Team Sky accidentally reveal their Tour de France shortlist, with five Brits included
Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas lead the list of five British riders named in Team Sky's 11-man Tour de France squad, but the team say the list is incomplete
Team Sky claim the 11-man shortlist for the Tour de France, published on their website on Tuesday, is not the final squad.
The team named five British riders in its 11-man Tour de France squad, which will be narrowed down to nine riders before the Grand Départ on July 4, but there was no mention of Irish duo Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan.
Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, Ian Stannard, Peter Kennaugh and Luke Rowe all featured after strong starts to the 2015 season, with all five strong contenders to be in the final team.
Alongside the Brits were Danny Pate, Mikel Nieve, Leopold König, Richie Porte, Sergio Henao and Wout Poels.
>>> UCI bans Tour de France motorhomes, much to Chris Froome’s displeasure
If the list turns out to be correct, Porte, König and Nieve are in line to ride their second consecutive Grand Tour, having competed at the Giro d'Italia in May. When Porte abandoned the race after stage 16, König went on to finish sixth overall.
The former Netapp-Endura impressed with a seventh-place finish for the Pro Continental team at the Tour de France in 2014, but will ride in support of Froome if selected this year.
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>>> Your guide to the 2015 Tour de France in Utrecht (video)
Deignan and Roche were given a reprieve when the list of riders was taken down from the Team Sky website shortly after it was published.
Four of the original 11-man list, Porte, Kennaugh, Stannard and Thomas, rode alongside Froome in his 2013 victory in the Tour de France, while Porte and Froome are the only surviving members from Bradley Wiggins's win the year before.
The team plan to announce the final nine riders on Monday.
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Stuart Clarke is a News Associates trained journalist who has worked for the likes of the British Olympic Associate, British Rowing and the England and Wales Cricket Board, and of course Cycling Weekly. His work at Cycling Weekly has focused upon professional racing, following the World Tour races and its characters.
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