40 Fun Facts About Damiano Cunego

Damiano Cunego's 2004 Giro d'Italia and Giro di Lombardia wins made a same-year double last done in 1972 by whom?

Eddy Merckx had been the last rider to win Italy's Grand Tour and its autumn monument in one season. Cunego was only 23 when he matched him.

Which team captain and defending champion did Damiano Cunego upstage to win the 2004 Giro d'Italia?

Gilberto Simoni finished third behind his own helper. He was furious when the 22-year-old sprinted past him to win stage 18.

Which nickname did Italian fans give Damiano Cunego, winner of the 2004 Giro d'Italia?

The Little Prince, Il Piccolo Principe in Italian, nods to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's boy hero. It stuck because Cunego was seen as one of cycling's great prodigies.

Damiano Cunego won the Giro di Lombardia three times; by which poetic nickname is that Italian monument known?

Race of the Falling Leaves is the name it earns as one of the last classics of the year. Cunego's three wins came in 2004, 2007 and 2008.

Before taking up cycling as a teenager, Damiano Cunego was a successful schoolboy in which other sport?

Cross-country running won Cunego a regional schools title before he switched to the bike at 15. He then won 14 races in his first season of cycling.

What colour is the leader's jersey that Damiano Cunego wore into the finish of the 2004 Giro d'Italia?

Pink marks the overall leader of Italy's Grand Tour. Cunego added four stage wins on his way to keeping the jersey.

Giuseppe Martinelli, who discovered Damiano Cunego, also worked with which Italian 1998 Giro and Tour winner?

Marco Pantani was Martinelli's star rider. In 1999 the same director offered Cunego a professional contract straight from the junior ranks, and the teenager turned it down.

In which city of Veneto, close to his home village, did Damiano Cunego win the 1999 junior world road race title?

Verona hosted the 1999 road races, and Cunego crossed the line alone after dropping his last rival on the Torricelle climb.

Which spring classic did Damiano Cunego win in 2008 by outsprinting Fränk Schleck at the top of the Cauberg hill?

Amstel Gold Race glory came in the final 200 metres. The win lifted Cunego to the top of the 2008 ProTour standings.

Damiano Cunego hoped to end his career at the 2018 Giro d'Italia; why did that farewell never happen?

His team was not invited, because organisers handed the four wildcard places to other squads. Cunego bowed out at the Italian national championships that June instead.

Which classification did Damiano Cunego win on his Tour de France debut in 2006?

Young rider honours brought Cunego the white jersey in Paris. He had spent June training hard to fix his weak time-trialling before the race.

On which famous Tour de France summit did Damiano Cunego finish second in 2006, behind only Fränk Schleck?

Alpe d'Huez closed stage 15, and the Luxembourger only shook Cunego off in the final two kilometres of the climb.

Damiano Cunego first rode the Tour de France in 2006; which apparent winner was later stripped for doping?

Floyd Landis failed a drug test after a long solo stage win, and the title passed to the Spaniard Óscar Pereiro.

In which Asian country did Damiano Cunego win a one-day Cup race in both 2005 and 2008 to close his season?

Japan stages its Cup race on a circuit at Utsunomiya. Cunego's last team, Nippo–Vini Fantini, had its roots in the same country.

In which country did Damiano Cunego win the Tour of Qinghai Lake, his first stage-race title as a professional?

China has held the high-altitude race since 2002. Cunego went back in 2017 and took his final professional win there, on a summit finish at 4,100 metres.

In which city did Damiano Cunego seal the 2004 Giro d'Italia after a final stage from Clusone?

Milan welcomed 140 finishers from the 171 riders who had set off three weeks earlier. Cunego, still 22, rode in as the overall winner.

Damiano Cunego's best Tour de France finish was sixth in 2011, behind which first Australian winner of the race?

Cadel Evans won at 34. Cunego had set out chasing stage wins and still ended up the best-placed Italian for the second year in a row.

Damiano Cunego twice won the Settimana Internazionale, a race named after Fausto Coppi and which great rival?

Gino Bartali shares the title of a five-day race in Emilia-Romagna. Cunego won it in 2006 and again in 2009, when he also took two stages.

Which bone did Damiano Cunego break in a crash on stage 18 of the 2015 Giro d'Italia, forcing him out?

Collarbone surgery followed after Cunego fell while riding in the day's breakaway. He was back racing by the end of August.

Which illness was diagnosed in Damiano Cunego soon after he faded badly at the 2005 Giro d'Italia?

Mononucleosis, caused by the Epstein–Barr virus, forced a month of rest. It also kept Cunego out of that summer's Tour de France.

In which race did Damiano Cunego win two mountain stages in 2009, including a solo victory at La Pandera?

