- Mapei (cycling team)
-
Mapei was an Italian based road bicycle racing team active from 1993 to 2002, named after sponsoring firm Mapei. From 2003 Mapei dropped the sponsorate, and a new team was built on top of the old with the name of Quick Step-Davitamon.
Mapei was one of the strongest teams during the late 1990s, and ranked as the strongest UCI team in 1994-2000 and 2002.
The team had the great Belgian and Italian classic specialists of the 1990s such as Johan Museeuw, Michele Bartoli, Andrea Tafi, Franco Ballerini, and had Patrick Lefevre as directeur sportif and then manager. The team won Paris–Roubaix five times. Three times (1996[1], 1998[2] and 1999[3]) the team even won the first three places. In the 1996 edition, the sprint for the line was decided 15 km from the finish. Directeur sportif Patrick Lefevere who was following the race in the team car talked with the owner of Mapei, Giorgio Squinzi, in Milan who said that Museeuw was to win the race. Gianluca Bortolami was second while Andrea Tafi was third.[1] In 1998 Franco Ballerini won the race with over four minutes ahead of his two teammates Tafi and Wilfried Peeters.[2] and in 1999 Tafi won with an advantage of two minutes over teammates Peeters and Tom Steels. In the summer of 2000, Lefevre announced that the Belgian part of the Mapei team would be leaving the team to form a new team called Domo-Farm Frites which had Museeuw as team captain. As a result, there was a great rivalry between the two teams.[4]
Mapei was less dominating in the Grand Tours. The only true stage race specialist was Tony Rominger, who won the 1994 Vuelta a España and the 1995 Giro d'Italia for the team. As Rominger focused on the Tour de France in 1996, Abraham Olano was given the leadership role at the Giro d'Italia in 1996. Olano took the maglia rosa but lost it in the mountains and during the Tour, Rominger lost time in the mountains. The team never played a major role in the Tour de France.
The official names of the team changed with the cosponsors several times. The team has run under the following names: Mapei (1993) Mapei-Clas (1994), Mapei-GB (1995–1997), Mapei-Bricobi (1998), Mapei-Quickstep (1999–2002).
Short history
While started in 1993 (taking the Eldor-Viner team midseason), the Mapei team already became an international top team one year later when it merged with the Spanish Clas-Cajastur for the 1994 season. Clas had been a cycling sponsor since the 1988 Clas-Razesa team, led by José Manuel Fuente Lavandera. Among the Clas-riders who joined the Italian Mapei team were Fernando Escartín, Abraham Olano and, most prominently, Swiss top rider Tony Rominger. Other newly signed riders included Franco Ballerini, Gianluca Bortolami, Andrea Tafi and Mauro Gianetti, forming a Spanish-Italian top team with two strong Swiss riders as well.
Already in 1995, Clas stopped sponsoring, being repliced by GB. GB had previously sponsored the Italian MG-Maglificio team, which has had succes in the early ninetees in part due to a Flemish influence. Along with the new sponsor came team manager Patrick Lefevere and top rider Johan Museeuw, marking the beginning of the Belgian influence of the successful Mapei team in the following years, although the team would always have some strong Spanish riders. Another new rider in 1995 was Frank Vandenbroucke, who joined from the Lotto team.
In the remainder of the 1990s Mapei would celebrate many major succeses, usually in the one day classics.
Results
- 1993 - Mapei-BC Azzuro-Viner
(3 victories, UCI rank 21) Team manager: Fabrizio Fabbri
- 1994 - Mapei-Clas
(58 victories, UCI rank 1) Team managers: Waldemaro Bartolozzi, Juan Fernández Martín, Fabrizio Fabbri, Jesús Suárez Cueva
-
- Gianluca Bortolami: Züri-Metzgete, UCI Road World Cup.
- Tony Rominger: Vuelta a España, Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco, Paris–Nice, One Hour World Record.
- 1995 - Mapei-GB
(81 victories, UCI rank 1) Team managers: Fabrizio Fabbri, Juan Fernández Martín, Patrick Lefevere, Jesús Suárez Cueva
-
- Tony Rominger: Giro d'Italia, Tour de Romandie
- Johan Museeuw: Ronde van Vlaanderen, Züri-Metzgete, UCI Road World Cup.
- Franco Ballerini: Paris–Roubaix, Omloop Het Volk
- Abraham Olano: World Road Race Champion.
- 1996 - Mapei-GB
(82 victories, UCI rank 1) Team managers: Juan Fernández Martín, Patrick Lefevere, Jesús Suárez Cueva
-
- Johan Museeuw: Paris–Roubaix, UCI Road World Cup, World Road Race Champion.
- Andrea Tafi: Giro di Lombardia, Paris–Brussels, Giro del Lazio
- Abraham Olano: Tour de Romandie
- Tom Steels: Gent–Wevelgem, Omloop Het Volk
- Frank Vandenbroucke: Österreich-Rundfahrt, GP Ouest-France, Tour Méditerranéen, Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen
- 1997 - Mapei-GB
(95 victories, UCI rank 1) Team managers: Pietro Algeri, Fabrizio Fabbri, Patrick Lefevere, Maurizio Piovani
-
- Pavel Tonkov: Tour de Romandie
- Frank Vandenbroucke: Tour de Luxembourg
- Tom Steels: stages in Paris–Nice (4), Tour de Suisse, Tour de Luxembourg
- Johan Museeuw: Driedaagse van De Panne, Quatre Jours de Dunkerque
- 1998 - Mapei-Bricobi
(68 victories, UCI rank 1) Team managers: Pietro Algeri, Fabrizio Fabbri, Patrick Lefevere, Maurizio Piovani, Claude Criquielion
-
- Franco Ballerini: Paris–Roubaix
- Oscar Camenzind: Giro di Lombardia, World Road Race Champion
- Johan Museeuw: Ronde van Vlaanderen
- Tom Steels: 4 Tour de France stages
- Frank Vandenbroucke: Paris–Nice, Gent–Wevelgem
- 1999 - Mapei-Quick Step
(51 victories, UCI rank 1) Team managers: Fabrizio Fabbri, Marc Sergeant, Serge Parsani
-
- Andrea Tafi: Paris–Roubaix, Giro del Piemonte
- Michele Bartoli: Tirreno–Adriatico, La Flèche Wallonne
- Tom Steels: Gent–Wevelgem, 3 Tour de France stages
- 2000 - Mapei-Quick Step
(78 victories, UCI rank 1) Team managers: Marc Sergeant, Jesús Suárez Cueva, Fabrizio Fabbri, Serge Parsani, Roberto Damiani
-
- Johan Museeuw: Paris–Roubaix, Omloop Het Volk, Brabantse Pijl
- Paolo Bettini: Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- Axel Merckx: 1 Giro D'Italia stage
- Andrea Tafi: Paris–Tours
- Michele Bartoli: GP Ouest-France
- Óscar Freire: 2 Vuelta a España stages
- Max van Heeswijk: Paris–Brussels
- 2001 - Mapei-Quick Step
(45 victories, UCI rank 4) Team managers: Fabrizio Fabbri, Jesús Suárez Cueva, Eric Vanderaerden, Serge Parsani, Roberto Damiani, José Anto
-
- Paolo Bettini: Züri-Metzgete, Coppa Placci
- Michele Bartoli: Omloop Het Volk
- Óscar Freire: World Road Race Champion.
- 2002 - Mapei-Quick Step
(94 victories, UCI rank 1) Team managers: Fabrizio Fabbri, Eric Vanderaerden, Jesús Suárez Cueva, Serge Parsani, Roberto Damiani
-
- Andrea Tafi: Ronde van Vlaanderen
- Paolo Bettini: Liège–Bastogne–Liège, UCI Road World Cup, Giro del Lazio.
The Mapei Cycling team was disbanded though. The decision was announced in May. The major factor was humiliation and anger over a drugging case, one more of those scandals that continue to undermine bicycle racing.
References
- ^ a b "Paris-Roubaix 1996". Cyclingnews.com. http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/results/archives/apr96/prres.html. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
- ^ a b "96th Paris-Roubaix, World Cup Round 3". Cyclingnews.com. http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/results/1998/apr98/parisr98results.html. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
- ^ "97th Paris-Roubaix, World Cup Round 3". Cyclingnews.com. http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/results/1999/apr99/parisroubaix99results.html. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
- ^ "Domo-nation". Cyclingnews.com. http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/results/2001/apr01/proubaix/results.shtml. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
Categories:- Defunct cycling teams
- Cycling teams based in Italy
- Sports clubs established in 1993
- Sports clubs disestablished in 2002
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
