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Paolo Bettini is a professional cyclist from Italy who was born April 1, 1974. Bettini finished the 2006 season ranked number 8 on the UCI ProTour.
Paolo Bettini (born April 1, 1974) is an Italian road cyclist with the Belgian Quick Step-Innergetic professional cycling team. He is the gold medal winner of the 2004 Athens Olympics road race and of the 2006 World Road Race Championship. Bettini is a 3-time champion of the Union Cycliste Internationale World Cup series consecutively in 2002, 2003 and 2004. He has also won stages of the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and Vuelta a Espa?a. He finished in 9th place at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and won a silver medal at the 2001 World Championships in Lisbon, Portugal.
He is nicknamed "Il Grillo" ("The Cricket") for his propensity to attack repeatedly, and for his sprinting style.
Career
Bettini was born in Cecina, in the province of Livorno (Tuscany). He first gained prominence by winning the prestigious classic Li?ge-Bastogne-Li?ge race for the now-defunct Mapei team in 2000 and again in 2002. In 2001 he won the Züri-Metzgete for the first time. He set the record for the most number of World Cup race wins in a single season in 2003, by winning the Milan-Sanremo, HEW Cyclassics and Cl?sica de San Sebasti?n, and is widely considered to be the best one-day road racer in the world.
Early career
Bettini started his career as a domestique to classics star Michele Bartoli. However, Bartoli's injury and Bettini's wins in several key races meant that he was given more latitude to race for himself. Bettini won the 2000 edition of Li?ge-Bastogne-Li?ge and a flat stage of the 2000 Tour de France from Agen to Dax near the Pyrenees, barely edging out the charging peloton. The next year he won the 2001 Züri-Metzgete after a few months lacking any wins. Having made his way into the winning breakaway, he beat the favorite Jan Ullrich in the finale of the race by using his acceleration to jump away from Ullrich in the sprint to the finish. His worsening feud with Bartoli culminated in the 2001 World Cycling Championship in Lisbon, Portugal, where even though he was in the final breakaway with Bartoli, the latter refused Bettini's request to lead him out in the sprint finish, thus allowing Spaniard Freire to win the race.
2002 World Cup and race season
Having been the trusted domestique of Michele Bartoli in previous years, the 2002 season was a breakthrough season for Bettini with the departure of both Bartoli and Museeuw from the Mapei team. Bettini started his World Cup campaign with an aggressive ride in the finale of Milan-Sanremo, but he was caught in the final kilometers of the race. After his 1-2 win with Stefano Garzelli in Li?ge-Bastogne-Li?ge where both riders displayed brilliant tactical riding for their team Mapei, Paolo ran neck-to-neck against contender Johan Museeuw, who won the Paris-Roubaix in a 50-km solo breakaway, and the HEW Cyclassics. A tactical ride in Giro di Lombardia earned Bettini the World Cup. Paolo Bettini played a strong support role in Mario Cipollini's victory in the UCI Road Cycling World Championship in Zolder, Belgium.
2003 World Cup and race season
The 2003 World Cup series started with Bettini's daredevil ride in winning the opener Milan-Sanremo. Attacking twice in the last hills leading down to the Primavera, Bettini had the excellent help of his super-domestique Luca Paolini, who attacked down the tricky descent towards the finish. However, injury sustained in the Gent-Wevelgem forced Bettini to miss several races until the Tour de France in July. He then followed through with a charismatic win in the HEW Cyclassics in front of Tour de France runner-up Jan Ullrich, and a win in the Cl?sica de San Sebasti?n.
Unfortunately Paolo Bettini failed to win the UCI Road Cycling World Championship despite being the overall favorite, due to a tactical mistake at the end of the race. Having established himself in the winning breakaway with Spaniard Igor Astarloa, a moment's hesitation allowed Astarloa to break away to the finish to win the race. At the end of the race Astarloa claimed that Bettini had offered him money to relinquish the win, which Astarloa said he refused. A feud ensued, and Astarloa has since attributed his comment to a misunderstanding between his Spanish and Bettini's Italian 1.
2004 World Cup and race season
The 2004 season started well with his performance in the Milan-Sanremo, but saw an emergent Davide Rebellin win the triplet of La Fl?che Wallonne (not in the World Cup), Li?ge-Bastogne-Li?ge and Amstel Gold Race. Bettini's disappointments only continue with second-place finishes in the HEW Cyclassics which he had won previously, and again in the Cl?sica de San Sebasti?n, again which he had won only last year. The points gained in Paris-Tours - usually a pure sprinters race - was enough to put him in the World Cup leader's jersey, but with the last race the Giro di Lombardia better suited to Rebellin's riding style, the World Cup was not yet safe.
However, despite the absence of Luca Paolini due to injury - which meant the loss of a native of the race circuit - Bettini managed to follow Rebellin throughout the race and control his climbing, resulting in Rebellin quitting in frustration. Paolo's most important victory was in the 2004 Summer Olympics which saw him break away with only one other rider in the final laps and sprinting for a comfortable margin of victory. Unfortunately, he yet again failed to win the UCI Road Cycling World Championship due to a knee injury when he banged his knee against the team car at the beginning of the race.
2005 UCI ProTour and race season
After participating in the Milan-Sanremo, Bettini had an injury-marked season start which prevented him from having any significant participation in the spring classics, and he didn't get any victories until he got two stage wins at the 2005 Giro d'Italia, where he also donned the [i]maglia rosa[/i] for several days. After that, he didn't get any more good results until the 2005 Vuelta a Espa?a, where he beat Alessandro Petacchi in an uphill sprint in Valladolid. After that, he took part in the Cycling World Championship in Madrid, where he got into the decisive break but, once again, he could not win and did not even get a medal. However, one week later, Bettini won the Züri-Metzgete for a second time in his career. Capitalizing on his form, two weeks following Zürich he won the last classic of the season the Giro di Lombardia as well.
2006 UCI ProTour and race season
Bettini won the 15th stage in the 2006 Giro d'Italia. Following the Giro, he became the Italian National Road Race Champion before going on to capture the world champion's jersey at the Road World Championships 2006. When his brother Sauro died in a car accident a few days after that victory, Bettini was on the verge of abandoning professional cycling. However he changed his mind and soon afterwards won the Giro di Lombardia classic, in tears.
