Team DSM has announced its Tour de France contenders, and French climber Romain Bardet will lead the field in his first race back after abandoning the Giro d'Italia in May.

Bardet, who has been away from racing for a year since 2021, will compete for the ninth time at the Tour in Copenhagen on July 1. The 31-year-old Bardet has won two podiums, three stage wins, a mountains prize, and a combativeness prize.

Bardet won the Tour de l'Alps and rode well in the first half of the Giro d'Italia, being a podium contender until he retired on stage 13 due to illness.

He is the only Frenchman on the DSM team, which also includes sprinter and Giro d'Italia stage winner Alberto Dainese and Classics star John Degenkolb.

Dainese, who scored the biggest win of his career at the Reggio Emilia Giro in May, will make his Tour debut and is expected to mix it up in the sprint stages with the likes of Fabio Jacobsen, Sam Bennett, and Wout Van Art.

Degenkolb, meanwhile, will be making his eighth Tour appearance, his first since 2020. The German veteran won the cobbled stage to Roubaix in 2018 and returned to the Tour after missing the 2021 edition.

The standout absentee from the DSM Tour lineup is Søren Kragu Andersen. The 27-year-old all-rounder won two of the team's three stage wins in the 2020 race, but was not selected this time around.

Kragh Andersen is set to leave the team when his contract expires at the end of the season, and Alpecin Deceuninck is rumored to be in the market for him.

Climbers such as Chris Hamilton, Kevin Vermaakke, and Andreas Leknesund have been selected; the 23-year-old Leknesund will make his Tour debut with a stage win in the Tour de Suisse. Vermaerke, another second-year pro, is also making his racing debut, while 27-year-old Hamilton left the race after the Giro.

The Dutch pair of Nils Eekhoff and Martin Tusfeldt round out the eight-man selection for the Dutch team.

"We are all looking forward to the 2022 Tour de France. Starting with the TT in Copenhagen on the first day, there could be crosswinds and nervous stages for the rest of the day in Denmark."

"After that, we move on to France, where we can expect big battles on tricky stages, including some cobblestones. The middle part of the race will be tough in the mountains before heading into the Pyrenees for the traditional finale in Paris.

"Our main goal for the next three weeks is to go for the stage result. We will focus on how the race is progressing day by day and plan where our chances are. We are looking at sprint stages and mountain stages to win.