Tour de France: 17 new national champions to line up in Manche
Boasson Hagen, Teklehaimanot bring dual titles
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Daniel Teklehaimanot made history at the 2015 Tour de France and didn't shy away from celebrating his pride at having done so (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) is German time trial champion. (Image credit: Mario Stiehl)
André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) lets everyone know he's German champion and gives his sponsors a plug as well (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The 2016 Swiss time trial podium (Image credit: Trek-Segafredo)
In addition to the 22 team kits that will be seen at the Tour de France this year, there will be 17 special jerseys that meld a team design with the special colours of newly crowned national champions in the peloton over the course of the 21-stage race.
Tour de France start list
Tinkoff names Tour de France team
Sixteen new national champions will likely be on the start line, with only the Tinkoff team yet to be decided. Dimension Data have the singular distinction of having the only two dual national champions - winners of both their road race and time trial titles - in Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eritrea) in the race.
The UCI rules specify that champions in the road race must wear their national colours in the road stages, but only time trial champions can wear them in the two individual time trial stages. Should one of these riders earn one of the four special race classification jerseys - overall leader, green jersey of points classification leader, polka dots for mountains or white jersey for best young rider - those special shirts would take the place of their national champion (or in the case of Peter Sagan, world champion) jersey.
There are two time trials in the Tour de France this year, stage 13 - a 37km route from Bourg-Saint-Andéol to La Caverne du Pont-d'Arc will favour the specialists, while the uphill stage 18 test from Sallanches to Megève goes straight uphill and will be one for the climbers.
Tony Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) will once again have the German national champion's kit for those two days. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) will wear the French national champion's kit for the first time in the time trial, while Nelson Oliveria and Ion Izagirre (Movistar) will don Portugal and Spain's colours respectively. Polish time trial champion Maciej Bodnar was named to the Tinkoff team on Tuesday.
Pinot is one of Cyclingnews' 10 riders to watch in the Tour de France overall.
Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) won their national time trials this weekend and will bring their new jerseys to the Tour de France. Rohan Dennis (BMC) and Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) earned their titles in Australia and South Africa, respectively, early in the year and will continue to wear them in these two Tour de France stages.
Cancellara is racing in his final Tour de France before retirement. We looked back on Cancellara's last 10 Tour de France appearances.
Road champions
On the rest of the stages, you'll see Ramunas Navardauskas (Cannondale) in the Lithuanian champion's jersey, new French champion Arthur Vichot (FDJ) will wear his tricolore, Andre Greipel's German champion's colours will clash with those of Dutch champion Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) in the sprint stages.
Tinkoff named its full team on Tuesday, naming new Czech road race champion Roman Kreuziger to the list, together with Rafal Majka, who won the Polish championship this weekend. However, new Slovakian champion Juraj Sagan and British champion Adam Blythe failed to make the Tinkoff Tour de France team.
Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert missed out on BMC's selection, as did Taylor Phinney, the US national time trial champion. Dual Austrian champion Matthias Brändle and Swiss road champion Jonathan Fumeaux were not selected for IAM Cycling's team. Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana), the new Kazakhstan time trial champion, and Russian time trial champ Sergei Chernetckii (Katusha) also missed the cut. Dimension Data faced a tough choice between all of their national champions, but left behind Adrien Niyonshuti (Rwanda) and Jaco Venter (South Africa).
Italian road champion Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and TT champion Manuel Quinziato (BMC), double Irish champion Nicolas Roche (Team Sky), Spanish road champion Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) and dual Belarus champion Kanstantsin Siutsou (Dimension Data) each raced the Giro d'Italia and will not take part in the Tour de France.
National champions in the 2016 Tour de France:
Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team - time trial
Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Cannondale Pro Cycling - road race
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data - both
Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eri) Dimension Data - both
Tony Martin (Ger) Etixx - Quick-Step - time trial
Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ - time trial
Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ - road race
André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal - road race
Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar Team - time trial
Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar Team - time trial
Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEdge - time trial
Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin - time trial
Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo - road race
Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff Team - road race
Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Tinkoff Team - time trial
Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff Team - road race
Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Trek-Segafredo - time trial