Giancarlo Ferretti is the former manager of the now-disbanded Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 professional road bicycle racing

Road bicycle racing

Road bicycle racing is a bicycle racing sport held on roads, using racing bicycles. The term "road racing" is usually applied to events where competing riders start simultaneously with the winner being the first to the line at the end of the course .Historically, the most...

 team

Cycling team

A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races whether recreational or professional - and the supporting personnel...

 Fassa Bortolo team, sponsored by the Italian cement company of the same name.

Fassa Bortolo was a top-ranked team until the 2005 season

2005 UCI ProTour

The 2005 ProTour was the first year of the newly introduced UCI ProTour system, in which the ProTour teams are guaranteed, and obliged to, participate in the series of ProTour races. In certain ways the ProTour replaced the UCI Road World Cup series of one-day races, which in 2004 was won by...

, during which it was part of the UCI ProTour

UCI ProTour

The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI . Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the series...

. Among its former riders, it counted classics

Classic cycle races

The classic cycle races are one-day professional cycling road races in the international calendar. Most of the events, all run in western Europe, have been fixtures on the professional calendar for decades and the oldest ones date back to the 19th Century. They are normally held at roughly the same...

 specialist Michele Bartoli

Michele Bartoli

Michele Bartoli is a retired Italian road racing cyclist. He was a single-day race specialist, winning three of the five Monument races. Bartoli won the UCI Road World Cup in 1997 and 1998.-Biography:...

, super-sprinter Alessandro Petacchi

Alessandro Petacchi

Alessandro Petacchi is an Italian professional road racing cyclist for .A specialist sprinter, Petacchi has won 51 grand tour stages with wins of the points jersey in the Giro d'Italia in 2004, the Vuelta a España in 2005 and the Tour de France in 2010.In 2007 Alessandro was banned from cycling...

, stage racer Ivan Basso

Ivan Basso

Ivan Basso is an Italian professional road bicycle racer who is currently racing with UCI ProTeam . Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, is among the best mountain riders in the professional field in the 21st century, and is considered one of the strongest stage race riders...

, Juan Antonio Flecha

Juan Antonio Flecha

Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni is an Argentine-born Spanish professional road bicycle racer for the UCI ProTour team .-Career:...

, time trial

Time trial

In many racing sports an athlete will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. In cycling, for example, a time trial  can be a single track cycling event, or an individual or team time trial on the road, and either or both of the latter may form components of...

 specialist Fabian Cancellara

Fabian Cancellara

Fabian Cancellara is a Swiss professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . A time trial specialist, he is a four-time World Time Trial Champion and is the current Olympic gold medalist...

, and many others.

Ferretti went on to find a new sponsor for the team, and believed that Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....

was interested in sponsoring his team. However, on 14 October 2005, a man claiming to represent proposed new sponsor Sony Ericsson turned out to be an impostor, leaving all staff and riders unemployed.

His strong personality earned him the nickname the iron sergeant, and has been criticized by former riders for being too demanding, strict, and commanding. Uniquely in cycling, when he was the manager of Fassa Bortolo he was made an employee of Fassa Bortolo the company, and earned some respect for it.