With less than a month until the start of the most famous cycling race in the world, there is one question on the minds and lips of every enthusiast: who’s next? Yes, who’s going to be the next big name to get involved in a doping scandal. Sure they’ve done everything possible to clean up the sport (or so they say) but that doesn’t mean that we’re all not still waiting for the next shoe to drop. So here goes: make your suggestions in the comments section of this post and, although we really (and naively) hope that nothing will happen, we’ll see who’s right…
By the way, does anyone know where I can get this video game?
Be amazed as super cool Italians proudly demonstrate the performance of their Bottecchia city-bike. It pedals, it goes around in a circle, and it stops. Fantastico!
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!]
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.
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).“
With less than a month until the start of the most famous cycling race in the world, there is one question on the minds and lips of every enthusiast: who’s next? Yes, who’s going to be the next big name to get involved in a doping scandal. Sure they’ve done everything possible to clean up the sport (or so they say) but that doesn’t mean that we’re all not still waiting for the next shoe to drop. So here goes: make your suggestions in the comments section of this post and, although we really (and naively) hope that nothing will happen, we’ll see who’s right…
