Nasty, cold, and wet weather has moved into northern Italy over the last few days, and continues to linger. One of the peculiarities of Italy is that store sales are only permitted two times per year. The dates are established by each region. Today, January 5th, was the start of the sales in the Veneto region so with the miserable weather we shifted from cycling to shopping. It also gave me a chance to get caught up on more of the articles of the latest 244 page issue of CT.As I have previously mentioned, CT magazine is the most important cycling magazine when it comes to the world of the granfondo. The name CT signifies CICLOTURISMO. That was probably the original focus of the magazine but I am guessing that as granfondos became more popular so did the focus of the magazine. In fact, you can see that they have added the words Gran Fondo under the CT logo. When you go to a newstand in Italy you can expect to find many cycling magazines, all of which are much better than BICYCLING.
The highlight of this issue for me is the 10 page photo spread of how Doriano De Rosa (of De Rosa bikes) goes about building a Ti frame. I found it very interesting as there were 28 photos of the entire process. Doriano builds every De Rosa Ti frame. In an exchange of emails with Darren Crisp (see www.crisptitanium.com or search in my blog for Crisp) about the article, he writes, "Doriano is one of the last great framebuilders left and I highly respect his work and experience, as well as attention to detail. We got to chat a bit at EICMA (note: the Milan bike show) when he came to visit my stand, and he's a super-friendly guy. I would love to make it up to his shop as he's the only one left that does actual frame"building" at DeRosa."
There are also articles on:
-how clubs celebrated the end of season,
-how one club begins its new season,
-preparations for the new season with a focus on finding your ideal cadence,
-training advice (centered around SFR, Salita, Forza, Resistente which Francesco Moser first used in his world record preparations),
-announcements, dates, and route profiles for the most important granfondos,
-a new event named the "Cronosquadra Michele Bartoli" which will be a 40 Km team team trial for mortals along the Mar Ligure,
-a technical article and review of Sram Red (note: believe me, Italian riders use Shimano as much as Campagnolo, and Sram is gaining ground as well),
a review of the GOLD trainer (search in my blog),
-short reviews of URSUS wheels, FSA SL-K cranksets,
-a 20 page section dedicated to women, featuring articles from women's bikes to saddles to clothing,
-diabetes and cycling,-short articles on cicloturismo and randonneurs,
-trip article covering the Liguria region
Typically there are also two full bike tests. For this month the bikes tested were the Carrera Phibra and the Cannondale Synapse. Worthy of note are the Carrera's unusual design and the fact that it is completely made in Italy.
The most prominent two page ads were for:
-Pinarello Prince,
-Scapin Ekle SL,
-ELITE trainers,
-DEDA Elementi (the new chromed, track old style handlebars are nice)
The one page ads are too numerous to mention!
I hope this gives you some idea about the contents of a typical CT.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for giving us an idea of what's in CT magazine. It's interesting to see a feature on women's cycling. It is very rare in the UK to see a feature on women's cycling in any cycle magazine.
ReplyDeleteWe get the impression here that in Italy women's cycling is taken very seriously. Is this the case ?
I've seen a large increase in the number of woman cyclists here in the last 2.5 years. Women seem to be attracted to it because of health and fitness reasons. With cycling being a historically important sport in Italy it is generally taken seriously by everyone. I am impressed that of the 8,500 particpants in the Maratona dles Dolomites 1,500 are women. It's a tough event (search in my blog). Italy's Marta Bastianelli's win in the road World Championship will likely attract yet more women. Italian bike manufacturers are now producing women specific bikes such as Pinarello (Carla Pinarello is the captain of the Tinky Pinky Ladies), Cinelli (La Little Wing model), and others. Thanks for reading and writing.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Your description of CT sounds more like a magazine of old here in Australia. The local club scene information is something that is hardly publicised in the print media these days.
ReplyDeleteSingletracking: I added two CT photos, one of the end of year celebrations at one of the clubs, and one of the start of training. Thanks for reading and writing.
ReplyDeleteTinky Pinky Ladies have a website of their own - www.tinkyinkyladies.com
ReplyDeleteBe sure to take a look, will be in English soon. If you have any questions email : info@tinkypinkyladies.com
Cheers
Yvette