Source: Italian Cycling Journal

A Talk with Felice Gimondi, “Il Campionissimo”
By Valeria Paoletti
Setting up an appointment with the great Felice Gimondi, Italy’s last Campionissimo (champion of champions), was not very easy. This very distinguished man was the last truly complete Italian rider capable of winning all the important races, which at that time required beating Eddy Merckx. Today he works for Bianchi and runs an insurance business. His work for Bianchi involves traveling not only all over Italy, but also out of his home country, such is his international prestige.

Felice Gimondi 1973 world shampion

In planning my trip to see Franco Bitossi, the other great Italian champion of the 60s and 70s, and to visit two bike museums in the North of Italy, I had really hoped I could meet Mr Gimondi as well. But ten days before my departure he told me that, unfortunately, he couldn’t see me.

Ten days later I was in Tuscany to meet Mr. Bitossi. I was in the middle of my interview when my mobile phone rang. Mr. Gimondi had his appointments cancelled and had thought to call me to tell me he could see me the day after. What luck!

Felice Gimondi in his office

The day after, the 18th of February, I arrived at the business office of Mr. Gimondi, in Bergamo, a beautiful city just east of Milan in Northern Italy. I had arrived some minutes early and while I waited I started to feel some awe in anticipation of meeting such a great man. But when he arrived with his daughter that feeling of anxiety completely left me. Gimondi is a gracious and elegant man, tall and easy-going. With a big smile that made me feel comfortable, he invited me to take a seat in his simple and functional office. He seemed keen to tell me about his career. I just needed to ask him my first question to break the ice. He immediately took me back 40 years, to 1965, when his amazing professional career started after his victory in the 1964 Tour de L’Avenir, the “Mini Tour de France” for young racers. 1965 was the splendid year of his Tour de France victory.

Valeria Paoletti: It looks like you had a busy 1965 spring for a young man of 22. You were second in the Fleche Wallone, fourth in the Tour of Romandie and third in the Giro d’Italia. Did you feel like it was a tough start for your pro career?

Felice Gimondi: No I didn’t feel like that, I was very calm. Actually, at the beginning I was supposed to ride only the Giro among these big races. But then, during the Giro della Toscana which finished in Montecatini Alto, we took it too easy in the Salvarani Team. Only [Vittorio] Adorni and I finished it. Our boss then said that if we had not started to work hard he wouldn’t have paid us.

VP: That motivated you!

FG: Of course. We went to Belgium to race the Fleche Wallone, and Roberto Poggiali and I were first and second in the sprint. With 5 km to go Poggiali broke away on the pavé. I didn’t go with him immediately because I wanted to wait for the reaction of [Tommy] Simpson, who was famous and experienced. When I realized that Simpson didn’t have the strength to chase Poggiali that day, I took off on my own to close the gap to Poggiali. I was hoping I could beat him in the sprint, but Poggiali beat me.

VP: What happened then?

FG: We went to the Tour of Romandie where I did well from the start. I was third at the first stage at Martigny, while in Crans Montana I was second behind Vittorio Adorni [thereby earning the overall lead for two stages]. By the end of the Tour I was fourth in GC.

VP: Then you went to the Giro d’Italia. Were you sent to the Giro to help your team leader, Vittorio Adorni?

FG: Yes, of course I was there to support him.

Gimondi in ‘pink jersey at the Giro

VP: What were the dynamics within your team and what was your relationship with the Team Director Luciano Pezzi and with Vittorio Adorni ?

FG: I listened to what they advised and thought. They had a great deal of experience. And of course it was part of my job to do what they said. I remember the stage of the Giro to Madesimo (295 km), with the Sempione and the San Bernardino climbs. I was in a break with five other riders and we had a two and half minute lead on the peloton when Director Pezzi came to stop me because Adorni was the Pink Jersey and was behind…. I had to adapt to the circumstances. That day Adorni won and I arrived sixth behind the best riders [Taccone, Bitossi, Feretti, Zilioli then Gimondi].

VP: Do you think you would have been able to beat Adorni and wear the Pink Jersey if you had been given your freedom that year?

FG: That year the roles in the Team were well defined and I thought it was fair to follow the Team’s decision.

VP: At the end of the Giro you were third. Were you satisfied?

FG: You know at the beginning of each competition I was always thinking that I would have been happy with just with a high placing, but then I always wanted more. I was always looking ahead. When I was very young I dreamed to be an amateur. Then when I was an amateur I dreamed to take the ‘Maglia Azzurra’ [the blue jersey of a member of the Italian National Team] and so on….

VP: The appetite comes with eating!

FG: Yes, it was like that for me.

Gimondi in 1970

VP: After the Giro there were a few weeks before the start of the Tour. What happened in that interval?

FG: I was not supposed to go to the Tour. In fact, I took part in the 80 kilometer Time Trial of Castrocaro (Tuscany), a classic of that era [run from 1958 to 1979]. That year it was on June 17 and I came in second to Anquetil by 19 seconds. Returning from this race and going up to Bergamo, Luciano Pezzi stopped me in Imola [a city on the way to Bergamo] in the evening and invited me to dinner. Our ‘Patron’ Luigi Salvarani was also there and they asked me, almost in a shy way, if I wanted to race the Tour.

VP: And did you want to go to the Tour?

FG: To them I said I would have needed to discuss it with my father, but deep inside I knew I wanted to race the Tour! The advice of my father was just an excuse to have some time to answer them but the thought of the Tour made me really enthusiastic.

VP: Did you feel ready for it?

FG: Yes. During the Giro I had been feeling better and better every week. And I had a talent for the long stage races.

VP: What did you do to prepare for the Tour?

FG: Nothing special. Between Giro and Tour there were only 3 weeks and during those 3 weeks there was, as I mentioned, the Castrocaro time trial. I just kept on training to stay in condition.

VP: What was the Tour’s impact on you?

FG: It was a big thing. You know, until that moment I had spent most of my time in the little team of my parish recreation center so it seemed that I had entered a completely different world. I remember the bustle and the photos they took of our team at the start. It was all new for me.

VP: What were the roles in your team this time?

FG: Even here I had to help Adorni, the captain. They told me to race ‘from day to day’, without worrying about the rest.

Later in Gimondi’s career, wearing the Maglia Rosa

VP: Did the fact that you had nothing to lose, being a very young neo-pro, help you? I mean, you didn’t have a lot of pressure on you. This must have been favorable. I ask you this because your Tour and your victory in Paris seemed so easy and smooth.

FG: On one hand this is true, I had no pressure on me for the General Classification, but during the important stages I was there, fighting for a high placing and I did feel the pressure. I did well from the beginning of the Tour—I was second on the pavé at the second stage in Roubaix. I won the third stage in Rouen—and this put me in the ‘eye of the storm’ very soon. With my successes early in the Tour, the stages that followed started to be important for the GC so I was always there among the leaders. Like at the time trial in Chateaulin, were I was only seven seconds behind the winner, Raymond Poulidor. My rivalry with him had already begun.

VP: So you weren’t that happy-go-lucky.

FG: I was in the sense that every evening I was gratified for what I had done during the day.

VP: In terms of gratification your psychological situation was much easier than Poulidor’s. He needed and meant to win the Tour that year, after his defeat in 1964, when Anquetil wore the Yellow Jersey in Paris.

Felice Gimondi stopped telling his story for a moment. He knew that I am not a journalist and that I have another job. It was clear that I was not even born when all this happened. He asked me, ‘But how do you know all this?? And when could you study?’ He referred in particular to my knowledge of Poulidor and Anquetil’s duel in the 60s. I told him that having to prepare for his and Bitossi’s interview I had to go through everything that happened between 1965 and 1968. I did it during my train rides to work. His expression was one of happy surprise.

FG: Yes, in 1964 Poulidor lost in a bad way. There was a breakaway of ten or twelve riders. He had a problem with his wheel and had to stop to change it. While he was changing it with the mechanic something happened and he lost one and half minutes to Anquetil [this was on stage 14, from Andorra to Toulouse. In pushing Poulidor to get him back up to speed, his mechanic caused him to crash].

VP: I am curious to know more about your first Tour victory, at the 3rd stage from Roubaix to Rouen. You outsprinted one of the finest sprinters in the history of the sport, Andre Darrigade. Can you tell us about the sprint? You won it with both hands up with a good gap to your rivals.

FG: I was in a break with others, only ten seconds ahead of the peloton and we could not slow down. We were all redlined. Before leaving that day I had written some numbers on my doeskin gloves: on one glove I had written the numbers corresponding to the sprinters and on the other I had written the numbers of the riders racing for the General Classification. In this way I had things under control. You know I didn’t know all the riders yet. Knowing that Darrigade, who was in the break with me, was a dangerous man in the sprints I tried an escape with 1 km to go and I won with 4-5 second lead.

VP: Darrigade was looking for a 25th stage victory to tie the record of Andre Leducq, the great French Tour winner of the 1930′s. How did he take it?

FG: Well, all the great riders came to congratulate me. I remember that the day after, during the stage, Jan Janssen [1968 Tour winner] congratulated me for having two great days in a row.

VP: I think they were starting to see your talent, your stuff. And at the Stage 5, a time trial at Chateaulin, you beat your team leader Adorni and as you said, you were only seven seconds behind Poulidor.

FG: Chateaulin is in Brittany. This is an area that really loves bicycle racing. I remember 30,000-40,000 people yelling for their idols in a village whose shape made it very much like a big, natural stadium. So it was more difficult for me, being an Italian.

If one travels to the famous Madonna del Ghisallo church and museum one can see Gimondi’s 1965 Tour Yellow Jersey framed next to Gianni Motta’s 1966 Giro Pink Jersey. They were made of wool then. The little design on the front pocket of the Yellow Jersey is a reproduction of the signature of Henri Desgrange, the founder of the Tour de France.

VP: At that point the man to protect in your Team was not Adorni anymore, correct ? It was you….

FG: There was a Yellow Jersey in the Salvarani Team now and it had to be protected. A Yellow Jersey in our team was first of all good for ‘Patron’ Salvarani, because it meant a lot of publicity for our team. That doesn’t mean I already had all the team on my side, but some riders with more experience, such as [Diego] Ronchini and [Arnaldo] Pambianco, helped me. Ronchini had won the Giro di Lombardia and had worn the Pink Jersey and Pambianco had won the Giro d’Italia. They saw in me a young talented rider who needed support and advice.

VP: How about Adorni?

FG: During Stage 7 to La Rochelle, a rainy day, there was a crash that involved Adorni and even though I was Yellow Jersey I stopped to wait for him, together with the rest of my team. That made me miss a break and lose my Yellow Jersey.

VP: It’s not very common to see a Yellow Jersey wasting time to help his teammates.

FG: I knew there would be more chances for me to get it back.

VP: Stage 9, from Dax to Bagneres de Bigorre was important and dramatic. Many riders including Bahamontes, and the man to whom you had relinquished the Yellow Jersey for 2 days, Van de Kerckhove along with Vuelta winner Rolf Wolfshol as well as your team leader Vittorio Adorni quit. It was a very hot day. L’Equipe thought it might be a sign of doping. Do you have any theories as to why so many fine riders abandoned that day?

FG: It was way too hot. At that time there were no anti-doping controls, so we were free to take what we wanted. The anti-doping controls started the next year, in 1966 [Anquetil led a rider's protest against them that year].

Valeria was tireless. She traveled to the Tino Sana museum. Here is Gimondi’s 1965 Tour de France bike. Note the Universal centerpull brakes, the leather saddle and the old brass Campagnolo Record rear derailleur. Nothing is brazed on. For two bottles he had a handlebar mounted cage to go along with the downtube bottle.

VP: What do you remember about that day in the Pyrenees?

FG: It was a hard stage. On the Tourmalet I was in a break of five or six, including [Julio] Jimenez, [Gianni] Motta and Poulidor. A little behind us there was Pambianco. He saw the easy way I was pedaling and he beckoned me to attack…. I accelerated a little and Jimenez counter-attacked immediately. He was not dangerous for the Overall so at the top of the Tourmalet he was first and Motta and I just followed him.

VP: Then on descent of the Tourmalet you flatted.

FG: Yes, as soon as the descent started. I had to wait for the car that was quite a bit behind.

VP: And Poulidor could catch you….

FG: Poulidor passed me and then reached Motta. But then I flew on the descent and I caught them with five kilometers to go.

VP: How was your relationship with Poulidor?

FG: Good. There was a fair competitive rivalry and respect between us. Just before the last stage, the Versailles-Paris time trial, I went to greet him while he was about to start, 3 minutes before me. I was warming up and I saw him leaving. It was instinctive for me to wish him good luck and this was photographed.

VP: You beat him by one minute and twelve seconds during this time trial. Did you have him in sight?

FG: No I couldn’t see him, but I could read my lead with respect to him on a blackboard that my team showed me on the way.

VP: Some odd memories of that Tour?

FG: I remember the Stage 11, from Aix les Thermes to Barcelona. It was so hot that the asphalt used at that time melted and the tubular types left a mark on it!

VP: Franco Bitossi, whom you know I met yesterday, told me that at the end of the day you were all dirty with the asphalt.

FG: In the evenings you had to clean yourself with fuel.

Gimondi with Merckx at Giro with Merckx in ‘pink’

Several years later they are together again: Gimondi with Merckx at Giro

VP: When I interviewed Celestino Vercelli about the Tour of 1971 he told me they couldn’t sleep because it was too hot and they were staying in dorms.

FG: Of course there was no air conditioning. In Barcelona we were in a very nice hotel, but it was very hot. I shared my room with Ronchini. We kept both the windows and the room door open. And still…. Ronchini found two ice chests, he filled them with ice and slept with his hands in the ice. Sometimes, as you said, they sent us to dormitories.

VP: And you couldn’t say no.

FG: No, first you were notified and then disqualified. In Briancon we were all together in a big room. The teams were separated only by some closets. The mattresses were on the floor. To have some darkness we nailed the blankets to the windows…

VP: Do you remember the gearing you used on the mountains?

FG: 42/24 or 42/25 and 5 or 6 gears in the back. We didn’t have 10 gears like today, so you had to make a clear choice of what you wanted. Usually I mounted 3 gears for the flats and 3 gears for the climbs.

VP: Let’s go back to the stages. Poulidor announced that stage 14, from Montpellier to the top of Mount Ventoux, would be where he would strike his first blow to gain the Yellow Jersey.

FG: I usually needed some time to warm up, to work on the climbs. I preferred to have some smaller hill before a big climb. And that day it wasn’t like that. I couldn’t take the sudden change of rhythm of the race. I started to over-sweat and I understood I had to let the others [Jimenez, Poulidor, Motta, Anglade and others] go. I went up the mountain at my own speed, in a very regular way. This allowed me to catch almost all of them after some time, except Jimenez and Poulidor. I lost more than one minute to Poulidor but I kept my Yellow Jersey.

VP: Poulidor pulled to within a half-minute of you in the GC after gaining the time bonus for the stage win. After that, there were four alpine stages scheduled.

FG: Yes, I wasn’t very lucky in the Stage 16, from Gap to Briancon. I didn’t need to attack and I didn’t want to run unnecessary risks, but I wanted to chase [Joaquim] Galera, who was in a break, at least in the final kilometers. I was with Motta and when I changed gear to speed up my chain came off. I leaned against a car and people noticed that. They pushed me a little and the chain became re-engaged. Now I could make it up to the Poulidor group again, but Motta was already ahead. I tried to chase Galera and Motta but at the end I was third, winning the field sprint that in Briancon is uphill.

VP: Poulidor announced that he would use the final stage of the four Alpine stages, Stage 18, the individual hill climb time trial up Mt. Revard to take the overall lead for good. But you won the stage and took 23 seconds out of Poulidor plus you gained a 20 second time bonus.

FG: Mount Revard is not far from Italy so that day there were many Italians and even ‘Patron’ Salvarani watching. They were there to console me. They thought Poulidor would beat me for sure because he was a specialist in that kind of stage. I told them to wait and see what happens because I had been able to beat hill climb time trial specialists in the past.

VP: I guess they were assuming that even if you were having a great Tour until that moment, you wouldn’t have been able to wear the yellow jersey in Paris. Too young, too inexperienced for that.

FG: And instead I was very determined to come in first in Paris.

VP: And you had a mechanical problem. What happened to your bike?

FG: I had mounted three gears for the flat and I had an 18, 19, 20 for the climb. The 19 broke, so I climbed with the 18.

VP: With the tallest gear of the three… . How could you make it?

FG: That day I had the legs!

Gimondi smiled with ‘gusto’. Clearly, He was clearly enjoying recounting his adventures to me.

VP: A picture of you on Mont Revard shows that your front brake quick-release (you had Universal centerpull brakes) was open. Accident?

FG: During the time trial I wanted to keep the brake release as open as possible to avoid being slowed down by the friction. I didn’t need to brake!

VP: On a hill climb time trial like this, was there any special equipment used on your bike? Did you use the same gearing as in the normal stages in the mountains ?

FG: No, we used a tougher gearing, because we had to give our best in just a few kilometers. If in a normal mountain stage of 240 kilometers I used the 22-23, in a hill climb time trial I had the 20.

VP: At this point you had a minute and twelve second lead on Poulidor and over eight minutes on third-place Motta. Did you feel at all comfortable with that lead knowing there was one more time trial to come?

FG: I felt relatively comfortable, but I knew that the situation could still change. With the final time trial to come, one minute and twelve seconds are not a very big lead if you remember that Poulidor was a time trial specialist.

VP: Well, we know how it went in Paris…. I am curious about your attitude in racing. Anquetil generally won his stage races in a particular way. He would dominate the time trials and then contain his rivals in the mountains. This gave him the luxury of riding economically without having to expend energy attacking on road stages. Your 1965 Tour has this feel. Did it just happen to come out this way or you tried to model yourself on Anquetil ?

FG: I followed my instinct. But even successively in my career I have never been a shrewd man like Indurain. He didn’t seem to be Spanish in this regard. Anquetil was the first to have such an attitude and I think he was the finest and classiest rider of my era. He started to win time trials when he was 19, when he won the ‘Gran Prix des Nations’. You know, the classic Time Trials of my era were the ‘Gran Prix des Nations’, ‘Lugano’, ‘Castrocaro’ and ‘Baracchi’. I didn’t win a lot of time trials, but still…I won 5 Castrocaro, 2 Gran Prix des Nations, 2 Lugano and 2 Baracchi.

Franco Bitossi, Felice Gimondi and Italo Zilioli at the start of the 1971 Giro d’Italia. Olympia photo

VP: You’ve ridden both the Tour and the Giro several times. Which did you prefer?

