Filippo Pozzato

Filippo "Pippo" Pozzato (born 10 September 1981) is an Italian former road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2000 and 2018 for the Mapei–Quick-Step, Fassa Bortolo, Quick-Step–Innergetic, Liquigas, Team Katusha, Lampre–Merida, and two spells with the Farnese Vini–Selle Italia/Wilier Triestina–Selle Italia teams.

A northern classics specialist, Pozzato finished in second place at both the 2009 Paris–Roubaix and the 2012 Tour of Flanders. Pozzato finished a total of 37 Monument classics, including a victory in the 2006 Milan–San Remo; he finished second in the race in 2008 as well. Pozzato also won stages at the 2004 Tour de France, the 2007 Tour de France and the 2010 Giro d'Italia, and was the winner of the 2009 Italian National Road Race Championships.

Born in Sandrigo, Veneto, Pozzato turned professional in 2000 with the Mapei–Quick-Step team, part of the famous classe di '81 (English: Class of '81) a group of emerging young riders born in 1981 who were part of the Mapei TT3 development team, along with Fabian Cancellara, Bernhard Eisel and Alexandr Kolobnev. Pozzato took his first victories with the team at the 2002 Vuelta a Cuba, and took his first success in Europe at the Giro del Lago Maggiore the following month. Before the season was finished, Pozzato had taken eleven further victories, including four stages at the Tour de Normandie.

After Mapei ended its sponsorship in 2002 Pozzato joined Giancarlo Ferretti's Fassa Bortolo team for the 2003 season. He took early-season victories at the Trofeo Laigueglia and the Giro dell'Etna, before he won a stage and the general classification at Tirreno–Adriatico. He took one further victory during the season, at the Trofeo Matteotti. The following year, Pozzato won the final stage of the Giro della Liguria in February, before repeating his victory at the Trofeo Laigueglia. He made his first start at a Grand Tour at the Tour de France – where he was the youngest rider at the race – and won the seventh stage. He was also chosen to be part of the Italian team for the road race at the Athens Olympics – in support of team leader Paolo Bettini, who went on to win the event.

Personality clashes with Giancarlo Ferretti meant that Pozzato suffered poor years with Fassa Bortolo, and thus, re-established contact with several managers and directeurs sportif of Quick-Step–Innergetic. The Quick-Step–Innergetic team expressed interest and Pozzato was able to obtain a release for the 2005 UCI ProTour season, joining several former Mapei riders already on the team, such as Paolo Bettini and Davide Bramati. Having finished second at the Italian National Road Race Championships for the second time in three years in 2005, Pozzato's first victory with the Quick-Step–Innergetic team came with a win in the HEW Cyclassics, ahead of teammate Luca Paolini. He followed this up with another victory the following weekend in the Giro del Lazio, with a third victory ultimately following at the Deutschland Tour, where he won the second stage.

The 2006 season saw him win the first major classic of the year Milan–San Remo after a superb ride which saw him first work for team leader Tom Boonen, but then was forced to launch his own winning attack in the finale. He was unable to defend his victory in the renamed Vattenfall Cyclassics, finishing third behind Óscar Freire and Erik Zabel. His only other victory of the 2006 season came at the Tour of Britain, where he won the third stage of the race into Sheffield, having attacked from a six-rider lead group after the final categorised climb. He moved up to third overall, a position he continued to hold at the end of the race.

For the 2007 season, Pozzato joined the Liquigas squad, and during the early part of the season, he won consecutive starts at the Tour du Haut Var, and Omloop Het Volk. Having finished third on the second stage of the Tour de France, Pozzato took his second career stage win three stages later, prevailing in the bunch sprint into Autun. Following the Tour de France, Pozzato took three further victories in the 2007 season; he won the Trofeo Matteotti in August, before winning the sixth stage of the Tour de Pologne and the Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato in September.

In his first European start of the 2008 season, Pozzato won the opening stage of the inaugural Giro della Provincia di Grosseto in February, going on to win the general classification at the race as well. He recorded a top-ten overall finish at Tirreno–Adriatico the following month, before finishing second at Milan–San Remo, four seconds behind race winner Fabian Cancellara. He recorded his first top-ten finish at the Tour of Flanders, finishing in sixth place, before another podium finish in the Italian National Road Race Championships with third place. After no successes at the Tour de France, Pozzato rode the Vuelta a España for the first time in his career. Liquigas won the opening team time trial stage and with Pozzato crossing the finish line first, he assumed the gold jersey of race leader. He would ultimately lose the jersey to Alejandro Valverde the following day, and withdrew from the race prior to stage 19. He finished the season with two further second-place finishes at the Giro del Lazio and the Coppa Sabatini.