The mess of invitations for the Grand Tours is getting tangled and must be resolved in a few days

The Pro Teams with aspirations to move up to the World Tour at the end of the season are pressuring the UCI to grant an extra wildcard to the Grand Tours, races that offer a very juicy amount of points. However, teams from the highest category of cyclists are already opposing this decision.

Organizers of Grand Tours and Pro Teams ask UCI for an extra wildcard

Having an extra invitation is one of the historical requests from the organizers of the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and La Vuelta a España. Remember that in these races, the 18 World Tour teams are obligated to participate, along with the two best Pro Tour teams from the previous season, Lotto and Israel-PremierTech in 2024, although they are not obligated to participate.

Finally, the organizers have two discretionary invitations to invite Pro Teams, invitations that are usually given to the main teams of this category from the organizing countries, for example, La Vuelta distributes them among Euskaltel-Euskadi, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Burgos-Burpellet-BH, and Kern Pharma.

RECOMENDADO

The UCI approves Wahoo's wind sensor. What does this mean and which teams will benefit?

New range of Specialized tires for road and gravel

We tested the new Cannondale Topstone Carbon 2025: the gravel bike that doesn't give up anything

New Cannondale Topstone Carbon 2025: ready for adventure gravel riding

Hiru puts on sale the special equipment that Ibon Zugasti will wear in the Cape Epic 2025 and surprises with its new Hydra Skinsuit

Van der Poel debuts a very special Canyon Aeroad

However, the rise in the level of teams like UNO-X Mobility, Tudor Pro Cycling, or Q36.5 of Tom Pidcock has put the organizers in a dilemma between continuing to grant these invitations to local teams or having a more attractive lineup by inviting these super Pro Tour teams.

On the other hand, these teams are immersed in a desperate struggle to scrape every point with the hope of being able to break into the top 18 teams at the end of this campaign, which marks the end of the validity of the World Tour licenses. Obviously, participating in the Grand Tours represents the opportunity to access a significant amount of points.

This has led these teams and the organizers of the Grand Tours to join forces to pressure the UCI to allow them to have an extra invitation, which would kill two birds with one stone by continuing to invite teams from the organizing country as well as having some of these teams.

On the other side, some World Tour teams have expressed their discontent with this idea, arguing that if these Pro Teams have access to more points, it would distort the fight for places in the highest category. Although the teams that have expressed this opposition have not been disclosed, we can imagine that some of those who are at risk of losing their spot this year.

As for the UCI, they have not yet made a decision, which should be made at the Professional Cycling Council meeting on March 26. It would not be the first time that the UCI allows 23 participating teams in a Grand Tour, although it has always been done as a specific exception, maintaining the argument that more cyclists in the peloton pose a greater risk of accidents.