22 teams and 176 participants will start the Tour de France 2024. Scheduled from June 29 to July 21, Grande Boucle number 111 will be historic in its own way since for the first time ever it will start from Italy, with the Grand Départ set in Florence, and will not end in Paris, grappling with the massive apparatus of the Olympic Games, but in Nice. Expected, as always, will be the participation of many of the world’s best riders, with the parterre obviously consisting of all 18 WorldTour formations, to which will be added the four invited Professional teams, the same as last year: Lotto Dstny and Israel-Premier Tech, who were granted automatic WildCards, TotalEnergies and Uno-X Mobility.

Tour de France 2024 participants

Among the most anticipated riders at the start is, of course, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who, after dominating his first Giro d’Italia, is aiming for his third Tour and to pull off that prestigious one-two that he has not managed since the summer of 1998, when Marco Pantani made Italians dream with his exploits. To attempt the couplet, the Slovenian phenomenon will be joined by a selection of the highest quality, in which will also find a place the Spanish talent Juan Ayuso, Portugal’s João Almeida and the third place finisher of the Grande Boucle a year ago, Adam Yates, all men who could in turn be called upon to make high rankings should the need arise.

On the other hand, the presence of one of the few riders capable of beating the Slovenian in recent years, namely Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), capable of taking the Yellow Jersey in the last two editions and in both cases just ahead of Pogacar, is currently uncertain. Still struggling with recovery from the injury suffered in the nasty crash that occurred during the fourth stage of the Tour of the Basque Country, the Dane technically has a chance to be at the start in Florence, but the team seems intent on bringing him only if he is at 100 percent condition. For sure, the Dutch team will still be able to count on Vuelta a España 2023 winner Sepp Kuss, as well as a Matteo Jorgenson who has shown good things in the spring, while the presence at the start of Wout Van Aert, also recovering from injury and more focused on the Olympics, seems unlikely.

In case of Vingegaard’s absence, there will in any case be two other big names who will try to contend for the final victory for Pogacar. The first is a former teammate of the Dane and compatriot of the Slovenian, Primož Roglič, who is in the hunt for that narrowly missed success in 2020 and the leader of a Bora-hansgrohe team that will also field 2022 Giro winner Jai Hindley, Russian Aleksandr Vlasov and, according to early-season plans, even Daniel Felipe Martinez, although the Colombian will have to assess his presence based on how he will have recovered after a Corsa Rosa that ended in second place right behind Pogacar. The second big name is, of course, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), who after two Tours and two Vueltas will be making his Tour debut with major ambitions and with the support of an experienced rider like Mikel Landa.

If these are certainly the main favorites for the final success, there is obviously no shortage of other riders who can aim for a place in the upper parts of the classification, starting with the fourth and fifth place finishers of last year’s edition, respectively Simon Yates (Team Jayco AlUla), however, back from a first part of the season with more lows than highs, and Carlos Rodriguez, winner of the last Tour of Romandie and likely captain of a high-profile Ineos Grenadiers given the presence also of Geraint Thomas, Tom Pidcock and a rediscovered Egan Bernal. Then we cannot fail to mention two compatriots of the Iberian climber already able in the past to finish in the top-10 of the Grande Boucle, namely Enric Mas (Movistar), capable of alternating great performances with somewhat duller periods, and the solid Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), who will act in concert with a Santiago Buitrago who, with his Tour debut, will continue his path of growth.

Among the hosts, hopes for a major result are pinned mainly on David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), who after his fourth place in 2022, however, has hardly been able to push himself to such levels, as well as on the experts Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), who, however, may be more interested in winning a partial success. An objective, this one, that should also have Abruzzese Giulio Ciccone, for whom an encore attempt in the Maglia a Pois classification cannot be ruled out, while for the general classification his Lidl-Trek will be aiming at Tao Geoghegan Hart, who hopes to return to high levels after the bad injury suffered at last year’s Giro. Eighth-place Tour 2023 finisher Felix Gall (Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale) and Olympic champion Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) can also surely aim for a top-10 finish.

