![]() Axel Merckx in 1997 | |
Team information | |
---|---|
Registered | Italy |
Founded | 1994 |
Disbanded | 2000 |
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.
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 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.
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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.
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