Ivan Quaranta

Ivan Quaranta (born 14 December 1974 in Crema), also called "il Ghepardo" (Italian: the Cheetah) is a former Italian professional road bicycle racer.

His most successful year was 1999. That year he already had five wins to his credit leading up to the Giro d'Italia, the premier Italian bike race. He then took the Giro stage 1 sprint in impressive fashion ahead of the much better known Mario Cippolini. That win significantly boosted Quaranta's profile. Over time he won 5 Giro stages. Intriguingly Quaranta was hired by Saeco to replace Cippolini as the team's protected sprinter in 2003. However, by that time his prowess was on the wane. While he won sprints in lesser races such as Brixia Tour and Tour of Qatar, he produced no further sprint wins in the Giro. Saeco dropped Quaranta after a single season, subsequent to which he had negligible success. His final win was in the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda. Quaranta retired from professional cycling after the 2008 season.