Fabio Aru · Biography

Fabio Aru made his professional debut for Astana on 20 August 2012 at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado, finishing second on stage 6 behind Rory Sutherland. Born on 3 July 1990 in San Gavino Monreale, Sardinia, and raised in Villacidro, he is an Italian climber who won the 2015 Vuelta a España, made the Giro d’Italia podium twice and wore the Tour de France yellow jersey in 2017. He rode for Astana from 2012 to 2017, UAE Team Emirates from 2018 to 2020 and Qhubeka in 2021, his last season.

Sardinian roots and amateur years

Aru took up cycling at 15 after giving up other sports. As a junior he raced for G.S. Sardegna Ozierese in 2007 and 2008, mixing road racing with mountain biking and cyclo-cross, and in 2008 he became Sardinian junior road champion. In 2009 he joined Palazzago, the amateur team where he spent four seasons. In 2011 he won the overall at the Giro della Valle d’Aosta, finished second in the Italian under-23 road race and fourth at the Giro Ciclistico d’Italia. In 2012 he won the Valle d’Aosta again, took the overall at Toscana-Terra di Ciclismo and was runner-up at the Baby Giro. Those results earned him a contract with Astana that started on 1 August 2012.

Early years at Astana (2013-2014)

In 2013 he rode his first Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia, finishing 42nd while working for Vincenzo Nibali, who won the race. A year later he was a team leader. At the 2014 Giro he won stage 15 solo at the Montecampione summit finish and finished third overall, his first Grand Tour podium. At that year’s Vuelta a España he won two stages, stage 11 at the Santuario de San Miguel de Aralar and stage 18 on Monte Castrove, and finished fifth.

2015: Giro runner-up and Vuelta winner

At the 2015 Giro he wore the pink jersey after stage 13. In the final week he won back-to-back stages: stage 19 from Gravellona Toce to Cervinia and stage 20 from Saint-Vincent to Sestriere, over the Colle delle Finestre. He finished second overall, 1 minute 53 seconds behind Alberto Contador, and won the young rider classification.

The big win came in September. He first took the Vuelta lead on stage 11, from Andorra la Vella to Cortals d’Encamp, where he finished second behind his teammate Mikel Landa. He lost the red jersey to Joaquim Rodríguez on stage 16 and, after the stage 17 time trial in Burgos, sat 3 seconds behind the new leader, Tom Dumoulin. On the penultimate stage, finishing in Cercedilla, he put 3 minutes 52 seconds into the Dutchman and took back the lead. In Madrid he won the overall by 57 seconds from Rodríguez and 1 minute 9 seconds from Rafał Majka.

Italian champion and Tour leader (2016-2017)

He made his Tour de France debut in 2016 and finished 13th. On 25 June 2017 he won the Italian road race championship, from Asti to Ivrea. At that summer’s Tour he won stage 5 with an attack 2.2 kilometres from the finish at La Planche des Belles Filles and wore the polka-dot jersey after stages 5, 6 and 7. After finishing third on stage 12 he took the yellow jersey, which he held for two days before losing it to Chris Froome on stage 14. He finished fifth, 3 minutes 5 seconds behind Froome, and placed 13th at the Vuelta the same year.

UAE Team Emirates and retirement (2018-2021)

In 2018 he joined UAE Team Emirates. He abandoned the Giro on stage 19 and finished 23rd at the Vuelta. In March 2019 he was diagnosed with a narrowing of the iliac artery and underwent angioplasty, which ruled him out of the Volta a Catalunya and the Giro. He returned in June at the Gran Premio di Lugano and finished 14th at that year’s Tour. In 2020 he abandoned the Tour. In 2021 he moved to Qhubeka and on 12 August announced that the Vuelta a España would be his last race. He completed it in the Santiago de Compostela time trial, finishing 51st overall on 5 September 2021.