Moreno Argentin
Moreno Argentin
You don’t get a nickname like Il Capo (The Boss) unless you’ve got the legs to back it up, and Moreno Argentin holds one of the most impressive one-day palmares in cycling.
Four wins at Liege-Bastogne-Liege would be a dream career for most riders, but Argentin complemented those with a hat-trick of victories at Fleche Wallonne, one Ronde, a Giro di Lombardia and a World Championship for good measure.
Unfortunately for the Italian, one of the results that has come to define his career is the infamous Gewiss 1-2-3 at the 1994 Fleche Wallonne. The Gewiss-Ballan team had stuffed everyone at the start of that season, winning Milan-San Remo and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and would go on to win the Giro with Evgeni Berzin beating Miguel Indurain.
But the Fleche result dwarfed even those. 137km into the race, Argentin, Berzin and Giorgio Furlan simply rode away from the rest of the field, completing the final 69km of the course as a trio until the Mur de Huy, where Argentin distanced his teammates to take the win. It didn’t help matters that a certain Michele Ferrari, Gewiss team doctor at the time, decided to suggest that EPO use and overconsumption of orange juice were comparably dangerous in a post-race interview with L’Equipe, a comment that cost him his job but did nothing to stop the rumours about the Gewiss team growing louder. If you haven’t seen footage of the race, check it out here.