eBay Finds: Signed Paolo Bettini 2008 world champion's jersey

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Available here on eBay is a signed 2008 version of Paolo Bettini's road race world champion's jersey - arguably one of the best cycling jerseys a rider can aspire to win. 

Take a look at Bettini’s signed jersey on Bay here

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Julian Alaphilippe's victory at the World Championships road race in Imola, Italy, last month for France means that Patrick Lefevere's Deceuninck-QuickStep team has the road-race rainbow stripes in its ranks for the first time since Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski took the title in 2014 and wore the world champion's jersey into the 2015 season.

But prior to that, it was Bettini who wore the stripes for what was then the QuickStep-Innergetic team – for two seasons in a row. The Italian first won the Worlds road race in Salzburg, Austria, at the end of the 2006 season, and then retained his rainbow jersey the following season when he again won in Stuttgart, Germany.

He wore the jersey into the 2008 season, and it's one of those jerseys that's for sale here, with the seller having apparently acquired it directly from Bettini – and had it signed by him – at the 2008 Tour of California.

At that year's event – Bettini's second time at the US stage race, which is currently on hiatus – he finished third on stage 6 to Santa Clarita, but couldn't repeat his stage win of the previous year in San Luis Obispo, which was the second of eight victories he took as world champion in the two seasons that he wore the hallowed jersey.

Bettini had become only the fifth rider to win the elite men's road race in back-to-back years – Slovakia's Peter Sagan has since become the sixth, and then the first to win it three times in a row – and wore the rainbow jersey for the rest of the final year of his career, retiring following the 2008 Worlds road race on home turf in Varese, Italy, where he finished 28th.

The Switzerland-based seller of what is a size small jersey is looking for £320 (US$415), and is willing to post to various places around the world, although with some exceptions.

We're constantly on the lookout for unique and rare cycling relics on eBay. If you have any suggestions or leads, please send them to cyclingnews@cyclingnews.com with 'eBay Finds' in the subject line.