The Tour de France is almost here and team line-ups are being finalised ahead of the Grand Départ in Barcelona.
The Tour is undoubtedly a race synonymous with big mountain passes - this year more than ever - but this doesn’t mean all sports directors want to bring a bus full of climbers. GC teams will need bigger riders who can protect the leader on flatter stages where there are risks of crosswinds and keep them safe in hectic bunch finishes. It’s also important to bring those with big engines to do the work early on in the stage to control the breakaway before the race hits some of the longer climbs.
There are also the teams, like Alpecin-Premier Tech and Soudal Quick-Step, who will have made their selection with the sprint stages and green jersey competition in mind, meaning they will likely bring a group of strong lead-out men who can deliver their sprinter to the line rather than focusing on riders who will contest the general classification. Teams without a pure sprinter or GC hopeful, like Tudor Pro Cycling and EF Education-Easy Post, might opt to bring a squad of all-rounders – those who can search for opportunistic stage wins and have the freedom to go for the breakaway on days where they might have a chance at staying away for the victory.
So, there is a lot to consider when choosing an eight-rider line-up for the Tour de France, and it serves as one of the most important jobs for team management in the entire season. We look at who will be on the start line this year for their teams.
UAE TEAM EMIRATES-XRG
Tadej Pogačar
Isaac del Toro
Felix Großschartner
Brandon McNulty
Nils Politt
Florian Vermeersch
Tim Wellens
Adam Yates
VISMA-LEASE A BIKE
Jonas Vingegaard
Edoardo Affini
Bruno Armirail
Victor Campenaerts
Matteo Jorgenson
Sepp Kuss
Davide Piganzoli
Per Strand Hagenes
SOUDAL QUICK-STEP
Tim Merlier
Jasper Stuyven
Dylan van Baarle
Pascal Eenkhoorn
Valentin Paret-Peintre
Louis Vervaeke
Bert Van Lerberghe
Ilan Van Wilder
EF EDUCATION - EASYPOST
Richard Carapaz
Ben Healy
Kasper Asgreen
Michael Valgren
Alex Baudin
Sean Quinn
Max Walker
Georg Steinhauser
LOTTO-INTERMARCHÉ
Huub Artz
Jenno Berckmoes
Lars Craps
Arnaud De Lie
Liam Slock
Lennert Van Eetvelt
Baptiste Veistroffer
Georg Zimmermann
BAHRAIN - VICTORIOUS
Antonio Tiberi
Phil Bauhaus
Damiano Caruso
Kamil Gradek
Lenny Martinez
Matej Mohorič
Robert Stannard
Vlad Van Mechelen
NETCOMPANY-INEOS
Michał Kwiatkowski
Filippo Ganna
Tobias Foss
Dorian Godon
Egan Bernal
Thymen Arensman
Kévin Vauquelin
Joshua Tarling
RED BULL-BORA-HANSGROHE
Remco Evenepoel
Florian Lipowitz
Mattia Cattaneo
Nico Denz
Jai Hindley
Jan Tratnik
Tim van Dijke
Maxim Van Gils
LIDL-TREK
Juan Ayuso
Derek Gee-West
Mads Pedersen
Quinn Simmons
Mattias Skjelmose
Toms Skujiņš
Mathias Vacek
Carlos Verona
GROUPAMA-FDJ UNITED
Clément Berthet
Clément Braz Afonso
Ewen Costiou
Lorenzo Germani
Romain Grégoire
Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet
Quentin Pacher
Clément Russo
ALPECIN-PREMIER TECH
Mathieu van der Poel
Ramses Debruyne
Silvan Dillier
Tim Marsman
Jasper Philipsen
Edward Planckaert
Jonas Rickaert
Emiel Verstrynge
TUDOR PRO CYCLING TEAM
Julian Alaphilippe
Marco Haller
Marc Hirschi
Arvid de Kleijn
Rick Pluimers
Michael Storer
Matteo Trentin
Yannis Voisard
TEAM JAYCO ALULA
Pascal Ackermann
Luke Durbridge
Felix Engelhardt
Kelland O’Brien
Ben O’Connor
Michael Matthews
Luke Plapp
Mauro Schmid
MOVISTAR TEAM
Pablo Castrillo
Jefferson Cepeda
Raúl García Pierna
Michel Hessmann
Nelson Oliveira
Javier Romo
Einer Rubio
Cian Uijtdebroeks
DECATHLON CMA CGM
Paul Seixas
Tiesj Benoot
Cees Bol
Daan Hoole
Olav Kooij
Aurélien Paret-Peintre
Nicolas Prodhomme
Matthew Riccitello
XDS ASTANA
Davide Ballerini
Aaron Gate
Sergio Higuita
Max Kanter
Harold Tejada
Mike Teunissen
Simone Velasco
Nicolas Vinokurov
TOTALENERGIES
Nicolas Breuillard
Joris Delbove
Alexandre Delettre
Thibault Guernalec
Jordan Jegat
Mathis Le Berre
Anthony Turgis
Mattéo Vercher
TEAM PICNIC POSTNL
Warren Barguil
Frits Biesterbos
Pavel Bittner
John Degenkolb
Robbe Dhondt
Niklas Märkl
Julius van den Berg
Frank van den Broek
NSN CYCLING
Biniam Girmay
Lewis Askey
George Bennett
Marco Frigo
Matis Louvel
Krists Neilands
Jake Stewart
Tom Van Asbroeck
UNO-X MOBILITY
Tobias Halland Johannessen
Jonas Abrahamsen
Anthon Charmig
Magnus Cort
Anders Halland Johannessen
Anders Skaarseth
Torstein Træen
Søren Wærenskjold
COFIDIS
Piet Allegaert
Alex Aranburu
Jenthe Biermans
Ion Izagirre
Milan Fretin
Alex Kirsch
Hugo Page
Benjamin Thomas
PINARELLO Q36.5 PRO CYCLING
Damien Howson
Xandro Meurisse
Quinten Hermans
Chris Harper
Brent Van Moer
Fred Wright
Tom Pidcock
Xabier Azparren
CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA
Abel Balderstone
Sebastian Berwick
Fernando Gaviria
Alex Molenaar
Joel Nicolau
Stefano Oldani
Jakub Otruba
José Félix Parra
