It’s still not completely certain what will happen next season in terms of participation in the Grand Tours and other races run by those organisers, but the Euskaltel Euskadi team has indicated that it doesn’t want to compete in the Giro d’Italia.
“The Giro d’Italia is not covered in our programme,” team manager Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano told the publication Gara, “and if we are forced to ride it will be a problem for us. Three Grand Tours would force use to review programmes that, over the past two years, have given us great satisfaction.”
The team finished 13th in the world rankings this season, meaning that it was well inside the expected criteria to be used next season. According to a press release issued by the UCI during the world road race championships, the top 18 teams in the world will be automatically entitled to compete in the races run by those Grand Tour organisers. These include the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España.
An alternative criteria is being hinted at by Giro organiser Angelo Zomegnan, who said that his race might stick with the Varese agreement signed in 2008. This would give 17 teams the right of participation, but UCI President Pat McQuaid told VeloNation this month that he was confident that the more recent agreement would be in place.
The Euskaltel-Euskadi team missed out on the race this year, as it did in 2009. A strong Vuelta a España is important for the team, and it believes that tackling three Grand Tours in one year is too much to do at the top level.
If it is indeed allowed to withdraw from competing in the event, it would either open the door for the nineteenth team, BBox Bouygues Telecom/Europcar, or for a wildcard entry.