Well, that's the crux of the issue, and a major concern that is the result of the current position of the World Tour; because all of the incentives are to be at the World Tour level, and with the introduction of bigger budget teams like BMC and Sky, the number of riders who are of a competitive enough level to create wildcard teams that truly impact the race in the way that they did ten years ago is becoming limited, at least in the big stage races. In the Classics, the more randomized nature of racing means that their impact can be stronger as the longer a race is, the more strength in depth can play itself out and neutralize, or at least minimize, the element of chance.
Depending on your view of the 2008 Astana team (which were Pro Tour, but had their exclusion from the Tour and relied on wildcard selection for both the Giro and Vuelta owing to pre-existing arrangements superseding the Pro Tour at the time due to a standoff between the UCI and ASO flanked by RCS and Unipublic), there has only been one Grand Tour won by a wildcard team in the 13 seasons since the Pro Tour began, that being Juan José Cobo in the 2011 Vuelta. I think that was the end of the strong wildcard era though. The UCI carefully and wisely restructured the Pro Tour into the World Tour and drove greater emphasis onto ranking points, thus negating the problem they had previously had, pioneered by Cervélo Test Team, where the team's budget - including a significant amount saved from not going Pro Tour - enabled them to pick up sufficient star power that they could more or less guarantee they would be granted a wildcard to any race they wanted to enter. BMC's progression in budget in 2010 saw a similar move, as they went from being one of the weakest ProConti teams to a fairly weak ProConti team with Cadel Evans, George Hincapie and Alessandro Ballan grafted on top. They didn't have the same depth as Cervélo, but once more the name value safeguarded invites, being selected for the Tour ahead of Vacansoleil in a controversial decision after the latter's successful introduction to Grand Tours at the Vuelta the previous season. It doesn't help that you have characters like Jonathan Vaughters, too, who successfully built his team up organically through the ranks, progressed through ProConti to become a World Tour team, then started doing everything in his power to push cycling fans and organizers to allow him to shut the door behind him, to prevent other ProConti teams growing strong enough to compete season-round in the same way and squeezing his team out.
The other problem for the ProConti ranks is one that we have two men to thank for: Ivan Basso and Aleksandr Vinokourov. The nature of their returns to the péloton saw an end to the informal agreement that formerly suspended dopers had to serve a period of exile at the ProConti level (this had often sustained teams like Relax-GAM in Spain, and LPR Brakes and Diquigiovanni/Androni in Italy, providing them with worthwhile challengers trying to prove themselves to get a return to the top level) - Basso because Liquigas successfully argued that his ban was not for actual doping, and Vino because his status in Kazakhstan made his return to anybody other than Astana almost implausible. For many years the ProContinental wildcard teams could be sustained by riders who had previous suspension or were under investigation and were no longer wanted elsewhere. That some of the craftiest sponsor-finding second tier team managers, like Gianni Savio and Luca Scinto, reached such a level of notoriety that their teams being at the biggest races became less and less desirable also hurt the eminence of the wildcard teams - indeed, can we really say that losing outré performances like CSF's seven dwarves at the 2008 Giro or Vini Fantini's fluorescent assassins five years later?
As a result, actual frontline contenders on ProConti teams have become a real rarity in the last few years. Yes, sure, there have been a few, such as Domenico Pozzovivo staying in Italy while he finished his doctorate, but after the UCI's quite deliberate marginalization of Geox in 2011 despite a team including winners of all three GTs (and which won a GT that season) and the sponsors' pulling out at season's end, committing the same kind of budget to a team which may not get all the invites they want is a difficult sell to sponsors. On the opposite end of the scale, if you have a guarantor of a set number of invites but your available calendar has certain limitations - take Caja Rural for example - then you become kind of stuck in a rut, as the fact that those invites to the races most important to the sponsors are almost automatic as there's no competition among Spanish second- and third-tier teams at present means there's little justification for upping that contribution; the net result is that the team stagnates as it is seen only as a stepping stone for those on the way up (see how almost all their most promising youngsters, save for Carthy, have been picked up by Movistar in recent years) or a way to try to push back to the top for those whose careers are stalling, either getting back out quickly (like Luís León Sánchez) or continuing on at the same level unheeded (like Sérgio Pardilla). Riders at the ProConti level who show promise are then picked up by World Tour teams, who can offer better salaries and a chance at a much more balanced and exotic calendar with chances to ride the biggest races even if it entails giving up a level of freedom and autonomy (take, for example, Leopold König, who went from winning MTFs and top 10ing GTs to sitting third or fourth in Sky's mountain train, Victor de la Parte, who went from being CCC's top climber by a way to being plugged in essentially to do the same role as Javi Moreno for Movistar - himself picked up from Caja Rural after winning domestic calendar mountainous races in much the same fashion - or Tom van Asbroeck, who went from 1000 CQ points with TopSport Vlaanderen to anonymity as part of Dylan Groenewegen's leadout at Lotto-Jumbo and then on to Cannondale).
