Valeria Cappellotto

Valeria Cappellotto was one of the best Italian female cyclists of the 1990s. Her older sister Alessandra was the first Italian woman to win the world title. The sisters both appeared in two Olympic Games, and appeared together in the road race at Sydney in 2000, with Alessandra finishing the higher of the two siblings. Valeria’s best result internationally, was in finishing fifth in the 1999 World Road Race Championships at Verona, and that same year she won her first national title, after two seconds in 1990-91 and two thirds in 1992 and 1997.

Other significant wins for Cappellotto included the 1998 Tour of Toscana and the Alfredo Binda Trophy on two occasions, in 1995 and 1996. She won a stage in the women’s Giro d’Italia in 1999, when she finished fourth overall, and also won two stages in the women’s Tour de France. After her retirement, Cappellotto later married, had three children and worked as a religion teacher. She passed away at just 45-years-of-age after a battle with cancer. In July every year, the ASD Breganze Millenium club organise the Valeria Cappellotto Memorial race in the city of Sarcedo (Vicenza).