This week, RCS Sport has announced the list of wild cards for its italian races. The invitations for the Giro d'Italia were awarded to Italian teams Bardiani CSF, Nippo-Vini Fantini and Southeast-Venezuela. Russian Gazprom-Rusvelo team received the last invitation.

Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec will not be present at the next edition of the first three-week race of the season. Owner Gianni Savio explained that this decision has come as a surprise and could spell the end for them. "We will continue the season and honour all of the races and we have many races all over the world. We also have the wildcard for Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo but I prepared the team for the Giro d’Italia not for Tirreno-Adriatico," Savio told Cyclingnews.

"There is the possibility that at the end of the season the team will disappear after 20 seasons", he added. "The second is that the team starts from scratch. I have had some challenges in my sporting life but always I have fought back. Because of my character, I want to continue, I don’t want to stop. It depends on my sponsors. During the Giro d’Italia we will decide if we will finish with a gala to remember the 20 years of activity or if I will be able to continue."

Androni have had a difficult season last year. Davide Appollonio and Fabio Taborre both tested positive. "I know that last year was not a bad year but for the two criminals who doped. Never have I put pressure on my riders. This was very bad and this was crazy because doping in Italy is a crime and so if one man makes a crime he is a criminal. Sure, this was bad and we stopped for one month, and so we have had no bad season because we won 11 races, but because of these two dopers it put a question over the wildcard."

"I was not sure but I thought that we would receive the wildcard. We have always honoured the Giro. This year is 20 years of our team and during these 20 years we have always honoured the Giro,", he concluded.