No visit to Eurobike would be complete without a visit to the booths of the various Italian brands.
Beautifully dressed people and still more beautiful bikes – stands from the likes of Colnago, De Rosa, Pinarello, and Wilier were draped in a selection of highly-desirable machinery of a style that could only emanate from Belle Italia, specifically the industrial north.
Colnago shared its stand with Ferrari, but it perhaps says much that the supercar was sequestered in a corner of the bicycle brand’s brilliant white stand and that Ernesto himself took centre stage, surrounded by various examples of the latest additions to his range: the C60 and V1-r.
De Rosa showed its new King XS, a title that would invite ridicule upon a less attractive machine, one wearing FSA’s prototype dual pivot brake, faintly reminiscent of Campagnolo’s iconic Delta, and new clincher incarnations of Vision’s Metron carbon hoops.
Pinarello wrapped its enormous display in images of a giant panther and staffed its booth on the day of our visit with none other than Team Sky’s Bernie Eisel, clearly in the market for some part-time, seasonal work in between WorldTour engagements.
And we seized a second opportunity to get up close to Wilier’s radically redesigned flagship, the Zero 7. Its predecessor has a legitimate claim to the title of best bike ever to cross the threshold of RCUK Towers, and the latest incarnation is notably slimmer and more sculpted.
Let’s take a closer look.
