Teams are starting to announce their rosters for the 2023 Tour de France, which kicks off Saturday, July 1 in Bilbao, Spain. The 2023 route features one individual time trial, four summit finishes and covers 3,405km over 21 stages.
This page will be updated as I receive more announcements.
UAE Team Emirates
UAE Team Emirates heads into the 2023 Tour de France led by the former two-time champion of the race Tadej Pogačar, with a mix of climbers and flat-terrain experts to support the Slovenian.
24 year old Pogačar will lead the challenge which begins in Bilbao with a 182km road stage before hitting the Pyrenees mountains, moving eastward towards the Alps and finally on to the Champs Elysees in Paris for the ceremonial finish.
Sports Manager Joxean Matxin Fernandez (Spa) will lead the squad alongside Sports Directors Andrej Hauptman (Slo), Simone Pedrazzini (Swi) and Marco Marcato (Ita). The team is comprised of 8 riders: Tadej Pogačar (Slo), Rafal Majka (Pol), Mikkel Bjerg (Den), Felix Grossschartner (Aus), Marc Soler (Spa), Matteo Trentin (Ita), Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor), and Adam Yates (GB).
Tadej Pogačar : “The Tour is one of the biggest events in world sport and we’re very pleased and excited to be a part of it. As a team we have worked so hard to prepare and everything is where it needs to be, we have a very good group. There will be some serious competitors but that will always be the case in the biggest races. We are going there to put on a good show and of course with the aim of victory.”
Movistar Team
The Movistar Team confirmed today the eight riders the Telefónica-backed squad will bring to Bilbao’s start on Saturday 1st July.
The squad managed by Eusebio Unzué will line up with Enric Mas, Matteo Jorgenson, Nelson Oliveira, Antonio Pedrero, Ruben Guerreiro, Gregor Mühlberger and two of its Basque members, Gorka Izagirre and Alex Aranburu, who will enjoy the honour of opening a ‘Grande Boucle’ on their home roads.
At this year’s French grandtour, in the Abarca Sports organisation’s 41st consecutive appearance following their debut in 1983, the Movistar Team will be sporting their new Iceberg kit, produced by GOBIK and with sustainable, charity goals.
INEOS Grenadiers
The INEOS Grenadiers have confirmed the eight riders who will take on the 110th edition of the Tour de France. The riders selected for the 2023 Tour de France are: Egan Bernal, Jonathan Castroviejo, Omar Fraile, Michal Kwiatkowski, Daniel Martinez, Tom Pidcock, Carlos Rodriguez, and Ben Turner.
“This is a great route and one which will see hard, full-gas racing right from the start,” said Deputy Team Principal Rod Ellingworth. “We know anything can happen over three weeks of a Grand Tour and we also know the demands of an event where heat and altitude play a big part.
“We’ve selected an exciting group of riders that bring a mix of skills and experience. The strength of this team will lie in the way we take on the race, and how we approach each stage with the options we have.”
“Making my return to the Tour has always been a major goal for me,” team leader Egan Bernal told the press. “I’m so excited to be able to experience every kilometre of this race again.
“I’m sure many people have followed everything that has happened to me since my accident in January last year, and the journey I’ve been through to overcome the greatest test of my life. Being a part of this year’s Tour team reassures me that I’m on my way to returning to my best.”
Jumbo-Visma
Jumbo-Visma have confirmed their final eight-rider team for the Tour de France, building their squad around 2022 winner Jonas Vingegaard as they target a Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double.
Also in the roster are Wout van Aert, Dylan van Baarle, Sepp Kuss, Tiesj Benoot, Christophe Laporte, Nathan Van Hooydonck and Wilco Kelderman, offering Vingegaard vital support on the flat and in the mountains, while van Aert and Laporte will perhaps also target the sprint stages. Kelderman and Kuss will provide vital play a key role in the mountain, with the American super-domestique possibly riding all three Grand Tours in 2023.
“We exceeded our wildest dreams last year with six stage victories, the polka dot jersey, and most importantly, the green and yellow jersey. This year we are dreaming big too,” senior directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman said when the team was revealed.
Lidl-Trek
Lidl-Trek has named their 2023 Tour de France line-up and released a teaser video of their bright new racing colours as they transform from Trek-Segafredo to Lidl-Trek.
The US-registered WorldTour team will reveal their new men’s and women’s colours on Wednesday ahead of the Tour de France Grand Départ in Bilbao. The teaser video suggests the jersey will show off Lidl’s bright red, yellow and blue colours, with large sections of colours and even different coloured legs on the shorts.
The international supermarket chain replaces coffee brand Segafredo going forward and takes the first title sponsor slot from team owners Trek. Their sponsorship is set to be significant and boost the team’s budget going forward. Tao Geoghegan Hart and Italian sprinter Jonathan Milan will reportedly ride for Lidl-Trek in 2024
New US national champion Quinn Simmons, former world Champion Mads Pedersen, Tour de Suisse winner Mattias Skjelmose are part of the men’s team for the Tour de France that will aim to win stages and test Skjelmose’s Grand Tour credentials. Also in the eight rider line-up are Giulio Ciccone, Jasper Stuyven, Alex Kirsch, Juan Pedro Lopez and Tony Gallopin.
