TOO MANY COOKS

Every year there’s a huge furore over the Giro wild cards. In the final analyses, the shortlist is neither here nor there. RCS invite Androni (as winners of the Italian championship), Bardiani (because their roster is exclusively Italian), who ever Claudio Corti happens to be managing and, by public demand, Luca Scinto’s mob. Then they bluster about safeguarding Italian cycling, and throw those left kicking their heels a bone by inviting them to Roma Maxima and Sanremo. Their seasons and sponsorships now pretty much in tatters, these teams thank RCS profusely for having even considered them, and ultimately shuffle off to ride the Quatre Jours de Dunkerque.

The point is that none of it makes any sense. RCS make subjective judgments about them, simply because they don’t have the budget/ points/oligarch to be in the WorldTour merrygo-round. Meanwhile the French teams, for example, send their hitters to the Dauphiné, their chaff to the Giro. They don’t actually want to be there but are simply fulfilling a fatuous contractual obligation.

The issue, of course, is the UCI maximum of 200 riders, in effect 22 nine-man teams. Those who miss out are invited to races where RCS doesn’t have to provide them with bread, board and prizes for three weeks. Those races have 25 teams of eight. And that’s the thing…

As regards the racing itself, nine-man teams are a catastrophe. The best of them (US Postal, Banesto, Molteni…) shackle the peloton, and kill the spectacle. Cycling’s great virtue was always that the little man could – and often did – escape. Only that’s not happening any more, is it? Almost no one stays away, and virtually nothing happens before the final climb.

Give us seven-man teams, 25 if necessary, but give them to us now. Give the likes of MTN and IAM the rides they deserve, but most of all give the public something to actually watch.