While French pro team B&B Hotels-KTM continues its final fight for survival, Norway's Uno-X Pro Cycling continues to challenge for a possible wildcard entry into the 2023 Tour de France.

B&B Hotels was a wild card selection for the Tour last year, and if they are defeated, Uno-X will definitely have a good chance of making the start line in Bilbao next July 1. If they do, they will be the first Norwegian team to participate in the Tour de France.

Lotto-Soudal and TotalEnergies, which will become Lotto Dstny in 2023, are currently the two most favored teams to get an automatic invitation to the Tour.

Other likely wildcard winners are Israel Premier Tech and Euskaltel Euskadi.

But as Uno-X management told Norwegian media outlet TV2 (opens in new tab), their hopes of securing a final position in the unspoken battle to get to the Tour start line in 2023 may, at least partially, depend on B&B Hotels -KTM's fate may depend on it.

"It is important to make it clear that B&B Hotels-KTM's troubles are not something we are happy about. But we believe we are qualified to participate in the Tour de France," team manager Jens Haugland recently told TV2.

"If there is no French professional team in a position to be invited, our chances of being invited go from "unlikely" to "almost possible."

Uno-X evolved from a Lingerix Craft continental team, serving as a development team in the process, and was promoted to the professional team level in 2020. With one-day racer and 2016 U-23 world champion Christopher Halvorsen and former Tour de Lavenir winner Tobias Halland Johannessen, the team already had a strong lineup in 2022.

With eight Danish riders, Uno-X also hoped to qualify for last summer's Tour de France, which started in Copenhagen, but that did not happen. However, the addition of former Champs-Elysées winner and renowned classics specialist Alexander Kristoff (Intermarque Wanty-Gobert Matériault) to the 2023 roster will further elevate their virtual game.

"To be honest, it's a nerve-wracking time right now. Last week I was in Monaco and Geneva for various meetings with the UCI, teams, race organizers, and other stakeholders." [Last week I had various meetings in Monaco and Geneva with the UCI, teams, race organizers, and other interested parties. But nothing has been decided yet."