FG: I have no doubts, the Tour. The competition was more open and wide. At that time, when the race was far less tactical than today, the Tour meant: ‘Pronti, Via, Battaglia [Ready, Go, Fight]!’. And I felt it closer to my way of being. The harder the race the more I liked it and felt that I could express myself.

VP: In the 1965 Tour there was only one day with two stages on the same day. In later years, the Tour organizers finally tried to get away with even three stages in one day [something they had done in the 1930's]. Any thoughts about the conditions you rode under in those days? What did you do between one stage and another?

FG: Well, what could we do with 40° C (104° F) outside? They put us in big tents to wait and gave us prosciutto and cheese to wait for the second stage.

VP: What did you eat for breakfast? When?

FG: In those years they used to give us rice and a steak for breakfast, three hours before the start. So, during the stage to Madesimo of the 1965 Giro d’Italia, when the start was at 7 a.m., we had to have breakfast 4 a.m…..

VP: What is the biggest difference between your era’s and today’s riders nutrition?

FG: They have a normal breakfast plus they eat spaghetti. The meat has been greatly reduced. Then they have many other special sugars today that we didn’t have. During the last years of my career we got a sugar from Finland that helped us. But the philosophy was still the same: a filling and substantial breakfast.

1973 World shampionship race: Breakaway group with Merckx forcing the pace

Gimondi outsprinting Freddy Maertens, Luis Ocana and Eddy Merckx in 1973 World championship race.

VP: You were the 1973 World Professional Road Champion. May we step back to that race? To this day the arguments seem to never cease. It was in Barcelona, on September 2. The race was 248 kilometers. 87 riders started. In the final laps of the race there was a break formed of you, Freddy Maertens, Luis Ocana and Eddy Merckx. For 31 years Merckx has accused Maertens of failing to give him a proper lead-out, thereby costing him a sure Rainbow Jersey.

FG: Yes, Eddy still says that. I met Merckx lately at the end of August and he still believes he was cheated by Maertens. He thinks Maertens started the sprint by going too fast.

VP: And by doing so Maertens left Merckx too far behind him to give him a proper lead-out ?

FG: Right.

VP: Sorry, I know your relationship with Merckx is very good, but in saying that he lost only because Maertens cheated him he seems to somehow cheapen your accomplishment.

FG: He can’t admit it but the reason for his defeat that day was not Maertens. Eddy didn’t have the legs.

Gimondi draws me pictures of the different phases of this sprint ‘of discord’ in a very detailed way. He shows me that as soon as Merkcx “got some wind” by coming off the Maerten’s wheel, he got stuck.

FG: When Maertens started his lead-out I could follow him without problems and, you know, I was not the best in speed changes. If a rider like Eddy couldn’t fill the gap it was only because he didn’t have the right legs. On any other day Eddy would have won a sprint like this with one leg.

VP: If Maertens had sprinted for himself rather than acting as a lead-out, do you think he could have beat you to the line?

FG: Yes, if he could have sprinted for himself, without exposing himself to the wind from the beginning of the sprint, he would have beat us by a length of 2 cars. Maertens was still very dynamic in the last 50 meters of the sprint, he was even elbowing. I had to elbow back.

VP: Did Maertens slow down to let Merckx pass?

FG: No, you never slow down in a sprint. It was understood that Eddy would have passed him. And everybody knew that he would have ‘sacrificed’ for Eddy. I saw them talking about that before the race. Eddy was Eddy, Maertens was still a little boy.

VP: And Gimondi was there?

FG: The last 5 km were quite narrow, I drafted Eddy without passing. It was not a flat sprint, it had an incline, 3-4 %. And you needed good legs after 240 km at 40° C . If you weren’t in perfect condition, this little incline at the end could get you stuck, just like with Eddy.

VP: Well, it wasn’t his day…

FG: Thank goodness!! Era ora! [It was time!] It was a big surprise for everybody, even for me! I had thought that at the best I would have been second. This victory was also good in that it saved the face of my manager, De Filippis, who had preferred me to Motta.

VP: From what I read I had the feeling that between you and Gianni Motta there was some tension.

FG: We were very different, and yes, there was some friction. It was not easy for De Filippis to leave Motta at home but I was sure that without Motta I would have all the team riding for me. Our racing characteristics were different. I needed to work during the entire race and make it hard for the others. In contrast, Motta was faster in the sprints and so it was dangerous to have him near in the last part of a race.

Gimondi Tour de France winner

VP: Looking at your career as a whole I see that you were on top of the world, probably the finest rider alive in the mid 60′s, with victories that were stunning: 1965 Tour, 1966 Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Brussels, 1967 Giro. Then things weren’t that easy anymore. Then in the mid 70′s you came back to win Milan-San Remo, the Worlds, and the Giro? What happened in between?

FG: Nothing more than the arrival of Eddy Merckx. He won five Giri and five Tours. This happened during my best years. I would have been able to win much more than 3 Giri and 1 Tour…. Then there was the physiological difficulty of racing against him. I had to change a lot of my way of racing.

VP: How do you think he affected you?

FG: Eddy didn’t forgive the slightest mistake. First of all you had to avoid being dropped by him, then you had to be able to actually stay with him and at the end you to find a way to win!

VP: It was psychologically very draining.

FG: Yes. During some long and hard races, like World Championship, after something like 280 km it was usually just Eddy and me in a fight for the victory. Sometimes there happened to be a third rider. You never knew when Eddy would decide to launch his attack and if you let him take off for a moment you could never catch him again.

VP: Do you think you affected Merckx in his way of racing?

FG: Nobody could affect the way Merckx raced. He was like an enormous tank full of fuel, very competitive in every kind of race: prologues, time trials of 50-60 km (after 60 km it was harder for him I think), climbs and sprints. I remember back when I had to skip a Paris-Roubaix because I had crashed a few days before in Belgium. I watched the race on TV. When I saw him breaking away it seemed like the others were just letting him go. I mean, on TV you could not realize and see all the efforts that the others were doing to be with him. And despite the efforts sometimes you had to resign yourself to see him flying away.

VP: Do you follow the races today?

FG: Yes I do. Unfortunately on TV it’s not possible to see all the details than you can see when you are there. For example I could understand how my adversary was feeling in terms of strength by watching the veins on his legs.

VP: What is the victory that you remember with the most pleasure?

FG: The 1965 Tour because I was young and lively and I raced instinctively. But in my heart there is also my victory of the Giro d’Italia of 1976. I was 34 and I was considered an outsider and not a possible winner. We started from Catania. I won the stage in Bergamo beating Eddy Merckx. In the penultimate curve I elbowed with Baronchelli to get on Eddy’s wheel. On the other side there were the men of [Francesco] Moser’s team working for him. Eddy wanted to surprise Moser and launched his attack early. I drafted him and was able pass him at the end. It was very nice to win in the heart of Bergamo, my city. The day after, during the time trial at Arcore, I took the Pink Jersey and then won that Giro.

VP: Is it true that both you and Franco Bitossi retired from racing on the same day ?

FG: Yes, during the Giro dell’Emilia [of 1978]. It was raining and we had both lost all of our motivation. When it’s time to stop you feel it inside. We watched each other and said: ‘We don’t want to get wet again, let’s stop here’.

Gimondi still participates in ‘Fondo’ events

This hour with Felice Gimondi went very fast. I felt dazed by all the details he could remember. I thought he would love to see the pictures that Franco Bitossi had given me the day before. They were black and white photos from the races of the 60s and 70s with all the protagonists of that era, including Mr. Felice, of course. While going from one picture to the other and commenting upon them I could see the delight his eyes. He wanted to give me some photos too but he could not find them in his office. Then he remembered that he had given them to a person who is writing a book about him. But he showed me the little books that every rider gets before a stage race like the Tour or the Giro and that describes the characteristics of the stages (distance, gradients and villages). We went through the 1965 Tour book and I could see how for each stage he had written down the winner and his position. He is a very precise man. ‘You see’ he said ‘every time the gradient started to get tough, I was among the leaders that year.’

The finest of all Yellow Jerseys. One for each living winner signed by the all the others. Can you make out all the signatures? The signers each put their Tour win years under their names. Ferdy Kubler (1950), the oldest of the survivors, put his signature just to the right of of Gimondi’s imprinted name.

I noticed a beautiful yellow jersey with a lot of signatures in a frame that hanged on the wall. Gimondi explained to me that this was the jersey that every Tour de France winner had for the centenary of the Tour, with the signatures of all the living winners.

Felice Gimondi in his office

I had somebody waiting for me outside Gimondi’s office but he wanted to offer me a coffee and to introduce me his daughter, a very nice girl of my own age looking unmistakably like her father. I exchanged a few more words with the Gimondi family, I kissed Mr. Felice on his cheeks and I left with a big smile and a very pleasant feeling.

Source:
This interview was first published at www.bikeraceinfo.com, always a very informative website.

Valeria Paoletti is a research scientist at the University of Naples BikeRaceInfo and Road Magazine are grateful that she can find time in her busy schedule to visit and talk to some of the greatest riders to ever turn a crank. Valeria would like to thank her tireless uncle, Stefano, for his irreplaceable and enthusiastic help in visitng Signor Gimondi.

2012 Il Lombardia, Honoring Felice Gimondi in Bergamo
The 2012 Il Lombardia (formerly Giro di Lombardia) will be starting this year in Bergamo to honor the the 70th birthday of bergamasco Felice Gimondi, his birthday coinciding with the race date of September 29th. The 106th edition of the race will finish again in Lecco.

 The reigning World Champion gets to wear the Rainbow Jersey. Gimondi looks formidable in his. In succeeding years a former champion gets to have rainbows on his cuffs and collar. Note that in the early 1970′s, a racer still had to ride on unpaved roads. Cesare Galimberti photo.

The race, one of the five “monuments” of the one day classics, is also known as the “Race of the Falling Leaves” (“classica delle foglie morte”) as it is normally held in October. However, this year the race has been brought forward to the weekend following the UCI Road World Championships to allow riders to directly benefit from their World Championship form.

Gimondi won all three of the grand tours: Tour de France (1965, his first year as a pro), Giro d’Italia (1967, 1969 and 1976), and Vuelta a España (1968). He remains one of only five cyclists to have done so. He also won the World Championship in 1973, Paris-Roubaix (1966), Milan-Sanremo (1974) and the Giro di Lombardia, among other races, in 1966 and 1973.

http://www.italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.ca/

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 2,400 stories in this blog.

POSTED BY ANGELO SENZA LA O

Story and photos by: James Huang
This article was originally published on BikeRadar

A look at the WorldTour support network.
Inside the team buses at pro race Paris-Roubaix in 2012. Paris-Roubaix is fought over by the riders on the road but there’s also a tremendous support network in place to keep the massive machine that is WorldTour-level bicycle racing rolling along. From team buses and trucks to mechanics, soigneurs and fans, check out our image gallery for a look at what goes on behind the scenes at the world’s greatest one-day road race.

It’s hard to travel incognito when your team truck is wrapped like this. Lotto-Belisol stores all of its bikes on the truck in one lower row, leaving the upper level for wheels.

Lotto-Belisol’s team truck is a fully capable, mobile workshop for the team. The inside of the Rabobank team truck. Lights mounted underneath the rear door allow Lotto-Belisol trucks to continue working after dark. More wheels are stored in the forward end of the Katusha team mechanics’ bus. Katusha soigneurs get these two lower compartments for food, coolers, and drinks. A small table pulls out from the side of the Katusha team bus for mechanics. This washer and dryer on the Katusha team bus both see heavy use during the season. There is room for lots of bikes and wheels inside the Rabobank team truck. Power and water are critical elements for team mechanics. This portable surge protector allows several team vehicles to operate out of a single outlet. The workbench inside the Rabobank team truck was crowded with wheels the day before Paris-Roubaix. The inside of the GreenEdge team truck. Note the lights mounted to the flip-up rear door. Mechanics work long hours. Astana’s team truck is capable of storing an incredible amount of gear. Astana’s mechanics travel around in a big Iveco box truck.

A washer and dryer are tucked into the lower bay of the Astana team truck. Sorry, we don’t know what the black box is.

 The driver’s view of the Astana team bus. Astana’s bus driver has to navigate this beast through tight European roads.

Big, puffy seats for the Astana riders provide a cozy place on the bus as they travel to and from races.

 Katusha mechanics don’t use a truck. Instead, they use a converted touring bus as there are fewer restrictions on European roads. Compressed air and water hoses are kept on a reel in one of the Katusha team truck compartments. The inside of the Katusha team mechanics’ bus is a little more cramped than the usual box truck but there’s still plenty of room for bikes, wheels, and other gear. Two custom painted frames are ready to be built.

GreenEdge’s awning is a critical piece of equipment when mechanics have to work outside in the rain. The inside of the Cofidis truck is stocked with wheels on one side and bikes on the other. Bikes are stored in the Cofidis truck with the wheels removed.

By: Zdenko Kahlina
You can’t get companionship like this when riding solo.
Finally! Halfway the month of April and it’s our first group ride of the season. On this mild Sunday, spring is unmistakably in the air. But the nights are still cold, close to freezing point. So the start of my bike ride at 10 AM was pretty chilly.

As usual, I drove my car to Ardrossan, just few minutes east of the city of Edmonton. There, in this small town by the hockey arena is a huge parking lot, which on Sunday is used mostly by cyclists. They leave cars there and jump on their bikes. When starting the bike rides from Ardrossan, they escape city traffic.

On Sunday mornings there is a different group of bikers leaving every half hour for their ride through beautiful country side of Strathcona County. In otherwise mostly flat Alberta, here in Ardrossan area you can ride through the hills and wooded areas, all the way to Elk Island national park. The area is populated with farms, horse stables and acreages, where people enjoy tranquility and peacefulness of the nature.

My first spring group ride for the 2012 season

This morning I started early, to warm up my legs, even before my group gets together, only couple of kilometers away in the Hunters Hills area. One of the Ongaro brothers lives there and we always use his house as a meeting point. It is already a tradition to stay at his place after the ride and have tasty Italian pasta and glass of Italian Chianti vine.

As predicted, the weather for the first ‘official’ day of spring was fantastic and demanded a good ride. This year’s event was even more special for me as I was taking out for a spin my new Jota-Moreno bike, purchased only couple of months ago, while visiting a friend in Sydney, Australia. I showed up on time and the guys were already outside on the road, ready for the ride… I guess, everybody was pumped up for the first group ride of the new season.

The Ongaro group. From the left: Mark, John, Eugenio, Alex, Paulo and Zdenko (Rudy was taking the picture).

Rudy Ongaro, giving last instructions

O.K. guys, let’s see who is missing… Paulo where are you?

Bike riding with the Ongaro brothers
We began riding in a slow tempo, just to give everyone a chance to warm up. There was seven guys in the group: the Ongaro brothers, Rudy, Paulo and Alex, Eugenio, John and two Kahlina brothers, Mark and myself. Rudy was the designated leader of the group and we all followed his instructions. He picked one of the standard routes around Ardrossan, first heading West towards Edmonton, than turning North towards Fort Saskatchewan into the area with farms and acreages. We were riding past horses and cattle pasturing on a farmland by the road. The boys were chit-chatting and we were happily moving along, pilling kilometers in our legs. We talked about professional racing, and fellow cyclists. In Europe the pros just finished one of the spring classics ‘Liege – Bastogne – Liege’, and we talked about the winner Maxim Inglinsky (Astana team) from Kazakhstan, who won the race. We discussed traffic in Edmonton and other less important things in our lives…

Riding in the prairies and chit-chatting in the group

Everyone does its share of pooling at the front

The constantly rolling terrain provided some climbing opportunities. We climbed some hills and flew down the other side of them. During the descending we would gain the high speeds that we all liked. We even raced each other in a ‘free down hilling’ (no pedaling). This is a game, where we try to catch a draft from the guy in front and gain some speed. The goal is to pass that guy before the end of the descent without pedaling. Cars should never underestimate the cyclists and their speed. They can go faster than cars on the downhill section of the road.

When we reached Township road 540 we made another turn, this time towards East. On this section we had a tail wind and the boyz were flaying. The speed picked up and it was time to say goodbye to the older guys who at this point couldn’t follow our increased speed. After all, they knew we would all get together at Rudy’s house for the previously mentioned Italian pasta.

Paulo, Alex and Rudy… the strongest in the group

Mark was the oldest in the group and Rudy was the leader

The wind!
After yet another change of direction, our little group turned south on RR215 towards highway 16 and this time strong western side wind was giving us a hard time. Wind is generally an enemy for cyclists and here in Alberta wind blows most of the time. It affects the temperatures as it would be much warmer without the wind. To make things worse, it was on this difficult section of the road, that we started attacking each other. The speed was already high, but when Rudy went, pulling away Paulo, I lost their wheel for a moment. Big mistake… this type of a mistake in the real race would decide the outcome at the finish. Here, I kept going, counting on the fact that it is our first ride of the season and that they are probable not in the great shape, and sooner or latter they will have to slow down. They did as I predicted several hundred meters later and we were again together, less Alex and John, who couldn’t follow this high speed and were left for dead…

Zdenko with Alex

Our small group riding through the prairies…

Finishing sprint!
Once we turned onto Township road 534 we faced the strong head wind. But by this time everyone had enough and we decided to slowdown and wait for Alex and John. All that was left for this ride was a final – traditional sprint at the end of the ride in Hunters Hills. But who can beat sprinter Alex, a silver medalist at the 1986 Commonwealth Games or his brother Paulo, national gold medalist in the Olympic sprint team 2001 event!?

Well, the answer is – only their older brother Rudy can surprise and jump them sometimes, for a long shot to the finish line, but even this didn’t work today… Alex and Paulo sprinted away from us and I didn’t even see who won this sprint… they were so far ahead of us.

Thank you…
… to everyone who joined us on Sunday for the first ride of the season. What a great day it was! We all enjoyed the beautiful weather as we rode around Strathcona County. This time I didn’t stop for the Italian pasta after the ride, but there is always next time. All in all, it was a great first ride and I’m hoping for many more to come.

He has a gap… This is what happens when Rudy gets at the front!

Spring Biking Fitness – Advice from expert cycling coach
Unless you’re a total stooge who did nothing but play PS3 over the winter, it’s safe to assume that you’re heading into spring with at least a little fitness. Even so, as riding season is about to hit full swing, what can you do to be sure you’re performing at your peak – especially if you’re short on riding time?

