Alberto Contador’s will not be able to defend his Tour crown as Team Astana is banned from the 2008 Tour de France.

Tour race organizer Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) sighted the “damage caused by this team to the Tour de France and cycling in general, both in 2006 and 2007,” led to their exclusion.Astana removed themselves from the race last year after Alexandre Vinokourov, one of the pre-race favorites, tested positive for a blood transfusion after his victory in the 13th-stage time trial. In 2006 the team was excluded after being tied to Operation Puerto, the Spanish blood-doping scandal in which Contador was implicated but not found guilty.

After optimizing his 2008 training schedule so to peek for the Tour de France the news has left Contador heart struck.

“I never thought that it would be possible not to do the Tour the France,” Contador said. “It is my race, I dream of that race. We are not invited. What can we do? It is a real blow for me and all of us at Astana. I think the decision to leave us out, and to do so on the basis of the team’s past, is unfair.

“I’m afraid other sponsors can leave cycling because of what happened today. It is a sad day for cycling,” he said.

Besides the defending Tour champion Contador, this also is horrible news for American Levi Leipheimer, who was hoping to improve on his 3rd place podium finish last year, and German Andreas Klöden who has the ability to grab a stage win on any given day.

Philippe Maertens, the Astana spokesman, said Contador’s contract does not have an escape clause that applies to this situation, suggesting that the 25-year-old Spaniard is unlikely to be able to defend his title by joining another team.

Astana will be left out of some of the other big races of the year because of the Tour group. ASO, which organizes the Tour, said Astana won’t be invited to any of its 2008 events. That list includes Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, the Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Paris-Tours and others.