Australian veteran Stuart O'Grady believes this year could be a turning point for cycling and is predicting a "clean" Tour de France.

On the eve of the sport's showcase event, O'Grady acknowledged the need for the Tour to shed its reputation of being drug-riddled and overrun with cheats.

"There's just been so much testing this year that it's going to be a clean Tour. It has to be," he said.

"I can't see any other (way). It would be fantastic for the sport, and the sport needs it. We need to get rid of the idiots."

Race director Christian Prudhomme agreed there is a belief cycling has turned a corner.

"There is a real change in mentality within the teams, the riders, to ensure that cycling recovers its credibility," he said.

But for all the fighting talk, the headlines this week suggest the Tour still has a tough task on its hands to banish drug-taking.

Floyd Landis, the American who won the 2006 Tour but was later stripped of the title for testing positive for testosterone, had his two-year ban upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday.

The next day Michael Rasmussen, who led last year's race before being kicked out for lying about his whereabouts during drugs testing, was given a two-year suspension.

Tom Boonen, 2007's top sprinter was forced to withdraw from this year's event last month after testing positive for cocaine, and last year's winner Alberto Contador will not be competing because his Astana team is barred for tarnishing the Tour's reputation in the last two years.

The Tour's organisers are desperate to avoid a repeat of 2006 and 2007, which had been billed as a new era free from scandal after Lance Armstrong's retirement.

Astana team director Johan Bruyneel, however, does not believe the new stricter measures, which will involve more random tests and making sure every rider is tested before Saturday's start, are clear enough.

"From what I hear everything is confusing, there's different rules, and different this and different that," he said.

"There's nothing worse than always creating special rules for special events."

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