Marco Pantani was an Italian road racing cyclist, widely regarded as one of the greatest climbing specialists in the history of the sport by measures of his legacy, credits from other riders, and records. He recorded the fastest ever climbs up the Tour's iconic venues of Mont Ventoux (46:00) and Alpe d'Huez (36:50), and other cyclists including Lance Armstrong and Charly Gaul have hailed Pantani's climbing skills. He is the last rider and only one of seven to ever win the Tour de France – Giro d'Italia double, doing so in 1998. He is the sixth of seven Italians, after Ottavio Bottecchia, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Gastone Nencini and Felice Gimondi, and before Vincenzo Nibali to win the Tour de France.
Mario Cipollini, often abbreviated to "Cipo", is a retired Italian professional road cyclist most noted for his sprinting ability, the longevity of his dominance, and his colourful personality. His nicknames include Il Re Leone and Super Mario. He is regarded as having been the best sprinter of his generation.
Paolo Bettini is an Italian former champion road racing cyclist, and the former coach of the Italian national cycling team. Considered the best classics specialist of his generation, and probably one of the strongest of all times, he won gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics road race and in the 2006 and 2007 World Road Race Championships. He is nicknamed Il Grillo for his repeated sudden attacks and his sprinting style.
Danilo Di Luca is a former Italian professional road racing cyclist, best known for winning the 2007 Giro d'Italia, but also for several positive doping tests, the last of which resulting in a lifetime ban from the sport.
Cofidis Solutions Crédits is a French professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by a money-lending company, Cofidis. It was started in 1996 by Cyrille Guimard, the former manager of Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon of the Renault–Elf–Gitane team of the 1980s. The team's sponsor has supported the team despite repeated problems such as doping scandals. After it was part of the UCI ProTour for the ProTour's first five seasons, from 2010 the team competed as a UCI Professional Continental team. The team joined the UCI World Tour for the 2020 season.
Lotto–Dstny is a Belgian professional cycling team at UCI ProTeam level sponsored by the Belgian lottery and Dstny, a business communications provider. The same organisations also sponsor a women's cycling team, Lotto–Dstny Ladies.
Visma–Lease a Bike is a Dutch professional bicycle racing team, successor of the former Rabobank. The team consists of four sections: ProTeam, Women's Team, Development Team, and cyclo-cross.
Cannondale Pro Cycling Team, previously known as Liquigas, was an Italian professional road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour.
Saeco was the name of an Italian road bicycle racing team, sponsored by the company with the same name. They rode on Cannondale bicycles.
The 2006 edition of the men's UCI Road World Championships Road Race took place on September 24, 2006, in the Austrian city of Salzburg. Reigning Olympic champion and Italian Paolo Bettini captured the gold medal and the rainbow jersey as the 2006 World Cycling Champion. The 36-year-old German sprinter Erik Zabel took the silver medal and UCI ProTour winner Alejandro Valverde of Spain captured third place for the bronze medal. A total of 136 cyclists actually finished the race, with Slovakia's Roman Broniš in last place.
Murilo Antonio Fischer is a Brazilian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2004 and 2016 for the Naturino–Sapore di Mare, Liquigas, Garmin–Sharp and FDJ teams. He represented Brazil in five Olympic Games between 2000 and 2016, and competed at thirteen Grand Tours.
Nicolas Portal was a French directeur sportif and professional road bicycle racer. He was born in Auch, France.
Mercatone Uno–Scanavino is a former professional cycling team which was based in San Marino and then in Italy. Throughout the 1990s it was one of the strongest Italian cycling teams in the peloton. The team was sponsored by a chain of supermarkets in Italy.
Francesco Failli is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who competed professionally between 2004 and 2014 for the De Nardi–Piemme Telekom, Naturino–Sapore di Mare, Liquigas, Acqua & Sapone and Neri Sottoli teams. He now competes in mountain bike racing, with the Cicli Taddei team.
Dimitri Konyshev is a Soviet/Russian former road bicycle racer. Over his 17 year professional cycling career, Konyshev won nine Grand Tour stages becoming one of the few riders to win a stage in all three Grand Tours. He won 4 apiece in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, and he also won a single stage in the Vuelta a Espana. Konyshev was the first Soviet and first Russian to win a medal in the Men's Road race at the UCI Road World Championships. He won a Silver medal in 1989 behind Greg LeMond and a Bronze medal in 1992 behind Gianni Bugno and Laurent Jalabert.
Gert-Jan Theunisse is a Dutch former road bicycle racer. He won the 1988 edition of the Clásica San Sebastián one-day race. In the 1989 Tour de France, he won the King of the Mountains competition.
F.I.V. Edoardo Bianchi S.p.A., commonly known as Bianchi is the world's oldest bicycle manufacturing company in existence, having pioneered the use of equal-sized wheels with pneumatic rubber tires. The company was founded in Italy in 1885 and in addition to bicycles it produced motorcycles from 1897 to 1967. In 1955 the joint-venture Autobianchi was created together with Fiat and Pirelli for the manufacturing of cars – Autobianchi was subsequently sold to Fiat in 1969.
The 2006 Scheldeprijs was the 94th edition of the Scheldeprijs road cycling one-day race, held on 12 April 2006 as part of the 2005–06 UCI Europe Tour, as a 1.HC categorized race.
Team Polti Kometa is an Italian-registered, Spanish-based UCI ProTeam cycling team, that was founded in 2018. The team was promoted from the UCI Continental level in 2021.
