Fuji not invited to Giro d'Italia

2 comments
By AFP | Thursday, Jan 29, 2009 10.38am

Spanish cycling team Fuji, formerly known as Saunier Duval, have not been invited to participate in this year's centenary edition of the Giro d'Italia.

The race organisers released their first list of participants for the 9-31 May race on Wednesday, including 14 of the 18 ProTour-licenced teams.

Cofidis, Euskaltel and Francaise des Jeux have decided not to take part in the Giro d’Italia, but Fuji were eligible for selection based on their ranking.

Tainted by doping scandals involving former riders Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli (both of whom were sacked by the team), Fuji have also been left out of the Giro organisers' two other major races: Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo.

Six second-rank teams - Acqua e Sapone, Cervelo, ISD, LPR, Serramenti and Xacobeo - were invited to take part in the Giro.

Teams invited to compete in the Giro d'Italia (as of 28 January):

  • Belgium: Quick Step, Silence
  • Denmark: Saxo Bank
  • France: AG2R, Bouygues Telecom
  • Germany: Milram
  • Ireland: LPR
  • Italy: Acqua e Sapone, ISD, Lampre, Liquigas
  • Kazakhstan: Astana
  • Netherlands: Rabobank
  • Russia: Katusha
  • Spain: Caisse d'Epargne, Xacobeo
  • Switzerland: Cervelo
  • United States: Garmin, Columbia
  • Venezuela: Serramenti

© AFP 2009

You can follow BikeRadar on Twitter at twitter.com/bikeradar and on Facebook at facebook.com/BikeRadar.

You might also like...

User Comments

There are 2 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 2 of 2 comments

  • Thats pretty crappy as I can name most teams on that list as having had riders that have doped in the past and they are still racing.

    So SDV had 2 riders on CERA but look at other teams. The riders that were posative were booted out of the team and no longer race.

    Why and how can you say the whole team is at fault.

    Tom Boonan snorts coke - does it make the rest of his team coke addicts - dont think so.

    This is blantly unfair against the team - if the other riders in the team had posative tests then I could understand.

  • G'day

    Disappointing to not see Cofidis on the list. Anyone know why?

    Andrew

Post a Comment:

You need to login or register to post comments.