# 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 Mercatone Uno–Albacom, 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 was a versatile rider with qualities that included decent sprinting, decent time trials and some good skills in the mountains. Without being a great attacker, Garzelli was very constant and, on a good day, he could go with the best climbers.
After his win of the 2000 Giro d'Italia he was recruited by the Italian super-team Mapei–Quick-Step 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 Vini Fantini–Selle Italia 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

Grand Tour general classification results :
| Grand Tour | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| Giro d'Italia | 9 | 21 | DNF | 1 | DNF | DNF | 2 | 6 | DNF | — | 16 | — | 7 | DNF | 26 | — | 108 |
| Tour de France | — | — | 32 | — | 14 | — | DNF | — | 32 | 55 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Vuelta a España | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 11 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Major stage race general classification results ||||||||||||||||||
| Race | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| Paris–Nice | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career |
| / Tirreno–Adriatico | — | — | 3 | — | — | 13 | — | — | — | 16 | 19 | — | 2 | 1 | 79 | 27 | 79 |
| Volta a Catalunya | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tour of the Basque Country | 50 | — | 48 | 37 | 45 | 9 | — | — | 56 | 63 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| / Tour de Romandie | — | 41 | DNF | — | — | — | — | 29 | 23 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Critérium du Dauphiné | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career |
| Tour de Suisse | 8 | 1 | — | 36 | 23 | — | — | — | — | 27 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |