Giro d’Italia wild cards - Garzelli is back

According to RCS member Stefano Diciatteo this is how the
'Giro wild cards vote' ended. / Picture from Twitter.

Today RCS revealed the final three wild cards for this year’s Giro d’Italia and not surprisingly Colombia - Coldeportes, Vini Fantini & Bardiani-CSF all made the cut.

Inviting Vini Fantini also means that RCS are giving Stefano Garzelli a chance to ride his last Giro d’Italia after he was left out last year (read more about that here). Garzelli has already won the KOM jersey twice in the Giro and in his last race he wishes to make it three despite hard competition from some of the other wild card teams. Especially Colombia - Coldeportes will have their saying in that competition as they are set to bring pure climbers like John Darwin Atapuma, Fabio Duarte and Esteban Chavez to the race.  

Bardiani-CSF won’t have Domenico Pozzovivo and Gianluca Brambilla to back this year, but Sacha Modolo will be interesting to follow in the sprint finishes while Enrico Battaglin, Stefano Pirazzi and youngun Francesco Manuel Bongiorno will get a chance to shine in the mountains.

It’s clear to see that RCS, with these wild cards, are giving Italian cycling a helping hand after what happened last year with Team NetApp. New swiss team IAM Cycling and Kastusha were both left out, despite very strong riders on the team, and even though Kastusha still have a chance (depending on the CAS hearing) to ride the Giro, IAM Cycling must feel a bit overlooked by RCS.

What do you think? Did RCS invited the right teams? Leave you comment below!

Garzelli to decide his future within two weeks

Update 23/12-2012: Italian newspaper La Gazzetta reports that Stefano Garzelli will sign with Vini Fantini for 2013. Garzelli has his eyes on winning the KOM jersey in the Giro for the third time in his career.

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Stefano Garzelli.

Last year Stefano Garzelli was close to sign a contract with Bjarne Riis and Team Saxo Bank, but decided to stay with Acqua e Sapone in order to finish his career with the Italian team after Giro d’Italia. Unfortunately RCS Sport didn’t want to give Garzelli the opportunity to do so as they left out Acqua e Sapone when they handed out the wild cards.

Missing out on the Giro was probably also the reason why Acqua e Sapone decided not to continue their sponsorship in 2013 and therefore Stefano Garzelli now needs to find out if he won’t to continue his career elsewhere or let this be his last season in the peloton.

It’s no secret that Garzelli’s wish always has been to end his career after the Giro, which he won in 2000, but his brother and agent Marco Garzelli, tells me that the current situation with the UCI point system makes it difficult to find a team guaranteed a spot in the Giro next year.

“Stefano had a lot of problems this year and therefore he doesn’t have many points. It’s all very complicated right now. We will know within the next two weeks”, Marco Garzelli tells C-Cycling.

Stefano Garzelli wasn’t present at the Giro d’Italia presentation last month as he the night before was in the middle of “one of the most horrible situation” of his life. The extreme flood in southern Spain had Garzelli and his wife and kids fear for their life as tried to escape the water in the middle of the night. “I was supposed to be riding Giro di Lombardia, but my injury had me to relaxing on the couch instead. I can’t even imagine what would have happened if my wife had been home alone with the kids. This made me once again realize that missing out on races aren’t that important after all”, Garzelli said after the incident.

Gianni Savio and his Androni team are known for giving riders a last chance and after saying good bye to José Rujano and being sure of a Giro invitation next year, maybe this could be a place for Garzelli to end his career? Time will tell… 

Exclusive interview - Stefano Garzelli

Stefano Garzelli

Stefano Garzelli had planned to end his long glorious career after the Giro d’Italia this year, but since his team Acqua e Sapone didn’t get an invitation, Garzelli suddenly had to decide he if wanted to continue his career at all. I had a talk with the Italian veteran about the future and to clarify what happened with Bjarne Riis last summer.

Stefano, I'm very sorry to learn about the missing invitation to the Giro d'Italia. It must have been a big chock for you? 
Indeed. After what I managed to do last year in the race, I really didn’t expect this decision. I think I gave a lot to the Giro last year.

Do you find it disrespectful by the RCS not to invite you after all you have given the Giro? 
It’s beyond just lack of respect. I find it very hard to accept. I don’t understand why they have invited teams with less potential among their riders than we have. Beside myself we have two very talented young riders in Taborre and especially Betancur who would be our key rider for the GC. I would have liked to teach Betancur how to win a Giro but unfortunately that won’t happen now. 

Have you considered riding another season in order to be able do ride the Giro next year?
To be honest I won’t exclude it. I have already got an offer to continue one more year, but I will have to take my time and find out if I really want to keep on with the training and make all the sacrifices that go with it. If I can’t see the point in doing it, I will rather stop now because I will not continue riding my bike if I can’t compete with the best riders. 

