Carrera (cycling team)

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Carrera
Team information
UCI code CAR
Based Flag of Italy Italy
Founded 1984
Disbanded 1996
Discipline(s) Road
Status Retired
Key personnel
General manager Davide Boifava
Previous team name(s)
1984-1986
1987-1990
1991
1992
1993-1996		 Carrera-Inoxpran
Carrera Jeans-Vagabond
Carrera Jeans-Tassoni
Carrera Jeans-Vagabond
Carrera Jeans-Tassoni

Carrera was an Italian based road bicycle racing team active from 1984 to 1996, named after sponsoring Italian jeans manufacturer Carrera. The team was successful in the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France with three overall wins and several wins in the Points Classification and Mountain Classifications.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Inoxpran

The Inoxpran cycling team began in 1979.[1] The Inoxpran team achieved success with Italian Giovanni Battaglin who won in the period of a month and a half in 1981 two Grand Tours in with the 1981 Giro d'Italia and the 1981 Vuelta a España. Battaglin was the second rider in history to achieve this Giro-Vuelta double after Eddy Merckx who achieved the double in 1973. Roberto Visentini had been the Inoxpran team leader in 1983 when he finished second overall in the 1983 Giro d'Italia.

[edit] Carrera

Carrera Jeans became the title sponsor in 1984 and Visentini finally won the Giro d'Italia in 1986. At the end of 1985 the team had signed Stephen Roche to perform for the team at the Tour de France. Roche had a poor season in 1986 but bounced back in 1987. When Roche won the Tour de Romandie just ahead of the 1987 Giro d'Italia, he became the number one favourite for the maglia rosa and wanted to be the team leader during the race, something that Visentini, an Italian with an Italian team and the defending champion of the event expected to be alone.[2] This inter team rivalry came to a head during the race when Roche attacked Visentini. Roche went on to win the race and then the 1987 Tour de France. This was the only time that the Carrera team would win the Tour and it would be the last time the team won the Giro d'Italia. Roche left the team at the end of 1987 but returned to the team in 1992 for his last two seasons.

In 1989, Carrera manager Davide Boifava together with Luciano Bracchi and Francesco Boifava founded Carrera Podium, a manufacturer of cycles.[3] From 1990 on, the team rode on these Carrera bikes.[4]

During this time, Claudio Chiappucci rose from being the domestique of Visentini and Roche during the 1987 Giro to the team leader. Chiappucci held the maillot jaune during the 1990 Tour de France finishing the race second overall and famously battled Miguel Indurain in the 1992 Tour de France. Chiappucci won the Great Italian Classic Milan-Sanremo for the team in 1991.

During the latter years of the team, a young Marco Pantani emerged as a contender for the Grand Tours during the 1994 season finishing on the podium in both the 1994 Giro d'Italia and the 1994 Tour de France. Pantani's success was hindered during the last two years of the Carrera team's existence. When Carrera stopped sponsoring a cycling team at the end of 1996, it was reported that manager Davide Boifava would be building a team around Marco Pantani with Mercatone Uno as the main sponsor.[5] However Davide Cassani became the manager of that new team, taking with him as directeur sportifs Giuseppe Martinelli and Alessandro Giannelli and ten of the riders from Carrera including Pantani[6] forming the Mercatone Uno team with whom Pantani would win the 1998 Tour de France and the 1998 Giro d'Italia. At the same time, Boifava started a team with Asics as the main sponsor and took with him five riders from Carrera including Claudio Chiappucci.[7]

[edit] Doping

The team doctor of the Carrera cycling team, Dr. Giovanni Grazzi, worked with Professor Francesco Conconi at the University of Ferrara in 1993.[8] It would be reported in the Rome based newspaper, La Republica, in January 2000 that Conconi was involved with administering EPO to riders on the Carrera team.[9] In March 2000 the Italian Judge Franca Oliva published a report detailing the conclusions of an investigation into a number of sports doctors including Professor Conconi.[10] This official judicial investigation concluded that the riders of the Carrera team were administered EPO in 1993.[11] The riders included Stephen Roche, Claudio Chiappucci[12], Guido Bontempi, Rolf Sørensen, Mario Chiesa, Massino Chirotto and Fabio Roscioli.[8]

