Antoine Duchesne selected to race the Tour de France
Tony the Tiger's first Grande Boucle since 2016
Photo by:
Sirotti
Canada’s Antoine “Tony the Tiger” Duchesne has been selected to race the Tour de France, his Groupama-FDJ squad announced on Wednesday.
Le grand objectif de la saison. pic.twitter.com/937fCGqFQh
— Équipe Cycliste Groupama-FDJ (@GroupamaFDJ) June 22, 2022
You can watch the 109th Tour de France starting July 1 on FloBikes.
Duchesne, who just completed the Tour de Suisse–where he was 43rd–on Sunday, will ride in support of Thibaut Pinot and David Gaudu.
It will be Duchesne’s second career Tour de France and his first since 2016 when he rode for Direct Energie. Tony the Tiger has also raced the 2015 and 2018 Vueltas a España and last season’s Giro d’Italia. The 30 year old has completed all four Grand Tours that he started, and the 2016 Tour was his best result at 107th.
Back in the spring Groupama-FDJ released a long list of Tour hopefuls and Duchesne wasn’t on it, but here he is, thirty-eight 2022 race days in his pocket, off to the big dance.
Another Canadian, Michael Woods, recent La Route d’Occitanie-La Dépêche du Midi champion, is expected to be on the start line July 1 in Copenhagen, Denmark, for Israel-Premier Tech.
