Announcing the teams invited to the Tour de France is sometimes a headache for the organizers. Between the legitimate desire to help the national teams and that of taking, without asking questions, the best in the world ranking, ASO, the organizer, sometimes hesitated. Some years, he waited until spring and his Paris-Nice race to decide. In 2025, the organizer announced his decision only on March 31, delighted to know that the international federation was granting him a 23rd team.
Which saved him from a tough choice between the excellent Norwegian riders of Uno-X, the Swiss of Tudor and their new leader Julian Alaphilippe and the historic French riders of TotalEnergies. Like in fan school, everyone won. In 2024, the decision fell much earlier, on January 18 with the selection of TotalEnergies and Uno X.
According to our information, ASO is heading, for the 2026 Tour, towards an equally anticipated announcement since the names of the two invited teams should be known this Friday. There will be 23 teams but the regulations have changed slightly since last year. The 18 WorldTour ranked teams, the equivalent of the first division, obviously have their ticket. And for the other five places, the allocation is done as follows: the first three teams in the ProTeams rank (the second division) in the UCI world ranking as of October 19, are automatically taken.
Which will therefore benefit two Swiss teams. The Tudors by Julian Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi. And Q36.5 from the Englishman Tom Pidcock, winner in particular of the Alpe-d’Huez stage in 2022 and who had proclaimed his disappointment at not being able to compete in the 2025 Tour with his new team. The third automatic ticket will be for the French Cofidis, who lost their place in the WorldTour this year, in particular because of a completely failed Grande Boucle under the leadership of their manager Cédric Vasseur, who has since left.
A little newcomer from Spain
The last two invitations remain at the discretion of the organizer. But the latter should be legitimistic. In addition to the first three ProTour, he should invite the fourth and fifth. For the fourth, that’s good: it’s the Vendée outfit TotalEnergies, now led by Stéphane Heulot. Nothing more logical. Still invited to the 2025 Tour, she shone in particular thanks to the unexpected 10th place in the final for her climber Jordan Jegat. And participation in the next Grande Boucle is even more vital because TotalEnergies’ sponsorship will end at the end of the year. And that the team must shine to find a new partner and avoid the fate of the Bretons of Arkéa who had to go out of business.
The last guest should be a newcomer who will discover the Tour de France: the Spaniards from Caja Rural -Seguro. A little-known team in France, even if it has just enlisted the Colombian sprinter Fernando Gaviria (ex-Movistar). This invitation, in turn, should dampen the premature ambitions of an officially French team: Unibet Rose Rocket.
We should therefore not see sprinter Dylan Groenewegen or Frenchman Victor Lafay, winner of a stage two years ago, in their flashy jersey. But it would be complicated to criticize ASO for not helping a French team. Unibet Rose Rocket is totally of Dutch culture and origin. It just took out a French license in 2025 because Dutch law now prohibits advertising for online betting (Unibet being a sports betting site). But this artificial change of nationality will not have offered him the jackpot of participation in the next Tour de France.
