It would be a rather unusual choice that A.S.O. intends to officially announce in the next few hours. According to Le Parisien (which reportedly learned the news from internal channels), the Tour de France organizers have decided to complete the list of participating teams for the 2026 Grande Boucle by awarding the remaining two wildcards to TotalEnergies (and so far, being a French team, no surprise) and Caja Rural-Seguros RGA.

For the Spanish team of Fernando Gaviria, current Olympic gold medalist in the Madison Iúri Leitão, Spanish time trial champion Abel Balderstone and our Stefano Oldani, this would be a historic first time on the roads of the world's most prestigious race, a manifestation from which, if their presence is confirmed, the other transalpine team in the running, namely Unibet Rose Rockets, would be excluded.

The disappointment for the latter, which became nominally French last year to circumvent the Dutch ban on advertising gambling-related brands, would be significant, given that in the last two years, Bas Tietema, Josse Wester, David van der Viel and their partners have invested considerable resources to elevate the roster's quality (see the signings of Dylan Groenewegn and Wout Poels) and professionalize the team at all levels with the clear intent of securing an invitation to the 2026 Tour.

However, apparently, despite the evident progress made in recent seasons and the excellent results obtained in these first weeks, for A.S.O. the time is not yet ripe to have the effervescent tricolor ProTeam at the start of the Grande Boucle, which, if the exclusion were ratified, could find consolation by knocking on the door of the Giro d'Italia.

Indeed, with three wildcards now available to the organizers following Cofidis's withdrawal, RCS Sport could seriously consider inviting, in addition to Bardiani CSF 7 Saber and Polti-VisitMalta (which, being Italian, should likely get the first two passes), precisely Bas Tietema's team, setting aside the idea of distributing the last invitation to one of the other two teams (Burgos Burpellet BH and Equipo Kern Pharma) that, having finished 2025 among the top 30 in the UCI team ranking, could aspire to it.

These last two, with Caja Rural already rewarded with Tour participation, could see their desire to take part in a Grand Tour fulfilled this year by being credited with an invitation from the Vuelta España organizers, to which, given the confirmed presence of all three entitled teams (Cofidis, Pinarello-Q36.5 and Tudor Pro Cycling), exactly two cards remain to be assigned for next August's edition.

Essentially, if all Grand Tour organizers were to move in this way, every ProTeam that finished in the top 30 of the last UCI team ranking (and thus eligible for Giro, Tour, and Vuelta wildcards this year) would be accommodated and could enjoy the visibility assured by the three weeks spent under the spotlight of the main stage races in the calendar. However, before all these pieces potentially fall into place, we must wait for the official announcement of the Tour de France choices, from which, once again, the decisions regarding other races will cascade.