RCS Sport delays Giro d'Italia wildcard announcement until next week

The candidates for the wildcard invitations to the 2019 Giro d’Italia must wait a little longer to discover if their applications have been successful. An announcement was originally slated for this week but race director Mauro Vegni has explained that the decision has been delayed by a few days while RCS Sport assess the application dossiers in further detail.

"We’re in the home stretch but there are still some small uncertainties, some small doubts to be resolved," Vegni told Tuttobici. "We’re finishing our assessment of the candidates and we’re planning to announce our decision on between Monday, January 21 and Tuesday, January 22."

It is understood that RCS Sport will also confirm the wildcards for Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo at the same time.

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One of the four wildcards for the 2019 Giro is already known, as Gianni Savio’s Androni-Sidermec squad has earned its selection for the Corsa Rosa by finishing the 2018 campaign atop the season-long Ciclismo Cup standings.

Following the implementation of UCI reforms in 2020, RCS Sport will no longer be in a position to select all four wildcards. Instead, two of the four berths will be set aside for the best-ranked Professional Continental teams in the end of season world rankings.

Had the rule been in place for 2019, it would have seen Cofidis and Wanty-Groupe Gobert earn automatic selection for the Giro d'Italia. Last week, ASO announced that it had awarded its first two wildcards for the 2019 Tour de France to Cofidis and Wanty-Groupe Gobert.

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