Bardiani CSF 7 Saber end the season 31st in the UCI team ranking, one place below the threshold for Grand Tour wild cards. There is an online petition to bring them back to the 2027 Giro d’Italia, on Change.org: «Bardiani CSF al Giro d’Italia 2027: l’UCI cambi la regola del top 30 sulle wild card», launched by la fagIAnata.
The last chance was the Veneto Classic on 18 October, the final race that counts for the ranking. Bardiani needed about 60 points more than Euskaltel-Euskadi, and in Bassano del Grappa they did not come. As the rule stands, RCS Sport cannot invite them to the Giro.
In Bassano del Grappa the world champion runs the race
McNulty alone, Bardiani far back
Brandon McNulty, the world champion, won alone, 1’06” ahead of Anthon Charmig. It is the first time a reigning world champion has won the Veneto Classic. Behind them came Pavel Sivakov, Nicolas Berthet, Marc Hirschi, Christian Scaroni, Quinten Hermans, Pau Camprubí, Diego Ulissi, Benoît Cosnefroy and Jhonatan Martí.
No Bardiani rider made the top eleven. The team started with Luca Covili, Edward Cruz, Martin Herreño, Martin Marcellusi, Vicente Rojas, Alex Tolio and Filippo Turconi. Their best was Turconi, 12th at the Giro del Veneto on 14 October: 15th at 3’38”, with 10 points. Tolio was 46th at 7’30”, with no points; Covili, Herreño, Marcellusi and Rojas abandoned.
The pre-race maths does not add up
Before the start Bardiani had 2,664.15 points, Euskaltel 2,723.26. The pre-race maths was tight but clear: with Euskaltel scoring nothing, eighth place, worth 60 points, was enough; with a Basque rider sixth, Bardiani needed the podium.
Euskaltel’s best was Iker Mintegi, 36th at 6’07”, with 3 points; Jon Agirre was 52nd, the others abandoned. Bardiani rise to about 2,674 points, Euskaltel to about 2,726: Bardiani stay 31st, about 52 points behind.
More points than in 2025, one place lower
A year ago Bardiani finished 30th with 2,550 points and made the 2026 Giro by one place. In 2026 they scored more, yet dropped one position: MBH Bank climbed from 47th, Euskaltel from 34th, and the bar went up.
31st place shuts the wild card door
The rule in article 2.1.007 bis
Article 2.1.007 bis of the UCI road regulations ties Grand Tour wild cards to the previous season’s team ranking. The threshold was the top 50 for 2024 and the top 40 for 2025; from 2026 it is the top 30. For the 2027 Giro, the ranking closed on 18 October 2026 is the one that counts.
The 18 WorldTeams and the three best ProTeams get in by right. The organiser picks the other invitations, but only among teams inside the top thirty. Bardiani miss out by one place.
The official figure comes with the final ranking
31st place becomes final when the UCI publishes the final 2026 ranking, with each team’s exact points. From that day it is the number RCS Sport will have in front of it when choosing the Giro invitations.
For now Bardiani are out of the Giro because of the rules, not by anyone’s choice: nobody has decided the 2027 invitations yet. Bruno Reverberi, who has run the team since 1982, has announced an appeal.
Seventeen Giri in a row could come to an end
The Reverberi team has ridden 44 of the 45 Giri d’Italia since 1982; the only absence was 2009, and it has not missed one since 2010. It has won at least 26 stages. Sonny Colbrelli, Giulio Ciccone, Filippo Zana and Giulio Pellizzari all came through it before winning elsewhere.
The team’s history, the 13 October ranking and the scenarios before the last races are in our piece Bardiani CSF 31st in UCI ranking: outside the top 30, 2027 Giro d’Italia wild card in doubt.
The rule has to change
The points are in the invitation-only races
In 2026 the World Tour handed out about 54% of the UCI points in men’s road races, in fewer than one racing day in five. A ProTeam gets in only if it is invited. Bardiani raced 31 of their 181 days there, all by invitation, and took about 12% of their points.
They looked for the rest where invitations do arrive: 46 race days outside Europe, 21 in China alone. No invitations, no points, and no points, no invitations. The top-30 threshold mostly measures who has already been invited.
What the petition asks
Since 18 October the petition is no longer an abstract request: the 31st place is real, and it is Bardiani’s. It asks the UCI to exempt at least one team from the organiser’s country from the threshold, or to stop points from invitation-only races alone deciding who can be invited.
It asks the Italian Cycling Federation and the Lega del Ciclismo Professionistico to take the request to the UCI. It asks RCS Sport, which organises the Giro, to support it.
A rule that weighs on Italy
Italy has no WorldTeam: its teams go to the Giro by invitation. This year the threshold stops Bardiani; next season it can stop any Italian ProTeam that finishes one place lower. Sign the petition on Change.org.
News written with the help of Mnemosyne.
Sources
- UCI, «Titre II – Épreuves sur route, changements au règlement applicables au 01.04.2025 (art. 2.1.007 bis)».
- UCI, UCI road team ranking, 2026 season.
- Veneto Classic, «Squadre».
- Bardiani CSF 7 Saber, «Storia».
- SpazioCiclismo, «Battaglia Top30, la rabbia di Bruno Reverberi».
- Change.org, «Bardiani CSF al Giro d’Italia 2027: l’UCI cambi la regola del top 30 sulle wild card».
- Photo: Martino Photos, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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