I know you had planned to end your career after the Giro. How do you find the motivation to continue training without having the Giro to look forward to? 
Well, after I got the news [about not being invited to the Giro] my first thought was to stop my career. At my age it’s difficult to keep up the motivation and make sacrifices when the race that matters the most to you has been taking away. But after I had some time to think about it, I sat myself new goals starting with Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-San Remo. I think this will be a good way to end my career as well.

Recently La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote that you would sign with Team Saxo Bank after Tirreno in order to ride the Giro. Is there any truth to that? 
I would have liked to, but unfortunately the regulations doesn’t allow it [Read here why not].

I know you were talking with Bjarne Riis last summer about a contract. Can you explain the reasons for not signing with Riis back then? 
Bjarne contacted me last year and we talked about it, but the problem was that I already had a contract with Acqua e Sapone for 2012. I talked with my team [Acqua e Sapone] about changing, but they made it clear to me that it would jeopardize their participation in the Giro and therefore I decided to not change. I could have insisted [on going to Saxo Bank] but because of our relationship I didn’t want to do it. 

So there is no possible way you will be able to ride the Giro d'Italia this year? 
In 2008 when we weren’t invited the decision was final, so I don’t have any hopes left now.

To end this interview I can tell that Stefano Garzelli just became father for the 4th time. He tells that for him 2012 is now already a success. “What more could I ask for than a lovely family and a good health”, he explains to me. Hopefully his newborn son Leonardo will help him getting through a difficult start to the season.

Interview - Stefano Allocchio (Sport Manager, RCS)

Stefano Alloccio, Sport Manager at RCS

After knowing about the wild cards for the Giro d’Italia this year, Alberto Celani and I reached out to former Italian sprinter Stefano Allocchio who is now Sport Manager at RCS Sport, the organization in charge of the Giro.

I was hoping to hear more about the decisions behind the wild card invitations and if cycling is now more money and marketing than passion and enthusiasm, but unfortunately Stefano Allocchio didn’t want to elaborate on Michele Acquarone’s blog. 

That means that what could have been the more interesting part on the interview more or less got cancelled, leaving the following as the remaining part of the interview. 

Stefano, leaving the wild card questions and moving on to a sporting view of the Giro d’Italia. What do you expect of the first stages in Denmark? 
I look forward to three important stages in Denmark. I think it could be very similar to the first three stages in Holland two years go. Even the stages characteristics are similar.First a time trial and then two stages which aren’t so easy to interpret. The wind could play an important factor. I expect a lot of people along the roads and real fight for the first Maglia Rosa.

And what do you generally think of this year’s route. Who does it favor?
I think it’s a very beautiful Giro route with good possibilities for any kind of rider. I also think it’s not as easy as many journalist around the world think it is. I see it very similar to the Giro in 2010 won by Ivan Basso. He should be one of the favorite even though it’s early already to speak about this.

Which one of the stages is your own personal favorite? 
Even though I was a sprinter in my own career, I can tell you that without any doubts my favorite Giro stage in 2012 is the one to Stelvio [stage 20, edt.] with Mortirolo and the finish line at 2758 meters above sea level.

Having been a sprinter yourself, what do you think of today’s sprint finishes? Last year we saw less sprints won by a long, strong lead-out train than earlier. Is that's a new trend?
I don’t think it’s a real “trend”. On the contrary, I think every mass sprint is different from the others and also, a good sprinter has to be able to win by himself without help from anybody.

Last year got shadowed by the horrific crash and death of Wouter Weylandt. What has RCS done to improve the safety on the roads in 2012? Are you talking with riders on how to make it better? Like we have seen in Motorsport? 
What happened to Wouter Weylandt has been a tragic fatality and it has nothing to do with race safety measures. RCS Sport has always been at the top on riders safety on its races. Of course we will continue on this path in 2012 and in the coming years to be on top of the athletes safety.

Last question and another topic. Cyclocross and Track Cycling are losing appeal in Italy. Do you think RCS can play a role in the renewal of these disciplines in a country rich in tradition like Italy? Do you think it would be possible with a Cyclocross event at Parco Sempione or a track event at Vigorelli to save this monument of cycling?
I perfectly understand what you are talking about, since I has been a track rider too, but I have to admit that time wait for nobody and maybe these disciplines are in the past of a rich tradition country as Italy too. I don’t think it will be possible to renewal these disciplines. Unfortunately.

On a side not Stefano Allocchio also put an end to the rumors that the epic finale on Montelupone will return in this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico. Something that Purito, among others, had hoped it would. “It will return in the future though”, Allocchio assures.