The Total Direct Energy team revealed that despite earning an automatic invitation to the 2020 Giro d'Italia, it declined the opportunity so that it could focus on other goals during the season.

The French team finished first in the 2019 Professional Continental Ranking and earned an automatic invitation to all WorldTour races in 2020. However, Total Direct Energy, which consists of just 24 riders, admits that trying to compete in every race on the WorldTour calendar would not be a success. Instead, the team chooses its goals and race programs carefully.

The team did not specify which, if any, World Tour races it will miss during the 2020 season. They will concentrate on the Tour de France, run the Vuelta a España as a second Grand Tour, and choose other races that suit 2018 Tour of Flanders winner Niki Terpstra, Frenchman Lilian Calmejane, and Italian sprinter Nicolo Bonifazio. Predicted.

Teams are likely to concentrate on French Cup races in their home countries rather than traveling long distances to several World Tour races.

Calmejane and the others were forced to chase ranking points late in the 2019 season, so there will likely be a less intense race program in 2020.

"After talking to the team's sports management, we decided not to go [to the Giro d'Italia]," team manager Jean-Rene Bernadeau told the Total Direct Energi website.

"Going (to the Giro d'Italia) is too risky from a sporting point of view. The team is not strong enough to hope for success in Milan-San Remo, Flanders, the Giro d'Italia, and the Tour de France."

"While we are pleased to have finished first in the Professional Continental Ranking last October, our recruitment plan was almost complete. There wasn't enough time to make changes to the team."

"We had to make some changes to the team.

A total of 22 eight-man teams will compete in each Grand Tour; 19 teams will participate in the 2020 World Tour, with Cofidis joining the current 18 teams next season and the Israel Cycling Academy taking over Katusha-Alpecin.

The absence of Total Direct Energy gives Vecchini a chance to support Italian cycling, and he is hoping that next year's Corsa Rosa will be joined by the three remaining Italian professional continental teams (Androni Giocattoli Sidermec, Bardiani CSF Faizane, and Neri Sottoli Serre Italia) could participate. Meanwhile, Nippo-Vini-Fantini has disbanded, in part due to the reduction of wildcard slots for the 2020 Giro.

The 2020 Giro d'Italia will start in Hungary in May and end in Milan on May 31.