Lots of crashes marked the final stage of the 2008 Giro d’Italia in Sicily, with significant injuries eliminating Bradley McGee and Stuart O’Grady from Team CSC and young Italian star Riccardo Ricco suffering a dislocated finger. Much of the problems were blamed (especially by the riders themselves) on the uneven road surfaces already seen in the first two Sicilian stages:
Queste strade sono terribili … asfaldo viscido, viali stretti. Ma mandano qualcuno a vedere le strade, prima di disegnare un Giro?
These roads are terrible … slippery asphalt, tight streets. Do they send someone to look at the roads before they plan a Giro?
My supercool souvenir: a Crono water bottle from Slipstream
With my august position in the world bicycle industry, one of the perks is the possibility to attend the opening stages of the grand tours of professional cycling. This year I decided to watch the opening team time trial of the Giro d’Italia from Mondello, rather than the hospitality tents in the centre of Palermo, because of the promise of a great seafood pizza after the race. Mondello is the seaside playground of the Palermitani and the town’s beach and nightlife transfers there during the summer months.
Gilberto Simoni tries out the course before the time trial
As we staked out a place a couple of hours before the start, without meeting much competition, we had the opportunity to see many of the teams surveying the course, preparing their strategies for coping with the sharp curves and uneven asphalt.
Lampre compare the vintage and new asphalt
At about 3:45 pm the teams started to pass one by one by our post along the seafront. Despite all the hype in the media here about the “typically passionate welcome of the Sicilians”, the locals seemed pretty blasé about the whole thing. The only passion I witnessed came from two sources: 1) a lady and her daughter enraged by the prospect of walking the final 42 m to their front door and 2) an old guy who didn’t want me take some pictures of his ramshackle Bottecchia (I was keen to show Bottecchia’s only presence at the Giro this year…).
Liquigas moved through the quickest but lost time on return leg
The stage was won by Slipstream featuring Canada’s own Ryder Hesjedal, who came through wearing the red and white of the national time trial champ. I grabbed a water bottle that flew nearby as they passed - much cooler than the “Ghiro d’Italia” keychain with a stuffed toy rat.
See you along the course.
[Bottecchia Race Update: Thanks to the news section on Bottecchia's fab website, I've learned that Bottecchia was racing yesterday - represented by Bedogni Natalini Gruppo Praga Monsummanese in the 9ª Coppa Comune di Castiglion Fiorentino. Wow!]
From a time before the UCI took all the fun out of bike design
Produced for display at Expo86 to demonstrate the company’s technological prowess, with a sculptured and streamlined carbon fibre frame and wheels, computer controlled variable transmission, and cool space age gear levers.
Of course, the current management of Bottecchia continues to be on the cutting edge of biking innovation in 2008.
b) BS110 “Top Sprinter”
Complete BS
The use of black paint on the seat stays of the all aluminium (well except for the steel forks) BS110 is a brilliant technogical solution to the market demand for carbon fibre, ensuring lightness, ease of production, and aesthetic performance.
At the moment I’m in Europe and enjoying (as much as a Toronto Maple Leaf fan can) the opportunity to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs on NASN - the North American Sports Network. With all the games featuring live feeds from Hockey Night in Canada or TSN, NASN would be the greatest channel ever if it wasn’t for the continous repetition of irritating NHL promos where various star cross-checkers and cherry pickers declare that “The Cup Changes Everything.”
Why didn’t you play this hard all season?
What this really means is that the have teams of the league coasted through the entire regular season complacent in the knowledge that the have-nots (such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, LA Kings, and Tampa Bay Whatchamacallits) were already booking April golf holidays. 82 regular season games per team, in the far west and deep south of the US, to arrive at a foregone conclusion. Pfui.
Now I understand all those old guys who used to complain that they got bored of hockey after the 1967 expansion. It’s hard caring about any matches involving the Columbus Blue Jackets, Phoenix Coyotes, or Walla Walla Wild at any time, let alone during a pointless game towards the end of a pointless season. At least the California Golden Seals had novelty value - now stupid teams in sundrenched places with style-deficient uniforms are a dime a dozen.
