Gilberto Simoni

Gilberto Simoni (born August 25, 1971, Palù di Giovo, province of Trento) is an Italian professional road bicycle racer. He is a two-times winner of the Giro d'Italia cycling race (2001 and 2003 editions). Simoni is a native of Palu di Giovo, and is a climbing specialist. For the 2006 season he rides for Saunier Duval-Prodir.

Early career

Simoni started cycling in the amateur ranks having set his sights on someday winning the Giro d'Italia. In 1993 he won the Baby Giro d'Italia (Giro d'Italia for amatures) and the amateur Italian Road Cycling Championship.

He turned professional in 1994 with the Jolly Componibili team. He had a difficult first year during which his father and then his brother died. It was only three years later that he won his first professional race while riding for the M&G Technogym team of sports director Giancarlo Ferretti, which was a stage of the Giro del Tretino.

Another difficult spell plagued him while riding for the Cantina Tollo team in 1998 in which he had very poor results. He briefly quit cycling and worked as a bicycle mechanic for 1984 Giro d'Italia winner Francesco Moser. However, Simoni joined the Ballan team in 1999 and finished third on the general classification of that year's Giro d'Italia. It was also that edition of the race that saw Marco Pantani get disqualified for allegedly doping. Simoni was criticized that he hadn't earned his placing. He proved his critics wrong by winning a stage in the Tour de Suisse and again finishing on the final podium.

First Giro d'Italia victory

The 2000 season started well for Simoni: he joined the top-ranked Lampre-Dankin team of two-time Giro d'Italia winner Giuseppe Saronni and Simoni finished on the podium of the Giro d'Italia again. He proved his climbing prowess by winning the dramatic Alto de El Angliru stage of the Vuelta a Espana later that year.

In the 2001 Giro d'Italia he was the undisputed team leader for the general classification, which he won with a comfortable margin.

Second Giro d'Italia victory

Following his Giro victory Simoni moved to the Saeco team with the goal of repeating his Giro success of the previous year. However, traces of cocaine were found in his blood and he was disqualified despite his protestations of innocence. It was later determined that the cocaine in his blood came from candies that his aunt had bought for him from Colombia.

In 2003, the Saeco team came to the Giro d'Italia with the sole purpose of supporting Simoni. After epic battles with a resurgent Stefano Garzelli, Yaroslav Popovych and Marco Pantani in the high mountains in a hailstorm, Simoni cemented his second Giro d'Italia victory. His pursuit was documented in the film The Quest.

Following his dominant showing in the Giro, he set his aims on the Tour de France and in several interviews challenged the incumbent Lance Armstrong to a battle in the mountains. Unfortunately his performance was lacking, although he was able to gain a stage win.

Recent news

Simoni failed to defend his title in the 2004 Giro d'Italia with the emergence of his teammate Damiano Cunego. After some public dispute, Simoni reconciled with Cunego and agreed to continue on the same team, which became Lampre-Caffita. In the 2005 Giro d'Italia the team took advantage of the publicity and played up the rivalry between Simoni and Cunego, boasting their strength for the Giro. The early part of the Giro saw Cunego lose significant time in the early mountain stages - later diagnosed with Epstein-Barr viral infection - firmly establishing Simoni as the team leader for the Giro. However, Simoni failed to dislodge Paolo Savoldelli in the last mountain stage, even with an epic performance which saw him and Danilo Di Luca work together to gain time on Savoldelli. Suffering from cramps, he also failed to win that stage.

Simoni was slated to join Giancarlo Ferretti's Sony-Ericsson team, which was supposed to be the continuation of the Fassa Bortolo team. However, it later turned out that Ferretti had fallen victim to a fraud, and the team did not in fact exist. After a strong performance in which he finished second in the Giro di Lombardia (which was won by Cunego in the previous edition), Simoni signed a contract to join Saunier Duval-Prodir.

Simoni is currently embroiled in a minor scandal with fellow Italian Ivan Basso of CSC. Simoni alleged that Basso offered him a stage win in the 2006 Giro d'Italia into Aprica five kilometers from the finish after the two cyclists had broken away from the main field. Basso has denied any such offer, and went on to win the stage by 77 seconds. Simoni retracted his accusations several days later. There are hints Simoni will be trying to win the Classica San Sebastian, and the Vuelta e Espana.