Tour boss excludes Van der Poel from participating: ‘Extra teams never discussed’ | NOW

After the postponement of the Olympic Games this year, Mathieu van der Poel hoped to make his debut in the Tour de France, but according to Tour boss Christian Prudhomme, it has never been an option to invite extra teams.

Alpecin-Fenix, the Van der Poel team, did not receive a wildcard in January from Tour organizer ASO, which preferred the French teams Total Direct Energie, B&B Hotels-Vital Concept and Arkéa-Samsic.

Van der Poel would actually focus on the mountain bike race at the Olympic Games in the summer, but that event was postponed by a year due to the corona crisis. The Dutch rider and his team then started a lobby to receive an invitation to the Tour.

Hope increased when the association for professional cycling teams AIGCP and cycling union CPA called for an increase in the number of teams in the big laps from 22 to 24, so that more teams and riders could show up in this special season.

“The manager of the Van der Poel team called me, but we never discussed the option to allow additional teams. I did not hear that in any meeting,” Prudhomme told Tuesday L’Équipe. “There will be 22 teams participating in the Tour.”

The UCI international cycling union announced earlier on Tuesday when the new calendar was announced that teams in large rounds will simply consist of eight riders. With seven riders per team, there might have been room for additional teams.