Tom Pidcock and Q36.5 receive Vuelta a Espana wildcard as Equipo Kern Pharma is controversially out of the mix

The Vuelta a España has unveiled its wildcard invitations for the 2025 edition, and British fans can certainly get excited. But, a certain Spanish team may feel hard done by.

After Equipo Kern Pharma and Euskaltel - Euskadi competed in the Spanish grand tour in 2024, this season it is the turn of Burgos Burpellet BH and Caja Rural Seguros - RGA. This is Javier Guillén's usual rotating system for the Spanish teams. With the third invitation, new this year, the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team of Tom Pidcock will be in action.

In addition to the 3 teams mentioned above, as with the rest of the grand tours, the 18 WorldTeams will be present. The two best ProTeams of last year, Israel - Premier Tech and a Lotto that, as it did in 2024, will skip the Giro but will attend the Tour de France and the Vuelta.

The 3 victories of Kern Pharma in 2024 seem not to have been enough despite the extra invitation, despite how impressive they were. We imagine that the Vuelta will give an explanation for the absence of a team like Kern Pharma lit up the race last year.

It should also be noted that Q36.5, in addition to beating the Spanish teams, has also beaten the other team in contention, Tudor, which had obtained invitations to the Giro and Tour de France, but has not been able to complete the full set.