2010 Tour De France Teams announced

[Rob Q]

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/t ... race-25564

[Andrew G]

I think Vacansoleil should have got a wildcard place. They've given a lot lately and raced well, great rides in the Vuelta and continued through to the start of this year, and it's not very nice to the start hosts to not give them a wildcard place.

[-Adam-]

More to the point they have piled a shed load of cash into ASO races this season.

They are already shedding staff to compensate.

[Marek]

Was probably a difficult decision for the organisers as a number of the wild card teams have some very notable riders. Why do some teams get an automatic entrance, was some kind of deal done a while ago, is it just that the wild card teams are all relatively new?

[-Adam-]

This year the selection went as follows... The 16 ProTour teams who have had their licence since the inception of the ProTour automatically got their place. Leaving Sky, Shack etc needing a wild card. Inevitably they were always going to get it, so there were always going to be casualties amongst the wild cards...

Next year, the old system comes back. The top 17 teams on the UCI rankings at the end of 2010 automatically get in, plus 5 wild cards. So then the onus really will be on who's getting results...

[Phil H]

I'm sad that Skil-Shimano didn't get in. Last year, Kenny van Hummel put in a really heroic performance in the Lanterne Rouge competition and it inspired me.