According to James Herrera, M.S., expert cycling coach and founder of Performance Driven (pushyourlimit.com), an athletic coaching and executive consulting company, if you focus your rides to reap maximum benefit, you can reach a decent level of spring fitness with just three rides a week, in four to six weeks. The keys to success: group rides and longer intervals that improve your lactate threshold.

The work: Extended intervals (a.k.a. tempo rides) aren’t done at an all-out effort; you want to reach a point at which you feel you’re riding at 80 percent effort, and your breathing is short, steady and rhythmic. Herrera recommends spending 25 to 50 percent of your ride time on these efforts, and breaking that time up into chunks depending on your fitness. Let’s say you’re a less-fit rider on a two-hour ride. “Instead of doing all 30 minutes at once,” Herrera says, “get there with shorter efforts (say, four 8-minute intervals), with a few minutes of recovery in between.” As your fitness improves, work up to longer intervals (2×15 minutes or 1×30 minutes). Dedicate two of your weekly rides to these efforts, but not on back-to-back days. Choose paved roads or open fire roads which are more conducive to interval riding.

The fun: Go on a group ride at least once a week. “Group riding is a practical form of race simulation,” says Herrera. “Find a group that’s appropriately challenging. If you do you’ll reach all energy levels at some point–aerobic, threshold, VO2. That’s just the nature of the group ride.” According to Herrera, to get the most benefit, don’t be the guy at the front or the back; be the guy who’s chasing the strongest rider. That way, your fitness builds while you’re having fun–a no-brainer that’s sure to make you faster.

Rudy, Mark, John, Eugenio, Alex and Paulo

By: Daniel Friebe

Exclusive extract from Daniel Friebe’s book.
Forty-five years ago this week, in the spring of 1967, Eddy Merckx was already a two-time Milan-San Remo winner, already a flat-track bully of some repute, but also just one of several would-be kings of the cycling world.

Merckx’s second Tour of Flanders that year ended in a defeat which would prolong the illusion, or rather delusion, that Merckx was no different from prodigies who had come before, shooting stars who eventually waned with the hype which had accompanied their rise. The race also ended in victory for the garrulous Italian Dino Zandegù – and one of the more unconventional victory celebrations in a “Ronde”.

‘O sole mio
sta ‘nfronte a te!
‘O sole, ‘o sole mio,
sta ‘nfronte a te!
It’s my own sun
that’s upon your face!
The sun, my own sun,
It’s upon your face!

Eddy Merckx The Cannibal

Dino Zandegù says the urge to sing came spontaneously, the words just flowed. Well, not exactly: a large and vocal group of Italian migrants stationed close to the prize podium had watched him cross the line, his right arm thrust towards the angry skies, his face and hands black as theirs after a day in the mines of Charleroi and Marcinelle, and broken into their own chorus.

First an ironic, ‘O sole mio!’, then an invocation to join them: ‘Canta, Dino, canta!’: ‘Sing, Dino, sing!’ And so Dino had sung, to the delight of his countrymen and the tickled disbelief of cameramen and journalists from all over Europe.

A few paces away, making his way through the mêlée, Zandegù’s Salvarani teammate Felice Gimondi also smirked. He had watched ‘Il Dinosauro’ win from 200 metres back down the finishing straight in Gent. Thirteen seconds later, Gimondi had followed Eddy Merckx across the line. As the blubs flashed and Merckx lunged, Gimondi harked the anguished cry of a beaten man.

If Zandegù’s performance on the cobbled hills, the bergs of the Tour of Flanders on the second day of April was a revelation, his singing was not, at least not for the Italian public. Ever since his Giro d’Italia début three years earlier, the baker’s son from Padova had enlivened many an uneventful race with his impromptu balladry, often accompanying an impressive baritone with exuberant arm-waving. If a birthday needed celebrating, all eyes would be on Zandegù in the middle of the peloton: his mouth and an eyebrow would rise mischievously at one side, he might disappear for a minute or twenty, then reappear balancing a birthday cake in the palm of his right hand and conducting the chorus with his left. ‘Buon compleanno a te! Happy birthday to you…’

‘Typical’, says Zandegù today: those three or four bars of ‘O sole mio!’ became more famous than the victory they were meant to celebrate. More famous even than him beating Eddy Merckx on the Belgian’s own patch.

It was to be the story of Zandegù’s career. No, of his life. He was a talented cyclist but a better showman. And an utterly brilliant raconteur. These attributes now earn him an annual invitation to the Giro d’Italia from state broadcaster RAI. In their daily, pre-stage eyesore exhibiting all the naffness that makes Italian television a national embarrassment, Zandegù is the performing seal in a circus commanded by the mustachioed ringmaster Marino Bartoletti. In 45 years, not much has changed; what Zandegù used to do within the bosom of the peloton, he now accomplishes in a makeshift studio in the Giro’s hospitality village. At Bartoletti’s unctuous behest, Dino sings, Dino dances, Dino jokes, Dino laughs.

Above all, Dino tells stories. On air and off it – to him it’s the same. No sooner have the credits rolled than ‘Il Dinosauro’ is shuffling off, his fingers are clasped like five thick salamis around a new listener’s, and he’s away. His tales are breathless, hysterical, crescendo-ing monologues delivered through a north-east Italian accent as gravelly as the unpaved sterrato roads which are often their setting. What’s more, says Zandegù, ‘ninety-five per cent of them are true’. Unless, that is, it’s the afternoon. Then, by Dino’s own admission, ‘the percentage falls to ninety’.

Dino, Dino, tell us about growing up…

‘Well, we didn’t have a lot but at least we weren’t hungry because we owned a bakery. You just about scraped by. The first batch of bread that Dad used to bake at 6.30, we kept to one side just in case the oven broke and we were left with nothing. There were 18 of us in the family: eight brothers, six sisters, Mum, Dad, Gran and Granddad. We all used to get together at four every afternoon to boil up the dry, stale bread, the pan biscotto, and put it into a kind of panzanella, a bread salad. It was buonissima! Better than what my wife makes now! Anyway, when I won races as an amateur, I’d come home, tell my mum and sisters, and my reward would be a cup of caffè latte and a corner of bread straight out of the oven. If I didn’t win, my mum pretended that she’d forgotten to cook and there was nothing you could do! Even my sisters were annoyed with me. Then if I got a bit friendly with a girl, they didn’t like that either! They’d tell me that I had to go and explain to her that I had to race my bike and mustn’t have any distractions. Thanks to them, I was practically a virgin at 26!’

Practically? Eh? Never mind…What about that Tour of Flanders in 1967? Beating Merckx, that must have been something…

‘Ah, yes, well my teammate Gimondi and I attacked with Merckx and came across to Barry Hoban, Noel Foré and Willy Monty, who had been in the break earlier on. After the Mur de Grammont climb, I attacked with Foré and Merckx was stuck, because Gimondi wasn’t going to help him. Foré was too tired after his earlier break to pose any threat in the sprint. I won easily. Then Merckx came over like this big, roaring lion, absolutely furious. I didn’t pay him too much attention. The Italian fans were shouting to me to sing, and it just came naturally. “O sole mio…!”.’

Dino, Dino, seriously now, should you all have known in 1967? Should you, could you not have seen what was coming?

‘We were all intimidated. We were. This kid just arrived, this big, handsome Belgian kid with high cheekbones – the face of an immense athlete – and pretty quickly we all realised that on the bike he was a brute. […] He used to drive me nuts. When he was racing, you knew that he could put you out of the time limit any time. It was a constant, breathless chase. You’d see Merckx’s team on the front ready to make the race 150 kilometres from the finish, Van Den Bossche, Van Den this, Van Ben that – they all surged to the front – and he’d be pawing the ground like this big tiger. He couldn’t wait for the moment, kilometre X, when he would attack and smash us all to pieces. I used to tell him to go stuff himself. When you’re hurting, you turn nasty. I’d be shouting from the back of the bunch, “Vaffanculo, Merckx! Bastardo!” Half of the peloton detested him despite thinking that he was an OK bloke […] I say we all realised quickly but it wasn’t straight away. It took a while, a couple of years. We, we didn’t know, we didn’t…’

For once even Dino Zandegù is lost for words.

Eddy Merckx was presented with the Giro d’Italia trophy for his 1974 victory

Eddy ‘The Cannibal’ Merckx riding back in his prime.

Eddy Merckx leads Felice Gimondi in the 1974 Giro d’Italia

Freddy Maertens’ rivalry with Eddy Merckx transcended cycling

A tifoso perhaps tells Merckx he has a two-minute lead as he climbs the Stelvio during the 1972 Giro

Another yellow jersey for Eddy Merckx in 1971.

Eddy Merckx The Cannibal is available online at Amazon.

By: Zdenko Kahlina

Let me introduce you to ‘wheel sucking’ from a cycling perspective.
It was a Friday, and after a long and difficult week at work I donned some Lycra cycling clothing, drove my car east of Edmonton to the Sherwood Park, mounted my Jota-Moreno bike and headed into the rural area of Strathcona County. The goal was to clear the tension from my legs and the metaphysical residue of the week in the office from my head.

Drafting in cycling

It was a typical crisp, but sunny spring afternoon, and as I rode on well known roads around Ardrossan I was gradually overtaken by a feeling of peace and well-being. A few kilometers into my ride I noticed that my shadow had an extra head. I turned to look behind me, and my brief glance confirmed that this was not my imagination but I had indeed acquired a wheel sucking guy. 

Drafting in its pure form: the British team pursuit squad on their way to Olympic gold in 2008. Photograph: Tom Jenkins

So what is a Wheel Sucking?
‘Wheel sucking’ is a term used to describe the practice of cycling behind another rider with wheels a few centimeters apart, for an extended period of time without changing position (moving forward) to gain a physiological and aerodynamic advantage by reducing the amount of work he has to do. Some have claimed that this practice allows the “wheel sucking” rider to perform 30% less work. The advantage of ‘wheel sucking’ is magnified when the size of the front rider is large, when there is a considerable headwind and when the front rider is moving at a significant speed > 30 km/h.

Wheel sucking on the track. During the race, it’s called ‘tactical drafting’!

Drafting
The practice of riding in the slipstream close behind someone’s rear wheel, thus greatly reducing the effort you need to expend keeping at their speed is called drafting. If you’re riding in the middle of a big group this can, supposedly, save you up to 40% in energy. It’s all pretty standard and uncontroversial if you’re participating in an organized road race or sportive, assuming of course you take your turn at the front.

That’s me doing ‘tactical drafting’ during the race in south Edmonton

The story continues…
So, I should point that it would be O.K. with me, since it was only a training (read: pleasure) ride, but the guy never bothered to say even hello, never mind asking me if it’s O.K. to ride behind me. So, suddenly I hit the breaks and since he was too close to me and couldn’t avoid it, he crushed into me falling onto the road heavily…

No, no, I didn’t do that, but for sure was thinking about doing it.

He sat on me for bloody long time and didn’t say ‘thanks’ when he finally peeled off! Sitting on the wheels of strangers–especially when they don’t know you’re there, and especially when it’s me at the front–is a very bad thing to do.

Drafting in the group, during the training ride

First of all, it’s dangerous for the same reason automotive tailgating is dangerous. The last thing I want in the event I’m forced to brake suddenly is for some wheel sucker, I didn’t even know was there, to wind up humping my back. Second of all, it’s just rude–it’s like sidling up behind someone at a urinal and putting your hand on his shoulder, or even joining in uninvited and “crossing the streams.”

Nevertheless, there are some people who think that, no matter what the circumstances, Lycra clothing and a racing bike mean ‘it’s on’. It’s the ‘he was asking for it’ mentality of the cycling world. But it wasn’t ‘on’; in fact, it was very much ‘off’.

So I swung off and waved the mysterious rider through. I said something along the lines of, ‘You shouldn’t sit on my wheel like that’ (in the same way you might say to the guy at the urinal, ‘Hey, you mind backing up a little bit?’), and then moved to the left side of the road to further underscore my ‘it’s so very not on’ point and allow him to continue on his way.

Apparently, though, I hadn’t done enough. ‘Whatever’, replied the guy, and after I moved back to the right side of the road he latched on to me again. At this point I felt very much like a guy being followed into the man’s room of a bar by a ‘frat boy’, so I reiterated my request and by way of explanation offered a more succinct version of the above.

By now you’d think that he’d either respect my wishes, or else dismiss me as an old ‘roadie’ fusspot, but in either case leave me alone. Instead, he said this:

‘C’mon, don’t we (all) do this for the danger? Where’s the flint in your veins? Don’t be such a pussy’.

He said this just sarcastically enough for it to be ironic, in the well-practiced manner of someone accustomed to getting his way and with a lifetime’s experience in telling his parents off while remaining utterly confident that they will continue to praise him for his mediocrity and keep writing those tuition checks to Bard. Now I really wanted to push my brakes and make him fall.

The advantage of ‘wheel sucking’ is magnified when the size of the front rider is large – like on this picture.

It made me extremely angry–not so much because he had called me a ‘pussy’, but more because he had found one of the few people in Alberta, who would not push him off his bike and break his teeth for doing so. Instead, his childhood had once again received a stay of execution and the bubble in which he lived would remain intact for yet another day. One day he will run into someone else who will do exactly that: brake his teeth! I hope he finds and reads this blog and recognize himself in my story…

Wheel suckers are bottom feeders and slackers
Wheel suckers are often considered bottom feeders and slackers as they do not work toward the greater good of the rider or riders in front of them. But there are many instances where wheel sucking is perfectly acceptable. Putting individual race tactics aside, an annoying but perfectly acceptable implementation of the technique, wheel suckers have many valid reasons for not ‘pulling through’. I have listed a few below.

It’s O.K. to suck when…
• The sucker is the sprinter being set up for a stage/ race win. (this is generally not considered true wheel sucking as it does not last long enough to qualify, however there are times that sprinters are dragged for miles in preparation of the final sprint, mountainous terrain would be an example)
• The sucker is a team mate who has had problem and needs help returning to the peleton (again this is up for debate if it is a short duration, but the technique is the same).
• The sucker is your spouse or significant other (happens to the best of us, if your the stronger rider, you’ll be pulling them, get used to it).
• The sucker is an athlete you are coaching (They are paying you too pull).
• The sucker is totally blown (Most commonly seen on group rides, never leave a man behind).
• The sucker is you, as long as I’m not pulling!
• The sucker is me, as long as your pulling!

 It’s O.K. when the sucker is your significant other

The tactical ‘wheel sucking’ is O.K.

The tactical wheel sucker:
In racing, there are occasions, when wheel sucking becomes a useful tactic. One example may be a rider who is in a lead break and their team leader or overall race contender is not. The rider may choose not to ‘work’ with the group and wheel suck to decrease the chance of having a successful breakaway. Other times the wheel sucker is simply not strong enough to be in the break and is doing everything they can to hang on. These riders are of not much concern for long, but are annoying because, they can’t help in the groups success and take energy away while they are engaged.

The group ride wheel sucking or drafting is O.K.

The group ride wheel sucker:
This is the most common place to meet a wheel sucker or become one yourself. Group ride dynamics seem to breed them. Newer riders are often scorned by the more experienced group because they spend the entire ride sucking the wheels of the stronger riders, but it’s not their fault. It is the natural order of things. For them too ride with the group and learn how not to be a wheel sucker they must first be a wheel sucker and suffer the humiliation of not being able to ‘pull’. A good wheel sucker can deflect much criticism by being gracious, such as bestowing the honor of allowing a rider who is dropping back the opportunity to drop in front of them and in so doing allow that rider the great honor of pulling again sooner.

It’s not O.K. to suck…
• Your teammate who is winning
• Your spouse or significant other
• Anyone you want to ride with again and again and again.
• Anyone who can make you suffer.
• Me!!!

Riding in the group is not ‘wheel sucking’ unless you don’t take turns at the front.

Detractors of the ‘wheel sucking’

The moral of my story
If you find yourself in a situation to become ‘wheel sucker’, first of all be nice. Say hello to the guy you want ‘wheel suck’. Talk to him first about something… anything, before you ask him if it’s O.K. to follow his rear wheel. Most people are going to be nice and say ‘yes’ after this type of introduction.

My position’s pretty clear: I’m happy to either draft or be drafted. With the former I don’t go ludicrously close to another bike’s rear wheel and I’m vigilant in case my temporary helper has to brake or swerve to avoid something. And if we reach a red light I’ll often try to set off quickly so as to offer a reciprocal helping hand. When in front I indicate well in advance, and point a helpful finger towards upcoming potholes and the like. But the most important thing is communication between the two of you on the road. One should never assume that its O.K. to draft some stranger without asking first!

There is a spin-off minefield of protocol connected to drafting: as a male rider is it a bit ungentlemanly to do so to a female commuter given that the basic technique involves staying as close to their buttocks as possible? A friend of mine was once drafting a Lycra-clad road cyclist from Edmonton to Sherwood Park, when she turned round to accuse him of ‘having a gawp’. He backed off.

Drafting is common in all group ridings.

Zen and the art of  ‘wheel sucking’.
Detractors of this practice and there are many, often look down and despise the humble “wheel sucker”. These detractors can easily be generalized as people who are testosterone filled and excessively aggressive. Furthermore these people do not possess the characteristics and are unable to be enlightened by the Zen that accompanies a “wheel sucking” journey.

Close drafting during the races is very important

Humility is an essential component to attaining the Zen of “wheel sucking”. Start the bike ride with statements like: ‘I’m feeling lousy’, ‘I had a hard day at the office’ or ‘My bike is heavier than yours’. Statements like these allow the rider seeking ‘wheel sucking’ Zen to disappear amidst the pre-ride bravado. It also volunteers others to offer their wheels for you to latch onto, when the ride starts.

Drafting behind a friend is O.K.

During the ride get into the ‘zone’. You’ll know you’re there when you suddenly start hearing nothing but the melodic humming of the bicycle chain and other moving bike parts. Often peace and tranquility in the ‘zone’ can be disrupted by calls to pull or ‘do some work up front’. For any true blue ‘wheel sucker’ this disrupts the essence of disappearing into ‘oneness’ of a pack ride. To avoid such situations you can always feint weakness leaving a gap between you and the rider in front, often resulting in a charge from the ‘macho men’ to close the gaps. Alternatively you could be gracious and allow the rider returning from his pull in the front of the pack, the wheel of the rider in front of you. These acts often work as the aggression of a fast ride often results in riders wanting to get ahead of each other. To attain Zen stay calm and be at peace especially on a fast pack ride.

