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Bianchi Pantani full bikeBianchi release Pantani edition Specialissima
It might only be 19 years since the late Marco Pantani won the Giro D'Italia and Tour de France in the same year - however Bianchi have released details of this Specialissima a year early with the same colour scheme as the Mega Pro XL that Pantani rode to his famous double in 1998.
Review: Bianchi Oltre XR3 Potenza
Bianchi launches Aria road bike
While the Mega Pro XL was made with light aluminium, the Specialissima is all-carbon and superlight, built for climbers like Pantani himself. The frame and fork are hand-painted, with a recreated Bianchi eagle badge in the same gold colours as on Pantani's bike adorning the head tube. The frame is 780g, with Bianchi's 'Countervail' vibration cancelling technology for a smooth and stable ride.
The bike is built with light components to compliment the frame, with a Campagnolo Super Record mechanical groupset, Bora Ultra 35 tubular wheels and a gold FSA K-Force carbon stem.
There's no information available on when the bike is set to land, pricing or how many will go on sale just yet, but we're guessing it will only be through a small number of Bianchi dealers should you want to enquire about owning this slice of cycling history....
Jack has been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of the website including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named Editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master's degree in print journalism and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it's a long story).
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46 comments
Good God was this thread derrailled. It didn't quite fall of a cliff, it just slowly got cranked to 88 and then time-jumped into some post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Anyway, a beautiful yet capable bike; a stylish and passionate rider; an unrepentant cheat whose mythos transcends his feats. Those opinions could all hold true. Or not. YMMV.
Spot on.
I still think it's a nice looking bike.
I take my hat off to you sir...You are truly incredible
I'm amazed at the levels of gullibility people have regarding sports and drugs. Look how clean Armstrong was until he pushed his luck. People REALLY believed it, absolutely. We are all a bit like kids getting older and christmas, we want believe but we perhaps suspect something and one day Santa isn't real anymore.
No, you're just being a dick.
You've blankly refused to accept that anyone whose opinion may differ to your own may be entitled to have that opinion and may have come to it in a perfectly fair and reasoned manner.
You've also completely missed the humour in this thread and have continued with your polarised view without anything beyond your base assertion that your opinion is the only ethical version of reality.
And now you're adopting a supercilious tone as you seem to think you've won the moral high ground...
I assume I lost you at "No," so allow me to distil this into one sentence...
Fuck off.
I come here occasionally to check out the potty-mouthed pretend contender wannabees. I see they are still strong.
Thanks Barry,
If you read the other 600 posts I've made you'll find that almost without exception, I am neither potty-mouthed nor ignorant towards others. I pride myself as a cyclist of 30+ years experience and am always happy to help and advise where I can.
Sometimes however, I do lose patience with those whose minds are closed and have little or no ability or will to see beyond the end of their own noses...And notably so with a famous troll on this site.
I'd love to talk Bianchi with you or anyone, but this thread is sadly broken beyond repair.
Might help if they actually quoted the person they are insulting, so that we'd at least know who he was referring to, but perhaps that's expecting a bit much.
Anyone who swears has clearly lost the argument.
That would be the argument where stating your opinion as if fact is all you need do?
The argument where you selectively respond to snippets and create a subordinate issue that nobody but you has raised?
The argument where you simply refuse to read others responses for what they are and then insult them with accusations of waffle when they explain further?
I'm sorry I'm a bit more open minded than you clearly are. I was more than happy to accept your opinion but you have chosen to keep nipping away from your moral high ground.
There will of course now be some posting about who I may be referring to...
If only I'd quoted.
Kindly explain this
horseshitlogic.If you can't construct and explain a logical argument, and have to resort to swearing, you clearly have no case.
Clear enough?
Now that deserves a quote for its wonderful emboldened irony...
One of us doesn't understand the concept of irony. I can construct and explain a logical argument, but when you are asked to do so, you not only fail to do so, you swear.
Clear that you believe some tired old shit based on some stuffy received wisdom, yeah.
