Stefano Garzelli

Stefano Garzelli (born 16 July 1973) is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, who competed as a professional between 1997 and 2013. The high point of his career was his overall win in the 2000 Giro d'Italia, after a close three-way competition with Gilberto Simoni and Francesco Casagrande.

Career Born in Varese, Garzelli 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 , 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.

After his win of the 2000 Giro d'Italia he was recruited by the Italian super-team 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 other's attacks and saw them finish the race with a comfortable margin to decide the win amongst themselves.

However, after already winning two stages at the event, 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. In a 2011 interview the Belgian double world champion Freddy Maertens cast doubt on whether Garzelli had deliberately used the steroid masking agent concerned, the diuretic Probenecid, likening it to an incident to the 1974 world championships in which he claimed that his water bottle had been deliberately sabotaged by the soigneur of his rival Eddy Merckx.

Garzelli was able to mount a comeback for the 2003 Giro d'Italia and was able to challenge eventual winner Gilberto Simoni in the race.

In 2006, for the first time since he was a professional, he decided not to race the Giro d'Italia, but instead to prepare for the Classics, training with some of his Liquigas-Bianchi teammates (including Danilo Di Luca, Patrick Calcagni and Stefano Zanini) at high altitude in the region around Toluca, Mexico. He finished sixth in both in his first race of the season, Milan-Torino, and at Milan-San Remo, after an unsuccessful attack on the Cipressa hill. He accumulated placings during the first part of the season, without ever being able to win a race, until Rund um den Henninger-Turm where he bested German sprint specialists Gerald Ciolek, Danilo Hondo and Erik Zabel in a sprint finish.

In December 2012, Garzelli signed a one-year contract with the team for the 2013 season, and retired thereafter.

He now works for RAI the Italian national broadcaster as a summariser on the Cycling programmes covered by RAIsport such as the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.

Career achievements Major results

1996 1st Piccolo Giro di Lombardia 1997 8th Overall Tour de Suisse 9th Overall Giro d'Italia 1998 1st Overall Tour de Suisse 1st Points classification 1st Stages 4 & 5 2nd Trofeo Forla de Navarra 3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm 6th Tour de Berne 1999 1st GP Miguel Induráin 1st Stage 3 Tour of the Basque Country 3rd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico 3rd À travers Lausanne 4th Milan–San Remo 5th Overall Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali 6th Overall Vuelta a Murcia 2000 1st Overall Giro d'Italia 1st Stage 18 1st GP Nobili Rubinetterie Tour de Suisse 1st Mountains classification 1st Stage 8 1st Stage 4 Settimana Lombarda 2nd Grand Prix of Aargau Canton 6th GP Miguel Induráin 7th Milan–San Remo 10th Coppa Ugo Agostoni 2001 1st Stage 5a Tour of the Basque Country 1st Stage 6 Tour de Suisse 5th Overall Giro del Trentino 4th Gran Premio Città di Camaiore 5th Coppa Ugo Agostoni 6th Clásica de San Sebastián 6th GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano 2002 1st GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano 2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège 5th Overall Giro del Trentino 9th Overall Tour of the Basque Country 2003 2nd Overall Giro d'Italia 1st Stages 3 & 7 2nd Overall Giro del Trentino 1st Stage 1 2004 1st Overall Vuelta a Aragón 1st Stage 2 Tour de Romandie 4th Overall Setmana Catalana 6th Overall Giro d'Italia 1st Stage 19 2005 1st Tre Valli Varesine 1st Points classification, Tour de Romandie 2nd Trofeo Melinda 4th Clásica de San Sebastián 6th Giro del Lazio 2006 1st Rund um den Henninger Turm 1st Tre Valli Varesine 1st Trofeo Melinda 1st Stage 4 Tour de Luxembourg 2nd Clásica de San Sebastián 4th GP Miguel Induráin 5th Road race, National Road Championships 5th Giro del Lazio 6th Milano–Torino 7th Milan–San Remo 2007 Giro d'Italia 1st Stages 14 & 16 1st Stage 3 Giro del Trentino 1st Stage 2 Tour of Slovenia 4th Coppa Sabatini 7th Overall Vuelta a Murcia 8th Memorial Cimurri 2008 1st Grand Prix de Wallonie 1st Trofeo Melinda Vuelta a Asturias 1st Stages 2a & 3 2nd Overall Giro del Trentino 1st Stages 2 & 4 2nd Overall Vuelta a Murcia 2nd Overall Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali 3rd Subida al Naranco 3rd Coppa Sabatini 5th Tre Valli Varesine 8th Giro di Lombardia 8th Coppa Bernocchi 10th Overall Vuelta a Burgos 10th Giro del Lazio 2009 2nd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico 2nd Trofeo Melinda 3rd Overall Giro della Provincia di Grosseto 3rd Clásica de Almería 4th Overall Giro del Trentino 5th Overall Giro d'Italia 1st Mountains classification 9th Grand Prix de Wallonie 10th Trofeo Laigueglia 2010 1st Overall Tirreno–Adriatico 1st Points classification 1st Stage 16 (ITT) Giro d'Italia 2011 1st Mountains classification, Giro d'Italia 7th GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano 2012 4th Tour Méditerranéen 4th Overall Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali

General classification results timeline

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish