He's 32.webvan said:Peli is getting a bit old, I doubt he'll recover from that year off the bike, look how long it took Basso to come back and he was much more gifted.
Sella and co. tested positive in 2008, after the 2008 Giro in which Pellizotti "came out of nowhere". After debunking the "Ezequiel Mosquera came out of nowhere in 2007" myth as precisely that, I now set to work on the "Pellizotti came out of nowhere in 2008" myth, which should be considerably easier since he never spent half a decade toiling away in Portugal in races few people saw.Peli did "come out of the blue" during that 2008 Giro when he won that dreadful TT on the dirt road (Plan de Corones, can't be bothered to look it up), prior to that he was a nobody. I'm surprised he didn't get popped with the other little Italian mountain goats in 2007, Emanuele Sella and Co. At least these guys were honest with themselves, they refused to participate in the Bio program!
Franco Pellizotti's career path:
2001:
4th Settimana Lombarda
10th DeutschlandTour
18th, Österreichrundfahrt (includes a top 10, matching Rasmussen and Gustov, on the Großglockner stage)
20th, Vuelta a España
2002:
9th (+1 stage win, uphill finish), Tirreno-Adriatico
11th (+1 stage win), Vuelta al País Vasco
16th, Giro d'Italia (inc. 3rd & 6th in mountain stages)
1st, Giro del Friuli
1 stage win, Tour de Pologne
2003:
3rd, Settimana Coppi e Bartali
9th, Giro d'Italia (inc. 4 top 10s in mountain stages)
2004:
8th, Settimana Coppi e Bartali
11th, Giro d'Italia (inc. 2 3rds in mountain stages)
2nd, Giro del Friuli
3rd, Tour de Pologne
2nd, Coppa Sabatini
9th, Giro di Lombardia
2005:
3rd, Tour Méditerranéen
4th, Volta a Comunitat Valenciana
6th, Paris-Nice
9th, Milan-Sanremo
1st (+1 stage win), Settimana Coppi e Bartali
2006:
2nd, Milano-Torino
8th (+1 stage win), Giro d'Italia (also 4 top 10s in mountain stages)
10th, Clasica San Sebastián
3rd, Coppa Agostini
2007:
5th, Paris-Nice (+ 1 stage win, and points jersey)
5th, Giro del Trentino
9th, Giro d'Italia (including a top 5 in the mountain TT and 8th to Zoncolán)
1st, Memorial Marco Pantani
3rd in a stage, Vuelta a España
And then 2008:
4th, Giro d'Italia (+1 stage win and four days in pink)
2nd, Tour de Slovénie
5th, Clasica San Sebastián
3rd, Tour de Pologne
So yes, his GT performance was better in 2008. But he previously had 3 top 10s and a stage win in the Giro, his performance had been improving from early in his career where top 20s in GTs from an early age indicated his GT potential. He had top 10s in two monuments, a GC win in a tough short stage race (Coppi e Bartali) plus a couple of stages and a points jersey in another, more prestigious one (Paris-Nice). You can say that you were surprised Pellizotti had what he pulled out in week 3 of the 2008 Giro in him, but you most definitely cannot say he came out of nowhere.