Mario Scirea

Mario Scirea (left) at the 1993 Tour de France

Mario Scirea (born August 7, 1964 in Oltre il Colle , Bergamo ) is a former Italian racing cyclist who primarily acted as a noble helper for his respective captain.

Scirea was a successful amateur. As early as 1983 he was the Italian four-man military world champion in the team time trial. In 1987 he won the gold medal at the UCI Road World Championships in the team time trial in Austria . Before that, he competed in the International Peace Tour in May , where he finished 70th overall.

Scirea began his professional driver career in 1989 with the Colombian team Café de Colombia . In 1990 he moved to the French team Chateaux d'Ax , where he was  an important helper for the two-time world champion Gianni Bugno , as he did later with Gatorade and Polti . In 1996 Scirea was hired by the Italian team Saeco as a noble helper for the super sprinter Mario Cipollini , in whose service he placed himself until the end of his career. He even followed Cipollini when he switched teams to Acqua e Sapone and Domina Vacanze and is considered the best friend of the world champion in the peloton.

Mario Scirea was only able to celebrate a few of his own successes. As an amateur , he became world champion in team time trial in 1987 in Villach, Austria . He took part in a total of 27 major country tours: five times in the Vuelta a España , nine times in the Tour de France and 13 times in the Giro d'Italia . At the end of his career he was nominated twice for the Italian national team at world championships ( 2002 in Zolder, Belgium and 2003 in Hamilton, Canada ).

After he had finished his career at the end of 2004 at the age of 40 and completed training as a sports director, Scirea was hired as sports director by the Italian UCI ProTeam Liquigas before the 2005 season . There he is now passing on his many years of experience as a professional cyclist to the new generation of cycling.

Teams

driver

• 1989 Café de Colombia
• 1990 Chateaux d'Ax
• 1991-1993 Gatorade
• 1994-1995 Polti
• 1996-2001 Saeco
• 2002 Acqua e Sapone
• 2003-2004 Domina Vacanze

Sports director

• 2005-2010 Liquigas

Private

Mario Scirea is married to Ilaria, with whom he has a son (Luca).

Web links

• Mario Scirea in the database of Radsportseiten.net
• Mario Scirea in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ L'Unità . Nuova Iniziativa Editoriale SpA, Rome November 14, 1983, p. 12 (Italian).
2. ↑ Maik Märtin: 50 years of Course de la Paix . Agency Construct, Leipzig 1998, p. 256 .