This afternoon the 100th Giro d’Italia kicked off with a spectacular team time trial through the streets of Venice.
To the surprise of many, there were enough roads on Venezia Lido, the island where the film festival takes place, to make up a decent 21km course. It was very flat and straight but it looked great on tv.
There was only one problem: Bottecchia was missing again.
The passionate Bottecchia tifosi are tired of being offered news of the company’s exploits in minor races like the Giro delle Pesche Nettarine di Romagna, a tour dedicated to central Italian Peaches and Nectarines. It’s about time there was a professional squad prepared to bring back Bottecchia to the cutting edge of world cycling.
Great photo of the new Pinarello FP3 in Pez Cycling news. Wow, it has “adrenalina italiana” and a neat heraldic stem. What a classy piece of Italian cycling craftspersonship.
The made in Taiwan sticker does seem slightly out of place…
Legal battle over Bianchi’s rights to continue using the famous brand
An example of Bianchi's Legnano production
According to the Italian press, the Bozzi family is attempting to revoke Bianchi’s right to use the famous Legnano brand name and reassign to the new company Bicitaliana srl. The Eco di Bergamo reports that the family believes that their inheritance has been devalued under Bianchi’s use. Bianchi is fighting the attempt and has obtained an injunction from the Tribunale di Milano.
However, there are completely different new Legnano bikes on display this week at Bianchi’s stand at the Salone del Ciclo 2008 in Milan. In practice, although Legnano became famous for its use in road racing by the great Fausto Coppi, the current management of Bianchi has been using it for their cheapest models. Compare, for example, the low end specification of the only Legnano road bike currently available with the long list of Bianchi models. Even the cheapest Bianchi model is significantly more sophisticated.
In a sign of the continuing crisis in the Italian bicycle manufacturing sector, Bianchi has come out with a desperation move for 2009: bikes for three year olds. Not sure mamma and papa will be willing to pay for the Bianchi name in this competitive market segment…
The entire 2009 Bianchi range is filled with such examples of outsourcing and brand dilution. Good luck guys!
The lack of information from the company, especially for those of us hoping for a dramatic improvement in its products, is disappointing given that the major road bike producers like Wilier Triestina have already started to aggressively market their 2009 models. What we can expect when the news finally comes out however is that the advertising and bikes will feature some meaningless phrases like “built with Italian passion” and “Italian design.”
Be impressed as cyclist from Hackney tries to convince you to buy his Bottecchia bike for only £1500 (mudguards not included). As he will point out numerous times in the space of under 2 minutes, there are Dura Ace components. Wow! However, it does seem to be one of the mysterious Bottecchia USA models…
Now that the Giro has finished for another year, with the victory of Alberto Contador, the race’s management has been celebrating what they believe to have been a massive success. There were a series of spectacular mountain stages, high ratings on tv, and above all no doping cases. Well, except for Ariel Maximiliano Richeze, the Argentinian sprinter for super team CSF-Navigare who failed a test three weeks before the start of the Giro.
Although the squad had to start a man short, CSF-Navigare went on to massive success all the same. The clean team pulled off four big stage wins, including three of the mountain stages with Emanuele Sella. There is no doubt that Richeze’s erstwhile teammates were the surprise of the year. All of the drug-free riders for CSF-Navigare pulled off some spectacular feats in the mountains and were involved in most of the big breakaways. Fantastic.
The star system
The Italian press, always on the lookout for startling feats of heroism and courage, jumped on the Sella bandwagon en masse. Since the decline and subsequent death of Marco Pantani, an icon still mourned with numerous banners along the roads of the Giro, the local cycling journalists have been keen to grasp on to a new star to keep the tifosi interested in the sport. I’ve been told that the circulation of the specialist cycling magazines collapsed after the doubts began about Pantani.
The problem, of course, has been that every hero they nominate as his replacement has ended up in the mud too. Over the past few years, as I’ve had the chance to follow the races in Italy through my work with a major cycling tour agency, almost every rider praised to the hilt by the commentators on RAI tv has ended up in trouble.
Rai hype about Emanuele Sella as seen by his new fans:
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
BS110 (what does the BS stand for?)
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.
