- Damiano Cunego
-
Damiano Cunego 
Cunego at the 2006 Giro d'ItaliaPersonal information Full name Damiano Cunego Nickname Il Piccolo Principe (The Little Prince) Born September 19, 1981
Cerro Veronese, ItalyHeight 1.69 m (5 ft 7 in) Weight 59 kg (130 lb; 9.3 st) Team information Current team Lampre-ISD Discipline Road Role Rider Rider type Classics and climbing specialist Professional team(s) 2002–2004
2005–Saeco
Lampre-CaffitaMajor wins Grand Tours - Giro d'Italia
General Classification (2004)- 4 individual stages
- Tour de France
Young rider classification (2006)- Vuelta a España
- 2 individual stages
Stage races
- Giro del Trentino (2004, 2006, 2007)
- Coppi e Bartali (2006, 2009)
One day races and classics
- Giro di Lombardia (2004, 2007, 2008)
- Amstel Gold Race (2008)
Medal recordCompetitor for 
ItalyRoad bicycle racing UCI Road World Championships Silver 2008 Varese Elite Men's Road Race Infobox last updated on
June 13, 2011Damiano Cunego (born September 19, 1981 in Cerro Veronese, Veneto) is an Italian professional road racing cyclist who rides for the Italian UCI ProTeam Lampre-ISD. His biggest wins are the 2004 Giro d'Italia, the 2008 Amstel Gold Race, and the Giro di Lombardia in 2004, 2007, 2008. He finished second in the UCI Road World Championships in 2008 and in the 2008 UCI ProTour. Primarily a climber, he has improved his Time-Trialing and he is characterized by a great sprinting ability, unusual for a climber. He is considered the best Italian cyclist for classics, after Paolo Bettini's retirement.
Contents
Career
Cunego began cycling as a teenager after being a successful cross-country runner.[1] He was discovered by Giuseppe Martinelli who also worked closely with the late Marco Pantani.[2] Cunego turned pro in 2002 at the age of 20 with Saeco team. Cunego won the Giro d'Oro and the Giro Medio Brenta in his first season as a professional with Saeco in 2002. In 2003 he won the seventh stage and the overall classification of Tour of Qinghai Lake.[3]
He came to prominence in May 2004, winning the Giro d'Italia at the age of 22 with Saeco Macchine per Caffè, which became Lampre-Caffita in 2005. Cunego's strength came as a blow to his captain Gilberto Simoni. Relations between the two during the race were strained when Cunego sprinted away from Simoni to win the 18th stage after Simoni's solo breakaway. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that as Simoni passed by Cunego, who was surrounded by journalists, Simoni pointed his finger at the 22 year old Maglia Rosa and angrily said "You're a bastard...you are really stupid."[4]
During 2004 he won the Giro di Lombardia in October, his 13th victory of the season. He finished the season number one in the UCI Road World Cup, the youngest rider to achieve it, aged 23. He was also the last rider ranked first on the world ranking, because from 2005 the ranking was replaced by the UCI ProTour.
In the 2005 Giro d'Italia, Simoni and Cunego were co-captains of Lampre-Caffita. Cunego posed no threat to Simoni. He faltered during the first climb in the Dolomites, losing six minutes in the day and any prospect of winning. At the time his team attributed his loss to a "psychological crisis" and Cunego said "a great weight has been lifted from me by this defeat." After the race, he was found to have Epstein-Barr virus. He did not enter the 2005 Tour de France.
In 2006, Cunego finished third in Liège–Bastogne–Liège losing to Alejandro Valverde and Paolo Bettini in a sprint finish. In the 2006 Tour de France Cunego was best young rider. He finished 2nd on stage 15 to Alpe D'Huez, after losing to Fränk Schleck, who broke away in the final 2 km. He also finished 3rd on stage 17, on the road to Morzine. In 2007 Cunego again won the Giro Del Trentino and his second Giro di Lombardia.
In 2008 he won the Klasika Primavera and the Amstel Gold Race,[5] with two powerful sprints against Alejandro Valverde and Frank Schleck, with victory in the latter propelling him to the top of the UCI Pro Tour rankings,[5] as he also went on to finish second in the 2008 UCI Road World Championships.[6] He was widely tipped to be victorious in the 2008 Tour de France, but he struggled and eventually dropped out before the finish. By the end of the year Cunego conquered for the third time "the race of falling leaves" and then he ended the season with the victory of the Japan Cup, confirming himself as one of the best Classics Specialist in the world.
In 2009 he won the Settimana internazionale di Coppi e Bartali risulting victorious in two stages; later he won two mountain stages at Vuelta a España being the favorite in the World Championship, where he arrived 8th.