So what happens if there’s a break? A true practitioner of wheel sucking never gets caught out in a break. A genuine ‘wheel sucker’ sees all that happens around him. A break is not perceived as such but rather it is a huge suck, dragging and pulling the wheel sucker from one zone to another. In the immortal words of a wise Jedi ‘feel the force’, use the pulls of these breaks to move with the breaks. When one does so, it’s like the shifting of the sands, effortless.

Do wheel suckers ever win? Always! Never forget humility, especially if you want to keep riding with the pack. What good is a wheel sucker without a wheel to suck?

Peace all and ride heaps!

Source of ‘Zen and the art of wheel sucking’:

http://www.teamabsolut.net/index.html

By: Zdenko Kahlina

Tune up and start slowly after a long winter off the roads
It’s been a long winter, the sun is out, and your thoughts turn to cycling with your buddies (you don’t want to be embarrassed about your performance), maybe a summer cycling adventure you have been planning, or maybe that century ride “personal best”.

Spring is here, I’m ready… are you?

An early start to the season is every cyclist’s dream. After long months spent out of the saddle, or in the basement on your rollers, enthusiasm often overcomes common sense. Spring cycling isn’t about racking up the miles on your bike. Instead, spend the time getting back your feel for riding… and I am not talking about professional cyclists, but rather about veterans (guys over 40!) or recreational cyclists, who use bike as an exercise to stay healthy.

It’s Spring – Time to Get Back into Shape
Spring signals the time of year in which both cyclist and motorist have to relearn how to share the road. Motorists have fallen out of the habit of looking for cyclists at intersections and stop signs, so proceed with caution. Breezing through a stop sign is always risky, but even more so this early in the season.

Snow is still on the ground, but the roads are dry.

Then, of course, there’s the shape of the roads at this time of year. Potholes big enough to swallow your bike whole and a buildup of sand, dirt and debris along the side of the road can make a leisurely cycle a dangerous slalom. Add to these hazards the occasional ice patch, a sure thing on mornings that follow a mild day and a cold night, and you can understand why spring cycling has its own set of challenges.

Performance – That’s the name of the game

I would recommend checking out your favorite route(s) by car before heading out on the bike. Lots of bike paths and rural roads might still be snow- and ice-covered, so don’t assume that just because your street is clear, the snow has melted everywhere. It’s also wise to delay your morning ride until the sun has had time to thaw any ice that lurks along the side of the road. That’s why I am never going to understand my fellow cyclists in Edmonton who begin their riding at 9 AM even in March and April. It’s still very cold at that time and one hour delay can make big difference in temperatures.

One advantage of an early spring ride: traffic is no issue

Those large fluctuations in temperature can keep a cyclist guessing when it comes to choosing the right wardrobe. Lots of layers is the answer, including essentials like gloves, booties and a cap for under your helmet. As always, make sure your clothing is bright and easily seen. When it comes to cycling, there is no such thing as too gaudy.

Set of winter clothing – If you live in Alberta, get all of it!

If you’re hauling your bike out of the garage for the first time, give it a quick tune-up to make sure it’s roadworthy. Pump up the tires, clean and oil your chain and check the brakes. Spending those extra few minutes checking out your equipment can spare you an unexpected walk home.

Make sure you choose the right wardrobe: wear lots of layers!

When you do get on the bike, rein in that early-season eagerness to prove you haven’t lost anything over the winter months. Limit your mileage and don’t push too high a gear. Go easy, and all you’ll feel the next morning are a few muscles you haven’t worked in a while. Go too hard and don’t be surprised if your neck and back feel the effects.

This is what’s waiting for you outdoors.

This advice holds true even for those who have been diligently working out all winter. Riding on the road is very different from riding indoors, so don’t be fooled into thinking that spinning can replace the real thing. There are no vibrations, bumps or potholes indoors. It’s normal for your butt to be sore after those first few rides. You might also feel it in your hands, so padded gloves are an asset early in the season.

My advice is to concentrate on building an aerobic base by slowly increasing mileage and your cycling fitness. That means leaving the sprints and hill repeats until you’ve accumulated lots of easy miles.

Rural roads in Strathcona County are safe with low traffic volume

With warmer weather on the way, here’s an easy 8-point checklist to get you off on the right pedal.
Before you head out for spring cycling, take a few minutes to clean your bike and get yourself organized with a goal—and maybe even a coach. With spring here, we can look forward to more daylight (and maybe a new pair of sunglasses), nicer weather, and better, safer road conditions. In other words: primo bike weather. Which means, if you’re not an all-weather rider, it’s time to drag your two-wheeler up from the basement or haul it off of its wall mount, and actually ride it again.

Clean your bike using a damp cloth

 But before you do, it’s a good idea to get your bike—and yourself—road-ready. Here’s a simple checklist that will help, courtesy of Bicycling magazine:

YOUR BIKE
• Quick-clean your bike using a damp cloth. Remove the layer of dust and grime from the frame, rims, derailleurs, brakes, handlebars… okay, just clean everything. Do the chain and chain rings with an old toothbrush and soapy water or a degreaser.

This is how I clean my chain.

• Inspect the tires by deflating the tube to about half its pressure. While rotating the wheel, slowly manipulate each tire in your hands to expose cuts in the sidewalls or tread. If you find any deep cuts, replace the tire. If the tires look fine, inflate them to the recommended PSI (it’s listed on the sidewall).

• Check the indicator line on the brake pads to see if they need to be replaced. If they’re worn down, head to the local bike shop for new ones.
• Take two minutes to remove the seatpost from the frame. It can bond to it permanently unless you do this on occasion (it happened to me and it was embarrassing). Wipe the seatpost clean, and then smear a little grease on the part that fits into the frame.
• Spin the wheels to see if they’re running crooked. If you see any wobbling, or hear strange rattles or clinks, make an appointment to take the wheel to the bike shop. (Go midweek; weekends are busy this time of year.)

Inspect tires, brakes… wipe the seatpost clean and you’ll have a worry free ride.

Training program
To ride at your best, you will need a training program – one that sets reasonable goals and will keep you focused. You want to maximize the results of your efforts (and time available to train) but not go out so hard or fast that you end up injured. I have one simle rule that I always try to keep: never, ever go slower than 30 km/h. Sounds easy, but it’s not!

During the training ride try to maintain speed of over 30 km/h – at all times!

Here are a few tips for successful training:

1. Before you get into serious training, have at least a few hundred long easy miles under your belt as a good base.

2. Increases total weekly miles by 10 – 15% per week. The 10 to 15% figure has been used for years by marathons runners to minimizes musculoskeletal injuries with training.

3. Once you begin your actual training program, it’s important to try to ride at least 5 days a week, and take at least one day off. Depending on your level of training (or evidence of overtraining) the seventh day is either an additional intermediate mileage day or an additional rest day.

The most important thing in training is: consistency!

A typical weekly program would look like this:
• ONE long mileage day – The ride which is your goal is the basis for planning your weekly long mileage days. Some coaches suggest you work up to a ride equal to the length (or even 125% of the length) of that event while others feel that reaching a distance equal to 75% of the event distance is adequate. This is usually a Saturday ride (with Sunday as a backup for bad weather or other unexpected circumstance that could derail your training program).

• ONE short mileage day – Plan your short mileage day to follow the high mileage day. It should be about 1/4 of the length of the long ride and ridden at a leisurely pace to loosen up your muscles after the long ride of the week.
• THREE intermediate mileage days – The intermediate mileage days are midway between the short ride and the long ride in distance. At least one of these should be an interval training ride.
• ONE or two rest days off the bike

4. The pace of your training rides:
• the long ride should match your own goal ride pace
• the short “recovery” ride should be a leisurely pace at no more than 50-60% of your maximum heart rate
• two of the intermediate rides should be at the planned goal ride pace
• one of the intermediate rides, preferably prior to your day off the bike, should be at a brisk pace 5 – 10 km/h faster than your planned goal ride pace.

I always take a speed of 30 km/h as my goal and a measurement of hard work, during my rides. Why you ask? Well because at this speed, it always takes 2 minutes for each kilometer of my ride. So, it is easy to calculate my average speed at any time during my ride, and make instant corrections if required. For example, one look at my bike-computer tells me that after 20 minutes riding, I should have covered 10 km of the ride. After 30 minutes 15 km, etc. you get the idea. If I’m behind this goal, I know I am doing a slow ride. Besides, this speed is perfect for my age group: not slow, but not too fast.

5. You can estimate the length of your training program by taking the long ride from your base training period, increasing it by 10% to 15% a week, and repeating this until you arrive at a figure that is at least 75% of the length of the event for which you are training.

6. Remember to be flexible and adjust your program to your lifestyle. A rigid program is destined to fail.

7. A good nutrition program is an important part of preseason training. Carbohydrates are the key to optimizing your personal performance. If you are planning to trim off a few pounds while training, cutting back on total Calories risks poor performance and the psychological impact of feeling you are not going to be at or beyond last years level. So if you are trying to shed the pounds, be prepared to deal with the fatigue that will surely occur on those longer rides. Suggestions for nutrition for six specific types of rides are summarized on the web site Cycling Performance Tips.

 I’m ready for the spring rides; are you?

Keep these tips in mind as you plan your training program and it should be a successful riding season! Hope to see you somewhere on the road in Strathcona County this spring! And don’t forget to say ‘Hi’ to an old guy on the bike dressed all in blue colors (I love blue)!

Tales from the peloton, November 15, 2009

Gösta Pettersson was the first cyclist born north of the Rhine to win the Giro d’Italia when he passed the finish line on the Swedish pine boards of the Vigorello velodrome in Milan on June 10, 1971. It was and is Sweden’s first and only Grand Tour victory. Cyclingnews’ Tomas Nilsson brings Pettersson’s story to the internet age. 

Swedish riders have enjoyed plenty of success in recent years. From Magnus Backstedt’s Paris-Roubaix win to Gustav Eric Larsson’s silver medal in the Beijing Olympics and Thomas Lövkvist’s stint in the Giro’s best young rider jersey. These riders were not even born when Gösta Pettersson took his Giro win and when, the year before, he was the first northerner on the Tour podium when he finished third behind Eddy Merckx and Joop Zoetemelk.

Pettersson’s career did not follow the normal path of a professional cyclist. He waited until the ripe old age of 29 to join the professional ranks.

In the late 60′s Gösta Pettersson was the dominating rider on the amateur level in Europe. Known for his three successive team time trial world championship titles, he was also a formidable stage racer. Among other feats, he managed to lead the British Milk Race from start to finish for 14 days.  

His reasons for remaining an amateur for so long?

“Well, I got my first offers around ’65-’66 but those days there were no doping controls at all. They didn’t come until Tom Simpson died in the Tour of 1967. I didn’t want to be part of that, I had seen enough among the riders from east Europe that we had to deal with. And also I wanted to see how my brothers developed,” Gösta Pettersson explained from his home in his native town of Vårgårda.

Swedish national team: Erik Pettersson, Gösta Pettersson, Sture Pettersson and Tomas Pettersson

Yes, the brothers. In the 1960s Gösta, Sture, Erik and Thomas Pettersson formed the Swedish national team with three world team time trial titles.

” I got my first offers around ’65-’66 but those days there were no doping controls at all … I didn’t want to be part of that.” 

-Gösta Pettersson explains why he stayed an amateur until the age of 29.

Further motivation to remain amateur was the 1968 Olympic Games. The three oldest brothers, Gösta, Sture and Erik had won the bronze in Tokyo in 1964 with Sven Hamrin as fourth man. 

Mexico City 1968: Erik Pettersson, Gösta Pettersson, Sture Pettersson and Tomas Pettersson

In Mexico 1968 they were the favourites, now with youngster Thomas filling up the team. But an untimely puncture and a Dutch squad containing among others Joop Zoetemelk and Fedor den Hertog came in the way. Silver was a loss, at least in the eyes of the Swedish public. Gösta then took the bronze in the Olympic road race. Some weeks later, the brothers won their second world team time trial title.

“We got an offer from the Ferretti team for the 1969 season but turned it down,” Pettersson recalled. A year and another world title later, the four Ferretti brothers came back and managed to sign the four Pettersson brothers.

“Ferretti was a kitchen equipment manufacturer just like Salvarani and SCIC that also had successful cycling teams. The had launched a four year project from 1969 so we came in in the second year. It was a pretty big team, some 20 riders. Apart from us four brothers they also had the Belgian Albert van Vlierberghe which filled their quota of foreigners. The rest were Italian neo-pros almost all of them.”

The first season was a success for a beginner. Gösta shocked the experienced pros by winning the final stage of the Tour de Romandie, a 43 km time trial, which lifted him from fourth place to the top of the podium.

“All the best Italians were there so I think I surprised them a bit.”  In the following Giro he came in sixth, 9:20 after the winner, Eddy Merckx. 

Then followed the Tour de France. A gruelling 23 stages long plus a prologue, and five of the stages were split days to make 29 races in 24 days. Pettersson hung in there while others cracked. In the end he was third after Merckx and Zoetemelk. A third on the final day’s 54 km individual time trial from Versailles to Paris was his best stage result. His 23-year-old brother Thomas also did well with a second place, beaten only by Merckx, in one of the shorter time trials.

The following year started even better. Gösta Pettersson was second in Paris-Nice behind Merckx, with brother Erik in fifth. The Giro d’Italia was the main target of the season, especially since a certain Belgian wasn’t riding.

“It was a tough parcours. It started down in the south with a sort of relay if I remember correctly. But the the real competition started immediately. The race followed the Apennines northwards and there were some really tough mountain stages early on. Felice Gimondi cracked on one of these,” Pettersson recalls.

“When we came in to Austria, on the stage to Grossglockner, I was in a good position. Claudio Michelotto led the race but we managed to crack him going up to Franz Jozefs Höhe. But he hung on to a car and finished only one and a half minute down. They gave him a one minute penalty and a fine but it should have been more. Luckily for me there were a couple of more mountains stages so we got rid of him the day after.

“It was hard though. The team was quite inexperienced so I was mostly left alone in the high mountains.”

Pettersson’s tactic was to hang in there and wait for the others to crack. He was not a man of frequent attacks and also seldom had any fancy winner’s gestures. The final stage was a 20 km time trial ending in the Vigorello velodrome in Milan. Even with his first Grand Tour victory just completed, his finish was typical Gösta Pettersson. He just rode over the line, unclipped his pedal and that was it.

In his second season, Gösta Pettersson reached the peak of his career with his Tour de France podium finish. Or had he?

“No, actually I think I did better in the Tour de Suisse in 1974. I was second to Merckx again, but this time he only beat me in the time trials, he didn’t manage to get rid of me in the mountains. And for us that raced in those days being second to Merckx was like winning at any other time. We were up against the best rider ever, that’s for sure.”

Nevertheless, the 1974 season was Gösta’s final year as a pro. The Ferretti project ended according to plan in 1973. Erik Pettersson had returned to Sweden in 1972, Sture went home after the 1973 season while Gösta and Thomas signed for SCIC where Gösta was one of three leaders. Due to illnesses his results never came up to the standard of 1971. In 1974 he did better with Magniflex than with SCIC but still decided to quit.

“It was time to think about the future. I got an offer from my bike sponsor Monark to take over their bike shop. And the kids were about to start school so I moved back to Sweden. It was a decision that I regretted already after a year. I could have done another five good years.”

What was done was done, however, and Gösta went back to being an amateur and did some minor races in Sweden, but just time trials. 

“We were really treated badly by the federation when we came home. We were not allowed to start in any major races and there was a five year quarantine for the national championships. We could have done Swedish cycling some favors. If nothing else, [we could have] made the national races harder. But the federation had a president with international ambitions. To keep the amateurism clean was the most important task for the Olympic movement those days. So we were treated harder than any other athletes and the federation president got his seat in the International Olympic Committee.”

So how was racing those days compared to what the riders experience today?

“Well, the races were pretty much the same. An early breakaway and then some hard work to bring it down. But all races were longer. Almost all were way more than 200 kilometres long. There weren’t that many crashes either. I only crashed once so badly that I had to abandon.”

“One big difference though is that riders nowadays split their seasons and have rest or training periods. We had our training in the winter and then in February the racing season started and went on until October. I really didn’t do any proper training during the season. I just raced. Most riders get worn by the long stage races but then some, and I was lucky to be one of them, gets stronger from hard racing.

“We did most of our racing in Italy since that was where our sponsor had its market. I did Roubaix and Flanders one year, but mostly we raced in Italy plus the Tour and Paris-Nice.”

So what does the all-time greatest team time trialist think about team time trials that seem to be the fashion in the stage races today?

“These are no real team time trials. Team time trial is a four man sport. With those nine men teams you cannot get the right rhythm especially since the teams have riders of all sorts, sprinters, climbers and time triallists. It’s pretty odd that they started with team time trials among the pros after they took it away from the World’s programme. Team time trialling is really the essence of cycling since the drafting is the most important factor and something you don’t have in other sports.”

Photography from: cyclingwebsite.com

Gösta Pettersson

Name:                                Gösta
Family name:                      Pettersson (Fåglum)
Nationality:                         Sweden
Gender:                              Male
Age:                                  68 years
Date of birth:                      November 23, 1940
Place of birth:                      Alingsås, Västra Götaland, Sweden
Professional:                       1970-1974
Gender:                                   Male 
Height:                                    6’2″ (189 cm)
Weight:                                   165 lbs (75 kg)

Affiliations:

Gösta Pettersson (born November 23, 1940 in Alingsås Municipality) is a Swedish former professional road racing cyclist and three-time Olympic medalist. The highlight of his career was his overall win in the 1971 Giro d’Italia. He was also third in the 1970 Tour de France which was in his first year as a professional, at age 30.

In 1967, The Fåglum brothers (Erik Pettersson, Gösta Pettersson, Sture Pettersson and Tomas Pettersson) were awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal. The brothers won the World Amateur Cycling Championships between 1967-1969 along with a silver medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics.

