Today the organizers of the Tour of Flanders, scheduled for March 31, granted seven wildcards to hopeful Pro Continental teams.

This sees 208 riders on 26 squads take to the starting line in the 97th edition of the Belgian classic.

The organizers did not wish to deviate from their established tradition of according seven wildcards even though the number of WorldTour teams has expanded to 19 following the inclusion of Team Katusha as a result of the CAS verdict.

Wildcards were granted to the following seven Pro Continental teams:

Accent.Jobs-Wanty (Belgien)

Crelan-Euphony (Belgien)

Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise (Belgien)

Team Europcar (Frankrig)

Vini Fantini (Italien)

Team NetApp-Endura (Tyskland)

IAM Cykling (Schweiz)