The Tour de France organization announced this Thursday the invitation to the French team TotalEnergies and the Norwegian Uno-X to complete the lineup of 22 teams that will line up at the start of the 2024 edition, on June 29 in Florence (Italy).
Twenty of the 22 teams (with eight riders) were automatically selectedbecause the regulations of the International Cycling Union (UCI) set the mandatory participation of the 18 WorldTour teams (1st division) and the two ProTeams (2nd division) with the best ranking in 2023, namely the Belgian Lotto and the Israeli Premier Tech .
It is left to the discretion of the organizers, the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), to award the two most coveted wild-cards of the year.
They fell to TotalEnergies and Uno-Xwhich means that the peloton is exactly the same as in the 2023 edition, which was won by the Dane Jonas Vingegaard.
The 2024 Tour de France will leave Italy for the first time in its history and arrive for the first time outside of Paris, in Nice on July 21, so as not to interfere with the capital’s final preparations for the Olympic Games (July 26-August 11).
Of the five teams, France remains the best represented countryahead of Belgium (four).
On Thursday, the ASO also unveiled the poster for the other two major stages of the race it organizes, Paris-Nice (March 3-10) and the Critérium du Dauphiné (June 2-9).
Also in this case the 18 World Tour teams are automatically qualified. and the two highest ranked Pro teams. To complete the picture, the organizers chose to widen the field by inviting TotalEnergies and the Swiss Tudor Pro cycling team to Paris-Nice, and then Uno-X and another Swiss team, Q36.5 Pro cycling team, in Dauphiné .
“We want the second division to be tighter and give teams like Tudor and Q36.5 a chance to participate in quality races,” Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France, told AFP.
“The season that is just around the corner is very attractive. We have four aces who have said they are going to the Tour“underlined the leader of the Tour, referring to Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic.
Evenepoel has made Paris-Nice his “first big goal” of the season, where he is expected to face Roglic. The two men should also meet again in the Dauphiné, in the company of Vingegaard. Pogacar will focus on Italy and the Giro before trying to regain the Tour de France.
Tour de France 2024
Participating teams
18 World Tour teams:
Alpecin (BEL), Arkéa-B&B Hotels (FRA), Astana (KAZ), Bahrain (BAH), Bora-Hansgrohe (GER), Cofidis (FRA), Décathlon-AG2R La Mondiale (FRA), Education First (USA), Groupama-FDJ (FRA), Ineos (GBR), Intermarché (BEL), Lidl-Trek (USA), Movistar (ESP), Soudal Quick-Step (BEL), Team DSM (NED), Jayco-AlUla (AUS), Visma-Lease a bike (NED), UAE (UAE)
2 Pro Teams classified by trade:
Lotto (BEL), Israel Premier Tech (ISR)
2 invited Pro Teams:
TotalEnergies (FRA), One-X (NOR)
Source: La Verdad
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