"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Teams at the Giro

This are the 22 Teams to start at the 85th Giro d´Italia :

Acqua e Sapone (Ita)
Cantina Tollo (Ita),
Alessio (Ita)
Domo-Farm Frites (Bel)
Fassa Bortolo (Ita)
Gerolsteiner (All)
Index Alexia (Ita)
Kelme (Esp)
Lampre (Ita)
Lotto (Bel)
Mapei (Ita)
Mercatone Uno (Ita)
Once (Esp)
Phonak (Sui)
Rabobank (PBS)
Saeco (Ita)
Tacconi (Ita)
Team Coast (All)
Tiscali (Dan)
Telekom (All)
Panaria (Ita)
Colombia-Selle Italia (Col)
Landbouwkrediet (Bel)

Banesto will not take part, because the Giro will not be shown in Spanish television. I don´t understand, but that´s it.

I see a lot of ITA....Lot of Italian teams! My buddy was telling me that the Italians are on the brink of being suspended from racing for awhile.

1. What Italians, and why?

2. Don't forget - a team's nationality is determined by the majority nationality of it's riders.

Cheers...Gary

Banesto and now Once will not start at the Giro.
Official statement was, because of the Giro is not broadcasted on Spanish TV. Sounds a bit strange.
Maybe they fear those notorious Italian doping controls... who knows...

Originally posted by gmason
1. What Italians, and why?

Scroll down a bit on this page: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/index.php?id=2002/apr02/apr06news

Apparently, some none-italians are reported to their respective countries with iBanesto having big problems: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/index.php?id=2002/apr02/apr07news

According to Cyclingnews, iBanesto wasn't even invited. This is probably one reason for that.



2. Don't forget - a team's nationality is determined by the majority nationality of it's riders.

Isn't nationality determined by where the team is registered? I believe one French team in a recent TdF only had a couple of French riders taking part (I may be mistaken about that). But perhaps you mean in a different way?

/Csson

Isn't Acqua e Sappone/Cantina Tollo one team? I love the name Acqua e Sappone. I guess that's one Italian team that's "squeaky clean." :D

Actually, Gary, a team's nationality is determined by which national sporting federation they happen to be registered with. If I started a new team packed with Belgians and registered it with the Canadian Cycling Fedaerion, it would be a Canadian team.

Aqua e Sapone and cantina Tolla ARE the same team.

There are a lot of Italian teams in the Giro because the Giro d'Italia is Italy's national grand tour, sanctioned by the Italian cycling federation.

I have heard nothing about the Italian teams being suspended en masse, though the Italian police have been particularly agressive with their doping raids lately.

Banesto and ONCE will not start the Giro largely as a protest. Also, a sponsor sponsors a team to get exposure for the trademark. There's no point for a Spanish bank [Banesto] and a Spanish lottery [ONCE] to show off their logos if there won't be any Spanish viewers of the event. Teams exist at least in part to be marketing vehicles for their sponsors.

And that's all for now.

It´s no mystery that a lot of Italian teams are invited to the Italian Giro. It´s the same story with the French TDF and the Spanish Vuelta. But I´think the big top ten teams have to be forced to ride those big three stage races. In my opinion it´s a shame that Banesto and Once don´t take part at the Giro. Top teams shouldn´t behave that way.

Hmmm ... the current UCI regs (2.16.008) say:

The nationality of the Trade Team shall be that held by the largest number of riders of a single nationality included in the registration request and approved by the UCI.

Did I misunderstand that?

Cheers...Gary

The nationality of the team is only based on the home of the team, that is were they got their license.

For example: team FESTINA's nationality was Andorra. How many riders came from Andorra do you think? Exactly: none of them.


By the way: today Domo-Farmfrites announced that they won't compete in the Giro.


Just my 2 cents.

Timo

So the UCI has it wrong? That is a quote from the regs, word for word (I know that's redundant).

Cheers...Gary

The only possibility is that they changed the rules.

I checked "Wielerrevue" team presentations 1993 to 2001 and in every issue Andorra is given as team nationality.

Hmmm. But on the other side the UCI website gives France as nationality for 1998-2001.

Cheers,
Timo

This quote is from the 2002 regs as posted on their Web site. And it doesn't show that it is a change this year (or recently, as far as I can tell).

BTW, I am not at all questioning the rationality of your statement, simply that the governing body of the sport says something else.

Are there enough people in Andorra to form a team? ;)

Cheers...Gary

And the womens' team Alfa Lum is registered as a San Marino team.

Are there enough San Marinan women cyclists to form a team?

Once again, in the changes made on August 15 of this year, a Trade Team for 2003 is defined as:

2.16.008 The nationality of the Trade Team shall be that held by the largest number of
riders of a single nationality included in the registration request and approved
by the UCI.

Still raising the question of Andorra. :D

Cheers...Gary