1964 (amateur)

3rd (Bronze) – 1964 Summer Olympics – 100 km Team Time Trial
3rd (Bronze) – World Amateur Cycling Championships – 185 km Men’s Road Race
1967 (amateur)
1st (Gold) – World Amateur Cycling Championships – 100 km Team Time Trial
1968 (amateur)
1st (Gold) – World Amateur Cycling Championships – 100 km Team Time Trial
2nd (Silver) – 1968 Summer Olympics – 100 km Team Time Trial
3rd (Bronze) – 1968 Summer Olympics – Men’s Road Race
1st overall – Tour of Britain
1969 (amateur)
1st (Gold) – World Amateur Cycling Championships – 100 km Team Time Trial
1970 – Ferretti
1st Overall – Tour de Romandie
1st – Coppa Sabatini
3rd Overall – Tour de France
1971 – Ferretti
1st Overall – Giro d’Italia
1st Overall – Giro dell’Appennino
1st Overall – Giro delle Marche
1973 – Scic
7th Overall – Tour de Suisse
Winner stage 8b
1974 – Magniflex
2nd Overall – Tour de Suisse

By: Zdenko Kahlina

First Babici Jota-Moreno bike gets into Canada
Although I always take bike with me when traveling, on my last trip to Australia I left my Marinoni race bike at home, so that I can save some money I would normally pay for air transport (these days this can be significant amount of money!).

I was visiting my old cycling friend Ivan who now lives in Sydney. When I asked him about the bike his response was in typical Australian accent: ‘No worries, mate, I’ll have a bike for you once you get here!

When I arrived in Sydney, after a 15 hour long journey from Vancouver, Ivan introduced me to Mr. Kev Babakian founder of the ‘Babici.cc’ company. Kev have had prepared specially for me, beautiful black ‘Babici Jota-Moreno’ frame (size 51 cm) with SRAM-Red components. Jota-Moreno means ‘Black Joe’ in Portuguese and ‘Babici’ is simply the name of the company Kev Babakian runs. Babici is a grass roots cycling brand made by cyclists for cyclists.

 Babici Jota-Moreno [SRAM RED Build]

I immediately fell in love with this bike. The bike really looked cool all in black, with oversized sky blue lettering across the down tube. Built with the world’s leading Carbon Fibre (T700 from Toray Japan) the Monocoque assembly technique serves to deliver a light and stiff frame for racing and social riding on the road.

The frame itself is very light (970gr), with fork and headset (additional 380gr), and this came to just 1.35 kg. Both are made with leading carbon manufacturer from Japan called Toray. Complete bike weights in respectable 7.5 kg, pretty light for such unknown frame and not particularly light components. The paint job is amazing, simply beautiful. It almost doesn’t appear painted; it looks like the frame was just made with the colors in the polymer.

Babici Jota-Moreno [SRAM RED Build] in the snow.

I asked Kevin how he got the idea to sell Babici bikes: ‘The Babici® Jota-Moreno’ or ‘Black Joe’ is by far our biggest achievement, said Kev. The bike frame became popular after having it made for our first photo shoot for the Babici apparel. People saw the bike and asked us to make them one. We took out an exclusive license for our region to brand and distribute the frame from our manufacturers in China. We were so impressed with the manufacturing facility that we did not hesitate to partner with them. We use a 3k carbon fibre and a monocoque moulding process to compete the frames. Whilst the demands are more of a boutique offering, we are able to offer custom finishing in the colours.

My Jota was pieced together with SRAM-Red groupset components. I never used this groupset before so this was all new to me. The front triangle of the frame is a Monocoque construction. This shape not only adds complexity to the layup but also stiffness to the tubes. It also is a clear indicator that while these frames may be made in Asia, they are certainly not a mass produced item. They make every frame to order. Every frame is tested for safety and cracks and is passed through a QC process. All testing is under strict guidelines endorsed by the UCI. Bike rolled on the top-notch Mavic Ksyrium SL Clincher black wheels. Other components were all 3T – LTD edition in carbon. The rider’s undercarriage was perched atop a Prologo Scratch Nack white saddle, which I really liked. I brought my own Look Keo 2 Carbon pedals and the computer was also my own Garmin 705, but without cadence sensor which I left in Canada.

Jota-Moreno Build includes:

FRAME DESCRIPTION: Toray T700 carbon fibre road frame
GROUPSET: SRAM-Red
CHAINRINGS: 53/39
CASSETTE: SRAM-Red 12-25
STEM: 3T ARX LTD edition Stem
HANDLE BAR: 3T LTD edition
SEAT POST: 3T LTD edition
SADDLE: Prologo Scratch Nack Carbon (White)
WHEELS: MAVIC Ksyrium SL (Black)
TYRES: Continental Force (Black)
WEIGHT: 7.5 kg
PRICE: $6,195 AUD (as tested)
Frame only: $1,850 AUD
WEB: http://babici.cc/en/

Short Description: High modulus Racing frame: RL-Fr015 Fork: RL-FK007 Material: Full carbon weave 3k/UD/12K Finish: Clear coating Frame weight: 970gr (51 cm) Fork weight: 380gr. Headset-down: 1-1/2” BB: ENG BSA Available sizes: 49cm, 51cm, 53cm, 58cm.

Testing of Jota-Moreno in Oatley Park. After all the rain in recent days, a sunny ride around Sydney in the NSW was just what Zdenko needed and Jota-Moreno was perfect for the job.

First test: Sydney, Oatley Park
When I’d finally set the saddle position I pumped up the tyres and took off for a ride with my friend Ivan. I took Jota for a first ride into Oatley Park in southern Sydney, where we rode on Christensen Circuit through the beautiful park.

This is the course that Ivan is using very often as he’s riding there with the local mates all the time. The course was only about 2 km from where Ivan lives (Hurstville), so there was very little time spent in traffic. Once in the park, we did two easy laps and than four fast ones. Ivan was measuring time for each (fast) lap, and according to his timing we had pretty good times.

Cables are neatly integrated and don’t rattle. The headtube shape is smoothed for aerodynamics.

Cables are neatly integrated under the seat post.

Jota-Moreno is a sprinter’s dream bike
Within a handful of kilometres through the city streets I was already seriously impressed with the bike. The bike fitted me perfectly and it made a big first impression. One of the things I noticed immediately was how short the top tube is. Because of that it gave me the filling of total control over the bike and I liked it. When out of the saddle the bike was moving under me exactly the way I wanted it. I was in full control. It was clear that Jota bike has exceptional power transfer without jeopardising the sort of smooth ride that everyone wants today. This bike must be any sprinter’s dream!

This bike fitted me perfectly

SRAM-Red groupset components worked to perfection

The first time I had to use the brakes I was surprised at how accurately the braking power can be modulated. You get a lot of feedback through the SRAM Red levers and when you start pulling more the bite in the callipers becomes incredibly strong. The more I used them during my ride in the park the more I was convinced that these brakes perform at least as well as any others on the market.

The brakes worked accurately and it’s easy to get back in control after braking manoeuvres.

Accelerating on lightweight bikes is always a pleasure, especially when I know that it is not equipped with mega-expensive tuning parts but just high-end groupsets and components which can be ordered by anyone.

The stiffness of the bottom bracket and steering is equally important for transferring your energy to the road. Thanks to the slightly heavier but incredibly strong aluminum 3T stem you can pull as hard as you like on the bars while putting down the power.

Zdenko found the bottom bracket to be very stiff

Nowadays I consider lateral stiffness in the bottom bracket and the cockpit area more important then low weight, because both are key factors when it comes to performance. Bottom bracket stiffness is vital to get up the slopes without any loss of energy, while a rigid cockpit let us maintain the momentum we’ve just earned when zooming back down the hill fast because we’re always in control.

When tackling the first hills on my ride through the park, I followed the same procedure as I do on most of my rides, even back when I was a pro (back in the 70’s). Not much has changed. With the maximum momentum I could get on this bike’s 53 x 12. I sprinted into the first 7 percent gradient ascent after a short downhill. Going flat out for 200m, producing probable around 500 watts for about half of that distance, takes a lot out of the rider and asks a lot of the bike. I was convinced that all my power went into the Continental clincher tires and onto the road. The Babici Jota would probable stand a lifetime of these sprints without complaint – but I am not a pro anymore, so for now I’d learned what I wanted to know after only one sprint. My heart bits were in the red zone and it was time to settle into a rhythm and ride steadily through the sunshine for a while.

The only manor complaint I had was about the front derailleur that was not properly adjusted and up-shifting to a big 53 chain-ring was not possible at first attempt. If the race bike isn’t shifting smoothly this can be a big problem during the race, but in my case it took little adjusting work after the ride and it was all good.

Mavic Ksyrium SL Wheel Set
The Ksyrium SL Premium is a high quality, light weight 700c road wheel made with a mix of exotic materials such as Titanium and Carbon Fiber. Front wheel revolution is managed by a Carbon Fiber body hub with alloy flanges laced with 18 spokes to a black anodised Maxtal rim while the rear features an alloy body hub (with titanium blended QR skewer) laced with 20 spokes to a black anodised Maxtal rim. Wheelset weight comes in at 1480g for the pair.

My first test was over after only one hour of riding and overall my first impression of the bike was great. Next test will be in Adelaide area, where we are planning to climb on bigger mountains than what we have here in Sydney. Besides we were going there to watch ‘Santos Tour Down Under’, world cup race for professionals.

In Adelaide, before the test ride: Zdenko, Kev and Ivan

Second test: Adelaide, climbing Mount Lefty
My ride began with a relaxed cruise through the Adelaide streets – itself a welcome change after hectic Sydney traffic few days earlier – and I enjoyed every single pedal stroke. With warm temperatures and bright blue sky, I turned off to the left from my hotel and followed street signs towards Mount Lefty. Ivan’s plan was to climb this mountain above Adelaide which meant it will be a hard day on the bike. After only few kilometers through the city the road was heading up and the climbing began.

Knowing I had a 39 x 25 bottom gear, I was quite optimistic and went through the first two kilometres of this steep climb pretty hard. Soon after, I reached my maximum threshold heart rate and had to settle into a slower rhythm as I knew this climb was about 9 km long. After about 10 minutes into the climb, I needed my lowest ratio and comfortable pedalling in the saddle, was no longer an option.

Climbing monster
The power transfer on my Jota bike feels perfect when climbing. Even pulling hard on the brake hoods doesn’t trouble the 3T stem and bar combination. A stiff cockpit is something I really love on a race bike. Especially when sprinting or with grades steeper than 10 per cent, it becomes more and more important in order to get the maximum pedal power onto the road.

3T stem and handlebar combination

I started taking aggressive lines in the corners and really stamping on the pedals coming out. In the switchbacks I could experience the Jota’s incredible acceleration. It really does fire out of the turns. I love a bike that climbs well. My other bike is a Canadian made ‘Marinoni’ and is not even close in hill climbing performance compared to this Jota.

The SRAM-Red groupset worked as smoothly and perfectly as always, even when the momentum I gained in the corner was neutralised by gravity and I had to get back on the 25 with lots of tension on the chain.

My problem was at that time that I was already at my maximum threshold heart rate and was breathing loud and heavy. At the same time I could hear Ivan behind me pedaling easily, even pointing to me beautiful scenery surrounding us. I started to think about past years and days when I was stronger climber than him… hoping this would help me coping with this long climb and the heat… but it didn’t!

Further up the hill it got a bit smoother, and whenever I could, I stayed in the saddle. Because I didn’t tighten the seat clamp to the max there was a little creaking noise, every time I hit the bump on the road. I didn’t have any tools with me so I decided to put up with this irritating noise under my saddle, than suffer a broken seat clamp in the middle of the Australian mountains.

Three mates with Babici Jota-Moreno bike on top of Mt Lofty

Mount Lofty Summit
At the end of the climb I was happy to get off the bike and take a well deserved breather. With spectacular panoramic views of Adelaide and surrounds just 20 minutes drive from Adelaide (for us it was about 1 hour on the bike), Mount Lofty Summit is a must see for any visitor to South Australia! At 710 meters above sea level, the summit landing provides you with breathtaking views of the cities landmarks, and coastline. While my heart rate recovered I had a close look at this high end bike from far East. We also asked some tourists to take our pictures at the summit.

Descending too fast…
After the brake I threw myself into the descent. Because descent from Mt. Lofty is a dead end road, we turned around at the top and shot down the same road for some action. The road on the way down was steep, twisty and narrow, and the Joda’s fork, frame and wheels did not disappoint me one bit. All I felt was great handling, precise cornering and confidence to brake late and descend the way I like it most: fast and furious. The biggest problem for me was riding on the left side of the road (as they do in Australia!), and I had to force myself into constantly thinking about it, and stay safely on the correct side of the road.

Posing in Adelaide for the publishing of this review: Zdenko, Kev and Ivan. Notice there are two BABICI Jota-Moreno bikes.

There were no cars around so I could really explore the excellent grip of the Continental clinchers by using loads of lean angle in the switchbacks. The Jota bike was great fun even when skidding the back wheel a bit after late breaking manoeuvres it’s easy to get back in control. When the road opened out towards the bottom, entering Adelaide again, I did a speed test – full sprint and than tuck in. I must have hit at least 80 km/h as I was on the smallest gear (53 x 12). Given that I was riding this Chinese made bike, I was surprised about its smoothness and how accurately it tracks a line when ridden close to the limit. No matter how much I leant it over or how rapidly the road switched back on itself, nothing got it into trouble. If only I could’ve fix that creaking noise coming from under my saddle. If someone gets dropped on a descent riding Jota bike, they should book themselves a riding skills course…

During the ride I always felt the bike to be responsive to the demands I was sending through the bottom bracket. I really got to know how this bike performed in such hilly terrain. The answer being admirably! To prove the point, when I reached Adelaide, there were no signs of Kev and Ivan. I left them in my dust!! LOL!

With local mates: Sasa, Ivan, Zdenko and Kev

Ride thru the Royal National Park
Back in Sydney, once the rain finally stopped, we did another training ride beginning in Hurstville through the Royal National Park. I went on my new Jota with local mates, Ivan, Sasa, Greg and Kev. Road was still flooded from the recent rainfall, but we managed to do the full course around the park, which was about 60 km long. During the ride, one of the guys gave me a compliment ‘how my style reminds him on Alejandro Valverde’, who was recently participating in the ‘Tour Down Under’ world pro cycling race in the Adelaide area. I liked the compliment, but I think it was also directed to my new bike and Jota-Moreno frame, which suited me perfectly, thus my positioning on the bike looked really good.

Flooded road in Royal National Park

Croatian friends: Ivan and Zdenko

Conclusion
The more kilometers I rode, the happier I felt on the bike. By the end of my holidays, I liked it so much that I asked Kev to sell me the bike. He gave me a brake on the price and now the first ever Babici Jota-Moreno race bike is with me in Canada. This spring you’ll see me riding it on my usual courses around Arrdrosan and Sherwood Park in Strathcona County.

In conclusion, the Jota Moreno is a frame that makes people smile every time they hop onto it and is available in several different sizes, bottom brackets and colours. This is not flat out race machine but still capable of race-winning sprints given a decent set of legs. And now I’ll end this review with the traditional Australian slang ‘No worries, MATE!’ This can be applied to all potential buyers of this bike.

Babici kit is also available for sale

For more information about Babici Jota-Moreno frame or to place your orders, visit Babici site or send email to Kev Babakian:

Website: http://babici.cc/en/

Email: kev@babici.cc
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/babicibicycleculture

The Jota-Moreno bike is a striking bike and Zdenko found it rides as good as it looks.

Source: Pro Cycling magazine

The Rise and Fall of Marco Pantani: Pantani crashes in the 1995 Milano – Torino one-day race
Three years before he won the Tpour de France, Marco Pantani’s career hovered on the brink when he crashed into a Jeep during Milano – Torino on October 18, 1995.

Marco Pantani (January 13, 1970 – February 14, 2004)

The 25 year-old was one of the three riders who ploughed into the vehicle on a descent – a potentially fatal accident which occurred when police mistakenly allowed the Jeep onto the course while some of the riders were still due to pass.

Pantani was regarded as arguably the most exiting young talent in cycling and also the most gifted climber seen in many years. He turned pro in August 1992 then shot into the time light two seasons later when he seized two stages in the Giro d’Italia in typical swashbuckling style and placed third in his first Tour de France.

The important months of 1995 were every bit as good, with the Italian romping to dramatic stage wins at Alpe d’Huez and Guzet-Neige in the Tour, then picking up a bronze medal at the World Road Race Championships in Columbia. Those performances ensured that the news of his crash on October 18 dominated the headlines. Multiple fractures put his career in serious doubt, landed the Italian in hospital and left his leg in an external brace, with rods screwed into his tibia in order to prevent the bone from shortening.

Equally serious was the fallout from the crash. When Pantani was admitted to hospital, his hematocrit was clocked at 60 per cent, while his hemoglobin was 20.8 g per 100 ml. The figures were much higher than could be considered normal and almost certain proof of EPO use. The Italian then suffered from a sudden and near-catastrophic bout of anemia, possibly related to withdrawal from the hormone.

A week after his hematocrit dropped to 15.9 per cent and he needed a blood transfusion to save his life. Pantani fought back, resuming competition in August 1996 and returning to top form when he took two stage wins in the 1997 Tour de France. Had the Milano – Torino crash been any more serious, Pantani could have lost his life even earlier than his tragically premature death in February 2004.

Eight Years After: Marco Pantani Remembered

It has been eight years since Marco Pantani’s passing on the 14th of February 2004. Marco Pantani died alone in Rimini, in a motel after three days spent in a small room without seeing anybody. Pantani was still a Pro rider. During the previous year, during the Giro, he was able to show great moments and I remember, all over the winter, many people wondering about Il Pirata’s plans for the 2004. Then it all ended.

Alessandro Federico takes a look back at the questions, the dismay following the news, and the loss of the flamboyant scalatore. It wouldn’t do a piece like this justice to include just a couple of pictures, so we included many, many pictures as a sort of photographic journey…in no particular order.

Jan Ullrich with Pantani

Some said they were sure of a new team for Marco: there were rumors around the Domina Vacanze, Cipollini’s team. Marco and Mario were friends. Looking nowadays to that event we can understand how strong was the message to all the cyclists. “Stay your place” – “Don’t touch the wires”. That’s one of the reason we have now great riders but small heroes. And this system, this suspicious feeling already affected all supporters dreams and fantasy. There’s a picture that shows Armstrong and Pantani in the top of Mont Ventoux. That was a battle. That was an epic and real duel. That was the beginning of the century. But someone else decided we couldn’t enjoy it. Pantani wasn’t invited any more to that competition. Why?

Are you really still looking for the answer? 

Marco Pantani (January 13, 1970 – February 14, 2004)

By: Dr. Samuel Johnson

Monte Pasubio, the hero’s road across the Sacred Area of Italy
The Strada delle Gallerie [Road of Tunnels] is a mountain path cut into Monte Pasubio. It was built in 1916 by Italian mountain troops and teams of miners. The Strada was started in March 1917 and finished by the end of the year.

Monte Pasubio – Strada delle 52

There are many military paths in the Dolomites. What makes the Strada unusual is that it runs through 52 tunnels with a total length of 2,300m. A further 4,000m of path is cut into the side of Monte Pasubio. It is one of the best high level paths in the Dolomites.

The start to Strada delle Gallerie is in Bocchetta Campiglia. The path eventually arrives at the Rifugio Generale Papa. On the other side of the Rifguo is the loop known as Strada degli Eroi (Road of Heroes). The Strada della Gallerie is officially closed to mountain bikers, there are barriers but they are easily bypassed. Disclaimer: it’s dangerous, ride at your own risk.

Travel information
Difficulty: medium
Gradients: 1,330 m.
Travel time: 3.30 hours
Category: Mountain Biking
Features: Medium-difficulty Path, Nature hike/excursion
Accesses: Pian delle Fugazze (1,163m)

This trail runs along the military roads built in the proximity of the front line which, during World War One, crossed the area of Pasubio and was the theatre of a series of bloody battles, for which reason it was christened the “Sacred Area of Italy”, in remembrance of the many soldiers who died there. Along the trail are preserved many memories of these tragic wartime events: in particular, the Road of Heroes (Strada degli Eroi) was almost entirely excavated in the rock, to allow supplies to be brought to the Pasubio front from behind the lines, safely protected from the fire of the Austrian artillery.

Monte Pasubio – Strada delle 52

Monte Pasubio – Strada delle 52

Monte Pasubio – the ultimate MTB destination
The starting point is at the Ossuary Monument of Pian delle Fugazze, with the monument dedicated to the soldiers who died on the Pasubio Plateau. From here, descend 3 kilometres to the Ponte Verde junction and take the unsurfaced road to Colle Xomo. Riding on an uphill stretch you reach Bocchetta Campiglia (signposted), from where begins the suggestive Strada delle Gallerie – the underground road (of which there are a total of 52) – where you must dismount from the bike and walk, up to the Porte del Pasubio. Then continue downhill towards Malga Campiglia, where the demanding climb on the Strada degli Scarubbi begins, which climbs steeply up a narrow valley. Skirting the ridge of Caneve di Campiglia, a last uphill stretch leads to 1928 m a.s.l. to the so-called Porte del Pasubio – the Gateway of Pasubio – from where you eventually come to the amphitheatre of the “Sacred Area of Pasubio”. Here you can see a number of emplacements, observation points, military tunnels, or climb up to the Cima Palon peak, on foot, from where you can view, down below, the rugged and rocky plateau on which the two armies clashed.

YOUTUBE:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Strada delle 52 Gallerie
During the First World War the front line between the Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces ran through the Dolomites. Monte Pasubio was a crucial stronghold for the Italians. They had to hold the mountain, but their supply lines to the mountain were being shelled and were subject to avalanches [on one day, the 13th December 1916, known as 'White Friday', 10,000 soldiers were killed by avalanches in the Dolomites]. The answer to the Italian Army’s problems was the Strada delle 52 Gallerie.

The Strada delle Gallerie [Road of Tunnels] is a mountain path cut into Monte Pasubio in the Dolomites in Italy. It was built in 1916 by Italian mountain troops and teams of miners. The Strada was started in March 1917 and finished by the end of the year.

There are many military paths in the Dolomites. What makes the Strada unusual is that it runs through 52 tunnels with a total length of 2,300m. A further 4,000m of path is cut into the side of Monte Pasubio. It is one of the best high level paths in the Dolomites and walking it is a memorable experience.

Travelling to the Strada
We stayed in the pleasant town of Rovereto. Next morning we drove along the SP46 from Rovereto towards Valli del Pasubio. About three quarters of the way along we turned onto a road running north to the start of the walk at Bocchetta Campiglia.

The track from the SP46 to Bocchetta Campiglia is narrow with few passing places. We didn’t meet any traffic coming down the track and were very grateful for that. The local commune need to get out their box of gelignite and blast some more passing places [they could also straighten out some of the worse bends]. During the summer months it may be necessary to pause and buy a parking voucher on your way up the track. There are two car parks at Bocchetta Campiglia. The Strada delle 52 Gallerie starts from the first car park. After your walk you have to drive back the same way you came.

The route
The walk starts at a car park at Bocchetta Campiglia [1216m] and ends at an Italian Alpine Club refuge called A Papa [1928m]. There is an information board at the start of the walk, with a small section in English. Each tunnel is numbered and at intervals there are more boards giving information on the next few tunnels.

Looking back to the start of the path. The car park is just visible in the centre of the picture.

The tunnels vary considerably in length. The longest one is over 300m long. There are a few short ones but many in the 40-90m range. A good torch [plus a spare and batteries is essential]. There are long stretches of tunnel where it is pitch black. You will not need a helmet. I am almost 6ft and managed with a bit of stooping.

You will be ascending [sometimes steeply] pretty much all the time. Only the last two tunnels slope down. In some of the tunnels the path is smooth. In others it is very uneven. Water drips down from some tunnel roofs and makes the path slippery.

As you get higher there are splendid views of the valley. About two thirds of the way along there is a long open stretch where the path is cut into the side of the mountain.

Monte Pasubio – Strada delle 52

By the time we got past tunnel 40 we were in cloud. At the end of the Strada you arrive at Refuge A Papa where you can eat and drink. I think they also offer accommodation.

Monte Pasubio – Strada delle 52

There appeared to be a path continuing beyond Refuge Papa. It looked as if it was cut into the side of the mountain in the same way as parts of the Strada, but without any tunnels. My map seems to indicate that this path is part of what is called “The Road of Heroes”.

Alternative routes
There are three paths between the car park at Bocchetta Campiglia and Refuge A Papa.

The Strada delle Gallerie [blue on the map]
Sentiero Gaetano Falcipieri [a grade 2 via ferrata] [red on the map]
Path 370 [green on the map]. This is a long open path that runs on the other side of the ridge from the Strada.

The Strada runs on the south side of the ridge, the via ferrata along the ridge and 370 on the north side of the ridge.

This photograph [not mine] shows the three paths.

We went up by the Strada and came down by 370. More hearty types might go up by the via ferrata and back by the Strada. I don’t think descending through the tunnels is a good idea.

In some of the tunnels it is very steep and rough underfoot. The rock is also wet and descending offers numerous opportunities to acquire multiple contusions. If you plan to descend through the tunnels a walking pole would be handy to help you keep your balance [and a foam rubber suit].

The above photograph shows Path 370.

One of the car parks at Bocchetta Campiglia.

Map
The relevant map is Kompass’s 1:50,000 101 [Roverto – Monte Pasubio]. The map was handy for finding the turn-off from the main road. It was not needed after that.

Via ferrata
See this page for an excellent illustrated guide to the via ferrata Sentiero Gaetano Falcipieri that runs alongside the Strada. Another guide can be found in Via Ferratas of the Italian Dolomites: Volume 2 by Fletcher and Smith. Published in 2003 by Cicerone [UK].

Mountain biking
The Strada is supposed to be a classic mountain bike ride. The authorities have erected barriers at either end to stop bikers but it would be possible to pass bikes over the barriers. However, I think someone would have to be very silly to do the Strada as a mountain bike ride. It would be too dangerous and too much hard work for little benefit.

Timings
The journey between Rovereto and the car park at Bocchetta Campiglia took about 1 hour each way. It took us 3.5 hours to ascend the Strada and almost 2 hours to descend path 370. A sign at Refuge Papa states that it is only 2km along 370 to the car park. Don’t believe it.

Location
The Bocchetta Campiglia carpark is 19.09 kilometres [11.86 miles] south east of Rovereto at Latitude 45 degrees 46 minutes and 43.07 seconds. Longitude 11 degrees 13 minutes 40.81 seconds.

A World Heritage site?
I have written about other WW1 sites in the Dolomites in my posts on Via Ferrata Lagazuoi Tunnels and Monte Piana. The Strada is on a far grander scale than either of those. It has been described as ‘a marvel of military engineering’ and that ‘no other work equals it along the entire European front’. Because of its history [it played an important part in a key battle] and because it is so exceptional I think UNESCO might consider the path for World Heritage status. After all, so little remains of this terrible conflict. There are a few trench systems, the forts at Verdun and the cemeteries in France. We should have at least one relic of WWI on the World Heritage list.

Read more
You can read more about the war in the Dolomites in Mark Thompson’s The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919. (Faber and Faber, 2008).

Add your experiences
Have you walked the Strada? Leave a comment below to describe your experiences.

Related Posts
For more posts on the Dolomites, other walks or my blogger’s selections click on the tags on the right.

More photographs
http://addiator.blogspot.com/p/strada-delle-52-gallerie.html

By Bicycling Magazine

Bicycling’s 50 Golden Rules
Cyclists are innovators, constantly hunting for an edge. Over the last half-century, we’ve tried thousands of methods to become stronger, faster, and smarter on a bike—many of which have been discarded through the years. These have endured.

1. To corner, enter wide and exit wide.

2. Brake Less
It sounds counterintuitive, but the harder you yank on the brakes, the less control you have over your bike. The best riders brake well before a corner. Plus, laying off the stoppers forces you to focus on key bike cornering skills such as weight distribution, body position, and line choice.

3. Look Where You Want to Go
“When riding a tricky or dangerous section of trail (or road), focus on the path you want your bike to follow, not the rock, tree, or other obstacle you’re trying to avoid,” says globe-trotting mountain-biker Hans Rey.

4. Avoid Helmet Hair
“For God’s sake, make sure your hair is under your helmet and not poking out the front,” advises Garmin-Cervelo pro Christian Vande Velde.

5. Take the Lane
You have a right to the road, so use it. It’s safer than riding on the shoulder, which is often cracked, covered in gravel, or worse. But don’t be a road hog, either.

6. Ride with the Best
Before he built his first mountain bike, GARY FISHER was an aspiring road racer. But his decision to stay in America rather than train in Europe derailed his chances of joining the pro peloton. “To be the best at the sport, you need to go to where the best are riding,” Fisher says. “If you’re a mountain biker, spend a couple of weeks at Whistler and you will be changed forever. If you’re a road rider and want to be a better climber, go to Colorado. Find the best, train with them, watch what they do, and learn their secrets.”

7. Set Your Suspension—And Check It Often
It’s frightening how many riders hit the trail with poorly adjusted forks and shocks. Not only will droopy suspension make your bike feel like a wet noodle, it can also be downright dangerous. A few simple adjustments are all it takes to have your suspension smoothly sucking up bumps.

Here are some general guidelines, but be sure to read the manufacturer’s recommendations (found online or in your owner’s manual) because they will provide the starting point based on your bike’s suspension design. And because air can leak through the seals, remember to check your pressure monthly.

Again, start in the middle setting. Ride a short, rough section of trail. If the fork or shock seems too springy, add a click of rebound. If it bounces back too slowly, dial it back a click.

8. Clean your shoes monthly. Also: wash your gloves.

 9. Warm Up
A slow start primes your engine by directing oxygen from your blood cells to your muscles. Spin easy for 20 to 30 minutes before you begin to hammer.

10. Always Carry Cash
Money can’t buy love, but it can buy food, water, a phone call, or a spare tube.

11. Race, At Least Once
It will push you to ride harder than you previously thought possible.

12. Drink before you are thirsty; eat before you are hungry.

13. Eat Real Food
On longer rides, easily digestible calories are key—and they shouldn’t come from just energy bars. James Herrera, MS, founder of Performance Driven Coaching, has a favorite: spread some almond butter on whole-grain bread and top with sliced bananas and agave nectar or honey.

14. Don’t Live in Your Chamois
When the shoes come off, your shorts should come off with them.

15. Ride Hard. . .
To become faster, you need to ride faster. Intervals squeeze every drop of fitness from your time on the bike. Try the following two or three times a week: Choose a route that includes a climb or stretch of road where you can go nearly all-out for three to five minutes. Warm up for 15 to 30 minutes, then ride hard—your exertion should be about a 7 out of 10—for three minutes. Recover for 90 seconds, then repeat the sequence four more times.

Thor Hushovd doesn’t ride hard every time

16. . . .But Not Every Day

Take 56-year-old mountain-bike legend Ned Overend’s advice: Rest often. And if you’re feeling cooked after a 30-minute warm-up, put it in an easy gear and spin home. “No workout is set in stone,” Overend says. “Your training needs to have structure, but it should be malleable based on how you’re feeling.” Which might explain why, 10 days before he won the 2011 Mt. Washington Hill Climb, Overend was surfing in San Diego.

17. Play the Terrain
Go hard on climbs and take it easy on descents.

18. Ride Another Bike
Explore the woods on a mountain bike. Throw down in the local cyclocross race. Mixing in different types of riding keeps you mentally fresh, boosts your skills, and reminds you that riding is fun.

19. Wear Out Your Shifters
You have lots of gears for a reason: to keep your cadence in the sweet spot. For silky-smooth gear changes, remember to shift before a punchy climb, sprint, or tight switchback.

20. Train Your Weaknesses
Professional endurance racer Mark Weir makes his living blasting through corners. But that wasn’t always the case. “I was a semi-pro downhiller racing in Park City, Utah, and there was a corner that I thought just sucked,” he recalls. “I told Jan Karpiel, one of my sponsors, about it, and he said: ‘The corner doesn’t suck, you suck at that corner.’ I realized then that training my weaknesses is far more important than sticking with my strengths.”

21. Check Your Tire Pressure
Here are some basic guidelines from Michelin.

Road/Commuter: If you weigh more than 180 pounds, inflate to the maximum on the tire sidewall. If you weigh 110 or less, fill to the minimum. Somewhere in between? Inflate to somewhere in between.
Mountain Bike: Target somewhere between 27 and 32 psi for most tires. Ultraskinny XC tires may require as much as 35 psi. Figure on 20 to 30 psi for tubeless tires.

22. If your knee hurts in the front, raise your saddle; if it hurts in the back, lower the seat.

23. Buy a Torque Wrench and Learn How to Use It
This is mandatory for carbon parts, but will also extend the life of all stems, handlebars, bottom brackets, seatpost clamps, and suspension pivots. Our favorite is Park’s TW-5.

24. Learn to Bunnyhop on Your Road Bike
Doing an unclipped hop shows you how changes in body position affect your bike’s behavior—knowledge that will boost your confidence on steep downhills, rough roads, and in corners.

A: Replace your clipless pedals with platforms and your cycling shoes with soft-soled sneakers.
B: Ride across a flat, grassy field at slightly faster than walking speed, standing on your pedals, cranks level with the ground, elbows and knees slightly bent.
C: Push down on the handlebar while bending your knees even farther so you are crouched over the saddle. Then immediately pull up and back on your bar as you shift your weight back to get the front tire up.
D: With the front tire off the ground, shift your weight forward as you push the handlebar ahead and hop up with your legs to lift the rear wheel.
To see a video of these moves in action, visit BICYCLING.com/bunnyhop.

25. Fitness Takes Time
No crash diet or hell week of training will magically propel you into top form. “You’ve got to work toward it all season long,” says Pierre Rolland, the best young rider of the 2011 Tour de France.

26. Take short pulls at the front.

A Rabobank team mechanic washes bikes at their winter training camp. (Jorge Guerrero/AFP)

27. Wash Your Bike
Especially after a wet or muddy ride. Mist it with a garden hose or soak it using a bucket of soapy water. Wipe it down and rinse, then dry it with a clean rag or towel. Don’t forget to lube your chain.

28. Speaking of Your Chain. . .
A well-maintained and lubricated chain could last 3,000 road miles or more, but check it every 500. Here’s how: Take a ruler and place the 0 at the rivet of one link. If the ruler’s 12-inch mark aligns closely with another rivet, you’re in good shape. If it’s more than a 1/16th of an inch away, replace the chain.

A well-maintained and lubricated chain

29. Respect Your Front Brake
Applying 60 percent front brake will bring you to a smooth, controlled stop. But on steep descents or during rapid decelerations, you’ll want to rely even more heavily on the front.

30. Stick with Your Group
Whether you’re embarking on a 500-mile charity ride or racing Paris-Nice, there’s safety in numbers. Teammates and friends can pull if you’re feeling tired, share their food, or help fix a mechanical. “I’ve seen this so many times,” says Chris Horner. “A guy is leading the race and is really strong and so he goes into a breakaway. But what happens if he crashes or flats? He is all alone. Stay with your group as long as possible.”

Be sure to shift your weight behind your saddle to prevent yourself from sailing over the handlebar.

31. Layer Like a Wedding Cake
Easily removable layers make it a snap to regulate your temperature. Booties, vests, and skullcaps, as well as arm, knee, and leg warmers, can all be stashed in pockets as the day warms up.

32. Keep Your Head Up
Looking far down the road or trail will help you see approaching traffic, spot the best line through corners, or recognize when someone’s making a break.

33. Carry a frame pump. And a spare tube. And a multi-tool with a chain breaker.

34. Listen to Your Bike
“A click or pop or scraping noise doesn’t heal itself,” says Calvin Jones, director of education at Park Tool. Pay attention to the sounds emanating from your ride and you’ll know when it’s time for some TLC.

Noise: Rattling over bumps
Common Culprit: Loose bottle-cage bolts or quick-release skewers
Solution: Tighten them

Noise: Thunk/shudder during braking or over bumps
Common Culprit: Loose headset
Solution: Adjust headset to remove excess play

Noise: Squeaking while pedaling
Common Culprit: Dry chain
Solution: Lube

Noise: Pop, followed by a skipping chain
Common Culprit: Frozen chain link; worn cassette and chain
Solution: Find and free frozen link…or replace chain, chainrings, and cassette

Noise: Grinding noise during braking
Common Culprit: Grit in brake pads
Solution: Sand pads lightly to remove grit and grime

Noise: Clicks, squeals, or whines
Common Culprit: Could be any number of problems—from a loose stem to worn bottom-bracket bearings
Solution: Head to the shop

Liquigas mechanics tune the team bikes during the Tour de France. (Spencer Platt/Getty).

35. Have a Plan
Improvement does not come accidentally. If you want to take your riding to the next level, you need to craft a strategy and set incremental goals to reach it. “Better yet, hire a coach to guide your way,” suggests three-time Leadville 100 champion Rebecca Rusch.

36. Embrace the Rain
Unless you live in the desert, soggy rides are a part of life. Just dress appropriately: Layers and a rain jacket are optional in the summer, but become essential when temperatures start to drop.

37. Keep a Spare Kit in Your Car
You never know when you’ll have the chance to sneak in a ride. Borrowing or renting a bike is easy, but it’s harder to find a spare helmet, shoes, and chamois. Keeping a kit in your car all but ensures you’ll never miss an impromptu ride. Scour bike swaps for secondhand shoes, pedals, and other items, but buy a new helmet—decent models can be found for about $75.

