Caja Rural get the final wildcard invite to the Tour de France and the Unibet Rose Rockets are overlooked. It’s a shock however when you take a look at the development it shouldn’t be a shock.
Q36.5, Tudor and Cofidis all take up their automated invites. Which leaves two locations. TotalEnergies all the time felt like a certainty for one of many final two spots. That they had a top-10 on GC due to Jordan Jegat final summer time, a stage win the 12 months earlier than; the workforce isn’t simply French it’s acquired a neighborhood identification from the Vendée together with political backing; Jean-René Bernaudeau talks a superb sport, they want the lifeline for a workforce needing a alternative sponsor… and new for this 12 months Whole additionally turns into a accomplice sponsor of the Tour. They have been all the time going to get an invitation.
The controversy comes with Caja Rural vs. the Unibet Rose Rockets. Now Caja Rural are Spanish and the Barcelona grand départ helped however even Spanish TV commentary filling the time whereas Remco Evenepoel was away solo in in the present day’s Problem Majorca race evoked una polémica.
In a press release to AFP Tour boss Christian Prudhomme cited the UCI rankings with the Spanish workforce in twenty fifth spot forward of the Rockets in 2026th. However that is removed from an iron rule. At random let’s take 2020 when Very important Idea was picked whereas it was in lurking in twenty sixth place on the UCI tables and whereas groups like Delko, Wanty and Uno-X have been ranked greater however overlooked.
Neither Caja Rural nor the Rockets function a “should have” rider. The Rockets have Dylan Groenewegen is 32 whereas Caja’s sprinter is Fernando Gaviria aged 31. Victor Lafay may very well be an incredible signing for the Rockets and has considered one of greatest power-weight ratios within the peloton on 5-10 minute climbs, see how solely he surged up the “Côte de Pike” on the best way to Bilbao in th the Tour de France’s opening stage and solely Pogačar and Vinegaard might observe however he has struggled to follow-up with accidents so proper now it’s arduous to rely on him. The Rocket’s Lukáš Kubiš virtually made this weblog’s Riders to Watch however as a artful rider in smaller races slightly than somebody prone to win on the Tour; equally Caja Rural have Abel Balderstone, the Spanish TT champion – the course was uphill – who completed a creditable thirteenth within the final Vuelta. Once more some prospects however no one incontournable as Prudhomme would possibly say.
Prudhomme additionally stated the Rockets don’t lean into their French identification a lot. They switched from Dutch to French as a flag of comfort to keep away from a playing sponsorship ban within the Netherlands and their French tackle is a company mailbox slightly than a service course HQ. However they’ve been regulars within the Coupe de France sequence at a time when Decathlon and Groupama-FDJ have been grumbling about their obligation to race these smaller occasions, and even hiring final 12 months’s winner Clément Venturini in addition to taking over French neo-pros. In the event that they should be extra French maybe the Rocket’s subsequent video might have them in hi-viz driving a tractor to ASO’s places of work to beat the workplace doorways down with stale baguettes?
The Rocket’s promoting level is communication and so they rapidly produce movies to share content material in an age when many groups nonetheless challenge textual content press releases. It’s refreshing and will encourage different groups to work together extra with their fan base but it surely’s not a giant swing issue; the Tour will hardly get further protection. The outdated Very important Idea/B&B Inns did this earlier than too – anybody bear in mind the video asserting the signing of Pierre Rolland involving a plane and a seashore? It has gone down with the workforce – but it surely didn’t assist. Once more having star riders prone to form the race and add to the present makes the large distinction.
Nevermind JulyIf you’re stunned however the information in the present day, look past the Tour. As a result of the Rockets haven’t acquired invites to ASO’s different races both. Paris-Good? Non. Liège-Bastogne-Liège? Non plus. The D̶a̶u̶p̶h̶i̶n̶é̶ Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes? Rien. The Volta a Catalunya? No senyor. There’s solely Flèche Wallonne and no information on Paris-Roubaix but and possibly they get one right here after collaborating final 12 months. For a workforce that desires to persuade ASO there are few probabilities to placed on a present below their noses. It feels completely different to the best way ASO nurtured the likes of NetApp or Uno-X too; even when Uno-X didn’t get a Caja Rural-style increase when the Tour opened in Copenhagen in 2022.
Within the meantime Caja Rural have an invitation to the Dauphiné, Liège, Flèche and Catalunya and have been assiduously beginning different ASO races just like the Tour of Oman and the Al Ula Tour on proper now. When you begin to see this the wildcard selection could be debatable on sporting phrases however the Spanish workforce has cultivated a rapport with ASO that the Rockets hasn’t begun but.
In the meantime in SpainThe Vuelta invitations are out in the present day and right here Kern Pharma and Burgos-Burgpellet-BH are invited because the race rotates its home groups and clearly Caja Rural being overlooked is much less of a blow since they’ll be on TV in July.
In the meantime in ItalyThere’s no information on the Giro invites regardless of the beginning being lower than 100 days away. Cities are illumating landmarks in pink however we don’t know all of the groups that can participate.
With Cofidis reportedly declining to take up their invitation this would depart three locations. Bardiani and Polti-Malta arecertainties however the remaining place? There’s been discuss of a Spanish workforce however equally the Rockets might slot in right here and for a comparatively new workforce a grand tour debut right here may very well be a extra affected person route. Maybe they’ve even agreed this already and so it fits everybody as two consecutive grand excursions could be an excessive amount of? A believable speculation for a couple of seconds. However given the Tour can generate 70-80% of a workforce’s media publicity the idea doesn’t maintain. Nonetheless the workforce can hope for an invite in Could.
ConclusionLast month Paris-Good solely invited TotalEnergies when it might have taken one other workforce. This gave us a clue for the Rockets. That’s not hindsight, loyal readers may have learn their probabilities of a Tour wildcard went “from very prone to in all probability“. Since then their probabilities acquired slimmer with no different invitations from ASO. Solely yesterday they have been overlooked of the Dauphiné.
Caja Rural getting the final invite forward of the Rockets is a shock however step again and take a look at the development of zero invitations for the Franco-Dutch workforce and it shouldn’t be a shock, extra in order it’s the Spanish workforce that has stored benefitting from wildcards to the Ardennes and Dauphiné.
Which ProTeam does this or that isn’t huge information, neither Caja Rural nor Rockets would flip the tables on the Tour. However there’s curiosity because it includes selections. With the top-18 WorldTeams performing as settled franchises so long as they’ll discover sufficient funding, the second tier has extra room for sporting attraction, rankings, communication, identification and different subjective standards.
We’ll see for the Giro, the Rockets might nonetheless get a begin. And searching forward there’s each likelihood they’ll be on the Tour in 2027 as a result of if Whole Energies takes a spot this 12 months there’s no information on a alternative title sponsor and so the French squad might not be round subsequent 12 months.
