No matter which classic race was on the calendar from the mid-1990s onwards, the Team Mapei riders were always among the favourites. Although based in Italy, the team dominated the Pavé races in France, Belgium and the Netherlands in particular. Team owner Giorgio Squinzi spent the equivalent of around ten million euros a year on his high-calibre squad - an incredible sum in professional cycling at the time. The talented ensemble won more than 600 victories for the team between 1994 and 2002; Mapei was ranked number one in the team world rankings eight times at the end of the year. Nevertheless, Giorgio Squinze eventually grew tired of the success - he resigned himself to the doping problem in cycling, which also affected his racing team, and ended his involvement.
The genesis
It all started with a failure. Marco Giovannetti, 1984 Olympic champion in the 100-kilometre team time trial and 1990 winner of the Vuelta a España, founded Team Eldor in 1993 while still an active cyclist. Giovannetti acted as team manager on the road, and success came early on: Luca Gelfi finished second for the team at Milan-San Remo, and the team also received an invitation to the Giro d'Italia. The problem: although Eldor lent his name to the team, he never paid any money to Giovannetti.
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Even before the start of the Giro d'Italia, his team was on the brink of collapse. Friends finally brought Giovannetti together with Giorgio Squinzi. Squinzi, CEO of Mapei, an Italian company specialising in chemical products for the construction industry, had been passionate about cycling for years. He promised Giovannetti all financial support - on one condition: The team had to compete in the Giro d'Italia with a new look. The beginning of the era of colourful building block jerseys.
Giovannetti ended his career in 1994. His wish to join Mapei's management team did not materialise - Squinzi was already in charge. Today, Giovannetti manages a hotel in Tuscany.
The most significant victory
Mapei won Paris-Roubaix five times between 1995 and 2000. One of the most iconic images of the race came from the triple victory in 1996: three Mapei riders - Johan Museeuw, Gianluca Bortolami and Andrea Tafi - crossed the finish line together in the Roubaix velodrome. This was the greatest possible success for the team - and a diplomatic challenge for the then sporting director Patrick Lefevere.
A Mapei quartet was already in the lead 80 kilometres before the finish, from which Franco Ballerini dropped out due to tyre damage. Museeuw, Bortolami and Tafi were unstoppable. Team owner Squinzi was particularly pleased in front of the television. He called Lefevere directly in the team car. His message to the sporting director was that today was his 28th wedding anniversary and it would be a dream come true if all three riders reached the finish line together. However, he left it up to Lefevere to decide who should win. His choice fell on Museeuw, the designated captain. Bortolami and Tafi are said to have disagreed with this decision. Lefevere then allegedly promised them both a financial bonus, so that the trio reached the finish in unison - in the following order: Museeuw, Bortolami and Tafi.
The boss
In cycling, Giorgio Squinzi was nicknamed "Il Dottore" after his academic degree in industrial chemistry. However, he came to influence through his entrepreneurial skills: in the 1970s, he took over the business at Mapei from his father Rodolfo and developed the Milan-based family company into one of the world's leading manufacturers of construction products. Squinzi always saw the cycling team as part of the company. Mapei's marketing department designed the strikingly colourful jerseys every year, and racing in Asia, Australia and the USA was a regular part of the programme for advertising purposes.
In return, Squinzi invested heavily in his "cycling department": in 1996, he opened the Mapei Sport Centre to offer riders the best possible sports science and medical care. Mapei was also one of the first teams to sponsor its own junior teams, producing riders such as Fabian Cancellara, Michael Rogers, Bernhard Eisel and Patrick Sinkewitz. Squinzi died in 2019 at the age of 76.
The most influential drivers
Johan Museeuw
The Belgian joined Mapei in 1995 together with sporting director Patrick Lefevere - and also left the racing team with Lefevere in 2001 to join his new team Domo-Farm Frites. In between, Museeuw developed into one of the greatest classics riders of all time at Mapei - and the sporting idol of many Belgians. His nickname: the Lion of Flanders. In 1998, Museeuw suffered a broken kneecap at Paris-Roubaix after colliding with a photographer. Due to a subsequent infection, he was on the verge of having his left leg amputated. However, he fought his way back and won Roubaix again in 2000 - demonstratively pointing to his leg as he crossed the finish line. After his career ended in 2003, Museeuw partially admitted to doping practices during his career.
