The start of the Tour de France is approaching. Who is in the nominations of each team?

The 110th edition of the Tour de France will start on Saturday 1 July in Bilbao, Spain. In the last few days, the 22 participating teams have been announcing their line-ups. For the second time in a row, a Czech is missing from some of them at cycling’s most famous race. On the other hand, a number of favourites will not be missing.

The last domestic cyclist to take part in the high-profile event was Petr Vakoč in 2021, who retired from professional road cycling soon after. This year, Pavel Bittner seemed the most likely to participate.

The management of his stable Team DSM – Firmenich finally decided for a different choice. Nevertheless, the teammate of Romain Bardet believes in some hope. “I am a reserve, anything can happen,” the online magazine We Love Cycling quotes the 20-year-old Czech as saying.

In the world of cycling, the four-time Old Lady champion’s non-participation has been discussed in recent days. Chris Froome did not fit into the roster of the Israel – Premier Tech team. It is questionable whether one of the most successful riders in Tour history will ever make an appearance at this event again.

On the other hand, a large number of familiar faces from among the favored riders will appear at the start. The overall victory will be defended by Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard of the Jumbo-Visma group, which is once again one of the strongest.

He will be challenged by the likes of INEOS Grenadiers with Colombian Egan Bernal, the winner of the oldest three-week race in 2019, and UAE Team Emirates with Tadej Pogachar. The two-time champion will ride with a brace on the wrist he broke in the spring. Despite this limitation, he recently dominated the Slovenian championship.

Other riders can also be counted in the pool of candidates for the top position in the overall standings. These include Spain’s Enrico Mas of Movistar and Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz of EF Education-EasyPost, while David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ could succeed among the domestic riders.

Six of the 21 stages belong to the flat category, which represent a chance for the elite sprinters to shine. One of them is Slovakia’s Peter Sagan, in the colours of TotalEnergies, for whom this should be his last Tour de France start. He has managed to dominate the points competition seven times.

The big sporting event will run until 23 July. In the meantime, the 176 participants will face tough mountain stages, one individual time trial and two days off. The organisers have traditionally placed the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Team nominations for the 2023 Tour de France

Jumbo-Visma: Wilco Kelderman, Dylan van Baarle, Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot, Christophe Laporte, Nathan Van Hooydonck, Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard

UAE Team Emirates: Felix Großschartner, Vegard Stake Laengen, Mikkel Bjerg, Matteo Trentin, Tadej Pogačar, Marc Soler, Rafał Majka, Adam Yates

Bahrain Victorius: Nikias Arndt, Phil Bauhaus, Jack Haig, Wout Poels, Pello Bilbao, Fred Wright, Mikel Landa, Matej Mohorič

BORA – hansgrohe: Patrick Konrad, Marco Haller, Jordi Meeus, Bob Jungels, Danny van Poppel, Jai Hindley, Emanuel Buchmann, Nils Politt

Groupama-FDJ: Lars van den Berg, Olivier Le Gac, Quentin Pacher, Stefan Küng, Kevin Geniets, David Gaudu, Thibaut Pinot, Valentin Madouas

INEOS Grenadiers: Egan Bernal, Omar Fraile, Ben Turner, Daniel Felipe Martínez, Thomas Pidcock, Michał Kwiatkowski, Carlos Rodríguez, Jonathan Castroviejo

Uno-X Pro Cycling Team: Jonas Abrahamsen, Torstein Træen, Søren Wærenskjold, Anthon Charmig, Jonas Gregaard, Alexander Kristoff, Rasmus Tiller, Tobias Halland Johannessen

Israel – Premier Tech: Michael Woods, Guillaume Boivin, Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands, Corbin Strong, Nick Schultz, Simon Clarke, Dylan Teuns

Lotto Dstny: Victor Campenaerts, Jasper de Buyst, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Jacopo Guarnieri, Florian Vermeersch, Caleb Ewan, Maxim Van Gils, Frederik Frison

Lidl-Trek: Tony Gallopin, Giulio Ciccone, Quinn Simmons, Mattias Skjelmose, Juan Pedro López, Alex Kirsch, Jasper Stuyven, Mads Pedersen

Intermarché-Circus-Wanty: Dion Smith, Louis Meintjes, Biniam Girmay, Rui Costa, Georg Zimmermann, Adrien Petit, Mike Teunissen, Lilian Calmejane

Team DSM – Firmenich: John Degenkolb, Kevin Vermaerke, Alex Edmondson, Chris Hamilton, Sam Welsford, Matthew Dinham, Romain Bardet, Nils Eekhoff

Movistar Team: Antonio Pedrero, Gregor Mühlberger, Gorka Izagirre, Alex Aranburu, Matteo Jorgenson, Ruben Guerreiro, Nelson Oliveira, Enric Mas

Team Jayco AlUla: Christopher Juul-Jensen, Elmar Reinders, Lawson Craddock, Luke Durbridge, Chris Harper, Simon Yates, Dylan Groenewegen, Luka Mezgec

AG2R Citroën Team: Benoît Cosnefroy, Oliver Naesen, Nans Peters, Ben O’Connor, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Felix Gall, Stan Dewulf, Clément Berthet

Alpecin-Deceuninck: Mathieu van der Poel, Jasper Philipsen, Jonas Rickaert, Silvan Dillier, Ramon Sinkeldam, Quinten Hermans, Søren Kragh Andersen, Michael Gogl

Astana Qazaqstan Team: Gianni Moscon, Harold Tejada, Alexey Lutsenko, Evgeny Fedorov, Mark Cavendish, Cees Bol, David de la Cruz, Luis León Sánchez

Cofidis: Guillaume Martin, Ion Izagirre, Bryan Coquard, Victor Lafay, Anthony Perez, Axel Zingle, Simon Geschke, Alexis Renard

EF Education-EasyPost: Alberto Bettiol, Andrey Amador, Esteban Chaves, Richard Carapaz, James Shaw, Magnus Cort, Rigoberto Urán, Neilson Powless

Soudal Quick-Step: Julian Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen, Rémi Cavagna, Tim Declercq, Dries Devenyns, Fabio Jakobsen, Yves Lampaert, Michael Mørkøv

Team Arkéa Samsic: Laurent Pichon, Luca Mozzato, Warren Barguil, Jenthe Biermans, Simon Guglielmi, Clément Champoussin, Anthony Delaplace, Matis Louvel

TotalEnergies: Mathieu Burgaudeau, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Steff Cras, Valentin Ferron, Pierre Latour, Daniel Oss, Peter Sagan, Anthony Turgis

Source: Tour de France, ProCyclingStats.com, We Love Cycling