Matthew Van der Poel’s team gets Paris-Roubaix wildcard

The organisers of Paris-Roubaix has announced the teams that will be at the start line for its 2020 edition and Mathieu van der Poel’s squad Alpecin-Fenix was officially invited.

Alpecin-Fenix is one of four teams receiving a wildcard bid this year.

The others are B&B Hôtels-Vital Concept, Nippo Delko Provence, and Arkéa-Samsic.

Total Direct Energie and Circus-Wanty Gobert are the other ProTeams that will be in attendance, having secured automatic bids to join the 19 WorldTour teams after finishing 2019 placed highly in the team rankings.

Last week, it was confirmed that the team would be on the startline of Milan-San Remo and Strade Bianche, while their invite to the Tour of Flanders had already been confirmed.

“I always watch the whole thing on television,” Van der Poel said of the 260km epic.

“I’d like to race a wet Paris-Roubaix with rain, cobbles and mud, it’d be wonderful,” he said in December.

A Paris-Roubaix start would mark the van der Poel’s debut in the event. He enjoyed a highly successful campaign across a handful of Classics starts last year, winning the GP Denain, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Brabantse Pijl, and the Amstel Gold Race and finishing fourth at the Tour of Flanders and Gent-Wevelgem.

WorldTour teams to start in Paris-Roubaix (Sunday, April 12):

AG2R La Mondiale (Fra)
Astana Pro Team (Kaz)
Bahrain – McLaren (Brn)
Bora – Hansgrohe (Ger)
CCC Team (Pol)
Cofidis (Fra)
Deceuninck – Quick-Step (Bel)
EF Pro Cycling (Usa)
Groupama – FDJ (Fra)
Israel Start-Up Nation (Isr)
Lotto Soudal (Bel)
Mitchelton – Scott (Aus)
Movistar Team (Esp)
NTT Pro Cycling Team (Rsa)
Team Ineos (Gbr)
Team Jumbo – Visma (Ned)
Team Sunweb (Ger)
Trek – Segafredo (Usa)
UAE Team Emirates (Uae)

ProTeams:

Total Direct Energie (Fra)
Circus-Wanty Gobert (Bel)
Alpecin – Fenix (Bel)
B&B Hôtels – Vital Concept (Fra)
Nippo Delko Provence (Fra)
Team Arkéa – Samsic (Fra)