The Cicli Masini Paris-Roubaix is Ready for l'Eroica!

With just minor chainline issues, the Cicli Masini Paris-Roubaix is ready for l'Eroica. Check out the not-so-deft shift on my local strada bianca! Hoping to break 14 hours this year. With five speeds instead of four, I hope it'll be enough to make the difference, but my fitness is also half of what it was last year!

l'Eroica Is Only Two Weeks Away!

I've finally started to train on the Masini for l'Eroica, which is only 14 days away! Dai, forza! See you there!

Headed to l'Eroica? See Guerra in Mantova

If you're headed to l'Eroica and have some time before or after to explore northern Italy, I highly suggest stopping in the beautiful city of Mantova and its little museum dedicated to local hero Learco Guerra, winner of the '34 Giro d'Italia and Giro di Lombardia, '33 Milano-San Remo and FIVE successive Italian national championships on the road. The museum consists of just a couple of rooms willed with his various mementos. There was just one bike on display, an old Maino, and lots of jerseys, trophies, photos and the like. I particularly enjoyed reading through the many old newspaper and magazine articles from back in the day. I may be posting up some translations of the more interesting pieces.

The 'Human Locomotive' started his racing career late, at twenty-six years of age, but rapidly became feared on flatter races. Propped up by the Fascist government, Guerra was pitted against Alfredo Binda, the favorite of the communists!

Learco didn't even have a proper racing bike until after 1924 when a local cinder track was built. Sensing something in the twenty something bricklayer's assistant, Silvio Negri told him, "Where do you think you're going with a bike like that? Don't worry, I'll make you a bike myself, and you'll become a champion!" Truer words were never spoken! Negri secretly built the bike, in fear of Learco's father finding out. Guerra soon founded the Aurora society, acting as president, director sportif for the track and the team, and was the society's only racer!

THE definitive photo of Learco Guerra.

Later, after getting a contract with Maino and twice helping his leader Antonio Negri rejoin the peloton after flatting, Guerra was called up to race the Giro. He then summed up his philosophy... "Maybe in life, winning isn't so important. It's more honorable to race with courage!" And in the pioneering days of pre-war cycling, it took courage just to head out on those horrible roads for those ridiculous distances.

As a DS, Guerra shined as well. With riders like Hugo Koblet, Carlo Clerici and Charly Gaul, he would take four Giros d'Italia. His last champion riders were Vittorio Adorni and Gianni Motta.

As with my other recent posts, this one again includes a book on the subject. This time, I wasn't able to find the comprehensive book on Guerra, but instead, just this little square, locally-produced piece. It's a nicely written summary of Guerra's life and career. Crazy thing is that I bought it at the Nuvolari museum, as the Casa Rigoletto didn't have anything for sale!

The museum is just off the main square in Rigoletto's house. His friend and famous race car driver Tiziano Nuvolari has a less-furnished museum just a block away.

I stole a shot of this photo. Guerra, dog lover! Gotta love him even more!

Guerra's Maino. His first pro team was legendary.

Fausto Coppi, 9/15/1919

Where to begin? 92 years ago today, Fausto Coppi was born. Superlatives don't do his career justice, and I don't have the knowledge (or space) to do his story right either. What I can do is lead you to a great book that should be read by any cycling fan interested in our sport's great history. I recently finished Fallen Angel, the Passion of Fausto Coppi by William Fotheringham. I quickly read this on my last trip, and in this age of instant communication, tweeted the following exchange with the author.

Ain't the internet grand? I hope to bump into him someday and discuss - I have a feeling we share interests!

The next Coppi account that I shall attempt (shortly) is Beppe Conti's Fausto Coppi, a rather exhaustive look at his life written in that difficult Italian prose that sometimes challenges my meager abilities. It's like comparing the USA Today to Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum.

With that, Viva Coppi!

Giro 1914, il più duro di tutti

Just finished this great little book which retells the amazing 1914 Giro d'Italia, 'the hardest of all.' This version, the last before a break for the war, set the following records: Longest stage ever (Lucca-Roma, won by Costante Girardengo); lowest average speed (23.374 km/h); biggest gap to second place (1 hour, 55 minutes, 26 seconds); longest time to finish a stage (19 hours, 20 minutes from Bari to l'Aquila) and the fewest number of finishers (eight)!

