Michele Scarponi

Michele Scarponi
	Scarponi at the 2014 Tour de San Luis
Personal information
Full name	Michele Scarponi
Born	25 September 1979; Jesi, Marche, Italy
Died	Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.; Filottrano, Marche, Italy
Height	Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value).
Weight	62 kg (137 lb)
Team information
Current team	Astana
Discipline	Road
Role	Climber
Professional team(s)
2002	Acqua & Sapone-Cantina Tollo
2003–2004	Domina Vacanze
2005–2006	Liberty Seguros–Würth
2007	Acqua & Sapone–Caffè Mokambo
2008–2010	Diquigiovanni–Androni
2011–2013	Lampre–ISD
2014–2017	Astana
Major wins
	Grand Tours Giro d'Italia General classification (2011) Points classification (2011) 3 individual stages Stage races Tirreno–Adriatico (2009) Volta a Catalunya (2011) Giro del Trentino (2011)
	Infobox last updated on; 25 April 2017

Michele Scarponi (25 September 1979 - 22 April 2017) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer, who was declared the winner of the 2011 Giro d'Italia after Alberto Contador was stripped of the title due to doping. Scarponi rode for UCI ProTeam Astana from 2014^[1] until the time of his death. He died tragically after being struck by a vehicle on a training ride.

Career

Born in Filottrano, Scarponi started his career in good form, but in 2006, Scarponi was implicated in the Operación Puerto doping case. Despite this, and Scarponi's Liberty Seguros–Würth cycling team folding, Scarponi was able to secure a contract with Acqua & Sapone.

Despite a promising start to the 2007 season, Scarponi was once again implicated in the Operación Puerto case. On 8 May 2007, Scarponi confessed his role in the case.^[2] On 15 May, Scarponi was provisionally suspended.^[3]

With the rider completing his ban, Diquigiovanni–Androni announced on 13 June 2008 that they had signed Scarponi for the coming two seasons. In 2009, Scarponi won the Tirreno-Adriatico and also won 2 stages in the Giro d'Italia.

In 2010, he awarded himself a second-place finish in the Tirreno-Adriatico. He also finished fourth overall in the Giro d'Italia. In that race, he took a prestigious victory in the epic stage 19, where he went clear of the field on the Mortirolo Pass with two Liquigas–Doimo teammates, Vincenzo Nibali and Ivan Basso. Basso was attempting to take the overall lead, so Nibali and him made most of the work during the dangerous descent and subsequent uphill ride to Aprica, leaving Scarponi fresh enough to out sprint the pair.^[4] Scarponi also achieved a victory in the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda.

In 2011, Scarponi moved to Lampre–ISD where he won the Giro del Trentino and the Volta a Catalunya. Then in the Giro d'Italia he finished second overall behind Alberto Contador. Contador was later stripped from the title,^[5] which was therefore assigned to Scarponi. He then tried to defend his Giro title in 2012, but later finished 4th overall with Canadian Ryder Hesjedal taking the overall win. After the Giro, Scarponi then decided to focus on the Tour. However Scarponi could only end up finishing 24th overall.

In 2013,^[6] Scarponi started his season finishing 3rd in the Volta a Catalunya. He aimed for the Giro d'Italia where he ended up finishing 4th overall the same place as he finished in 2010 and 2012.

For the 2014 season, Scarponi moved to the Astana squad.^[1]

Doping

Scarponi was temporarily suspended by his team in November 2012 after he admitted performing tests with Michele Ferrari, a doctor whose name has been linked to numerous cases of doping in cycling.^[7] His salary at the time was disclosed, which was 700,000 Euros a year.^[8]

Death

Scarponi died in a traffic collision while training on his bike near his home in Filottrano, Italy on the morning of 22 April 2017.^[9] He was struck by a small commercial vehicle manufactured by Iveco. The driver of the Iveco allegedly failed to give way to Scarponi at an intersection, claiming he did not see Scarponi.^[10] Scarponi died at the scene of the crash.