Uno-X Mobility and TotalEnergies return to 2024 Tour de France as wildcards

The official lineup of teams for the 2024 Tour de France has been unveiled, featuring the same roster as was invited to the sport's biggest race last summer. That means the 18 WorldTeams will be joined by Israel-Premier Tech, Lotto Dstny, Uno-X Mobility and TotalEnergies.

Earning their place by finishing last season as the top two ProTeams - cycling's second tier - both Israel-Premier Tech and Lotto Dstny will take up their automatic invites to take part in the Tour de France. This opens up the possibility for Chris Froome to return to the race he has won four times, having made his intentions clear to target a stage victory this summer.

Read more: ‘Geraint Thomas proves that age isn’t a factor,’ says a resilient Chris Froome

As for Uno-X Mobility and TotalEnergies, the pair have been offered wildcard slots for the second season running, to complete the lineup of 22 teams who will take to the start of the Tour in Italy.

The Grand Départ for this year's Tour de France will take place outside of the home nation for a third year in succession, with Florence welcoming the world's best for stage 1 on Saturday 29 June. A little over three weeks later, the race will come to an end in Nice with an individual time trial on Sunday 21 July, marking the first time that the Tour has ever finished outside of Paris.

Read more: Tour de France 2024 route revealed

With the first 20 teams all but confirmed ahead of Thursday's announcement from race organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), it was all eyes on the wildcard slots: would TotalEnergies and Uno-X be granted a place at the 2024 Tour?

In reality, TotalEnergies' invite was a given. Their big star Peter Sagan might have retired, but since TotalEnergies is a large French company, it seemed likely that the ASO would grant them a wildcard slot.

The fate of Scandinavian team Uno-X was less clear. The team made its Tour de France debut last summer, during which they left a strong impression on the peleton. Having signed Magnus Cort and Andreas Leknessund in the off season, they are now a strong outfit, capable of holding their own at the biggest race in the world. It was with great relief, then, that general manager Jens Haugland received the news that the team has been invited to the Tour once again in 2024.

"Being invited to the Tour de France for the second consecutive year is a huge recognition," said Haugland. "The anticipation leading up to today's invitation was immense, and now we're filled with gratitude and pride. We are very happy that our team's performances last year have earned us this new invitation.

"The participation in the Tour de France also gives us an even larger arena to create enthusiasm and engagement for more cycling, which is the very heart of sustainable mobility."

Of the four ProTeams in line to start this year's Tour, only Israel-Premier Tech were able to ride away with a stage victory in last summer's race. Michael Woods was the man to strike for the Israeli outfit, emerging victorious atop the hallowed Puy de Dôme on stage 9.

All four will line up with an ambition to take it to the big guns such as Ineos Grenadiers, UAE Team Emirates and Visma-Lease a Bike in six months' time.

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

Michael Woods will have the UCI ProTeams dreaming of similar success at the 2024 Tour de France

In the race for the overall title, a four-way showdown is expected between Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) - all of whom are previous Grand Tour winners.

Read more:

• Tour de France 2024: Analysing the contenders
• I would rate the Tour de France route a 9/10, says Tadej Pogačar

Q36.5 Pro Cycling and Tudor Pro Cycling settle for secondary wildcards

Alongside the Tour de France lineup, ASO also announced the teams for Paris-Nice and the Critérium du Dauphiné on Thursday, with the French race organisers also in control of the week-long stage races.

Having missed out on a wildcard invite to the Tour de France, the ambitious Tudor Pro Cycling have been offered an olive branch in the form of Paris-Nice, which will begin in Les Mureaux on 3 March and similarly wind its way down to Nice.

The Swiss ProTeam is under the control of modern-day legend Fabian Cancellara and his team will line up at Paris-Nice off the back of an active off-season, in which the side have signed Matteo Trentin, Michael Storer and Alberto Dainese, amongst others. The former has previously spoken to of his hopes to see the team receive a wildcard invite for the Giro d'Italia in May.

Read more: Matteo Tosatto: Leaving Ineos Grenadiers for Tudor was the best decision for me

Fellow ProTeam Q36.5 Pro Cycling, meanwhile, will take up the offer of a wildcard invite to the Critérium du Dauphiné in early June. This will be the last major stage race in France before the Tour de France and see Uno-X Mobility get the chance to test their riders against the world's best. The Scandinavian outfit received a wildcard slot for the Dauphiné, whilst TotalEnergies will get their chance at Paris-Nice.

It will be the first time in three years that the French ProTeam has not lined up at the Dauphiné.

In their place, Q36.5 Pro Cycling will hope to make their mark, likely with sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo - signed from Israel-Premier Tech - and former Astana Qazaqstan man David de la Cruz.

For more about the 2024 Tour de France, including the route, key information and race history, visit our dedicated race hub.