When Aqua Blue were announced as a Vuelta wildcard, I was disappointed, to be quite honest. Although their roster is decent for a first year team especially given their funding model, there's nobody who really excites me, and no rider I am excited for the development prospects of. Many of them are journeymen who absolutely merit a ride at this kind of level, but whose ceiling for improvement is comparatively limited. Unlike Cofidis, Caja Rural or Manzana-Postobon, there weren't any riders that I was looking forward to seeing at the Vuelta, for development purposes or for what they could bring to the race. When the team's selling point is "Adam Blythe can get some placements in sprints, and Stefan Denifl is an ok climber in the breakaway", it doesn't exactly have me as interested as Bouhanni's chances in a sprint (at the time the wildcards were announced, not necessarily when the starting 9s were) or the developmental ceilings of the young Colombians or Jaime Rosón. Until Denifl's win I wouldn't say any of the wildcard teams had really added too much to the race; I couldn't remember anything that the Aqua Blue Sport team had done, other than the unfortunate situation with the bus. I remembered Rosón in the break in the Murcía stage, being furious with himself for blowing his chance to stay with the leaders and somehow BSing himself that he could have contended against Trentin and Rojas in a sprint, and I remembered Jetse Bol's quest for the leader's jersey in the Cuenca stage, but of course Manzana-Postobon do have in one way a throwback to the ProConti teams of old - making sure you remember them by making their jersey really immediately clear, as CCC do with their dayglo orange, and in the past Vini Fantini and ISD's fluoro yellow, CSF's green and orange stripes, Relax-GAM's luminescent scarlet and so on. Aqua Blue's jersey is a lot like the team in general, I felt. Classy, strong, but forgettable.
But when I did raise my opinion that, frankly, Aqua Blue were a rather uninspiring and disappointing choice of wildcard, the point was made, who better? There aren't many teams of great depth at the ProConti level at the moment, and the decision that journeymen with plenty of experience competing at this level are more likely to be competitive than developmental prospects and GT débutantes is not without justification. Catalunya and País Vasco have in recent years seen wildcards go to some of the weakest ProConti teams, teams which would have far less business at the Vuelta in their current state than Aqua Blue - teams like Novo Nordisk, Soul Brasil and Israel Cycling Academy. Delko have a Spanish connection which is stronger than that of Aqua Blue, but guys like Ángel Madrazo may be cult favourites, but they're only liable to win in the exact same fashion as Denifl did (i.e. from the breakaway, not necessarily meaning on ESP-categorized mountains), and maybe also they have the issue that Rémy di Gregorio may have his card marked by ASO, as he's done precious little racing in ASO-organized races (one Critérium International, two Paris-Nices and one Flèche Wallonne) since his return. Mauro Finetto's performances this year have as much to offer if not more than a placement sprinter like Blythe, but they both offer relatively little from a GC point of view so it would have been stagehunting from escapes just as we saw from Denifl.
But also, let's face it: Aqua Blue have integrated themselves well into the péloton by smartly using their resources, not overburdening their riders by doing too many races simultaneously or too packed a calendar, and being canny in their racing. However, some of us just want to see wildcard teams racing like headless chickens, and with famously combative guys like Madrazo on board, Delko would have given us more chance of that.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram