Manuel Belletti
Manuel Belletti (born 14 October 1985) is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who last rode for UCI ProTeam . He took a total of 21 professional wins during his career, nine of them on Italian soil. Career. Belletti was born in Cesena. Early career. The first time Belletti showed his cycling skills to the public was when he participated at the 2004 Italian National Track Championships where he and his team mates Loris Gobbi, Alan Marangoni and Matteo Montaguti cycled to second position at the team pursuit. Nearly two years later he booked his first success in  road cycling, with when he finished third in the San Bernardino di Lugo and second in the San Donà di Piave. His first win came in the Giro Ciclisto Pesche Nettarine di Romagna where he won the first part of the fourth stage with the finish in Lugo, Emilia-Romagna. He reached the third spot in the Roncoleva di Trevenzuola before claiming his second career win in stage 1 of the Giro del Veneto in Lonigo. Later that season he finished second in three more races, the Mezzano Inferiore, the Ponton Criterium and the Somma Lombardo. 2007 turned to be  another successful year at amateur level as he recorded another four wins, starting off with the Memorial Danilo Furlan and two stages in the Giro Ciclisto Pesche Nettarine di Romagna. Also this season he managed to win a stage in the Giro del Veneto, the fifth stage with the finish in Cassola. Furthermore he finished second in the Trofeo Alcide Degasperi and the GP Cementizillo, while finishing third in the Somma Lombardo. Diquigiovanni–Androni (2008–2009). Belletti signed his first professional contract in 2008 and started riding for . The team sent him to Venezuela to participate in the 2008 Vuelta a  Venezuela where he finished three times in second position, in stages 1, 6 and 14. After this stage race Belletti stayed in Venezuela to ride in the Clásico Ciclístico Banfoandes, a race over with the start in Punto Fijo and the finish in Coro. After 3 hours, 38 minutes and 15 seconds Belletti won the race to claim his first professional victory. Also in 2009 Belletti rode some races in South America, this time in Argentina where he came in third in stage 3 of the Giro del Sol San Juan and in stage 6 of the Tour de San  Luis. His first European success as a professional was recorded in his home country when he came third in the sprint of the 5th stage of the Giro di Sardegna behind winner Alessandro Petacchi and second placed Daniele Bennati. In the Giro del Friuli he even beat Petacchi, but still came in third as this time Mirco Lorenzetto and Grega Bole took the first two spots. Later on in the Giro di Toscana he finished in second position behind Petacchi. Another two top-three results were recorded when Belletti finished third in the 1st stage of the Tour of Austria  behind André Greipel and Graeme Brown and second in the Grand Prix de Fourmies behind Romain Feillu. Colnago–CSF Inox (2010–2011). Belletti had shown his talent and his skills, resulting in interest from other teams. He then signed a new contract with for the 2010 season. His first notable result for his new team was a second spot in the first part of the second stage in the Circuit de la Sarthe. In preparation of his first ever Grand tour, the 2010 Giro d'Italia he rode in the Tour of Turkey and claimed a third spot in the 6th stage , finishing in Finike. During the Giro d'Italia which started in Amsterdam, Netherlands Belletti claimed the fourth spot in the sixth stage finishing in Marina di Carrara. Thirteen turned out to be Belletti's lucky number as he managed to join a breakaway group on the road to Cesenatico in the 13th stage of the race. The group kept an advantage on the peloton of more than seven minutes and Belletti turned out to be the fastest sprinter of the breakaway group, claiming his first victory in a grand tour and his first victory for his new team; Two days later  he abandoned the race. A couple of months later he finished fourth and third in two stages of the Brixia Tour, fifth and third in two stages of the Danmark Rundt and a fourth position in the Dutch Veenendaal–Veenendaal Classic. In August he claimed his second and last victory of that season by beating Danilo Hondo and Mark Cavendish in the sprint of the Coppa Bernocchi. Later that season he finished second in the first stage of the Tour of Britain, second in the Memorial Viviana Manservisi and third in the Memorial Marco Pantani. 2011 started very well for  Belletti who claimed his first victory of the season in January, when he won the third stage of the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria. Less than a month later he came second behind Peter Sagan in the fourth stage of the Giro di Sardegna, but he claimed his second victory of the season in March in the first stage of the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali. He then claimed second spot in the first stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León before winning his third race of the year in Marmaris, Turkey during the third stage of  the Tour of Turkey. Just like the year before this race was a preparation for the Giro d'Italia in which he showed his sprinting strength by finishing third behind Petacchi and Cavendish in the second stage. He abandoned the race just after its halfway point. His fourth and last win of 2011 came when he claimed the third stage of the Brixia Tour, where he was the first of four Italians to reach the finish line in Prevalle. He finished the year with a third place in the sixth stage of the Danmark Rundt, a second place in the Coppa  Bernocchi, another third place in the Gran Premio Industria e Commercio Artigianato Carnaghese, a second spot in the second stage of the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, a third place in the first stage of the Giro di Padania and a second place in the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli. Ag2r–La Mondiale (2012–2013). For the 2012 season Belletti made a change to the French team . In the first couple of months of the season he could not continue the form of the previous years as he just managed to finish in fifth position in the third stage of the Tirreno–Adriatico and  in the Scheldeprijs. Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela (2014). Belletti left at the end of the 2013 season, and joined for the 2014 season. He took one win with the team, in the fourth stage of the 2014 Tour du Limousin. Southeast Pro Cycling (2015–2017). Belletti joined (formerly known as ) for the 2015 season. Return to Androni Giocattoli (2018–2020). In 2018 Belletti rejoined the Androni team, now known as . His victories during this period with the team included a stage win and the overall classification at the 2018 Tour de Hongrie, another stage win in the 2019 edition of the same race , and a stage win in the 2019 Giro di Sicilia. Eolo–Kometa and retirement (2021). In November 2020 announced that they had signed Belletti for the 2021 season. He retired from competition at the end of the year, with his last race being the 2021 Gran Piemonte in October.