Danilo Di Luca

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Danilo Di Luca

Personal information
Full name	Danilo Di Luca
Nickname	The Killer
Date of birth	January 2, 1976 (1976-01-02) (age 32)
Country	Italy
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Weight	61 kg (130 lb/9.6 st)
Team information
Current team	L.P.R. Brakes
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Professional team(s)
1998 1999 2000–2001 2002–2004 2005–2007 2008–	Riso Scotti Cantina Tollo-Alexia Acqua & Sapone Saeco-Longoni Sport Liquigas L.P.R. Brakes
Major wins
UCI ProTour Champion (2005) Giro d'Italia (2007), 6 stages Vuelta a España, 2 stages Amstel Gold Race (2005) Giro di Lombardia (2001) La Flèche Wallonne (2005) Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2007) Vuelta al País Vasco (2005)
Infobox last updated on:
January 2, 2008

Danilo Di Luca (born January 2, 1976) is an Italian professional road racing cyclist for UCI Professional Continental team L.P.R. Brakes. Di Luca has won the 2005 UCI ProTour, the 2007 Giro d'Italia and two "Monument" races, the Giro di Lombardia in 2001 and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2007. The latter gave him the Ardennes triple, following his wins in the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne in 2005.

Contents 1 Early years 2 2005 3 2006 4 2007 5 Major achievements 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early years

Born in Spoltore, province of Pescara, Di Luca began his professional career in 1998 in the Italian Riso Scotti team. He showcased his talents by winning the under 23 version of the Giro D'Italia. However, his first pro win did not come until 1999, when, after moving to team Cantina Tollo-Alexia, he won the first stage of the Giro d'Abruzzo. He still remained in the team after its fusion with Acqua & Sapone, taking important wins in 2001 such as the fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia and the Autumn classic Giro di Lombardia. Then, he transferred to team Saeco-Longoni Sport.

During his time at Saeco-Longoni he had a long stroke of bad luck, which began when he lost the Vuelta al País Vasco on the last stage, a mountain time trial in which Andreas Klöden took the lead and the final win. Combined with a succession of injuries and a lack of confidence of the team directors, his performance suffered. In 2004 Italian officials investigated Di Luca for doping. Says cyclingnews.com "Di Luca was recorded in several phone conversations with Eddy Mazzoleni in which he allegedly talked about doping products, the investigation led to Di Luca's non-participation in the 2004 Tour de France."^[1][2]

[edit] 2005

In 2005, Di Luca switched to the newly formed Liquigas-Bianchi team, with teammates such as Mario Cipollini, Dario Cioni, Stefano Garzelli, and Magnus Bäckstedt. He was the leader of the team for the spring classics campaign. His first victory in this season came in the first stage of the UCI ProTour race Vuelta al País Vasco, where he also took the overall win after defeating Aitor Osa in the final time trial. He truly excelled in the spring classics, where he won the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne, taking the ProTour Leader's White Jersey.

Although Di Luca had won the under 23 version of the Giro d'Italia in 1998, he was seen as a rider best suited to single day races or races lasting only a few days. Thus, his success in the 2005 Giro d'Italia came as a surprise to many. Here he notched two stage wins, stayed close to the end, and finished fourth. He finished in a solid fifth place in the Tour de Pologne. With a fourth place in the 2005 Züri-Metzgete, he secured first place in the season-long ProTour individual rankings to become the 2005 UCI ProTour Champion.

[edit] 2006

Di Luca was the first athlete to retire from the 2006 Tour de France when he pulled out due to a urinary infection. Nevertheless, he recovered in time to compete in the 2006 Vuelta a España, winning the fifth stage and holding the leader's jersey (ceding it later in the race to Janez Brajkovič). Although not without success, Di Luca's performances in the classics, the Giro, and other races, were a letdown from the triumphs of 2005.

[edit] 2007

Di Luca roared back by winning the Milano-Torino in March and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April. Again, many pundits discounted Di Luca's chances to win a Grand Tour. But Di Luca proved them wrong, taking stages 4 and 12 en route to the overall victory in the 2007 Giro d'Italia. After the Giro was finished, it was revealed that Di Luca had unspecified low hormone levels in urine tests. Italian authorities are trying to determine whether the abnormal results are a natural consequence of racing at a high level for three weeks, or some kind of masking agent.^[3] On September 28, Di Luca withdrew from the UCI Road World Championships calling his treatment "a scandal" after he had been accused of doping allegations.^[4]

Di Luca was leading the 2007 UCI ProTour when he was suspended from the competition before the final race, the Giro di Lombardia, due to alleged involvement in the Oil for Drugs doping case, for which he received a three month suspension through the close season.^[5]

[edit] Major achievements

Sporting positions
Preceded by Paolo Bettini UCI Road World Cup	UCI ProTour Champion 2005	Succeeded by Alejandro Valverde
Preceded by Ivan Basso	Winner of the Giro d'Italia 2007	Succeeded by Alberto Contador

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Official Website: http://www.danilodiluca.com (English)

• Danilo Di Luca profile
• Palmarès at Trap-Friis.dk

v • d • e Riders on L.P.R. Brakes-Ballan Paolo Bailetti | Gabriele Bosisio | Luca Celli | Riccardo Chiarini | Claudio Cucinotta | Danilo Di Luca | Giairo Ermeti | Raffaele Ferrara | Roberto Ferrari | Jure Golčer | Sergio Lagana | Sergio Marinangeli | Alessandro Maserati | Matteo Montaguti | Daniele Pietropolli | Ruslan Podgornyy | Walter Proch | Cristiano Salerno | Paolo Savoldelli | Alessandro Spezialetti | Manager: Fabio Bordonali

Persondata
NAME	Di Luca, Danilo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Road racing cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH	1976-01-02
PLACE OF BIRTH	Spoltore, Italy
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH