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He’s In! Jonas Vingegaard Will Race the 2024 Tour de France

The two-time yellow jersey winner is on Visma-Lease a Bike’s roster for the big event—along with Wout van Aert and Sepp Kuss.

Vingegaard has been training at altitude for the past few weeks, and according to the team’s statement , he said, “I am excited to start the Tour. The last few months have not always been easy, but I thank my family and Team Visma | Lease a Bike for their unwavering support. We have worked together to get to this moment, and of course, I am very excited to see where I stand. I feel good and very motivated.”

The team’s Sporting Director, Merijn Zeeman, said, “I am very proud of Jonas and the coaching team. He is coming back from a serious injury. In the last few weeks, he has shown what a champion he is, both mentally and physically. Of course, we don't know how far he can go yet. We are being cautious because he has not been able to race, and his preparation has been less than ideal, to say the least. But he will be there, healthy and motivated.”

Joining Vingegaard at the Tour will be nine-time stage winner Wout van Aert, who is also recovering from a serious injury following a crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen . Van Aert said, “I am really looking forward to the Tour de France. Of course, this was not the plan initially, but after my development in the last weeks, I really wanted it, and the team agreed. Our main goal is, of course, to ride a top classification with Jonas. I want to contribute to that with an excellent team.”

The rest of the Visma-Lease a Bike team for the Tour de France will include Sepp Kuss , Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman, Matteo Jorgenson, Christophe Laporte, and Jan Tratnik. If everyone stays upright and healthy, this is a very balanced team that could do a lot in this Tour, which is exactly what everyone wanted to see. In fact, Tadej Pogačar has already “liked” the social media post by Visma-Lease a Bike announcing their team.

The team also released a special edition Renaissance jersey for the Tour, which is very different from their traditional yellow and black. Let the games begin!

Micah Ling is a freelance writer who lives in the mountains of Colorado. She splits her free time between mountain biking and trail running.

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How one phone call from Wout van Aert led to the Belgian riding the Tour de France

Wout van Aert made clear that he wanted "to do something special" this summer at the Tour de France in a phone call with Visma-Lease a Bike’s sporting director, Merijn Zeeman, which led to him getting a spot on the team.

Visma-Lease a Bike revealed on Thursday morning that the Belgian would be part of the team’s squad that travels to Florence next week alongside Jonas Vingegaard . 

Van Aert faced a race against the clock to return to full fitness after sustaining multiple fractures in a crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen in the spring. 

Zeeman revealed on Thursday that Van Aert called him and the team’s lead sports director, Grischa Niermann, to make clear that he was committed to their plans to take Vingegaard back to the Tour with the aim of winning a third straight title. 

When asked whether Van Aert was totally focussed on helping Vingegaard, Zeeman joked that he hoped for a bit of controversy amongst the team in order to add to the narrative in the Netflix series Tour de France:Unchained . 

However, Zeeman made clear that Van Aert would also be given the licence to go on the attack in pursuit of stage wins and an early yellow jersey, should the opportunity materialise on the road. 

"I hope that we will really get some controversy again because it's good for the documentary at the end of the season so we need to create some of that," Zeeman joked. "Or maybe we can solve it with Belgium and Denmark playing against each other in the European Championships and then it's also solved. 

"Wout called me and he called Grischa to say that he was really motivated to go to the Tour to do something special for the team, with the team, and this means being with Jonas fighting for yellow. So like every other year, Wout is the best possible helper that Jonas can have. He really makes a difference as a rider, as a person, and as a leader. 

"It would be fantastic if he could win a stage as well because a champion like him really deserves that.”

"Matteo has a chance to win the Tour in his career as well"

Alongside Van Aert and Vingegaard, Matteo Jorgenson was also named in the team’s lineup. Since his move from Movistar, Jorgenson has enjoyed an outstanding campaign to date which has included overall victory at Paris-Nice . 

The American also won Dwars door Vlaanderen in the spring. 

Nevertheless, Zeeman made clear that despite his form to date, Jorgenson would travel to the race start in Italy with the main objective being riding in support of his team leader. 

"Jonas is the only rider in our team at this moment who can win the Tour de France," Zeeman said. "I really believe that Matteo Jorgenson will be a very very good rider in the future. I think Matteo has a chance to win the Tour in his career as well, but he is still developing."

"I think if we analyse the WorldTour season to date, Matteo is among the best riders in the world right now. It's a remarkable progression. He’s a really fantastic rider to have in the team and he’s incredible to work with, a real leader, and he really makes our team stronger. 

"You never know what happens in the Tour. But Matteo is very clear that he is going to the tour to help Jonas. The intention is very clear that he wants to help the team and he will help the team by supporting Jonas as best as possible."

• Tour de France

Tour de France coverage from Cycling Weekly, with up to date race results, rider profiles and news and reports.

The Tour de France 2024 begins on Saturday 29 June and marks the 111th edition of cycling's flagship race. In the first Grand Départ for Italy, the race starts in Florence and traces a path east across the country, before heading back west towards France and into the Alps. 

The riders will also take on the Apennines, Massif Central and Pyrenees mountain ranges, and pass through Italy, San Marino, Monaco and France.

With Paris busy preparing for the Olympic Games in August there will be no room for the Tour de France's traditional final stage finish on the Champs-Elysées. Instead the race will finish in Nice – the first time it has ever finished outside the capital.

The world's best riders are set to vie for overall victory, with newly crowned Giro d'Italia winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) due to take on Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) – both of whom are currently returning from injury – and Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe).

The three-week event is the second in the trio of Grand Tours, coming after the Giro d'Italia and before the Vuelta a España .

Tour de France 2024: Overview

Tour de france 2024: the route.

One for the climbers, the 2024 Tour de France route incorporates four summit finishes, spans four mountain ranges, and features the hilliest opening stage in Tour de France history.

One of the most interesting and intriguing routes of recent years, sitting between the predominantly hilly week one and week three sits a flatter week two, and stage nine – with an abundance of white roads; 14 sectors in total.

