Total Energies and B&B Hotels-KTM given wildcard spots for Tour de France

Tour de France organisers ASO have announced the 22-team startlist for this year's race, with TotalEnergies and B&B Hotels-KTM being awarded the two final wildcard spots.

The two ProTeams join all 18 WorldTour teams and Alpecin-Fenix and Arkéa-Samsic, who were already guaranteed places thanks to their performances across 2021.

TotalEnergies have been present at every edition since their inception in 2000 as Bonjour-Toupargel, while B&B will return to the race for the third successive year. 

There had been a suggestion that Norwegian team Uno-X would battle for a wildcard spot due to the race starting in Scandinavia, but ASO gave the two spots to two French squads. 

The only non-French team to be handed an invite to the Tour since 2017 has been Wanty-Gobert, now in the WorldTour as Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert. While Alpecin-Fenix are Belgian, they are in the race automatically thanks to their ranking.

Peter Sagan joined TotalEnergies from Bora-Hansgrohe in the off-season, and the team are likely to be centred around the seven-time green jersey winner, although they also boast French climbers Alexis Vuillermoz and Pierre Latour. 

Sagan will be looking for his 13th stage win, although he has not won at the race since 2019. His team last won at the Tour in 2017 through Lilian Calmejane.

B&B Hotels-KTM, meanwhile, lost Bryan Coquard to Cofidis at the end of last year, meaning they will likely go into the Tour focused around Pierre Rolland, who last won a stage in 2012. The French team has never won at the race. Their star signing over the winter was Alexis Gougeard from AG2R Citroën.

Alpecin-Fenix and Arkéa-Samsic topped the ProTour rankings in 2021, meaning they gain invites to all WorldTour events, along with all the WorldTour teams. 

The former impressed at last year's Tour, with stage wins for Mathieu van der Poel and Tim Merlier, with Van der Poel wearing the yellow jersey for a few days.

Arkéa-Samsic still have a GC or stage-winning hope in Nairo Quintana, and have sprinter Nacer Bouhanni on their roster as well. The Breton team have never won a Tour stage, but have participated in multiple editions.

The 2022 Tour gets underway in Copenhagen on 1 July.