Alessandro Ballan

Infobox Cyclist
ridername = Alessandro Ballan


image_caption = Ballan at the 2007 Tour de France
fullname = Alessandro Ballan
nickname = "Bontempino"
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1979|11|6
country = ITA
height = height|m=1.90
weight = convert|72|kg|lb|abbr=on
currentteam = Lampre
discipline = Road
role = Rider
ridertype = Classics specialist
amateurteams =
amateuryears =
proyears = 2004–
proteams = Lampre
majorwins =
Ronde van Vlaanderen (2007)
Three Days of De Panne (2007)
Trofeo Laigueglia (2006)
Vattenfall Cyclassics (2007)
updated = 2008-09-28

Alessandro Ballan (born November 6, 1979 in Castelfranco Veneto, Veneto) is an Italian professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team Lampre, and is the current world champion. Although he possesses a frame that is usually more associated with climbing, Ballan has established himself as a leading spring classics contender in recent years. His nickname, "Bontempino", is a diminutive reference to Guido Bontempi, to whom he bears a resemblance.cite news |first = Tim |last = Maloney |title = Ballan following in Bartoli's footsteps? |url = http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2005/apr05/apr07news |work = Cyclingnews.com - First Edition Cycling News for April 7, 2005 |date = 2005-04-07 |accessdate = 2006-09-27 |language = English]

Career

Ballan turned professional in 2004 with the Lampre team. Despite a decent amateur career, Ballan was not sought after by professional teams, and required a little bit of helps to secure a professional contract. In his first season, Ballan worked as a domestique for Romāns Vainšteins and Gianluca Bortolami. In 2005, Ballan was given the opportunity to aim for high placings in the spring classics and achieved a stage victory and second overall in the Three Days of De Panne [cite web |url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2005/mar05/depanne05/depanne054 |title=KBC Driedaagse van De Panne-Koksijde Results |accessdate=2006-09-27 |date=2005-03-31] , along with sixth place in the Ronde van Vlaanderen [cite web |url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005/apr05/rvv05/?id=results |title=89th Ronde van Vlaanderen Results |accessdate=2006-09-27 |date=2005-04-03] , having attacked the leading group with 37km to go. Later in the season, he achieved his first ProTour victory in taking stage 4 of the Eneco Tour of Benelux [cite web |url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005/aug05/eneco05/?id=results/eneco054 |title=1st Eneco Tour of Benelux Results |accessdate=2006-09-27 |date=2005-08-10] .

In 2006, Ballan started his spring classics campaign as a highly rated contender, given his performances in 2005 and his success in the warm-up races in winning the Trofeo Laigueglia [cite web |url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2006/feb06/laigueglia06 |title=43rd Trofeo Laigueglia Results |accessdate=2006-09-27 |date=2006-02-14] , a second place to Tom Boonen in the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen [cite web |url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/mar06/E3prijs06/?id=results |title=49th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen Results |accessdate=2006-09-27 |date=2006-09-27] and third overall at the Tirreno-Adriatico. [cite web |url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/mar06/tirreno06/?id=results/tirreno067 |title=41st Tirreno-Adriatico Results |accessdate=2006-09-27 |date=2006-03-14] Ballan was a leading protagonist in the classics: he took fifth at the Ronde van Vlaanderen [cite web |url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/apr06/rvv06/?id=results |title=90th Ronde van Vlaanderen Results |accessdate=2006-09-27 |date=2006-04-02] and followed this with third at Paris-Roubaix, following the disqualifications of Peter Van Petegem, Vladimir Gusev and Leif Hoste. [cite web |url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/apr06/roubaix06/?id=results |title=104th Paris-Roubaix Results |accessdate=2006-09-27 |date=2006-04-09] Later in the season, Ballan further proved his talent with a second placing in stage 12 of the Tour de France [cite web |url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/tour06/?id=results/tour0612 |title=93rd Tour de France, Stage 12 Results |accessdate=2006-09-27 |date=2006-07-14] and a third place overall in the Tour of Poland. [cite web |url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/sep06/poland06/?id=results/poland067 |title=63rd Tour of Poland Results |accessdate=2006-09-27 |date=2006-09-10] Ballan finished in sixth place in the individual rankings of the 2006 UCI ProTour. [cite web |url=http://www.uciprotour.com/Modules/SUCI/RACES/RaceRanking.asp?MenuId=MTY5Nw&RaceId=MTI3&RankId=ODA&BackLink=%2Ftemplates%2FUCI%2FUCI2%2Flayout%2Easp%3FMenuId%3DMTY5Nw |title=UCI ProTour Individual Rankings as of as of 2006-10-14 |accessdate=2006-12-12 |date=2006-12-12]

