2007 Tour de France Alberto Contador in the yellow jersey as the leader, Cadel Evans in second, and Levi Leipheimer in third, were separated by only 2:49, with both Evans and Leipheimer recognized as far superior time trialists to Contador. In the end, each rider held his place after the final time trial, but with considerably slimmer margins, as the Tour ended with the smallest-ever spread of only 31 seconds among the top three riders. Alberto Contador also won the young rider classification, indicated by the white jersey, as the best young (under age 25) rider. A total of 21 teams were invited to
Doping at the 2007 Tour de France Rasmussen's sacking whilst wearing the yellow jersey (no rider had previously been withdrawn from the race while leading), the mood became more pessimistic, with the exception of Tour director Christian Prudhomme who publicly regarded the Dane's withdrawal as "the best thing that can happen to the Tour. The race will go on for the rest of the riders and we believe it would be an insult to them to stop the race. We believe the general classification is much better now than it was." Prudhomme's reaction was in contrast to the French newspapers. "France Soir" ran a mock death notice