Tom Pidcock's Q36.5 gain wildcard invites to Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Flèche Wallonne

Tom Pidcock's Q36.5 team will race Liège-Bastogne-Liège for the first time this year, it was announced on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old's new ProTeam relies on invites for its races, so will ride the Monument in April on the back of a wildcard from the race's organiser, ASO. Pidcock finished second at Liège in 2023, and the Ardennes Classic will likely be one of his biggest targets in his first season with his new team.

Q36.5 will also race La Flèche Wallonne for the third successive year; Pidcock's best result at the Belgian Classic was sixth in 2021, although it is another race that suits his characteristics.

Pidcock joined his new team from Ineos Grenadiers in December, and will likely line up in Saudi Arabia at the AlUla Tour as his first race. He could then ride Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Opening Weekend, which Q36.5 have been invited to, before potentially riding Strade Bianche, a race Pidcock won in 2023 and Q36.5 have been invited to before, but no further WorldTour race invites have been confirmed yet for the squad. It has been reported elsewhere that the Swiss team are hoping for a Giro d'Italia invite, but will not be at the Tour de France. It is not known whether Pidcock will be able to defend his Amstel Gold Race title.

At the Ardennes Classics, along with the 18 WorldTour squads, Israel Premier-Tech - the team of defending Flèche champion Stevie Williams - Lotto and Uno-X Mobility are invited automatically as the best scoring ProTeams to the WorldTour races. On top of this, Tudor - the new home of three-time Flèche winner Julian Alaphilippe and fellow former winner Marc Hirschi - and Wagner Bazin WB (formerly Bingoal) are invited to both Flèche and Liège. Flanders-Baloise gain a wildcard entry to Flèche while TotalEnergies will line up for Liège.

In the women's races, along with the 14 Women's WorldTour squads, there are ten invited squads at both races: Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Cofidis, DD Group, EF Education-Oatly, Labora Kutxa Fundación Euskadi, Lotto, St Michel-Préférence Home-Auber93, Coop-Repsol, Volkerwessels, and Winspace Orange Seal.

The routes of some the races have been changed slightly, with the men's Flèche beginning in Ciney for the first time, but the finish predictably is still the Mur de Huy. In the men's Liège, the Côte de Saint-Roch will feature the earliest it has in the race since 2004, and the Col de Haussire features for the first time since 1995. The women's Liège has not changed.