June 01, 2013 – With the arrival of June, cycling fans around the world start thinking of the biggest race of the year. Their favourites have been working on their conditioning through the Spring Classics and early season races and the fans anticipate who will make the final selection for the elite squads. This year marks the 100th edition for le Tour, which runs June 29-July 21 beginning in Porto-Vecchio.

The first good indicators of who will be there are traditionally the Critérium du Dauphiné (June 2-9) and the Tour de Suisse (June 8-16). With the Dauphiné starting tomorrow (Sunday) the list is no longer provisional. Canada will be represented by David Veilleux (Team Europcar) and Francois Parisien of Team Argos-Shimano who won Stage 5 at this year’s Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. While their names aren’t on the provisional Tour de France list a good result might change that.

Missing from the Dauphiné start list is Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp). His program has him racing at the Tour de Suisse where he will be the lone Canadian in the pack. The 2012 edition of the Swiss tour saw the SpiderTech p/b C10 team racing with Ryan Anderson and Guillaume Boivin participating as well as Sky’s Michael Barry in his last year. Rui Alberto Faria da Costa (Movistar) will be back to defend his title at the Tour de Suisse, something Bradley Wiggins won’t be doing at the Tour de France. Sky has announced that Wiggins has been ruled out due to a knee problem.

The official Tour de France leTour.Fr website doesn’t have a start list published yet but ProCycling Stats have a provisional list posted that they published earlier today via Twitter here.

The list includes Hesjedal and as was the case last year he is the only Canadian, once again carrying The Weight of The Nation on his shoulders. Hopefully he’ll have better success than in 2012 when he was forced to abandon the race before the start of Stage 7 due to injuries on his left hip and leg sustained in a major crash the day before.

Tour de France 100th Edition Teams

– AG2R La Mondiale (Fra)
– Astana Pro Team (Kaz)
– Blanco Pro Cycling Team (Ned)
– BMC Racing Team (USA)
– Cannondale Pro Cycling (Ita)
– Euskaltel – Euskadi (Esp)
– FDJ (Fra)
– Garmin-Sharp (USA)
– Katusha (Rus)
– Lampre-Merida (Ita)
– Lotto-Belisol (Bel)
– Movistar Team (Esp)
– Omega Pharma – QuickStep Cycling Team (Bel)
– Orica GreenEdge (Aus)
– RadioShack Leopard (Lux)
– Sky Procycling (Gbr)
– Team Argos-Shimano (Ned)
– Team Saxo-Tinkoff (Den)
– Vacansoleil – DCM Pro Cycling Team (Ned)

Teams granted invitations:
– Cofidis – Solutions Credits (Fra)
– Sojasun (Fra)
– Team Europcar (Fra)

For all information regarding the Tour de France 2013 visit HERE.