Alfa Lum was an Italian professional cycling team that existed from 1982 to 1990.[1][2] The team is best remembered for introducing many successful riders from the former Soviet Union in 1989 and 1990. The team rode in a riding kit of distinctive red and white horizontal stripes. The team sponsored the Italian company of Alfa Lum, an aluminium door and windows manufacturer.

Alfa Lum
Team information
RegisteredItaly
Founded1982 (1982)
Disbanded1990 (1990)
Discipline(s)Road
Team name history
1982
1983–1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
Alfa Lum–Sauber
Alfa Lum–Olmo
Alpilatte–Olmo–Cierre
Ecoflam–Jollyscarpe–BFB Bruciatori–Alfa Lum
Ecoflam–BFB Bruciatori–Mareco–Alfa Lum
Alfa Lum–Legnano–Ecoflam
Alfa Lum–STM
Alfa Lum

History edit

The team was formed in 1982 with Alfa Lum as the main sponsor. It was a modest team consisting of mainly Italian riders along with the Australian Micheal Wilson and the Swede Anders Adamsson. In 1983 the team was strengthened considerably as Italian bicycle manufacturers Olmo were brought on board as co-sponsors and Spanish rider Marino Lejarreta who had won the 1982 edition of the Vuelta a España was introduced to the squad as team leader. Marino brought along his brother Ismael to the team. In 1983 Marino Lejarreta finished second in the Vuelta a España for the Alfa Lum-Olmo team, in 1984 the team were invited to ride the Giro d'Italia and Lejarreta finished 4th overall and took a stage win.

Alfa Lum returned as the main sponsor in 1988, taking over from the Ecoflam team when the sponsors pulled out at the end of 1987. The rising star of the team was 23-year-old Maurizio Fondriest who had won a stage of the Volta a Catalunya the previous season and had some good placings in other highly ranked races. Fondriest performed beyond all expectations in 1988 culminating when he surprisingly won the World Championship Road Race in Ronse, Belgium in August. Fondriest also won stages in Tirreno–Adriatico and the Tour de Suisse, as well as the GP Prato for the team that year.

At the end of 1988, Fondriest not unsurprisingly left Alfa Lum to join the Del Tongo team and the rest of the Italians also departed, leaving Alfa Lum to completely rebuild for 1989. They did this by importing fifteen riders from the Soviet Union which had decided to lift its ban on riders turning professional. This turned out to be an inspired action by Alfa Lum as riders such as the veteran Sergei Sukhoruchenkov, the 1980 Olympic road race champion were brought into the squad. However, there were many younger riders who performed admirably and went on to have much success riding for western European teams.

 
Dimitri Konyshev at the team car in the 1989 Giro d'Italia

The team rode in 1989 and 1990 with it Soviet riders and introduced riders such as Andrei Tchmil, Piotr Ugrumov, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Viktor Klimov, Dimitri Konyshev, Vladimir Poulnikov, Ivan Ivanov to the sport. Over the two years the team had much success and surprised the cycling world. Klimov held the leader's jersey for five days in the 1990 Vuelta a Espana. Poulnikov finished fourth overall in the 1990 Giro d’Italia. Asyat Saitov won a stage in the 1990 Vuelta a España, Konyshev finished second in the 1989 UCI Road World Championships road race in Chambéry, France.

 
Nikolay Morozov with the team in 1989 or 1990

At the end of 1990 Alfa Lum left cycling sponsorship and the team folded. Many of the riders made moves to bigger teams and had outstanding success in the years to come. Poulnikov and Abdoujaparov moved to Carrera, with “Abdou” taking the Green jersey in the Tour de France in 1991, 1993 and 1994. Ugroumov moved to the Spanish team SEUR along with Klimov and Ivanov, Ugroumov won two Alpine stages in the 1994 Tour de France and finished second to Miguel Indurain in the 1993 Giro d’Italia. Konyshev moved to the Dutch squad TVM and had an outstanding career in one-day races. Andrei Tchmil went to ride for Belgian teams and became one of the top one day riders of the 1990s, winning Paris–Roubaix (1994), Milan–San Remo (1999) and the Tour of Flanders (2000).

Women's cycling edit

Alfa Lum have been involved in sponsoring women's professional cycling. In the year 2000 the team had Joane Somarriba and Edita Pučinskaitė in the squad as team leaders. Somarriba took the overall at the Grande Boucle while Pučinskaitė took second in the same race. In 2001 Mari Holden joined Somarriba as team leader as Pučinskaitė left. In 2002 Alfa Lum reduced their commitment to women's cycling becoming a co-sponsor and then leaving the sport completely at the end of that season.

Final roster edit

As of 31 December 1990[3]
Rider Date of birth
  Djamolidine Abdoujaparov (URS) (1964-02-28)28 February 1964 (aged 26)
  Ouldis Ansons (URS) (1959-08-19)19 August 1959 (aged 31)
  Konstantin Bankin (URS) (1962-07-25)25 July 1962 (aged 28)
  Oleg Petrovich Chuzhda (URS) (1963-07-23)23 July 1963 (aged 27)
  Nikolai Golovatenko (URS) (1963-02-27)27 February 1963 (aged 27)
  Oleg Iarochenko (URS) (1962-10-12)12 October 1962 (aged 28)
  Ivan Ivanov (URS) (1960-05-09)9 May 1960 (aged 30)
  Viktor Klimov (URS) (1964-12-10)10 December 1964 (aged 26)
  Dimitri Konyshev (URS) (1966-02-18)18 February 1966 (aged 24)
Rider Date of birth
  Uladzimir Murauski (URS) (1959-09-22)22 September 1959 (aged 31)
  Vladimir Poulnikov (URS) (1965-06-06)6 June 1965 (aged 25)
  Asiat Saitov (URS) (1965-01-01)1 January 1965 (aged 25)
  Igor Sumnikov (URS) (1966-09-20)20 September 1966 (aged 24)
  Andrei Tchmil (URS) (1963-01-22)22 January 1963 (aged 27)
  Alexandre Trubine (URS) (1966-06-08)8 June 1966 (aged 24)
  Piotr Ugrumov (URS) (1961-01-21)21 January 1961 (aged 29)
  Sergei Uslamin (URS) (1963-02-23)23 February 1963 (aged 27)
  Vasily Zhdanov (URS) (1963-01-12)12 January 1963 (aged 27)

