World Tour Wild Cards 2025

[pastronef]

with the new 2026-2028 3 years WT cycle. I think Total, the sponsor, saw how getting a TDF wild card will not be easy. but they want to see their brand and logo in the TDF peloton.
with teams like Uno-X, Tudor, Q36.5 coming strong, this year might be the last one they are sure about the TDF wild card. and the gamble of begging UCI to get a 3rd wild card, like this year (if they'll agree), is not something to rely on.
also, Arkea situation is difficult, Uno-X has passed them, and if they get relegated (they probably will) they won't even be among the guaranteed wild cards.
Arkea folding would be good for the other pro-conti teams looking for wild cards.
we would need Cofidis to get relegated instead of Astana, so that they'll skip the Giro and allow one more wild card. or PicNic to be relegated so that they'd skip Giro or Vuelta.
or, as I was joking before a merger Cofidis-Caja would benefit the Vuelta wild cards
or well, if Total folds and the sponsor moves to Ineos,Tudor and Uno-X will already know they are in for the TDF, it seems normal
I think the Total situation could help Arkea though. if Arkea owners know for certain that Total folds, they can talk to ASO and explain to their potential sponsors they have a 2026 TDF wild card (cause ASO will invite a French tea, if Total disappear)
Arkea management said they must find a sponsor before end of April, otherwise they'll probably close

 

[Strawberry_Jams]

supposed to be a decision today right? It's not like it can be delayed again.

 

[tobydawq]

Apparently another vote on Monday will determine whether today's decision of accepting 23 teams in the Grand Tours will go through...

They realise the Giro starts in a month and half, right?

 

[ingsve]

Apparently another vote on Monday will determine whether today's decision of accepting 23 teams in the Grand Tours will go through...

They realise the Giro starts in a month and half, right?

This used to be the old normal. Back in the early 2000s and before, the wild cards for the Tour were often not announced until June of the same year. In 2000 the announcement was on June 1st and in 1997 and 1998 the announcement came on June 18th with the Tour starting July 5th and 11th respectively. Imagine getting the news that your team is riding a GT in 2.5 weeks time. Hopefully they had anticipated and prepared for the invites.

In 2001 and 2002 the wild cards were announced in May instead and in 2003 they had 8 wild cards where 4 were announced in January and the rest in May. Since then it seems the early announcements have been fairly standard, though not necessarily always in January, but for example in March of 2010 or April of 2011 for the Tour.

 

[tobydawq]

This used to be the old normal. Back in the early 2000s and before, the wild cards for the Tour were often not announced until June of the same year. In 2000 the announcement was on June 1st and in 1997 and 1998 the announcement came on June 18th with the Tour starting July 5th and 11th respectively. Imagine getting the news that your team is riding a GT in 2.5 weeks time. Hopefully they had anticipated and prepared for the invites.

In 2001 and 2002 the wild cards were announced in May instead and in 2003 they had 8 wild cards where 4 were announced in January and the rest in May. Since then it seems the early announcements have been fairly standard, though not necessarily always in January, but for example in March of 2010 or April of 2011 for the Tour.

Perhaps but that's hardly a standard they should strive to go back to.

 

[ingsve]

Perhaps but that's hardly a standard they should strive to go back to.

Ofc, but it does show that it is manageable and not a complete crisis.

 

[tobydawq]

Ofc, but it does show that it is manageable and not a complete crisis.

True, but I can see how it's annoying to the teams. Take Pidcock as an (albeit not representative) example as a rider who still doesn't know if he should ride Belgian classics because that may not be a good idea if he is going for the Giro and wants to try for GC. It's impossible for him to know what he should focus on in training.

 

[pastronef]

also, is this decision just for 2025, or FROM 2025 the teams will be 23? they probably know the 2026 wild card fight will be messy. and I welcome the 23 teams.
remember that Arkea might fold, Total (the sponsor) is rumored to join Ineos, and Euskaltel won't surely be amog the top30 pro team in 2026

 

[search]

also, is this decision just for 2025, or FROM 2025 the teams will be 23? they probably know the 2026 wild card fight will be messy. and I welcome the 23 teams.
remember that Arkea might fold, Total (the sponsor) is rumored to join Ineos, and Euskaltel won't surely be amog the top30 pro team in 2026

"starting this year" sounds permanent to me

"Regarding regulatory changes, all the families represented within the PCC - organisers, teams and riders - had jointly submitted a request that the number of teams participating in the men's Grand Tours (Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and La Vuelta Ciclista a España) be increased to 23 starting this year. "

UCI Management Committee to decide on 31 March whether to approve request from the Professional Cycling Council to increase the number of teams participating in the men's Grand Tours

www.uci.org

 

[Samu Cuenca]

also, is this decision just for 2025, or FROM 2025 the teams will be 23? they probably know the 2026 wild card fight will be messy. and I welcome the 23 teams.
remember that Arkea might fold, Total (the sponsor) is rumored to join Ineos, and Euskaltel won't surely be amog the top30 pro team in 2026

That is sadly not the requirement (it's top 30 among all teams).

