Team Uno-X will ride in the Tour de France after receiving the wildcard invitations at the 2023 edition of the race.
General manager Jens Haugland recalls his phone call with race director Christian Prudhomme. “It was a very, very friendly phone call. He had a good laugh, and I had to spend quite a lot of time after that call just to remember everything. He asked me if we were ready for 2023 because we’re going to race the Tour de France,” Haugland told Cyclingweekly.
He experienced a range of emotions. "I just started screaming. There were a lot of emotions. I have devoted a lot of time to trying to make sure this happens. It’s just huge, enormous for a young team like ours.”
It has been ten years since a Scandinavian team participated in the event. “We’re not in the Tour de France because we're nice people. We’re in the Tour de France because we have a very good cycling team, and that acknowledgement from the organiser is of course, enormous for Norwegian and Scandinavian cycling.”
Haugland and his team will not be focused on overall race classification but rather on achieving victories in individual stages. “We’re not going to be defensive, we’re going to be very positive and attacking in our racing. No one can tell me that we are not able to win a stage in the Tour de France this year,” concluded Haugland.
The sun’s race ☀️ A huge moment and opportunity for our project. Merci! 🙏🇫🇷
⭐ Teams #ParisNice 2023 ⭐ ➡ The 18 UCI WorldTeams. 🌎 ➡ 🇧🇪 @lotto_dstny, and 🇫🇷 @TeamTotalEnrg, qualified via their 2022 UCI ranking. ➡ 🇳🇴 @UnoXteam and 🇮🇱 @IsraelPremTech, invited by the organizers.
