79 Facts About Michele Scarponi

Michele Scarponi led the Androni Giocattoli team in a Grand Tour race for the first time at the 2010 Giro d'Italia, where he finished fourth overall and won a stage for the second successive year.

Contador was stripped of those results in February 2012 after a positive test for clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France, and Michele Scarponi was promoted to both victories; he won the points classification in the Giro d'Italia.

Michele Scarponi finished fourth overall in the 2012 Giro d'Italia and the 2013 race, with no further stage wins.

Michele Scarponi joined the Astana team in 2014, initially as a team leader for that year's Giro d'Italia, before becoming a domestique for the remainder of his career for compatriots Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru.

Michele Scarponi admitted his involvement in May 2007 after meetings with the Italian National Olympic Committee, and was suspended from racing until August 2008.

Michele Scarponi was born on 25 September 1979 in the town of Jesi, in the central Italian region of Marche, to Giacomo and Flavia.

Michele Scarponi received his first bicycle as a First Communion gift.

Michele Scarponi joined the local cycling club Pieralisi at age eight, and began to win races.

In 1997, at age seventeen, Michele Scarponi became junior national road race champion with a winning move on the climb to Castello di Caneva in the northern region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Michele Scarponi had his first victory with that team, winning a stage of the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, en route to a second-place finish overall, and made his Grand Tour debut with an eighteenth-place finish in the 2002 Giro d'Italia.

Michele Scarponi finished sixteenth in the Giro d'Italia, and thirteenth in the Vuelta a Espana.

Forgoing the Giro d'Italia, Michele Scarponi won the fourth stage of the Peace Race in Germany after joining a late-stage move and a sprint finish in Grunhain-Beierfeld.

Michele Scarponi maintained the overall lead for the remainder of the race until its finish in Prague.

Michele Scarponi finished seventh in the Vuelta a Burgos and had his best Grand Tour finish to that point, finishing twelfth in the Vuelta a Espana as a domestique for Roberto Heras; Heras was disqualified after a positive test for erythropoietin, but was later reinstated.

In 2006, Michele Scarponi was implicated in the Operacion Puerto doping case.

Michele Scarponi's best result that year was a fifth-place finish in the thirteenth stage of the Giro d'Italia, a race he failed to finish for the first time; he did not start the seventeenth stage the day after team manager Manolo Saiz was arrested in connection with the investigation.

Michele Scarponi began his 2007 racing season with the March Clasica de Almeria, where he exceeded the time limit.

Michele Scarponi won the race's second stage, to Faenza, after attacking from the peloton with 1.6 kilometres remaining.

Michele Scarponi entered the final day two seconds behind race leader Luca Pierfelici, who then was dropped, and finished second to Riccardo Ricco in Sassuolo.

Michele Scarponi won the overall race by eight seconds over Ricco, who passed Pierfelici in the general classification.

Michele Scarponi returned to racing in the Giro dell'Appennino on 3 August, and recorded his best result of the 2008 season in the October Giro dell'Emilia.

Michele Scarponi began his 2009 season with a fifth-place finish in the Vuelta a Andalucia, supporting Davide Rebellin's unsuccessful bid to win the race.

Michele Scarponi finished fourth in the fifth-stage time trial, and won the sixth stage in Camerino.

Michele Scarponi avoided trouble in the final stage for his first UCI World Ranking victory, 25 seconds ahead of Garzelli.

Michele Scarponi took aim at the Giro d'Italia, where he was a main domestique for team leader Gilberto Simoni, after the Ardennes classics.

Michele Scarponi joined the breakaway on the eighteenth stage as one of a septet of riders who broke clear of a larger group of twenty-five with 15 kilometres left to race; they contested a final sprint for Michele Scarponi's stage win, his second of the Giro.

Michele Scarponi rode a series of one-day races during the second half of the season, with top-ten finishes in the Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia, the Coppa Ugo Agostoni, and the Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato.

Michele Scarponi was selected for the UCI Road World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland, but did not finish the road race.

Michele Scarponi took the race lead with a fourth-stage victory, attacking with Vincenzo Nibali before dropping Nibali on the run-in to Chieti.

Michele Scarponi then lost time to Stefano Garzelli on each of the next two stages, and went into the final day just two seconds ahead.

Michele Scarponi won the opening-stage prologue of the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, where he, a 6.6-kilometre time trial up the Colle Gallo.

Michele Scarponi missed a podium position by two seconds after Domenico Pozzovivo achieved enough of a gap to win the final stage.

Michele Scarponi led the Androni Giocattoli team in a Grand Tour for the first time.

Michele Scarponi finished third on successive days: in stage 14 to Monte Grappa and stage 15 to Monte Zoncolan; in the latter stage, he was in the lead group until he was distanced by Cadel Evans and Ivan Basso.

Michele Scarponi moved up to fourth overall; within a second of the overall podium the following day at the Tonale Pass, he finished thirteen seconds shy in fourth place after the final-stage individual time trial in Verona.

Michele Scarponi finished fourth in the points classification, and fifth in the mountains classification.

Except for the Brixia Tour and the Vuelta a Burgos, Michele Scarponi rode one-day races for the remainder of the season.

Michele Scarponi made his debut with the team in the Giro di Sardegna, where he won the final stage after a late attack; he finished fourth overall, missing the podium by eleven seconds.

Michele Scarponi finished third in the penultimate stage and third overall, behind Cadel Evans and Robert Gesink, winning the points competition with the highest number of points for intermediate sprints and stage finishes.

Michele Scarponi then rode in the Volta a Catalunya several days later, finishing second overall to Alberto Contador.