The book has tales of intrigue (the flatting of eventual winner Alfonzo Calzolari's tires while his bike was on his back while walking up a climb), pure suffering (overall leader Giuseppe Azzini going into crisis mode on the Macerone climb only to be found the next day in a granary sick and near death), more intrigue (an anonymous letter supposedly from Bianchi to Stucchi's Alfonzo Calzolari saying that he would 'never win this Giro'), and even the occult (Calzolari's pre-race meeting with the local fortune teller who conveyed that he would win the race, but only after risking even his life, which I can't remember how, but seems to have been partly true).

After maneuvering to win the race on protest that three leaders had latched onto a car on the toughest of climbs, the Bianchi team literally fell apart as one after another crashed out or retired. After the race, the light blue and white constructor, the strongest team by far but having failed to register one finisher, fired the entire team!

My first complete book in Italian (even though thin), this was a rare gem that has sent me into yet another area of l'eroica... pre-war racing, unheard of distances and struggles, flip-flop wheels (not the faux fixies of today), horrible dirt roads, little to no support, etc. There were two categories in this race, the isolati and aspiranti, who were vagabonds of the race - no money, support, teammates, or even food. Just poor souls racing for the chance of a contract or even a meal!

Eurobike for the Vintage Set

Eurobike is an incredible trade show, with its promise of the latest technology collected under the old zeppelin hangars. I made the trip this year from the US as opposed to the three hour drive from Basel, in order to talk with some of our sponsored athletes and technical sponsors. This time of year is always stressful, as negotiations are in full flight for the coming year, or in some cases, even further out.

In between meetings, I always take the time to roam around and find the new cool stuff, but for the past two years, I've taken a different view of things, now that my vintage obsession is just that... an obsession. There seems to be a lot of folks who are looking back for inspiration, whether from their company's heritage, or just from a design standpoint. The results are sometimes hit-or-miss, but I totally appreciate it! Here is what I found, photos thanks to a crappy Android loaner phone.

This Via Veneta ladies bike, with gold and leather accents was almost as cool as Mrs. Masini's Gloria

Either for my Bianchi or one of the Mrs' Glorias, I NEED a newspaper holder.

This Ambrosio featured a carbon frame with similar gold details. Ciöcc wasn't impressed!

Who wouldn't want panniers by Ermenegildo Zegna?

Always interested in logos for inspiration. I'm working on a 20's-30's version of the Masini logo for a new project... more on that later.

DeMarchi dates back to 1946 with this (repro'd) Atala jersey.

I wanted this helmet by Casco since last year.

Finally, and this wasn't at the show, but I ended up buying them anyway... repro goggles as made famous by Mantova's Tazio Nuvolari, and as worn by his paisano Learco Guerra! Self portrait by Android... ugh.

Tour of Utah Prologue

I'm resuming my crash course in DS'ing, under the tutelage of Biagio Conte during the Tour of Utah. Today was the prologue at Olympic Park at Deer Valley. Things got off to an 'easy' start today with a short hillclimb. Just over 2 km, Colombian Sergio Luis Henao Montoya stormed to the win. I chased first Paolo Longo Borghini up the hill, followed by Tim Duggan and Ted King. Tim did best of our guys with a 4'26". He's motivated for a good overall or the right break, but keep an eye out for Elia Viviani and Davide Cimolai in the sprint finishes - they're fresh off the track where they scored some European championship gold medals.

Behind And In Front Of The Lens

I seem to be 'on set' all the time this year, either in front of or behind the lens. It started with the Liquigas-Cannondale presentation in Milan, then team camp in Sardinia, followed by a trip up north for Paris-Roubaix.

On the cobbles as driver and 'grip' with Gardy.

In May, Mt. Etna hosted a large crew for the shooting of the commercial that ran on Vs. during the Tour. Sicily remains one of my favorite places in the world. It's easy to see why. Nibali's pals from home provided more entertainment than I could handle.

Great bike, great rider, great scenery, great spot!

Here's a couple of shots from behind the lens...

... and here's the added footage. We shot a different version of this, where Vincenzo finishes off his day in the saddle and heads into 'his' apartment. Thank you, by the way, to the village of Zafferana Etnea. I had to stand in and show him how the scene would go... here it is. It's actually my first ride on an Evo as well!

The Amgen Tour of California had me doing my usual thing when Liquigas-Cannondale comes to the US; however this time, we filmed our way across California and posted them all on Cannondale's Off the Front page. Stage three's episode had me going through all the team's vehicle preparation. It was nice having all these clips as a travelogue for me, as I didn't take a single photo during the entire race!

