La Dolce Corsa

I don’t mind what other people do during every November 1 and 2, but I do mind my own business of celebrating All Souls’ and All Saints’ days, a very unique Filipino holiday and I am proud of it! No, I don’t do trick or treat on these days.

When Team MAPEI, the number one team in the world,  dropped it sponsorship in 2002, Colnago lost the marquee team they sponsored. I think the reason was economics. Newer brands with plenty of money was muscling its way into the peloton and equipping big names and big teams. Bicycle companies like Trek, Specialized, Cervelo and BMC were leading the way and Colnago, decided to step back with its sponsorship, thinking that name recall wasn’t a problem. When you are the Harley Davidson of cycling, then you really don’t need the number one team in the world to be relevant.

One don’t really need to be a keen student of professional cycling to understand Colnago. Colnago’s are probably the most copied bike in the world therefore owning a ‘nago is every cyclist’s wet dream. I dreamed myself, too!

For the past two years, I was looking at frames which fits me and this time, for real. I was never a fan of frames with sloping top tubes, nor did I like the modern color schemes, I was a traditionalist. My weight is on the heavier side than most so to sum it up, I was looking for a stiff frame with a traditional geometry and retro paint scheme.

I settled for the Extreme Power model. The EP was the top of the Colnago line in 2007. The reason why the EP was stiff was because the number one team Colnago was sponsoring that year was Milram, a German-based squad that had two of the greatest sprinters in that era, Eric Zabel and Alessandro Petacchi. A sprinter needs a stiff frame to facilitate transfer of power from the riders’ legs to the frame and to the road. The EP was made for sprinters. (As a counterpoint, when reed thin Michael Rasmussen of Denmark was trying to win the Tour the France in 2006-07, Colnago tweaked the frame to make it more lighter and therefore noodley, for Rasmussen. Unfortunately of Rasmussen, when he was on his way to wining the 2007 Tour de France, he was withdrawn by his team, Rabobank, when news leaked out that he was seen in Italy a month before, when he told his team that he was in Mexico for training.)

So when I was in the US last month, I went to the RA Cycle shop in Brooklyn, NY, to take a closer look at the EP. In their Internet page, the RA looked so sophisticated but in actuality, it was just a bike shop full of European models!  Pinarello’s, LOOK’s, Bianchi’s, Pegoretti’s and BMC’s lined up the wall and ceilings in no order! If you have been to Cristy’s Bike Shop in Cartimar, you’d know what I mean — an organized mess. I love it.

I have ridden the Extreme Power, (nickname: Beppe) about four times since I built her up. I need at least three months on her to give my review.