Giovanni Visconti (cyclist)

Early career

Visconti, wearing the Italian national champion's jersey, at the 2008 Liège–Bastogne–Liège

Born in Turin, Visconti won his first race in 2006 at the Coppa Sabatini. One year later, he won the Italian National Road Race Championships on 1 July 2007, beating Paolo Bossoni (Lampre–Fondital) and Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) at the end in a sprint. At 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) to go Rebellin accelerated and left the main field, closely followed by Visconti, Bossoni, and Christian Murro (Tenax–Menikini). The four were able to keep the peloton away until the final meters.

In 2010, Visconti won the 2.HC Tour of Turkey overall classification after pocketing two stages along the way. He stood on the podium with Tejay van Garderen of Team HTC–Columbia and David Moncoutié of Cofidis. Racing himself for ISD–NERI at the time, he said after the win: "Look at the teams we've beaten: HTC-Columbia and Cofidis, not bad for a team like ours, isn't it?"^[3]

Movistar Team (2012–16)

In April 2012, now riding for Movistar Team, Visconti took his first victory of the season at the Klasika Primavera by outsprinting his own teammate Alejandro Valverde and Euskaltel–Euskadi's Igor Antón. Four Movistar Team riders finished in the first five positions.^[4] In May, Visconti had to withdraw from the Giro d'Italia during the fifteenth stage due to shortness of breath. He was told by his entourage that the event had all the symptoms of a panic attack.^[5] He came back to racing and signed a victory at the Circuito de Getxo, where his puncheur qualities served him well on the final climb, where he outsprinted Danilo Di Luca.^[6] He went to the Vuelta a Burgos and finished seventh overall thanks to consistent placings, especially in the queen stage to the Lagunas de Neila where he was eighth.^[7] In December, it has been announced by the Italian National Olympic Committee that Visconti was suspended for 3 months and would have to pay a 10,000 Euros fine since he worked with doctor Michele Ferrari, who had been banned for life for doping athletes. Visconti has denied Ferrari had ever supplied him with doping products. The suspension started retroactively on 10 October 2012.^[8]

In 2015, Visconti won the best climber's jersey of the Giro d'Italia, thanks to attacks in the final stages of the race. He qualified his conquest of the blue jersey as "a consolation" since he was going for stage wins that did not materialize during those attacks.^[9] He was named in the start list for the 2015 Vuelta a España.^[10]

Major results

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Giro d'Italia	77	42	76	—	49	DNF	35	—	18	13	DNF	38
Tour de France	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	37	—	—	—	—
Vuelta a España	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	19	—	46	—