The organizers of the Vuelta confirmed this Wednesday the list of the 22 teams which will be at the start of the event on August 26th. After three years of absence, the TotalEnergies team will be back there.
There wasn’t much room for surprises. While the 2023 edition of the Vuelta will be launched on August 26 with a team time trial in the streets of Barcelona, the event’s organizing company has revealed the names of the 22 teams that will be invited to the three weeks. racing to lead the peloton in Madrid. The rules established by the International Cycling Union (UCI) leave little latitude to the organizers regarding the choice of teams that can participate in the Grand Tours.
Indeed, the 18 UCI World Tour teams automatically benefit from a ticket and will all be there. The French teams AG2R-Citroën, Cofidis, Groupama-FDJ and Arkéa-Samsic will therefore be entrusted to the 78th edition of the Tour of Spain. The main formations of the professional peloton will also be there, whether Soudal-Quick Step, victorious last year with Remco Evenepoel, Jumbo-Visma, Ineos Grenadiers or even UAE Team Emirates.
📂 #LaVuelta23
└📁 Teams – Teams
└📁 Guests – Wildcards
└💜 @BurgosBH
└💚 @CajaRural_RGA pic.twitter.com/UgNjFGUFcY— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) March 8, 2023
Euskaltel-Euskadi remains docked
Of the 18 teams involved in the elite of men’s professional cycling, two other teams playing at the lower level automatically benefit from an invitation based on their performance during the 2022 season. Exit from the UCI World Tour for the 2023 cycle -2025, the Belgian team Lotto-Dstny will benefit from one of these jump seats just like TotalEnergies. The team led by Jean-René Bernaudeau will thus participate in its eleventh Tour of Spain, the first since 2020. In 2016, Lilian Calmejane brought the only stage victory for the Vendée team on Spanish roads.
While UCI regulations preempt 20 of the 22 available places, Vuelta organizers are only granted two tickets at their discretion. With three Spanish teams in the “ProTeams” category in 2023, a choice had to be made and the Euskaltel-Euskadi team will not participate in a third consecutive Tour of Spain. Indeed, Burgos-BH and Caja Rural-Seguros RGA received the last two sesames.
