The organizers of the Giro d'Italia have published a graphic on Facebook listing eight ProConti teams that have legitimate chances of one of the four open wildcards for the race next May. Among the teams listed is NetApp-Endura, currently the most important German professional team.
Manager Ralph Denk's Raublinger team can already look back on a successful first participation in 2012. With the Czech Jan Barta and the Pole Bartosz Huzarski, the team managed to place on the podium twice in stages. A success considering that the actual captain, Leopold König, had to watch the race on TV due to an injury. Things went better for the young Czech this year. At the Vuelta a España he showed his class and, in addition to a stage win, also secured a top 10 finish in the final classification. So it's quite possible that the Giro makers will consider the NetApp-Endura team. Should that be the case, Paul Voss, a strong German driver, will also be able to look forward to a start.
Other German drivers can also hope to start at the Tour of Italy, because with MTN-Qhubeka there is another team at the start with some Germans in the ranks. Above all, it is important to refer to Gerald Ciolek and Linus Gerdemann. While the winner of Milan-San Remo could do spot landings, especially in the medium-difficult sprint stages, hopes for the overall ranking should lie more with Gerdemann, especially since he was signed for it.
But that's not all. Because even in the United HealthCare team, which has a US license, there is a German in Robert Förstemann. With two stage wins in 2006 and 2007, the fast-paced Markkleeberger can look back on some experience in Italy.
The other teams are the Spanish team Caja-Rural, the Italian team Bardiani-CSF, the Swiss formation IAM around the German-Australian Heinrich Haussler, the Colombia team and the Novo Nordisk team. A wild card has already been given to the Androni team, which as the best Italian ProConti team enjoys almost automatic starting rights.
One looks in vain for another Italian team in this list: Team Yellow Fluo, which raced under the name Vini Fantini this year and had to report two spectacular doping cases with Danilo di Luca and Mauro Santambrogio. However, according to the organizers of the Giro d'Italia, the marketing agency RCS, the team is not yet out of the race. Matteo Cavazzuti, spokesman for the RCS, told the online platform Velonation that Yellow Fluo has simply not yet submitted any documents. Whether this will happen is an open question. The team, like all other ProConti teams, would have until December 18th anyway.
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