Manuel Belletti (born 14 October 1985) is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who last rode for UCI ProTeamEolo–Kometa.[3][4] He took a total of 21 professional wins during his career, nine of them on Italian soil.[5]
The first time Belletti showed his cycling skills to the public was when he participated at the 2004 Italian National Track Championships where he and his team mates Loris Gobbi, Alan Marangoni and Matteo Montaguti cycled to second position at the team pursuit.[6] Nearly two years later he booked his first success in road cycling, with U.C. Trevigiani when he finished third in the San Bernardino di Lugo and second in the San Donà di Piave.[7] His first win came in the Giro Ciclisto Pesche Nettarine di Romagna where he won the first part of the fourth stage with the finish in Lugo, Emilia-Romagna.[8] He reached the third spot in the Roncoleva di Trevenzuola before claiming his second career win in stage 1 of the Giro del Veneto in Lonigo.[7] Later that season he finished second in three more races, the Mezzano Inferiore, the Ponton Criterium and the Somma Lombardo.[7] 2007 turned to be another successful year at amateur level as he recorded another four wins, starting off with the Memorial Danilo Furlan and two stages in the Giro Ciclisto Pesche Nettarine di Romagna.[7] Also this season he managed to win a stage in the Giro del Veneto, the fifth stage with the finish in Cassola.[9] Furthermore he finished second in the Trofeo Alcide Degasperi and the GP Cementizillo, while finishing third in the Somma Lombardo.[7]
Diquigiovanni–Androni (2008–2009)
Belletti signed his first professional contract in 2008 and started riding for Diquigiovanni–Androni. The team sent him to Venezuela to participate in the 2008 Vuelta a Venezuela where he finished three times in second position, in stages 1, 6 and 14.[10] After this stage race Belletti stayed in Venezuela to ride in the Clásico Ciclístico Banfoandes, a race over 149.7 kilometres (93.0 miles) with the start in Punto Fijo and the finish in Coro. After 3 hours, 38 minutes and 15 seconds Belletti won the race to claim his first professional victory.[11]
Belletti had shown his talent and his skills, resulting in interest from other teams. He then signed a new contract with Colnago–CSF Inox for the 2010 season. His first notable result for his new team was a second spot in the first part of the second stage in the Circuit de la Sarthe.[17] In preparation of his first ever Grand tour, the 2010 Giro d'Italia he rode in the Tour of Turkey and claimed a third spot in the 6th stage, finishing in Finike.[18] During the Giro d'Italia which started in Amsterdam, Netherlands Belletti claimed the fourth spot in the sixth stage finishing in Marina di Carrara.[19] Thirteen turned out to be Belletti's lucky number as he managed to join a breakaway group on the road to Cesenatico in the 13th stage of the race. The group kept an advantage on the peloton of more than seven minutes and Belletti turned out to be the fastest sprinter of the breakaway group, claiming his first victory in a grand tour and his first victory for his new team;[20] Two days later he abandoned the race. A couple of months later he finished fourth and third in two stages of the Brixia Tour, fifth and third in two stages of the Danmark Rundt and a fourth position in the Dutch Veenendaal–Veenendaal Classic.[7] In August he claimed his second and last victory of that season by beating Danilo Hondo and Mark Cavendish in the sprint of the Coppa Bernocchi.[21] Later that season he finished second in the first stage of the Tour of Britain, second in the Memorial Viviana Manservisi and third in the Memorial Marco Pantani.[7]
For the 2012 season Belletti made a change to the French team Ag2r–La Mondiale.[27] In the first couple of months of the season he could not continue the form of the previous years as he just managed to finish in fifth position in the third stage of the Tirreno–Adriatico and in the Scheldeprijs.[7]
In November 2020 Eolo–Kometa announced that they had signed Belletti for the 2021 season.[5] He retired from competition at the end of the year,[30] with his last race being the 2021 Gran Piemonte in October.[31]
^"Two new riders for Movistar at Tour Down Under - News Shorts". Cyclingnews.com. Immediate Media Company. 3 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019. Androni-Giocattoli-Sidermech [sic] for 2019: Manuel Belletti, Marco Benfatto, Alessandro Bisolti, Matteo Busato, Mattia Cattaneo, Leonardo Fedrigo, Marco and Mattia Frapporti, Francesco Gavazzi, Fausto Masnada, Matteo Montaguti, Matteo Pelucchi, Matteo Spreafico, Andrea Vendrame, Mattia Viel, Julian Cardona, Miguel Florez, Daniel Munoz and, Kevin Rivera.
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