Team CSC could be the most American-ized team in this year’s Tour de France, with three Yanks in its lineup.

Supporting team leader (and this year’s Giro champ) Ivan Basso will be Carlos Sastre, Fränk Schleck, Jens Voigt, Giovanni Lombardi, Stuart O’Grady and the American triumverate of Bobby Julich, David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde.

“As so often before it has been a difficult task to select the remaining riders for this team, because we have so many who are in great shape and who have the motivation to do well in Tour de France,” said team director Bjarne Riis. “But it is a luxury for us to have this problem, and I’m proud our team has reached a point where we have so many strong riders at such a high level. We are bringing a fantastic team to Tour de France this year. When you look at the names, you cannot help but notice that this is a team to be reckoned with - a team which has the foundation to be one of the dominating ones in the 2006 edition of the Tour. We go to France this year with one ambition: To win with Ivan Basso. After his victory in the Giro, and with the training he has done in the period since then, I have no doubt he is ready for this next big challenge. He has the class, the willpower and also the team behind him to be one of the favourites.”