Five French teams, one fewer than in the past three years, will be at the start of the Tour de France on July 1, the organizers announced on Wednesday, who have invited two foreign teams - Israel Premier Tech and Uno-X - to complete the line-up.
The disappearance of the B&B Hotels structure means that there will be one less French team than in the past three years on the Grande Boucle which will leave from Bilbao in Spain to arrive on the Champs-Élysées three weeks later.
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The general classification of the Tour de France
Of the 22 teams (of 8 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 (1st division), four of which are French (AG2R- Citroën, Groupama-FDJ, Cofidis and Arkéa-Samsic), as well as the invitation of the two best-ranked ProTeams (2nd division), in this case the Belgian formation Lotto and the French Total-Energies.
It remained at the discretion of the organizers of Amaury Sports Organization (ASO) to award two wild cards.
Often on the big tours, they go to teams from the host country.
But the end of the B&B Hotels adventure and the automatic qualification of Total-Energies changed the situation.
Israel - Premier Tech and Uno-X as guests
It is therefore the Israel - Premier Tech formation of four-time Tour winner Chris Froome, relegated from the World Tour at the end of last year, and the Norwegian Uno-X who inherit the two coveted invitations for the biggest race in the world.
“
It's a selection without surprise.
Sometimes the choice is complicated, in this case it really isn't.
A hole is being created behind the 22 best teams in the world that we can regret elsewhere
, ”explains to AFP the director of the Tour Christian Prudhomme.
Israel Premier Tech won two great stages in the last Tour de France, he adds.
It is an experienced team which has been further strengthened with Dylan Teuns.
Uno-X is a recent team with a strong identity since there are only Norwegian or Danish riders.
It has just signed Alexander Kristoff, legend of Norwegian cycling, and has in its ranks the winner of the Tour de l'Avenir 2021, Tobias Johannessen.
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It's a good French representation and anyway it was the maximum possible according to the regulations.
Christian Prudhomme
With five teams, France remains the best-represented nation ahead of Belgium (4), the Netherlands and the United States (2 each).
Since 2020, the Tour has systematically welcomed six French teams instead of five, the number that was in place during the previous decade.
“
There were five French teams on the Tour between 2009 and 2019, except in 2010 when there were only four.
It is only thanks to B&B that there has been one more French team in the last three years.
But obviously it was not enough for her to do the Tour de France
“to survive, underlines Mr. Prudhomme.
"
It's a good French representation and anyway it was the maximum possible by regulation
", he adds, knowing that the sixth French team in the UCI team classification in 2022 was the "
Conti
", that is to say the development team, of Groupama-FDJ, which plays in the third division.
The number of French riders, whose contemporary ceiling had been 46 representatives in 2011, has continued to drop over the last three editions, going from 39 in 2020 to 33 in 2021 and only 32 last year.
