Peter Sagan's TotalEnergies team and French ProTeam B&B Hotels p/b KTM have been awarded the final two wildcard invitations to the 2022 Tour de France, joining Alpecin-Fenix and Arkéa-Samsic, who had already been earned automatic berths thanks to their position in last season’s UCI rankings. The 18 WorldTour teams are automatically awarded places in the 22-team Tour de France peloton.
The decision means that Jean-René Bernaudeau’s TotalEnergies team continues sequence of competing in the Tour every year since its foundation as Bonjour in 2000. The squad is battling to earn promotion to the WorldTour in 2023 and underwent a revamp this winter with the arrival of Peter Sagan.
B&B Hotels p/b KTM return to the Tour for the third successive year, having previously missed out in its first two seasons of existence. Jerome Pineau’s squad lost its leading light Bryan Coquard to Cofidis this winter. Alexis Gougeard – who arrived from AG2R – was the team’s principal signing during the off-season, while Pierre Rolland, best young rider on the 2011 Tour, remains on the roster.
Norwegian Pro Continental outfit Uno-X had explicitly targeted a Tour wildcard invitation this year after enjoying a fine 2021 season. With no few than eight Danish riders on their roster, they had hoped to be on the start line for the Grand Départ in Copenhagen, though general manager Jens Haugland conceded last month that it was “not wildly likely, so we have low expectations.”
Instead, and as expected, ASO selected two French teams to occupy the two discretionary berths at its disposal, in keeping with its trend of recent years.
Since 2017, Intermarché-Wanty – now automatically in the Tour as a WorldTour squad – has been the only non-French team to be invited to the Tour by ASO. Fellow Belgian squad Alpecin-Fenix earned its place this year and last year thanks to its place in the UCI rankings.
