Cycling: What the sparrows have already whistled from the rooftops has now been confirmed. The 2018 Tour de France will take place without Team Vital Concept. This means that top sprinter Bryan Coquard has to do without a start again. Included instead: The Wanty-Groupe Gobert team with Guillaume Martin from our section 5 to watch.
Coquard changes – and just watches again
The 2017 Tour de France already started in Düsseldorf without top sprinter Bryan Coquard. At that time, the young Frenchman fell out with the bosses of his Direct Energie team, so that he was not nominated for the Great Loop. So Coquard took his consequences: he switched to the French team Vital Concept, with the absolute belief that thanks to him the team would then receive a wildcard for the 2018 Tour de France. But in the past few weeks it has been indicated that nothing will come of these dreams. Three wildcards seemed already for the teams anyway Direct Energy, Fortuneo-Samsic and Cofidis being reserved. So the decision was made between Wanty-Groupe Gobert and Vital Concept. The tour organization has now - surprisingly for some - awarded the last wildcard to Belgium. Guillaume Martin, who was already #2017 overall in the 23 Tour de France, should be happy about this.
🚲⭐ SELECTION DES ÉQUIPES 🚲⭐ / 🚲⭐ TEAMS SELECTION 🚲⭐
WILD CARDS: @TeamCOFIDIS@TeamDEN_fr @Fortuneo_Samsic @TeamWantyGobert #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/6YPpcyHaQf
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) 8 January 2018
The wildcards for Paris-Nice and the Critérium du Dauphiné were also awarded
After all, the Vital Concept team received a wild card for the Critérium du Dauphiné. However, this can only be described as very small consolation, since the Tour de France is particularly important to the teams from France. The Equipe Delko Marseille Provence KTM is at the start at Paris-Nice.
🏔⭐ SELECTION DES ÉQUIPES ⭐🏔 / 🏔⭐ TEAMS SELECTION ⭐ 🏔
WILD CARDS: @TeamCOFIDIS@VitalConcept_CC @Fortuneo_Samsic @TeamWantyGobert #Dauphine pic.twitter.com/PHuPLA1SsH
— Critérium Dauphiné (@dauphine) 8 January 2018
☀ SELECTION DES ÉQUIPES ☀ / ☀ TEAMS SELECTION ☀
WILD CARDS: @TeamCOFIDIS@TeamDEN_fr @Fortuneo_Samsic @Delko_MP_KTM #ParisNice pic.twitter.com/DCViORDVVh
— Paris Nice (@ParisNice) 8 January 2018