Alessandro Ballan

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**Alessandro Ballan**
Personal information
Full name	Alessandro Ballan
Nickname	Bontempino
Date of birth	November 6, 1979
Country	Italy
Team information
Current team	Lampre-Fondital
ProTour rank	6
Rider type	Classics specialist
Professional team(s)
2004-Present	Lampre-Fondital

Alessandro Ballan (born November 6, 1979 in Castelfranco Veneto, Veneto) is an Italian professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team Lampre-Fondital. 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.^[1]

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.^[1] In his first season, Ballan worked as a domestique for Romans Vainsteins 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 the Panne^[2], along with sixth place in the Tour of Flanders^[3], having attacked the leading group with 37km to go. Later in the season, he achieved his first and so far only ProTour victory in taking stage 4 of the Eneco Tour of Benelux^[4].

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^[5], a second place to Tom Boonen in the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen^[6] and third overall at the Tirreno-Adriatico.^[7] Ballan was a leading protagonist in the classics: he took fifth at the Tour of Flanders^[8] and followed this with third at Paris-Roubaix, following the disqualifications of Peter Van Petegem, Vladimir Gusev and Leif Hoste.^[9] Later in the season, Ballan further proved his talent with a second placing in stage 12 of the Tour de France^[10] and a third place overall in the Tour of Poland.^[11] Currently, Ballan sits in fourth place in the individual rankings of the UCI ProTour.^[12]