Prize money from GiroBio 2012 to be paid out

Remember that kerfuffle that I talked about briefly last year when the was GiroBio fighting to stay alive and there were some teams unhappy because they had not received a cent of their prize money from the 2012 event? Well nearly two years later, the issue is finally coming to an end...maybe. At the annual meeting of the FCI (Federazione Ciclistica Italiana) that had just finished, it was confirmed that teams and riders from the 2012 GiroBio will finally be receiving their prize money.

Race Director Giancarlo Broci was desperate last year to try and continue the GiroBio even though he owed people money for the 2012 edition and he was way behind in securing sponsors for the 2013 edition. Broci offered a plan to have teams pay 5,000 euro for a place in the race, which would secure the race, but the teams shot that plan down instantly because of the bad precedent it would set between them and race promoters. The race was postponed indefinitely while Broci sought after sponsors to somehow revive the race. At last year's FCI meeting, there were talks of team's non-payment from the 2012 edition of the race and the federation ordered Broci & the organizers to pay out. Well it turns out that the mandate fell on deaf ears because Broci and the GiroBio just decided not to pay out any of the money for the prizes and since this is common place with many races, many just forgot about it. Until now...

The FCI, who was unaware of the non-payment up until now because they believed that Broci and co. would follow through with their ruling from the year prior, were informed by Italian amateur teams of the non-payment and according to VP Daniela Isetti, will be giving money directly to riders and teams, which should have been taken care of in 2012. It is an embarrassing case for the FCI because of their lack of enforcement and complacency in assuming the money would get to where it needed to go. Hopefully there is a follow-up this year to make sure riders are actually paid and it is not just assumed once again.

The 2012 GiroBio was won by Joe Dombrowski (now SKY) ahead of Fabio Aru (Astana) and Pierre Paolo Penasa (retired).

Credit to Ciclismoweb.it for breaking the story on the Wednesday including an update on Thursday.