Tour de France 2024: Two South Africans in the peloton

There will be two South African cyclists in this year’s Tour de France peloton when the famed race gets under way on Saturday, 29 June.

The 2024 Tour de France will be the 111th edition of the race.

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It will start in Florence in Italy and will finish in Nice in France on Sunday, 21 July.

The race will not finish in (or near) Paris for the first time since its inception, owing to preparations for the Paris Olympics 2024 in the French capital.

Twenty two teams, comprising eight riders each, will take part in the race. All 18 UCI WorldTeams were automatically invited are were joined by four UCI ProTeams.

The 21 stages of the race will cover 3 498km.

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard is the defending champion, having won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023.

Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar is, however, the overwhelming favourite to win a third yellow jersey, having done so previously in 2020 and 2021.

South African riders

Ryan Gibbons will be one of the eight riders in the American Lidl-Trek line-up.

Gibbons, 29, will be taking part in just his second Tour de France.

He will wear the No 44 bib.

Earlier this year Gibbons won both the South African national road race and time trial.

Meanwhile, Louis Meintjes will be competing in his seventh Tour de France in the colours of Belgian outfit Intermarché-Wanty.

Meintjes’s best finish to date came in 2022 when he finished seventh overall.

He also has back-to-back eighth-place finishes in 2016 and 2017.

He will wear the No 171 bib.