Soudal Quick-Step
Winner of the KOM standings in 2018, fifth overall in 2019 after an unforgettable 14-day spell in the yellow jersey and victorious in six stages, Julian Alaphilippe is excited to head together with Soudal Quick-Step to the start of the 110th edition of the Grande Boucle, where he returns for the first time since 2021.
Joining him in Bilbao will be European Champion Fabio Jakobsen – a stage winner at his debut in the race last year – Danish ITT Champion Kasper Asgreen, French ITT Champion Rémi Cavagna, Tim Declercq, Dries Devenyns, Yves Lampaert and Michael Mørkøv, one of the best lead-out men in the business.
“I’m looking forward to the Tour de France, it’s always an exciting period of the year. I went on a recon of the start in Bilbao, and I can tell you it will be a beautiful and hard weekend. At the beginning of the month I did a solid Dauphiné, where I felt in good shape, got a win and took pleasure in riding, and the preparations went well. The Tour is a truly huge adventure, every day you have to fight together with the team, and has a really special atmosphere, with all the people along the roads. I’m ready for Le Tour”, said Julian ahead of his eighth Grand Tour start.
Astana Qazaqstan
Astana Qazaqstan Team will field Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ), Mark Cavendish (GBR), Cees Bol (NED), Yevgeniy Fedorov (KAZ), David De La Cruz (ESP), Gianni Moscon (ITA), Luis Leon Sanchez (ESP), Harold Tejada (COL). Sports directors include Alexandr Shefer (KAZ), Dmitriy Fofonov (KAZ), Stefano Zanini (ITA).
Most notably, Mark Cavendish – now in his final year as a pro, returns to France to make a run at a record-breaking 35th stage win in the race after inexplicably being left off the Deceuninck Quick-Step roster last year.
EF Education – Easy Post
EF Education – Easy Post goes into the 2023 Tour with a layered set of objectives and will look to Richard Carapaz, Rigoberto Uran, Neilson Powless, Alberto Bettiol, Magnus Cort, James Shaw, Andrey Amador, and Esteban Chaves to achieve them. It’s a team built to adapt and capitalize over a mixture of terrain and circumstance. It’s a team of racers, first and foremost.
“This Tour, this route — it’s challenging to predict, especially given the early days in Bilbao. You know certain guys will be strong, sure. I’m excited about the team we’re sending because it’s so dynamic and flexible,” said Jonathan Vaughters, team CEO. “Richard, we know what he’s capable of, and we also know he’s great at reading a race and reacting. He’s tremendously exciting for us. We will support him in his exploits, and we’re also keeping our options open when it comes to attacking the race. Powless — he rode more kilometers than anyone in the breaks last year I think, and we hope he takes the next step this year. Magnus is a stage winner. Rigo, also a stage winner… on a single speed, no less. On paper, this is a great team. I’m excited to see how the race takes shape and how the whole team, riders and staff, come together to meet the challenge of the Tour.”
Lotto – Dstny
Lotto Dstny has announced its line-up for the 110th Tour de France. Sprinter Caleb Ewan will aim for another stage win in the Tour and will be supported by Jasper De Buyst, Jacopo Guarnieri, Florian Vermeersch and Frederik Frison. The Belgian ProTeam also included some offensive riders in its squad like Victor Campenaerts, Pascal Eenkhoorn and Maxim Van Gils, who both make their debut at the French stage race.
“With these eight riders, we send a strong selection to the Tour”, says sports manager Kurt Van de Wouwer. “Caleb Ewan has already won five stages in the Tour de France and wants to add one or more in the coming edition. The past two years, he has had his share of bad luck at the Tour and also the past months haven’t been going perfectly but he still remains one of the fastest riders of the bunch. He is our biggest chance to take a stage win. That is why we have surrounded him really well with Jasper De Buyst, who has shown his excellent shape the past weeks and Jacopo Guarnieri as important element in the sprint train. Florian and Frederik their task is to launch that train in a good position, they will also get the chance to go on the attack in the other stages as well.”
Jayco AlUla
Team Jayco AlUla has named its strong and versatile eight–rider team for the 110th edition of Le Tour de France starting on Saturday, 1st July in Bilbao, Spain.
Five-time stage winner Dylan Groenewegen and former white jersey and two-time stage winner Simon Yates will lead the Australian outfit’s dual approach, as the squad targets both the sprint and mountainous stages. They will be joined by Lawson Craddock, Luke Durbridge, Chris Harper, Chris Juul-Jensen, Luka Mezgec, and Elmar Reinders.
Flying the flag in all potential bunch sprint finishes will be Groenewegen, the Dutchman who got the ball rolling early in the 2022 edition, with his impressive victory on stage three in Denmark.
The 30-year-old will have a fine-tuned support squad around him with Slovenian lead-out man Luka Mezgec, a former two-time TDF stage runner up, and fellow Dutchman Elmar Reinders, who is set to make his Grand Tour debut at the ‘Grande Boucle’.
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