Togliatti, Bartali and the 1948 Tour

The story of the 1948 Tour is well known; how Gino fought back from a huge deficit to take three stages in a row and win the overall ten years after his first Tour win, and how that victory eased the tense political atmosphere in Italy after the shooting of Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti. But what I'm truly in awe of is the character of Gino as retold in Road to Valor, upon seeing the Italian journalists were leaving the Tour and heading back home. Not yet aware of the situation in Italy, and over twenty minutes down on the GC, Gino jumped up from his table and shouted...

"Go! Go home! I know what you're thinking: I'm old. You came here and tired yourselves out for nothing. There's no point in following Bartali's race, that poor old man, eh? But I'm warning you: a stopwatch won't be big enough to record the amount of time by which I'll beat the others. And don't come back to interview me when I have the yellow jersey!"

A stopwatch wasn't big enough to measure his winning margin. And you certainly can't measure the impact his win had in an Italy that was thrown into panic, with mobs taking over factories and local governments and political groups literally heading for the hills, ready to start a revolution.

I realize it's a different age, but what destroyed that bravado in our sport? Is it that respecting your rivals now means you have to bury your confidence? Does our media coverage and online peering into every word and detail around a race bury any spontaneity? Do race radios effectively control our racing to the point that the winner is almost predetermined by power numbers? Has cycling emerged from those postwar days when it was the poor guy looking to escape his situation that caused him to drop his shovel and get on a bike because he might find that labor easier to feed his family?

Whatever it is, more people need to know Gino's story and cycling's rich past.

Happy Birthday to the Greatest American Cyclist

I've been on a book tear lately, quickly consuming titles like Sweat of the Gods and Laurent Fignon: We Were Young and Carefree. Today, I received my copy of Slaying the Badger and can't wait to start reading again. You see, Greg Lemond was my Lance Armstrong. I'm not going to get into the Greg vs. Lance debate, even though I have some opinions. There are message boards seemingly dedicated to the subject.

The first two books went into good detail as to what Greg's miracle Tour win in 1989 represented. It was a real turning point in cycling. Old school versus new school. A shift in technology. Television versus radio and print.

Greg brought the latest wave of big money to the sport (when you consider that in their day, riders like Girardengo, Binda and the Pelissier brothers were making what would be considered outrageous sums).

The list of technical innovations that he pioneered or was an early-adopter is impressive. TT-specific bars, Oakley glasses, clipless pedals, power meters, electronic shifting, titanium and carbon frames and on and on.

His comeback from the shooting accident was inspiring and unlikely. How many Tours could he have won without the accident? He may not have that record, but his career accomplishments leave me with no doubt...

He raced to win, from February to October. When was the last time a Tour winner lined up as a favorite in Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo? The eight seconds are testament to his determination to win the Tour, and even that has its controversy. Those clip-on bars were not entirely legal at that point, and why Cyrille Guimard didn't protest is beyond me.

Most impressive is that he did all this as an outsider in an old-world sport. His triumphs were an unwelcome revelation to cycling's old guard. In his early days in Europe, there was no support group and few Americans to lean on. When everyone tells you that you can't... who can you turn to? His methods and creature comforts were laughed at. Scandalous were the reports from Europe that a cyclist would eat ice cream or Mexican food! Golfing? Spending time with your family? Perhaps the world was primed for a change. His respect for the sport and willingness to fit in on his own terms eventually won the hearts of European fans.

His strong anti-doping stance at a time when mules became thoroughbreds eventually spelled the end of his career. He was left wondering why he couldn't keep up and searched for explanations, overtraining in a hopeless race to form.

To me, he was the first and the greatest. Happy Birthday, Greg Lemond. Thank you for opening my eyes to this sport and leading me down this long road.

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!

Meet Vittorio Seghezzi, Gregario to Coppi and Bartali

On Saturday, I bumped into this stylish older guy with a powerful voice. I knew that he had to be someone important, and I was certainly right. Meet Vittorio Seghezzi, gregario of Coppi and Bartali.