In 2007 Ballan suffered a broken collarbone during Tirreno-Adriatico. Despite this injury, Ballan worked hard in Milan-Sanremo, although Ballan's teamleader Daniele Bennati didn't win the race. Nearly two weeks later, Ballan won the Three Days of De Panne after an escape during stage 1. Ballan didn't win the stage, but beat his nearest opponent Luca Paolini during the closing time trial, in which Ballan finished 10. On April 8, Ballan won the Ronde van Vlaanderen in a close sprint finish ahead of local favourite Leif Hoste of Belgium. Ballan is the first Italian in the history of the Ronde van Vlaanderen and the Three Days of De Panne to win both consecutively within the same season. On August 19th, he won the Vattenfall Cyclassics with an attack in the final kilometer, holding off all of the sprinters, including former winner Oscar Freire and hot young German sprinter Gerald Ciolek, to take his second one-day classic of the season.

His spring of 2008 wasn't as prolific as 2007 although he was involved in the decisive break of Paris-Roubaix and rode hard to a third place behind past winners Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara together with whom he entered the famous Roubaix veledrome losing out in a sprint to the line. This came a week after a fourth place in defence of his Ronde van Vlaanderen crown. He again opted to skip his home tour - the Giro d'Italia, but raced in both the other grand tours - Tour de France and Vuelta a España, winning a mountain stage and wearing the leader's jersey in the latter. [http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2008//vuelta08/?id=results/vuelta087]

In September 2008 Ballan won the UCI Road Race World Championships. In a race in which 2007 champion and Italian team mate Paolo Bettini was favourite, Ballan was again involved in the decisive break on the final lap of the undulating Varese circuit. From a group of 12 riders, including 2 Italia team mates Damiano Cunego and Davide Rebellin, Ballan attacked from 1500 metres out and held off the sprint to win by 3 seconds in front of his home crowd. [http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2008/worlds08/?id=results/worlds086]

Palmarès

;2005 – Lampre-Caffita: 1st, Stage 1, Three Days of De Panne: 1st, Stage 4, Eneco Tour of Benelux;2006 – Lampre-Fondital: 1st, Trofeo Laigueglia: 2nd, Stage 12, Tour de France: 3rd, Paris-Roubaix: 3rd, Overall, Tirreno-Adriatico: 5th, Ronde van Vlaanderen: 8th, Milan-Sanremo;2007 – Lampre-Fondital: 1st, Ronde van Vlaanderen: 1st, Overall, Three Days of De Panne:: 2nd, Stage 1: 4th, Clásica de San Sebastián: 1st, Vattenfall Cyclassics: 5th, Overall Tour de Pologne;2008 – Lampre-Fondital: 4th, Ronde van Vlaanderen: 3rd, Paris-Roubaix: 3rd, Stage 11, Tour de France: 1st, Stage 7, 2008 Vuelta a España: Winner (2008)

References

External links

* [http://www.lampre-fondital.com/atleti/win.asp?id=58 Team Profile]
* [http://tour2000.eurosport.com/cycling/personnews_prs81545.shtml Eurosport Profile]
*trapfriis|italy.Ballan-Alessandro.htm

Persondata
NAME= Ballan, Alessandro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Road bicycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH=1979-11-06
PLACE OF BIRTH=Castelfranco Veneto, Italy
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=