In 2018, 89% of the Wild Cards awarded by organizers were granted to MPCC teams. In 2019, the percentage rose to 91%. 100% remains the objective.
At the end of each season, MPCC delivers an infographic to sum up the choices made by the World Tour races regarding wild cards. This infographic aims at showing whether the wild cards were granted to MPCC teams or not.
In 2018, 89% of the World Tour wild cards were granted to MPCC teams. There are usually 3 or 4 wild cards on stage races, and up to 11 on one-day races. This percentage is already a success, but the movement is still aiming at 100% for all of these organizers. 100% of wild cards to MPCC teams would be a great reward for our strong commitment, on a voluntary basis, to stricter ethical rules. In 2019, this figure is increasing, rising from 89% to 91%. We are glad to see that World Tour organizers kept putting their trust in Conti Pro teams which belong to the movement.
The movement is also very satisfied to see that all of the three Grand Tours (Giro, Tour, Vuelta) gave 100% of their precious wild cards to MPCC teams. In 2018, RCS Sport, organizer of the Giro, put one of its 4 wild cards aside for a non-MPCC team. The movement reacted strongly to this decision and is glad to see that, a year later, all of the Grand Tours organizers have put their trust in the teams which rely on MPCC to be on their side so we can fight together for the credibility of cycling.
Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for some of the “monuments” of the cycling season: Milan – San Remo and the Tour of Lombardy are not part of the “100%” category. Same goes for the Ronde Van Vlaanderen, even though they were in the 100% team last year. MPCC urges these organizers to value the message sent by the teams joining MPCC when it comes to the credibility of cycling, and invites the non-MPCC teams that were given wild cards last year to join the movement.
Within the 2020 peloton, 19 teams are registered in the “Continental Pro” division, 16 of them being committed to MPCC. The three non-members teams are Alpecin-Fenix, Uno-X Norwegian Development Team and Vini Zabu KTM. On Wednesday January 8th, ASO made an announcement regarding the wild cards awarded for the Tour de France, Paris-Nice and the Critérium du Dauphiné. All of these wild cards were given to MPCC teams.
MPCC wants to highlight the strong and remarkable commitment of some organizers. This engagement is crucial in order to strengthen the credibility of our sport. It is also important to keep underlining the choices of the few organizers not going that way. Thus, MPCC asks for the wild cards of the 2020 races to be all granted to teams which belong to our movement, and urges the teams yet to join our movement to commit to stricter rules.
