Finnish-born Briton Charly Wegelius began his career with the now defunct Linda McCartney team. Wegelius has spent the majority of his career riding for Italian teams and has become a successful mountain domestique. However, his affiliation with Italian trade teams proved to be his undoing in 2005 at the World Championships, where it appeared that he rode in support of Italy and not Britain.
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Wegelius offered to repay the costs of travelling to the Worlds (an offer that British Cycling accepted) and will probably never ride for the British team again (although BC's decision to readmit Tom Southam to the team after the same offence may suggest otherwise).
Wegelius is a pure climber; he is strong enough to lead a team but has ridden most of his career in support of others. Wegelius joined the Silence-Lotto team in 2009 provided much-needed support for Cadel Evans, who was woefully abandoned by his team-mates in the mountains in the 2008 Tour de France.
Joining Silence was a natural progression for the Brit, after forming a close relationship with Silence directeur sportif Roberto Damiani whilst at Mapei. Former team mates Cadel Evans and Dario Cioni also live close to Wegelius' training haunts near Varese.
For 2011, he joined the Pro Continental UnitedHealthCare team.
Wegelius announced his retirement from competition at the end of the 2011 season to take up a job as directeur sportif at Garmin-Cervelo for 2012.
Charly Wegelius results
2008
Settimana Coppi e Bartali; stage one (b), TTT
2007
Giro d'Italia; prologue, TTT
2002
Settimana Ciclista Bergamasca; TTT
Charly Wegelius photos
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