2022 Tour de France Preview

It occurred to me today that the 2022 Tour de France starts in…. (checks calendar)… three days!

Yes, Bike World News will be covering it once again, but to be honest, it’s been a little off my radar. The bike shop has been keeping me busy and I’m wrapping up one job and starting another on July 5th.

The first two days of the race? I hope to be off mountain biking in Southern Indiana with my son.

Nonetheless, let’s get into some of the details.

The 2022 Tour de France in Numbers

The World Cup can say what it wants, but the Tour de France is still the world’s largest sporting event.

Let’s break down the numbers.

• 3,350 kilometers of racing
• 21 stages
• 176 riders
• 450 staff
• 4 countries
• Broadcast in 190 countries with over 7800 hours of live coverage worldwide

2022 Tour de France Teams and Rosters

No big surprise on the teams front. All of the UCI WorldTeams are coming, with two wildcard slots being awarded to B&B Hotels/KTM and TotalEnergies.

It would be an oversimplification to say that all of the usual suspects will be on hand from the rosters’ side. A wave of COVID diagnoses swept through the peloton during some of the run-up races like the Tour de Suisse and the Criterium du Dauphine. Adam Yates, Aleksandr Vlasov, and Gino Mader are just a few changing their travel plans at the last minute.

As noted in the VeloNews article, Bahrain-Victorious, Jumbo-Visma, UAE Emirates, Alpecin-Fenix, and Jumbo-Visma all pulled entire teams from Tour de Suisse as COVID and gastrointestinal issues cut a path through the peloton.

Ag2r – Citroen

Geoffrey Bouchard, Mikael Cherel, Benoit Cosnefroy, Stan Dewulf, Bob Jungels, Oliver Naesen, Ben O’Connor, Aurelien Paret-Peintre

Alpecin Fenix

Pending

Arkea – Samsic

Nairo Quintana, Warren Barguil, Maxime Bouet, Amaury Capiot, Hugo Hofstetter, Matis Louvel, Lukasz Owsian, Connor Swift

Astana Qazaqstan Team

Samuele Battistella, Dmtriy Gruzdev, Fabio Felline, Alexey Lutsenko, Gianni Moscon, Joe Dombrowski, Simone Velasco, Andrey Zeits

B&B Hotels – KTM

Bahrain Victorious

Jack Haig, Damiano Caruso, Jan Tratnik, Kamil Gradek, Fred Wright, Luis Leon Sanchez, Matej Mohorič, Dylan Teuns

Bora – Hansgrohe

Aleksandr Vlasov, Lennard Kämna, Maximilian Schachmann, Nils Politt, Felix Großschartner, Patrick Konrad, Marco Haller, Danny van Poppel

Cofidis

Guillaume Martin, Ion Izagirre, Bryan Coquard, Max Walscheid, Benjamin Thomas. Victor Lafay, Anthony Perez, Simon Geschke

EF Education – Easypost

Pending

Groupama – FDJ

Rigoberto Uran, Neilson Powless, Magnus Cort-Nielsen, Jonas Rutsch, Stefan Bissegger, Ruben Guerreiro, Owain Doull

Ineos Grenadiers

Geraint Thomas, Dani Martinez, Adam Yates, Jonathan Castroviejo, Filippo Ganna, Tom Pidcock, Luke Rowe, Dylan van Baarle.

Intermarche – Wanty – Gobert Materiaux

Louis Meintjes, Alexander Kristoff, Sven Erik Bystrøm, Kobe Goossens, Andrea Pasqualon, Adrien Petit, Taco van der Hoorn, Georg Zimmermann

Israel – Premier Tech

Jakob Fuglsang, Michael Woods, Chris Froome), Daryl Impey, Simon Clarke, Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands, Omer Goldstein

Jumbo – Visma

Wout van Aert, Primoz Roglic, Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss, Steven Kruijswijk, Christophe Laporte, Tiesj Benoot, Nathan Van Hooydonck

Lotto  Soudal

Caleb Ewan, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Frederik Frison, Florian Vermeersch, Brent Van Moer, Philippe Gilbert, Andreas Kron, Tim Wellens

