Guido Bontempi was one of the best sprinters from the 1980s and early 1990s. His crowing achievements are the twenty six Grand Tour stage wins he amassed throughout his career. Therefore, it was fitting that, after he retired, he would manage (arguably) the best sprinter of all time, Mario Cipollini. Their relationship in the Saeco team lasted from 1998 until Cipo left the team in 2001. Bontempi was active as late as 2010 as a team manager in the Astana team. He is still currently involved with cycling, namely with the RCS (Giro organizer), having a role in the organization of Italian races, such as, the Milan San Remo, Tirreno Adriatico, Giro d’Italia and Il Lombardia.
The Italian arrived at the professional scene in 1981, quite a bit earlier than the previous entry of this ranking, number 99, Bradley Wiggins. He immediately made his mark by winning two stages in the Vuelta and one in the Giro, together with a day in pink. This was in his first year as a pro, which definitely set the tone for the rest of his career. According to him, there were not a lot of riders in the team. This meant that himself and his teammates had more opportunities to showcase their potential. Nevertheless, his 1981 season was one of the best for a neo-pro rider in the history of cycling. As a curiosity, in 1981, fellow Italian and teammate, Giovanni Battaglin won the Vuelta-Giro double.
Guido Bontempi would go on to win sixteen stages in the Giro (and the points’ classification in 1986), six in the Tour and four in the Vuelta. To this he added two victories in the Gent Wevelgem classic (1984 and 1986) and the 1988 E3 Harelbeke. His two podium places in the Milan San Remo are the biggest missed opportunities to further enrich his palmarés. In both occasions he was the fastest rider of the main bunch. Unfortunately for him, in 1983, then World Champion Giuseppe Sarroni crossed the finish line 44 seconds ahead of the peloton. In 1987, a similar thing would happen. This time it was Bontempi’s own teammate, Swiss Erich Machler crossing the line 8 seconds ahead of the Italian. Belgian Eric Vanderaerden crossed the line in second place, 2 seconds ahead of the main bunch, lead by the Italian.
Embedded below is one of the Italian sprinter’s Grand Tour wins: stage 9 of the 1992 Giro. Maybe not an easy win, but it was crystal clear who the strongest rider was.
Money was, according to the Italian, the reason why sprinters back in his day had to be more complete riders. The prize money for the team mattered a lot, because, in his words, “in the cycling of 2021 a rider wins two races and signs a contract of hundreds of thousands of euros”. This did not happen during his time as a professional rider which meant that even sprinters had to work for their team leaders in the big Grand Tours to accumulate as much liras, francs, or pesetas (whichever currency races used at the time) as they could.
Guido spent most of his career with the Carrera Jeans team/structure. For the final two years of his professional career he moved to the iconic (and suspicious) Gewiss Ballan team.
Throughout his twelve years in Carrera Jeans his most high-profiles teammate were, as previouly mentioned, Giro-Vuelta double winner Giovanni Battaglin, Italian climber Claudio Chiappucchi, Giro-Tour double winner Stephen Roche, Azeri sprinter Djamolidine Abduzhaparov, Paris Roubaix and Tour of Flanders winner Andrea Tafi, and just overall legend Marco Pantani.
At the powerhouse that was that Gewiss Ballan team of the 1990s, Bontempi “shared a locker room” with too great names to mention, among which: Moreno Argentin, Evgeni Berzin, Bjarne Riis, and Ivan Gotti. From this second list the only one who is not a Grand Tour winner is Argentin but he more than made up for that with his sprinting and classics abilities.
According to himself, there is no rider like Guido Bontempi in the peloton today. I tend to agree. In 2021, it is impossible to see Caleb Ewan or Jasper Philipsen working for Primoz Roglic or Tadej Pogacar. Not only because they’re not on the same team but because those two sprinters provide way too much value to other teams to have to work for others. Why would a top sprinter want to work for a team leader when he can go to another team and be the team leader himself?
One can argue that Guido was just as good in his prime as the top sprinters of today. Sadly for him, the concepts of pro cycling at the time forced him to wear himself out helping his team leaders instead of focusing 100% on winning races. Still, I don’t think anyone can argue that the Italian wasn’t a top rider in his era.
Interesting links