Giro d’Italia organizer, Michele Acquarone, is not prepared to invite 19 WorldTour teams to the races organized by RCS Sport.

Michele Acquarone is surprised to find 19 teams on the World Tour after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) chose to uphold the appeal by Team Katusha yesterday following the UCI’s refusal to grant the team the proper license on “ethical grounds”. Acquarone acts as managing director of RCS Sport, the organization responsible for the Giro d’Italia, the Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Lombardy and the Strade Bianche.

Following the refusal on the part of the UCI, Katusha wasn’t granted a wildcard for the Giro d’Italia, but as a consequence of the CAS verdict yesterday, the team now has the right to participate in the stage race.

 “What a mess. Now we have 19 teams so I’m curious to see what’s going to happen. We’ve planned everything for 18 teams and then the wildcard teams. We’re not ready for 19 WorldTour teams. Logistically everything has been set up for races like Tirreno and the Giro. I really don’t know how we’d have one more team in the race,” Acquarone told Cyclingnews.com

Acquarone finds it difficult to imagine how the UCI will be able to extricate itself from the current mess, but he is willing to listen to suggestions.

“I’m curious to see what the UCI are going to do. Maybe they’ll take one team out of the WorldTour because as it stands we’ve got an agreement for 18 teams, not 19. I just don’t know. At the moment I think we have to go back to 18 teams but I will speak to the UCI next week and help to work on finding a solution.”