For the 1996 Tour de France, the 18 teams on top of the UCI rankings at the start of 1996 were automatically invited for the Tour. These were: [1]
Four wildcards were given, for a total of 22 teams: [2]
Qualified teams
Invited teams
| No. | Starting number worn by the rider during the Tour |
| Pos. | Position in the general classification |
| DNF | Denotes a rider who did not finish |
| Country | No. of riders | In competition | Stage wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3 | ||
| 1 | 1 | ||
| 9 | 7 | ||
| 6 | 5 | 1 (José Jaime González) | |
| 1 | 0 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 3 (Bjarne Riis x2, Rolf Sørensen) | |
| 1 | 0 | ||
| 38 | 20 | 4 (Frédéric Moncassin x2, Cyril Saugrain, Luc Leblanc) | |
| 10 | 7 | 3 (Erik Zabel x2, Jan Ullrich) | |
| 2 | 1 | ||
| 62 | 40 | 3 (Mario Cipollini, Massimo Podenzana, Fabio Baldato) | |
| 1 | 0 | ||
| 1 | 0 | ||
| 3 | 1 | ||
| 10 | 8 | 3 (Jeroen Blijlevens, Michael Boogerd, Bart Voskamp) | |
| 3 | 0 | ||
| 1 | 1 | ||
| 5 | 4 | 1 (Evgueni Berzin | |
| 23 | 18 | ||
| 8 | 6 | 3 (Alex Zülle, Pascal Richard, Laurent Dufaux) | |
| 2 | 0 | ||
| 3 | 1 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 1 (Djamolidine Abdoujaparov) | |
| 1 | 1 | ||
| Total | 198 | 115 | 22 |