Michele Bartoli

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**Michele Bartoli**
Personal information
Full name	Michele Bartoli
Date of birth	May 27, 1970 (1970-05-27) (age 38)
Country	Italy
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10+¹⁄₂ in)
Weight	65 kg (140 lb/10.2 st)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Classics specialist
Professional team(s)
1992–1995 1996–1997 1998 1999–2001 2002–2003 2004	Mercatone Uno MG-Technogym Asics Mapei Fassa Bortolo Team CSC
Major wins
UCI Road World Cup (1997, 1998) Giro d'Italia, 2 stages Tirreno-Adriatico (1999) Amstel Gold Race (2002) Giro di Lombardia (2002, 2003) GP Ouest-France (2000) Liège-Bastogne-Liège (1997, 1998) La Flèche Wallonne (1999) Ronde van Vlaanderen (1996) Züri-Metzgete (1998)
Infobox last updated on:
July 25, 2007

Medal record
Competitor for Italy
Road bicycle racing
World Championships
Bronze	1996 Lugano	Elite Men's Road Race
Bronze	1998 Valkenburg	Elite Men's Road Race

Michele Bartoli (born May 27, 1970) is a retired Italian road racing cyclist. He was a single-day race specialist, winning three of the five Monument races in his career. Bartoli twice won the UCI Road World Cup annual competition (1997 and 1998).

1 Biography
- 1.1 After-cycling career
2 Major achievements
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Pisa, Bartoli turned professional in 1992 with the Mercatone Uno team and in 1995 moved to the MG-Technogym team of Giancarlo Ferretti. In 1998, Bartoli signed for the Asics team. In the summer of 1998, there were negotitation between Asics and the Italian squad Mapei to take over the cyclists at the end of the year, and Bartoli decided for himself to join the Mapei team. After the Tour de France that was won by Marco Pantani, Mapei also showed interest in contracting Pantani, and the Asics team decided to go for another sponsor, but Bartoli left and joined the Italian super-squad Mapei from 1999 to 2001.^[1]

In 1997 and 1998, Bartoli had major victories, winning the UCI Road World Cup both years.^[2]^[3] From 10 October 1998 to 6 June 1999, Bartoli was leading the UCI Road World Rankings.^[4] During these years, Bartoli was helped by younger cyclist Paolo Bettini, with whom Bartoli had been working already in the MG-Technogym and Asics teams. In the shadow of Bartoli, Bettini kept improving. After a crash in the 1999 Tour of Germany, Bartoli was injured for a while, and in this period Bettini rose to prominence, winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège. From that moment, both cyclists demanded a leading role. Although they worked together at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the feud culminated in the 2001 World Cycling Championship during which the two refused to collaborate which contributed to Óscar Freire of Spain winning the world title. ^[5]

Bartoli left Mapei to re-join Ferretti at Fassa Bortolo for 2002-2003. In 2004, Bartoli moved to Team CSC.^[6] In the 2004 Tour de France, Bartoli abandoned in the 18th stage, after being called back by manager Bjarne Riis from an early break to protect his captain Ivan Basso. ^[7] After completing 2004 season with Team CSC injured, Bartoli realized that he would no longer be competitive due to physical problems, and decided to stop racing.^[8] At the press conference, Bartoli declared that "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."^[9]

Bartoli was considered one of the most successful classics riders of his time.^[10] He has won a wide variety of classics, starting with the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Omloop "Het Volk" cobbled races in 1996 and 2001 respectively, and hilly races such as Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 1997 and 1998, HEW Cyclassics in 1997, Züri-Metzgete in 1998, La Flèche Wallonne in 1999, and the Amstel Gold Race in 2002. He won the Giro di Lombardia twice in a row in 2002 and 2003.

In addition, he was the Italian national champion in 2000, and has won several short stage races such as the Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour de Reggio Calabria and Three Days of De Panne.

One notable omission from his list of victories is the UCI World Cycling Championship, although he has made several notable attempts, finishing 3rd place in 1996 and 1998.

[edit] After-cycling career

After the 2004 season, Bartoli ended his professional career. In 2005, he gave his name to the Granfondo Michele Bartoli in the province of Lucca, with the start and finish in his hometown Montecarlo.^[11]

Bartoli is, together with former cyclists Francesco Casagrande and Maximilian Sciandri, instructor of Campagnolo Passion 2 Ride.^[12]

In the Operación Puerto doping case, Bartoli has been linked by La Gazzetta dello Sport to the name "Sansone" found on the database of Doctor Eufemanio Fuentes. Sansone is reportedly the name of Bartoli's dog. ^[13]