once more designated Ullrich as his major rival for a seventh and final Tour victory.

A major factor in whether Ullrich repeats his 2004 overall victory here will be his performance in the 36km stage-2 time trial at Weinfelden, in the region where he lives.

Olympic road race champion Paolo Bettini of Italy leads a strong Quick Step team, which comprises Belgian Tom Boonen, Australia's Michael Rogers and Germany's Patrik Sinkewitz.

In the sprints, Boonen will probably come up against triple world champion Oscar Freire, as well as Australian Robbie McEwen, who won three stages in this year's Tour of Italy. Rogers is expected to rival Ullrich in Sunday's time trial.

Spain's Iban Mayo is also preparing for next month's big race in France in this nine-stage race, which ends on June 19.

Rebellin left off Gerolsteiner’s Tour team
Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin will not take part in this year's Tour de France. The 33-year-old was not named in Gerolsteiner's list of 11 riders for the Tour, which starts on July 2.

Rebellin has been suffering from fatigue since competing in the three Ardennes classics and was forced to miss last month's Giro D'Italia.

The Ardennes classics include the Amstel Gold Race, the Fleche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège - all of which are raced over distances of over 250km and held within the space of eight days.

Olympic program adds BMX, loses kilo, 500m
Two Olympic track cycling events, the men's kilometer and the women's 500-meter, have been taken out of the program for the 2008 Games in Beijing to make way for BMX, the UCI said on Friday.

BMX makes its debut appearance in China and the UCI decided at a meeting in the Hague that the other two events would have to be scrapped.

The men's kilo has been one of Olympic track cycling's core events; the women's 500 made its debut at Sydney in 2000. Both races will still appear in world championships.