There's plenty for the sprinters as well as the general classification and climbing specialists, although there are going to be some tough mountains to get over to reach the sprint stages, and to finish the three weeks.

For the first time in 35 years, a final day time trial means the yellow jersey won't be decided on the penultimate day. 

• Tour de France 2024 route: Two individual time trials, five summit finishes and gravel sectors
• Opinion: Is the 2024 Tour de France too hard?
• FAQs of the Tour de France: How lean? How much power? How do they pee mid-stage? All that and more explained

Tour de France 2024 route: Stage-by-stage

Tour de france 2024: the teams.

There will be 22 teams of eight riders at the 2024 Tour de France. This includes all 18 UCI WorldTour teams, as well as the two best-ranked UCI ProTeams, and two further squads invited by the organiser, ASO. 

Tour de France 2024: General classification riders

When it comes to potential yellow jersey winners, there are four riders due to take the start line in Florence on June 29. 

The quartet comprises Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who has just won the Giro d'Italia; Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), and Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) . 

Reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard is the only rider over whom hangs a significant questions mark for the race. Along with Roglič and Evenepoel, he came down in a nasty crash on stage four of the Itzulia Basque Country in April. All were injured but the Dane came off worst, and he only began riding outside in May. The plan, says his team, is still to take him to the Tour de France – but only if he is good enough. 

Following the route announcement in October, Tadej Pogačar said that the "end of the journey makes me smile", with the final two stages starting and finishing close to his home in Monaco. Pogačar is hoping to take back the top step in 2024 after two years of missing out on yellow to Vingegaard.

Remco Evenepol intends to make his Tour de France debut in 2024. Although he took a win in 2022 at the Vuelta, his performance in other Grand Tour races has been either inconsistent or blighted by illness. If he's to compete against the likes of Vingegaard and Pogačar, he'll have to up his game. It's not yet known who Ineos Grenadiers will hand the reins to, but, coming 5th overall and taking a stage win in his Tour debut in 2023 , Carlos Rogríguez seems a likely choice.

Tour de France 2024: Sprinters

It's going to be a tough year for the sprinters. Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck was one of the star men of last year's Tour de France, taking four stage wins and the green sprinter's jersey at the end of the three weeks. He has had a fine season so far, with a win at Milan-San Remo and second at Paris-Roubaix and is likely to be the rider to beat at the Tour.

Like Philipsen, Mads Pederson of Trek-Segafredo has enjoyed a successful early season, with a win at Gent-Wevelgem and (unlike Philipsen) a hatful of sprint victories. He's likely to be the Belgian's main rival in the bunch finishes.

All eyes will be on Mark Cavendish in the 111th Tour de France after he postponed retirement to target the Tour win record, currently shared with Eddy Merckx, and gain his 35th win. He said, however, that he was "in shock" and that this was the "toughest course" he had ever seen , when it was revealed in October. 

Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) and Fabio Jakobsen (dsm-firmenich-PostNL) are also set to be there and should challenge for wins.

Tour de France 2024: On TV

As you'd expect the Tour de France will be avialable to watch in a lot of places this July.

The race is expected to be live-streamed on GCN +, Discovery+ and Eurosport , as well as ITV4, in the UK and in Europe. Subscription costs are £6.99/month or $8.99/month, and £39.99 or $49.99 for a year.

A Flobikes  annual subscription will cost you $209.99 if you want to watch in Canada, while in the USA  NBC Sports  via Peacock Premium ($4.99 per month) will show the race. Australians can can watch the Tour for free on SBS on Demand.

And, of course, if you want to watch your local stream from anywhere in the world you'll need a VPN from a trusted company like ExpressVPN .

Tour de France: The jerseys

Much like every year in recent memory, the Tour de France jerseys and classifications are yellow for the overall leader, green for the leader in the points standings, polka-dot for the mountain classification, and white for the best young rider.

Along with the jersey prizes, there is an award for the most combative rider of each stage, with the winner wearing a red number on the following day. This is awarded each day, with a 'Super Combativity' award decided by a jury at the end of the race for the most active rider throughout the entire event.

There is also a team classification where the time of the first three riders from each team is put together to create a single time. This is then done in a similar way as the individual general classification.

In addition, there are plenty of bonus seconds up for grabs at the race. There are ten, six and four bonus seconds available at the end of each stage for the first three riders, as well as bonus sprints that are dotted throughout the race on key climbs to try and make the racing more entertaining for spectators.

Of course, there's also prize money up for grabs. For winning the 2023 edition of the race, Jonas Vingegaard collected €535,220 (£463,100), a sum which is customarily shared out among the team's riders and staff.

Tour de France past winners in the last 12 years

• 2012: Bradley Wiggins (GBr) 
• 2013: Chris Froome (GBr) 
• 2014: Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) 
• 2015: Chris Froome (GBr) 
• 2016: Chris Froome (GBr) 
• 2017: Chris Froome (GBr) 
• 2018: Geraint Thomas (GBr) 
• 2019: Egan Bernal (Col) 
• 2020: Tadej Pogačar (Slo) 
• 2021: Tadej Pogačar (Slo)  
• 2022: Jonas Vingegaard (Den)
• 2023: Jonas Vingegaard (Den)

Tour de France FAQ

How does the tour de france work.

The Tour de France is one of a trio of races that are three weeks long, known as the Grand Tours, alongside the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España. The Tour is the best known and arguably the most prestigious.

It is the second of the three races in the calendar with the Giro taking place in May, the Tour usually in July, and the Vuelta in August and September.

The Tour, like all Grand Tours, takes on varying terrain with flat days for sprinters, hilly days for puncheurs and mountains for the climbers and GC riders, along with time trials, so that a winner of the race has to be able to perform on all types of road.

The main prize in the race, known as the general classification, is based on time with the overall leader wearing the yellow jersey. The race leader and eventual winner is the rider who has the lowest accumulated time over the 21 days of racing. Riders can win the Tour de France without winning a stage, as Chris Froome did in 2017. Time bonuses of 10, six, and four seconds are given to stage winners though, creating incentive for those general classification riders to chase individual victories and lower their overall time.

