Corriere dello Sera’s renowned journalist Marco Bonarrigo has claimed that numerous Italian riders pay to obtain contracts with teams, with some forced to give back part of their official salary via secret bank accounts and illegal contracts. 

Managers of Italian Pro Continental teams Bardiani-CSF, Southeast and Androni-Sidermec have all denied that this goes on. However, several rider agents says it does happen, with an anonymous agent saying most of the 15 riders he employs pay to race.

“Most of my riders pay, between 25,000 and 50,000 Euro,” the anonymous agent told Corriere della Sera. “Teams registered in Italy ask for more because they have to pay higher pension contributions, those in the Ukraine or Croatia much less. Sometimes the riders’ parents or relatives pay because they want a professional rider in their family. Sometimes a ‘friendly’ company pays and if the sum is high enough can even secure a place on the team jersey.”

Former Tuscan amateur rider Matteo Mammini told Corriere della Sera that he was asked to pay 50,000 Euro to turn professional. Mammini was not a bad rider either, after finishing fourth in the European U23 road race and sixth at the same event at the Worlds, both in 2012.

“I built my dream of becoming a professional with ten years of hard work. My dream was destroyed in two hours during a dinner with a well-known Italian team manager,” Mammini said.

“I thought the invitation to dinner was the turning point in my career. The manager knew all about me and my pro contract was all ready. There was just on problem: I’d have to find the 50,000 Euro to cover my wages. I was shocked but the manager told me of eight or nine of his riders who paid their wages. I asked my bank for loan but invested it in opening a bar in Porlezza overlooking Lake Lugano. That’s my job now. My cycling dream ended terribly.”

And what of the Italian teams? Androni say they have never done this, the furthest they have ever gone with regards to signing riders is signing someone who a sponsor asks them to sign. Meanwhile Southeast say they signed Ramon Carretero (who has now tested positive for EPO) after his father found them a sponsor.

“Request like that arrive but this kind of thing doesn’t exist in the Androni-Sidermec team,” Gianni Savio (Androni) told Corriere della Sera. “At the most we take a rider when a sponsor asks us to, as in the case of sprinter Pacioni.”

“What people have said isn’t true and they’ve dirtied the image of Italian cycling,” Angelo Citracca (Southeast) said of the revelations. “How could I refuse to sign Carretero after his father helped find me a (title) sponsor that helped save the jobs of 30 people?”

While the Italian cycling federation have not yet reacted to this investigation, RCS race director Mauro Vegni, the man in charge of the Giro d’Italia, says that at least one Italian team may miss out on a wild card invitation to his race, the highlight of the season for these teams.

“If the situation is as bad as reported, the Federation and the authorities have to intervene and the riders have to collaborate,” Vegni told Corriere della Sera. “We’re not obliged to invite a team to the Giro d’Italia just because they’re Italian. We study the team’s projects and to be honest I’ve seen very few good projects in Italy. We had four Italian teams in the 2015 Giro d’Italia but there will be fewer in 2016.”