Team Polti

Last updated
Team Polti
Axel Merckx.jpg
Axel Merckx in 1997
Team information
RegisteredItaly
Founded1994 (1994)
Disbanded2000
Discipline Road
Team name history
1994
1995
1996–2000
Polti–Granarolo
Polti–Granarolo–Santini
Polti

Team Polti was an Italian professional cycling team. It became an independent team in 1994, after the separation of Lampre-Polti, and was active until 2000. Team Polti began in 1994 with Gianluigi Stanga as directeur sportif and Vittorio Algeri and Claudio Corti as managers. The team used Fausto Coppi bikes. [1] Other directeur sportifs included Giosuè Zenoni, Antonio Bevilacqua and Giovanni Fidanza. Team Polti gave Richard Virenque a chance after he was ejected from the 1998 Tour de France and while maintaining his innocence, his former teammates at Festina admitted taking EPO. Virenque joined Team Polti for the 1999 and 2000 seasons where he won the Mountains classification at the 1999 and 2000 Tour de France. In July 2007, Former Team Polti rider Jörg Jaksche admitted use of performance-enhancing products and alleged that this began when he was competing with Team Polti in 1997. Jaksche alleged that directeur sportif Gianluigi Stanga introduced him to EPO during the Tour de Suisse in 1997. Stanga immediately denied the accusations. [2] Throughout its seven-year history, the team rode Fausto Coppi branded bikes and Santini provided the team with their striking cycling kit.

Contents

Major wins

Related Research Articles

Fausto Coppi Italian cyclist

Angelo Fausto Coppi was an Italian cyclist, the dominant international cyclist of the years each side of the Second World War. His successes earned him the title Il Campionissimo. He was an all-round racing cyclist: he excelled in both climbing and time trialing, and was also a great sprinter. He won the Giro d'Italia five times, the Tour de France twice, and the World Championship in 1953. Other notable results include winning the Giro di Lombardia five times, the Milan–San Remo three times, as well as wins at Paris–Roubaix and La Flèche Wallonne and setting the hour record (45.798 km) in 1942.

Rolf Aldag German road bicycle racer

Rolf Aldag is a former professional road bicycle racer who rode for Team Telekom from 1993 to 2005. He raced in 10 Tour de France, 1 Giro d'Italia and 5 Vuelta a España. Prior to joining Telekom, he raced with Helvetia. Beginning in 2020, Aldag works as directeur sportif for the Canyon–SRAM team. In 2007 Aldag admitted to doping -- having used Erythropoietin (EPO) from 1995 to 1999.

Claudio Chiappucci Road cyclist

Claudio Chiappucci is a retired Italian professional cyclist. He was on the podium three times in the Tour de France general classification: second in 1990, third in 1991 and second again in 1992.

Saeco was the name of an Italian road bicycle racing team, sponsored by the company with the same name. They rode on Cannondale bicycles.

Luc Leblanc is a retired French professional cyclist. In 1994 he was the World Road Champion.

Serhiy Honchar road bicycle racer

Serhiy Gonchar is a Ukrainian former professional road racing cyclist. He is a former world time trial champion (2000). Due to a temporary spelling error in his passport, he is often incorrectly called Honchar.

Franco Pellizotti Italian road racing cyclist

Franco Pellizotti is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2001 and 2018 for the Alessio, Liquigas–Doimo, Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec and Bahrain–Merida teams. Pellizotti now works as a directeur sportif for the Bahrain–McLaren team.

Mirko Celestino Racing cyclist

Mirko Celestino is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, specializing in the classic cycle races. His biggest career achievements to date include winning the monumental classic—Giro di Lombardia, the classic HEW Cyclassics and two-time winner of the semi-classic Milano–Torino. Since retiring from road racing, Celestino has been active in mountain bike racing, achieving a silver medal at the 2010 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2011 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships.

Matteo Tosatto Road bicycle racer

Matteo Tosatto is an Italian former road racing cyclist. He rode as a professional between 1997 and 2016, with his biggest personal victories coming in stages of the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France.

Stefano Zanini road bicycle racer

Stefano Zanini is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, the leadout man for Liquigas-Bianchi in 2006, after riding for Mapei, Saeco Macchine per Caffè, and Quick-Step.

Dario Cioni road bicycle racer

Dario David Cioni is a retired English-born Italian professional road bicycle racer.

Udo Bölts German racing cyclist

Udo Bölts is a retired German racing cyclist, the brother of Hartmut Bölts. Bölts confessed publicly in 2007 to having used EPO and growth hormones in 1996 and 1997.

The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning sprints at certain places along the route, most often called intermediate sprints. The points classification is the top prize for many cycling sprinters and is often known as the sprint classification; however, in some stage races these classifications are based on different criteria.

Riccardo Riccò Italian road bicycle racer

Riccardo Riccò is a former professional road bicycle racer from Italy. He is suspended from all competition until 2024. He was previously ejected from the 2008 Tour de France for doping violations and suspended. Riccò returned to competition in late 2010, but in February 2011 he was fired by his team, Vacansoleil–DCM, after he became seriously ill allegedly through a self-administered autologous blood transfusion. He then signed to UCI Continental team Meridiana-Kamen.

Jeroen Blijlevens road bicycle racer

Jeroen Johannes Hendrikus Blijlevens is a retired road bicycle racer from the Netherlands, who was a professional rider from 1994 to 2004. He now works as a directeur sportif for UCI Women's Team CCC Liv, and has also worked as a cycling co-commentator at Eurosport Netherlands.

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.

Festina (cycling team) cycling team (1989-2001)

Festina is a former professional cycling team that was active in the professional peloton from 1989 to 2001. The team was sponsored by Spanish watch manufacturers Festina.

Bianchi (cycling team) cycling team

Bianchi was an Italian professional cycling team that was sponsored by and cycled on Bianchi Bicycles. A Bianchi cycling team existed in 1899 which implies that Bianchi was sponsoring professional cycling at a very early stage in the sport. It appears that the team existed from 1899 to 1900, then from 1905 to 1966, then from 1973 until 1984. It existed again in 1993 and for the last time in 2003, as Team Bianchi. In addition Bianchi has been a co-sponsor of many cycling teams.

Gewiss–Ballan was an Italian based road bicycle racing team active from 1993 to 1997, named after sponsor Italian Gewiss. The team was successful in the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France as well as several classic during the early 1990s.

Vini Zabù–KTM Italian cycling team

Vini Zabù–KTM is an UCI Professional Continental team whose license is held in Italy, and consists mainly of Italian riders and staff.

References

  1. "Team Polti 1994". the cycling website. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  2. "Jaksche admits taking banned substances & blood doping". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2007-12-31.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Team Polti at Wikimedia Commons