Leipheimer aiming to peak when it counts

The new leader of the Discovery Channel team has made sure he won't be at his best when the Tour de France starts Saturday in London.

"I'm coming into this Tour a little more fresh and probably a little more off my best form than I have in a couple of years," Leipheimer said Thursday. "Last year, I definitely was too good too early. This year I have tried to push that back because the end of the Tour is so difficult."

Leipheimer, 33, who returned this year to Discovery -- the former team of seven-time winner Lance Armstrong -- is hoping to reach his peak when the course reaches the Pyrenees mountains in southern France along the Spanish border.

Leipheimer has finished in the top 10 in the Tour three times, but last year struggled during a time trial and finished 13th. He will be supported in the mountains by Alberto Contador of Spain and also will have compatriot George Hincapie -- Armstrong's faithful lieutenant through all seven victories -- at his side.

BLOOD TESTS ALL NEGATIVE: All 189 riders who underwent blood tests ahead of the start of the Tour de France showed negative results, the International Cycling Union said.

The UCI carried out the tests across the 21 teams early Thursday morning. Marc Vandevyvere, a UCI doctor, signed a document to say none of the tests had come back positive.

PETACCHI OUT: Alessandro Petacchi will miss the Tour after failing a doping test at the Giro d'Italia.

Team Milram spokesman Andrea Agostini said Petacchi will "definitely not be racing."

On Wednesday, Italian Olympic Committee doping prosecutors recommended the Italian cycling federation ban the 33-year-old for one year for returning a "non negative" test for the asthma drug salbutamol during the 21-stage Giro, which ran May to June.

Petacchi, who suffers from asthma, is authorized to use a certain amount of salbutamol as part of his regular medication, although elevated levels of the drug can have performance-enhancing effects. He denies cheating.