In 2020 it took race winner Tadej Pogačar 87 hours 20 minutes and 5 seconds to complete the race with the second-place rider overall 59 seconds slower. That continues all the way down to the last place rider, which was Roger Kluge (Lotto-Soudal) who finished 6 hours 7 minutes and 2 seconds behind.

The white best young rider's jersey is worked out in the same way but only riders under the age of 26 are eligible for the jersey.

The polka-dot mountains jersey and the green points jersey are based on a points system and not time. The only reason time would come into account would be if riders are tied on points, then it would go to who is the best placed in the general classification.

The team classification is based on the general classification times of the first three riders of a team on each stage. The time of those three riders is added up and put onto their team's time, creating a GC list much like in the individual classifications. The leading team gets to wear yellow numbers and helmets on each stage.

The final classification available is the combativity prize. This is decided by a race jury or, in more recent years, Twitter. This takes place just before the end of each stage and often goes to a rider from the breakaway who has put in a daring performance or attempted to liven up the stage by attacking. The winner of the combativity award gets to wear a special red race number on the following day's stage.

There is a final prize added to this with the Super Combativity prize being awarded on the podium in Paris. This is decided in a similar fashion to pick out the most aggressive, entertaining, and daring rider of the whole three weeks. Again, usually going to a rider who has featured regularly in the breakaway.

Stage winners do not wear anything special the day after apart from getting a small yellow jersey to stick on their number on their bike, this can be replaced if they win multiple stages.

Teams used to come to the race with nine riders but the UCI, cycling's governing body, decided that nine riders from each team was too dangerous and dropped it to eight, however more teams now take part.

How long is the Tour de France?

The Tour de France takes place over 23 days with 21 of them being race days. The riders get two days of resting; they usually fall on the second and third Monday of the race.

This year's race is 3,492km long, which is 2,170 miles, around the same distance from Washington DC to Las Vegas, or Helsinki to Lisbon. 

Road stages can range from anything around 100km to something approaching 250km, sometimes more. This year the shortest road stage is stage 20, from Nice to Col de la Couillole, with the longest being 229km on stage three in Italy, from Plaisance to Turin.

Road stages often take around four to five hours with the longer days sometimes nudging over seven hours.

Time trials are always much shorter. Team time trials have long since gone out of fashion in the world of road racing so individual time trials are the main focus these days. 

In 2024, the Tour has two individual time trials for the riders to tackle, the first on stage seven at 25km long from Nuits-Saint-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin, and the second on the final stage from Monaco to Nice, at 34km long.

When does the Tour de France start?

The 2024 Tour de France starts on June 29 in Florence, Italy, with a road stage. There will be three full stages in Italy, before the fourth heads into France. The race finishes in Nice three weeks later.

The 2024 edition of the race runs from 29 June - 21 July, covering 21 stages. 

Tour de France 2024 start list: Matej Mohorič and Fred Wright line up for Bahrain Victorious

All the teams and riders for the 111th Tour de France

How one phone call from Wout van Aert led to the Belgian riding the Tour de France

Visma-Lease a Bike sporting director Merijn Zeeman reveals Van Aert said he wanted "to do something special"

By Tom Thewlis Published 21 June 24

Goodbye lime: We need to talk about the Tour de France green jersey

There's change afoot at ASO's French races, with the combativity colour also undergoing a revamp

By Adam Becket Last updated 21 June 24

No Tao Geoghegan Hart at Tour de France after Covid and broken rib

The 29-year-old crashed at the Critérium du Dauphiné, fracturing his rib in the process

By Adam Becket Published 21 June 24

Chris Froome misses out on Tour de France selection

39-year-old absent from Israel-Premier Tech's eight-rider roster

By Tom Davidson Published 21 June 24

How much prize money will be on offer at the 2024 Tour de France?

There is around €2.3 million up for grabs in the 2024 race

By Adam Becket Published 20 June 24

Tour de France jerseys: Yellow, green, white and polka dot explained

We explain what the yellow, green, polka-dot and white jerseys worn by riders in the Tour de France represent

Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert to ride Tour de France for Visma-Lease a Bike

The pair will lineup in Florence next Saturday after recovering from their respective injuries

A UAE Emirates Tour de France podium clean sweep is a real possibility

Adam Yates, Tadej Pogačar and João Almeida are all hitting form at the perfect time with the Florence Grand Départ fast approaching

By Tom Thewlis Published 18 June 24

Foreign Grands Départs for the Tour de France might be fun, but we should put a cap on them

Barcelona 2026 will be the Tour’s fourth foreign start in five years. Is it time to think about the environment before profit?

By Adam Becket Published 18 June 24

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Annemiek van Vleuten Etched Her Name into Tour de France History

Van Vleuten dominated the 2022 pro cycling season, which culminated with her victory at the inaugural Tour de France Femmes

Heading out the door? Read this article on the Outside app available now on iOS devices for members! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Download the app .

Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten was already a towering figure in professional cycling prior to last summer’s inaugural Tour de France Femmes . Van Vleuten, 40, has three world titles, and she’s won nearly every major race on the women’s circuit. Her gold-medal ride in the individual time trial at the Tokyo Olympics took place just days after she’d taken silver in the road race, making her the only cyclist in more than a decade to medal in both road-cycling events at the same Games.

Yet on July 23, Van Vleuten could not contain her emotion after crossing the finish line atop the Super Planche des Belles Filles climb in eastern France to clinch her overall victory at the Tour de France Femmes.

“This is actually a dream that came true, winning in yellow on the top,” Van Vleuten said, fighting back tears. “Finishing here, in yellow, solo, is the best way.”

Van Vleuten’s elation spoke to the importance that the Tour de France Femmes now holds within women’s cycling following its debut. The eight-day race kicked off on the Champs-Élysées on July 24, just as the men’s race held its final stage on the same streets. French TV reported 2.3 million viewers per day, with a peak of 5.1 million tuning in for the final stage. Those statistics made the Tour de France Femmes the most viewed women’s cycling race of the year by a wide margin.

