Lineups for half the Tour de France teams known

The start list of the 103rd Tour de France is taking shape, as just over half the 22-teams have released their line ups with nine days remaining until the start July 2 in Mont-Saint-Michel. There have been a couple of surprises in the personnel.

Ilnur Zakarin (Russia) has recovered well enough from his broken collarbone suffered at the Giro d’Italia to be part of a three-pronged attack for Katusha. Zakarin was in fifth place and racing aggressively when he crashed out on Stage 19, the same stage that scuppered Steven Kruijswijk’s pink jersey hopes. Zakarin and Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez–runner-up at last year’s Vuelta a España–will be Katusha’s GC men while Alexander Kristoff (Norway) will be its sprint hope.

Cannondale was originally slated to have two GC men, but the squad announced that American Andrew Talansky, recently fifth in the Tour de Suisse, would skip the Tour to be their protected rider at the Vuelta. Frenchman Pierre Rolland, 10th in the Critérium du Dauphiné and 15th at the Tour de Romandie, will be their high hope.

Into a crowded sprint field, LottoNL-Jumbo slings their Grand Tour debutante Dylan Groenewegen (The Netherlands), who has six wins notched on his belt this season. As expected, Wilco Kelderman will miss the labours of Robert Gesink, who suffered a head injury in a Tour de Suisse crash.

Sky unveiled which powerful team will try to pound Chris Froome‘s rivals into a fine paste. Expect to see Spaniards Mikel Landa and Mikel Nieve, Dutchman Wout Poels, Colombian Sergio Henao and Brit Geraint Thomas riding at the front of the peloton most days.

Lotto-Soudal aren’t just looking for wins via the Rostock Gorilla, Andre Greipel. Serial escapee Thomas De Gendt, who won the mountains category of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, is sure to be up the road a lot. Frenchman Tony Gallopin will be looking for his second career Tour stage win. On Friday he came third to new French time trial champion–can you believe it?–Thibaut Pinot.

Like Etixx-QuickStep bringing its Marcel Kittel, Tony Martin, Daniel Martin and Julian Alaphilippe combination to the fray, Giant-Alpecin has a full tool kit for the three weeks. John Degenkolb and Warren Barguil, both victims of the terrible training ride crash that hurt six members of the team in January, represent Giant’s sprint and GC weapons, while Tom Dumoulin is another GC man, one with time trial aspirations.