Sam Welsford will make his Tour de France debut after being selected for the Team DSM selection announced Thursday morning. Romain Bardet, a two-time podium finisher, leads the team's overall contenders.

Team DSM, one of the largest innovation and creation communities in nutrition, health, and beauty, has announced the merger and launch of dsm-firmenich, the title sponsor and jersey of both the men's and women's team ahead of the Tour de France and Giro Donnay. will be renamed Team dsm-firmenich. [Alex Edmondson, John Degenkolb, and Nils Ehoff will form the Welsford sprint train, with Chris Hamilton, Matthew Dinham, and Kevin Vermerke supporting Bardet in the mountains. Each group will have to help the others as much as possible.

"As a team, we will be racing for GC and stage results," said coach Matt Winston.7]

"The strong GC core group of Chris, Kevin, and Matt has been working well in recent months, and we will have a strong GC finisher, Romain, on the mountain courses. support."

"They proved they are in good shape at the Tour de Suisse, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they do on the Tour de Suisse.

Bardet finished fifth overall in last week's Tour de Suisse and has been consistent in stage races this season. This year's Tour has a short time trial of 22km, which is suitable for the Frenchman.

"I don't think about winning the Tour de France anymore. I'm done with Tadej Pogachar. It's simple. If one day I can drop him in the high mountains of the Tour, that would be great, but [winning the Tour] is unthinkable."

Wieler Fritz reported Thursday that Welsford will likely move from DSM to Bora-Hansgrohe at the end of the season.

Uelsford is a late starter on the World Tour and had focused on track events until the Tokyo Olympics.

The Australian joined DSM ahead of the 2022 season, and made a splash with a stage win at the Tour of Turkey and a third-place finish at Scheldeprijs, which was a tough race. Welsford continued in 2023 with two stage wins at the Vuelta a San Juan and a victory at the Grand Prix Cliquierion.

Welsford is one of four Tour debutants in the DSM selection, along with his compatriots Matthew Dinham and Alex Edmondson, and American Kevin Belmarke, who will be making his first appearance in the race.

"As always, the team will work as one, with the climbing group supporting the sprint group on the flat days and vice versa, with the sprint group doing the early work in the mountains.

"As for the route, we expect fireworks already in the Basque Country on some difficult opening stages before a possible sprint on the third day.

The Tour de France kicks off July 1 in Bilbao.