Michele Bartoli

Michele Bartoli (born 27 May 1970, in Pisa) is a retired Italian road racing cyclist. Bartoli was a professional cyclist from 1992 until 2004 and was one of the most successful single-day classics specialists of his generation, especially in the Italian and Belgian races. On his palmarès are three of the five monuments of cycling—five in total: the 1996 Tour of Flanders, the 1997 and 1998 Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the 2002 and 2003 Giro di Lombardia. He won the UCI Road World Cup in 1997 and 1998. From 10 October 1998 until 6 June 1999, Bartoli was number one on the UCI Road World Rankings.

Considered one of the most versatile riders of his generation, Bartoli won a variety of classics. He won most of the major Italian one-day races—apart from Milan–San Remo—and was Italian national champion in 2000. In Belgium, he excelled in both the cobbled classics of Flanders and the hilly races in the Ardennes, which earned him the nickname Il Leoncino delle Fiandre ("The Little Lion of Flanders"). In addition to the classics, Bartoli has also won stage races, such as Tirreno–Adriatico and the Three Days of De Panne, and won two stages in the Giro d'Italia. He finished third in the world championships of 1996 and 1998.

1996–1997: MG–Technogym In 1996, he joined the MG–Technogym team of manager Giancarlo Ferretti. He became a specialist of the classic races and claimed his first career monument win in the 1996 Tour of Flanders after an attack on the Muur van Geraardsbergen and a 16 km solo to the finish. In summer, he was 19th overall in the Tour de France, before winning the Italian summer classics Giro del Veneto, GP di Larciano and Giro dell'Emilia. He finished third at the World Championships in Lugano behind Johan Museeuw and Mauro Gianetti.

In 1997, Bartoli won his first Liège–Bastogne–Liège, after distancing his last breakaway companion, Laurent Jalabert, in the final kilometre. His slender build (179 cm and 65 kg), combined with his feline ability to accelerate on steep climbs, made him the quintessential contender for the hilly Ardennes classics. At the end of 1997, he won the UCI World Cup, confirming his status as the most regular classic race specialist.

1998: World number one with Asics In 1998, he transferred to the Asics team and had the most successful season of his career. He won his second Liège–Bastogne–Liège, again before Laurent Jalabert, after a long solo attack. In May, he won the GP of Aargau Canton in Switzerland and the thirteenth stage in the Giro d'Italia. Later in the year, he won Züri-Metzgete, his second World Cup race of 1998, as well as the Giro di Romagna, and finished third in the World Championships in Valkenburg behind Oscar Camenzind and Peter Van Petegem. He ended the season as world number one on the UCI Road World Rankings and won his second consecutive UCI World Cup. During his years with MG and Asics, Bartoli was helped by his friend and team mate Paolo Bettini, who became Bartoli's prime lieutenant in the races.

1999–2001: Mapei In 1999, Bartoli and Bettini joined Mapei, the most successful classics team of the 1990s. He won Tirreno–Adriatico, the Brabantse Pijl and the Flèche Wallonne in the spring of 1999, but failed to win a monument race. In the 1999 Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Bartoli, seeking his third consecutive win, was distanced by rising star Frank Vandenbroucke and finished fourth behind his helper Bettini. In May 1999, Bartoli broke his kneecap in a crash in the Tour of Germany, which ended his season.

He returned to racing in 2000, but his Mapei teammate Paolo Bettini demanded a leading role, eventually leading to a feud between the two friends. In the summer of 2000, he won the Italian National Championship in Trieste and the Grand Prix de Plouay, before entering the Olympic road race in Sydney. Helped by his Italian teammates Bettini and Danilo Di Luca, he won the sprint for fourth place, finishing just outside the medals. He repeated his fourth place at the World championships.

In 2001, Bartoli won Omloop Het Volk early in the season, but failed to win another major spring classic. He left Mapei—exceptionally mid-season—to re-join Ferretti at the new team. In October 2001, Bartoli and Bettini's rivalry culminated during the world championship road race, during which Bartoli refused to work for Bettini. Bettini finished second in the sprint behind Spaniard Óscar Freire; Bartoli was 23rd.

2002–2004: Final years With , he re-lived some of his former successes by winning the 2002 Amstel Gold Race and the 2002 and 2003 Giro di Lombardia.

In 2004, he moved to but failed to claim a victory. In the 2004 Tour de France, he abandoned during the 18th stage after being called back by manager Bjarne Riis from a break to protect his captain Ivan Basso. Bartoli ended his professional career at the end of the 2004 season, suffering minor injuries. He stated: "I just wasn't motivated to continue... I can't be a top-level rider any more and that was a major influence on my decision, rather than my recent physical problems."

Retirement In 2005 Bartoli gave his name to the Granfondo Michele Bartoli in the province of Lucca, with the start and finish in his hometown Montecarlo, Tuscany. Bartoli is, with former cyclists Francesco Casagrande and Maximilian Sciandri, instructor of the Campagnolo Passion 2 Ride.

