Michele Scarponi

Michele Scarponi (25 September 1979 – 22 April 2017) was an Italian road bicycle racer who rode professionally for the Acqua & Sapone–Cantina Tollo, Domina Vacanze–Elitron, Würth, Acqua & Sapone–Caffè Mokambo, Androni Giocattoli, Lampre–Merida and Astana teams from 2002 until his death in 2017. During his career, Scarponi had 21 professional victories. He began cycling at age eight with a local team in the Marche region. Scarponi spent almost a decade with them, and won the junior Italian National Road Race Championships in 1997. He then spent four years at the amateur level with Zalf–Euromobil–Fior (1998–2000) and Site–Frezza (2001) before turning professional in 2002 with Acqua & Sapone–Cantina Tollo. For the next decade, Scarponi rode mainly for Italian teams with the exception of two-year spell with Spanish team Liberty Seguros–Würth in 2005 and 2006 (where he was a domestique during Roberto Heras' 2005 Vuelta a España success). After a doping ban, he had his first major victories in 2009 with Diquigiovanni–Androni: stage and general-classification wins in the Tirreno–Adriatico and two stage wins – both from breakaways – in the Giro d'Italia, where he was a domestique for Gilberto Simoni. He led the Androni Giocattoli team in a Grand Tour race for the first time at the 2010 Giro d'Italia, where he finished fourth overall and won a stage for the second successive year. Scarponi spent three years with the Lampre–ISD team, from 2011 to 2013. In his first season, he won the Giro del Trentino and finished second to Alberto Contador in the Volta a Catalunya and the Giro d'Italia. Contador was stripped of those results in February 2012 after a positive test for clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France, and Scarponi was promoted to both victories; he also won the points classification in the Giro d'Italia. He finished...