Bretagne Armor-Lux hopes for Tour start

Since Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme mentioned in mid-January the Bretagne Armor-Lux team in the same sentence as the start of the Tour de France, the team has been hoping it might be on the list of invitations for the Grand Tour's start July 5 in Brest. One of the team's financial partners is linked with the Brest regional council.

The team may be encouraged by the latest developments in the ongoing spat between the UCI and Tour organizers. Non ProTour organizers now have the prerogative to choose the teams invited to their races. No longer are the organizers compelled to invite all ProTour teams plus some number of wild cards. RCS Sport, organizers of the Giro d'Italia, may have set a precedent last week for the other Grand Tours by inviting teams like the Swiss squad NGC Medical while declining to invite four ProTour teams.