Daniele Bennati
Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Daniele Bennati |
Nickname | Benna |
Born | Arezzo, Italy | 24 September 1980
Height | 1.84 m (6 ft 1⁄2 in) |
Weight | 73 kg (161 lb; 11 st 7 lb) |
Team information | |
Current team | Retired |
Discipline | Road |
Role | Rider |
Rider type | Sprinter |
Professional teams | |
2002 | Acqua & Sapone–Cantina Tollo |
2003 | De Nardi–Colpack |
2004 | Phonak |
2005–2007 | Lampre–Caffita |
2008–2010 | Liquigas |
2011–2012 | Leopard Trek |
2013–2016 | Saxo–Tinkoff |
2017–2019 | Movistar Team[1] |
Major wins | |
Grand Tours
|
Daniele Bennati (born 24 September 1980) is an Italian former
Specialising in fast
He retired at the end of the 2019 season, citing back pain.[2]
Biography
Early days
Bennati was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, into a family of cyclists. His father did well as an amateur, and his brother raced as a junior.[3] Bennati entered and won his first race at the age of 9. As an amateur he raced in the Grassi Mapei team, and won a stage of the Giro delle Regioni.
2002–03: At the side of Mario Cipollini
At the age of 21, Bennati turned professional and joined the
In 2003, Bennati stayed with the same team, although it had changed sponsors and was now called
2004: Phonak – A difficult season
At the end of 2003, Bennati signed a contract with the Phonak team. However, his year in the Swiss team was spoiled by a virus that forced him to drop out of Tirreno–Adriatico, and was followed by a recovery of several months. He did not get any victories during that season. In 2005, he signed a contract with the Italian team Saeco, which then merged with Lampre to form Lampre–Caffita, a larger team that designed to compete in the UCI ProTour.
2005–07: Lampre – the breakout years
2005 season
At Lampre, Bennati grew from a promising
2006 season
During the off-season, Bennati's team changed its secondary sponsor, becoming
The Lampre team for the Giro d'Italia was again built around the overall competition, and Bennati was not included. Instead, he participated in the Volta a Catalunya, winning the final stage ahead of Erik Zabel. In early June, he outsprinted his two breakaway companions to win the Memorial Marco Pantani. Although he could only manage 2nd and 3rd places in the Tour of Switzerland, he did wear the leader's jersey for one day and won the points jersey. July brought Bennati to his first Tour de France; he was among the top ten finishers in eight stages, including a 2nd place behind McEwen. He dropped out after a fall during the 16th stage; he was third in the points jersey competition at the time. Two months later, Bennati returned to the Tour of Poland, where he won two stages and wore the leader's jersey for two days.
The following weekend, he won two more races: the GP Citta di Misano-Adriatico and the Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato, but was not chosen for the Italian UCI Road World Championships team, as selector Franco Ballerini opted to do without any sprinters. Although his result in the sprinters' classic, Paris–Tours, was disappointing (37th), Bennati ended his season with a victory at the Giro del Piemonte. This brought him to a total of 9 victories in 2006, but he dropped to 87th place in the Pro Tour standings – largely due to his absence from the spring classics due to illness.
2007 season
Bennati spent much of his off-season training in the Canary Islands (with Daniele Righi, Giuliano Figueras, Caudio Corioni, and Mauro Santambrogio) and began the 2007 racing season with two wins in February. In the Tour Méditerranéean he won one stage, with strong support from his teammate Alessandro Ballan, had two 2nd places – marginally beaten in one stage by Mirco Lorenzetto – and won the points jersey. After a fourth place at the Trofeo Laigueglia, Bennati outsprinted Alessandro Petacchi for three wins in the Volta a la Communidat Valenciana. Unlike previous years, Bennati did not compete in Tirreno–Adriatico, choosing to ride Paris–Nice instead, where he had some high finishes but no victories. Once again, he was stricken by illness just prior to Milan–San Remo, where he finished 26th, and the Grand Prix E3 was a disappointment for the same reason.
Bennati's form improved in the beginning of April, where he won one stage of the Dreidaagse De Panne. In the Tour of Flanders, he worked hard for Ballan, who won in a sprint ahead of Leif Hoste. Although he was one of the favorites for the mid-week classic Gent–Wevelgem, Bennati had to withdraw because of a fever and intestinal difficulties. He started Paris–Roubaix but did not make it to the finish. His troubles continued into May; Bennati had to drop out of the Volta a Catalunya, though he did manage a third place in one stage. In the Tour of Switzerland he recovered his health and won the points jersey; although he had no stage victories, he had a second place in the prologue, behind Fabian Cancellara, and second places in two other stages as well, behind Erik Zabel and Robbie McEwen respectively. A few days later, Bennati took 6th place in the Italian National Road Race Championships.