From the book "Coppi's Angels" - 'When he was in his third, we were in second. When we were in third, he was in fourth. When we are at the limit, he seemed to have another gear: a fifth, a sixth, it was a mystery... As an amateur I wasn't bad - 23 wins. As a pro it was a different tune. I turned pro in '47 and my role was to help. Free days to try myself: zero. And after lots of work, to arrive at the finish was already a great success.'

How heroic were those days? 'In 1948 I was called up for the cadet's team for the Tour de France. My role was to help Ronconi, who the year before arrived fourth in the GC. On the second stage there was a huge crash. Fifty of us went down, and I broke my saddle. It wasn't like it is now: if I hadn't recovered my saddle, nobody would've given me another. I did 42 kilometers on my pedals with my saddle in hand. No help. I finished a half hour down, muscles destroyed, but with my back end still clean! I won't ever forget that.'

'I thought that would've been it for my misfortune, but I was tricked. One day I broke my crankset. Again, it wasn't like today: there was only one team car, and that followed the captain. I did 80 kilometers pedaling with just one leg, so the journalists wrote the next day that I was the "Enrico Toti of the Tour de France". I came across another bike, by luck. It was too small for me, but I rode it another seventy kilometers to arrive to the finish. By myself. I arrived outside of the time limit, but at least I arrived. That night I was last in the classification, and by the rules I should have been eliminated. But the jury looked me in the face, knew what I had been through, and kept me in the race!'

Sono Bartaliano... quasi

The Legnano is on the shelf for a couple of weeks. It seems I need to re-space the wheel or spread the rear triangle. The rear hub was a tight fit by 4mm and as it moves back and forth in the dropouts, it needs to fit just so. Unfortunately, it comes as I'm headed to the US to work for a bit. Oh well. I also have developed some pain in my wrist when I ride the old narrow handlebars with weird hand positions. Oh well.

The good news is that I'm able to shift fairly well at this point. I just need to get some good legs in the next 2 months before l'Eroica. Looks like I'll be resuming training on the new bikes again.

I found this chair at a start village at the Tour this year. I was also sent a great piece of digital artwork of l'intramontabile shifting a cambio corsa while climbing. Anyone know who did this, or where I can get a nice print?

A few weeks ago, I ran into an old Italian Coppisti who lambasted me for my Legnano... being a Coppi fan, a Bianchi was the only legitimate bike of the era. We argued for quite a while on the point, even though I had no real reason to... but he was Italian so I think I made his day.

Tour Rest Day: Pau, 1947/2010

Never one to shy away from the crowd of fans, I decided to go for a ride with the Liquigas boys yesterday. Of course, I brought the Legnano with me, which means full on retro clothes and the rest. To fully appreciate the technology of today, don't you need to understand the tech from the past? In the old days, riders actually had to think and plan before shifting! Everyone was quite interested in the cambio corsa and I tried to explain it as best as I could in Italian, French and English. 'My' mechanics Arco and Gian Carlo, who helped me with finding certain parts, were amazed that I built this thing up myself and that it works. Of course, they gave me loads of crap, all in good fun (I think).

Since the Liquigas guys were on a rest day, they were going to go for only an hour and a half. I figured I could stay with them even with my limited gearing. Once we got out into the countryside, you could hear me coming from a mile away - my alloy waterbottles bouncing around in their cages on the rough roads.

At one point, the guys stopped for a nature break. I kept going, taking the opportunity to shift gears safely. Unfortunately, they decided to turn around. Luckily, Francesco Bellotti came to get me. We chased - me spinning as fast as I could in my 40/14 - and finally got back on. Time to shift back to the 16, since the 14 was making some noise. I think the chain was a bit too tight for this ride - gotta look into it. ZZZIIINNNGGG - my fingers touched the rear tire slightly, but loud enough that Roman Kreuziger heard from behind and came up next to me with a big smile. "I knew you'd do that! You better be careful or you'll lose a finger in that wheel!" A good thing to remember, indeed!