Movistar

Enric Mas, Carlos Verona, Matteo Jorgenson, Imanol Erviti, Nelson Oliveira, Gorka Izagirre, Gregor Mühlberger, Albert Torres

Quickstep – Alpha Vinyl

Kasper Asgreen, Andrea Bagioli, Mattia Cattaneo, Tim Declercq, Mikkel Honoré, Fabio Jakobsen, Yves Lampaert, Michael Mørkøv (DEN)

Team BikeExchange – Jayco

Jack Bauer, Luke Durbridge, Dylan Groenewegen, Amund Grøndahl Jansen, Chris Juul-Jensen, Michael Matthews, Luka Mezgec, Nick Schultz

Team DSM

Romain Bardet, Alberto Dainese, John Degenkolb, Nils Eekhoff, Chris Hamilton, Andreas Leknessund, Martijn Tusveld, Kevin Vermaerke

TotalEnergies

Peter Sagan, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Pierre Latour, Daniel Oss, Cristían Rodríguez, Anthony Turgis, Alexis Vuillermoz

Trek Segafredo

Mads Pedersen, Bauke Mollema, Jasper Stuyven, Giulio Ciccone, Alex Kirsch, Toms Skujins, Quinn Simmons, Tony Gallopin

UAE Team Emirates

Tadej Pogačar, Rafal Majka, Brandon McNulty (USA), Marc Soler, Matteo Trentin, Vegard Stake Laengen, George Bennett, Mikkel Bjerg

Under a COVID cloud

Two days before the start of the race, the UCI released new protocols for COVID testing for Grand Tours.

Teams (as well as Commissairies, UCI Technical Delegates and anti-doping control personnel) will be required to present negative antigen tests for all riders and staff two days before the start of an event, and will also be required to peform tests on rest days.

In the event a case of Covid-19 within a team is confirmed by an antigen test then by a PCR test (whether a rider or a member of staff), the decision to potentially isolate the case shall be taken collectively by the team doctor concerned, the Covid-19 doctor for the event and the UCI Medical Director, on the basis of the clinical elements available.

The Race

The 2022 edition of the Tour de France makes 3 jaunts outside of the country this year.

Of course, the grand depart for 2022 is in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first three stages of the race trek across southern Denmark before transferring to Dunkerke for Stage 4.

Stage 6 sees the race travel into Belgium for a day with a start in Binche before ending back up on home soil in Longwy.

Stage 8 and 9 are a venture into Switzerland. Stage 8 finishes in Lausanne and Stage 9 starts in Aigle.

As always, there will be 21 stages:

• 6 flat stages
• 7 hilly stages
• 6 mountain stages with 5 summit finishes (La super Planche des Belles Filles, Col du Granon, Alpe d’Huez, Peyragudes, Hautacam)
• 2 individual time trial stages
• 2 rest days
• 1 transfer day

Nine towns or sites that will  be hosting the Tour for the first time:

• Copenhagen (start and finish of stage 1)
• Roskilde (start of stage 2)
• Nyborg (finish of stage 2)
• Vejle (start of stage 3)
• Sønderborg (finish of stage 3)
• Aigle (start of stage 9)
• Castelnau-Magnoac (start of stage 19)
• Lacapelle-Marival (start of stage 20)
• Rocamadour (finish of stage 20)

Mountains

The Vosges, Alps, Massif Central and Pyrenees are the four mountain massifs that will feature in this 109th edition, appearing in that order. There’s one climb, the Col de Spandelles (1,378m) in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées.

Cobbles

They’ll be making their return after a four-year absence. Stage five Lille Métropole > Arenberg Porte du Hainaut will feature 19.4km of cobbles, split across 11 sectors, ranging in length from 1.3 to 2.8km.

Time Trials

53km is the combined distance of the two individual time trials in the 2022 Tour: 13km on the opening stage in the centre of the Danish capital, and 40km on the penultimate stage between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadour.

Time Bonuses

The first, second and third riders  across the line on each stage willreceive a time bonus of 10, 6 and 4 seconds, respectively.

Prize Money

A total of 2.3 million euros will be awarded to the teams and riders, including € 500,000 to the final winner of the overall individual  classification.