In July, Bennati rode in the
In September, Bennati raced in his second Grand Tour of the season, the
During the final week of the Vuelta a España, Bennati had signed a two-year contract with a new team: Liquigas. Claudio Corioni and Enrico Franzoi, valuable teammates who formed an important part of his leadout train, also signed for Liquigas.
2008–10: Liquigas
2008 season
The move to Liquigas brought up some potential frictions: they now had two stars, Bennati and Filippo Pozzato, whose primary targets for the year would be similar. Any conflict in their spring racing goals disappeared, however, with Bennati's knee injury – a slight patellar chondropathy in the left knee, associated with inflammation of the lateral ligament – keeping him out of action until the end of April. He did not finish his first race back (the Giro d'Oro, but in his next race, the Giro del Trentino, he took 17th in the opening time trial but did not figure in any of the stage finishes. The Tour de Romandie opened with a very short prologue, where Bennati took second behind Mark Cavendish. He also took second behind Robbie McEwen in the first sprint finish, showing that he was coming back into form. This was confirmed with a victory in the final stage, giving him first place in the points classification.
The 2008 Giro d'Italia was a success for Bennati, and was marked by a series of battles with Cavendish. Bennati won the third stage, into Milazzo; the following day, Cavendish won the stage to Lungomare, his first Grand Tour win. The next sprinters' stage was the ninth; Bennati won, by a whisker, over Paolo Bettini, who was racing his final Giro d'Italia. Bennati also won the 12th stage, with a narrow margin over Cavendish; the order was reversed the following day. His three stage victories in a Giro with few stages suitable for sprinters also gave Bennati the points jersey. However, Bennati paid a price for the points jersey: the long pull in cold weather over the Mortirolo Pass caused an inflammation of Bennati's left Achilles tendon, the same leg as the knee injury.
He did not return to competition until August, at the Eneco Tour. There he was second to Tom Boonen in the second stage before winning the third stage and taking the leader's jersey for a day. He was dropped in the fourth stage, finishing in 88th place 22 seconds behind Boonen and losing the lead in the GC to André Greipel. Bennati then dropped out of the Eneco Tour and proceeded to the Vuelta a España in good form – where Pozzato was also a team leader. The Liquigas team won the first stage, a team time trial, with Pozzato crossing the line first and donning the leader's jersey. Bennati served as a domestique for Pozzato during the second stage, but when Pozzato did not retain the leader's jersey he was able to ride for himself. He was 2nd to Boonen the following day, and then won the fourth stage, ahead of Boonen but dropped out after the 9th stage. Bennati was not named to the Italian team for the UCI Road World Championships, and his bad luck in Paris–Tours, the sprinters’ classic, continued; he finished 8th in a race won by Philippe Gilbert. However, Bennati won his final race of the year, the Giro del Piemonte; it was his second victory in this race, which he also won in 2006.
2011–12: Leopard Trek
At the Vuelta a España, Bennati took his first win of the 2012 season in a very close finish on stage 18, edging Team Sky's sprinter Ben Swift. He dedicated his victory to the memory of Wouter Weylandt and of his grandfather.[6] Bennati left RadioShack–Nissan at the end of the 2012 season, and joined Bjarne Riis' Saxo–Tinkoff on a two-year contract from the 2013 season onwards.[7]
2013–16: Saxo–Tinkoff
On Saxo–Tinkoff, Bennati managed to be a part of the team for the 2013 Tour de France, even though it was highly occupied by riders like Alberto Contador, Nicolas Roche, Michael Rogers and Roman Kreuziger. His goal for the Tour de France was not to win a stage, but to help Contador to get the overall victory.
