Team Polti was an Italian professional

cycling team A cycling team is a group of cycle sport, cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle racing, bicycle races whether amateur or professional – and the supporting personnel. Cycling teams are most important i ...

. It became an independent team in 1994, after the separation of Lampre-Polti, and was active until 2000. Team Polti began in 1994 with Gianluigi Stanga as

directeur sportif A ''directeur sportif'' ( French for sporting director, although the original French term is often used in English-language media; plural ''directeurs sportifs'') is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is se ...

and Vittorio Algeri and Claudio Corti as managers. The team used

Fausto Coppi Angelo Fausto Coppi (; 15 September 1919 – 2 January 1960) was an Italian cyclist, the dominant international cyclist of the years after the World War II, Second World War. His successes earned him the title ''Il Campionissimo'' ("Champio ...

bikes. Other directeur sportifs included Giosuè Zenoni, Antonio Bevilacqua and Giovanni Fidanza. Team Polti gave

Richard Virenque Richard VirenqueRichard Virenque's name is pronounced Ree-shah Vee-rahnk. Virenque considers himself a man of the South but pronounces his name in standard French. Confusion is caused by the southern habit of pronouncing "en" as "ang" or "eng", ...

a chance after he was ejected from the

1998 Tour de France The 1998 Tour de France was the 85th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race was composed of 21 stages and a prologue. It started on 11 July in Ireland before taking an anti-clockwise route through France to finis ...

and while maintaining his innocence, his former teammates at

Festina Festina F16184 Festina is a Spanish watch brand. In 1985, businessman Miguel Rodríguez acquired Festina, a brand founded in Switzerland in 1902, thus forming the ''Festina-Lotus group.'' History Festina was created in 1902 by the Stüdi f ...

admitted taking EPO. Virenque joined Team Polti for the 1999 and 2000 seasons where he won the Mountains classification at the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and 2000 Tour de France. In July 2007, Former Team Polti rider

Jörg Jaksche Jörg Armin JakscheAffidavit of Jörg Jaksche
d3epuodzu3wuis.cloudfront.net (born ...

admitted use of performance-enhancing products and alleged that this began when he was competing with Team Polti in 1997. Jaksche alleged that directeur sportif Gianluigi Stanga introduced him to EPO during the

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...

in 1997. Stanga immediately denied the accusations. Throughout its seven-year history, the team rode Fausto Coppi branded bikes and Santini provided the team with their striking cycling kit.

Major wins

*Stage 1, 20 and Points classification 1994 Tour de France Abdoujaparov *Stage 9

1995 Tour de France The 1995 Tour de France was the 82nd Tour de France, taking place from 1 to 23 July. It was Miguel Indurain's fifth and final victory in the Tour. On the fifteenth stage Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died after an accident on the Col de Portet ...

Outschakov * Stage 16 2000 Tour de France

*Stage 10, Points and sprint classification 1994 Giro d'Italia Abdoujaparov * Stage 13

1999 Giro d'Italia The 1999 Giro d'Italia was the 82nd edition of the Giro. It began on May 15 with a mass-start stage that stretched from Agrigento to Modica. The race came to a close on June 6 with a mass-start stage that ended in the Italian city of Milan. E ...

* Stage 12 2000 Giro d'Italia Enrico Cassani * 1994 road race champion Dirk Baldinger * 1996 Time trial champion

Georg Totschnig Georg Totschnig (born 25 May 1971) is an Austrian former road bicycle racer who raced professionally between 1993 and 2006. He won the Austrian National Road Race Championships in 1997 and 2003. He also rode at three Olympic Games. Career In ...

* 1997 Military road race champion

Jörg Jaksche Jörg Armin JakscheAffidavit of Jörg Jaksche
d3epuodzu3wuis.cloudfront.net (born ...

* 1997 Military Time trial champion

Romāns Vainšteins Romāns Vainšteins (born 3 March 1973, in Talsi) is a former professional road bicycle racer from Latvia. He won the road race at the 2000 World Cycling Championship in Plouay, France. At the end of the race, he won the sprint for the line ...

* 1994

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders ( nl, Ronde van Vlaanderen), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and organi ...

Gianni Bugno Gianni Bugno (; born 14 February 1964) is a retired Italian professional road racing cyclist. Biography Bugno was a versatile rider, able to do well in different types of races. He won numerous stages in the Tour de France, and the Milan–S ...

* 1995

Scheldeprijs The Scheldeprijs is a cycling race in Flanders and the Netherlands which starts in Terneuzen, crosses the Scheldt River, and finishes in Schoten. Until 2018 it was held entirely in Belgium. The event, ranked as a 1.HC race on the UCI Europe Tour, ...

Rossano Brasi * 1995

Amstel Gold Race The Amstel Gold Race is an annual one-day classic road cycling race held in the province of Limburg, Netherlands. It traditionally marks the turning point of the spring classics, with the climbers and stage racers replacing the cobbled classic ...

Mauro Gianetti * 1995

Liège–Bastogne–Liège Liège–Bastogne–Liège, also known as ''La Doyenne'' ("The Old Lady"), is a one-day classic cycling race in Belgium.Cycling Weekly, UK, 13 March 1993 First run in 1892, it is the oldest of the five '' Monuments'' of the European professional ...

Mauro Gianetti *

HEW Cyclassics The Hamburg Cyclassics (currently known as the Bemer Cyclassics for sponsorship purposes) is an annual one-day professional and amateur cycling race in and around Hamburg, Germany. Although the route varies, its distance is always around 250 ...

1996 and 1999

Rossano Brasi Rossano Brasi (born 3 June 1972) is an Italian former professional racing cyclist. He competed in the team pursuit at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He was professional from 1995 to 2002 with the teams Polti and De Nardi. Major results ;1989 : 1st ...

and

Mirko Celestino Mirko Celestino (born 19 March 1974 in Albenga) is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, specializing in the classic cycle races. His biggest career achievements to date include winning the ''monumental classic''—Giro di Lombard ...

* 1999

Giro di Lombardia The Giro di Lombardia ( en, Tour of Lombardy), officially ''Il Lombardia'', is a cycling race in Lombardy, Italy. It is traditionally the last of the five 'Monuments' of the season, considered to be one of the most prestigious one-day events in cy ...

Mirko Celestino

References

External links

Defunct cycling teams based in Italy Cycling teams based in Italy Cycling teams established in 1994 Cycling teams disestablished in 2000 {{cycling-team-stub