Those figures also erased the decades-old idea that women’s cycling couldn’t generate enough interest to support its own Tour. There have been multiple attempts at creating a marquee women’s stage to run in conjunction with the men’s race, which held its 109th edition in 2022, but none of the projects overcame the financial challenges and sexism standing in the way.

In 1984, organizers launched the Tour de France Féminin, the first women’s version of the race, and it was won by an American cyclist, Marianne Martin. But the event was discontinued after just five iterations due to a lack of funding. In subsequent years, various French promoters attempted to stage major women’s races that replicated the men’s, among them the Tour Cycliste Féminin, Grand Boucle Féminine Internationale, and Tour de l’Aude Cycliste Féminin.

But even those struggled to find financial backing and attract TV coverage, an important component for sponsors. Critics derided women’s cycling as boring and incapable of standing on its own. Fans who watched the events live, however, and the women who competed, knew that the racing was every bit as dramatic and exciting as men’s cycling. It’s just that there were few events, and no way for the wider world to watch.

A turning point came in 2013, when professional racers Marianne Vos , who is Dutch, and Emma Pooley, who is British, teamed up with American advocate Kathryn Bertine to launch Le Tour Entier, a movement to pressure the Tour de France’s owner, Amaury Sport Organisation, to create an equivalent for women. The group circulated a petition and produced a film, Half the Road. In response, the ASO created its own event, La Course by Le Tour de France, in 2014. But the race was only one day, held in downtown Paris, and fans and riders criticized the abbreviated length. So the ASO tinkered with the race format, adding an individual time trial one year and moving it to the mountains another. Yet after eight editions, it became clear that the ASO had no intentions of building La Course into a multi-stage race spanning weeks. It was not a Tour de France.

Van Vleuten won La Course in 2017 and 2018, and her first victory happened less than a year after her career nearly ended in a terrifying pileup at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. After dropping everyone except American Mara Abbott, Van Vleuten sped down a winding descent and misjudged a corner. She flew from her bicycle and landed face-first on a curb, suffering a severe concussion and three fractures to her spine.

The moment was pivotal. In the ensuing year, she took huge strides forward, morphing from a rider for hilly classics to the best pure climber in the peloton. “The turning point was the race before the crash—I was the best climber of the world that day, and that was something I was determined to build on after that crash,” Van Vleuten said in a 2020 interview with CyclingTips.

She was similarly impressive at the Tour de France Femmes. After suffering an intestinal infection early in the race—she was dropped on stage three and lost nearly a minute—she rebounded in the mountains to seize the lead. On stage seven, she launched a massive 37-mile solo attack, crossing the line more than three minutes ahead of her closest rival.

“I was so sick, and then to win here like this is unbelievable,” she said. “And beautiful to finish here solo. Incroyable. ”

Van Vleuten also won the Giro d’Italia Femminile, the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, and the world road-cycling championships this year, making her the most successful road cyclist of any gender in 2022. She plans to retire after the 2023 season. The only question is who will fill her mighty shoes.

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Defending champ Jonas Vingegaard fit to compete at Tour de France

FILE -Tour de France winner Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey, lifts his bicycle after the twenty-first stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 115 kilometers (71.5 miles) with start in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and finish on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France, Sunday, July 23, 2023. Two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard has recovered in time to defend his title next week although there are still doubts about his ability to be competitive. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

FILE - Sepp Kuss of the U.S. rides during the sixteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race, an individual time trial over 22.5 kilometers (14 miles) with start in Passy and finish in Combloux, France, Tuesday, July 18, 2023. Two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard has recovered in time to defend his title next week although there are still doubts about his ability to be competitive. Matteo Jorgenson of the U.S. is also part of the squad alongside countryman Sepp Kuss, Christophe Laporte, Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman and Jan Tratnik. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)

FILE - Matteo Jorgenson of the U.S. rides the last kilometers of the ninth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 182.5 kilometers (113.5 miles) with start in Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat and finish in Puy de Dome, France, Sunday, July 9, 2023. Two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard has recovered in time to defend his title next week although there are still doubts about his ability to be competitive. Matteo Jorgenson of the U.S. is also part of the squad alongside countryman Sepp Kuss, Christophe Laporte, Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman and Jan Tratnik. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)

FILE - Belgium’s Wout Van Aert rides during the sixteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race, in Combloux, France, on July 18, 2023. Two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard has recovered in time to defend his title next week although there are still doubts about his ability to be competitive. His trusted teammate Wout van Aert, who broke his collarbone and several ribs in March in another crash, will also race in support of Vingegaard. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)

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BRUSSELS (AP) — Two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard has recovered in time to defend his title next week although there are still doubts about his ability to be competitive.

Vingegaard was seriously injured in a crash in April but will be on the starting line next week when the race kicks off from Italy, the Danish rider’s Visma-Lease a Bike team said on Thursday.

His trusted teammate Wout van Aert, who broke his collarbone and several ribs in March in another crash, will also race in support of Vingegaard.

The three-week Tour starts on June 29 in Florence.

“I am excited to start the Tour. The last few months have not always been easy,” Vingegaard said. “We have worked together to get to this moment and, of course, I am very excited to see where I stand. I feel good and very motivated.”

Vingegaard was hospitalized for nearly two weeks in Spain in April following the multi-rider, high-speed crash in the Tour of the Basque Country. He sustained a broken collarbone and ribs and a collapsed lung.

Before the crash, Vingegaard was considered one of the Tour de France favorites alongside Tadej Pogacar, who won the Giro d’Italia and is aiming for a rare double next month.

“I am very proud of Jonas and the coaching team,” his team sporting director Merijn Zeeman said. “He is coming back from a serious injury. In the last few weeks, he has shown what a champion he is, both mentally and physically. Of course, we don’t know how far he can go yet. We are being cautious because he has not been able to race, and his preparation has been less than ideal, to say the least. But he will be there, healthy and motivated.”

