I see this morning that pro squad Ceramica Flaminia is offering contracts to the best riders in the baby Giro or Girobio. This race is a mini Tour of Italy for riders aged under 27 and its list of winners includes many who went on to star in the real Giro d’Italia.
Only this offer from Ceramica Flaminia sounds wrong. First, if you do come first or second in the race then you can probably name your price with a Pro Tour squad. For example Quick Step recruited 2008 winner Dario Cataldo, the rider from Abruzzo was an agressive rider in the recent Giro, confirming his talent.
Next, if you turn pro then hopefully you’ve done it clean but landing on the same team as Ricardo Ricco is not going to get you off to the best start. Not that this team is particularly dodgy, other Italian teams harbour cheats too, it’s more that a smaller team like this don’t have the back-up of coaching support so a rider can fall prey to the wrong ideas.
It’s a nice stunt from Ceramica.