Three Late 80's Campagnolo Ads

Based on the Syncro ad, these come from 1987 or 1988. I only say that because Syncro II was introduced in 1989. Great ads from Vicenza. Click each for a HUGE view. Yeah, the scanner is warm this week!

Klein, Tinker and Record OR

While we're on the topic... One of the nice things with the new job is that I can continue to work with bmx and mtb icon and all around nice guy Tinker Juarez. I first met Tinker back in 1994 when he started with Volvo/Cannondale and started working with him in 2003 with Siemens/Cannondale when I first moved to Europe to run the sports marketing gig.

But this story dates back to 1990 - 1993 when Tinker raced for Klein and they ran the Campagnolo Record OR group that I lusted after. To boot, he also raced the Attitude and Adroit, other objects of desire. Talk about great paint jobs - I'd still buy one of these frames! Of course, I'd have to find those chainring bolts and all the rest to build it up 'properly'. They still show up on eBay, but at stratospheric prices. I know, it may have performed like crap, but when it worked, it worked and looked like jewelry, not exactly a quality you need when riding in the mud, but hey...

And where to find an etto helmet!?!

Greatest mtb paint job of all time...

In appreciation of the Campagnolo Record OR group

Digging through the filing cabinet I found the blue folder with "Campy OR" on the tab. twenty two years ago (can't be...) I dreamed of owning this stuff. I eventually got a group that graced a polished Super V and built up into a nice light bike. A few years later I managed to get that group onto a mountain bike tandem. I still have a few parts floating around here and there. If anyone has the proper chainring bolt spacers, I could get the crank back together!

If you'd like these pages for your virtual catalog, they're combined into one pdf here.

Big Changes...

So it's been REALLY quiet for a while here. Here's why - after 20 years, I changed jobs last summer and had twins in the span of three days! Yeah... I know. In addition, this spring we sold the CT house and headed to sunny (and hot) Southern California!

Now working for Sho-Air, I'm working with the Sho-Air / Cannondale mtb team, the US CUP (the richest mtb race series in the world) and... opening up a bike shop on the edge of Orange, CA! Not to mention a number of other interesting things that could bring the shipping company into the sport of cycling even further. Not one day has been the same as another, which is rewarding and keeps things (and hours) interesting!

I loved most of my time at Cannondale, and still count the many friendships as the most valuable thing to take with me from my experience there. Not to mention all the world travel and first-hand work at the greatest bike races in the world, with some of the greatest racers and people in the world.

Onward...

R.I.P. Pirata, Pt. II

Argentin, Bugno, LeMond, Cipo, Gibo, Basso, Sagan... there are many others. Important champions during my lifetime. There's one difference with Pantani. He remains the legend to me not just because of his impact on Italian cycling, his tragic operatic life, his incredible fall. He is still a myth to me mainly because I watched him from afar... and thankfully, I never met him. They say you should never meet your heroes. Never got close enough to just meet him, get an autograph, or to know him as a person, friend or as one of 'my riders'.

A forum poster may have summed him up best (I know, what are the odds!?!) - Pantani had higher highs and lower lows than most, which is why his story transcends cycling and is more complex than 'just another doper' who died of an OD.

A little story from "Tutto Pantani" found here and recounted by new Italian ct Davide Cassani... in 1991, Gianni Bugno was deemed unbeatable. He had won the Giro along with three stages, finished second at the Tour, was Italian National Champion, and had just won the World Championship. Late in that year they raced the cronoscalata della Futa, both for pro's and amateurs. Bugno dominated, and Pantani crushed the amateur field but was just seconds off of Bugno's time! Cassani saw the little pirate after the race, with his cycling cap and team sweatsuit on. He wasn't happy to have dominated the race, but was obviously upset and silent, struggling internally with the fact that he had lost... to possibly the greatest pro cyclist of the day! As an amateur, no less!

So this weekend, along with celebrating the wife's birthday, putting Oragel on Dylan's first tooth, and shovelling yet more snow, I'll be watching "Tutto Pantani" and reading "The Death of Marco Pantani" again.

And, if I'm lucky enough to escape the house (we're getting our third snow of at least 8" in a week!), I'll look for a bottle of Giacobazzi Lambrusco... Marco's first big sponsor, and toast Pantani!

