The Sports Loyalty Award scheduled at the Hotel Country Club in Gragnano on Tuesday, June 3rd, is enriched by another prestigious name: Giuseppe Martinelli. The former sprinter who won 3 stages at the Giro d'Italia - respectively in 1978 with the Magniflex jersey, in 1979 and 1980 with the San Giacomo-Benotto jersey, and who also won the silver medal in the road race at the Montreal Olympics in 1976 - has become over time the most experienced and most titled Sports Director in the international cycling landscape, with a career on the team car spanning from 1986 to today.

His best period was from 2010 to 2024 working for Astana, one of the most successful teams ever, and during his career he launched champions of the caliber of Marco Pantani, Vincenzo Nibali and then managed the final career of one of the greatest sprinters of all time: British rider Mark Cavendish.

But Giuseppe Martinelli's palmares as a sports director is impressive, having won nine Giro d'Italia, two Tour de France, and one Vuelta a España (the latter with Fabio Aru). A unique worldwide record also enriched by several monument classics, including the unforgettable second victory of Vincenzo Nibali at the Giro di Lombardia in 2017 when he rode alone towards the Como finish line, inflicting a 28-second gap on the second-place finisher Julian Alaphilippe and a 38-second gap on the third-place finisher Gianni Moscon of Team Sky.

Giuseppe Martinelli is internationally appreciated for the great "behind-the-scenes" work he has always done with his athletes, a motivator who also strategically planned team management and expectations, a leader in constantly guiding them to success by creating a positive and serene environment.

Unforgettable was his relationship with the only professional team president from Lucca, Ivano Fanini. Back in 1976 when he was racing for San Giacomo, Ivano Fanini was a sponsor before founding his first professional teams. Indeed, it has remained in history and was confirmed by Martinelli himself: the episode where Fanini promised him 500,000 lire in case of victory in the Cecina circuit, a considerable sum for those times. Martinelli won and collected the promised amount.

He will be the sixth golden sphinx of the 2025 Award edition and joins the names of Beppe Bergomi, Roberto Donandoni, Elisa Di Francisca, Milena Baldassarri, and Patrizio Oliva.