A BEWILDERING wheel of fortune has dramatically spun former York cycling ace Charlie Wegelius into the Tour de France.

The 31-year-old was drafted into the nine-man Silence-Lotto team on the eve of the 96th Tour, which starts in Monaco tomorrow, after Dutch team-mate Thomas Dekker tested positive for the banned blood-boosting substance EPO.

Dekker’s expulsion stunned his team-mates and in particular Wegelius who had “got his head round” the fact he would not be competing in this year’s toughest event on the cycling calendar.

But tomorrow he will be in the starting line-up in Monaco for the first of 21 stages covering a will-sapping 3,500 kilometres over the next 23 days.

After his initial hopes of making the nine-strong team were dashed when he missed out on final selection, Wegelius was back in his Italian home of Varese when he got the news he was now in as the replacement for the disgraced Dekker.

Former Dutch champion Dekker’s original random urine sample taken in December 2007 while riding for the Rabobank team, was re-examined under new methods employed by the World Anti Doping Agency. The discovery that it now read positive for EPO prompted a hastily-arranged journey to Monaco ahead of tomorrow’s start.

Said Wegelius: “It was a bit of a shock to say the least to everybody connected with the team. It’s really disappointing and sad. It’s like the worst way for me to actually get into the race.

“Unfortunately, as a rider in the team you have to carry on and just keep on pedalling.”

Added Wegelius: “It’s a case of mixed emotions, especially as I’d got it into my head that I wasn’t going to be in the Tour. In my mind I was instead readying myself to compete in the Tour of Spain in September.”

However, Dekker’s banning for the drug offence catapulted Wegelius, who first honed his cycling ability on the highways and byways of North Yorkshire as an 11-year-old, into his second appearance in the world’s greatest cycling endurance race, which has been given even sharper impetus with the return of former seven-times winner Lance Armstrong after an absence of four years.

Two years ago when he was a member of the Liquigas team Wegelius capped his Tour de France debut as the highest ranked British finisher when he came home in 45th position – one hour and 46 minutes adrift of winner, Spain’s Albert Contador.

However, Wegelius is not anticipating finishing the event in the traditional last-day arrival on the Champs Elysee in Paris on Sunday, July 26 as high as he did on his 2007 debut.

Said the man who has competed for Britain in the Olympic Games, European Championships and Commonwealth Games: “The team’s star rider is Cadel Evans, so for the other eight of us in the team everything is directed to helping him get the highest position as possible.

“He has been second twice in the Tour, including last year, so all the team’s preparation is geared towards him, so each day, when you have done everything possible to make sure he gets a victory, for the rest of that stage you are just trying to conserve energy.”

Even with the redoubtable Armstrong in the field, Australian Evans is rated one of the favourites so Wegelius’ contribution to the Silence-Lotto team, whom he joined earlier this year after four seasons with Liquigas, is going to be pivotal.