'The Poggio, The Final Judge'

I love the week leading up to Milan-San Remo. Here's an article from La Gazzetta '04 showing the finale of the race, and where the the attacks were made for some of the more interesting editions. That was, of course, before it turned into a sprinter's race. It still is the most exciting ten minutes of the year!

The climb of the Poggio is the most fascinating part of San Remo. Here, in the details, the development of the last difficulty of the Classic of Classics, and the points in which the great champions were able to make their decisive selections.

> slight grade
>> medium grade
>>> difficult grade

3.3km of climbing and descending, Poggio altitude 162m

Dario Pieri Out Of Storage!

No, not a 'Pieri coming out of retirement to support Mario Cipollini's return' story that is so popular this week. My Dario Pieri BIKE came out of storage!

I like riding bikes with stories, and this one is no exception. It was ridden in the 2004 Paris-Roubaix by one of my favorite Saeco riders, Dario Pieri. You see, Dario finished second to PVP in the 2003 edition of what is certainly one of my top-two races (those paying attention to these fantastic scribblings knows that MSR is the other one!). He did that on a Silk Road bike much like this one, which is his third (second spare) machine from the year after.

Like many of us, Dario also had a tough time keeping his weight down in the winter but unlike us, his issues made it into the Italian cycling press!

In the summer of 2001, Dario came to the US for the Philadelphia race and I had the job of chauffeuring the guys to Bedford for a visit and some training. The two jokesters of the group, Dario and Salvatore Commesso (another favorite) convinced me to take them to the Cannondale motorcycle factory and then out to the test track, where Dario wowed with his skills and Toto was ridiculed for not being able to reach the ground with his size-48 legs!

It was that Philly edition where Dario retired early and was infamously snapped taking photos of the passing peloton... early in the race!

So I got Pieri out of storage, added some yellow to it and a new set of huge Dugast gravel road pounders in order to celebrate the coming two months of racing. There is NOTHING like being on the side of a cobbled 'road' with a set of spare wheels in hand, praying you won't have to use them, then racing to the next spot. It will be the first classic season that I'll miss in quite a few years, but I'll be watching, Duvel/Chimay/Leffe in hand OR ready to head out on this beauty to string together a series of gravel roads. Today's test ride netted a bloody knee. I guess there really isn't enough clearance to go mudding on this bike!

Imprese Eroiche

While I didn't get another 'heroic feat' by the judges last year, I did get a mention from the jury. I guess it didn't take me long enough to finish l'Eroica last year!

On another note, while I was busy mountain biking in Liguria, I happened to miss registration for 2012. A quick phone call to a friend and I was all set! I'll be back, with an older bike, fewer gears, and hopefully more miles in my legs!

Back On Fat Tires In Liguria!

This week finds me back in Italy with Cannondale's CFR and OverMountain athletes for a bit of training and presenting to mtb press. There happens to be some incredible riding involved as well, which puts me back on a mountain bike for the first time in a while. With trails like this, I have to say that I'm hooked again and looking forward to more... as soon as I recover!

Home for the week, Finale Ligure

What form... for a roadie

How could you pass up a photo with a legend?

Time to set a new standard in hairstyles

Crits and Alloy Frames!

Now that I'm back in the US and A, it's time for me to get back to racing crits locally. My new role has me in the office more often, so while not as glamorous as seeing the world every other week with the team, it does mean that I can actually ride my bike (and I still get to go to the big events!).

I know my last number of posts have been about steel and very old-school bikes, how about more Cannondale material? This is the bike I recently updated to be my crit racer for 2012. I start in a few weeks (hopefully). It was made for Leonardo Bertagnolli for the 2003 season, when Gibo won his Giro. Berta was still riding in support of Gibo that year, just prior to breaking out and winning for himself in 2004. That year, I was lucky enough to be selected to help with some translation for Claudio Corti during some sponsorship talks he was having with an American company. I traveled to San Francisco to lend a hand at what I still consider one of the greatest single day races in the US. Post-race, we went out for a bit of night life and had this shot snapped (no, Ted King, that is NOT my man purse).

What's all this have to do with crit racing? Well, if you ask my racing friends who were around during my last stint over here, they'd jokingly refer to my tendency to crash out of the Wednesday Night World Championships. It's a little bit true. For some reason, I fancy myself a sprinter. Maybe just because I took a few finish lines on top of the rise, or maybe because I wasn't afraid to take a spill (what with all that practice) during a sprint. Anyway, it has left me with the impression that I shouldn't race aboard a carbon frame... it'll only be destroyed on first impact, leaving me frantically spending money and time to replace the thing by the time the scars heal! I know... 'you should replace any frame after you crash it in a race'. Well, the last two alloy bikes I raced survived two crashes each before the dents turned into cracks. Call me cheap!

