EF Education-Cannondale one of five Tour de France Femmes wildcards
Arkea-B&B Hotels, St. Michel-Mavic-Auber93 earn a berth
The organisers of the Tour de France Femmes confirmed the seven teams that will be joining the 15 Women's WorldTour squads in this year's race.
Cofidis and Tashkent City earned automatic invitations under UCI rules as the top UCI Continental Women's teams in 2023.
That leaves five open wildcard invitations, which went to French teams Arkea-B&B Hotels and St. Michel-Mavic-Auber93, US team EF Education-Cannondale, the Belgian squad Lotto Dstny Ladies, and the Spanish team Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi.
The Tour de France Femmes begins in Rotterdam on August 12 and runs through August 18, with a finish on l'Alpe d'Huez.
It will be the second appearance for Cofidis and the third for Arkea-B&B Hotels and St. Michel-Mavic-Auber93.
Ion Lazkano, sports manager of Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi said it was a "huge prize" for the team.
"For us to be in the Tour de France is the maximum we can aspire to in sporting terms," Lazkano said in a press release. "After all, it is the race par excellence, where everyone wants to be present and where all the media attention is focused. For both the team and the project, it is a huge prize to be in the best race in the world.
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"I also believe that it reflects the work that is being done from the offices to the road, since being on a stage of this caliber is the consequence of all this and represents the consolidation of the project and the structure that we form."
Lotto Dstny were also thrilled to get the invitation, writing on social media, "We are very excited to announce that Lotto Dstny Ladies will be one of the 22 teams at the start of Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, See you in Rotterdam on August 12th!"
EF Education-Cannondale were more succinct, posting several exclamation points and in all-caps "We are going to the Tour".
Teams for the 2024 Tour de France Femmes
- AG Insurance-Soudal Team
- Canyon-Sram Racing
- Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team
- FDJ-Suez
- Fenix-Deceuninck
- Human Powered Health
- Lidl-Trek
- Liv-AlUla-Jayco
- Movistar Team
- Roland
- Team DSM-firmenich PostNL
- Team SD Worx-Protime
- Team Visma | Lease a Bike
- UAE Team ADQ
- Uno-X Mobility
- Cofidis Women Team
- Tashkent City Women Professional Cycling Team
- Arkea-B&B Hotels Women
- EF Education-Cannondale
- Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi
- Lotto Dstny Ladies
- St Michel-Mavic-Auber93
Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.