38. It’s Okay to Stop
Don’t be afraid to pull over for a good swimming hole, hot spring, ice-cream stand, cafe, bakery, or dive bar. In fact, some of the best rides are planned around these diversions.

Taking a breather at Keechelus Lake on Washington’s Snoqualmie Pass. (Gene Bisbee)

39. Keep Your Perspective
Like most young professional riders, Ted King is learning how to balance the demands of training and family obligations with the extensive travel and training his job requires. Here’s what he’s learned so far.

When training, set a goal for every ride—even if the goal is recovery.
When racing, ride smart, don’t chop corners, and remember that the local Tuesday-Night Crit is not the World Championships.
On the road, think like a motorist. Maybe there’s a reason the guy in the pickup truck was pissed at you.

40. Refuel Right
The key recovery window is the 30 minutes following a ride; that’s when your body needs protein to repair muscles and help reload its energy stores, so make sure to get at least 20 to 25 grams. Stacy Sims, a nutritionist at Stanford University, recommends six to eight ounces of nonfat Greek yogurt with walnuts or berries. Or try this protein-rich smoothie: Before heading out, put 1.5 scoops whey protein powder, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries or blueberries, 1/2 frozen banana, 2 tablespoons nonfat Greek yogurt, 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal, and 1 cup vanilla almond milk into a blender (but don’t blend it yet). Store in the refrigerator. Whirl and drink when you return.

41. Wait to eat and drink until you’re at the back.

42. Don’t half-wheel.

43. Work Your Core
Most cyclists have weak cores. To fix it, try the pedaling plank. Here’s how.
A: Assume the plank position, as if you’re doing a push-up, but rest on your forearms with your hands directly beneath your shoulders. Your legs should be extended, with your weight balanced on your toes.
B: Pull your right knee toward your chest without allowing your butt to rise.
C: Extend the leg back out and swing it to the side and back without your foot touching the floor. Perform eight to 10 times for one set, then switch legs and repeat.

Hushovd rode his wind-cheating Cervelo S5 to two Tour de France stage wins. (James Startt)

44. Know What The Wind Is Doing
On blustery days, pick a route that heads into the wind first. Then get aero to minimize drag—slide into the drops and bring your elbows and knees tight to your body. In a group, ride in a single-file paceline to slice through headwinds. If the breeze is whipping across the road sideways, form an echelon (an angled paceline created by overlapping your front wheel with the rear wheel of the rider ahead of you) to keep the wind out of your face. Pedal at a higher-than-normal cadence even if it means riding a little slower. Then, turn around and enjoy a tailwind as you speed home.

45. Know Your Gear
“Don’t ever use anything new in a bike race,” says former pro racer and cycling commentator Frankie Andreu. This advice applies to backcountry mountain-bike rides, charity events, or exotic cycling vacations. Log some miles on fresh equipment before embarking on any serious ride. You don’t want to be 60 miles from home when you discover that you and your new saddle aren’t soul mates after all.

46. Get Fit To Your Bike
There is no faster way to improve your comfort or performance on the bike. “Your ideal position will change over time,” says Andy Pruitt,EdD, director of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine in Colorado. “As you get older—say, over the age of 35—you should consider a professional bike fit every few seasons.”

47. Bring Beer
It is the currency of cycling. A cold one can serve as payment for a borrowed tube, a tip for your mechanic, or a way to celebrate another great ride.

48. Pass Fast
In a mountain-bike race, make your presence known, then pass quickly. And if someone’s passing you, let him or her by.

49. Riding Hurts
Sometimes riders at the front aren’t there because they’re faster, but because they can suffer more. Train your legs for speed, but also condition your mind to love the pain.

50. Go—Even For A Short Ride
No matter what the excuse—it’s cold, you’re tired, Shark Week is airing on the Discovery Channel—you can always shoehorn in a short ride. Head away from home for 30 minutes. If you’re still miserable, turn around—you’ll have logged an hour on the bike. Or, just keep riding.

By Bicycling Magazine

http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/training-fitness/bicyclings-50-golden-rules?page=0,0

By: Zdenko Kahlina

Paulo Ongaro is coming from a cycling family
Everybody in Edmonton knows Paulo, he is very popular cyclist: sprinter and a track rider. Paulo is also successful business man. His biggest competitors are his own brothers; that’s where his pedigree is coming from.

Paulo is also my neighbor and a good friend. We sometimes go together for a Sunday morning training rides with his brothers. I try to stay in shape and control my weight, while he is preparing himself for a competition. His goal is to return into good form and participate in the 2013 World Master Games in Torino Italy, his ‘old country’, where his parents originally came from. He would like nothing less but to win the Olympic sprint!

This winter I mentioned to Paulo how I would like to write blog about his dad, Rino Ongaro, but I also needed some information about Paulo and his three brothers, to complete my story about Rino. He gladly jumped on board and provided me with the following autobiography, which I am publishing here in its original version.

Paulo Ongaro (right) and his buddy Lars Madsen

This is what Paulo has to say about his cycling life:

Paulo Ongaro (June 16, 1970)
“I have so many memories of cycling as a young boy, the smell of “A 535” on a Saturday morning as my older brothers and my dad were preparing to go out on a spring bike ride in the cold morning air. I also remember riding in a support vehicle with my dad as we followed Rudy in a local bike race.

I remember sitting watching Rudy training on the rollers when I was about 5 years old, captivated by how the wheels were spinning and why he wasn’t going anywhere I decided to test the equipment by putting my finger in the rubber cable and the steel roller…  not a good idea. One key memory though was the frequent visits to Velocity cycling store and the one question Joe Zombor (owner) would always ask me: “When are you going to start riding?”

Me beating Alex at the provincials in 1991, my greatest victory, I was so happy that I lost two in a row after that one!

As a young boy I was following in the footsteps of my brother Ross the soccer player. But soon the temptation of the bicycle machine and the shiny moving parts would bring me to the sport of cycling. At the age of 14 while my brother Alex was competing at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles the transformation began. I was riding my bike to soccer practice and enjoying the ride to and from practice, more than the practice itself. I didn’t realize it yet, but I was inevitably becoming a cyclist. At the age of 16 I rode my first race as a cadet. It was a criterium at Roper road industrial park where I finished 2nd to Kurt Innes from Calgary.

I tried to ride the road races for a season as a first year junior, but I found it very difficult. I discovered very quickly that I did not have the desire to suffer in long races. I’ve found some success in local criteriums… funny enough the same course in Namao on the Tuesday night races is where I found it easiest to hang in the group and blast out a sprint at the finish. Soon though Alex would take me to the track. This is where I had my 12th birthday party, so I was familiar with the velodrome. Actually you would find me on any banked driveway as a kid doing balancing track-stands, pretending to be a sprinter. After a few weeks of training on the velodrome, Trevor Gadd an English Born sprinter, was hired to coach the provincial team for the upcoming Nationals in Edmonton 1987. He selected me to ride the sprints and the Kilometer. I had only ridden two track meets prior to Nationals and never sprinted up to this point.

Steen Madsen and Paulo Ongaro

So for me the nationals were the first match sprinting I had ever done. I remember hearing the national team coaches mumbling something, as in my very first heat I track-standed my opponent to make him take the lead and then rushed him with a surprise jump with 300m to go for the easy victory. I remember I qualified second at those nationals and thought I could have won the title that year as a first year junior, but I was not confident and I was inexperienced. Looking back with what I know now, I should have won both junior national sprint championships.

But I didn’t have a coach with me and I just didn’t know how to ride, but the speed was there that’s for sure. In 1997 I qualified second and finished a disappointing fourth. In 1988 I qualified first and finished fourth again. As a senior I managed a couple of bronze medals in the match sprint and a silver medal at the Canadian world championship trials in 1990.

Doug Baron (Calgary), Steen Madsen and Paulo Ongaro (Edmonton)

Paulo beating Lars at the 2001 Nationals for the bronze medal.

Finally in 2001 I won a national gold medal in the Olympic sprint team event along side of Jim Fisher and Doug Baron of Calgary. 

Lars Madsen was their regular teammate and Lars was my closest training partner who I spent many hours along side. I think as a gift when he asked me to start the opening lap of the final, at the Nationals that year. I had two massive engines behind me, so I wasn’t to worried about the win, but I was really worried about the start. First of all I had never started Out of a UCI style gate, so what better place to learn than the nationals final. I never had to deal with the countdown clock and the final beep, I had no experience, but that’s O.K. I managed somehow
to get out of the blocks so to speak. In addition I had old toe straps that were starting to crack and I was worried about pulling a foot. My disc wheel was a rental and it was a piece of junk I Was terrified that the wheel was going to crumble out of the start. Also, just before the start my calf was twitching and I have always had issues with calve cramps, needless to say I was, worried about this start.

This is me giving Travis Smith a little bit of Experience with 100 meters to go at the Nationals in 2001. Travis went on to become a much more accomplished cyclist than I ever was…

It took me a bit extra to get the motor started out of that gate, but once I hit turn two I was feeling great. I simply finished my opening lap and the boys sailed on to a dominant victory. There it was my first and only national gold medal…  what no one knew was that my good friend Lars’ name was on that team list as well, since he had ridden the Qualifying round, and without a victory in the final, he would have lost his National carding/funding. He let me know this only moments before the start… NO PRESSURE!

In the same year at the individual race I knew I couldn’t beat him in the semi-final, so I saved my energy for the bronze medal ride. We made an agreement before the match; I would lead him out two straight rides. Just as we started the first heat at the line, he looked at me and said, “You are not messing around with me are you?”

I said something like, “No Steen, I know how much this means to you.”

He qualified in a track record time that I guarantee you, will never be beaten 10.48 seconds!

I qualified in a time of 11.10 seconds an impossible difference in speed, so the decision the night before was to use the semi-final rides as a warm up for the bronze medal.

I have raced in three decades. I rode the Nationals in 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1999 & 2001. I am intending to race again as I have started training with hopes of competing in 2013. This will very likely be my last Nationals. We will see I guess, we can never know anything for sure when we speak of the future.

Moments before the launch, Nationals 2001 with Doug Baron and Jim Fisher

Me with my kids on the top of the podium, a very happy moment, that is Lars peeking over my shoulder

My first national bronze this match took seven tries and this was the most dangerous race of my life, this guy was completely crazy!!!!! He crashed twice by himself and he was disqualified twice for passing inside the apron, ultimately I won.

At this moment I reached my potential and satisfaction.
 
Moments before the big race Paulo vs Alex Provincials 1990
 
Me and Curt Harnett at the World Trials, I finished second and the top two were supposed to go to worlds, They didn’t send me. I quit the following year to start a career and a family.

On my way to my first sub 11 sec. on 200 m

Looking back the sport of cycling was a true journey and a pleasure, regardless of the accomplishments or lack of, you see in my family it was very difficult for me to feel accomplished as a cyclist. I have 4 National medals, 1 gold and 3 bronze, several provincial championships and medals. However, when you grow up in the shadow of an Olympian (in the family), anything short feels like a failed attempt. Only in the recent years have I found some feelings of success as an athlete. Everyone reaches different levels, and in the end it is if you feel you reached your potential. At one point I believe I did and it was enough for me to be satisfied. Now I found the most joy in the sport than I ever have simply riding on Sunday mornings with my brothers.

Paulo Ongaro 200 meters personal best
Calgary Hand Timed 10.69 sec, 10.74 sec, 10.89 sec,
Calgary Electronic timing 10.91 sec , 10.93 sec

Paulo’s three brothers were also heavily involved in sport. With exception of Ross, all of them were cyclists. Here is their short cycling biography:

Rudi Ongaro
Rodolfo Patrizio Ongaro, was born March 17, 1956 San Giorgio al Tagliamento, in Italy. He came to Canada in 1958 with his parents and lived in Edmonton until 1968 when the family moved back to Italy and lived there until May of 1969.

The family than returned to Canada once again. Up to this point Rudy was a promising young soccer player, until he caught the cycling bug at age 16. The first year Rudy rode with his father for fun, until together they decided they were ready to begin competing. What a learning experience that was… they were getting hammered by everyone. The next year was spent trying to learn how to train properly for competitive cycling. By the beginning of our 3 rd. year results were starting come. Rino and Rudy met Marijan Kahlina (coach and rider) and joined Alberta Cycle Racing Club. That year (last year as a junior) Rudy was selected to ride with the provincial team, both on the track and road. The Canadian Nationals and the Canada Summer games were the highlights. Rudy continued to race frequently at the local races, being selected to represent Alberta at National competitions. Rudy hung up his bike in 1985 only to find it again in 2005. Since then Rudy has been training mainly to keep fit and socialize with friends through the sport. His long term goal is to go to Torino and win the Olympic sprint with his two younger brothers, Paul and Alex.

In this photo: Rino, Paul and Rudy in Italy on a March training camp in 1976.

Ross Ongaro
Rosario Luigino Ongaro, born September 9, 1959. He too began to compete in some early spring races in 1970. Ross was already showing great promise as a soccer player, but decided to try a few races. He was a cadet, and I don’t remember too much because his cycling career only lasted 3 races. At that time there were maybe 3-4 boys that age riding , one was Shane Frohm and …..Heachock (spelling??) and Ross of course. Also it is important to note that Rudy Frohm, Shanes father would always follow the race in his BMW motor bike. Long story short Ross won the first race. He won the second and then won the third. Shane crashed following Ross’s wheel and Rudy Frohm was really mad and yelled at this 11 -12 year old kid. Ross quit, and went back to soccer. Good thing… The rest is history.

Born in Edmonton, he is a retired Canadian soccer player who earned one cap each with the Canada U-20 men’s national soccer team and Canadian Olympic soccer team. He played professionally in the North American Soccer League, Major Indoor Soccer League, Western Soccer Alliance and American Indoor Soccer Association. He has coached extensively at the professional level and was the head coach of the Canadian Beach Soccer and Futsal Teams until September 2011. He has been hired for 2012 by the Chinese Football Association to become their National Beach Soccer Head Coach.

National team
In 1979, Ongaro played one game with the Canada U-20 men’s national soccer team. He was on the roster of the team at the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship but did not play a game in the tournament. Ongaro also played one Olympic qualifying match in 1979.

Alex Ongaro on the podium with another gold medal. Shaking hands with Zolt Zombor.

Alexander ‘Alex’ Ongaro (Oct 5, 1963)
Alex Ongaro, an Edmonton born athlete and 7 year member of the Canadian National Team was a silver medalist at the 1986 Commonwealth Games and 9th place finalist at both the 1984 Olympics and 1985 World Championships. In Bassano at the world championships in 1985 he clocked the third fastest time behind Luts Hesslich and Michael Huebner of the DDR. In 1986 unofficially he held the world record for 200m, after he rode a blazing 10.29sec 200m sprint in a heat with no disc wheels and no wind up.

Alex was a natural born sprinter on the track. He was in Canada Olympic team for Los Angeles 1984 games, where he participated in the Men’s sprint discipline on the track and achieved very good qualifying time of 11.23 sec.

In this photo: Zdenko, Alex, Marijan and Rudy (Paul was late… lol!)

By: Zdenko Kahlina

Edmonton Master Cycling Club (EMCC) celebrates!
In the spirit of the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Edmonton Master Cycling Club (EMCC), I am presenting you this month with the review of the club activities and its history.

EMCC web page

Over the past 25 years, many EMCC veterans have left their mark and influence on Edmonton’s cycling. Many have represented Edmonton city or Canada, in various races throughout the province and international competitions and games. Some became very well known riders in the local cycling scene, while others remained anonymous, as they rode only for their own pleasure and to stay healthy.

The Sunday group ride in Sherwood Park, at Tim Horton’s parking lot

Some of them stayed in cycling only couple of years and some are in cycling all their lives. Though I am not a club member any more, cycling is part of my life and it made me person that I am today. Most importantly, cycling at this level is fun and healthy activity that should be practiced by many more regular middle age people. Once you get ‘poisoned’ by cycling, you can’t get out of it that easily.

Richard Henderson leads the big group

Ladies group during the more relaxed ride

Current Status
The EMCC organizes some two dozen races (time trials, road races, criteriums and track events) between May and September. There are club rides every Sunday morning from the beginning of April to the end of September, although informal rides start earlier and carry on later as the weather permits. There is also an annual week-long training camp in Penticton, held sometime during April. Every Friday evening from May to the end of August we rent the Argyll Velodrome for training purposes.

Participation is the main emphasis of the group as a whole, but the competitive spirit is alive and well in many of us, so trophies – for all age categories and for both men and women – and medals are up for competition each year and are presented at the annual awards night and banquet.

Membership is open to anyone, man or woman, aged 30 years and older, and includes access to all the above activities and events. As of 2008 we had some 100 members ranging in age from just 30 to 80. Members are required to assist in running the races – for more information on this and other matters, please see the Code of Conduct.

Once a year hundred of riders come for the ‘Harvest ride’ and EMCC members participate in big numbers

EMCC group rides are mostly in Strathcona County, departing from Sherwood Park Tim Horton’s parking lot

Club executives:
President: Jim Yeske
Vice President: Brian Countryman
Secretary: Dennis Cebuliak
Treasurer: John Dawson-Edwards
Race Director: Peter Heppleston
Membership / Clothing & Volunteer Coordinator: Richard Henderson
Web Site: Rod Tiedemann

http://www.edmontonmasterscyclingclub.ca/

The oldest members of the club, but not the slowest! From the left: Willem Langenberg, Hainz Gathen and ?

Another Sunday, another group ride. Lenard Berg leading the group here

History of the EMCC
The first meeting of the Edmonton Veterans Cycling Association was held on Monday, June 16, 1986 at the Italian Cultural Centre. Of the nine people in attendance only Joe Zombor is still a member. The first Bylaws of the EVCA were signed on March 5, 1987 by Jim Horner, Arvon Stacey, Lino Bovo, Peter Bigg and Dave Phillips. Jim Horner was the first president.

The EMCC arose from the perceived need for age-related bicycle racing in Alberta. The first few years saw regular changes of President, as the new group sought to establish an identity:

• July 07, 1986 – Jim Horner
• May 14, 1987 – John Van Werden
• October 19, 1987 – Len Blair

• October 17, 1988 – Don Jobson

EMCC veterans during the popular criterium races

John Edmonds, rides like a pro!

