Extra wildcard team approved for Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España

The peloton in the men’s Grand Tours will grow this season, after the UCI ruled to increase the number of teams allowed to compete from 22 to 23.

The idea was originally put forward last week by the Professional Cycling Council (PCC), a body that counts teams, riders and race organisers, including Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme. The UCI Management Committee approved the request on Monday, meaning an extra wildcard invite will now be allowed at the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España.

"The arguments put forward for accepting this proposal were mainly based on the need to support second division teams (UCI ProTeams), while enabling organisers to strengthen the line-up for their race and giving riders from the additional teams the opportunity to compete in a Grand Tour," the UCI wrote in a statement.

Until now, the men’s Grand Tours consisted of the 18 UCI WorldTeams, the two best-ranked UCI ProTeams, and two further ProTeams invited by the organiser. While race organisers will now be able to make a third invitation, the UCI has asked the PCC to consider reserving the extra spot for the third best ProTeam, keeping two wildcards.

Lotto and Israel-Premier Tech were awarded automatic Grand Tour invitations at the start of this season as the two best-ranked ProTeams. This leaves wildcard slots open to teams such as Julian Alaphilippe’s Tudor, Tom Pidcock’s Q36.5, Uno-X and TotalEnergies. Traditionally, Grand Tour organisers have favoured inviting teams from their host country, with Polti Kometa and VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè competing at last year’s Giro d’Italia, for example.

The Tour de France has already confirmed its wildcards for 2025 will be TotalEnergies, Tudor and Uno-X.

It is not the first time in recent history that the UCI will allow a 23rd team into the Grand Tours. In 2021, organisers were allowed to issue an extra wildcard invitation to help ProTeams recover from Covid-19.

Peloton sizes were also larger until 2017, when teams of nine competed in the Grand Tours. The UCI restricted this to eight-rider squads for the 2018 season, stripping the bunch’s size down from 198 to 176 riders. At the time, the governing body said the decision was made to “improve the safety of the riders, spectators and the race convoy”.

184 riders will be permitted to start the Grand Tours this season.

Speaking earlier this month, Visma-Lease a Bike boss Richard Plugge said he was against adding a 23rd team. "One of the rules for safety is that we cannot have more than 176 riders in a Grand Tour," Plugge told Sporza.

"I have nothing against any team, but giving out an extra wildcard would be strange for the value of the WorldTour.

"This means that suddenly a [Pro]team can be added that can score a lot of points [during the relegation cycle]. That can be a big problem for the WorldTour teams at the bottom of the team rankings."

The UCI's new ruling does not affect the women's race equivalents – the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Vuelta Femenina or Giro d’Italia Women – all of which already carry at least five wildcards.