Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) is all smiles
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Italian wild-card teams have won five stages out of eighteen
As a new Grand Tour promoter, the Giro d’Italia‘s general director Michele Acquarone inaugurated a previously unseen way of communicating about the wild-cards, giving total transparency about the identity of the candidates, the panel of selectors and the reasons of their choices for teams invited to Milan-San Remo, Tirreno-Adriatico, Giro d’Italia and Il Lombardia by RCS Sport.
With three days to go into the Giro d’Italia, NetApp is the only invited team without a stage win but they have animated the race and claimed a second place with Jan Barta at the top of Cervinia. Androni Giocattoli (with Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez and Roberto Ferrari), Colnago CSF Inox (with Domenico Pozzovivo who is also seventh on GC) and Farnese Vini-Selle Italia (with Matteo Rabottini and Andrea Guardini) have all performed and also given the event an interesting media exposure due to the personalities like Gianni Savio, the Reverberis (father and son) and Luca Scinto who run these three teams, respectively, and which have won five stages out of eighteen so far.
“If we look at what the image of what the Giro has to be in a few years time, the eighteen ProTeams are those supposed to do the race,” Acquarone told Cyclingnews in an exclusive interview at the start of stage 18 at San Vito di Cadore. “If we look at Wimbledon [tennis tournament], the top seeds are expected to play towards the final.
“As race organizers, we have in our hands four wild-cards. We see them as a way to create interest prior to the Giro but we don’t select those teams with the idea that they’ll win the overall classification. If they do well, fine, it’s a bonus. This year, the four invited teams have done a lot to promote the Giro in the lead up to the race. NetApp has generated interest internationally, Colnago-CSF Inox has developed young Italian riders, which is something we appreciate a lot, Farnese Vini-Selle Italia has had a good Spring with Filippo Pozzato and
To read the whole story, visit here: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cyclingnews/news/~3/f6s-_0UbRYQ/story01.htm
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