A recent post about the 1994 Bianchi for the Paris-Roubaix on PezCycling News caught my attention not just because of the innovative attempt to apply mountain bike design principles to a road bike, perfect for the famous pavé of the bouncy race, but for the fact that it was a project of the then North American branch of the Italian company. The post quotes Robert MacNeil, the Product Manager for Bianchi Canada at the time:
Bianchi Italy started to let Bianchi USA and Bianchi Canada start designing product for other countries. When the Director of Bianchi Italy would come by our offices he would see our bikes for our markets and he realized that we were more in the know then they were.
Like many Italian bike manufacturers, Bianchi is undergoing a period of “reorganization”. That said, as I will discuss in a future post, the Canadian presence at this year’s Giro d’Italia will be greater than ever before.
When I started this blog, I intended to write a lot about my favourite department store chain, the well loved and utterly defunct Eaton’s, but these days the last big iconic Canadian store is now Canadian Tire. With shrewdly patriotic advertising, the more than just wheel rubber guys have staked a place for the company in the retail corner of the Canuck heart while Timothy Eaton’s management challenged heirs have nothing better to do than sip Happy Hour Pina Coladas in off strip Las Vegas casinos.
It’s not just marketing. For although Eaton’s went bust a good number of years ago, leaving numerous warehouses full of unloved orange and brown North Country polo shirts, Canadian Tire’s management has to be commended for being able to sell a bike that costs little more than what the dead department store offered them for in the early 1970s. A children’s bike, albeit endorsed by Gordie Howe, went for $84.99 in 1973 at Eaton’s. Even after over thirty years of stagflation, inflation, recession, and the departure of Dave Hodge from Hockey Night in Canada, a CT Supercycle will go for as low as $99 - if you are too desperate to wait for the sales.
Expensive- but it had a cool stick shift
The problem, of course, is that we are talking about two very different bikes. Despite all the advances in technology, department store and supermarket bikes have been getting crappier than ever. Apart from the cool 70s name, as you can see from the Eaton’s page on the remarkable Raleigh Chopper tribute site, the $84.99 Mach II from Eaton’s was distinguished by cutting edge design and high quality components - like the superbad Sturmey Archer stickshift gears. These bikes were virtually indestructable - my dad finally got rid of mine by loading it up in the truck and carrying it off to some cousins of ours in the woods who were rehearsing for Deliverance 2. There was nothing wrong with the bike - my dad had just got sick of looking at it for some reason…
When you think gears, think Falcon
On the otherhand, as demonstrated by the aptly named bike of doom blog, your CT bike has a shorter shelf life than a Food Basics chocolate snack. Clearly an expert in bike maintenance, the thrifty blogger proudly admits to spending more than the bike cost in repairs and replacement parts in one year of ownership (although to be fair to CT he has done thousands of kilometres in that year on a bike made for 2 trips around the subdivision per summer). Apart from the entertainment value of seeing what can go wrong (and how little can stay right) on a Supercycle, the blog is a celebration of the underappreciated arts of wheel truing and spoke replacement.
My infallible rule for identifying an el-cheapo bike used to be the presence of the word Shimano on any part of the frame - the logic being that if a bike company felt obliged to identify the presence of parts from the monopoly player in the bike gear biz the rest of the bike must be rough. I have to admit that the Falcon gears chosen by CT are new to me - and do not appear on any of Bottecchia’s products (I hope).
A tribute to intermittent 80s Leaf icon Tom Fergus
He always had time for autographs
When we think about the great Ballard teams of the mid 80s, filled with personalities like Borje Salming, Dan Daoust, Dave Semenko, and of course the legendary Bill Root, one player stands out for his place in the hearts of Toronto Maple Leaf fans: Tom Fergus. Cursed in 1987 by the unknown malady that soon became known to everyone in Canada as “the mystery virus”, Tom became firmly ensconced in the nation’s hearts just like a sick brother or decrepit grandfather.