Covering the Tour... Read my reports!

So the Masini family has packed up and headed to Holland/Belgium/France to cover the Tour de France. After hosting some American friends (and spouses!) in Rotterdam, we've hit the road and will be covering the first week of racing. That means: early mornings, repacking the car (lots of doggie luggage), frantically navigating the GPS to the start, sitting in traffic, negotiating with the police to let me 'in' the designated area (thanks for the sticker, Stefano), breakfast at the start village... and then the mad dash for the finish line or next hotel room and internet connection!

You can read most of my stage updates on Cannondale's Liquigas page and also follow us from the road via Twitter (the dogs don't have an account... yet).

Meeting the Badger in 2005

It was at the start of stage 2 of the 2005 Tour in Challans. We were at the start village and I had just gulped down a series of oysters (my mother would be proud) when I caught a glimpse of him... over there... no, now he's over there! Mrs. Masini didn't know exactly 'who' 'he' was, but I'm pretty sure she knew he was some famous old cyclist, as I am not usually starstruck by the current crop! She was right, and here is my moment in time with the Badger!

And now... I'm off for Rotterdam! Forza Basso, forza Kreuziger, forza Cannondale!

l'Etape du Tour 2010...

Looks like I have my goal for 2010!

l'Etape du Tour!

About 25 Cannondalers (including some retailers and a few friends) headed out to Montélimar, France last weekend to take part in l'Etape du Tour. This is a yearly 'race' ('survival' is more accurate) that covers a stage of the Tour de France (usually a tough mountain stage) and attracts about 10,000 entrants. I'll be posting a video soon of the trip, so I'll just jump right into the event itself...

We woke up at 4:00 to load our bikes and then load up on more pasta and whatever we could stuff down our throats that early. 7-10 hours on the bike burns a lot of calories so it's important to eat, even early. The bus ride to Montélimar was quiet, with everyone either trying to sleep or just nervous about the day ahead. We quickly unloaded, got ready and split up into our starting groups. We were split into four groups (out of eight starting zones). When I arrived, I was struck by a horrible reality... there were THREE toilets to serve about 4,000 people in my closest zones! Oh well, time to ride...

5km in, I heard a pop - Erik's rear tubular blew. Being the one with tubular experience, I stopped and changed it with him. We got going pretty quickly, even though his glue was old and his spare tire had a bump and was already separating from the base tape! 5km later, POP! again! That old spare didn't last long. This time, Jan and Stefan saw us and stopped to wait. I gave Erik my spare and he changed it. That meant I had no spare, with 160km to ride still! When you stop, the thing you realize is that you get passed by up to 500 or more people in an instant! With an already poor starting position, we were now near the back! So we took off and TTT'ed it all the way, blazing past hundreds of riders.

The German-American Express

The first rest stop was chaos, so we decided to skip it and conserve water and food. 45 minutes and one more climb later, we found an oasis on the side of the road to refill. At this point, I started to think about the fact that I was definitely riding over my head with younger, faster guys. I knew my time would come and my ticket would get punched. And it did. Jan was the next to flat - and fixed in short order.

We passed a number of our group on a climb, and a slew more riders on the next. The penultimate climb was when it hit. I just lost the wheel of my guys and told them to go on. There wasn't much left and I'd be alone on Ventoux anyway... and I was. I had a good time at the foot of Ventoux, considering three flats in our group. I calculate we lost 20 minutes to flats. But the real struggle came as I hit the forest at the bottom of Ventoux. It's 7-11% with absolutely zero curves and it NEVER eases up. You are just grinding a steep slope for 20km. Even though I stopped (way too) often, I vowed not to walk one step, unlike many around me. Speaking of, there were lots of walkers, pukers, cryers... and all with good reason. This is a BEAST.