Major results
- 2001
- 10th Road race, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships
- 2002
- 1st Stage 1b Tour of Austria
- 1st Stage 5 Regio-Tour
- 3rd Gran Premio Nobili Rubinetterie
- 2003
- 1st Stage 3 Tour de Pologne
- 1st Stage 5 Tour Méditerranéen
- 4th Giro di Toscana
- 2004
- 8th Trofeo Manacor
- 2005
- 1st Giro di Toscana
- Deutschland Tour
- Tour de Pologne
- 1st Stages 2 & 4
- 2nd Giro della Romagna
- 2nd Paris–Tours
- 3rd Gent–Wevelgem
- 4th GP Ouest–France
- 5th Giro della Provincia di Lucca
- 5th Coppa Placci
- 6th Gran Premio della Costa Etruschi
- 2006
- 1st Giro del Piemonte
- 1st Gran Premio Città di Misano – Adriatico
- 1st Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato
- 1st Mercatone Uno-Memorial Pantani
- Tour de Pologne
- 1st Stages 2 & 4
- 1st Stage 7 Volta a Catalunya
- 1st Stage 5 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
- 1st Stage 4 Giro del Trentino
- 1st Points classification Tour de Suisse
- 2nd Gran Premio della Costa Etruschi
- 2007
- Tour de France
- 1st Stages 17 & 20
- Vuelta a España
- 1st Points classification
- 1st Stages 1, 17 & 21
- Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
- 1st Stage 2 Tour Méditerranéen
- 1st Points classification Tour de Suisse
- 3rd Gran Premio della Costa Etruschi
- 4th Trofeo Laigueglia
- 9th Overall Three Days of De Panne
- 2008
- 1st Giro del Piemonte
- Giro d'Italia
- 1st Points classification
- 1st Stages 3, 9 & 12
- Vuelta a España
- 1st Stages 1 (TTT) & 4
- Tour de Romandie
- 1st Stage 3 Eneco Tour
- 8th Paris–Tours
- 2009
- 1st Overall Giro di Sardegna
- 1st Stage 4
- Vuelta a Mallorca
- 1st Trofeo Inca
- 4th Trofeo Cala Millor
- 6th Milan–San Remo
- 7th Vattenfall Cyclassics
- 10th Overall Giro della Provincia di Grosseto
- 1st Stage 1
- 2010
- 1st Giro di Toscana
- 1st Stage 3 Tirreno–Adriatico
- 5th Overall Tour of Oman
- 1st Stage 2
- 5th Milan–San Remo
- 5th Coppa Bernocchi
- 6th Vattenfall Cyclassics
- 2011
- Circuit de la Sarthe
- 1st Points classification
- 1st Stages 1, 3 (ITT) & 5
- Vuelta a España
- 1st Stages 1 (TTT) & 20
- 1st Stage 3 Tour de Wallonie
- 1st Stage 8 Tour of Austria
- 2nd Overall Danmark Rundt
- 2nd Gent–Wevelgem
- 3rd Overall Tour of Qatar
- 7th Giro del Piemonte
- 10th Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato
- 2012
- 1st Stage 18 Vuelta a España
- 5th Trofeo Palma de Mallorca
- 6th Gent–Wevelgem
- 7th Gran Piemonte
- 10th Milan–San Remo
- 2013
- 2nd Gran Premio Nobili Rubinetterie
- 5th GP Ouest–France
- 2015
- 1st Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato
- 3rd Time trial, National Road Championships
- 7th Gran Piemonte
- 2016
- 1st Overall Giro di Toscana
- Danmark Rundt
- 1st Stage 1 Vuelta a Andalucía
- 3rd Gran Piemonte
- 8th Overall Dubai Tour
- 2017
- 5th Overall Circuit de la Sarthe
- 2018
- 7th Trofeo Campos, Porreres, Felanitx, Ses Salines
- 2019
- 4th Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León
Grand Tour results timeline
Grand Tour general classification results timeline[8] | |||||||||||||||||
Grand Tour | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Giro d'Italia | — | DNF | DNF | — | — | — | 70 | — | — | — | DNF | DNF | — | — | — | DNF | — |
Tour de France | — | — | — | — | DNF | 74 | — | 132 | — | — | — | 107 | 96 | DNF | — | 104 | 104 |
Vuelta a España | DNF | — | — | — | — | 63 | DNF | 84 | 83 | 111 | 144 | — | 108 | 131 | 107 | — | 133 |
Notes
- ^ "Movistar Team launches 2019 season with highest hopes". Telefónica. Telefónica, S.A. 18 December 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
- ^ a b Long, Jonny (19 November 2019). "Daniele Bennati retires due to back pain after 18 years as a professional". Cycling Weekly. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
- ^ Daniele Bennati, Lampre-Fondital: A winning start Archived 4 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Jeff Jones (19 September 2002). "Petacchi ascends the throne". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
- ^ Kristy Scrymgeour (10 September 2005). "UCI doping news". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
- ^ "Bennati sprints to photo-finish victory in Valladolid". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. 6 September 2012. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
- ^ "Bennati joins Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. 14 September 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
- ^ "Daniele Bennati". Procyclingstats. Stephan van der Zwan. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
External links
Media related to Daniele Bennati at Wikimedia Commons
- Daniele Bennati at UCI
- Daniele Bennati at Cycling Archives
- Daniele Bennati at ProCyclingStats
- Daniele Bennati at CQ Ranking
- Daniele Bennati at CycleBase