Moreno Argentin - 1983/1984 - Italian national champion's jersey - Sammontana Campagnolo
Jersey worn at the end of the 1983 season, just after he won the Italian road championship in a sprint ahead of Giovanni Battaglin, and at the start of the 1984 season, particularly at the Giro d'Italia in the colours of the Italian Sammontana Campagnolo team. In the same jersey, he finished 3rd in the final overall classification of the Giro d'Italia, winning the 3rd and 5th stages.
Made in Italy by Santini
Additional information:
Nicknamed Il Capo (“The Boss”), the Italian rider was a proven performer in the World Championship Road Race, the Classics and Grand Tour events, and is best known for winning the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege Classic four times in 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1991 – a feat only surpassed by cycling luminary Eddy Merckx.
Moreno Argentin (born 17 December 1960) is an Italian former professional cyclist (from 1981 to 1994) and race director. He has 86 professional victories to his name.
His early professional career:
In 1980, at the age of 19, Argentin signed his first professional contract with the Italian team Mobili San Giacomo in October. The following year he joined the Sammontana team, his name really burst into the public eye when he finished 2nd in the 1981 Giro di Lombardia at the age of 20, just one year after his victory in the amateur category of the same Giro di Lombardia - his career was launched! Moreno Argentin finishes third in the 1982 Milan-San Remo at just 21 years of age. It wasn't until 1985 that Moreno Argentin triumphed in the oldest of the Liège-Bastogne-Liege classics, his first Monument at the age of 24.
Between 1987 and 1992, his record of achievements was seriously enhanced by a number of prestigious victories in the colours of Gewis-Bianchi and Arostea.
In addition, Argentin also won the Fleche Wallonne Classic a record three times in 1990, 1991 and 1994, an accomplishment only tied by Merckx and Marcel Kint, along with victories in the Tour of Flanders Classic (1990) and the Tour of Lombardy (1987). Perhaps his greatest regret was that he never won the Primavera that really opens the season of one-day races, the Monument Milan-San Remo, finishing twice on the podium, 3rd in 1982 and 2nd in 1992, when he was alone in the lead with a 15-second advantage at the bottom of the Poggio, joined and beaten in the sprint in the last kilometre by Sean Kelly,
Perhaps, Argentin’s most memorable victory was winning the 1986 World Championship Road Race in a two-man sprint against Charly Mottet of France.
Both before and after his 1986 victory, Argentin complimented the podium in the World Championship Road Race after finishing third in the 1985 race behind Joop Zoetemelk of Holland and Greg Lemond of the USA and second place behind Stephen Roche of Ireland in 1987.
As far as Grand Tour events are concerned, at the start of his career the 23-year-old Argentinian finished third in the 1984 Giro d'Italia, behind Italy's Francesco Moser and France's Laurent Fignon. He won a total of 13 stages in the Giro d'Italia. In conflict with the Italian press, he boycotted the race in 1988, 1990 and 1991. He also took part in three Tours de France between 1990 and 1992, winning two stages and finishing 59th in 1991 as his best result.
In the 1993 Giro d'Italia, he won two stages. After winning the first stage and wearing the pink jersey for ten days, he played an essential role with his team-mate Piotr Ugrumov. Thanks to the Argentinian's work, Ugrumov finished second in the Giro and seriously troubled Miguel Indurain in the Oropa stage. In the 1994 Giro d'Italia, which he finished 14th, he won the second stage and wore the pink jersey for two days. It was his team-mate Evgueni Berzin who won.
He also won two Italian road championship titles in 1983 and 1989.
In June 1994, after the Giro, the Argentinean, who has never hidden his relationship with the sulphurous sports doctor Michele Ferrari, announced his retirement. Since the end of the 1980s, he has lived in a residence in Monaco.
In an interview with sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport on the occasion of his 50th birthday, he criticised modern-day cycling. For him, "the riders are too nice and have no character. The policy of the International Cycling Union (UCI) is simply to turn our sport into a business". He believes that "the track is dead and buried and that the road is going the same way".