Major results edit

1982
Stage 2 Giro d'Italia, Michael Wilson
Prologue & Stage 1 Tour of Sweden, Giuseppe Petito
Stages 3, 4 & 8 Herald Sun Tour, Clyde Sefton
1983
Vuelta a España
  Points classification, Marino Lejarreta
Stage 3, Giuseppe Petito
Stages 6, 8 & 13, Marino Lejarreta
Stage 20, Michael Wilson
Giro dell'Appennino, Marino Lejarreta
  Overall Escalada a Montjuïc, Marino Lejarreta
Stages 1 & 2, Marino Lejarreta
1984
Trofeo Laigueglia, Giuseppe Petito
Stage 9 Vuelta a España, Orlando Maini
Coppa Cicogna, Romano Randi
GP Citta di Empoli, Marcus Burns
Coppa Varignana, Romano Randi
Stage 19 Giro d'Italia, Marino Lejarreta
Giro delle Valli Aretine, Romano Randi
Trofeo Matteotti, Michael Wilson
1985
Stage 7 Giro d'Italia, Orlando Maini
Coppa Sabatini, Marino Amadori
1986
Stage 2 Tirreno–Adriatico, Daniele Caroli
Stage 1 Tour of the Basque Country, Maurizio Rossi
Stage 8 Giro d'Italia, Franco Chioccioli
Stage 6 Tour de Suisse, Franco Chioccioli
Coppa Ugo Agostoni, Marino Amadori
Coppa Bernocchi, Roberto Gaggioli
Giro del Veneto, Maurizio Rossi
1987
  Overall Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali, Maurizio Rossi
Stage 1, Maurizio Rossi
Trofeo Pantalica, Daniele Caroli
Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato, Daniele Caroli
Coppa della Pace, Daniele Caroli
GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano, Marino Amadori
Volta a Catalunya
Stage 3, Daniele Caroli
Stage 4, Maurizio Fondriest
1988
Stage 3 Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali, Camillo Passera
Stage 4 Tirreno–Adriatico, Maurizio Fondriest
Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato, Maurizio Fondriest
Stage 4 Tour de Suisse, Maurizio Fondriest
Criterium d'Abruzzo, Maurizio Fondriest
1989
Stage 1 Vuelta a Cuba, Viktor Klimov
  Overall Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, Ivan Ivanov
Stage 2, Dimitri Konyshev
Stages 4 & 6, Ivan Ivanov
Stage 5, Vladimir Pulnikov
Stage 19 Vuelta a España, Ivan Ivanov
Coppa Agostoni, Dimitri Konyshev
Cronostafetta, Dimitri Konyshev
Giro dell'Emilia, Dimitri Konyshev
  Soviet Union National Road race championships, Ivan Ivanov
1990
Stage 6 Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, Piotr Ugrumov
Stage 20 Vuelta a España, Asiat Saitov
Stage 10 Giro d'Italia, Vladimir Pulnikov
Stage 17 Tour de France, Dimitri Konyshev
GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano, Dimitri Konyshev
Trofeo della Scalatore, Piotr Ugrumov
  Soviet Union National Road race championships, Dimitri Konyshev

Supplementary statistics edit

Sources:[4][5]

Grand Tours by highest finishing position
Race 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990
  Vuelta a España 2 26 6 8
  Giro d'Italia 43 6 4 5 6 9 26 11 4
  Tour de France 25
Major week-long stage races by highest finishing position
Race 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990
  Paris–Nice
 /  Tirreno–Adriatico 13 6 6 13 10 6 15 25
  Volta a Catalunya
  Tour of the Basque Country 3 3 3 2
  Giro del Trentino 6 18 17 2
  Tour de Romandie
  Critérium du Dauphiné
  Tour de Suisse 5 37
  Tour de Pologne
  Ronde van Nederland
Monument races by highest finishing position
Race 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990
Milan–San Remo 59 39 55 33 41 22 2
Tour of Flanders 18 76 79
Paris–Roubaix 17 52
Liège–Bastogne–Liège 57
Giro di Lombardia 14 11 21 4 20 11 16 39
Classics by highest finishing position
Classic 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990
Omloop Het Volk NH
Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne NH
E3 Harelbeke 33
Gent–Wevelgem 60 49 8
Amstel Gold Race 23
La Flèche Wallonne
Clásica de San Sebastián
Paris–Tours 3

National and world champions edit

1988
  World Road Race, Maurizio Fondriest
1989
  Soviet Union Road race, Ivan Ivanov
1990
  Soviet Union Road race, Dimitri Konyshev

References edit

  1. ^ "Alfa Lum - Sauber (1982)" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  2. ^ "Alfa Lum / Alfa Lum - BFB Bruciatori au Tour d'Italie / Alfa Lum - Brusch Systems au Tour d'Espagne (1990)" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  3. ^ "Alfa Lum 1990". www.procyclingstats.com. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  4. ^ "FirstCycling". firstcycling.com. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  5. ^ "ProCyclingStats". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 4 April 2023.

Further reading edit