The centenary edition of the Giro D’Italia will be a gala affair. The best 21 cycling teams in the world will compete from Venice on the 9th May until they finish in Rome on the 31st May.
 
RCS Sport, the organizer of the Giro D’Italia, have only invited teams that meet their exceptional international standards of professionalism, reliability, ethics, quality and conduct.

Team Barloworld clearly have impressed RCS Sport with their commitment to their Team values namely integrity, commitment, teamwork and excellence.  This will be Team Barloworld’s second consecutive invite to the Giro D’Italia.
 
Team Barloworld’s line-up will contain South African’s Robert Hunter and John-Lee Augustyn together with Columbian super-star climber Mauricio Soler.

Soler will aim to stamp his authority on the race. The 3,395.5 km race features six mountain top finishes. It is well documented that both Soler and Augustyn excel in such terrain. The final line-up for the race has not been announced, but one can be sure that Team Manager Claudio Corti will only select riders in top condition.
 
The late wildcard invitation is a good omen believes Chris Fisher, Head of Corporate Marketing at Barloworld, as it is reminiscent of the late wild card invitation that Team Barloworld received to the 2007 Tour De France.

It was during this race that Team Barloworld, against all odds, burst onto the international cycling stage when winning two stages as well as the King of the Mountains jersey. 

The full list of teams invited is:

Acqua & Sapone
AG2R La Mondiale
Astana
Barloworld
BBox Bouygues Telecom
Caisse D’Epargne
Cervelo Test Team
Garmin-Slipstream
ISD
Lampre-NGC
Liquigas
LPR Brakes
Quickstep
Rabobank
Silence-Lotto
Diquigiovanni
Team Columbia – High Road
Team Katusha
Team Milram
Team Saxo Bank
Xacobeo Galicia