Van Aert crashed during the Dwars door Vlaanderen in Belgium. He has been training at altitude in the French ski resort of Tignes with Vingegaard.

“Of course, this was not the plan initially, but after my development in the last weeks, I really wanted it, and the team agreed,” the Van Aert said. “Our main goal is, of course, to ride a top classification with Jonas. I want to contribute to that with an excellent team.”

Van Aert is widely considered one of the world’s best and most versatile riders. The three-time cyclocross world champion is also the winner of nine Tour stages and the points classification. He’s major race wins include Milan-San Remo, Strade Bianche, Gent-Wevelgem and the Amstel Gold Race.

Matteo Jorgenson of the U.S. is also part of the squad alongside countryman Sepp Kuss, Christophe Laporte, Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman and Jan Tratnik.

“Matteo Jorgenson has already become one of the strongest riders in the team this year, with wins in Paris-Nice and Dwars door Vlaanderen, and his second place in the Dauphiné,” Zeeman said. “Sepp Kuss proved last year that he is a great climber, an important domestique, and a leader in his own right with a victory in the Vuelta a España.”

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

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Who is riding the 2024 Tour de France? Are Mark Cavendish, Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Tom Pidcock in the field?

Updated 23/06/2024 at 15:34 GMT

Anticipation is growing for this year's Tour de France, with the battle for the yellow jersey likely to be one of the most compelling in years. Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar are expected to resume their battle, but what of fellow contenders Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel? And all that is without mentioning Mark Cavendish's attempt to overhaul Eddy Merckx...

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Vingegaard and Van Aert confirmed for Tour as Visma reveal strong squad

20/06/2024 at 12:09

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Tour de France jargon buster: all the cycling terms you need to know to understand the race

Don’t know your bidon from your lanterne rouge? BikeRadar’s glossary of Tour de France terms is here to help

David Ramos/Getty Images

Colin Henrys

Cycling can be a jargon-strewn minefield for newcomers and the Tour de France is no different.

Perhaps you enjoyed the Tour de France Netflix series and will watch the race live for the first time this year, but are daunted by the racing lingo.

There's also the multi-coloured wardrobe of Tour de France leaders jerseys and the classifications they represent.

The way in which Tour de France prize money is distributed is hardly straightforward either.

Factor in the Tour de France bikes and who's riding what and there's a lot to get your head around.

Ne t'inquiète pas. Our guide to commonly used Tour de France terms and what they mean will help you follow this year's action.

Common cycling phrases and what they mean

A sudden acceleration designed to distance a rider's opponents, often but not always in the mountains.

Every Tour de France stage has a time limit and the autobus forms on the mountainous days when non-climbers from every team work together to finish inside the time limit (see below). Otherwise, they'll be swept up by the broom wagon (see below).

The autobus is also known as the grupetto.

An aggressive rider who specialises in breakaways (see below) in the mould of Bahrain-Merida's Matej Mohorič. They might target the combativity award (see below).

Meaning blockage in this context in French, a barrage is when the commissaires (see below) stop team vehicles from driving up to their riders at the front of the race.

This is usually to prevent the cars impacting the race, for example when the gap between the breakaway (see below) and peloton (see below) is less than a minute.

The French word for a water bottle; many roadside fans will try to collect discarded bidons as souvenirs (though the UCI officially banned the practice of discarding empty bottles in 2021).

Un bidon collé/collant is a sticky bottle (see below).

A small group of riders (or sometimes an individual), who accelerate away from the main bunch during a stage.

Breakaway riders are not always going for the win though. Sometimes the objective is to "show the jersey" and get their team sponsors on TV ( une échappée télé ).

Sprinters may join a breakaway to collect points in the green jersey classification (see below).

Broom wagon

The vehicle at the back of the race, which metaphorically sweeps up riders struggling to make the time cut due to injury or fatigue. In fact, they're more likely to step off their bike into the team car.

Bunch sprint

Flatter stages will usually finish with a bunch sprint – a high-octane, hell-for-leather battle for stage honours between the fastest sprinters in the peloton.

Though the peloton arrives at the finish together in a bunch sprint, it is the sprinters and their lead-out riders (see below) who contest the stage win.

Chasse patate

Wild-goose chase in French, literally potato chase; when a rider is stuck between the breakaway and the peloton, with no chance of bridging the gap.

Combativity award

Awarded each day to the most aggressive rider according to the race commissaires.

The combativity award rewards the rider who animated the stage by initiating a breakaway, repeatedly attacked or spent a long time in front of the bunch.

The winner can be spotted easily the next day thanks to their red race numbers. An overall combativity award is also given at the end of the race.

Commissaire

The official(s) who adjudicate the race; they hand out fines in Swiss Francs and demote or even disqualify riders if rules are broken.

Directeur sportif

A team’s race-day director; the master strategist; the person gesticulating wildly and conveying tactics out of the team-car window. Some teams prefer 'sports director'.

The unsung heroes of the team, selected to look after their team leader. Domestiques keep their lead riders safe, fed and watered, and will work to chase down breakaways or try to dictate the pace of the stage.

The French, however, use the more egalitarian équipier or Italian word gregario to describe team helpers.

Echelons are splits in the peloton (see below) caused by a team increasing the pace through strong crosswinds.

Riders fan out in a diagonal line across the road as they shelter from the wind behind and to the side of the person in front. At the back of the line, there's little shelter from the side wind and even the strongest riders will struggle to hold the wheel. As riders lose contact, the bunch splinters into smaller groups called echelons.

This tactic is more common in the Spring Classics, but it can work on the windswept west coast of France.

Confusingly, the French call an echelon une bordure.

Lunchtime. Each stage has a dedicated feed zone, where the riders knock the pace off to collect musettes (see below) from their team soigneurs (see below).

Flamme rouge

The one-kilometre-to-go marker, denoted by a red air bridge, under which hangs a red kite.

General classification

Each rider’s finishing time is collected after the day’s stage. The general classification sorts the riders according to their cumulative time, plus or minus any bonuses or penalties.

