Acquarone still suspended

Michele Acquarone, director of races like the Giro d’Italia, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-Sanremo, has been left to his own recently. He has been accused of playing a part in the disappearance of about €13 million from the sports subsidiary of RCS, and RCS Sport has locked him out of its investigation into the missing funds.

“No,” he stated, in an interview with Velonews, when asked if he took the money.

“I’ve never had my hands on the money, the only money I’ve seen was represented in digits on our reports: X amount of income and X amount of costs. My goal was to make sure the accounts were in order and to make the best product possible, a long-lasting one.”

Acquarone’s curriculum comprises jobs like deejay, tennis instructor and lifeguard, and he his career path is anything but normal.  Still, he has worked with RCS Sport since 1999, and has given the company, as well as professional cycling, all he can.

“Now I’m trying to keep my head up and keep busy, trying not slip into depression,” he told VeloNews. “That’s the big risk.”

RCS’s internal investigation forced administrative director Laura Bertinotti to quit, and transferred CEO Giacomo Catano to another department. At the same time media relations director Matteo Pastore and Acquarone were suspended.

“I know there are people that may think I have a hand in this incident, but I’ve always worked with transparency,” said Acquarone. “For example, to select wildcard teams I’ve made sure a team was involved. If it was just one person, then maybe there would be a risk of someone being bribed by a person or a sponsor to have his team selected. That was my first move, to create a five-man panel to avoid these problems.”

“I hope everything is cleared up as soon as possible,” Acquarone said. “Every day at home, though, is a day that I’m not contributing to the company and to cycling. These are important moments now, cycling’s president changed and plans are being made for 2014 and beyond. I hope to return to return to work as soon as possible.”

Hopefully things will work out for Acquarone, and RCS. First of all because if RCS’s investors looses their confidence in the company, the existence of the Giro, and numerous smaller races, could be threatened; secondly because Acquarone has dedicated his life to promoting the Giro and Italian pro cycling, and it is difficult to imagine that he would have anything to do with the missing funds.