Since 2010, 22 teams have started the Tour de France every summer. The only exception was 2021, when the International Cycling Union authorized the organizers of the three Grand Tours to invite a 23rd team to compensate for the difficulties posed by the health crisis. By March 31, the UCI will decide on a potential rule change so that 23 teams will systematically line up for the Giro, the Tour, and the Vuelta. This would make some people happy, but not without raising some doubts.
Helping teams “grow”
Current regulations allow Grand Tour organizers to issue two invitations to complete the peloton, with other teams ensuring their participation through their WorldTeam status or their UCI ranking. The room for maneuver is tight. Especially when stars like Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) or Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) sign with "small" teams, which belong to the second international division. ASO, organizer of the Tour de France, must thus choose between TotalEnergies, a historic team in French cycling, which won a stage in 2024; Tudor, a Swiss team on the rise and which has recruited stars like Marc Hirschi and French favorite Alaphilippe; or Uno-X, which admirably honored its invitation last year. The headache also concerns the Giro organization, which is very embarrassed to have to leave out an Italian team or deprive itself of a star like Pidcock. And there is urgency, because the Giro d'Italia starts on May 9 and the teams are still waiting to find out if they will participate so they can adapt their preparation.
To make the equation easier to resolve, the International Association of Professional Cycling Groups (AIGCP), the International Association of Cycle Race Organizers and the Professional Riders' Union (CPA) have submitted a request to the UCI. "It is a request from the three cycling families", explained the body's president, David Lappartient, suggesting that this unanimity made the request even more legitimate. The Professional Cycling Council accepted this proposal on Wednesday in Aigle (Switzerland). It will then be submitted to the UCI Management Committee, which will decide on the matter by March 31 for a final decision. "The first motivation for moving to 23 is to defend the second tier, to ensure that teams with a real project can grow", explained the director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, to AFP. More sporting opportunities for the teams, who also gain great exposure for their sponsors, and more stars at the start for the organizers: on paper, everyone wins. Except when it comes to addressing the issue of security.
More runners, more risks
With a 23rd team, the peloton will increase from 176 to 184 riders. This measure would go against the dynamics of recent years, since in 2018, the number of riders had actually decreased from nine to eight per team in the Grand Tours, reducing the peloton from 198 to 176, in the name of safety. More riders, mechanically, also means more risks. In 2024, 497 falls and incidents were recorded during UCI WorldTour, UCI Women's WorldTour, and UCI ProSeries ranked races. The SafeR structure, created in 2023 to study the safety of road events, noted in July 2024 that “49% of crashes occur in the last 40 kilometers of the race, involve on average two to three riders and frequently occur just before points of interest such as climbs, cobbled sections and sprints, as well as on slippery roads, near or on traffic infrastructure, or during descents ».
Among the recently implemented arrangements is the possibility of extending the "three kilometer" rule to a maximum of five kilometers, in order to take times upstream of the finish line and thus “reduce the pressure on the runners during the race phase preceding the final sprint”.Adding an additional team, and therefore riders potentially interested in a sprint, nevertheless risks cancelling out the benefits of this measure. "There is a majority of teams that want it," assures Christian Prudhomme. Visma-Lease a bike publicly criticized this decision through its boss Richard Plugge, who recalled that it was necessary “more safety in the peloton”.In mid-January, David Lappartient repeated that the safety of the runners was "a priority, both for the UCI and for all those involved in men's and women's cycling", praising the advances made possible by SafeR: “We are all united for security and will continue to make progress in this direction in 2025 and beyond.” A speech that could be partly called into question.
