All 18 UCI ProTeams are invited automatically and obligated to attend, with nine cyclists per team. Two UCI Professional Continental were announced well ahead of time, Androni Giocattoli and Farnese Vini–Neri Sottoli. UCI rules normally limit races to a peloton of 200 riders, but the Giro received special dispensation for a 207-rider peloton, allowing a 23rd team. The three additional invited teams are Acqua & Sapone, Colnago–CSF Inox, and Geox–TMC. Despite talk that ProTeam Vacansoleil–DCM might be excluded to the doping scandals involving team members Riccardo Riccò and Ezequiel Mosquera, they were included pursuant to UCI rules.