Former Giro d'Italia race director Michele Acquarone may have been sacked by RCS Sport but nobody can deny that he did a great job to make the Italian grand tour more popular among both fans and riders. While he still thinks that there is room for growth for the race, he is convinced that cycling needs to be reformed and is in favour of four 2-week grand tours spread around the globe instead of the current three 3-week races which are all held in Europe.

When Michele Acquarone took over the reins as race director of the Giro d'Italia, he faced a difficult task. While his predecessor Angelo Zomegnan had created an exciting race with spectacular and brutal courses, the race was still mostly an Italian affair and many riders had been scared away by the excessive nature of the course.

During his two-year tenure, Acquarone reached out to fans, asked them for input to the course design, used the social media to an unprecedented extent and made the race more popular among both riders and fans. Last week he was sacked by RCS Sport for his possible involvement in the misappropriation of funds but he leaves a great legacy for his successor.

In a lengthy interview with Cafe Roubaix, Acquarone took time to reflect on his achievements during his time at the head of one of the world's biggest races.

" My goal since the first day, September 1st, 2008, when I’ve become Managing Director at RCS Sport and then with even greater force since September 1st, 2011 when I’ve taken over the Giro (and cycling) was twofold: on one hand, to grow the Giro d’Italia and bring it to the level of the Tour de France, and on the other, work with the entire cycling family to develop our sport globally and bring it to the level of bigger sports (tennis, golf, motorsports)," he said. "In both cases we are talking about ambitious goals, but certainly within our reach. I’m sorry to be stopped in the middle of a job that brought big benefits on both fronts."

In 2012 and 2013, the Giro was able to attract more foreign stars and make the race a much more international affair. While Acquarone is happy for the progress, he is still convinced that more needs to be done.

"The Giro has made tremendous strides and today is loved and followed all over the world, but we are still far from the Tour de France that still is for fans and for many riders the main and only goal of the season," he said. If in 2008 the ratio was 10 to 1 Tour – Giro, today is 5 to 1. I guess we’re halfway there. My personal goal was to get to 10 to 8 in 2020. Now we have to see if the Giro will still have the ability and the courage to continue to work as we have done until now."

To close the gap, the new race management need to be courageous and have a clear focus on its base of fans. He points to the recent change of the Milan-Sanremo course as an example of an attempt to make brave changes to historic events.

"Fans are everything," he said. "The larger the public of the Giro, the greater the media interest, the greater the interest of teams and champions. Each of these factors is both driving and driven by others. The most important quality of a good organizer is to be engaging and I think this has been my greatest merit. The Giro is like a wonderful big party and we have to be good to convince many trendsetters to participate and enjoy it."

Recently, new race director Mauro Vegni has played with the idea of Giro starts in the USA or Dubai. While Acquarone admits that it may be better for New York, Washington and Dubai to have their own races than host the start of the Giro, he thinks that the race can still visit new places in future editions.

"Outside Italy, we have unlimited opportunities," he said. "Every child in the world with a bicycle must go to school wearing the pink jersey and dream about racing the Giro. If I was still running the Giro, Africa would be my 2014 target."

While Acuqarone is happy with the progress of the Giro, he laments the current status of cycling as a sport.

"Much rather disappointing results were on the the other front, growth of cycling compared to other sports," he said. "The interests of the various parties are still too fragmented and lacking common goals. The lingering shadow of doping, the totally absurd World Tour regulation and an anachronistic calendar are the main antagonists of a discipline that is struggling to attract new fans.

"To date, the only event that manages to be stronger than all of those problems is the Tour de France," he added. "Everyone should be grateful to the Tour. For many years the Tour de Frace has been able to pull an entire sports movement, but today if we want to go on we need to change in a structural way the basics of professional cycling. I’m not talking about revolution, but just a few targeted changes."

Recently, Vuelta a Espana director Javier Guillen didn't refuse the idea of shortening his race to 2 weeks if it allowed him to boost his line-up of stars. Acquarone is in favour of the idea and wants to host grand tours on other continents as well.

"I am more than convinced," he said about the idea. "For the good of cycling, for the public, for the show, four “two-week Grand Tours” (2 in Europe, 1 in America and 1 in Asia/Australia) would be better than the current three three-week Grand Tours (3 in Europe). And I’m also convinced that in this way we would see Chris Froome, Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali ride in all four “two-week Grand Tours”, and not just in July. This is just one of the changes that we need in order to go forward and have a real and concrete reform of cycling."

Acquarone is still undecided about his personal future.