Baden Cooke (Australia)
Riding for Barloworld, the 29-year-old rose to fame in 2003 when he won the green sprinters' jersey. In a very tight finish, Cooke finished atop the sprinters points classification by just two points. The 2008 Tour de France will be his fifth start, having ridden with the French team FDJeuz.com from 2002-05. Cooke also won a Bronze medal in the 2002 Commonwealth Games road race, and was a member of the 2004 Olympic team.

Julian Dean (NZ)
New Zealand's sole participant in this year's race and a former US Postal team-mate of seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong, Dean will be racing for Garmin-Chipotle (formerly Team Slipstream) in 2008, having made the switch from Credit Agricole. Dean will be participating in his fourth Tour, with his best result coming last year when he finished 107th. During the 2007 race, Dean was known for his lead-out role of Thor Hushovd, with the Norwegian later saying he was 'the best lead-out man in the world.'

Cadel Evans (Australia)
The Silence-Lotto rider is a $3.00 favourite to take out this year's race after last year achieving Australia's best-ever finish with a second place, just 23 seconds behind winner Alberto Contador. His superb 2007 Tour included a stage victory in the individual time trial (stage 13). He finished eighth overall in his debut three years ago, a year after winning the Austria Tour and then backed up in 2006 to finished fifth overall. An excellent climber, Evans also has ability as a time triallist.

Adam Hansen (Australia)
A proven amateur rider, Hansen will be contesting in his first Tour de France, riding for Team Columbia. The 27-year-old is enjoying a good year, winning the Australian National Time trial and coming second in the Australian National Road Race Championships. Not expected to do much in this year's Tour, Hansen will be delighted just to finish the prestigious race.

Brett Lancaster (Australia)
A gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the team pursuit, a year after winning the same event at the World Championships, the Victorian from Team Milram is making his second Tour de France appearance. He was forced to withdraw after stage five last year due to a stomach bug. Apart from his success representing Australia, Lancaster is best known for having won the prologue at the 2005 Giro d'Italia.

Trent Lowe (Australia)
Riding alongside Julian Dean for Garmin-Chipotle (formerly Team Slipstream), Lowe will be making his Tour de France debut. The former full-time professional mountain biker is enjoying a solid year, finishing second overall in the Tour de Georgia, where he was also won the young rider competition. Lowe was a member of the Discovery Channel team before joining his current team at the beginning of 2008.

Robbie McEwen (Australia)
Team-mate of race favourite and fellow Australian Cadel Evans, the Silence-Lotto rider will be once again aiming for the sprinters' championship. The 36-year-old will be participating in his 11th Tour de France this year. He created history in 2002 when he became the first Australian winner of the sprinters' green jersey and then backed it up two years later when he wore it for all but five stages on the way to winning again. McEwen made it a hat-trick of green jersey wins two years ago, winning three stages along the way. He started the 2007 Tour with a victorious sprint in stage but was forced out of the race after failing to finish stage eight within the time limit. Best overall finish came in 1998 when he was 89th, while he was 134th in 2005 and 116th in 2006.

Stuart O'Grady (Australia)
Riding for Team CSC, O'Grady first contested the Tour in 1997, when he was 109th overall but it was in 1998 that he announced himself by wearing the yellow jersey and also winning the 14th stage between Valreas and Grenoble. The following year he also wore the green jersey and in 2001 narrowly missed claiming the overall sprinters' honours as Erik Zabel again took the crown, having worn both yellow and green during the event. In 2002 O'Grady was third overall in the green jersey rankings and seventh in 2003, both times beaten by compatriots in Robbie McEwen and Baden Cooke respectively. In last year's Tour, O'Grady was forced to abandon the race on stage eight after crashing on a descent, fracturing five ribs, his right shoulder blade, right collarbone, three vertebrae and puncturing his right lung.

Simon Gerrans (Australia)
Riding for French team Credit Agricole Gerrans has participated in three Tours to date, previously all with the AG2R Prevoyance team. Gerrans is best known for having won the 2005 and 2006 Herald Sun Tours and the 2006 Tour Down Under. Gerrans finished 126th in his Tour debut in 2005, 79th in 2006 and 94th last year.

Mark Renshaw (Australia)
Joining Gerrans on the Credit Agricole team, the sprinter is a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the team pursuit event in Manchester 2002. His recent successes include a stage win in the Tour Down Under in 2008. The 25-year-old will be making his Tour de France debut, a remarkable feat given that he suffered a career-threatening herniated disc in his back in 2003.