At the end of every match the beLeafers standing outside the Gardens would wait for the hockey invalid to limp out of the stands, where he was forced to watch his more physically sound teammates, and try to encourage Tom in the best way they could. Some inquired after his health: “How the ol’ mystery virus going there, eh Tom?” Others sought to cheer him up by recalling past feats of greatness: “That was a great goal you scored last season!”
Though he would go on to recover from the virus, the pile of Fergus sicknotes continued to fill Maple Leaf Gardens as he missed much of the 1989-90 season and almost 1990-91 campaign with a chronic groin injury.
Hockey is a tough business and such a sincere outpouring of emotion and faith could not last forever. Without a thought for all of his important contributions to the team, like holding the bus door open on road trips and signing autographs for young fans who confused him with Gary Leeman, the ruthlessly efficient Leaf organization ended his illustrious time in Toronto by placing him on waivers in 1991.
He went on to finish his career with Zug of Switzerland, a neutral nation known for the quality of its health care.
An insight into everyone’s favorite Italian bike company thanks to online European Union documents
While still awaiting my inquiry about the possibility of visiting Bottecchia’s site in Cavarzere, my curiosity (and the power of Google) led me to some informative material from the EU.
What we discover here is that our bike building heroes underwent a series of address changes in the immediate period before settling in Cavarzese: “by Commission Notice of 22 April 2004 [...] references to Bottecchia Cicli Srl, Via dell’Industria 7, I-35028 Piove di Sacco (PD), were changed into Bottecchia Cicli Srl, Via Matteotti 26, I-35020 Arzergrande (PD). [...] Bottecchia Cicli Srl has informed the Commission that the legal address of the company has changed from Via Matteotti 26, I-35020 Arzergrande (PD) to Viale Enzo Ferrari, 15/17, I-30014 Cavarzere (VE).“
The small street home to Bottecchia and 4 other major bicycle manufacturers
The only question is how can such major operations be run out of such small spaces?
See satellite photos of the actual buildings courtesy of Google Earth:
1. Via Ferrari Enzo, 17, 30014Cavarzere (VE), Italy, the site of Cicli Bottecchia:View Larger Map
2. Across the street, Viale Enzo Ferrari, 10/12 - 30014 Cavarzere (VE) Italy, the site of Cicli Esperia, Fondriest, Torpado, and 4US: View Larger Map
Enzo Ferrari - his legacy of speed continues on 2 wheels
As it happens, I’m going to be in the area on business in the near future and I’m going to try and organize a factory tour to see where my beloved Bottecchias are built. Wish me luck. I will report back when my heroes on Viale Enzo Ferrari respond.
Welcome to WordPress.com. You have entered Tazeworld: where time is just another word for the life that’s passing you by.
Hey everyone this is Taze, the man with the plan to resucitate a Canadian icon: Eaton’s! All we need is for the remaining fat cat genetically deprived members of Timothy’s clan to get off the beaches of Monte Carlo and Phuket and buy back the Eaton Centre in Toronto and start selling Viking Appliances, Haddon Hall bedspreads, and those cool orange and brown North Country polo shirts!
Come back Eaton’s, shopping at Sam’s Club just isn’t the same!
But it’s not just Eaton’s I love: another fave is ace super Italian bike maker Bottecchia! A company that has always distinguished itself for the quality of its products and the integrity of its road cycling designs. Bottecchia is not just a name available on the cheap at a bankruptcy auction, it is a LEGEND!
Intense activity at the Bottecchia factory. Note the high performance racing bikes on the assembly line below.
When you want the very best, choose Bottecchia BS:
Finally, the guiding spirit of this blog will be former Toronto Maple Leafs legend Bill Root who will be ever famous for appearing as a colour commentator of the Leaf radio broadcasts AFTER he was traded to St Louis (and, surprisingly, not being required to start any games for them). His insights like “The Leafs need more quality on defence” will live forever…
He always had time for autographs
