Mercatone Uno–Scanavino

Mercatone Uno–Scanavino is a former professional cycling team which was based in San Marino and then in Italy. Throughout the 1990s it was one of the strongest Italian cycling teams in the peloton. The team was sponsored by a chain of supermarkets in Italy.

San Marino Team
The team began as Mercatone Uno-Zucchini in 1992 and was based in San Marino. Riding with the team Adriano Baffi won the points classification in the 1993 Giro d'Italia. During the 1995 season the General Manager of the team was Franco Gini and the directeur sportifs were Antonio Salutini, Franco Chioccioli, Olivano Locatelli and Bruno Vicino. This team closed at the end of 1995 season with the withdrawal of the sponsor: the new team had the same sponsor but was a totally different team.

Team built around Pantani
When Carrera Jeans manufacturers stopped sponsoring the famous Italian cycling team at the end of 1996, it was reported that manager Davide Boifava would be building a team around Marco Pantani with Mercatone Uno as the main sponsor. However Luciano Pezzi became the President of that new team, taking with him as directeur sportifs Giuseppe Martinelli, Davide Cassani and Alessandro Giannelli and ten of the riders from Carrera including Pantani. In this way a new team based in Italy was formed with Marco Pantani as the team leader and which rode Bianchi bikes. According to former cycling champion Felice Gimondi the team was built exclusively around Pantani with directeur sportif Martinelli refusing to sign a sprinter as this could have created other objectives of the team. According to Gimondi, in this way the team was conceived similarly to the way the Bianchi cycling team was conceived in the mid-1940s as a team built around Fausto Coppi. In the 1997 season, Pantani finished third overall at the 1997 Tour de France and won several stages including the stage to the Alpe d'Huez. The following year Pantani won the 1998 Giro d'Italia and then won the 1998 Tour de France – becoming only the seventh rider in history to achieve the Giro–Tour double. Pantani dedicated his win to the recently deceased General manager of Mercatone Uno Luciano Pezzi. After achieving this great success, the head of the branch of the Mercatone Uno supermarkets, Romano Cenni, said that the sponsor would remain in cycling as long as Pantani was still cycling. In the 1999 Giro d'Italia, Pantani dominated the race until he was suspended from the race due to a high haematocrit level. As a result, the entire Mercatone Uno team withdrew from the race. The following year the team won the 2000 Giro d'Italia with Stefano Garzelli to which he thanked Pantani for help. Although Garzelli had a contract that run until the end of the 2001 season, he left the team at the end of 2000. When Pantani abandoned the 2002 Giro d'Italia, there was immediate talk of Mercatone Uno stopping its sponsorship after the 2002 season as the team had not been invited to the 2001 and 2002 Tour de France. However the team continued during the 2003 season where Pantani rode to 14th overall in the 2003 Giro d'Italia. The team was disbanded at the end of 2003 due to the probable retirement of Pantani with several riders going to the South African team Barloworld.

Major wins

 * 1992
 * Stage 18 Vuelta a España, Enrico Zaina


 * 1993
 * Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, Enrico Zaina
 * Profronde van Made, Adri van der Poel
 * Profronde van Surhuisterveen, Adri van der Poel
 * Stages 2, 8 & 18 Giro d'Italia, Adriano Baffi


 * 1994
 * Giro di Toscana, Francesco Casagrande
 * Criterium d'Abruzzo, Michele Bartoli
 * Firenze–Pistoia, Francesco Casagrande
 * Trofeo Luis Puig, Adriano Baffi
 * Stages 1 & 6 Paris–Nice, Mario Cipollini
 * Stage 1 Tirreno–Adriatico, Adriano Baffi
 * Brabantse Pijl, Michele Bartoli
 * Grand Prix Pino Cerami, Michele Bartoli
 * GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano, Francesco Casagrande
 * Stage 13 Giro d'Italia, Michele Bartoli
 * Stage 15 Tour de France, Eros Poli
 * Stages 2 & 3 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Simone Biasci
 * Stage 6 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Massimo Donati
 * Giro della Romagna, Giuseppe Petito
 * Giro dell'Emilia, Francesco Casagrande
 * Milano–Torino, Francesco Casagrande


 * 1995
 * Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, Massimiliano Lelli
 * Profronde van Oostvoorne, Mario Cipollini
 * National Time Trial championships, Massimiliano Lelli
 * Overall Driedaagse van De Panne, Michele Bartoli
 * Firenze–Pistoia, Francesco Casagrande
 * Coppa Placci, Francesco Casagrande
 * Trofeo Luis Puig, Mario Cipollini
 * Stages 4 & 5 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Mario Cipollini
 * Stages 2 & 5 Tour de Romandie, Mario Cipollini
 * Giro dell'Appennino, Francesco Casagrande
 * Stages 1 & 3 Giro d'Italia, Mario Cipollini
 * Stages 2, 3 & 5 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Mario Cipollini
 * Stages 2 & 4 Tour de France, Mario Cipollini
 * Milano–Vignola, Angelo Canzonieri


