Tour de France organiser, ASO, has announced the teams to be invited to this July’s race. Sixteen teams had already received invitations, as agreed with the International Cycling Union (UCI) in September 2008, and now a further six teams have been added to make a total of 22. The number of teams has been raised from the 20 of recent years in order to make room for as many big names as possible.

The original list of sixteen was made up of fourteen ProTour teams, plus the two biggest French Professional Continental teams, Cofidis and Bbox Bouyges Telecom, which were ProTour teams until this year.

There are few surprises in the list of six additional teams, but some will be disappointed to have missed out. Seven-time winner Lance Armstrong’s RadioShack team is unsurprisingly on the list as the American bids for an eighth victory. The Cervélo TestTeam of 2008 winner Carlos Sastre and green jersey champion Thor Hushovd is also on the list, as is the new British Sky superteam of last year’s surprise fourth place Bradley Wiggins.

The BMC Racing team’s investment in World champion Cadel Evans and US champion George Hincapie has paid off as it receives its first ever invitation to the race. Garmin-Transitions has also been invited, despite the loss of Wiggins over the close season, and will be working for 2008 fourth place Christian Vande Velde and sprinter Tyler Farrar.

Russian Team Katusha is the final lucky team. Despite the lack of an obvious overall contender, the team will bring former green jersey winner Robbie McEwen.

Disappointed to be left out will be the two Dutch Professional Continental teams Vacansoleil and Skil-Shimano. Despite the race’s Grand Depart being hosted by the Netherlands port of Rotterdam, both teams have been overlooked in favour of bigger names.

Teams pre-invited in September 2009:
AG2R La Mondiale
Astana
BBox Bouygues Telecom
Caisse d’Epargne
Cofidis, le Crédit en ligne
Euskaltel-Euskadi
Footon-Servetto
Française des Jeux
Lampre-Farnese
Liquigas-Doimo
OmegaPharma-Lotto
Quick Step
Rabobank
Team HTC-Columbia
Team Milram
Team Saxo Bank

Wildcard teams:
BMC Racing Team
Cervélo Test Team
Garmin-Transitions
Katusha Team
Team RadioShack
Team Sky