The first Grand Tour of the season, the Giro d’Italia, has only half of its starting teams signed up to the MPCC. The number of individual members remains relatively stable.
The 107th Giro d’Italia took off from Piemonte on Saturday with just 11 of the 22 starting teams members of the MPCC. Three of the four Pro Teams who have been awarded a wild card are members of our association : Israel-Premier Tech, Tudor Pro Cycling Team and VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè. The Italian outfit, taking part in its fifteenth consecutive Giro, joined us seven years ago and Tudor Pro Cycling Team was one of the last teams to commit to credible cycling, almost a year ago.
On an individual scale, the Giro peloton features 53 MPCC members from 18 different teams. These figures confirm a certain stability in the pack at each start of the Grand Tours over the last two years or so (between 50 and 55 riders). On the other hand, the number of teams represented shows that riders can commit to the MPCC on their own beliefs.
We therefore encourage the MPCC riders to persuade their teammates and employers to join our movement, while emphasising that the membership is based on volunteering.
The MPCC would also like to point out that only one of the 176 starters of this Giro d’Italia has been suspended in the past. Two other riders have been disqualified from races but have not been suspended for more than six months for an anti-doping rule violation.
