22 teams will make up the 2011 Tour de France peloton.

Tour de France organizers A.S.O. have named French teams Cofidis, FDJ, Saur-Sojasun and Europcar as their four wild card invitations for this year's race.

The other 18 teams participating all gained automatic entry through their 2011 UCI ProTeam licenses.

The 98th edition of the Tour de France starts in the Vendee region on July 2 and ends in Paris on July 24.

On Thursday the Amaury Sport Organization, which runs the Tour de France, also gave four French teams invitations for the 2011 Paris-Nice stage race taking place from March 6-13. They are Cofidis, FDJ, Europcar and Bretagne-Schuller.

A total of 22 teams will take part in the 2011 Paris-Nice race.