Pink Tires, Limited Edition, from Vittoria

Vittoria Rubino Pro in pink:


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Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com.  

Graphene Technology for Vittoria Tires

The partnership between Directa Plus SpA, a technology start-up firm based in Lomazzo (CO) which aims to the development, marketing and use of innovative processes for the nano materials generation and Vittoria Industries Ltd, the world leader in the production of premium bicycle tires dedicated to all levels, was presented last week to the media and to a selected audience of more than 150 guests.

The agreement aims to create, within the first few months of 2013, a joint venture for the production of tires containing Graphene, in the manufacturing facilities own by Vittoria Industries in Thailand, whose new R & D global center of excellence will be opened in January 2013.

The agreement was presented by the CEOs of the two companies, during the meeting entitled “Graphene: an Enabling Material for a Smart Future” held in Milan. Organized by Directa Plus, this event aimed to raise awareness of the huge potential application of the G+ process that they developed in the first European industrial plant for the production of nano graphene plates (opened last year in Lomazzo).

“With this agreement, Vittoria aims to take advantage from the revolution that will be certainly brought in raw materials by the use of Graphene, thanks to the unique Directa Plus patented process G+. We will test and adopt this new technology and apply it to the cycling field, " says Rudie Campagne, Vittoria Industries Ltd President and CEO. "The benefits will be countless, in terms of weight and performance, and we will announce them whenever we introduce to the market a new product powered by G+.”

“At the basis of this agreement there is a common vision which we share with Vittoria: nanotechnologies will soon be the key to improve the traditional materials used by bringing an added value to the entire production process and to consumers, " explains Giulio Cesareo, Directa Plus President and CEO.

Photo (L-R): Rudy Campagne, President & Ceo of Vittora and Giulio Cesareo, President & CEO of Directa Plus

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Ride In Style with Vittoria

New Vittoria shoes shown at Interbike.

Photo: courtesy www.pezcyclingnews.com

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome.

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Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 2,600 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.  

Vittoria: ISOgrip, New Racing Compound for Tires

ISOgrip, unveiled at EuroBike, is the name of Vittoria’s newest compound for road racing tires. According to Vittoria, ISOgrip takes tire compounds to the next level and it’s the first product coming out of the company’s new compound factory in Thailand that will be officially opened next January (see this story about the factory).

ISOgrip been secretly tested during Giro d’Italia and Tour de France by pro teams such as Rabobank and is now available to the public. Vittoria’s entire cotton family, from Corsa CX to Pavé CG, has the new innovative compound.

According to Vittoria the new tires have spectacular test results saying, "“By comparing the laboratory tests with the previous developed compound Kevlar SiO2, ISOgrip holds the identical mechanical properties, improves cut resistance, increases wet grip and reaches a level of adherence to the ground never felt before, without any increase in the rolling resistance. ISOgrip defines maximum grip and speed in performance tires. On dry or wet road conditions, ISOgrip® will take you beyond your limits. ISOgrip is our new reference standard”

Details at www.vittoria.com

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome.

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Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 2,500 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

Pillars of Italian Cycling by Peloton Magazine

"Pillars of Italian Cycling" by Peloton magazine is a 35 minute video, here, featuring fi'zi:k, Castelli, Vittoria, Wilier, Bianchi and Carrera. Very interesting and high quality production. Don't miss it.

The Peleton magazine website is www.pelotonmagazine.com

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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 2,000 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

How a Vittoria Tubular is Made

Vittoria expanded their Thailand manufacturing facility in 2010, they were expecting to be producing 7 million premium road race and MTB tires, and 1 million tubulars annually. This is a good video as to how a tubular tire is made at Vittoria:
YouTube - How a Vittoria Tubular is made

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Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,900 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

Vittoria Cycling Shoes: Expanding Presence in USA

Vittoria Cycling Shoes announcement of December 10th:

"Vittoria Cycling Shoes strengthens its presence in the American market with the birth of Victoria USA LLC. The society, whose capital and control belong to Vercelli family - owner of the well-known 100% Made in Italy cycling shoes brand - will represent the only exclusive distributor of the Italian firm in the United States.

“In a market more and more in rapid change where what up to yesterday was good and today no more, you have to dare to change. This is why we take this decision" – Edoardo Vercelli explains - "To our clients we offer the Made in Italy quality at the correct price, that is at the base of our business politics, as the availability of the products and a good operational margin to the retailer”.

Vittoria USA, has its headquarters in Coral Gables, Florida, and boasts already an organic of 15 commercial agents, distributed across the United States, further to a series of contracts of representation that have to be defined soon. Besides Vittoria USA will directly manage the sales and the marketing for the United States. Moreover a specific computer platform will be developed with the purpose to have a better contact with the American retailers. It will allow the client to interact with Vittoria in every moment and to be able to autonomously manage any operation from his own office: the order, the state of the shipment, the delivery, the payment and also everything concerns the assistance and the technical support."

ICJ Reader contribution contest will run 1 January to 15 February, 2011. Details here.

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Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,600 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also an Italian weather widget along the right side and a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page. What I'm riding.

Vittoria Tires Expansion

Vittoria Industries is enlarging its production capacity substantially. The company invests € 4.3 million to upgrade its existing factory and commissions a new plant. A surge in demand in the second half of 2009, from several large new clients as well as the existing client base, is driving the expansion plan.

By the end of 2010, Vittoria expects to be producing 7 million premium road race and MTB tires, and 1 million tubulars annually.

