Katusha misses out on both of the Tour de France organiser’s other big stage races
Hot on the heels of Giro d’Italia organiser RCS Sport’s announcement of the teams invited to the Strade Bianche and Giro del Lazio, ASO - the organiser of the Tour de France - has released the names of those awarded wild card invitations to its two other major stage races, Paris-Nice and the Criterium du Dauphiné, to be run on March 3rd to 10th and June 2nd to 9th respectively.
Both races are part of the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour, which means that all 18 first division ProTeams are automatically invited - and are required to attend - but ASO has invited four second division Professional Continental teams to each.
Unsurprisingly, ASO has been patriotic with three of the four invitations to both races. Cofidis and Europcar, the two biggest French ProConti teams, are invited to both, while Sojasun gets to ride Paris-Nice and Bretagne-Séché Environnement will ride the Dauphiné.
The two foreign wild cards are awarded to Swiss team IAM Cycling, which is invited to Paris-Nice, and Anglo-German NetApp-Endura, which is invited to the Dauphiné.
All five teams are members of the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC).
The big name to be missing from the list of teams invited to both races is that of Katusha, which was part of the WorldTour until this year. The Russian team has already missed out on an invitation to the Giro d’Italia - although it has been invited to all of RCS Sport’s other races. The lack of invitations to ASO’s second and third biggest stage races does not augur well for its prospects of securing a place at the Tour de France.
Both Paris-Nice and the Criterium du Dauphiné were won by Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) in 2012 on his way to becoming the first British rider to win the Tour de France.
UCI ProTeams (automatically invited)
AG2R La Mondiale (Fra)
Astana Pro Team (Kaz)
Blanco Pro Cycling Team (Ned)
BMC Racing Team (USA)
Cannondale Pro Cycling (Ita)
Euskaltel Euskadi (Esp)
FDJ (Fra)
Garmin-Sharp (USA)
Lampre-Merida (Ita)
Lotto Belisol (Bel)
Movistar Team (Esp)
Omega Pharma-Quick Step Cycling Team (Bel)
Orica - GreenEdge (Aus)
RadioShack - Leopard (Lux)
Sky Procycling (Gbr)
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team (Ned)
Team Argos-Shimano (Ned)
Team Saxo-Tinkoff (Den)
Professional Continental teams invited to Paris-Nice
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits (Fra)
Sojasun (Fra)
Team Europcar (Fra)
IAM Cycling (Sui)
Professional Continental teams invited to the Criterium du Dauphiné
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits (Fra)
Team Europcar (Fra)
Bretagne-Séché Environnement (Fra)
Team Netapp-Endura (Ger)