While Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, Luis Leon Sanchez and Samuel Sanchez are racing to the sun in Paris-Nice, the battle that will get just as much of my attention is the race for Tour de France wildcard spots.

And despite Cadel Evans not being here it could be one of the most important races of his season.

As both the Tour de France and Paris-Nice are organised by ASO, the next week of racing will be critical for teams targeting a wildcard spot into cycling’s Holy Grail.

There’s a general air of confidence in Australian quarters that BMC will get a wildcard due to Evans being the current world champion and his past podium performances at the Tour.

It’s a confidence I share, to a degree. It’s just that I don’t want to count the chickens before they hatch.

Consider the strength of the competition and the history of wildcard selections having a strong French bias.

Also factor in that BMC will be riding Tirreno-Adriatico instead of Paris-Nice. The simple reason for this being that they don’t have the depth to field two teams capable of genuinely competing at this level.

Sure the BMC front line is impressive, with Evans, George Hincapie, Alessandro Ballan, Marcus Burghardt and a few others but the talent dries up pretty quickly and they can’t afford too many injuries.

Plus giving BMC the wildcard would make it four American registered teams in the race. Not a winner with the French public.

In addition, it’s not exactly clear how ASO will make the selection of the 22 teams for the Tour due to changes in ProTour status affecting a number of French teams.

The 19 teams with what appears to be a guaranteed start are the 18 ProTour teams of AG2R La Mondiale, Astana, Caisse d'Epargne, HTC-Columbia, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Francaise des Jeux, Footon-Servetto, Liquigas-Doimo, Milram, Quick Step, Rabobank, Saxo Bank, Omega Pharm-Lotto, Garmin-Transitions, Katusha, RadioShack, Team Sky, Lampre plus the Cervelo Test Team.

So with that in mind, lets take a look at the teams riding Paris-Nice that BMC is up against for one of those three remaining Tour wildcards spots.

BBox Bouygues Telecom: They’ve got French favourite Thomas Voeckler who held the yellow jersey for 10 days in 2004 and won a stage last year. Plus there’s Pierrick Fedrigo who also won a stage last year and is one of the best among the French in the peloton. A pretty safe bet for July in my opinion.

Cofidis: Loved by the French and always in the breakaways with Stephane Auge and former stage winner Samuel Dumoulin. They have a strong argument but they’ll be nervous.

Saur-Sojasun: Another French team but the strongest selling point is the charismatic Jimmy Casper. As entertaining as the little sprinter is surely it’s not enough to get a start.

Vacansoleil: This Dutch team has done some smart hiring purely aimed at the getting to the Tour. Former yellow jersey wearer Romain Feillu and younger brother Brice, who won the mountain top finish in Andorra and wore the polka dot jersey last year, have been added to the team. Plus their sprinter, Borut Bozic, won a stage at the Vuelta a Espana last year. Add to that the Tour starting in Rotterdam. I can’t see them missing out.

Skil-Shimano: Despite having performed well at the Tour last year they don’t have a selling point that can match their rivals and you can’t imagine two wild cards from Holland ahead of one of the French teams. Vacansoleil is far more likely to get the nod ahead of them in 2010.

I would have BMC in along with BBox Bouygues Telecom and Vacansoliel. Unfortunately I’ve got no say in it.

If you were the ASO selector who would you prefer to see receive the three wildcard spots, and who would miss out? Is there a ProTour team that doesn't deserve to be there?