R.I.P. Pantani. Les Wampas tribute "Rimini"

Just found this on the eve of the tenth anniversary of Pantani's death. I still remember getting the news on RAI and sitting in utter shock. The songwriter once went to Rimini and thought it was such a sad and dreary place to go and die!

The lyrics of Rimini and the meaning are great... I especially like the last verse when the ghost of il Pirata returns with Blackbeard and their mates, crying vengeance and reducing Rimini to ashes!

54 Years Ago Today... Fausto Coppi Passed Away

My first trip to l'Eroica saw me buying lots of old Italian magazines, including this issue of Oggi with  coverage of the funeral of Fausto Coppi.

In 2012, I found myself in Novi Ligure and decided to make the trip up to Castellania to see the Coppi museum, etc. Driving through the thickest fog I've ever encountered, I did eventually manage to break through and see the various tributes to their hero on the sides of otherwise useless brick towers and walls.

As I arrived a bit late (at least for rural Italian towns), the place was virtually deserted. I did manage to see the tomb of Fausto and Serse though.

I decided to wander around the little town and eventually found these two sights, along with oversized posters lit beautifully in the evening street lights. You can tell not much else happened or happens in this town!

The Coppi house was a great sight, if only it were open. Then, as can happen in Italy, I made the rash move to talk to the only person I could find walking around... He took me to his place, found his father, who is the caretaker of certain Coppi properties, is someone's third cousin related to Fausto, you know the deal... Anyway, a few coins to the old gal running the house and we're in Casa Coppi and I'm getting the inside tour from someone who knew the Heron.

Fausto or Serse's room... can't remember anymore!

ditto...

And with a huge grin on my face and some more purchased books on Coppi, I headed back down to Novi in that thick Piemontese fog.

Viva Fausto!

New Christmas Arrival

Thanks to my friend Brett from The Horton Collection, this photo of my hero Costante Girardengo (the FIRST Campionissimo) now hangs on the wall in the reading room. You can see evidence of the 1930's version of Photoshop in the jersey logo and the background.

Vai, Girardengo!

Some Winter Reading

Aside from getting the bib tights and balaclava out, winter also means more time by the fire struggling to get through some Italian cycling history books. Here is what's on the reading list this year...

Ganna went missing this summer only to be found a few weeks ago. His is a great story, the first real champion of the pioneer days of Italian cycling. His battles with the devilish cheater Giovanni Gerbi are great fodder to file under 'unbelievable'. I just finished this one, but it deserves another look, as the months it went missing left my memory of it a bit disjointed.

One thing Ganna lead me to was this book by famous sports journalist Gianni Brera, l'Avocatt in Bicicletta just showed up thanks to Amazon Italy. I know, Amazon is under fire these days, maybe rightfully so. But outside of eBay and a trip to Italy, how else are you going to buy this!?! Pavesi raced for a different team in each of his seasons from '04 until '19, sometimes two teams. He went on to manage the Legnano team for the better part of forty years!

Speaking of eBay, this rare and beat up original print of the Alfredo Binda memoirs turned up this spring. It's aged, rough and was printed during the fascist regime in 1931! The style is a bit aged as well, making for some tough translating!

This book took a while to get through the first time. It's the best story out there, of the greatest champion the cycling world has ever known (yeah, I just said that). 

Sante Pollastro was the Italian Robin Hood who grew up in the cycling-mad area around Novi Ligure. Poor as a child, he resorted to theft and eventually the shooting of a number of police to avoid capture. This book traces his steps and follows the threads that connect him with Costante Girardengo, the first campionissimo. The most intriguing connection would be at Paris' Velodrome d'Hiver, when Pollastro, a Gira tifoso, gave a famous whistle in the Novi 'dialect' to get the attention of, and eventually have a meeting with Gira. Rumor has it that Gira betrayed Sante, which eventually led to his capture. Don't confuse this book with the horribly-inaccurate RAI production of a few years ago.

My more-complete review is here. I only mention this book again, as the Kindle version just found its way into my iPad and I'll be pushing through it again.

Cicli Masini Kit Available Now!!

I just received my first box of items, and they turned out great! Photos coming soon. Sizing runs pretty true as well.

Even better news is that my Jakroo storefront is online and ready to take orders! Pricing is great as well... you can now join Team Masini!