Mathieu van der Poel has indicated that he would like to compete in the 2020 Vuelta a España as he continues to develop as a road rider, but race director Javier Guigen admitted that there were only two.

The route for the 2020 Vuelta a España will be announced in Madrid on Tuesday. The race begins with three stages in the Netherlands, which has not helped Van der Pol's case.

"I only have two wild cards and there are three Spanish Pro Continental teams, so it is almost impossible to invite Corendon Circus," Guillen told the Dutch website WielerFlits (opens in new tab).

"I am very honored that a world-class rider like Mathieu van der Poel wants to ride the Vuelta a España. Not only is van der Poel a huge star in modern cycling, but he also races aggressively. But it's very complicated."

Van der Poel plans to mix road racing with cyclocross and mountain biking again in 2020, and his main goal is to win gold in the mountain bike competition at the Tokyo Olympics. He and his Corendon team are carefully planning their 2020 calendar, with Van der Poel's aggressive racing and success in 2019 ensuring a berth in the major spring classics.

The Corendon team also strengthened its roster for 2020 by signing Sacha Modolo, Petr Vakov, Christian Sbaragli, and British pair Scott Thwaites and Alexander Richardson, Louis Verweke, and Floris de Tia The team also signed a pair of new players.

However, UCI rules limit the Grand Tour to 22 teams of eight riders; the addition of Cofidis to the 2020 WorldTour brings the total to 19 teams, but Total Direct Energie will top the 2019 ranking, The French team has earned an automatic wildcard to the Grand Tour. The French team has been ruled out of the Giro d'Italia, but will compete in the Vuelta.

"That means only two wild cards remain, while three Spanish teams have already begged to compete in the Vuelta: Caja Rural Seguros, Burgos-BH, and Fundacion Euskadi. And we have to disappoint one of them while maintaining our philosophy of promoting Spanish cycling," Guillén said.

"As much as I would like to, it would be next to impossible to invite a team from Juan del Pole.

Willafritz suggested that the two wildcard teams for the Vuelta would be decided after the Iturria-Basque race in mid-April.