Gewiss–Ballan
Gewiss–Ballan was an Italian based road bicycle racing team active from 1993 to 1997, named after sponsor Italian Gewiss. The team was successful in the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France as well as several classic during the early 1990s.
| Team information | |
|---|---|
| UCI code | GEW |
| Registered | Italy |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Disbanded | 1997 |
| Discipline(s) | Road Track |
| Status | Retired |
| Key personnel | |
| General manager | Emanuele Bombini |
| Team name history | |
1993 1994-1995 1996 1997 | Mecair-Ballan Gewiss-Ballan Gewiss Playbus Batik–Del Monte |
History
The team was sponsored by the Mecair company and the Italian maker of garage doors Ballan in 1993. The Italian Electrical engineering company Gewiss took over as the main sponsor in 1994. Gewiss had previously sponsored the Bianchi cycling team from 1987 to 1989. In 1996 the second sponsor was taken by the Gewiss brand Playbus. Directeur sportifs with the team included Emanuele Bombini and Paolo Rosola. In the four years of its existence, the team achieved great successes.
The team produced winners of the Giro d’Italia – Evgeni Berzin and Ivan Gotti as well as top classic specialists Giorgio Furlan and Nicola Minali. Former World Champion Moreno Argentin finished his career with the team on a high note with stage wins at the 1993 Giro d'Italia as well as the impressive win at La Flèche Wallonne in 1994. The team dominated cycling during the 1994 season with Giorgio Furlan winning Tirreno–Adriatico (and Berzin second overall) and Furlan winning Milan–San Remo. Berzin then won Liège–Bastogne–Liège which was followed by Argentin’s win in La Flèche Wallonne. The win in the Fleche Wallonne was impressive because the team completely dominated the race with taking all podium places at the race with Argentin, Furlan and Berzin ahead of many greats of cycling at the time including Claudio Chiappucci, Franco Ballerini, Davide Cassani and Gianni Bugno.[1]
After the Fleche Wallonne of 1994, French sports newspaper L'Équipe interviewed the team’s doctor Michele Ferrari. Journalist Jean-Michel Rouet asked Ferrari if his riders used EPO to which Ferrari denied prescribing the drug but said he would not find it wrong, saying that it was not dangerous and compared taking EPO to drinking orange juice. This remark generated controversy and Ferrari later stepped down as team doctor.[2]
Afterwards Berzin won the 1994 Giro d'Italia while Piotr Ugrumov came second overall in 1994 Tour de France. Vladislav Bobrik won the Giro di Lombardia in the late season for the team.
In the following year, the team was not as dominant but still successful. Berzin came second at the 1995 Giro d'Italia behind Tony Rominger and ahead of his teammate Ugrumov. The team set the record speed of the team time trial at the 1995 Tour de France of 54.930 km/h. This speed stood for ten years until Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel Team broke it during the 2005 Tour de France.[3] The Gewiss team beat Laurent Jalabert's Team ONCE to second place and the defending champion Miguel Indurain’s Banesto to third place. Riis would wear the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification in that year’s Tour before eventually finishing third overall.
Doping
Systematic doping
The team is well known due to systematic doping that occurred with the team. The team doctor, Michele Ferrari was an assistant of Professor Francesco Conconi at the Biomedical Institute at the University of Ferrara in Italy. Conconi together with his assistants is said to have introduced Erythropoietin or EPO to the sport of cycling.[4]
On January 11, 1999 Danmarks Radio aired The Price of Silence in Denmark, the first of a three part series that detailed doping in cycling of the Team ONCE and Gewiss teams. The programme alleged that EPO was used by the Gewiss–Ballan team in 1995. The journalists had come into possession of papers of hematocrit levels of riders of the team which showed large fluctuations from normal levels to those indicating doping. These figures would later be published in L’Equipe (discussed below). In addition the documentary told of how during the Tour of Denmark on August 4, 1995, journalists made a doping find in a hotel room where the soigneur of Gewiss Paolo Ganzerli had slept the night before. Six riders of the team had also stayed in the hotel on that night of August 3, 1995. The journalists found a Gewiss bag filled with 12 used and bloodied needles, an ampule which according to its label contained Recomon 5000 (EPO) and three blank ampules of which subsequent tests revealed contained EPO.[5]
Further revelations about systematic doping on the team were published in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica and the French sport's paper L'Equipe in 1999. These were based on published writing from journalist Eugenio Capodacqua from the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica. Capodacqua published blood values (hematocrit levels) from Gewiss riders and results of an investigation into the team and its doctor Michele Ferrari.[6] On March 12, 1999 L’Equipe published a table of hematocrit levels of Gewiss riders that were taken from December 1994 to May 1995. This was before the UCI limit of a hematocrit level of 50% which came into effect in 1997. Bjarne Riis rode for the team at the time and his levels went from 41.1 to 56.3, Gotti from 40.7 to 57 and Berzin from 41.7 to 53. Ugrumov had the highest level at 60%. Riis immediately denied the validity of the figures.[6] Riis’s hematocrit level of 41.1% in a test conducted on January 14, 1995 was a normal value for an adult male while six months later on July 10, 1995 several days after Riis wore the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification for the first time at the Tour de France, his level was 56.3%.