Doping allegations In May 2007, Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Bartoli was linked with the Operación Puerto doping investigation into the practices of Eufemiano Fuentes. According to the report, it was alleged that Bartoli was the rider behind the nickname "Sansone". The report continued that Bartoli received two blood transfusions from Fuentes in 2003.

Major results

1993

1st Stages 1 & 6 6th Coppa Bernocchi 7th La Flèche Wallonne 7th GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano 9th Gent–Wevelgem 9th Coppa Sabatini 9th Trofeo Matteotti 9th Giro del Friuli 10th Overall Hofbrau Cup 1994 1st Brabantse Pijl 1st Grand Prix Pino Cerami 1st Criterium d'Abruzzo 1st Stage 14 Giro d'Italia 2nd Giro del Veneto 3rd Overall Vuelta a los Valles Mineros 5th Road race, National Road Championships 6th Giro di Toscana 7th Overall Giro del Trentino 9th GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano 10th Paris–Brussels 10th Giro della Romagna 1995

1st Stages 1 & 2 3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège 3rd Giro di Lombardia 5th Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 5th Milan–San Remo 5th Grand Prix Pino Cerami 6th Firenze–Pistoia 7th Tour of Flanders 8th Gran Piemonte 9th Overall Vuelta a España 9th Paris–Tours 10th Amstel Gold Race 1996 1st Tour of Flanders 1st Giro dell'Emilia 1st Grand Prix de Fourmies 1st Giro del Veneto 1st GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano 1st Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria 1st Stage 6 Tirreno–Adriatico 1st Stage 1 Tour de Suisse 2nd Züri-Metzgete 2nd Giro della Romagna

3rd Paris–Brussels 5th Grand Prix La Marseillaise 5th Wincanton Classic 6th Paris–Tours 6th Milano–Torino 6th Gran Premio Città di Camaiore 7th Overall Étoile de Bessèges 8th Road race, Olympic Games 8th Coppa Sabatini 10th Coppa Bernocchi 1997

1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège 1st Rund um den Henninger Turm 1st Trofeo Laigueglia 1st Trofeo Melinda 2nd Overall Tour Méditerranéen 1st Stage 5 2nd Giro di Toscana 3rd Grand Prix de Fourmies 4th Giro di Lombardia 4th La Flèche Wallonne 4th Paris–Brussels 4th Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli 5th Milan–San Remo 6th Amstel Gold Race 6th Züri-Metzgete 7th Tour of Flanders 8th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico 1st Stage 3 9th Coppa Bernocchi 10th Road race, UCI Road World Championships 1998

1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège 1st Züri-Metzgete 1st Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria 1st Giro della Romagna 1st Grand Prix of Aargau Canton 1st Stage 13 Giro d'Italia 2nd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen 2nd Coppa Sabatini 2nd HEW Cyclassics

3rd Amstel Gold Race 3rd Giro dell'Emilia 3rd Paris–Brussels 4th Giro di Lombardia 5th Overall Tour Méditerranéen 1st Stages 2 & 6 5th La Flèche Wallonne 5th Chrono des Nations 6th Tour of Flanders 8th Milan–San Remo 8th Giro del Veneto 1999

1st La Flèche Wallonne 1st Brabantse Pijl 1st Stage 3 Vuelta a Andalucía 4th Tour of Flanders 4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège 4th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen 8th Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 1st Stage 4 2000

1st GP Ouest-France 1st Stage 2 Vuelta a Andalucía 2nd Trofeo Melinda 2nd Gran Premio Città di Camaiore 3rd Coppa Placci 4th Road race, UCI Road World Championships 4th Road race, Olympic Games 5th Giro di Lombardia 5th Giro di Romagna 8th Giro del Veneto 9th Overall Giro della Provincia di Lucca 2001 1st Omloop Het Volk 1st Gran Premio Città di Camaiore 2nd Road race, National Road Championships 5th Giro di Lombardia 5th Classic Haribo 7th Amstel Gold Race 10th Paris–Nice 2002

1st Stages 1 (TTT) & 4 1st Giro di Lombardia 1st Amstel Gold Race 1st Giro dell'Emilia 1st Milano–Torino 1st Stage 2 Giro della Provincia di Lucca 3rd La Flèche Wallonne 5th Trofeo Laigueglia 6th Züri-Metzgete 6th Coppa Sabatini 8th Grand Prix de Fourmies 2003 1st Giro di Lombardia 1st Giro del Lazio 2nd Overall Tour de Wallonie 1st Stage 3 2nd Giro del Veneto 4th Trofeo Matteotti 7th Giro dell'Emilia 8th Coppa Placci 2004 7th Overall Tour of Britain

Classics results timeline

Major championships timeline