COLNAGO - EVOLUTION OF A LEGEND

As the revered marque releases the C68, Simon Smythe looks back at the history of this fabled Italian thoroughbred

If that well-known illustration that depicts the evolution of the human being was used to depict the evolution of the carbon bike, the Colnago C40 would be the final figure on the right striding proudly off into the future. That’s not to say that its predecessors were knuckle-dragging Pliopitheci: the carbon-tubed Carlton Flyer, made by Raleigh in 1969, reputedly weighed 7.5kg. Later, brands such as Alan and Look/TVT put carbon bikes with aluminum lugs into production in the Eighties as well as supplying pro teams, and of course, Lotus built the radical pursuit bike that Chris Boardman used to win Olympic gold in 1992.

But it wasn’t until Franco Ballerini won Paris-Roubaix in 1995 on a Colnago C40 that carbon-fibre proved it wasn’t just for fragile climbing bikes or aerodynamic track and time trial bikes. It had passed the ultimate test: it was officially the best material for all road cycling applications. The cycling world would never be the same again. The C40 wasn’t Ernesto Colnago’s first carbon bike. The Colnago Concept, the result of Colnago’s first collaboration with Enzo Ferrari in 1986, was a futuristic, revolutionary machine with carbon five-spoke wheels, a desmodromic gearbox to replace the derailleurs, and hydraulic brakes.

In his ‘official’ biography Colnago, The Bicycle by Pier Augusto Stagi, Colnago describes in detail his first visit to Maranello and the development of the Concept.

“I went to Maranello with Beppe [Giuseppe Saronni] and Vanni, my sonin-law. All three of us were as excited as kids.