Tudor's wildcard for Giro d'Italia depends fully on presence of Alaphilippe and Hirschi, report claims

An understandable yet unusual situation seems to be developing in the Giro d'Italia bubble. This Monday evening the route was finally officially revealed, and teams have begun finishing their plans for the race. The race organizers in the meantime have to decide which teams receive the wildcards, but apparently there is a very big controversy brewing.

Cyclingnews talked to Mauro Vegni, race director, who has said that "we haven’t made a decision yet about the wildcards for the Giro, you’ll have to wait a week until we make an announcement”. However, the American news outlet heard different stories over the past few days.

It reports that there are currently talks with Tudor and that the team will receive the wildcard, but only as long as it confirms the presence of Julian Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi, it's new star signings of the 2024 winter. Tudor got a wildcard last year, but with their boost in signings, they hope (and are likely) to get a wildcard for the Tour de France.

With Alaphilippe and Hirschi also being classics specialists, it would combine perfectly combining them with the Tour. However now the team faces that difficult decision. It is said that if the team does not accept those terms it will not receive a wildcard for the race, and it will end up going to Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team who may have Tom Pidcock ready to lineup.