Animating the race will clearly not only be the GC men, but there will also be plenty of stage hunters, starting of course with the sprinters. The eyes of many will be on Milan-San Remo winner Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who dominated the sprints last year by winning four stages and taking home the Green Jersey. Battling with the Belgian in the high-speed finishes will be big names such as Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla), Fabio Jakobsen (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), all capable of making their mark at least once at the Grande Boucle, as well as newcomer Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) and, of course, that Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) who is aiming for an all-time record of stage wins at the Tour.

On the more eventful days, suitable for classics men and breakaways, look out instead for riders such as world champion Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Ben Healy, Neilson Powless and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost), Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Warren Barguil (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), and the many other names that will be added over the weeks as the selections of the various teams are made official.

Startlist Tour de France 2024

ALPECIN-DECEUNINCK
PHILIPSEN Jasper
VAN DER POEL Mathieu

ARKÉA-B&B HOTELS
DEMARE Arnaud

ASTANA QAZAQSTAN
CAVENDISH Mark
LUTSENKO Alexey
MØRKØV Michael

BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS
BAUHAUS Phil
BILBAO Pello
BUITRAGO Santiago
MOHORIC Matej

BORA-HANSGROHE
DENZ Nico
HINDLEY Jai
MARTINEZ Daniel Felipe
ROGLIC Primoz
SOBRERO Matteo
VAN POPPEL Danny
VLASOV Aleksandr

COFIDIS
COQUARD Bryan
GESCHKE Simon
HERRADA Jesús
IZAGIRRE Ion
MARTIN Guillaume
RENARD Alexis

DECATHLON AG2R LA MONDIALE
GALL Felix

EF EDUCATION-EASYPOST
BETTIOL Alberto
CARAPAZ Richard
HEALY Ben
POWLESS Neilson
VAN DEN BERG Marijn

GROUPAMA-FDJ
GAUDU David
GREGOIRE Romain
KÜNG Stefan
MADOUAS Valentin

INEOS GRENADIERS
BERNAL Egan
DE PLUS Laurens
PIDCOCK Tom
RODRIGUEZ Carlos
THOMAS Geraint

INTERMARCHÉ-WANTY
GIRMAY Biniam
MEINTJES Louis
PAGE Hugo
BRAET Vito
THIJSSEN Gerben
GOOSSENS Kobe
ROTA Lorenzo
TAARAMÄE Rein
VAN HOECKE Gijs
REX Laurenz
TEUNISSEN Mike
ZIMMERMANN Georg

LIDL-TREK
CICCONE Giulio
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao
PEDERSEN Mads

MOVISTAR
MAS Enric

SOUDAL-QUICKSTEP
EVENEPOEL Remco
LANDA Mikel
LAMPAERT Yves
MOSCON Gianni
PEDERSEN Casper
VAN WILDER Ilan
VERVAEKE Louis

TEAM DSM-FIRMENICH POSTNL
BARDET Romain
BARGUIL Warren
JAKOBSEN Fabio

TEAM JAYCO ALULA
GROENEWEGEN Dylan
YATES Simon

TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE
BENOOT Tiesj
JORGENSON Matteo
KUSS Sepp
LAPORTE Christophe
TRATNIK Jan
VINGEGAARD Jonas

UAE TEAM EMIRATES
ALMEIDA João
AYUSO Juan
POGACAR Tadej
POLITT Nils
SIVAKOV Pavel
SOLER Marc
WELLENS Tim
YATES Adam

ISRAEL-PREMIER TECH

LOTTO DSTNY
DE LIE Arnaud
VAN GILS Maxim

TOTAL ENERGIES

UNO-X MOBILITY
CORT Magnus
KRISTOFF Alexander
WÆRENSKJOLD Søren