Then things started to settle down, the first trophy was established in 1989, the club that we know today started to emerge, and there was a period of steady growth though the 1990’s under Presidents:

• November 17, 1990 – Len Blair
• November 04, 1992 – Gordin Warner
• November 09, 1994 – Peter and Lesley Heppleston
• November 13, 1996 – Matt Claassens
• December 09, 1998 – Graeme Dibbs

On November 10, 1999, at the Annual General Meeting, the membership voted to change the name of our organization from the Edmonton Veterans Cycling Association to the Edmonton Masters Cycling Club. The two changes to our name came about because UCI terminology became “Masters” rather than “Veterans”, and because the majority of our membership had become first-claim riders. Graeme Dibbs was the first President of the EMCC.

By now the Club’s identity and annual program of events was well established, and strong growth continued into the new century, with membership and activity peaking in 2005 as a result of the interest created by the World Masters Games being held in Edmonton. Our presidents during this time were:

• December 13, 2000 – VACANT
• January 10, 2001 – Graeme Dibbs
• November 20, 2002 – Jim Yeske
• November 05, 2004 – VACANT
• December 08, 2004 – Joy Mekechuk

Ladies Time trial race

Man Time trialing

Since the WMG the Club has gone through a period of retrenchment, though participation in and support of the program of events continues to be very strong. Mandatory volunteerism was introduced in 2005; until then events were run by members’ spouses and supporters of the Club on an unofficial and totally voluntary basis. Since 2005 our President has been:

• October 01, 2005 – Shane Frahm
• November 07, 2007 – Shane Frahm

The Future
While the number of original and early members who are still active has inevitably declined, the foundation that they built has resulted in the robust Club that we are today. The future looks very promising as the largest age group of members is now the 50-year-olds, closely followed by the 40-year-olds. It seems that the need for age-related racing that was felt in 1986 is still very valid today, and the EMCC looks set to continue accommodating that need for some time to come.

Every spring the club organizes training camp in Kelowna. Pictured here are ex-president Shane Frahm and Gordon Sustrik

Break during the ride in Kelowna

EMCC Annual Banquet
The club executive would like to invite you to come celebrate the 25th ANNIVERSARY of E.M.C.C. and honor the B.A.R. (best all-rounder) winners at this year’s end of the season banquet. What a great way to start next year’s season and reconnect to your riding friends.

The location is tentatively booked at the Italian Cultural Centre in the Juventus Room for January 14, 2012. The cost will be $35.00 per person. Please accept this invitation and join us all in celebrating this milestone.

Cake for the 80th birthday – after successful race!

Peter Bigg – long time member, still going strong!

Awards
The history and evolution of the EVCA/EMCC can be neatly traced from the following list of trophy and championship winners. Note the early Italian influence of Rino Ongaro, the persistence of Maurice Johnson, and the recent “introduction” of ladies! Our second world-class member (besides Maurice Johnson, albeit second-claim) is Nancy Burden, World Triathlon Champion 1999.

EMCC/EVCA Trophy Winners

Jim Horner Memorial Trophy – Award of Excellence

Jim Horner was a dedicated man who track cyclists could always count on for help. Whether you needed to have a bike set up, a gear changed, or just wanted to be timed for a flying 200, Jim was there to lend a hand. We all miss Jim very much, so we wanted to commemorate his dedication to cycling with an award. The Jim Horner Memorial Trophy – Award of Excellence is for a club member who goes above and beyond in some aspect of the Edmonton Masters Club. It could be for volunteer work, for racing excellence, or helping out new riders.

This year’s recipient of the Jim Horner Memorial Trophy is Karen Carruthers. Karen was chosen as the recipient this year in recognition of her unwavering support of the EMCC and it’s events.

Weekly races at Argyll velodrome are very popular

In the summer races are organized on the velodrome once a week

Very competitive racing on the velodrome, but special track bikes are mandatory.

Membership
The EMCC organizes races (time trials, road races, criteriums and track events) and social rides for our members. Participation is the main emphasis of the group as a whole, but the competitive spirit lurks just below the surface in many of us, so medals and trophies are up for competition each year and are presented at the annual awards night and banquet. Our social rides are an opportunity for all members and prospective members to join the group.

Peter Heppleston – another long time member of EMCC

Membership is open to people who are Masters cyclists, i.e. 30 years and older, as defined by the Canadian Cycling Association, and includes both men and women.

To become a member please complete the membership form and return with payment as instructed or come out to one of our Sunday club runs with the completed form and payment. Please note that ALL first claim EMCC members must fill out the EMCC membership form as well as the ABA membership and ABA waiver – ABA fees are not required unless you also want an ABA License. All completed forms and applicable fees should be returned to Karen as instructed on the EMCC membership form. The EMCC has adopted a Code of Conduct. Please read the linked Code of Conduct before submitting your EMCC membership

Joe Zombor – EMCC member from the biginning (for full 25 years)

New location for EMCC Monthly Meetings
The EMCC general meetings will now be held at Percy Page Center, 11759 Groat Road in the Olympic Room #8, 3rd floor, south east corner. Please enter the building via the south entrance and sign-in with security when you arrive and sign-out when leaving. The first meeting will be October 6th at 7:30pm and each following 1st Wednesday of the month same time, same place.

Volunteer
Each member is required to volunteer for at least one position in order to be eligible to participate in the club races. If you do not complete your volunteer requirement this year you will not be eligible to race next year until after you have completed your volunteer duties. Those people who did not complete their volunteer requirements last year will not be able to race this year until after they have completed their volunteer requirement from the previous year.

All members are to list their preferred volunteer positions on the membership application.

Happy Anniversary to all EMCC members!!

By Zdenko Kahlina

‘Edmonton’s Italian Mafia’

Once upon a time there was a group of cyclists in Edmonton which was called ‘Edmonton’s Italian Mafia’, or sometimes they would be called ‘Nino, Gino, Rino, Lino and Jim’s group’. Later in the 80’s and 90’s  Rino Ongaro and his four sons Rudy, Ross, Alex and Paolo, used to be called ‘Ongaro’s clan’… but no matter how they were called, one of them was always member of each of these groups. His name is Rino Ongaro.
This is a story about one Italian immigrant, who lives in Edmonton and is very popular name in local cycling circles. Never a real ‘pro’, but all his life connected to the bicycle and racing. I am talking about Rino Ongaro who was Juventus cycling club and Edmonton Masters Cycling Club member during his lifelong cycling fanaticism.

Rino Ongaro in November 2011

I met Rino long time ago, when I first moved to Edmonton. Being a different generation than him, slowly I lost track of him and his family until one of his sons (Paolo), moved into my neighbourhood. That’s when I met Rino again, and could tell he was looking very young for his age. If he wanted, he could still ride his bike fast… here is his life story:

Rino was born in 1934 in the small town San Giorgio al Tagliamento, next to Latisana in the province of Veneto in Italy. The area is very familiar to me as I used to race in that part of Italy quite a lot. This is the region where everybody loves cycling. I remember sprinting for the win in Alpe-Adria race, back in 1974 just few kilometers away in coastal town of Lignano Sabbiadoro.

Before coming to Canada, Rino used to work in a small sugar factory as electrician. He began to ride his bike to work every day, and that turned into serious riding when the factory owner assembled a cycling team. Rino joined the team in 1948 year and was a good bike rider competing with Italian amateurs and semi-pros. He still remembers some of the names: Aldo Zuliani, Antonio Bevilacqua, Giovanni Pinarello, Giordano Cottur, Vacianni, Zambarro and many others. He rode many criteriums with all these good riders who lost many sprints with Rino. Some of the riders turned pro like Aldo Zullianni (with Atala pro team), and later won Giro d’ Sicilia. Rino never got a chance to sign a pro contract, because he raced mostly in small races in proximity of the Trieste and Udine. He remembers one criterium where even the big boyz like Italian hero Fausto Coppi and triple world champion Rick Van Stenbergen from Belgium, showed up on the start line with him. He says the race with them wasn’t hard, because they had a good control over the group, and went hard just at the end of the race to pick up the premiums.

In this photo: Sandy Harris, Rudy Ongaro and Rino Ongaro

Rino with his son Rudy in 1972

Rino participated in races like Giro d’ Veneto and Giro d’Friuli for amateurs, still very popular bike races even these days. In the 1952 addition of Giro d’ Veneto he was even part of the breakaway group of seven guys, including Enrico Padovani and future winner Adolfo Grosso, big Italian names at that time. Finish of the race was on the athletic track and when they were entering stadium and onto the track, Rino almost crashed on the gravel portion of entrance to the track. He lost his position and finished ‘only’ fourth!

Rino Ongaro with dirty face after the race

He remembers how once at a different race, during the summer heat, when spectators were throwing water on cyclists to help them cope with the heat, he got hit with the bucket of water in the head and crashed. Another time he had five flat tires during the single race, because most roads were not paved at that time… and he still managed to finish the race.

Many times Rino raced on the Pordenone and Portogruaro velodrome which were close to his home. He would ride early in the morning, starting around 5 AM and rushing after the training to his regular work at the factory. Specialist for the velodrome and famous for his fast sprinting, Rino suffered during the road races… ‘I will never forget how I gritted my teeth to follow the attacks of these professionals’, he said years later…

Rino got married early in his life and his first son Rudi was born in Italy in 1956. When Rino’s sister moved to Italy and sugar factory where he worked shut down, he decided to follow his sister’s steps and in 1958 he moved to Canada with his wife and a small baby son.

Very young Rino Ongaro (right) with his older brother Fiorindo (left) in Italy, with his first bike.

They arrived in Edmonton and at first he worked as acoustics applicator. Life was not easy and Rino never had time to ride a bike. He was even forced to work up north to make a living. Ten years later he moved back to Italy for a couple of years, thinking the crisis in Europe is over and times are better now. However, nothing was easy, and in the summer of 1969 the whole Ongaro family moved back in Edmonton again. This time it was for good. Rino left only one brother in Italy, but sold his property to ensure there is no looking back this time. This time he was more determined to succeed in Canada as he had a bigger family to look after. With the exception of Rodolfo-Rudi (1956) the oldest son, his other sons were all born in Canada: Rossario-Ross (1959), Alexandrio-Alex (1963) and Paolo (1970).

Rino with his trophy’s

Full wall with cycling memorabilia

This time Rino finished school for electricians and got a job at Glenrose hospital in Edmonton, as an electrician. They bought a house in Delwood area of north Edmonton, where they still live after all those years. In 1972 during few days of his vacationing in Jasper, he bought himself brand new Peugeot racing bike. Soon after, Rino resumed his bike riding and joined some of the Edmonton most popular cycling clubs, like Velocity, Juventus and EMCC. The early Italian influence in the club was thanks to the group of Italians in the club: Nino, Gino, Rino and Lino: ‘The Italian Mafia’ as they were called. The history and evolution of the Edmonton Masters Cycling Club (EMCC) can be neatly traced from the list of trophy and championship winners where Rino’s name is mentioned more than once.

He told me how sometimes he would get frustrated, when his fellow cyclist were able to go for a spring training camps in the States, and he had to make living and stayed at home, in cold Edmonton. They would return in April with 6,000 km in their legs, and he was still riding only rollers in his basement. ‘How could I compete with them?’ he would complain. ‘They were just too strong for me in the spring, but by the summer, because I trained hard, I would beat them in the sprints. Than they were complaining of me sucking the wheels all the time, but I was a sprinter… what else could I do?’

For many years Rino raced in most local races around Alberta, as the significant number of medals on his wall in the basement can serve as a prove. His favourite course was in Nameo, just north of Edmonton, where a flat course guaranteed a sprint finish and he almost always won there. Even as a veteran, he would participate in more than forty races every year.

Being a cyclist, Rino transferred his love for bike to his sons. Rudi, Alex and Paolo become very successful cyclists themselves. Even a cousin Claudio was a cyclist. That’s how they earned the name ‘Ongaro’s clan’.

Rino (right) and John Brian on the podium

Rino’s competitors of the same generation in Alberta were: John Brian (from Calgary), Maurice Johnson, Jim Horner, Lino Bovo, Joe Zombor, John Morrison all from Edmonton. He remembers many others and all the good times he always had in cycling.

But as he was aging, and not getting any younger, one day at his work in Glenrose hospital, Rino fell and hurt his knees. After the accident, he couldn’t press on the pedals with the same intensity and his climbing suffered because of that. He left his job at the hospital, and continued to work with his son Rudi in his private business.

His cycling carrier finished after another incident in 1994 – this time on his bike. At the Cabotto criterium, bike race in the north Edmonton, during one of the sprints, he made a mistake when he rode his front wheel into the wide and deep pavement crack. Rino lost balance and fell heavily at full speed. He broke his collarbone and suffered concussion. Later he couldn’t remember what happened to him, but for his wife this was the last stroke. She told him: no more racing! And that was it for Rino, than aged 60. He never showed up at another race.

Still looks like new: red ‘Battaglin’ bike hanging on the wall

Rino with one of his bikes: this ‘Cinelli’ is ready to go…

These days Rino lives still in his old house in Delwood area with all of his trophies at home. He proudly showed me pictures of him with some well-known cyclists, some of them much younger than him. He also has, framed on the wall yellow jersey from the Tour de France, which he received from Alex Stieda as a present for his 80^th birthday. Two of his road bikes are in perfect condition just waiting in his basement to be ridden… one is beautiful red ‘Battaglin’ and the other is full chrome ‘Cinelli’ frame with campy components! Something special…

Last spring I joined ‘Ongaro’s clan’ for some training rides. They all gather at Rudi’s house in Ardrossan every weekend early in the morning. The group would than cruise at fair speed around Strathcona County for two hours and the ride always ends with all of the guys sprinting for that last pole on the side of the road. With all of them being very good sprinters (Alex always wins!) it is very difficult for me even just to hold onto their wheels.

‘Ongaro’s clan’ leaving for a ride: Alex, Rudy and friends

Back in Rudi’s house, there is always some Italian pasta and bottle of vine on the kitchen table, for the exhausted group. Like real Italians, they all talk and discuss the ride and what could’ve been in that last sprint…

Can’t wait for the next spring and the rides with ‘Ongaro’s clan’ to resume again…

By: Neal Pollack

The greatest bike racer in history won’t stop motivating me.
One Monday morning last month I went to my friendly neighborhood in Austin, Texas, and discovered that it had been transformed into a Lance Armstrong shrine.
Along the back wall, under the heading “The Making Of A Legend,” were dozens of photographs of Armstrong, alongside various laminated newspaper articles, Sports Illustrated covers, line-by-line breakdowns of his workout regimen, a racing bike in a glass case, and a history of his life broken into four sections: In The Beginning, The Detour, Born Again Cyclist, and The Road Ahead.

A 10-foot-wide mockup of one of those ubiquitous yellow bracelets hung over the check-in desk like a plaster halo. Eight-inch-tall letters, embossed on the bracelets, commanded me to “Live Strong.”

Wow,” I said to the desk person, “I wish there were more Lance Armstrong stuff in here.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “It’s got something to do with Lance trying to motivate people.”

I went into the locker room. There, in another glass case, was an Armstrong reliquary comprised of a biking jersey, shorts, shoes, and fingerless gloves, and, on a hanger, a totally ordinary burnt-orange University of Texas T-shirt. Above me, across the length of the locker room, was a shot of bikers racing down some road in the French Alps, or the Pyrenees, or something, accompanied by this quote: “We are so much stronger than we imagine, and belief is one of the most valiant and long-lived human characteristics.”

A few weeks before, the gym’s motivational strategy had consisted of easily ignored, plastic-framed, black-and-white photos of guys doing biceps curls. Now I was getting assaulted by vintage-shop shirts and unattributed quotes from the Successories slush pile. What’s the point of wallpapering a quote in the locker room, anyway? Was it supposed to inspire me to take a more satisfying shower or have a stronger bowel movement? To change my clothes faster? I didn’t need motivation. I don’t go to the gym to get motivated. I go to relax, or because I’ve eaten a half-dozen donuts in the last 24 hours. Anyway, I was there. Wasn’t that enough?

Rigorous reading of corporate press releases has revealed that Lance Armstrong is the fourth athlete to sign a commercial treaty with 24 Hour Fitness, along with Magic Johnson, Andre Agassi, and Shaquille O’Neal. The company operates a series of centers devoted to Lance’s greatness and donates money to his cancer-fighting foundation. In return, Lance wears the company logo on his jersey and appears in some commercials. The other athletes have similar deals. I can see how Magic figures into the equation. He’s an inspirational-type guy and his gyms are going up in underserved urban neighborhoods, though they may be straying a bit from that concept: A new one just opened in Sherman Oaks. I’m having a harder time picturing Shaq’s place. Do the patrons get an extra burst of energy from gazing upon photos of his police firearms training? A publicity still from Kazaam? A giant shoe?

I’m certainly not troubled that my gym has devoted itself to Armstrong. Only one man enjoys a higher esteem in Austin, and while I’d prefer to work out at Willie Nelson 24 Hour Fitness, I don’t think such a place is forthcoming. And I’m only slightly annoyed by the large-print copy of the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s “Manifesto” that hangs by the aerobics room. It’s not really appropriate for my gym to tell me, before I go to yoga class, that they will help me bank my sperm if I get cancer, but I know they mean well.

I might even be willing to forget about all the garish memorabilia if the place had any real connection to Lance’s life and work. Like, a bicycle that wasn’t encased in glass. Other than a redecoration of the spinning room, there doesn’t seem to be any extra emphasis on cycling since the redecoration. “Maybe they’ll dye the pool water yellow for the Tour de France,” suggested one woman in the sauna yesterday.

While handlebars are in short supply, the gym overburdens us with Lance Armstrong’s insecurities. Another long quote, this one credited to Lance, overlooks the weight area. By design, I never visit that part of the complex, so I didn’t read it until a couple of days ago. “This is my body,” it goes. “And I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it. Study it. Tweak it. Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I’m on. What am I on? I’m on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?”

So defensive! I wonder why Armstrong would agree to have this quote, which comes from a Nike ad but sounds like a bad moment from a particularly testy press conference, on display in a semi permanent manifestation of his life’s work. Honestly, I don’t care if or how he “enhances” his performance. He’s the greatest bike racer of all time. He beat cancer, and now he raises money to help others do the same. That’s great. But please tone down the iconography and the sloganeering.

As I left the gym the other night, I noticed yet another maxim, splayed across 20 feet of door space: “I don’t have bad days. I have good days and great days.”

Well bully for you, Lance, I thought. But some of us really do have bad days, and we like it that way. In fact, my day just got a little bit worse. Here’s my $63 a month. Now let me schvitz in peace.