Files seized as part of the judicial investigation allegedly detail a number of aliases for former Tour de France, Giro d'Italia winner and World Champion Stephen Roche including Rocchi, Rossi, Rocca, Roncati, Righi and Rossini.[13] In 1997, Claudio Chiappucci told prosecutor Vincenzo Scolastico that he had been using EPO since 1993, but later he recalled that statement.[14]

[edit] Cyclists

Many well known and successful cyclists rode for Carrera:

[edit] Most important wins

1984

1985:

  • Giro del Lazio (Bontempi)

1986

1987

1988

  • E3 Prijs Vlaanderen (Bontempi)
  • General Classification and 2 stages Tirreno-Adriatico (Mächler)
  • General Classification, prologue and 1 stage (Mächler)
  • General Classification and 1 stage Giro del Trentino (Zimmermann)
  • 1 Stage Tour de Romandie (Zimmerman)

1989

  • General Classification and 1 stage Vuelta a Andalucía (Bordonali)
  • Coppa Placci (Chiappucci)
  • Giro del Piemonte (Chiappucci)
  • 1 Stage Giro d'Italia (Da Silva)
  • 1 Stage Tour de France (Da Silva)
  • 1 Stage Tirreno-Adriatico (Mächler)

1990

  • 2 stages Tour of Valencia (Bontempi)
  • 1 Stage Paris-Nice (Chiappucci)
  • GP Pino Cerami (Sciandri)
  • 2nd overall 1990 Tour de France (Chiappucci)

1991

1992

  • Points classification and 4 stages Vuelta a España (Abdoesjaparov)
  • Mountains Classification and 2nd overall 1992 Tour de France (Chiappucci)
  • 2 stages Tour of Valencia (Abdoesjaparov)
  • Giro dell'Appennino (Chiappucci)
  • Stage Vuelta al País Vasco (Poelnikov)

1993

1994

  • Points Classification 1994 Tour de France
  • General Classification and 1 stage Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme (Chiappucci)
  • Giro del Piemonte (Miceli)
  • 2nd overall and 2 stages 1994 Giro d'Italia (Pantani)
  • Young Classification and 3rd overall Tour de France (Pantani)

1995

  • Giro del Piemonte (Chiappucci)
  • Young Classification and 2 stages Tour de France (Pantani)
  • 1 Stage Tour de Suisse (Pantani)
  • 1 Stage Giro d'Italia (Zaina)
  • 1 Stage Tour de Romandie (Beat Zberg)
  • General Classification and 1 stage Vuelta Ciclista Asturias (Beat Zberg)

1996

  • General Classification and 1 stage Tour de Suisse (Luttenberger)
  • 2 Stages Giro d'Italia (Zaina)
  • Rund um den Henninger Turm (Beat Zberg)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Inoxpran 1979. de wielersite.nl. Retrieved on 2007-11-27.
  2. ^ Stephen Roche and David Walsh (1988). The Agony and the Ecstasy: Stephen Roche's World of Cycling. 
  3. ^ Podium Project. Carrera-Podium. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  4. ^ Mission. Carrera-Podium. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  5. ^ News for July 19. cyclingnews.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-07.
  6. ^ Mercatone Uno. cyclingnews.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-07.
  7. ^ Asics. cyclingnews. Retrieved on 2007-09-07.
  8. ^ a b I was not involved in doping scandal:Roche. Irish Examiner. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.
  9. ^ Sport: Roche denies use of E.P.O.. RTE.ie. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
  10. ^ Ufficio della procura antidoping del coni. sportpro.it. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  11. ^ Sad end to Roche's road. Timesonline. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  12. ^ Chiapucci
  13. ^ Roche's name again to forefront in doping investigation. rte.ie. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  14. ^ Vrijgesproken Conconi moreel veroordeeld door Italiaanse gerecht (Dutch)
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