PARIS, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Tour de France organizers have announced the list of teams to participate in this year's grand tourney with wild cards.
The just relegated French cycling team Europcar has been given a slot in the race, along with other wild card holders Germany's Bora-Argon 18, South Africa's MTN-Qhubeka, as well as the other two French teams Bretagne-Seche Environnement and Cofidis- Solutions Credits.
They will compete against the World Tour teams of AG2R La Mondiale, Astana, BMC Racing Team, Etixx-Quick Step, FDJ, IAM Cycling, Lampre-Merida, Lotto-Soudal, Movistar, Orica-GreenEDGE, Cannondale-Garmin, Giant-Alpecin, Katusha, LottoNL-Jumbo, Sky, Tinkoff-Saxo and Trek Factory Racing in the race which starts in Utrecht, Netherlands on July 4th.
The same seventeen World Tour teams have also been included in the teams for the Paris-Nice race which starts in March along with Europcar, Cofidis and Bretagne-Seche Environnement.
For the Criterium du Dauphine in June, those seventeen teams will compete against wild card sides MTN Qhubeka, Europcar, Cofidis and Bora-Argon.