Paris-Roubaix wild cards awarded

There were few surprises as the organisers handed out wild cards for the Paris-Roubaix Classic today. Twenty-five teams have been selected to take part in the 114th edition of the cobblestone Classic which will take place on April 10.

In accordance with UCI rules, the eighteen UCI WorldTeams are automatically invited to the race. In addition to these eighteen teams, the organisers have awarded wild cards to the following teams: Bora- Argon 18 (Ger), Cofidis, Solutions Crédit (Fra), Delko Marseille Provence KTM (Fra), Direct Energie (Fra), Fortuneo – Vital Concept (Fra), Topsport –Vlaanderen – Baloise (Bel) and Wanty – Groupe Gobert (Bel).

There was no wild card for Filippo Pozzato’s Southeast team and so the Italian won’t be able to improve on his second place from the 2012 edition of the race.

John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) won last year’s race ahead of Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep). The German won’t be back to defend his title after being injured in a training crash in Spain last month, when a driver collided with Degenkolb and several of his teammates.