"To this day, I still evade him" - Mario Cipollini's former teammate still holds a three-decades-old grudge

Eros Poli had a successful professional career in 1990s as a lead-out man for one of the fastest man of that era - Mario Cipollini. And just as he was famous, the Italian was also controversial which eventually led to his fall out with Poli in 1997. To this day, the relationship between the two is battered.

"At the end of 1996, there was suddenly no place for me," Poli looks back in an interview with Bahamontes. "Everyone knew that Cipollini decided who rode in the team. So he dropped me. Today I still evade him, especially after what he did to his ex-wife."

Now, we mainly remember Eros Poli's famous victory in a 1994 Tour de France stage 15 that crossed the Mont Ventoux. Such an unlikely victory for the big man who usually worked a lead-out man. His moment of glory was only made possible thanks to Cipollini's absence that year, he knows:

"But it also remains ambiguous. If Cipollini had ridden that 1994 Tour, I would never have attacked (in the Tour stage over the Mont Ventoux, ed.) and you would not have been here."

On the other hand Poli had a good relationship with another iconic Italian from the turn of millenium: Marco Pantani. When Il Pirata won on Mont Ventoux in 2000 ahead of Lance Armstrong, Poli drove VIP guests in a race car. "Maybe Armstrong let him win, but you never give away a stage with a finish on Mont Ventoux?"

To this day, there are still speculations about whether the American "let" Pantani have that victory as a disrespectful gesture: "He was pretty pissed off at Armstrong. 'Who does he think he is? A few years ago he was still riding in the grupetto with you, and now he thinks he can outride me up here? I'm going to finish him off.'"

"He did that on the stage to Courchevel and he wanted to repeat the feat on the final mountain stage to Morzine." When Jan Ullrich's team started chasing him, something snapped in Pantani, Poli said. "He was so affected by it that he dropped out of the Tour."