Alpecin-Fenix and Arkea-Samsic will receive an invitation from every WorldTour race in 2022 after they were the two best-placed ProTeams in the 2021 UCI World Ranking.
Last season, Alpecin-Fenix started all races of the highest category. An additional advantage for the Belgian team was that the team management did not have to accept those wild cards. It is therefore a right to start, not an obligation to start.
So why Arkea-Samsic now also gets that privilege? The UCI has stated in its rules that with a total of 19 WorldTour teams, the best Pro Team (in 2021 it was Alpecin-Fenix) will receive invitations to WorldTour races the following year.
Since Qhubeka-NextHash no longer has a WorldTour license, there will be ‘only’ eighteen teams at WorldTour level in 2022, and so Arkea-Samsic moves on.
This means that the organizers of the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana must invite Alpecin-Fenix and Arkea-Samsic next year. If the Belgian and French teams accept them, RCS, ASO and Unipublic will have only two other wildcards to hand out according to UCI regulations.
