Marco Velo

Italian time trial champion 1998-2000

Marco Velo ( born March 9, 1974 in Brescia ) is an Italian former racing cyclist and current maintainer of the Italian time trial.

Velo was able to achieve success especially in time trials and won, among other things between 1998 and 2000 three times in a row, the Italian National Championship in this discipline. Overall, he won ten races as a professional. In addition to these individual victories, he contributed to many successes driver other than Anfahrer in sprint trains.

Career

Doping as an amateur

During his time as an amateur bike 1994 of doping was transferred, on the occasion of the Road World Championships, where he took part in the team time trial. Because the intake of gonadotropin he was banned for two years.

Successful professional debut

Velo 1996 professional cyclist. He began his career with the Italian cycling team Brescialat. His first professional victory he celebrated the following year on the 4th stage of the Giro del Trentino, where he crossed the finish line as a soloist. In 1998, Velo Mercatone Uno, where he went to 2001. The first year of this team was also the most successful of his career: he was the first time Italian national champion in the time trial, and also in the time trial competitions Coppa delle Nazioni and Firenze- Pistoia he could not be beaten. He also won a stage - also a time trial - and the overall classification of the GP Tell in Switzerland, where he narrowly lost the sprint against Daniele Nardello on the second part. He was narrowly beaten in the time trial of the Tour of Catalonia - in the prologue Chris Boardman was faster during the fifth stage landed Velo behind the British and Abraham Olano third. In the pair time trial GP d' Europe, he finished with Marco Serpellini second place.

On these results Velo could also build in 1999 in part. His Italian championship title he defended, and also at Firenze - Pistoia he was again successful. In the sprint, a breakaway group, he also ruled the GP Llodio in Spain for themselves. When Syracuse tour and the GP Industria & Comercio di Prato he missed second place respectively in the sprint further successes as well as in the time trial competition Memorial Fausto Coppi, where he was distanced from the Ukrainian Sergei Gonchar by 44 seconds.

2000 Velo showed at the beginning of the season in shape, missed second in the first stage of the Vuelta a Murcia, however his first win of the season. After that, he was at the Memorial Cecchi Gori third overall. In addition, he was at his first major tour of the country, the Giro d' Italia, at the start. According to a twelfth place in the prologue time trial he had to leave the race after the twelfth stage. Then he became the third consecutive Italian time trial champion. Shortly thereafter, he was also nominated for his first Tour de France. In the individual time trial in Mulhouse, he finished in eleventh place and joined the tour as the 39th overall rating.

In 2001 Velo started with the second place in the time trial of the Vuelta a Murcia. Then for the first time drove the Giro d' Italia to an end. As a ninth of the prologue, Sixth time trial on stage 16, Ninth of the 17th section and sixth in the penultimate stage he could go in the top ten not only four times, he managed eleventh place in the overall standings and his best career result at a three-week tour.

As a caregiver by Alessandro Petacchi

For the 2002 season left Velo Mercatone Uno to sign with Fassa Bortolo. There he supported the sprinter Alessandro Petacchi as part of its Sprintzugs. This he did at the Tour de France, where he graduated as 54th, and also the first time at the Vuelta a España, which he finished as 57th and in which he was Tagessvierter on the 13th stage in the sprint of a breakaway group. The next year he helped Petacchi then the Giro, where he finished fourth to the sixth and tenth to the eleventh stage after he had prepared the day's winner Petacchi sprint. In addition, he showed up on the day 20 even in a top group and was again fourth. The tour he finished despite the helper services on a 21th Place. The Tour de France in the same year, he could not go to the end, however, he got out after the sixth stage.

The program for 2004 called for renewed participation in the Giro and the Vuelta a España. At the Giro he showed his seventh of the prologue time trial skills, on the 14th section he placed on preparation of Petacchi's victory even more than others, like he succeeded as seventh in the 20th stage. The goal he reached but this time only as 101 After it was abandoned in the Tour after three days he was also at the Vuelta at the start, he could end up as 114. At the beginning of the next season Velo was victorious with his team in the team time trial of the Settimana Internazionale. In one-day races Giro di Toscana he could classify as a third party in a mass sprint. As Petacchi Anfahrer he reached two fifth places at the Giro d' Italia, he decided as 105. Two third stage places he rode in the Tour de la Région Wallonne one each by his sprint abilities. In the subsequent Vuelta a España he was sent to the preparatory work for Petacchi's success ninth, but had to give up two days before closing. End of the season, he finished together with Petacchi the pair time trial Coppa Lella Mentasti second place.

After the end of the Fassa Bortolo team Velo moved in 2006, together with Alessandro Petacchi to the newly founded German - Italian Team Milram. When Coppa Lella Mentasti he entered this time along with Fabio Sacchi and promptly took his first victory in nearly six years. Petacchi he assisted in the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. Paris he reached it than 99 and missed it several times in the top ten rankings just barely. In the Tour of Spain, he was also placed on the last stage in a bunch sprint in eighth after Petacchi had gotten out.

In the 2007 season Velo just stood at the Vuelta at the start and not at the Giro or Tour. Without a significant position, he managed a 117 in the overall standings to Madrid. During the subsequent Coppa Lella Mentasti he finished second along with Alberto Ongarato. In 2008, Velo stayed with the now registered with German license Team Milram, although here after six years, the paths with Alessandro Petacchi parted, who left the team in mid-May. He stood at the Giro d' Italia at the start and was 87th overall. Then he also started at the Tour de France, where he finished tenth on the eleventh stage in Foix. On a good 44th he reached the goal in the sixth and final tour of his career. Four times he had been able to finish the race end. He was also successful in the season finale for the second time overall in the Coppa Lella Mentasti, his partner was called Fabio Sabatini.

Last year at Quickstep

After the end of the 2008 season Velo left the team Milram and no longer signed with Quick Step team was there, however, due to health problems his previous performance capabilities make .. His first race for the new team he competed in the Tour of Qatar, where he in the team time trial with the team to second place at the first stage. Among other things, he also started the Critérium du Dauphiné in June and at the Vuelta a España. On the fourth stage he was fifth, after he had his teammate Wouter Weylandt attracted the sprint. Overall, he made ​​it to number 93 should have been the last of his five appearances at the Tour of Spain, which he finished in four times.

In 2010, Velo also denied last time the Giro d' Italia, where he graduated as 108. A total of seven appearances he had to leave the race only once prematurely. After he still completed the Tour of Poland, among others, and had reached a final top ten place in the GP Briek Scot in Belgium, he finished with the Giro di Lombardia in October 2010 at the age of 36 years, his career as a professional cyclist.

Ending of the last year of his career came in the bike to have a doping agent used again in the suspicion. So to have been ensured within the framework of a house search of his home in the summer of 2010 prohibited substances.

After a career as Active

After his resignation as a cyclist bike, among other things as Regolatore, motorcyclists ahead of the peloton, in races of RCS Sport and since the 2014 season as the person responsible for the " time trial " of the Italian national team Commissario tecnico Davide Cassani worked.

Achievements

• A stage of the Giro del Trentino

• Coppa delle Nazioni - Memorial Fausto Coppi
• Italy Italian master - time trial
• Grand Prix Tell and a stage
• Firenze- Pistoia

• Italy Italian master - time trial
• Gran Premio de Llodio
• Firenze- Pistoia

• Italy Italian master - time trial

• Coppa Lella Mentasti ( with Fabio Sacchi )

• Coppa Lella Mentasti ( with Fabio Sabatini )