The rider who has taken the least time to complete the race so far wears the fabled yellow jersey.

Grand Départ

The start of the race. This year’s Grand Départ is in the Italian city of Florence (Firenze).

Simply l e départ is the start of each stage and l'arrivée is the stage finish.

Cycling’s three most prestigious stage races, each lasting three weeks, the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España are known as Grand Tours.

Grand boucle

Literally the 'big loop', the Grand Boucle is an arguably undeserved nickname for the Tour de France. These days, the race doesn't visit the whole of the country.

A climber; a rider who's best uphill and may go for King of the Mountains (see below) points.

Intermediate sprint

As well as the finish line, each stage features an intermediate sprint, where there are points and prize money to be won for the first riders across it.

King of the Mountains

One of the Tour de France’s secondary prizes, the mountains classification ranks the first riders across each classified climb in the race.

The tougher the climb, the more points there are available for that ascent. The leader of the mountains classification is the King of the Mountains and wears the polka-dot jersey.

Lanterne rouge

Named after the red light hung on the back of a train, the lanterne rouge is the rider placed last on the general classification.

Ironically, in the past riders competed to finish last in order to gain invitations to money-spinning post-tour circuit races called criteriums.

Lead-out rider

This rider's job is to guide their team's sprinter through the frenzied final hundred metres of a bunch sprint.

They shield them from the wind and leave them in the best position possible before peeling off.

Mark Renshaw and Michael Mørkøv have excelled as poissons-pilotes for joint-record Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish .

Maillot jaune/yellow jersey

The iconic yellow jersey, or maillot jaune , is worn by the general classification leader. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma–Lease a Bike) won the yellow jersey last year.

Maillot vert/green jersey

The green jersey is the prize awarded to the points classification leader. Usually dubbed the sprinters’ classification, due to more points being available on flatter stages, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won it last year.

Maillot à pois/polka-dot jersey

A distinctive white jersey with red polka-dots, awarded to the leader of the mountains classification. Lidl-Trek's Giulio Ciccone wore the polka-dot jersey on last year's podium.

Maillot blanc/white jersey

The white jersey is worn by the highest-placed young rider in the general classification. All riders younger than 26 on 1 January of the year following the race are eligible for that year’s youth classification. Pogačar won in his final year in the category in 2023.

A rider's worst nightmare; a puncture or other mechanical issue, such as a dropped chain, that causes them to pull over.

A team's most valuable riders will get a spare bike from their mechanic or a team mate, ideally of the same height, will give them their bike. Less important riders will have to change wheels instead.

If the team car is not in sight, the rider will have to rely on the neutral service (see below) car for assistance.

A small cloth shoulder bag handed out in the feed zone, containing a rider’s food and extra bidons to help them avoid bonking ( la fringale).

Nature break

No, not a civilised pique-nique at a leafy French aire d'autoroute (service station). A nature break is when the riders slow down or stop for a wee.

Neutral service

A car or motorbike carrying mechanics, spare bikes and wheels to assist riders who have a mechanical if their team car is not close by.

Shimano took over the job from Mavic in 2021.

The ‘course’ or route the race is taking.

The peloton is the main bunch of riders during the race.

Points classification

The top finishers in each stage and at each intermediate sprint are awarded points according to their position. Those points are added together to form the points classification, the leader of which wears the green jersey.

An all-rounder and often one of the hardest riders in the peloton; a rouleur can excel on all different terrains and often makes for an excellent domestique.

The unsung hero of a team’s staff behind the scenes; the soigneur (also known as a 'swannie' in English-speaking teams) is responsible for looking after riders off the bike and handing out musettes, bidons and extra layers of clothing during the race.

Capable of stunning bursts of acceleration over short distances, the sprinters slug it out with their counterparts in the peloton on the flatter stages.

Sprint train

Sprint trains form ahead of a bunch sprint, with team-mates providing a wheel for their sprinter to follow through the chaos that unfolds.

At the back of the train will be the lead-out rider with the team’s sprinter on his wheel, ready to burst for the line at the latest possible moment.

Sticky bottle

When a directeur sportif hands a bottle out of the team car to a rider who holds on longer than strictly necessary, getting a coup de pouce ( helping hand) from the car's motion.

Three-kilometre rule

On sprint stages, under the three-kilometre rule riders delayed by a crash or mechanical within the final three kilometres of the race will be awarded the same time as the stage winner.

Intended to calm the race for the position in the finale, the rule doesn't always have the desired effect.

Team classification

The team classification ranks each team according to the cumulative time of their top three finishers on every stage. The team classification leaders may – but don’t always – wear yellow helmets to distinguish them in the peloton.

Team time trial

There is no team time trial again this year. A team’s time is calculated at the fifth rider to cross the finish line.

There are 59km of individual time trials in this year's Tour de France, including stage 21's mountainous 33.7km between Monaco and Nice. The 2024 Paris Olympics forced the Tour organisers to move from the usual Champs Élysées finish to the south of France.

Riders set off individually, in reverse general classification order, on specialised time trial bikes with the aim of finishing the stage in the quickest time.

Often dubbed the ‘race of truth’, an individual time trial can result in big changes in the general classification.

Time limit/cut

Riders must finish each stage within the time limit. This is based on a percentage of the stage winner’s time and varies according to severity of the day.

Sometimes the commissaires show discretion if racers finish hors délai – if not, they’re eliminated from the race.

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These are all the stages awaiting Tom Pidcock at the Tour de France

Part of this story

Tom Pidcock

Tom pidcock is a talented multi-threat of a cyclist, equally at home on a mountain bike as he is on the road or a cyclo-cross circuit..

Wout Van Aert

A winner of uci cyclocross world cup series title in 2021, belgian rider wout van aert also is also a regular stage winner on the tour de france..