Tony Rominger
Rominger joined the Mapei team for the 1994 season through the merger with the Spanish team Clas. The Swiss rider achieved his first major successes for the team with victories at Paris-Nice and the Vuelta a España. He also won the Giro d'Italia in 1995. In the Tour de France, however, he was overshadowed by Miguel Indurain. However, in 1994 he took the world hour record from the Spaniard with 53.832 kilometres. Rominger had only prepared for a few days at the time and saw the attempt more as a test run. 14 days later, he improved the record again to 55.291 kilometres. In 2000, the UCI downgraded his times to world bests as they had not been achieved on a road bike. In the 1997 season, Mapei and the tour specialist Rominger parted ways: the team increasingly focussed on the classics.
Paolo Bettini
The Italian came from Team Asics in 1999 - in a package with Michele Bartoli, who was considered Mapei's star purchase at the time. Bettini acted as his compatriot's most important assistant. Bartoli suffered a serious knee injury during the 1999 Tour of Germany. In his long absence, Bettini flourished and won the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic in 2000. Due to his qualities as a fast puncheur, the diminutive Bettini was nicknamed "Il Grillo", the cricket. His internal rise led to a rift with Bartoli, who soon left Mapei. In 2002, Bettini repeated his success at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and secured victory in the overall World Cup at the end of the season. It was the last great success for Mapei. Bettini rode for the successor team Quick-Step until the end of his career in 2008.
The Germans
In the 1999 season, Tobias Steinhauser and Dirk Müller were part of the squad, but were only under contract for one season each. In 2002, Patrick Sinkewitz also made the leap from the junior team to the pros. Sinkewitz later experienced his breakthrough at Quick-Step and his doping case in 2007 at Team Telekom.
The biggest controversy
There was no major doping scandal during Mapei's active time. However, the incidents at the Belgian race Three Days of De Panne in 1999 caused a stir: shortly after the start of the third stage, several police cars stopped the field of riders and Lefevere's team car. All Mapei riders, including Museeuw, Bartoli and sprinter Tom Steels, were subsequently questioned by the police. The authorities also searched Mapei's team hotel.
A parcel addressed to Italy from the Mapei hotel had previously been intercepted at the airport. Contents: five ampoules of amphetamines. However, the investigation did not last long. The parcel was allegedly intended for the father of Gianni Bugno, who supported Mapei with technical issues in 1999. A team supervisor was identified as the sole perpetrator. A few years later, in 2007, ARD reported on investigations by the Italian authorities into suspected systematic doping at Mapei in 2001.
The end
Team owner Squinzi publicly pursued the ideal of clean cycling. In 1999, he criticised the fact that it was no longer possible to finish in the top five in stage races without doping. He received a lot of criticism for this, including from the then UCI President Hein Verbruggen. Squinzi was hit all the harder by the doping case in his own team: the Italian Stefano Garzelli tested positive in the pink jersey at the 2002 Giro d'Italia and was excluded from the race.
In response, Squinzi announced that he would end his involvement in cycling at the end of the season. "Garzelli's disqualification was the straw that broke the camel's back. There are too many things in cycling that I don't understand," said Squinzi about his withdrawal. The team's licence for 2003 was taken over by the then co-sponsor Quick-Step.
The trophy cabinet
- Vuelta a Espana 1994 (Tony Rominger)
- Giro d'Italia 1995 (Rominger)
- Tour of Flanders 1995, 1998 (Museeuw), 2002 (Andrea Tafi)
- Paris-Roubaix 1995, 1998 (Franco Ballerini), 1996, 2000 (Museeuw), 1999 (Tafi)
- Tour of Lombardy 1996 (Tafi), 1998 (Oscar Camenzind)
- Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2000, 2002 (Paolo Bettini)
