Teams in next year’s Grand Tours will feature a maximum eight riders rather than nine, in a bid to improve rider safety on the road.
Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana organisers ASO and Giro d’Italia organisers RCS Sport, alongside Flanders Classics, agreed to reduce team sizes in races from next season at their annual meeting.
![](https://storage.googleapis.com/fm-coresites-assets/rcuk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1-tour-de-france-peloton.jpg)
Alongside eight-rider teams for the Grand Tours, races which previously featured team sizes of up to eight riders – including Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders – will now have a maximum team size of seven riders.