 

[pastronef]

That is sadly not the requirement (it's top 30 among all teams).

ah yes sorry. we would need Intermarché/PicNic to be relegated (instead of Astana-Cofidis) and Arkea folding. so that Pic-Nic/Intermarché skip the Vuelta, Arkea is not WT anymore, and Burgos,Kern, Caja can get the 2026 wild card (and more team)

 

[Netserk]

It's a good decision that should have been made sooner.

 

[Samamba]

We really are about to have Tour de Tietema in the Tour next year when those other French teams fold.

 

[pastronef]

We really are about to have Tour de Tietema in the Tour next year when those other French teams fold.

well it would need Arkea folding and Total (the sponsor) moving to Ineos (and Bernaudeau having to start from scratch as a conti team, or fold)

let's imagine 2026

Tour
18 WT (Lotto and Israel are back in the WT) Arkea folds
2 guaranteed wild cards (Astana and Uno-X)
3 other teams: Tudor, Q36, Tietema/Total (if Total still exist or if Bernaudeau finds another sponsor in case Total moves to Ineos)

Giro
18 WT
1 Astana (Uno-X skips it)
4 other teams: Bardiani, Polti, Tudor (Giro's sponsor), and?

Vuelta
18 WT
2 Astana and Uno-X
3 other teams: Kern, Caja, Burgos but it won't happen, 1 Spanish team will be left out in Tudor-Q36 favor (same as this year, Guillen said they are looking and foreign teams)

the 2026 situation for French teams does not look good with Arkea not yet finding a backer and the Total-Ineos rumors

 

[ingsve]

Why do you think Uno-X would skip the Giro? They already have a tough time fitting people into one GT and I bet most of the team would be more than willing to race a GT.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Why do you think Uno-X would skip the Giro? They already have a tough time fitting people into one GT and I bet most of the team would be more than willing to race a GT.

With everything that they've jettisoned this year, their squad depth is pretty flimsy right now and so they might struggle to handle a third GT.

 

[tobydawq]

With everything that they've jettisoned this year, their squad depth is pretty flimsy right now and so they might struggle to handle a third GT.

What do you mean by that? The only half-decent rider they lost from last year was Tord Gudmestad, and with the addition of Andreas Kron, the team is stronger on paper than last year.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

What do you mean by that? The only half-decent rider they lost from last year was Tord Gudmestad, and with the addition of Andreas Kron, the team is stronger on paper than last year.

They have gone from 30 to 27 riders in the main team and they've shuttered their development team. Difficult to juggle three GTs with all the one-day races where they need to score points for future automatic wildcards with a pool of riders that small.

 

[ingsve]

They have gone from 30 to 27 riders in the main team and they've shuttered their development team. Difficult to juggle three GTs with all the one-day races where they need to score points for future automatic wildcards with a pool of riders that small.

With the way basically the whole squad has been riding this year I'd say they would more than welcome 3 GTs.

Last year it might have been a different story. Then it was basically a core group of 10-15 riders who rode most of the important events and scored most of the points. Now several other riders are showing much better levels. Erlend Blikra and Stian Fredheim could easily cover sprinting duties in a GT for example and they already have Leknessund who couldn't get a place in the Tour but is said to be typical GT rider who just gets better and better over a three week race. On top of that you have Anders Halland Johannesen looking better than ever while both Johannes Kulset and Simon Dalby are good climbing prospects.

As for filling out the teams they have very strong riders on the flats in Blume Levy, Bögh Wallin, Skaarseth, Resell in addition to the traditional power houses like Abrahamsen and Tiller for example.

The only issues I see really is who they could recruit in the coming season or two. If they get an extra sponsor then they might try to persuade someone like Mads Pedersen who is on an outgoing contract I believe. Or also Tobias Lund Andresen perhaps.

Or if Arkea folds they might be able to pick up Svedstad-Bårdseng and Martin Tjötta who have have both been decent this year.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

With the way basically the whole squad has been riding this year I'd say they would more than welcome 3 GTs.

Last year it might have been a different story. Then it was basically a core group of 10-15 riders who rode most of the important events and scored most of the points. Now several other riders are showing much better levels. Erlend Blikra and Stian Fredheim could easily cover sprinting duties in a GT for example and they already have Leknessund who couldn't get a place in the Tour but is said to be typical GT rider who just gets better and better over a three week race. On top of that you have Anders Halland Johannesen looking better than ever while both Johannes Kulset and Simon Dalby are good climbing prospects.

As for filling out the teams they have very strong riders on the flats in Blume Levy, Bögh Wallin, Skaarseth, Resell in addition to the traditional power houses like Abrahamsen and Tiller for example.

