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Thursday, January 29, 2009 ASO announces teams for Paris-Nice by VeloNation Press at 5:29 PM EST   comments Categories: Pro Cycling   The Amaury Sports Organization (ASO) has announced the the 20 teams invited to participate in this years Paris-Nice. Included on the list were 17 of the 18 ProTour teams. The one ProTour team absent from the list was Saunier Duval's successor the Fuji-Servetto team. Last year Mauro Gianetti's the Saunier-Duval team turned the Tour de France inside out when Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli tested positive for CERA, the new form of EPO. Although Gianetti was able to secure a new sponsor after losing Sauiner-Duval, things have not looked good with respect to their chances to race cycling's monuments. Earlier this year, the Giro d'Italia excluded the team from it's invite list, as well as the other major events they run Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo. Also notably absent from the invite list is the team of last year's winner Davide Rebellin. His new team Serramenti PVC will not be riding the week long race, so that means Rebellin -- a legitimate contender for the race to the sun -- will not have an opportunity to repeat. Wildcard invitations for Paris-Nice were given to three ProContinental teams; Skil-Shimano, Cervelo TestTeam - the new home of Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre, and the French team Agritubel.       comments Follow @Pro_Cycling Tweet Subscribe via RSS or daily email Contact the editor about this article