• 1 A start on the other side of the Alps
• 2 Back to France
• 3 Heading for Western France
• 4 In the heart of the Pyrenees
• 5 The home stretch

The official route of the Tour de France 2024

© Tour de France

A start on the other side of the Alps

• Stage 1: Saturday, June 29 - Florence to Rimini - 206km - Accidental
• Stage 2: Sunday, June 30 - Cesenatico to Bologna - 199km - Accidental
• Stage 3: Monday, July 1 - Piacenza to Turin - 230km - Flat
• Stage 4: Tuesday, July 2 - Pinerolo to Valloire - 140km - Mountain

Tom Pidcock is parking his mountain bike to race the Tour de France

© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool

Back to France

• Stage 5: Wednesday, July 3 - Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas - 177km - Flat
• Stage 6: Thursday, July 4 - From Mâcon to Dijon - 163km - Flat
• Stage 7: Friday, July 5 - Nuits-Saint-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin - 25km - Time trial
• Stage 8: Saturday, July 6 - Semur-en-Auxois to Colombey-Les-Deux-Églises - 183km - Flat
• Stage 9: Sunday, July 7 - From Troyes to Troyes - 199km - Accidental

Discover the Red Bull Junior Brothers program

Want to become a Red Bull Junior Brother? Here's what …

What is red bull junior brothers, wondering what red bull junior brothers is all about find out more about the pro cycling program here., red bull junior brothers, red bull junior brothers aims to build the next generation of road cycling professionals., heading for western france.

• Stage 10: Tuesday, July 9 - Orléans to Saint-Amand-Montrond - 187km - Flat
• Stage 11: Wednesday, July 10 - Évaux-Les-Bains to Le Lioran - 211km - Mountain
• Stage 12: Thursday, July 11 - Aurillac to Villeneuve-Sur-Lot - 204km - Flat
• Stage 13: Friday, July 12 - Agen to Pau - 165km - Flat

Wout van Aert on Stage 9 of the 2023 Tour de France

© Kristof Ramon/Red Bull Content Pool

In the heart of the Pyrenees

• Stage 14: Saturday, July 13 - From Pau to Saint-Lary-Soulan - 152km - Mountain
• Stage 15: Sunday, July 14 - Loudenvielle to Plateau de Beille - 198km - Mountain

Who will come out top at the 2024 Tour?

The home stretch

• Stage 16: Tuesday, July 16 - Gruissan to Nîmes - 189km - Flat
• Stage 17: Wednesday, July 17 - From Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - 178km - Mountain
• Stage 18: Thursday, July 18 - From Gap to Barcelonnette - 180km - Accidental
• Stage 19: Friday, July 19 - Embrun to Isola 2000 - 145km - Mountain
• Stage 20: Saturday, July 20 - Nice to Col de la Couillole - 133km - Mountain
• Stage 21: Sunday, July 21 - Monaco to Nice - 33km - Time trial

Discover the official Tour de France games!

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Can pogačar do the double these 5 stages will decide who wins the tour de france, where will the yellow jersey be won a stupid-hard opener, some gravel, and the most explosive tour de france finale in decades will decide..

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Download the app .

Can Tadej Pogačar follow Marco Pantani’s pedal strokes and win both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in one season?

Jonas Vingegaard , Primož Roglič , Remco Evenepoel , and one of the most fiendishly tricky Tour de France routes in decades will decide.

A stupidly hard opening stage, 32km of dirt roads, an extended trip to high altitude, and a wild rollercoaster TT ride around Nice stand between uber-favorite “Pogi” and his place in history.

So cancel work, lock your family out of the house, and stock up on snacks.

These are the five must-watch stages that will decide the 2024 Tour de France:

Stage 1: Firenze-Rimini

• Saturday June 29
• 206km/3,800m+

The Florence grand départ will be the rudest slap in the face imaginable for the “Big 4″ of the Tour de France.

Seven categorized climbs – yes, seven – over a 200km+ course makes this the hilliest first stage of the Tour in history.

It’s an Italian mini-classic out of the Lombardia and Liège playbook that will show who’s hot and who’s not in what will be a wild opening day for a tightly wound, nerve-riddled peloton.

None of the Tuscan climbs on the stage 1 menu are huge, but they’re relentlessly stacked back-to-back-to-back. Former Liège-Bastogne-Liège champions Pogačar and Evenepoel would be licking their chops with delight if this was a one-day race.

The “Big 4” could end up butting heads after just 100 or so clicks of the 80+ hour Tour de France on a course like this.

Pogačar will likely be playing the Tour a lot cooler than his flamethrower approach to the Giro d’Italia. But if he’s feeling fresh and recovered just 31 days after his rampage through Italy, don’t be surprised to see the supreme Slovene burning up Le Tour from day one.

For defending champion Vingegaard, there will be no room for post-injury cobwebs .

Stage 9: Troyes-Troyes

• Sunday July 7
• 199km/2,000m+

Expect gravel beefs aplenty in the opening week of the Tour.

The race’s opening phase finishes with a stage stacked with dirt road sectors that will have old-school directors fuming and tarmac aficionados wailing.

A total of 14 chemins blancs , or white roads, line the course of this tricky, technical stage through Troyes.

Sure, a total of 32km of dirt means this is no Strade Bianche, but there’s three times more sterrato than what we saw on stage 6 of this year’s Giro d’Italia, and the most off-road Le Tour has seen in some time.

The “dirtiness” of the chemins blanc is unknown – it could be a stone-packed puncturefest or it could be hard clay that’s a cruise for any adept pro.

Yet any surface that’s not smooth asphalt comes laden with risk. Remember how Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma nearly unraveled during a wild and wacky day on the pavé in 2022?

Punctures, crashes, and potentially slow support from team cars could do a lot of damage to a peloton starting to run on fumes after nine days of racing.

Pogačar isn’t going to be pulling any sort of Strade Bianche redux with an 80km solo raid on the Tour’s ninth stage. But he’s undoubtedly the multi-surface master of the GC pack and could be poised to profit.

Some of the classification contenders could be heading into the Tour’s first rest day after stage 9 with some serious grumbles about gravel in grand tours.