I started to cramp up, which cost me more time resting on my feet. In the end, I was satisfied and more than pleased for that climb to be over. I finished 8:42 and if not for the flats, would've been a bit faster. BUT - I also realize that if I were left on my own the whole way, I would've gone slower to begin with, so thanks for the pace Erik, Jan and Stefan. We formed quite a train!

Of our group, everyone finished in the cutoff time and have stories to last a while. Our ringer finished with an incredible 6:38! It was a great team-building trip. I would like to say we all stayed up until the wee hours drinking beer, but we were all so tired after the ride that I think everyone retired to bed asap after dinner.

Views from the top of famed and feared Ventoux

What a day. Once home, a few of us treated ourselves to Basel's best kebabs! I said I didn't even want to look at my bike for a week. BUT - and get this - when I unloaded it from the car... the rear tire was flat!

Off To L'Etape du Tour!

Wow, what a week. Thanks to all those who sent the love after seeing my Vs. spots. Yesterday, I hosted a group of about 20 friends from Basel who went to Colmar to see the stage. And now we have Pelli in the dots!

I'm now off to the Alps, where on Monday I'll race with 15 guys from Cannondale, and about 10,000 other nut jobs who want to race the Tour's 20th stage. Not sure how I'll do - I've been climbing as much as possible. Just hope my knee holds out! The stats of l'Etape du Tour are... 172km and 4000 meters (!) of climbing. The finish is on top of the summit of one of the most feared cycling climbs in the world... Mont Ventoux!

More Cannondale Video Love

This is our commercial that's currently playing on Versus. It was filmed during this year's Tour of California.

Me... on Versus

Here's the first of two tech spots I did last weekend in Monaco with Versus' Robbie Ventura.

2009 Road Race Calendars!

After getting motivated by a Tweet from Carlton Reid, I figured I better do some import/export magic, data scrubbing, and make a nice 2009 UCI Road Race calendar for iCal (and also the final .csv file for you unfortunate PC users). Mountain schedule coming soon. These are pretty basic and based on the calendars posted on cyclingnews.com. I don't plan on putting more detail in these or continually updating them, but I have also published it for subscription.

 iCal calendar for Mac users (click to download ics file). Or here to subscribe to it.
 Excel .csv to import into Outlook for PC.

l'Alpe

Wednesday I was able to get my guests to the start and in their respective team cars for their amazing day at the Tour. After the start, I tucked in to the caravan of team busses and followed them (sometimes slowly) up and down and around the hairpins on the way to Bourg d'Oisans. Once there, I jumped in Dario's car and followed Nibali up the Alpe d'Huez. The fans were amazing. We rounded one bend to see a sea of orange-clad Dutch fans. The devil was spotted quite early up the hill as well. Apparently, there were more fans on the Galibier and Croix de Fer.

Unfortunately, Nibali ran out of steam but showed a desire to suffer in order to learn the ropes. He picked up rider after rider almost the whole way up. Dario was great as usual, yelling at the young Sicilian the only way a loud mulleted Venetian ex-pro can. He also passed water to almost every rider we went past... Ryder, Schumi, Bruseghin and the rest.

Afterward, we enjoyed dinner at a great French place, got a quick night's sleep, and headed back down the Alpe for the start of the next stage. A road block until 2:00 meant that we couldn't actually leave Bourg d'Oisan! We eventually got back to Basel at about 7:00... whew! glad that's over. Great experience, but a nice week to cross off! I've now been to the Tour and back FOUR times!

Now if I could just get back on my bike...


Convoy!


This guy's gonna be a great GC rider someday.


On the lower slopes of l'Alpe d'Huez.


A little higher up... then my battery kicked it!

Reallon Ski Station

So after three hours of sleep, I did the ten-hour drive to Réallon Ski Station where LG was staying. The hotel itself is at 2100 meters and has spectacular views to the crags above. The drive itself was (other than long and tiring) spectacular. Twisty roads at super high altitudes with no guard rails! I can see how John-Lee fell off course during the day's stage.