(Paris) The organizers of the Tour de France on Thursday invited the French TotalEnergies and Norwegian Uno-X teams to complete the field of 22 teams which will start the 2024 edition on June 29 in Florence, Italy.
Of the 22 teams (of eight riders) selected, twenty were automatically selected since the regulations of the International Cycling Union (UCI) provide for the compulsory participation of the 18 WorldTour teams (1D division) as well as the two ProTeams teams (2e division) the best ranked in 2023, in this case the Belgian team Lotto and the Israeli Israel Premier Tech.
The allocation of the two most coveted passes of the year remained at the discretion of the organizers of Amaury Sport Organization (ASO).
They return to TotalEnergies and Uno-X which means that the field will be exactly the same as during the 2023 edition won by the Dane Jonas Vingegaard.
The 2024 Tour de France will leave Italy for the first time in its history and will arrive for the first time outside Paris, in Nice on July 21, so as not to interfere with the final preparations for the Olympic Games in the capital (July 26). -August 11).
With five teams, France remains the best represented nation ahead of Belgium (four).
ASO also unveiled on Thursday the field for the two other major stage races it organizes, Paris-Nice (March 3-10) and the Critérium du Dauphiné (June 2-9).
Here too, the 18 World Tour teams and the two highest ranked Pro Teams are automatically qualified. To complete the picture, the organizers chose to expand by inviting TotalEnergies and the Swiss training Tudor Pro cycling team to Paris-Nice, then Uno-X and another Swiss team, Q36.5 Pro cycling team, to the Dauphiné.
“We want to densify the second division and give teams like Tudor and Q36.5 a chance to participate in high-quality races,” explains Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France, to AFP.
“The season ahead is very clearly inspiring. We have the four aces who said they would go to the Tour,” underlined the Tour boss, referring to Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic.
Evenepoel has made Paris-Nice his “first big objective” of the season where he should lock horns with Roglic. The two men should also meet on the Dauphiné, in the company of Vingegaard. Pogacar will focus on Italy and the Giro before trying to reconquer the Tour de France.
The 22 teams at the start of the Tour de France
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 (US), Groupama-FDJ (FRA), Ineos (GBR), Intermarché (BEL), Lidl-Trek (US), Movistar (ESP), Soudal Quick-Step (BEL ), Team DSM (NED), Jayco-AlUla (AUS), Visma-Lease a bike (NED), UAE (UAE)
2 Pro Teams automatically qualified: Lotto (BEL), Israel Premier Tech (ISR)
2 Pro Teams invited: TotalEnergies (FRA), Uno-X (NOR)