 * 1997
 * Ronde van Pijnacker, Marco Pantani
 * Giro del Mendrisiotto, Beat Zberg
 * Overall Giro di Toscana, Sergio Barbero
 * Coppa Placci, Beat Zberg
 * Stage 7 Tirreno–Adriatico
 * Stages 13 & 15 Tour de France, Marco Pantani
 * Stage 19 Tour de France, Mario Traversoni
 * Urkiola Igoera – Subida Urkiola, Beat Zberg
 * Stage 7 Tour de Pologne, Markus Zberg


 * 1998
 * GP Tell, Marco Velo
 * De Draai van de Kaai, Marco Pantani
 * Profronde van Surhuisterveen, Marco Pantani
 * Firenze–Pistoia, Marco Velo
 * Gala Tour de France, Marco Pantani
 * Stage 4 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Dimitri Konyshev
 * Jersey pink.svg Overall Giro d'Italia, Marco Pantani
 * Jersey green.svg, Mountains classification, Marco Pantani
 * Stages 14 & 19, Marco Pantani
 * Stage 16, Fabio Fontanelli
 * Jersey yellow.svg Overall Tour de Suisse, Stefano Garzelli
 * Points classification, Stefano Garzelli
 * Combination classification, Stefano Garzelli
 * Stages 5 & 6, Stefano Garzelli
 * National Time Trial championships, Marco Velo
 * Jersey yellow.svg Overall Tour de France, Marco Pantani
 * Stages 11 & 15, Marco Pantani
 * Urkiola Igoera - Subida Urkiola, Simone Borgheresi
 * Boucles de l'Aulne, Marco Pantani


 * 1999
 * Firenze–Pistoia, Marco Velo
 * Roma Maxima, Sergio Barbero
 * Overall Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia – Costa Calida, Marco Pantani
 * Stage 4, Marco Pantani
 * Stage 2 Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme, Marco Pantani
 * Stage 5a Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme, Fabiano Fontanelli
 * GP Miguel Induráin, Stefano Garzelli
 * Stage 3 Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco, Stefano Garzelli
 * Paris–Camembert Lepetit, Fabiano Fontanelli
 * GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano, Massimo Podenzana
 * Stages 8, 15, 19 & 20 Giro d'Italia, Marco Pantani
 * Giro dell'Appennino, Simone Borgheresi
 * National Time Trial championships, Marco Velo
 * Stage 14 Tour de France, Dimitri Konyshev
 * Tre Valli Varesine, Sergio Barbero
 * GP Llodio, Marco Velo
 * Giro della Romagna, Roberto Conti
 * Grand Prix de Fourmies, Dimitri Konyshev
 * Coppa Sabatini, Dimitri Konyshev
 * Japan Cup, Sergio Barbero


 * 2000
 * Acht van Chaam, Marco Pantani
 * Profronde van Stiphout, Marco Pantani
 * Overall Giro del Trentino, Simone Borgheresi
 * Jersey pink.svg Overall Giro d'Italia, Stefano Garzelli
 * Stage 18, Stefano Garzelli
 * Overall Tour of Sweden, Michael Andersson
 * Stage 2, Michael Andersson
 * Stage 8 Tour de Suisse, Stefano Garzelli
 * Mountains classification Stefano Garzelli
 * National Time Trial championship, Michael Andersson
 * National Time Trial championships, Marco Velo
 * Stages 12 & 15 Tour de France, Marco Pantani


 * 2001
 * Klasika Primavera, Igor Astarloa
 * Stage 7 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Daniele De Paoli
 * National Time Trial championships, Marco Velo


 * 2002
 * GP Città di Rio Saliceto e Correggio, Fabiano Fontanelli
 * Giro della Provincia di Lucca, Fabiano Fontanelli
 * 🇰🇿 National Time Trial championships, Andrey Mizurov


 * 2003
 * Giro del Friuli, Joseba Albizu
 * Stage 2 Ster Elektrotoer, Eddy Serri
 * Stage 4 Ster Elektrotoer, Luca Solari
 * Stage 5 Ster Elektrotoer, Enrico Degano

Supplementary statistics
Sources:

Note: The team did not exist for the 1996 Season.

Famous Mercatone Uno cyclists

 * Marco Pantani
 * Michele Bartoli
 * Francesco Casagrande
 * Dmitri Konychev
 * Bruno Leali
 * Adriano Baffi
 * John Talen
 * Roberto Petito
 * Mario Cipollini
 * Dario Frigo
 * Eddy Mazzoleni
 * Stefano Garzelli
 * Daniel Clavero
 * Sylvester Szmyd