Stage 14: Pau-Pla d’Adet

• Saturday July 13
• 152km / 4000m+

“4,000 meters of climbing in 80km? Yes please,” said nobody in the peloton when they looked at the course for stage 14.

This first of two days in the French Pyrénées is an interval session of ascents that won’t take any prisoners. Expect mountain trains and lots of pain in what could work out the most explosive climbing stage of the Tour.

Three high passes including the Tourmalet in little more than two hours of racing will provide the teams of the “Big 4” a true amphitheater opportunity to put the hurt on their rivals.

Teams with depth and ambition like UAE Emirates and its armada of top Pogi-supporting climbers could turn the Tour upside down on a stage short enough to be steamrollered with both feet on the accelerator.

If Pogačar still has gas in his fifth week of 2024 grand tour racing, early attacks and ambushes could be options for UAE Emirates instead of a traditional “train” approach.

If there aren’t race-shifting time gaps on GC after this short ‘n’ severe Saturday, there certainly will be 24 hours later. The under recovered peloton will be slapped with a traditional “queen stage” mountain procession through the Ariège Pyrénées the next day on stage 15.

One of the “Big 4” is sure to explode during beastly back-to-back.

Stage 19: Embrun-Isola 2000

• Friday July 19
• 145km/4,500m+

Stage 19 packs 58km – that right, FIFTY-EIGHT KILOMETERS – of uphill into just 145km. It’s a killer.

And as if the total 4,500m of total gain isn’t enough, a chunk of the elevation loaded into this 19th stage of the Tour de France is in the strength-sapping thin air of high altitude.

Each of the day’s three climbs is mind-bendingly long and crosses the lethal 2,000m elevation mark, and the Cime de la Bonnette is one of the highest paved roads in Europe.

It used to be said Pogačar had a chink in his armor when a race went this high.

The doubters thought again this May when the Slovenian slayed all his GC rivals by three minutes during the Giro’s high-altitude stage to Livigno. Roglič, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel will pray they’re similarly well adapted after their torpedoed 2024 training programs.

If “Pogi” is running on fumes, if Vingegaard is undertrained, or if Roglič and Evenepoel didn’t do the work after the Critérium du Dauphiné, the GC favorites could be scattered all through the French Alps in this decisive mountain stage.

Half the peloton stayed atop Isola during their final pre-Tour training camps. Many of them won’t enjoy going back.

Stage 21: Monaco-Nice

• Sunday July 21

Will stage 21 of this year’s Tour de France the best grand tour finale in decades? Quite possibly.

This year’s closing TT marks the first time in history that Le Tour has finished outside of Paris, and ASO designed a stunner to mark the historic occasion.

Rolling out of Pogačar’s European hometown Monaco and straight up popular test climbs La Turbie and Col d’Èze, stage 21 is a rollercoaster ride through the spectacular training roads of half the pro peloton.

La Turbie and Col d’Èze aren’t super hard, but they will be tough enough to cause consternation as Pogačar and Co. click through their turbo trainer warm-ups ahead of the stage.

If the GC is still close ahead of this final Sunday, the Tour will see it’s first competitive final since that time trial in 1989 when Greg LeMond usurped Laurent Fignon at the very last.

A twisting, high-speed descent from the Èze and into Nice means nerves could be jangling for every inch of the final 17km of this Tour de France.

All of the “Big 4” are monsters on a time trial bike, and if they’re on form the margins could be tight.

Pogačar will be hoping the race is a done deal by this point.

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Tour de France 2024

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2024 tour de france information.

The 111th edition of the Tour de France starts in Florence, Italy, on Saturday, June 29 and ends three weeks later in Nice on Sunday, July 21. It is the first time the Tour starts in Italy and the first time it finishes in Nice to avoid the preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympics Games, which begin just a week later.

The route of the world's biggest race covers an estimated of 3,492km with some 52,320 metres of overall elevation, passing through four nations – Italy, San Marino, France, and Monaco. It features two individual time trials for a total of 59km, four mountain-top finishes, a series of gravel sections on stage 9, and a final hilly time trial to Nice. The official route was unveiled on October 25 in a special ceremony in Paris.

Tour de France champion  Jonas Vingegaard  (Jumbo-Visma) won his second GC title last year and, if he can recover from his crash injuries in time , will be back to defend his title against top rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who finished second overall. Vingegaard is likely to face a huge challenge from not just Pogačar, but also Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and former teammate turned rival Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe).

Join Cyclingnews' coverage of the 2024 Tour de France with live coverage, race reports, results, photo galleries, news and race analysis.

• Tour de France 2024 route

The 2024 Tour de France includes 52,230 metres of vertical gain across 3497.3km of climbs, sprints and time trialling from Italy into France, with fewer high climbs than in the past and shorter stages. 

It is a balanced three weeks of racing that includes eight flat stages, four mountain-top finishes and two individual time trials, the final test against the clock is a hilly time trial to Nice that could create suspense. The race has 25km of racing above 2,000 metres and 27 mountains classified as second, first, or HC.

Florence, Italy, will host the team presentation, and stage 1 will roll out from Piazzale Michelangelo to open the Grand Tour for the first time.

Check out all the details of the 2024 Tour de France route .

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Tour de France 2024 Contenders

Defending Tour de France champion  Jonas Vingegaard will again have a strong Jumbo-Visma team to support his quest for a third title, but this time, former team leader Primož Roglič has turned to rival as he looks to give Bora-Hansgrohe top billing. Vingegaard will also face huge challenges from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). 

In the flat stages, look for last year's green jersey victor Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to contest for another title against Fabio Jakobsen , now with Team dsm-firmenich, and Caleb Ewan , now with Jayco-AlUIa. And fastman Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) is back for an 18th pro season to mix it up in the sprints, on the hunt for a record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage victory.

And there will be opportunities across the three weeks for breakaway riders to shine, including the likes of Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

Tour de France 2024 stages

• Tour de France past winners

• Rest Day 1 | Orléans 2024-07-08

• Rest Day 2 | Gruissan 2024-07-15

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