Molteni

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Molteni was an Italian professional road bicycle racing team active from 1958 until the end of 1976. The team garnered 663 wins, many of them earned by its most famous rider Eddy Merckx. Other riders included Gianni Motta and Marino Basso who contributed 48 and 34 wins respectively.^[1] Currently, the Molteni family continues its commitment to cycling with sponsorship of Team Salmilano.

Molteni is also the name of a company that has manufactured commercial and residential stoves in the same small town in France since 1923. link title

1 History
2 Famous Molteni cyclists
3 Important victories (incomplete)
4 References

[edit] History

Pietro Molteni started the cycling team. The Molteni team began in 1958 with Renato Molteni as team manager.^[2] The team would also be managed by Ambrogio Molteni, the son of Pietro Molteni and a former professional rider.^[3] The former Italian road race champion Giorgio Albani finished his career with Molteni in 1959 and came back two years later to be a directeur sportif with the team.^[4] The team had obtained success with Gianni Motta in the 1966 Giro d'Italia and Michele Dancelli in the classics. After signing Belgian Eddy Merckx at the end of 1970, who at that stage had won two editions of the Tour de France and two editions of the Giro d'Italia, the team became predominantly Belgian and took over many of Merckx's teammates from his Faemino team including his directeur sportif Guillaume Driessens.^[5] Albani replaced Driessens as directeur sportif and directed the team together with Robert Lelangue during the dominance of Merckx from 1972 to 1976. Other directeur sportifs in the team included Marino Fontana. After the 1976 season Molteni retired from the peloton.