In a gesture that bodes well for equitability, organizers of the Giro d'Italia and most races in Italy worth racing, RCS, have agreed to a new rule in the team selection procedure for the 2011 Giro. The team that performs the best in the Italian UCI ranked Category 1 and Hors Categorie races will be assured a spot in next year's Corsa Rosa.
The competition for the best Italian team has existed for some time, but now there is an important reward that goes along with the honor.
So far in 2010, Androni Giocattoli leads the standings. CSF (now Colnago) was the winner in 2009, while Diquigiovanni (now Androni) led the way in 2008. Tenax, which is the current De Rosa team, reigned in 2007.
Taking a closer look at the past few years and the teams that won this classification doesn't yield too much. Androni Giocattoli, formerly Diquigiovanni, has been a stalwart at the Giro for a number of seasons, so an overall win in the Italian series will likely not be necessary, and if anything, hurtful to other teams that might otherwise get an invite if they were to win.
CSF, the winner in 2009, did not get an invite to the Giro d'Italia last year following the debacle of the 2008 Giro, which saw their team dominate the race in the mountains and win the team classification by a veritable week, but then it all came crashing down when triple stage and mountain classification winner Emmanuele Sella turned up positive for CERA. Sella later implicated his teammate and also a stage winner at that year's Giro, Matteo Priamo, so it was no surprise that CSF missed out on an invitation.
Teams like ISD-Neri will take solace in this guarantee and will likely put even greater focus on races that are already of the utmost importance to their seasons, since entry into the ProTour races is often dicey at best - as once again seen by ISD's non-selection to the 2010 Giro.