The organisers of the Giro D'Italia -RCS Sport have named the wild card teams for this year's race.
The organisers have named Italian teams Bardiani CSF, Southeast, Androni Giocattoli, Nippo Vini Fantini and Polish team CCC Sprandi Polkowice as the wild card entries for the race which starts on May 9th.
They will compete along the seventeen World Tour teams who are Ag2r-La Mondiale, Astana, BMC Racing, Etixx-QuickStep, FDJ, IAM Cycling, Lampre-Merida, Lotto-Soudal, Movistar, Orica-GreenEdge, Cannondale-Garmin, Giant Alpecin, Katusha, Team LottoNL-Jumbo, Team Sky, Tinkoff-Saxo and Trek Factory Racing,
RCS Sport's Head Of Cycling Mauro Vegni said about the five teams with wild card entrances: “As per every previous year, we reflected deeply on the wildcard choices; an increasingly meticulous process thanks to the quality of the teams that want to participate in our races.
“This year’s choices, especially for the wildcards of the Giro d’Italia, were dictated by the opportunity to support the Italian cycling movement, giving continuity to an overall process without ever losing sight of the goal of international development in strategic territories.”
RCS Sport have also announced the wild card teams for the Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia races.
Bardiani CSF, Bora-Argon 18, Colombia, MTN-Qhubeka and Europcar are the five wild card teams at Tirreno-Adriatico. They along with Androni Giocattoli, Cofidis, CCC Sprandi and Novo Nordisk will compete in the Milan-San Remo.
Androni Giocattoli, Bardiani, Bora-Argon 18, CCC Sprandi, Colombia, Nippo Vini Fantini, Southeast and the Unitedhealthcare team have been named as entrants to Il Lombarida in October.