Gilberto Simoni

Personal information
Full name	Gilberto Simoni
Nickname	Gibo
Date of birth	August 25, 1971 (1971-08-25) (age 38)
Country	Italy
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	62 kg (140 lb; 9.8 st)
Team information
Current team	Diquigiovanni-Androni
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climbing Specialist
Professional team(s)1
1994 1995–1996 1997 1998 1999 2000–2001 2002–2004 2005 2006–2007 2008–2009	Jolly Componibili Aki MG Maglificio Cantina Tollo Ballan Lampre-Daikin Saeco Macchine per Caffé-Longoni Sport Lampre-Caffita Saunier Duval-Prodir Diquigiovanni-Androni
Major wins
Giro d'Italia (2001, 2003), 8 stages Tour de France, 1 stage Vuelta a España, 2 stages
Infobox last updated on:
January 2, 2008 1 Team names given are those prevailing at time of rider beginning association with that team.

Gilberto Simoni (born August 25, 1971) is an Italian professional road bicycle racer for UCI Professional Continental cycling team Diquigiovanni-Androni. He is a two-time winner of the Giro d'Italia cycling race (2001 and 2003 editions). In 2002 he tested positive for cocaine and was withdrawn from the Giro d'Italia, but was later cleared by the Italian Cycling Federation.^[1]Simoni is a native of Palu di Giovo, and is a climbing specialist.

[edit] Early career

Simoni was born at Palù di Giovo, in the province of Trento.

He started cycling in the amateur ranks having set his sights on someday winning the Giro d'Italia. In 1993 he won the Baby Giro d'Italia (Giro d'Italia for amateurs) and the amateur Italian Road Cycling Championship.

He turned professional in 1994 with the Jolly Componibili team. He had a difficult first year during which his father and then his brother died. It was only three years later that he won his first professional race, a stage of the Giro del Trentino, while riding for the M&G Technogym team of sports director Giancarlo Ferretti.

Another difficult spell plagued him while riding for the Cantina Tollo team in 1998 in which he had very poor results. He briefly quit cycling and worked as a bicycle mechanic for 1984 Giro d'Italia winner Francesco Moser. However, Simoni joined the Ballan team in 1999 and finished third on the general classification of that year's Giro d'Italia. It was also that edition of the race that saw Marco Pantani get disqualified for allegedly doping. Simoni was criticized that he hadn't earned his placing. He proved his critics wrong by winning a stage in the Tour de Suisse and again finishing on the final podium.

[edit] First Giro d'Italia victory

The 2000 season started well for Simoni: he joined the top-ranked Lampre-Daikin team of two-time Giro d'Italia winner Giuseppe Saronni and Simoni finished on the podium of the Giro d'Italia again. He proved his climbing prowess by winning the dramatic Alto de El Angliru stage of the Vuelta a España later that year.

In the 2001 Giro d'Italia he was the undisputed team leader for the general classification, which he won with a comfortable margin.

[edit] Second Giro d'Italia victory

Following his Giro victory Simoni moved to the Saeco Macchine per Caffé-Longoni Sport team with the goal of repeating his Giro success of the previous year. However, traces of cocaine were found in his blood and he was disqualified despite his protestations of innocence. It was later determined that the cocaine in his blood came from candies that his aunt had bought for him from Peru.

In 2003, the Saeco team came to the Giro d'Italia with the sole purpose of supporting Simoni. After epic battles with a resurgent Stefano Garzelli, Yaroslav Popovych and Marco Pantani in the high mountains in a hailstorm, Simoni cemented his second Giro d'Italia victory. His pursuit was documented in the film The Quest.[1]

Following his dominant showing in the Giro, he set his aims on the Tour de France and in several interviews challenged the incumbent Lance Armstrong to a battle in the mountains. Unfortunately his performance was lacking, although he was able to gain a stage win.

[edit] Later career

Simoni failed to defend his title in the 2004 Giro d'Italia with the emergence of his teammate Damiano Cunego. After some public dispute, Simoni reconciled with Cunego and agreed to continue on the same team, which became Lampre-Caffita. In the 2005 Giro d'Italia the team took advantage of the publicity and played up the rivalry between Simoni and Cunego, boasting their strength for the Giro. The early part of the Giro saw Cunego lose significant time in the early mountain stages - later diagnosed with Epstein-Barr viral infection - firmly establishing Simoni as the team leader for the Giro. However, Simoni failed to dislodge Paolo Savoldelli in the last mountain stage, even with an epic performance which saw him and Danilo Di Luca work together to gain time on Savoldelli. Suffering from cramps, he also failed to win that stage.

Simoni was slated to join Giancarlo Ferretti's Sony-Ericsson team, which was supposed to be the continuation of the Fassa Bortolo team. However, it later turned out that Ferretti had fallen victim to a fraud, and the team did not in fact exist. After a strong performance in which he finished second in the Giro di Lombardia (which was won by Cunego in the previous edition), Simoni signed a contract to join Saunier Duval-Prodir.

Simoni was embroiled in a minor scandal with fellow Italian Ivan Basso of Team CSC. Simoni alleged that Basso offered him a stage win in the 2006 Giro d'Italia into Aprica five kilometers from the finish after the two cyclists had broken away from the main field. Basso has denied any such offer, and went on to win the stage by 77 seconds. Simoni retracted his accusations several days later.

In dramatic fashion, with Leonardo Piepoli's support he won the epic stage 17 to Monte Zoncolan in the 2007 Giro d'Italia.

[edit] Mountain bike marathon

Gilberto Simoni during "La Prevostura 2007" Granfondo competition.

On the urging of his frame sponsor, Scott USA, Simoni began competing in mountain bike marathon events during the 2006 off-season for road bicycle racing. He quickly garnered impressive results by winning the Italian National Championship for Mountain Bike Marathon.

[edit] Mountain bike results

• 1st, 2006  Italy National Mountain Bike Marathon Championship
• 1st, 2006 Rampilonga^[2] (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Italy)
• 3rd, 2006 PopoBike (Mexico)^[3]
• 1st, 2007 La Prevostura  Italy^[4]
• 6th, 2007 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup ^[5]

[edit] Palmares

v • d • e 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 I 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

[edit] References