BBC News Online: Sport: Tour de France

Cipollini: The Italian showman

He shares his home and garden with a number of animals, including a monkey, and a massive wardrobe including hundred of suits.

He even turned up in one - Armani of course - at a post-race winner's presentation.

Another podium appearance saw him congratulated with soccer superstar Ronaldo as the cyclist donned one of the Brazilian's No 10 Inter Milan shirts.

Cipollini also wants to share a stage with Namibian sprinting champion Frankie Fredericks after meeting the athlete during pre-season training in southern Africa.

If such a race occurs, the Italian is confident of victory, even if Fredericks will inevitably get a start on the bikeman until he gets the machine up to top speed.

Brash and cool

Cipollini is a marketing man's dream and his sponsors exploit him to the full.

The world's biggest manufacturer of coffee-makers, Saeco, supply the Italian cool.

Meanwhile bike firm Cannondale bring a brash American approach to the party.

They have given him stars and stripes shorts to wear as well as colour co-ordinated outfits when wearing leader's jerseys.

This stylish touch used to lead to fines for wearing incorrect clothing, but has now forced a rule change from the sport's governing body, the UCI.

In a sport where riders are usually reluctant to speak to the media about their cycling, Cipollini has even boasted of having sex the night before important race wins.

Mouth and trousers?

But the Italian is not all mouth and lost of pairs of trousers, as the list of race wins shows.

Even at 32, he won four stages in this year's Giro, despite the mountainous route leading him to complain that a ski-pass was needed to complete the route.

Super Mario's tendency to get off his bike and head for the beach as soon as a race hits the mountains means he is not universally respected.

But come the next event and you will see him charging through at up to 40mph to win a bunch sprint.

This is cycling's most spectacular - and dangerous discipline - with the racers shoulder-to-shoulder as they hit the line.

Crashes are less frequent than they could be, but it takes a strong character as well as powerful legs to win in this environment.

Cipollini has both, and if he does not crash, he will almost certainly prove it at least once during the first week of this Tour.

Just watch him go, and then look out for what he says afterwards.