The only issues I see really is who they could recruit in the coming season or two. If they get an extra sponsor then they might try to persuade someone like Mads Pedersen who is on an outgoing contract I believe. Or also Tobias Lund Andresen perhaps.

Or if Arkea folds they might be able to pick up Svedstad-Bårdseng and Martin Tjötta who have have both been decent this year.

The problem is not that they don't have good riders, but that they're going to struggle to make up the numbers in the smaller races. If you take an average of 60 race days per rider, that's 1620 race days spread across the team if you have 27 riders. If you assume that on the average team 6 riders will finish a GT and the other two drop out about midway through, that's 147 race days accumulated per GT. Doing all three GTs would then eat up 441 race days - 27% of the 1620 I quoted above. In other words, doing all three GTs means a big hit to their ability to do the non-WT schedule they need. And this would be much less the case with their 2024 lineup - then they could have done 1780 race days and fill up to perhaps a bit over 2000 from their development team, so a similar effect to doing 3 GTs. At seven riders per team in non-GT races, that's 63 race days the team can't do because of those GTs, and then a similar amount from their reduced squad. And then we haven't even gotten into the need for backups in case of an injury wave yet.

Obviously there's a lot of generalisation and assumption there, but you get the point: three GTs with their 2025 lineup instead of only the Tour with their 2024 lineup means cutting your non-GT programme by a lot, likely by over 40%. And I don't know that they can handle that.

 

[ingsve]

The problem is not that they don't have good riders, but that they're going to struggle to make up the numbers in the smaller races. If you take an average of 60 race days per rider, that's 1620 race days spread across the team if you have 27 riders. If you assume that on the average team 6 riders will finish a GT and the other two drop out about midway through, that's 147 race days accumulated per GT. Doing all three GTs would then eat up 441 race days - 27% of the 1620 I quoted above. In other words, doing all three GTs means a big hit to their ability to do the non-WT schedule they need. And this would be much less the case with their 2024 lineup - then they could have done 1780 race days and fill up to perhaps a bit over 2000 from their development team, so a similar effect to doing 3 GTs. At seven riders per team in non-GT races, that's 63 race days the team can't do because of those GTs, and then a similar amount from their reduced squad. And then we haven't even gotten into the need for backups in case of an injury wave yet.

Obviously there's a lot of generalisation and assumption there, but you get the point: three GTs with their 2025 lineup instead of only the Tour with their 2024 lineup means cutting your non-GT programme by a lot, likely by over 40%. And I don't know that they can handle that.

In 2024 they only averaged 45 race days per person including one GT so they race their whole non-GT calender in 1182 race days. So even just keeping that the same they have 438 days to spend on GTs without decreasing anything in the non-GT calender just by increasing their average race days from 45 to 60.

Also a bunch of 1.1 and 2.1 races can easily be skipped since GTs are basically 21 1.1 races or 2.1 GCs in a row points wise plus whatever you get from GC. So racing GTs can quickly be more of a net gain rather than a net loss. Though it comes with more competition for the top spots of course.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

In 2024 they only averaged 45 race days per person including one GT so they race their whole non-GT calender in 1182 race days. So even just keeping that the same they have 438 days to spend on GTs without decreasing anything in the non-GT calender just by increasing their average race days from 45 to 60.

The 60 race days were intended to be indicative. I agree that Uno-X still have some room in their race days per rider but that is by no means a limitless resource. And even upping from 45 to 60 won't be enough to counteract both their depleted squad and the effect of doing two more GTs at the same time.

Also a bunch of 1.1 and 2.1 races can easily be skipped since GTs are basically 21 1.1 races or 2.1 GCs in a row points wise plus whatever you get from GC. So racing GTs can quickly be more of a net gain rather than a net loss. Though it comes with more competition for the top spots of course.

Even at the Giro or Vuelta the average stage has a far, far stronger top 10 than the average 1.1. Big part of the reason why for example Lotto skips the Giro every year, it is usually a net loss for the smaller teams. And Lotto certainly have better numbers than Uno-X this season on paper, the development team is more valuable than the one additional rider Uno-X have.

The bottom line is that Uno-X don't have a WT standard squad and, if they make the automatic wildcard spots, are therefore going to have to pick and choose to an extent even without factoring in their need to farm points. And there is a lot of logic to dropping a GT in that context. In fact, I feel very confident in saying that Uno-X will not get the automatic wildcards for 2027 if they do all 3 GTs in 2026, and in fact I wouldn't expect them to do all 3 even if they get the chance.

 

[AupaPyama]

A lot of speculations for 2026. On the on hand UNO X could be World Tour. On the other hand: the team could have a squad of 30 riders in 2026.

 

[pastronef]

A lot of speculations for 2026. On the on hand UNO X could be World Tour. On the other hand: the team could have a squad of 30 riders in 2026.

well, they have 27 for this season

 

[Netserk]

The number of teams participating in the men's Grand Tours increased to 23 by the UCI Management Committee

www.uci.org