So at the Tour de France last month, it was finally my turn to try my hand at being the 'talent' (and I take liberties with that term). It's my second Vs. spot so I think I'm getting pretty comfortable with all this. Aside from ducking the rain and finding a good location, it took all of five minutes to shoot.

Finally, Peloton magazine teamed up with Cannondale for a contest this summer with the grand prize being a trip to the Tour de France to help and be an intern for Liquigas-Cannondale. Our contest winners couldn't have been scripted any better. Joe had camera experience as a weatherman, while James works at one of Cannondale's top retailers in the west. Again, I was left with no photos, just great memories and a couple of cool videos! Check it out...

Passionately telling Ivan something!

So Let's Get This Started Again...

Sorry about that. It's been far too long. You know, you buy a house, put your best dog down, travel for a month and a half while the Mrs. packs all your stuff up, move back to the US and try to reorganize life as you knew it. Sometimes, life kinda gets in the way of blogging!

So I'm going to slowly and randomly update things now that I have a home office (corporate frowns on blogging at work, and rightly so!).

I've been reading a LOT lately about racing in Italy in the 30's and 40's, trying to grasp even more about how hard it was to race up to 400 kilometers on war-torn roads just so you could grab a couple of free meals. I typically lose interest once the book heads into the 50's and after Koblet, but of course there is always a big focus on Coppi and Bartali.

On that topic, it brings to mind a couple of close friends of mine from work, Arco and GianCa. If there were to be a Coppi and Bartali of Italian race mechanics, I'd say these are the guys. GianCa would be the old school Bartali and Arco the upstart Coppi. Both are highly acclaimed on the circuit and I've had the pleasure of turning business contacts into great friendships. This past week at the Tour de France, Gian Carlo received the Premio Fedeltà for having worked twenty Tours de France. The first Tour I worked with GianCa, an upstart South African team Barloworld won two stages and the polka-dot jersey aboard 'my' Cannondale bikes.

Congratulations, Gian Carlo!

Wow... THAT Was A Whirlwind Month!

The end of May is coming and with that, the end of the Giro d'Italia (go, Liquigas-Cannondale) and the end of possibly the most stressful month I've had in a LONG time. I'm writing this from the Palma restaurant at JFK, where I've flown in and out of so often in the past two months that I know the KLM attendant AND the bartender personally!

It started with a quick trip to the wind tunnel with Ivan and the boys right after the Tour of Romandie. This was JUST after getting back from the US and Grandma's 100th birthday party! And THAT was just after Paris-Roubaix and a trip to Sicliy! From there, it was to Turin and the launch of an amazing new bike, the Cannondale Evo. Great riding and an incredible setting were on par with my Italian colleagues! That led to the Giro TT in Turin and a mad dash back to Switzerland before heading to the Tour of California.

Great riding in Turin...

I didn't expect snow in May in Cali and was was under-dressed as we first cancelled stage one and moved the start of stage two. The whole race, I was either filming with our behind-the-scenes crew or Versus, riding with my two guest riders or waiting at the finish line for Peter Sagan to win a stage, which he eventually did! To relive it, head to our Off the Front page and see the videos!

Marketing... rough job.

From Cali, which was far more stressful than it looks like in the videos, I headed to CT to close on our house, which may have been the most touch-and-go stressful process ever. Just try buying a house while living abroad! It ain't easy, especially in this economy and its new regulations. Since we're heading back to the US, we'll also need a car - and I'm going to spoil myself (or is it really for the missus?) with a convertible. Yep, a Fiat isn't the most practical car, but it's Italian, stylish and we've only got one very small dog to haul around!

Fiat USA's Julie puts the sold tag on mine. Oh yeah, it's in 'Cicli Masini blue'!

I just realized that there are far too many cute blondes in this post! That's ok - I'm excited because I'm now headed back to the best one of all! There's only one that can put up with a travel schedule like this, pack up our entire Euro apartment while taking care of our "baby girl" and do it all with grace and patience in putting up with an idiot like me! Love you, J! Now, let's go and try being 'mericans again! Fast food! Mountain Dew! Football in HD! 24-hour stores... and ENGLISH! I know, you're probably thinking I'm crazy for being excited - Europe is cool and all - but we're READY! And I'm ready to stay put for a while!