Organizers of the Giro d'Italia, RCS Sport, have announced the twenty-two teams that will be at the start line of the the 2010 edition of the race on May 8th in Amsterdam. Only fifteen of the ProTour teams made the list with Euskaltel-Euskadi and Française des Jeux being overlooked. The RadioShack team of Lance Armstrong was also left off the list, but there had been doubts since January as to whether the American team wanted to contest the event given the Tour of California's move to May.
The biggest surprise was the exclusion of the Italian based ISD-Neri team, who rode aggressively in the Giro d'Italia last year. Their line-up includes 2005 King of the Mountains winner Jose Rujano, former under-23 world champion Dmytro Grabovskyy and former Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti. Rujano showed his form with a recent win of the Tour de Langkawi, and with the mountainous route of the Giro this year, he believed he had a shot at victory. ISD-Neri were passed over for the Colnago-Csf Inox team of Sacha Modolo, who finished fourth in this weekend's Milan-Sanremo. The Giro d'Italia has close ties with Colnago, with founder Ernesto making a recent trip to Washington DC with race director Angelo Zomegnan for a possible race start in the US Capital for 2012.
Aside from the obvious shock of ISD-Neri, most disappointed with the news will likely be Dutch teams Skil-Shimano and Vacansoleil. Zomegnan had already informed the teams of the decision, but with the event starting in their back yard, it will be difficult news for both teams to digest. They will now hope for a wild card in the Tour de France this July which will start in Rotterdam.
The Ceramica Flaminia team of Riccardo Riccò were also left off the list as Zomegnan pointed out last week. Riccò had wanted to make a grand reappearance to the peloton in Milan-Sanremo and then take part in the Giro d'Italia, but his decisions of the past are coming back to haunt him.
Good news came in the form of an invitation for the BMC Racing team of World Champion Cadel Evans. The Pro Continental team has bolstered its lineup this year with former World Champion Alessandro Ballan and US national champion George Hincapie. The new British Team Sky also made the cut after a strong start to the season, and French teams Bbox Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis were also given wild cards after being downgraded from the ProTour. Also the Acqua & Sapone team of recent Tirreno-Adriatico winner Stefano Garzelli made the cut, and will see the former Giro d'Italia winner ride aggressively to defend his mountains classification win from last year.
Six teams have been placed on the reserve list in case one of the selected teams has an issue with participation: Carmiooro-Ngc, Ceramica Flaminia, ISD-Neri, De Rosa-Stac Plastic and Dutch teams Skil-Shimano and Vacansoleil.
The three-week race begins on May 8th in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and ends on May 30th with a time trial in Verona, Italy.
Teams for the 2010 Giro d'Italia:
Acqua & Sapone
Ag2r-La Mondiale
Androni-Diquigiovanni
Astana
Bbox Bouygues Telecom
BMC Racing
Caisse d'Epargne
Cervelo TestTeam
Colnago-Csf Inox
Cofidis-Le Credit en Ligne
Footon-Servetto
Garmin-Transitions
HTC-Columbia
Katusha
Lampre-Farnese Vini
Liquigas-Doimo
Milram
Omega Pharma-Lotto
Quick Step
Rabobank
Team Sky
Saxo Bank