Alessandro Ballan

Alessandro Ballan

Alessandro Ballan 2009
Personal information
Full name	Alessandro Ballan
Nickname	Bontempino
Born	(1979-11-06) 6 November 1979 (age 32) Castelfranco Veneto, Italy
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	72 kg (160 lb)
Team information
Current team	BMC Racing Team
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Classics specialist
Professional team(s)
2004–2009 2010–	Lampre BMC Racing Team
Major wins
Vuelta a España, 1 Stage Ronde van Vlaanderen (2007) Trofeo Laigueglia (2006) Vattenfall Cyclassics (2007) World Road Race Champion (2008) Three Days of De Panne (2007) Tour de Pologne (2009)
Medal record Competitor for  Italy Road bicycle racing UCI Road World Championships Gold 2008 Varese Elite Men's Road Race
Infobox last updated on 29 April 2012

Alessandro Ballan (born 6 November 1979 in Castelfranco Veneto, Veneto) is an Italian professional road bicycle racer for UCI WorldTour team BMC Racing Team, and is a former world champion. Although he possesses a frame that is usually more associated with climbing, Ballan has established himself as a leading spring classics contender in recent years. His nickname, Bontempino, is a diminutive reference to Guido Bontempi, to whom he bears a resemblance.^[1]

Career

Ballan turned professional in 2004 with the Lampre team. Despite a decent amateur career, Ballan was not sought after by professional teams, and required a little bit of help to secure a professional contract.^[1] In his first season, Ballan worked as a domestique for Romāns Vainšteins and Gianluca Bortolami. In 2005, Ballan was given the opportunity to aim for high placings in the spring classics and achieved a stage victory and second overall in the Three Days of De Panne,^[2] along with sixth place in the Ronde van Vlaanderen,^[3] having attacked the leading group with 37 km to go. Later in the season, he achieved his first ProTour victory in taking stage 4 of the Eneco Tour of Benelux.^[4]

In 2006, Ballan started his spring classics campaign as a highly rated contender, given his performances in 2005 and his success in the warm-up races in winning the Trofeo Laigueglia,^[5] a second place to Tom Boonen in the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen^[6] and third overall at the Tirreno–Adriatico.^[7] Ballan was a leading protagonist in the classics: he took fifth at the Ronde van Vlaanderen^[8] and followed this with third at Paris–Roubaix, following the disqualifications of Peter Van Petegem, Vladimir Gusev and Leif Hoste.^[9] Later in the season, Ballan further proved his talent with a second placing in stage 12 of the Tour de France^[10] and a third place overall in the Tour de Pologne.^[11] Ballan finished in sixth place in the individual rankings of the 2006 UCI ProTour.^[12]

In 2007 Ballan suffered a broken collarbone during Tirreno–Adriatico. Despite this injury, Ballan worked hard in Milan – San Remo, although Ballan's teamleader Daniele Bennati did not win the race. Nearly two weeks later, Ballan won the Three Days of De Panne after an escape during stage 1. Ballan did not win the stage, but beat his nearest opponent Luca Paolini during the closing time trial, in which Ballan finished 10. On 8 April, Ballan won the Ronde van Vlaanderen in a close sprint finish ahead of local favourite Leif Hoste of Belgium. Ballan is the first Italian to win the Ronde van Vlaanderen and the Three Days of De Panne in the same season. On 19 August he won the Vattenfall Cyclassics with an attack in the final kilometer, holding off all of the sprinters, including former winner Oscar Freire and hot young German sprinter Gerald Ciolek, to take his second one-day classic of the season.

His spring of 2008 wasn't as prolific as 2007 although he was involved in the decisive break of Paris–Roubaix and rode hard to a third place behind past winners Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara together with whom he entered the famous Roubaix veledrome losing out in a sprint to the line. This came a week after a fourth place in defence of his Ronde van Vlaanderen crown. He again opted to skip his home tour – the Giro d'Italia, but raced in both the other grand tours – Tour de France and Vuelta a España, winning a mountain stage and wearing the leader's jersey in the latter.^[13]

In September 2008 Ballan won the UCI Road Race World Championships. In a race in which 2007 champion and Italian team mate Paolo Bettini was favourite, Ballan was again involved in the decisive break on the final lap of the undulating Varese circuit. From a group of 12 riders, including 2 Italian team mates Damiano Cunego and Davide Rebellin, Ballan attacked from 1500 metres out and held off the sprint to win by 3 seconds in front of his home crowd.^[14]

As if suffering from the Rainbow jersey curse, Ballan was diagnosed with cytomegalovirus in March 2009 and as a result was unable to contest that year's Spring Classics and Giro. During the Tour he also performed mediocre, only coming into the picture in the 19th stage as part of a breakaway which was caught before the finish line.^[15]

In August 2009, he won the Tour of Poland.^[16] Ballan signed with BMC Racing Team for the 2010 season.^[17]

Ballan was under investigation for doping and had been subsequently suspended by the BMC cycling team.^[18] He was later cleared by BMC and allowed to race again on 28 May.^[19]

At the 2012 Tour of Flanders in April, Ballan placed third after initiating a break with 25km to go. Boonen and Pozzato took up the chase and placed ahead of Ballan in the final sprint.

Palmarès

References

External links

• Team Profile
• Eurosport Profile
• Alessandro Ballan at Trap-Friis.dk

v t e UCI Road World Champions – Men's road race 1927 Alfredo Binda 1928–1929 Georges Ronsse 1930 Alfredo Binda 1931 Learco Guerra 1932 Alfredo Binda 1933 Georges Speicher 1934 Karel Kaers 1935 Jean Aerts 1936 Antonin Magne 1937 Éloi Meulenberg 1938 Marcel Kint 1946 Hans Knecht 1947 Theo Middelkamp 1948 Briek Schotte 1949 Rik Van Steenbergen 1950 Briek Schotte 1951 Ferdi Kübler 1952 Heinz Müller 1953 Fausto Coppi 1954 Louison Bobet 1955 Stan Ockers 1956–1957 Rik Van Steenbergen 1958 Ercole Baldini 1959 André Darrigade 1960–1961 Rik Van Looy 1962 Jean Stablinski 1963 Benoni Beheyt 1964 Jan Janssen 1965 Tom Simpson 1966 Rudi Altig 1967 Eddy Merckx 1968 Vittorio Adorni 1969 Harm Ottenbros 1970 Jean-Pierre Monseré 1971 Eddy Merckx 1972 Marino Basso 1973 Felice Gimondi 1974 Eddy Merckx 1975 Hennie Kuiper 1976 Freddy Maertens 1977 Francesco Moser 1978 Gerrie Knetemann 1979 Jan Raas 1980 Bernard Hinault 1981 Freddy Maertens 1982 Giuseppe Saronni 1983 Greg LeMond 1984 Claude Criquielion 1985 Joop Zoetemelk 1986 Moreno Argentin 1987 Stephen Roche 1988 Maurizio Fondriest 1989 Greg LeMond 1990 Rudy Dhaenens 1991–1992 Gianni Bugno 1993 Lance Armstrong 1994 Luc Leblanc 1995 Abraham Olano 1996 Johan Museeuw 1997 Laurent Brochard 1998 Oscar Camenzind 1999 Óscar Freire 2000 Romāns Vainšteins 2001 Óscar Freire 2002 Mario Cipollini 2003 Igor Astarloa 2004 Óscar Freire 2005 Tom Boonen 2006–2007 Paolo Bettini 2008 Alessandro Ballan 2009 Cadel Evans 2010 Thor Hushovd 2011 Mark Cavendish