2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has followed the lead of Levi Leipheimer and his Let Levi Ride campaign, launched when organizers of the Tour de France snubbed their Team Astana.

Contador’s supporters have launched Contador al Tour, which means Contador for the Tour. He has one-upped Leipheimer in that his web site has four versions: Spanish, French, English and German. The translations are hilarious, but you get the drift. He had gathered about 16,000 signatures on Saturday afternoon, half of what Levi has. But with four languages available, we’ll keep an eye on how long it takes Alberto to catch up.

It may seem a little selfish for these campaigns to be about individuals. Isn’t this a team sport, after all? But it’s not as stupid as the organizers of the best bike race in the world unviting the team with two of the three best riders from last year. The team is caught in the middle of a spitting match between the race organizers and the sport’s governing body, UCI. So, it’s getting to be every man for himself. And the riders are taking their case to the fans. Perhaps the fans can get the attention of Christian Prudhomme, head of the Tour de France.

Team director Johan Bruyneel probably considered stepping in to organize the troops in their efforts. But, Johan is not exactly the darling of the Tour organizers. He led U.S. Postal and Discovery in the era of Lance Armstrong. Tour organizers tried, but never got any reliable evidence that Lance was doping, so they’re really sticking it to Johan now.

Maybe Johan’s riders can rescue him and the team. Levi’s performance in the Tour of California surely hasn’t hurt.