Another doctor of the team, Dr. Gianni Mazzoni, was in a separate case, accused of promoting doping in sports.[7]
Hematocrit variations 1994 to 1995
These are the published hematocrit variations (in percentage) of Gewiss riders in 1994 and 1995.[8]
| Rider | Hematocrit % at December 15, 1994 | Hematocrit % at May 24, 1995 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 42.7 | 53.0 |  |
 | 37.2 | 54.5 | |
| 46.0 | 54.0 | |
| 38.8 | 51.0 | |
| 41.7 | 54.0 | |
 | 32.8 | 60.0 | |
| 38.5 | 52.6 | |
| 41.7 | 53.0 | |
 | 41.1 | 56.3 | |
Cyclists
Many well known and successful cyclists rode for Gewiss:
Major wins
- 1993
- 1st Stage 6 Tour Méditerranéen, Moreno Argentin
- 1st Stage 2 Driedaagse van De Panne, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 2 Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, Vladislav Bobrik
- 1st Stage 5 Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 1a & 13 Giro d'Italia, Moreno Argentin
- 1st Stage 3 Giro d'Italia, Piotr Ugrumov
- 1st Wincanton Classic Alberto Volpi
- 1st Linz Criterium, Andreas Kappes
- 1994
- 1st Stage 2 Settimana Siciliana, Giorgio Furlan
- 1st Ferla, Giorgio Furlan
- 1st
- 1st Stages 2, 6 & 7, Giorgio Furlan
- 1st Milan–San Remo, Giorgio Furlan
- 1st Stage 2 Setmana Catalana de Ciclismo, Nicola Minali
- 1st
- 1st Stage 2, Giorgio Furlan
- 1st Stage 3, Evgueni Berzin
- 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Evgueni Berzin
- 1st La Flèche Wallonne, Moreno Argentin
- 1st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie, Giorgio Furlan
- 1st Stages 2 & 5 Tour de Romandie, Nicola Minali
- 1st
- 1st
- 1st Stage 2, Moreno Argentin
- 1st Stages 4, 8 & 18, Evgueni Berzin
- 1st
- 1st
- 1st Stage 5 Tour de France, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 13 Tour de France, Bjarne Riis
- 1st Stage 18 & 19 Tour de France, Piotr Ugrumov
- 1st Profronde Stiphout, Piotr Ugrumov
- 1st Lamballe Criterium, Piotr Ugrumov
- 1st Coppa Bernocchi, Bruno Cenghialta
- 1st Stage 3b Ronde van Nederland, Dario Bottaro
- 1st Giro di Lombardia, Vladislav Bobrik
- 1995
- 1st Stage 3 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 8b Paris–Nice, Vladislav Bobrik
- 1st
- 1st Stages 2, 4 & 5a, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 3, Francesco Frattini
- 1st Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop, Francesco Frattini
- 1st Stage 6 Giro d'Italia, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 21 Giro d'Italia, Evgueni Berzin
- 1st Stage 2 Tour de Suisse, Giorgio Furlan
- 1st
- 1st Stage 3 Tour de France (TTT)
- 1st
- 1st Stage 1, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 3b, Bjarne Riis
- 1st Stages 4 & 6, Nicola Minali
- 1st Coppa Bernocchi, Stefano Zanini
- 1st Stages 1, 6 & 11 Vuelta a España, Nicola Minali
- 1st Paris–Tours, Nicola Minali
- 1st Milano–Torino, Stefano Zanini
- 1996
- 1st Milan–San Remo, Gabriele Colombo
- 1st Stage 5a Setmana Catalana de Ciclismo, Stefano Zanini
- 1st
- 1st Stage 3 Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco, Stefano Zanini
- 1st Stage 4 Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco, Francesco Frattini
- 1st Amstel Gold Race, Stefano Zanini
- 1st Stage 19 Giro d'Italia, Evgueni Berzin
- 1st Stage 21 Giro d'Italia, Ivan Gotti
- 1st Prologue & Stage 8 Tour de Suisse, Evgueni Berzin
- 1st Stage 8 Tour de France, Evgueni Berzin
- 1st Stage 5 Post Danmark Rundt, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stages 2, 8, 9 & 16 Vuelta a España, Nicola Minali
- 1st Paris–Tours, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 1 Boland Bank Tour, Nicola Minali
- 1997
- 1st Stage 1 Giro di Sardegna, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stages 1 & 4 Volta ao Alentejo, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 3 Volta ao Alentejo, Alberto Volpi
- 1st Overall Grande Prémio 'Jornal de Notícias', Evgueni Berzin
- 1st Stages 1 & 2, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 4 & 21 Tour de France, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 1 Post Danmark Rundt, Nicola Minali
- 1st Stage 5 Tour de Pologne, Simone Bertoletti
- 1st Stage 3 Giro di Puglia, Nicola Minali
See also
References
- "The 'Too Good To Be True' Fleche: 1994". Pez Cycling. Archived from the original on 2013-06-30. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
- "An Interview With Dr. Michele Ferrari, part two". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
- "Stage 4 wrap up: Armstrong gets yellow in dramatic stage". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- "More Drug revelations". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
- "Danish TV claim Riis used drugs in 1995". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
- "The Gewiss Doping Dossier". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
- "L'Equipe's Doping Articles". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
- "Les curieuses statistiques de Gewiss". Cyclisme dopage.com. Retrieved 2008-05-01.