Alcare Samsic, B&B Hotels Vital Concept and Total Direct Energy will join 19 WorldTour teams in the 2020 Tour de France peloton after race organizer ASO announced a wildcard invitation Tuesday morning. [ASO gave two wild cards to the Arkea Samsic team of Nairo Quintana, Nasser Bouhanni, and Warren Barguil, and the B&B Hotels Vital Concepts team led by Brian Coquard and Pierre Rolland.

Total Direct Energie has earned an automatic invitation to all World Tour events in 2020 based on its 2019 results, but Jean-Rene Bernadeau's team has already confirmed that it will not compete in the Giro d'Italia, and RCS Sport able to allocate three wildcard slots.

The team led by Jérôme Pinault will be making its first Tour appearance with the B&B Hotels-Vital concept, having missed selection in both of its first two seasons in the peloton. Circus Wanty-Gobert, which has competed in the last three Tours, missed out on a wild-card berth this time around due to the off-season transfer of French talent Guillaume Martin to Cofidis.

ASO has invited the same four wild card teams each of the past three seasons, and three of those teams will participate in 2020; Cofidis, which has competed in every Tour since 1997, earned a spot by earning promotion to the World Tour in 2019. Total Direct Energie has been a constant presence since the team was founded as Bonjour in 2000, and Arkea Samsic has raced every July since 2014.

Despite this seeming stability, the competition for the wild card spot has become increasingly fierce as ASO has just two slots at its disposal in 2020 instead of the usual four. Arkea Samsic has ensured its participation with an ambitious transfer campaign that has landed Quintana, Bouhanni, Dan McRae, Diego Rosa, and Winner Anacona.

On Tuesday, ASO also announced that Total Direct Energie had won the Paris-Nice selection.

B&B Hotels-Vital Concept, Circus-Wanty Gobert, and Arkéa-Samsic received wild cards in the Criterium du Dauphiné.

The 2020 Tour de France will start a week earlier than usual to avoid conflicts with the Tokyo Olympics. The Grande Palais will be held in Nice on June 27, and the race will conclude in Paris on July 19.