Palmares
- 1999
- 1st
Junior Road Race World Championship - 2002
- 1st Giro d'Oro
- 1st Giro del Medio Brenta
- 2003
- 1st
Overall, Tour of Qinghai Lake
- 1st Stage 7
- 4th Overall Brixia Tour
- 6th Japan Cup
- 2004
- 1st Winner Overall Classification Giro d'Italia
- 1st Stage 2
- 1st Stage 7
- 1st Stage 16
- 1st Stage 18
- 1st Giro di Lombardia
- 1st Overall, Giro del Trentino
- 1st Stage 1
- 1st Stage 2
- 1st Giro dell'Appennino
- 1st GP Industria & Artigianato
- 1st Gran Premio Nobili Rubinetterie
- 1st Memorial Marco Pantani
- 2nd Japan Cup
- 4th Giro del Veneto
- 6th Klasika Primavera
- 9th UCI World Championships Road Race
- 2005
- 1st Gran Premio Nobili Rubinetterie
- 1st Trofeo Melinda
- 1st Japan Cup
- 2nd Overall Tour de Romandie
- 1st Stage 3
- 3rd Tre Valli Varesine
- 7th Giro del Veneto
- 9th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 2006
- 1st Overall Giro del Trentino
- 1st Overall Settimana Ciclistica Internazionale "Coppi e Bartali"
- 1st Stage 3
- 1st Giro d'Oro
- 1st GP Industria & Artigianato
- 2nd Giro del Lazio
- 2nd Klasika Primavera
- 3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 4th Overall Giro d'Italia
- 1st Young Rider classification, Tour de France
- 2007
- 1st Giro di Lombardia
- 1st Overall, Giro del Trentino
- 1st Stage 1
- 1st Stage 2
- 1st Stage 4 Deutschland Tour
- 1st GP Beghelli
- 5th Overall Giro d'Italia
- 4th Overall Tour of the Basque Country
- 5th Giro dell'Emilia
- 2008
- 1st Giro di Lombardia
- 1st Amstel Gold Race
- 1st Klasika Primavera
- 1st Overall Japan Cup
- 2nd
UCI World Championships Road Race - 3rd La Flèche Wallonne
- 3rd Tre Valli Varesine
- 3rd Overall, Vuelta al País Vasco
- 1st Stage 5
- 1st
Points Classification
- 4th Overall, Tour de Suisse
- 2009
- 1st Stage 8 Vuelta a España
- 1st Stage 14 Vuelta a España
- 1st Overall, Settimana Ciclistica Internazionale "Coppi e Bartali"
- 1st Stage 2
- 1st Stage 3
- 3rd La Flèche Wallonne
- 5th Amstel Gold Race
- 6th Klasika Primavera
- 5th Overall, Vuelta al País Vasco
- 6th Overall, Tour de Suisse
- 7th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 8th UCI World Championships Road Race
- 2010
- 5th La Flèche Wallonne
- 6th Amstel Gold Race
- 10th GP de Québec
- 2011
- 1st Giro dell'Appennino
- 1st Stage 2 Tour de Romandie
- 2nd Overall, Tour de Suisse
- 3rd Montepaschi Strade Bianche
- 3rd Overall, Giro di Sardegna
- 1st Stage 2
- 7th Overall, Tour de France
- 8th Overall, Tirreno–Adriatico
Grand Tour General Classification results timeline
Grand Tour 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Giro34 1 18 4 5 – 17 11 – Tour– – – 11 – WD – 29 7 
Vuelta– 15 – – WD WD WD – – Notes and references
- ^ "Damiano Cunego - Story". damianocunego.it. 17 June 2011. http://www.damianocunego.it/storia_en.htm. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
- ^ Brown, Gregor. "Damiano Cunego Interview: Inside Casa Cunego". cyclesportmag.com. http://www.cyclesportmag.com/features/damiano-cunego-interview/. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
- ^ Farrand, Stephen (2009-02-23). "Damiano Cunego: Rider Profile". cyclingweekly.co.uk. http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/Damiano_Cunego_Rider_Profile_article_275869.html. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
- ^ "Damiano Cunego: Rider Profile". cyclingnews.com. 2004-05-30. http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/may04/may30news. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
- ^ a b "Cunego sprints to Amstel Gold win". BBC News. 2008-04-21. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/7358708.stm. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
- ^ "Road Cycling Worlds 2008". BBC News. 2008-09-28. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/7640845.stm. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
External links
- Damiano Cunego official website
- Damiano Cunego – Italian Site and Official Fans Club Online's Room.
- Damiano Cunego at Trap-Friis.dk
Tour de France young rider classification winners 1975 Francesco Moser • 1976 Enrique Martínez Heredia • 1977 Dietrich Thurau • 1978 Henk Lubberding • 1979 Jean-René Bernaudeau • 1980 Johan van der Velde • 1981 Peter Winnen • 1982 Phil Anderson • 1983 Laurent Fignon • 1984 Greg LeMond • 1985 Fabio Parra • 1986 Andrew Hampsten • 1987 Raúl Alcalá • 1988 Erik Breukink • 1989 Fabrice Philipot • 1990 Gilles Delion • 1991 Álvaro Mejía • 1992 Eddy Bouwmans • 1993 Antonio Martín • 1994–1995 Marco Pantani • 1996–1998 Jan Ullrich • 1999 Benoît Salmon • 2000 Francisco Mancebo • 2001 Óscar Sevilla • 2002 Ivan Basso • 2003 Denis Menchov • 2004 Vladimir Karpets • 2005 Yaroslav Popovych • 2006 Damiano Cunego • 2007 Alberto Contador • 2008–2010 Andy Schleck • 2011 Pierre Rolland
Riders on Lampre-ISD Alfredo Balloni | Leonardo Bertagnolli | Grega Bole | Matteo Bono | Vitaliy Buts | Damiano Cunego | Francesco Gavazzi | Danilo Hondo | Vitaly Kondrut | Denys Kostyuk | Dmitry Krivtsov | Oleksandr Kvachuk | David Loosli | Enrico Magazzini | Adriano Malori | Marco Marzano | Manuele Mori | Przemysław Niemiec | Aitor Pérez | Alessandro Petacchi | Daniele Pietropolli | Daniele Righi | Michele Scarponi | Alessandro Spezialetti | Simon Špilak | Balint Szeghalmi | Diego Ulissi | Manager: Roberto Damiani
Categories:- 1981 births
- Living people
- People from the Province of Verona
- Italian cyclists
- Giro d'Italia winners
- Italian Giro d'Italia stage winners
- Italian Vuelta a España stage winners
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