Fluency is fluency, and the ability to articulate does not see 'swears' as a limiting factor: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S038800011400151X
Lmao. That's BLING!
that's how the other riders recognise which one is their dealer
It's the deep rims that make it look gopping, oh and the ugly CF seatpost. Alloy fluted/90s aero seatpost plus silver box rims and it would look okay but tbh not sold on the colourscheme in any case.
This Rossin seatpost took my eye the other day. £260!
Capture.JPG
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2017/jul/09/tour-de-france-tom-si...
Yes, you are labouring a point... And still completely missing mine.
I will continue to enjoy the memories of racing that took place 20 years ago where there was no proof (albeit everyone "knows") doping was present.
The races took place and the results currently still stand and I therefore feel perfectly at will to enjoy the skill and techniques employed by the riders of the day. These elements are not influenced by drugs.
Eg. Pantani was a great tactician and Armstrong was an incredible bike handler.
The extent of doping in those days makes it impossible for me personally to determine who would have won what when if they were all clean. So... Rather than attempting to erase a section of my life, I choose to look at it for what it was until such time as the playing field is truly levelled.
I'm somewhat confused by your interpretation that I support one doper in favour of another but I don't feel the need to seek clarity on where you got that one from.
Please be clear that I do not, and never have condoned doping in sport. Acceptance of what happened historically is very different to supporting it.
With one exception, I'm not going to repeat anything else I've said above so please keep this in the context of what I've already said when you reassert your opinion on my thoroughly unethical stance.
I still love the Mega Pro paintjob, then and now.
Thanks. I'm still missing your point, so perhaps you could sum it up in a sentence or two rather than a wandering essay?
Lmao. Goodbye.
Glad I've brought some joy to your life, but it's a pity that you really didn't have a point and you just like endlessly waffling on.
@burt
No need to apologise as you are entitled to your opinion.
I also applaud you for being the first person to ever infer that I am immoral and unethical in my take on life... I can take real pride in that one.
All joking aside though, I feel you've missed my point and indeed your comment regarding Armstrong serves to illustrate that perfectly...
At no point would I condone doping which was and is a highly unsavoury and unfortunate feature of our sport.
However. Until such time as every doper at every level of every sport is retrospectively stripped of any titles or profit made with the assistance of drugs we should not feel obliged to refuse to enjoy the racing that took place.
I'll leave that one to those that get paid to consider and act on compliance and ethics issues within sport and continue to enjoy my memories of some great racing and even better looking bikes...
And back to the bike... Guess what the one thing I really don't like about it is?
The Pantani decal.
Even when the racing that took place was fuelled by drugs? And the winner won not because they were the best athlete, but because they had the best drugs?
I can't help feeling that your utterly absolutist stance is merely adopted to defend your original position.
So tell, me; how do your ethics square supporting a doper who won, but not supporting another who did exactly the same? Sorry to labour the point, but I thought ethics were kind of fixed, not swayed by personalities.
A bit too 90s paint scheme for my taste. But Campy oughts to make a nice alloy vintage machined groupset and even overprice it and still sell like hot cake!
Breaking news... Most pro cyclists in the 80's and 90's doped. I'm terribly vexxed for the clean minority who weren't able to compete on a fair stage, but it is what it was... In so many sports at the time.
It's been done to death... Sadly, literally, in Pantani's case.
I'm over it.
Maybe I have a thing for dopers though... I own a PDM team issue Concorde from 1988... Now there was a team who knew how to take drugs.
I'm so sorry, I must have missed the ethics lessons about two wrongs making a right and any illegal, immoral behaviour is acceptable because everyone else is doing it.
Tell, me would you buy a Lance Armstrong TdF special? If not, perhaps you could explain why you seem to approve of another rider who won by doping.
Pantani doped. He might have won with just his talent, but we'll never know. To say that dopiing is acceptable because other people did it is immoral and unethical. Who responded best to the drugs won, not the best athlete.
Not sure I'd be celebrating the wins of one of the biggest dopers in cycling. What next, the Lance Armstrong TdF bike?
Quite right. Also why I refuse to buy a Fender Stratocaster, because illegal drug user Jimi Hendrix played one.
And FYI the only Trek I'd ever buy would be a full US Postal blue/red Lance edition.
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