Michele Scarponi won the Giro del Trentino, breaking clear with Thomas Voeckler on the final climb of the second stage; they remained clear to the end, with Voeckler winning the sprint and Scarponi taking the overall lead.

Michele Scarponi kept the lead for the rest of the race, winning it for the first time.

Michele Scarponi lost time on the ninth stage, the most difficult stage to that point with its finish on Mount Etna.

Commentators said that Michele Scarponi was "left wanting both physically and tactically" and paid for his efforts on the climb, although he remained in fifth place overall.

Michele Scarponi finished eighth, praising his team for their hard work at the front for much of the day.

Michele Scarponi reached the halfway point of the Giro in fifth place, 88 seconds behind race leader Contador.

Michele Scarponi was an early attacker on the first climb, but could not make up much ground; Contador finished second to Jose Rujano in the stage, increasing his lead by almost two minutes.

Michele Scarponi lost another fifty seconds to Contador, and fell to fourth place overall as Anton moved ahead of him.

Michele Scarponi was much closer to Contador on the Gardeccia climb, losing just fourteen seconds; he finished well ahead of Anton and Nibali, and moved into second place in the overall classification.

Michele Scarponi finished second to Joaquim Rodriguez on the eighth stage, but was not a major factor in the general classification; he abandoned in stage 14, trailing overall leader Bradley Wiggins by over 24 minutes.

Michele Scarponi moved into the top ten of the overall classification after stage 14, and worked his way into the top five three stages later with a sixth-place finish in stage 17.

Michele Scarponi finished the stage in fourth place and moved up to third overall.

Michele Scarponi finished fourth overall, with Hesjedal taking the overall win.

Michele Scarponi lost over two minutes in the sixth stage after being delayed by what became known as the "Metz Massacre", a crash that involved a large proportion of the peloton.

Michele Scarponi was not a factor in the second part of the race and finished 24th overall, almost an hour behind winner Bradley Wiggins.

Michele Scarponi was suspended by his team in November 2012 after he admitted performing tests with Michele Ferrari, a doctor linked to a number of doping cases.

Michele Scarponi was fifth going into the race's final stage in Barcelona, but bridged a 20-second gap to reach three race leaders.

Michele Scarponi remained there, finishing fourth in the stage; a 21-second gap to the peloton enabled him to move up two places into third overall, passing Nairo Quintana and Bradley Wiggins.

Michele Scarponi reached the top ten in stage results only once during the first half of the race, but never fell below sixth after the eighth stage; he finished fourth overall, like 2010 and 2012.

Michele Scarponi was part of a three-man move with Ivan Santaromita and Davide Rebellin which remained clear until the end of the race and got the better of Rebellin at the finish, but was out-sprinted by Santaromita.

Michele Scarponi then continued his progression towards the Vuelta a Espana with the Tour de Pologne.

Michele Scarponi finished 15th overall in the Vuelta a Espana, with a best stage placing in the fifteenth stage at Peyragudes; part of a 28-man breakaway, he was one of two riders to remain clear of the peloton but finished over three minutes behind stage winner Alexandre Geniez.

Michele Scarponi was selected as the team leader for the Giro d'Italia and was a pre-race favourite for the general classification, saying that he was "optimistic" about his chances.

Michele Scarponi crashed during stage six, losing almost two minutes, and lost another ten minutes two stages later as the team leadership began to gravitate towards Fabio Aru; Scarponi withdrew from the race during stage sixteen.

Michele Scarponi led the squad in the Tour of the Basque Country, where he finished sixth overall and sixth in two stages.

Michele Scarponi again rode in support of Nibali, who placed fourth overall, in the Tour de France.

Michele Scarponi was part of the squad which won the team time trial in the Vuelta a Burgos' second stage and finished second overall, two seconds behind teammate Rein Taaramae, and with two fourth-place stage finishes.

In September 2015, it was announced that Michele Scarponi had again extended his contract for another year with Astana.

Michele Scarponi began his season with the Tour de San Luis before moving on to the spring Italian stage races.

Michele Scarponi missed a month of racing as the injury healed, and returned to competition at the Giro del Trentino.

Michele Scarponi was a key domestique for overall winner Vincenzo Nibali in the Giro d'Italia, helping Nibali come from nearly five minutes down in the overall standings to win the race by 52 seconds over Esteban Chaves.

Michele Scarponi rode in the Tour de Suisse before a mid-summer break, when he announced another 12-month contract extension for 2017.

Michele Scarponi rode in the Vuelta a Burgos as a warm-up for the Vuelta a Espana, where Astana won the team time trial as they had done in 2015.

Michele Scarponi led his team at the Vuelta a Espana with three top-ten stage finishes, finishing eleventh overall.

Michele Scarponi began the 2017 season with the February Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Volta ao Algarve races, finishing in the top twenty of both.

Michele Scarponi out-sprinted the group for his first individual victory since his 2013 Gran Premio della Costa Etruschi success, and finished fourth overall.

On 22 April 2017, after completing the Tour of the Alps the day before, Michele Scarponi was on a training ride for that year's Giro d'Italia; he was due to lead the Astana team after Fabio Aru withdrew due to injury.

Michele Scarponi was riding along the SP 362 provincial road, one kilometre from the centre of his home town of Filottrano, at about 08:00 local time when he was struck at the via Schiavoni intersection by an Iveco Daily van driven by local 57-year-old craftsman Giuseppe Giacconi.

Michele Scarponi was commemorated during the 2022 Giro d'Italia, when a mural of his pet parrot was unveiled at the site of his death.