Filippo Simeoni

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Filippo Simeoni in the Italian championship jersey (2009)

Filippo Simeoni (born August 17, 1971 in Desio , province of Milan ) is a former Italian cyclist .

Career

He achieved two of his most important victories at two stages of the Vuelta a España in 2001 and 2003. In his first Vuelta stage win, Filippo Simeoni stopped shortly before the finish line and carried his bike over it, on the one hand in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , on the other hand, in view of an impending doping ban - as he put it - to express his love and hate for cycling. The Internationale Radsportunion (UCI) punished him with a fine.

Simeoni was a customer of the controversial medical doctor Michele Ferrari , who looked after a variety of athletes, including Lance Armstrong . As part of the state investigation into the so-called "Ferrara" case, he testified in court that he had used doping since 1993 and that Ferrari prepared him with drugs such as EPO and growth hormones in 1996 and 1997 and instructed him how to use the drugs . In 2001 and 2002 Simeoni was banned from all competitions for six months for doping. Armstrong called Simeoni a liar in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde in July 2003. Simeoni then sued Armstrong for defamation and demanded 100,000 euros. He said that if he received money, he would donate it to charity. However, the lawsuit was dismissed by a Paris court in January 2006.

Mario Cipollini , a teammate with his then Domina Vacanze cycling team , tried to prevent Simeoni's start in the 2004 Tour de France . It later became known that Cipollini was also looked after by Ferrari. He was nevertheless included in the squad. On the 18th stage , Simeoni made an attempt to join a breakaway group of six riders. Although none of the drivers compromised Armstrong's lead in the overall standings, Armstrong succeeded Simeoni, so Armstrong's rivals from Team T-Mobile took up the chase. As a result, the six leaders saw their chances of a stage win threatened. They urged Armstrong to fall back on the peloton , but Armstrong did not allow Simeoni to succeed and only fell back when Simeoni did too. Armstrong later made a derogatory gesture and said Simeoni did not deserve to win a stage. Two days later, on the final stage, which is usually slow and the championship leaders celebrate their victories - Armstrong led the overall standings in 2004 - Simeoni kept attacking to take revenge for the humiliation, but Armstrong's team caught him every time one.

Since Simeoni was a prosecution witness in the Ferrari trial at the time of the 2004 tour, Italian authorities threatened to investigate Armstrong for intimidation. In March 2005, Armstrong was questioned. Armstrong was indicted by Italian authorities in December 2005 and had to answer for defamation of Simeoni on March 7, 2006. In April 2006 the charges were dropped.

On June 29th, 2008 Filippo Simeoni won the Italian road championship for professional cyclists in Bergamo. From a leading group he attacked a few kilometers from the finish and won by a narrow margin over Giovanni Visconti , Filippo Pozzato and Davide Rebellin .

At the end of the 2009 season, Simeoni ended his career as a professional cyclist.

Teams

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ radsport-news.com of September 27, 2001: Simeoni carries Vuelta Rad to the finish - Zabel with the best points
  2. ↑ a b dailypeloton.com of July 27, 2004: Rebel with a Cause? ( Memento of the original from November 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dailypeloton.com
  3. ↑ Ralf Meutgens : Doping im Radsport , Bielefeld 2007, p. 276. ISBN 978-3-7688-5245-6
  4. ↑ a b repubblica.it of July 23, 2004: "Armstrong antisportivo" il Tour tra veleni e querele
  5. ↑ radsport-news.com of January 16, 2006: Simeoni's lawsuit against Armstrong dismissed
  6. ↑ Mario Cipollini - The wounded lion, in: Procycling January 2015 (German edition), pp. 58ff, 62
  7. ↑ radsport-news.com from April 18, 2006: Simeoni and Armstrong bury the hatchet
  8. ↑ cyclingnews.com of June 29, 2008: Simeoni's surprise attack holds on for Italian national win

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Simeoni, Filippo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Desio , province of Milan