What's the RCS in cycling?

The RCS, shortened from RCS Sport, is a sports and media company that hosts the majority of the Italian cycling events including the well known grand tour the Giro d'Italia. Based mainly in Italy it also hosts other well know Italian cycling events such as Milan San-Remo, Il Lombardia, Tirreno Adriatico, and Strade Bianche. They also happen to organize and own the UAE Tour. Which is a tad odd, but Italian media and cycling teams do seem to strike a surprising number of deals with middle east counterparts.

The RCS overall has a poor reputation, especially compared to the ASO, the other main cycling sport organization. The Giro, RCS's most prestigious race, is known to be poorly run compared to La Vuelta and the Tour de France and every year has a rash of incidents.

This year's 2023 Giro issues included lack of hotel booking for riders after week one, the final time trial potentially being cancelled due to poor planning (even though the issue could have been spotted during initial stage creation), and deplorable rider transportation between stage finishes and their accommodations.

The RCS also continue to use RAI as their main television and streaming broadcast partner. Rai is known to be incompetent compared to their competitors with televisions coverage dropping all the time in the mountains despite great 5g connection in the area. Rai also has an extremely unusual manner to how they film the stage (no RAI, we don't want to see the back of the peloton all day).

The UCI recently reprimanded RCS over the brutal rider transport off the mountain of stage seven finish during the 2023 Giro d'Italia. Some of the competitors had to take a Gondola down with the local fans while other flew off in helicopters depending on if they paid or not - a clear bias to the wealthier teams.