After giving Giro wildcards to Bardiani, Southeast and Nippo, as well as Russian team Gazprom-Rusvelo, RCS and giro head Mauro Vegni spoke about excluding Gianni Savio’s Androni team, saying Italian teams must become more modern or face losing more spots in his race.

“Italian cycling has got to step up from both an organisational and rider point of view,” Vegni told Gazzetta dello Sport as he justified his wildcard choices.

“Nobody is investing in Italian cycling anymore and the best riders leave for other teams. The governing bodies have also got to do something. We’ve helped the Italian cycling movement in recent years and we won’t stop doing that. But we don’t want to create a situation where just being Italian is enough to secure a place in all our races. We want more than that. We want to see how teams plan to grow and develop, how they plan to help Italian cycling as a whole.”

Vegni says he no longer wants to see Italian ProConti teams fielding older riders who had past success in his race, but offering young Italians a chance to grow before going to the WolrdTour. He points out that Italy’s best riders don’t ride for Italian teams: Vincenzo Nibali, Fabio Aru, Davide Formolo, Elia Viviani, Daniele Bennati and Adriano Malori.

“The Professional Continental teams have to be a launch pad to the world of professional cycling, so that they help the young riders develop in everything they do and as part of a clear project. I’m not interested in having old riders, who are referred to as 'the guy who won a race years ago…'” Vegni said. “For me, teams like that come after whoever works to develop the future of Italian cycling. I think cycling teams should offer a development structure like football teams do.”