Sonny Colbrelli

Sonny Colbrelli

Colbrelli in 2020
Personal information
Full name	Sonny Colbrelli
Born	(1990-05-17) 17 May 1990 (age 31) Desenzano del Garda, Italy
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)[1]
Weight	74 kg (163 lb; 11 st 9 lb)[1]
Team information
Current team	Team Bahrain Victorious
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter Classics specialist
Amateur teams
2009–2011	Zalf–Désirée–Fior
2010	→ Colnago–CSF Inox (stagiaire)
2011	→ Colnago–CSF Inox (stagiaire)
Professional teams
2012–2016	Colnago–CSF Bardiani[2][3]
2017–	Bahrain–Merida[4][5]
Major wins
Stage races Benelux Tour (2021) One-day races and Classics European Road Race Championships (2021) National Road Race Championships (2021) Paris–Roubaix (2021) Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli (2015, 2019) Gran Piemonte (2018) Brabantse Pijl (2017) Gran Premio di Lugano (2016) Tre Valli Varesine (2016)
Medal record Representing  Italy Men's road bicycle racing European Championships 2021 Trento Road race

Sonny Colbrelli (born 17 May 1990) is an Italian professional road bicycle racer who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Bahrain Victorious.^[6]

Career[]

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2021)

Born in Desenzano del Garda, Colbrelli has competed as a professional since the start of the 2012 season, joining Colnago–CSF Bardiani as a neo-pro,^[7] from the Zalf–Désirée–Fior amateur squad. Colbrelli had previously competed for the team in two stagiaire spells at the end of the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

Colbrelli made his Grand Tour début at the 2012 Giro d'Italia, where he was earmarked as a lead-out man for the team's sprinter, Sacha Modolo; Colbrelli took his first top ten placing on stage 13, when he finished ninth having led out Modolo to a fourth-place finish.^[8]

Bahrain–Merida (2017–present)[]

On 12 April 2017, Colbrelli won Brabantse Pijl, riding for Bahrain–Merida.^[9] In June 2017, he was named in the startlist for the Tour de France.^[10]

2021 season[]

After three top-ten finishes in one-day races during the opening quarter of the year, Colbrelli took stage victories at the Tour de Romandie and the Critérium du Dauphiné,^[11][12] winning the points classification at both races.^[13] He then won the Italian National Road Race Championships for the first time, outsprinting Fausto Masnada, after both riders attacked on the final lap of a hilly course in and around Imola.^[13][14] He took three top-five stage finishes at the Tour de France, as he finished third in the points classification,^[15] behind Mark Cavendish and Michael Matthews. He next started at the Benelux Tour, where he won the sixth stage after a 25-kilometre (16-mile) solo attack into Houffalize.^[16] Assuming the race leader's blue jersey for the final stage, which included three ascents of the Muur van Geraardsbergen, Colbrelli finished second on the stage behind teammate Matej Mohorič, but Mohorič did not gain enough time to take the overall victory.^[17]

The following weekend, Colbrelli formed part of an eight-man Italian team for the road race at the UEC European Road Championships, held in Trento.^[18] On the third of eight laps of a 13-kilometre (8.1-mile) finishing circuit, Colbrelli joined compatriot Matteo Trentin as part of a ten-rider lead group; he, and France's Benoît Cosnefroy, later followed an attack by Belgium's Remco Evenepoel on the penultimate lap.^[19] Once Cosnefroy was dropped, Colbrelli tactically sat on Evenepoel's wheel and refused to relay with him; at the finish, Colbrelli led into the final corner and pulled clear of Evenepoel to win the gold medal.^[19] Ahead of the UCI Road World Championships, Colbrelli finished second to Michael Valgren at the Coppa Sabatini,^[20] and he won the Memorial Marco Pantani.^[21]

As one of the leaders for the Italian team at the World Championships,^[22] Colbrelli was unable to follow the attacks in the closing laps, and ultimately finished tenth in the road race.^[23] Colbrelli's next start came at Paris–Roubaix, which had been delayed from April to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, and was held in wet conditions that made some of the cobbled sectors muddy and slippery.^[24] Colbrelli attacked several times with around 85–95 kilometres (53–59 miles) remaining, before forming a group with Mathieu van der Poel and Guillaume Boivin.^[25] This trio later caught Florian Vermeersch and Tom Van Asbroeck from the original breakaway, leaving just Gianni Moscon clear with 30 kilometres (19 miles) remaining. Moscon suffered a mechanical and a crash in the next few kilometres,^[24] which ultimately led to him being caught on the Carrefour de l'Arbre cobbled sector by Colbrelli, van der Poel and Vermeersch.^[24] Once Moscon was dropped, the remaining trio contested the sprint at Roubaix Velodrome; Vermeersch was first to launch the sprint, however Colbrelli went round the outside of him in the closing metres to take the victory. As a result, Colbrelli became the first Italian rider to win the race since Andrea Tafi in 1999, and the third rider to win in his first start in the race.^[26]

Major results[]

Grand Tour general classification results timeline[]

Grand Tour	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Giro d'Italia	100	89	94	100	95	—	—	—	—	—
Tour de France	—	—	—	—	—	122	109	85	93	52
Vuelta a España	Has not contested during his career

Classics results timeline[]

Major championships timeline[]

Event		2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
World Championships	Road race	13	—	DNF	59	—	11	—	10
European Championships	Road race	Race did not exist		29	—	14	—	—	1
National Championships	Road race	DNF	DNF	—	8	66	2	3	1

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sonny Colbrelli.

• Colnago CSF-Bardiani profile
• Sonny Colbrelli at Cycling Archives
• Sonny Colbrelli at ProCyclingStats
• Sonny Colbrelli at Cycling Quotient