For the 2001 Tour de France, the organisers felt that the previous edition did not include not enough French teams and consequently changed the selection procedure as follows.
Postal Service was selected because it included the winner (prior to disqualification) of the previous edition, Lance Armstrong.
Team Telekom was selected because it included the winner of the 2000 UCI Road World Cup (Erik Zabel).
Mapei–Quick-Step was selected because it won the team classifications in the 2000 Giro d'Italia Kelme–Costa Blanca was selected because it won the team classifications in both the 2000 Tour de France and 2000 Vuelta a España.
[1] Although initially it was announced that four wildcards would be given, the tour organisation decided to add five teams:[1] In total, 21 teams participated, each with 9 cyclists, giving a total of 189 cyclists.