Vittoria Industries reports that its subsidiary Lion Tyres Thailand will take on a new rubber-production facility. This high-tech compound factory, located some 140 kilometres south of Bangkok in the Rayong Industrial Estate, will develop and produce 100% of all rubber compound needed for its tire production.

The Vittoria Industries compound factory will start production in 2012 and will also supply rubber to automotive parts suppliers in the Rayong region.

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,500 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

Vittoria Industries Founder Rudi Campagne Appoints Successors

Tire manufacturer Vittoria has announced a reorganization of its management structure. In a statement, current CEO and founder Rudi Campagne said: “I am reaching the age in which all daily operational issues need to be passed on to the younger generation in order to ensure a gradual and proper transfer of assignments and responsibilities.” As of January 1, 2010 Giovanni Mazzola was been appointed Chief Operation Officer and Managing Director of the Vittoria Group.

Rudi Campagne was one of the four investors who bought Vittoria S.p.A in 1988. He created a new company called Vittoria Industries Ltd. by a complete restructuring of the Italian company into an international operation. In this process the Italian production was transferred to a newly created factory called Lion Tyres (Thailand), today considered as one of the best tire factories in the world.

Go here to see a video of how a Vittoria tubular is made at the Thailand factory.

Photo: Vittoria's Thai factory

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondo, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,200 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

Vittoria Retro Cycling Shoes

Vittoria has a new line of very Italian-style shoes called the "1976 Collection". The collection ranges from classic shoes with high-tech soles to suede shoes and to colorful models. More details can be found here. For their complete line of shoes visit http://www.vittoria-shoes.com/.

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com

Video of How a Vittoria Tubular Tire is Made

A Vittoria video of the start to finish process of the making of a handmade Vittoria tubular tire can be seen here

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.

Vittoria Reminded Me

Vittoria reminded me that they had a great Giro d'Italia:

"Vittoria completely swept the board at Centenary Giro winning the Pink Jersey, the Green Jersey, and getting second place with Danilo Di Luca who is also the Mauve Jersey, Points Classification winner (maglia ciclamino); this is quite an impressive result. Vittoria’s Centenary Giro has been an outstanding success: winner, second and fourth place finisher (Carlos Sastre from Cervelo Test Team) were all endorsing Vittoria tubulars for the 3456 grueling kilometres that drove the racers form Venice to Rome over 21 stages.

The race between Di Luca and Menchov was fierce and the two athletes held lots of respect one to the other. 2007 Giro winner Di Luca clearly showed conflicting emotions mere seconds after Menchov’s crash during the last leg of the final time trial in Rome; his expression looked so tense since victory must have been looking possible, even for very few seconds. After three weeks of grueling racing this would not have been a “fair” way to win the Giro. Stefano Garzelli is the Giro’s Green Jersey winner and he pretty much deserves it for the constant commitment and hard work he put into this race.

It's another great result for Vittoria. The outstanding success of Team Rabobank Denis Menchov and LPR Brakes Danilo Di Luca at Italy’s most prestigious race builds on early-season successes worldwide in the the most extreme conditions imaginable. Vittoria Corsa Evo CX tubulars mark a long history of racing success, down the years, many great champions used the CX to win the most important races. We wish to thank all our athletes that got stage wins, a total of 10 “vittorie”. We thank Denis, Danilo, Stefano, Carlos, Simon, Alessandro, Ignatas for the incredible show they put on and for all the wins they were able to get thanks to our CX tubulars."

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com

Vittoria Cycling Shoes Contest

Vittoria is running a contest for their Thor Hushovd model cycling shoes. The contest requires predicting the podium finishers of the 100th Giro d'Italia. While the contest appears to be for Italians you might try to enter; I'm not sure what they will do about foreign entries. There are a few other prizes on tap as well. You can send this blog entry to your friends by clicking on the white envelope at the end of this entry.

Go to http://www.vittoria-shoes.com/

Click on the "Vince con Vittoria" pink box

A new page will come up. Click on "Participa ora!"

"Altro" means other; if you select "Altro" enter name in the box. All fields must be completed. Other definitions: Nome=first name; Cognome=last name; Citta=city (enter ONLY city name), Telefono: phone number.

You must also check off the small box which has to do Italian privacy regulations regarding the use of the data you entered.

After the Giro we'll get back to "regular programming": everything from A to Z about Italian cycling. Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com.

Vittoria Italian Tricolor Tubular (Clincher!) Tires

Vittoria is producing a special edition of tubulars in the Italian flag colors. The tires are being made in honor of Michele Bartoli, “Il Guerriero”. These special edition tires are only available in one size, 19-622/700×19, the size that carried Bartoli to his victories.

ed. note: reader Krister K. writes in: "the box (in the photo) says open tubular which is what the clincher tires are called by Vittoria.... I remember when these tires came out (not exact date ) but it was when Bartoli was a star. I get a little suspicious because of the size 700x19 which is not a really desirable size for most people (23 is the common size ), could it be that they found a NOS stock and are trying to move it?".

These are clinchers, not tubulars. Sorry for the error.

The flag of Italy (often referred to in Italian as Il Tricolore) is a tricolor featuring three equally sized vertical pales of green, white and red, with the green at the hoist side. In its current form it has been in use since 19 June 1946 and was formally adopted on 1 January 1948. In 2003, after 206 years of service, the authentic colours of the Italian tricolour were specified by the government, but later amended in 2006 after hot debate on the chosen shades.

Photos: Vittoria "Il Guerriero" tubular

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