Vuelta a España success ended a five-year wait for a Grand Tour stage win. Cunego then left the race early to prepare for the World Championships.

In which mountain range did defending champion Damiano Cunego lose six minutes on one 2005 Giro stage?

Dolomites climbing undid Cunego on the first mountain stage, to Zoldo Alto. He blamed the pressure on him and said he felt liberated once his chances had gone.

Which team-mate attacked alone to beat Damiano Cunego to the 2008 world road race title in Varese?

Alessandro Ballan jumped clear in the final kilometres. Cunego won the sprint for silver, then banged his handlebars in frustration instead of celebrating.

Which Italian, hyped as Damiano Cunego's great rival, won the 2006 Giro d'Italia by over nine minutes?

Ivan Basso dropped Cunego on the first summit finish and put more than six minutes into him in the long time trial. Cunego ended the race fourth.

With which Italian team, named after a coffee-machine maker, did Damiano Cunego turn professional in 2002?

Saeco was famous in the 1990s for Mario Cipollini's sprint train. Its sponsor pulled out after 2004, so Cunego's breakthrough year was also the team's last.

Which Italian team did Damiano Cunego join in a 2005 merger and ride for until the end of 2014?

Lampre absorbed his first professional squad, and Cunego stayed for ten seasons. He won two of his three autumn monuments in its colours.

When injury ruled Damiano Cunego out of the 2008 Olympic road race, which 23-year-old reserve replaced him?

Vincenzo Nibali stepped in because Cunego had not recovered from a crash at the Tour de France. Six years later the stand-in won that race himself.

While Damiano Cunego won the 2004 Giro d'Italia overall, which Italian sprinter took nine stages of the same race?

Alessandro Petacchi swept nine sprint finishes and the points jersey. Cunego, a climber with a fast finish, was runner-up in that points competition.

Serhiy Honchar, runner-up to Damiano Cunego at the 2004 Giro d'Italia, was a time-triallist from which country?

Ukraine had two contenders that year. Honchar won the long time trial, and his compatriot Yaroslav Popovych took the race lead there before Cunego won it back.

Which rider won the 2006 Liège–Bastogne–Liège in a sprint that left Damiano Cunego third on the podium?

Alejandro Valverde, an all-rounder riding for Illes Balears, took the sprint four days after also winning Flèche Wallonne.

Damiano Cunego finished 2004 as world number one by overtaking which Italian Olympic champion in the UCI rankings?

Paolo Bettini lost top spot when Cunego won the season's final monument. The ranking was scrapped that winter, which made Cunego its last number one.

On the waterfront of which lakeside city did Damiano Cunego ride in alone to win the 2008 Giro di Lombardia?

Como saw Cunego arrive 24 seconds clear, after he slipped away on the descent of the Civiglio with 15 kilometres left.

Which subject did Damiano Cunego begin studying at university late in his racing career?

Sports science classes started as he switched teams for 2015, encouraged by his wife. He completed the degree in 2024, six years after retiring.

Damiano Cunego was the first rider to win which Italian stage race three times, now called the Tour of the Alps?

Giro del Trentino wins in 2004, 2006 and 2007 each came weeks before the Giro d'Italia, for which the short mountain race is a traditional tune-up.

On which giant Alpine pass did Damiano Cunego finish second on the final road stage of the 2012 Giro d'Italia?

Passo dello Stelvio was the highest point of that year's race. Cunego had spent three weeks working for a team-mate and still finished sixth overall.

Which colour jersey, worn by the mountains leader, did Damiano Cunego hold for 13 days of the 2016 Giro d'Italia?

Blue is the climbers' colour of the Italian race. Cunego, then 34, lost the jersey on the final mountain day and finished second in the classification.

Which country across the Adriatic hosted a stage finish of the 2004 Giro d'Italia, the race Damiano Cunego won?

Croatia welcomed the race at Pula after a stage from Trieste. Cunego was not leading the race that day, and he seized the lead back in the mountains two days later.

Which fellow Italian did Damiano Cunego outsprint in a two-man finish to win the 2007 Giro di Lombardia?

Riccardo Riccò was the only rider left with Cunego at the finish. Cunego beat him easily for his second win in the race, three years after his first.

Which rider beat Damiano Cunego to an Italian title both as a youth in 1997 and as a professional in 2009?

Filippo Pozzato won both races. The first came in Cunego's debut year of competitive cycling, the second in a sprint on the Imola motor-racing circuit.

Which American beat Damiano Cunego by four seconds in the final time trial to win the 2011 Tour de Suisse?

Levi Leipheimer began the last stage almost two minutes behind Cunego, who had led the race since stage three.