After news broke that Bardiani-CSF had started a rider at the Giro d’Italia despite having low cortisol levels, which was against MPCC rules, the Italian Pro Continental team has decided to leave the voluntary organisation.

Bardiani never named who the rider was but said it was the team’s fault that he had low levels as they had misinterpreted the rules and it would be wrong to punish the rider by not allowing him to ride for their mistake.

LottoNL-Jumbo rider George Bennett was prevented from starting the race for the same reason. Bardinai says they have misinterpreted the rules of the MPCC but say that the rider had low cortisol levels on the Thursday when the UCI took the test but when they retested don Thursday, they were back to normal. They have not broken any UCI rules in the process.

"We confirm that that we made a mistake on the interpretations of the rules but the rider in question was not responsible for the case and so not allowing him to start the Giro d'Italia would have penalised his future career without it being his fault," team manager Bruno Reverberi argued in an open letter from the team."

"We want to make it clear and underline that the rider started the first stage of the Giro d'Italia on May 9 with normal cortisol values as per the analysis that our doctor sent to the MPCC.”

"We are very disappointed how events were managed, making us look like a team of dopers. We believe the press release was inopportune both in its way and timing because it didn't resolve anything and didn't allow the team to justify and clarify our position. We were condemned even before we gave our defence."

"We want to point out that our team was one of the first to sign up to the MPCC because we believed in the project but the behaviour towards our team – who will never have a rider involved in doping in its line-up – is totally wrong. As a result of the way the MPCC has behaved, damaging the image of our sponsors and the team, we can only communicate that from today our team no longer believes in the Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible (MPCC) and ends our membership without any chance of a change of idea."

Bardiani-CSF is joined by WorldTour teams Lampre-Merida and LottoNL-Jumbo as the third team to leave the MPCC this season.