The Tour de France peloton will embark on their three-week adventure starting in Bilbao, Spain on Saturday and, among the colourful 176-rider strong group will be 13 national champions on each road stage and six more for the single time trial on stage 16.
Among the national champions is two-Time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). Pogačar came back from a broken wrist sustained in an early crash during Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April to win the road race and time trial at the Slovenian National Championships this weekend.
Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) will debut his new British champion's jersey in Bilbao. He won the title after attacking breakaway companions James Knox and Stevie Williams and celebrated the emotional victory pointing at the sky in tribute to teammate Gino Mäder, who lost his life in a crash at the Tour de Suisse this month.
Also flying new national colours is Tour de Suisse winner Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) who flew to the title in Denmark. His compatriot Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quickstep) won the time trial and will wear the Danish colours on stage 16.
Dylan van Baarle will add a touch of colour to the Jumbo-Visma train after claiming the Dutch road title with a signature solo move. His teammate Wout van Aert will fly the Belgian colours during the time trial on stage 16.
French road champion Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and time trial champion Rémi Cavagna (Soudal-Quickstep) will wear the home colours during the Tour de France, while Ineos will have two national champions in the stage 16 time trial - Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) and Jonathan Castroviejo (Spain).
Bora-Hansgrohe's Emanuel Buchmann will wear the German national champion jersey for the first time after his solo victory in the road race in Bad Dürrheim. His teammate Nils Politt will fly the flag during the time trial.
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Other champions at the Tour de France include Quinn Simmons, who will trade the new Lidl-Trek jersey for the stars and stripes, and Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar) who won the Austrian road race title. Alex Kirsch (Lidl-Trek) won both races at the Luxembourg championships and will line up for the whole Tour de France in his national kit.
Richard Carapaz and Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) will continue to wear the national champion jerseys of Ecuador and Colombia, respectively, after their victories earlier this year.
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
