RadioShack has taken Giro di Lombardia organiser RCS Sport to the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS). The American team has asked CAS to arbitrate over what it calls “the sudden non-invite to the Tour of Lombardy”. RCS Sport released the 25-strong team list last week; as well as RadioShack, it also left out ProTour team Footon-Servetto.
The non-invitation to Lombardia is the latest chapter in a season of strained relations between the two parties; RCS Sport owns many of the biggest races on the Italian calendar, including the Giro d’Italia, Milano-Sanremo and Tirreno-Ariatico.
“Team RadioShack has immediately summoned RCS SPORT before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (CAS), seeking compensation for damages due to the nonfulfillment of the contract between Team RadioShack and RCS Sport regarding the participation in the Tour of Lombardy,” said the team statement.
RadioShack was not on the start line of the Giro d’Italia in May, although the team claimed that it had told RCS Sport that it didn’t wish to participate; the Italian tour clashed with the new position of the Tour of California, where the American team’s priorities lie.
RadioShack then claimed that due to its informing RCS Sport that it would be putting California before Italy it led to the team’s non-invitation to Tirreno-Adriatico. Relations appeared to have improved though when a personal call between RadioShack’s Lance Armstrong and RCS Sport race director Angeo Zomegnan secured an invitation to start Milano-Sanremo; Zomengnan was reportedly less than impressed though, when the American himself was not on the start line.
Tension between the two parties date back to last year’s Giro d’Italia when Armstrong and director sportif Johan Bruyneel, then both at Astana, were allegedly at the centre of a rider protest as the race crossed the city of Milan.
“CAS has been asked to rule on the case as soon as possible,” the team’s statement concludes.