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Stefano Garzelli

Garzelli at the 2007 Giro d'Italia
Personal information
Full name	Stefano Garzelli
Date of birth	July 16, 1973 (1973-07-16) (age 36)
Country	Italy
Team information
Current team	Acqua & Sapone
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional team(s)1
1997–2000 2001–2002 2003–2004 2005–2006 2007–	Mercatone Uno Mapei-Quick Step Vini Caldirola Liquigas-Bianchi Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo
Major wins
Giro d'Italia 1st, Overall (2000) 1st, Mountains Classification (2009) 7 stages Tour de Suisse (1998)
Infobox last updated on:
March 16, 2008 1 Team names given are those prevailing at time of rider beginning association with that team.

Stefano Garzelli (born July 16, 1973, in Varese) is an Italian professional road racing cyclist. The high point of his career to date was his overall win in the 2000 Giro d'Italia, after a close three-way competition with Gilberto Simoni and Francesco Casagrande.

Career

He started out as being a domestique for Marco Pantani but proved in 2000 that he deserved much more. When "The Pirate" lacked form in the beginning of the 2000 Giro, Garzelli was left free of all team duties for Mercatone Uno, and was able to fight and win his own battle in the Giro. In the final time-trial stage Garzelli took the race leadership away from Casagrande, who was suffering an inflamed sciatic nerve. Casagrande was devastated, and Garzelli dedicated his win to Pantani.

He is a versatile rider with qualities that include decent sprinting, decent time trials and some good skills in the mountains. Without being a great attacker, Garzelli is very constant and, on a good day, he can go with the best climbers.

After his win of the 2000 Giro d'Italia he was recruited by the Italian super-team Mapei in 2001, aiming to repeat his 2000 Giro success. The start of the season showed promise, with Garzelli being a key player in teammate Paolo Bettini's win in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, with Garzelli himself finishing second. The finale of the race saw Bettini and Garzelli make tactical moves to benefit from each others' aggressions and saw them finish the race with a comfortable margin to decide the win amongst themselves.

However, Garzelli was caught in the 2002 doping scandal in the Giro d'Italia, and was forced out of the race. Many believe that the circumstances of his suspension prompted the Mapei boss Giorgio Squinzi to terminate his sponsorship of the team at the end of the year. "The exclusion of Garzelli, who tested positive for a masking agent, wasn't a normal thing. At the start nothing was found. Later, as soon as he won a stage, a forbidden substance came out all of a sudden. That's bizarre," said Squinzi in an interview.

Garzelli was able to mount a come-back for the 2003 Giro d'Italia and was able to challenge eventual winner Gilberto Simoni in the race. He currently rides for Acqua & Sapone.

Palmares

See also

• List of doping cases in cycling
• List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

References

• Stefano Garzelli Official Web Site
• Cyclingnews.com 2002 Mapei feature
• Giorgio Squinzi: Mapei's anti-doping crusader
• Achievements at Trap-Friis.dk

Winners of the general classification in the Giro d'Italia 1909 Luigi Ganna • 1910–11 Carlo Galetti • 1912* Team Atala • 1913 Carlo Oriani • 1914 Alfonso Calzolari 1915–18 World War I 1919 Costante Girardengo • 1920 Gaetano Belloni • 1921–22 Giovanni Brunero • 1923 Costante Girardengo • 1924 Giuseppe Enrici • 1925 Alfredo Binda 1926 Giovanni Brunero • 1927–29 Alfredo Binda • 1930 Luigi Marchisio • 1931 Francesco Camusso • 1932 Antonio Pesenti • 1933 Alfredo Binda • 1934 Learco Guerra 1935 Vasco Bergamaschi • 1936–37 Gino Bartali • 1938–39 Giovanni Valetti • 1940 Fausto Coppi 1941–45 World War II 1946 Gino Bartali • 1947 Fausto Coppi • 1948 Fiorenzo Magni • 1949 Fausto Coppi • 1950 Hugo Koblet • 1951 Fiorenzo Magni • 1952–53 Fausto Coppi 1954 Carlo Clerici • 1955 Fiorenzo Magni • 1956 Charly Gaul • 1957 Gastone Nencini • 1958 Ercole Baldini • 1959 Charly Gaul • 1960 Jacques Anquetil 1961 Arnaldo Pambianco • 1962–63 Franco Balmamion • 1964 Jacques Anquetil • 1965 Vittorio Adorni • 1966 Gianni Motta • 1967 Felice Gimondi • 1968 Eddy Merckx 1969 Felice Gimondi • 1970 Eddy Merckx • 1971 Gösta Pettersson • 1972–74 Eddy Merckx • 1975 Fausto Bertoglio • 1976 Felice Gimondi • 1977 Michel Pollentier 1978 Johan de Muynck • 1979 Giuseppe Saronni • 1980 Bernard Hinault • 1981 Giovanni Battaglin • 1982 Bernard Hinault • 1983 Giuseppe Saronni 1984 Francesco Moser • 1985 Bernard Hinault • 1986 Roberto Visentini • 1987 Stephen Roche • 1988 Andy Hampsten • 1989 Laurent Fignon • 1990 Gianni Bugno 1991 Franco Chioccioli • 1992–93 Miguel Indurain • 1994 Evgeni Berzin • 1995 Tony Rominger • 1996 Pavel Tonkov • 1997 Ivan Gotti • 1998 Marco Pantani 1999 Ivan Gotti • 2000 Stefano Garzelli • 2001 Gilberto Simoni • 2002 Paolo Savoldelli • 2003 Gilberto Simoni • 2004 Damiano Cunego • 2005 Paolo Savoldelli 2006 Ivan Basso • 2007 Danilo Di Luca • 2008 Alberto Contador • 2009 Denis Menchov *This Giro was contested solely by teams, with no individual classification