Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France, has explained why he has handed wild card inviataions to MTN-Qhubeka, Bretagne-Seche, Cofidis, Europcar and Team Bora-Argon 18.

“MTN-Qhubeka has Eritrian rider Natnael Berhane, who won the 2013 Tour of Turkey. Bernard Hinault saw him and other young Eritrean riders a few years ago at the Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon and when he got back he said “They remind me of the Colombian riders in the eighties but must be given time to mature. When they are ready, they will hurt!" Moreover, this team has recruited experienced riders like Boasson-Hagen, Bos, Farrar and it has a real nice cycling development project in Africa.”

He gave Bora-Argon 1 (previously NetApp-Endura) a wild card based on their great performance in the 2014 Tour de France, where Leopold Konig finished in seventh place.

“This team has a new German sponsor. It's leader (in 2014, but now part of Team Sky) Leopold König finished in the top 10. Bora-Argon 18 has Dominik Nerz in its new line-up, who is a very promising young rider from BMC. He's 25 and was 18th at the Vuelta a Espana while working for his then team leader Cadel Evans,” Prudhomme said.

“I went to see this team in December, in Bavaria. The German media believe he has a lot of potential. The team also has Czech rider [Jan] Barta, who finished third in the time trial at the 2014 Tour de France.”

Then, as expected, he gave wild cards to the three French teams. It was almost a formality that they would ride, after Europcar were last minute dropouts from the WorldTour, and Cofidis and Bretagne-Seche have significantly strengthened this offseason. They also feature some of the stars of French cycling, like Pierre Rolland, Thomas Voeckler and Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis). Cofidis also has a GC man and 2014 Vuelta a Espana stage winner and top ten finisher Daniel Navarro.

"Europcar is no longer in the WorldTour but the idea of not selecting this team never crossed our minds,” Prudhomme said.

“Pierre Rolland was 11th last year, after finishing fourth in the Giro d'Italia. That means something. His performance went a little unnoticed in the media because there were three French riders (Peraud, Pinot and Bardet) ahead of him. In 2011, he won the stage to Alpe d'Huez, which is at the end of this year's Tour and so will be even more crucial than in previous years. Europcar also has Thomas Voeckler, Romain Sicard and Bryan Coquard, another French sprinter.”

"The name that stands out (at Cofidis) is of course, that of Nacer Bouhanni. We'll be very happy to see him go up against the best sprinters in the world, such as Kittel, Cavendish, Greipel, and see him face (Arnaud) Démare at the Tour.”

“Bretagne-Séché Environnement was given a chance in 2014 and took it. We appreciated that they went on the attack every day and ended the Tour with nine riders. It has strengthened its squad this winter with (four time Tour stage winner) Pierrick Fedrigo as road captain. Jonathan Hivert also arrived in the team, while Eduardo Sepulveda is a Argentinian climber who wasn't able to ride last year because he was sick. There's always Brice Feillu who was the fifth best French rider in the 2014 Tour.”