Your thoughts? BTW, it's ten speed (rebuilt the levers, thanks Dave) and rides like a dream. Oh, and "Optimum Fit for Bertagnolli" translates into "more spacers and raise that seat post for Masini".

A Bike... For Life

My last weekend trip to Ciöcc's shop was inspiring again. The guy is so full of life, how could you not appreciate his joy for living? A true master of the old world frame building craft, Giovanni is still innovating and coming out with great new products. The latest of these is the Aeta, which in the Bergamascan dialect means 'Life'. Appropriately named, as this is a bike you would buy and keep for life (and the price tag requires that this purchase isn't an impulse buy).

Could this potentially be the next Cicli Masini model? I can picture one of these stainless steel beauties in a blue/yellow version, and Ciöcc says he'd be more than proud to put his name on one for me! He took me out for lunch in order to help translate to a couple of Korean customers (no, I haven't taken up Korean but they spoke very good English, and share a passion for old-school steel).

As one member of a message board recently stated, a bike like this doesn't compete with other competition bikes, but with other luxury purchase items like that new Ducati or IWB. What are your thoughts? I certainly see the average value of bikes at the local crit or cross race skyrocketing! More on that next...

ps - Post #200! Oh yeah! Thanks to all of you who visit and read my ramblings!

Bianchi's Celeste...

Italian Cycling Journal just posted about the origins of the Bianchi celeste color. I'll add one more reason that I've heard, which is that the blue paint wasn't 'cut' with white to make it less militaristic, but that hard times during the war led to shortages and the resulting mixing and thinning of available paint. Remember, up until that point, Bianchi had been known for it's sky blue (which is actually what 'celeste' translates into).

In the comments to the ICJ post, Prolly linked over to his post of a Bianchi ad that I'm pretty sure he mashed up his track frame of choice into an ad from 1984. This got me thinking back to the one ad that caught my eye from 1983 and led me to my first Italian bike (yep, a Bianchi). Here it is... there was something so foreign and unique about this color and so simple about the ad that it just stuck. It's a pretty bold move and a smart marketing idea from Bianchi USA (I'm fairly certain the Italian arm didn't come up with this!).

Which of course leads me to another couple of ads from 1985 which made enough of an impression that I found myself in front of a bike shop in the Veneto snapping photos through the glass of a closed shop of this bike (from one of my first posts on this blog!).

Which finally takes me to this cheap imitation of the original ad! Sorry, Cino!

More Tommasini Love...

And here are some scans of the Tommasini 1992 lineup.

Meeting Tommasini

While studying abroad in Florence WAY back when, I had my dream bike with me. One long weekend in January of '92, I took the train to Grosseto to meet il Signore. That was the name given to Irio Tommasini in an article I stripped from its issue long ago. I had been a fan of Tommasini since I had started riding, the name sounding as sexy and utterly Italian as the wild-colored bikes he produced. Of course, the late 80's in rural Iowa was not the best place to learn about Italian cycling masterpieces.

with Irio...

Daughter Barbara met me at the train station and I proceeded to stumble through as much Italian as my submersion class could give me in just three weeks. The family was so welcoming. After touring the factory, I ended up having lunch with them before spending a good part of the afternoon with Irio in his office and then doing a bit of shopping before getting down to the business at hand... I wanted my Racing repainted in a pearl white with the tricolor as bands.

I managed to snap as many photos as I could of the Monte Amiatas, Velocistas, Diamantes and Super Prestiges before heading back to Florence with my empty bike box.

Just three weeks later, I was back in Grosseto to pick up and reassemble my trusty steed. It turned out great. Unfortunately, it's in need of another repaint again... I'm thinking the original red/white/yellow motif would suit me again!

Since then, I've run into Irio, Barbara and others from the factory, most recently at last year's l'Eroica. He's always remembered me as the Cannondale guy when we've bumped into each other at the trade shows, even though I was still a year from landing a job when we first met... way back in '92!

The Galmozzi Cambio Corsa is Finished!

Ciöcc finished the work on this quite a while ago, but I just now finished it to the point that I was ready to take it to the studio for photos. I'm real happy with how it turned out. There have been a lot of Galmozzi's popping up lately, but still none this early.

Once again, here's the video of the restoration and a little bit at the end with Angelo Galmozzi.