Samuel Sánchez’s golden Giro d’Italia shoes

Cor blimey, check out these golden Sidi shoes. They belong to the shy and retiring Samuel Sánchez, a man who has been proudly wearing and equipping his bike with as much gold coloured kit as possible since winning the 2008 Beijing Olympic road race. We spotted these on the Spaniard’s feet at the start of the Giro d’Italia.

Sidi, of course, have a very interesting and colourful track record of supplying custom shoes for their star riders over the years, but these truly reach new ostentatious heights. It will take something to topple these from their throne as the most awful shoes we’ve ever clapped eyes on.

But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, and Sammy clearly appears to be made up with them. He’s even got natty matching socks as well. He's been wearing gold shoes since 2008, and these are the latest version. They've gradually gained more gold over the years - you'd think they would tone it down as the years pass. But these, like last year, are very gold. 

Underneath the gold is Sidi's latest top-end Wire shoe, which VecchioJo is currently testing. How's that test going, Jo?

It’s not just Sidi who are at it, Shimano delivered a load of gold tinted shoes for their 22 sponsored athletes at last year’s London 2012 Olympics. But they’re decidedly tame in comparison to Sidi’s effort.