Sidi - 100% Italian?

We like Sidi, they make awesome cycling shoes but... Sometimes they are just very Italian. Their shoe sizes is one example. Their size 43 is actually more like a size 42, at least if you're used to Northern sizes. Another example is their sense of style, but there we have absolutely no complaints. Sidi make really good-looking shoes, in a variety of styles (as far as bicycle shoes go) and colours. Actually, you'd be hard pressed not to find a pair of shoes that would go with your style. Also, their shoes are made in Italy, which means fair wages and working conditions for the emplyees, and made with more environmentally friendly methods. That's super cool. (When it comes to comfort and quality of their shoes, we will have to come back with a review of our Genius 5 Fit Carbon when we have thoroughly tested them.)

But then there are the ads...

 (We borrowed this picture from Italian Bicycle. Hope that's OK!)

We don't know who this girl is. But sitting on the back seat of a rusty tandem bicycle with the kick stand down, in a bikini top and cut off denim shorts, her bicycle shoe-clad foot pushing (well...) a standard pedal, draped in the Italian flag... Why would anyone in their right mind buy bicycle shoes from this company? Would Italians in their right mind do it? Anyway this catalogue cover, as well as the ad, is aimed at the North American market.

(We borrowed the picture from ProBikeKit blog. Hope that's OK!)

Then there's Filippo Pozzato. Filippo Pozzato is a professional bicyclist. But why is he naked and has got oil over his whole body? Of course Filippo Pozzato is free to walk around naked with oil all over his body if he wants to, but what has that got to do with cycling? We don't think (and we certainly don't hope) that Sidi suggests that we should ride our bikes naked (except for Sidi shoes, of course) and covered in oil.

(Actually we don't want to tell you where we found this picture, because... well, we found it on a really dodgy website. But do a search on "Tiffany Toth Sidi ad" if you're interested.)

And then there's Tiffany Toth, a Playboy model and make up artist. What has she got to do with bicycling? OK, to be correct she's wearing motorcycle boots. (Right? Our knowledge in that field is kind of limited.) So what has Tiffany Toth got to do with motorcycles? Does she ride motorcycles, when not modeling and doing make up? And why is she naked? Because "Sidi is the only protection she relies on"? For her sake, we hope that she relies on something else as well.

Lastly there's this advertising film

that we love. It makes us smile. What's not to like? We like Vincenzo Nibali, also when he's not doing Sidi ads, and even though we must confess that we don't know much about Ivan Basso he seems cool as well. We're not sure if the film would make us choose Sidi shoes (Yeah, it would!), but we hope that Sidi keeps running it nonetheless. And if Sidi ever starts making olive oil, we'll definitely buy it!

Ride safe!

Sidi Genius 5 Fit Carbon

OK, to be honest I can't really give you a review of the Sidi Genius 5 Fit Carbon road shoes, since I just bought them. (But you can read some reviews here!) But for a good price... especially for a good price, actually, they look super. They're also made in Italy, which means that the man or woman who made this pair gets a fair wage, weekends off, statutory holidays and can say what they want without risking to be punished. I e, they weren't made in a sweatshop. That's super cool.

Sidi also writes about them that they incorporate features of resistance, stability, lightness, transpirability, water-repellency and eco-friendliness. (Whatever that means in practice.) They are "manufactured using the “Water-Tech” water treatment. Lower environmental impact, less noxious emissions into the air and into the work environment and the fact that not solvents, but water-based products were used, is beneficial to the environment as well as the final user." That's super cool as well.

They will look really nice together with my bike, and I'm pretty sure I can make them look good together with the rest of my outfit as well. Oh yeah, and they are supposed to enhance my performance and function well too, right? Let's also hope that they will work together with my pedals.

Well, time will tell how they'll work, with the pedals and with my feet. If you want I'll give you a review of them. (Actually I might give you a review of them anyway.) But until then I'm just happy with my purchase, and think that these shoes will look great together with a pair of de Marchi socks. Made in Italy as well.

Ride safe!

Postgirot Open 1982 (again)

As Part 2 of our new series "Postgirot Open", here's a second post card from 1982. The photo was taken during the race and then, presumably, published afterwards. We don't know much about it, really. It says on the back of the post card that the photo was taken in Södertälje, and it definitely looks like a sprint so we guess that it shows the finishing of the fifth stage.

Frame mounted gear shifters, quill pedals with toe clips and straps, the guy to the left rides a DBS bicycle (a Norwegian brand) and though we're not sure it looks like the guy in the middle is sponsored by Nokia tyres (the logos on the shoulders)... From 1909 to 1988 tyres and wellington boots were made by the Nokia company.

Talking about Nokia, it look as if Nokia will re-emerge as a producer of mobile phones in 2016. Let's hope so! We really like Nokia mobile phones. (Our experience with Nokia phones is that they are really sturdy and super practical.) But today's topic is the Postgirot Open 1982 bicycle race. Here is the post card:

Two post cards was kind of a nice start to the most important race in Swedish history, wasn't it?

Ride safe!

Their road racing season 2016

We have written about our own road racing season 2016, which upgrades our bikes are getting, how we are preparing and which races we have already entered. We will probably enter more races, and as we do we will write about it.

But there are more races going on, that the pros are entering! (They probably don't have to enter themselves and fill in the forms online.) If you want a complete list of all the professional races during 2016 you can find it here. However, we will not follow all the races on that list. Even if we would have liked to, which to be honest is quite doubtful, there are just too many. Instead, we decided to make our own alternative list, the races that we will follow, not so much because they have high UCI race classifications, but rather because we simply like them. So here goes:

We would like to begin with mentioning Tour de Taiwan, which is held from the 6th of March to the 10th of March. It might be quite hard to follow, at least here in Sweden, and it's not one of the "bigs", but if you want to check out the beautiful country of Taiwan, or ever see an Iranian winner in a bicycle race, this is your chance. (Actually there are teams from Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Dubai, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zeeland, Kazahkstan, PROC, Sweden, UK, USA and of course Taiwan too.) Their web page, which we like even though it is a bit slow, is here.

Then, on the 19th of March: Milano - Sanremo. The spring Classic. 298 kilometres, the longest professional one-day race, from the million people city Milano to the smaller town Sanremo, by the Mediterranean coast. Read more about it here. And, if you want: Write to the organisers and tell them to bring the Primavera Rosa women's professional race back, which was held the same day from 1999 to 2005.

10th of April: Paris - Roubaix. L'enfer du Nord! The cobblestone Classic. Read more about it here.

20th of April: La Flèche Wallonne and La Flèche Wallonne Féminine. Because we like Wallonia and because we think that it's cool that the women's version of the race is becoming a standard. Read more about it here and here, respectively.

24th of April: Liège - Bastogne - Liège. Also one of the Classics. Read more about it here.

6th of May to 29th of May: Giro d'Italia. The Giro d'Italia is arguably the most beautiful and important race of the year. Read more about it here.

1st of July to the 10th of July: Giro Rosa. Sort of like the women's Giro d'Italia. It's not easy to find information about it. There is an outdated web page here, with the results from 2015 and a picture of two really old guys as a background. One of them might be Ernesto Colnago, whose company Colnago will sponsor two of the jerseys of the race... But why not have a photo of the women who race instead?

2nd of July to the 24th of July: Tour de France. Inarguably the most important race of the year, regardless of what you think of the French (and we do!). Read more about it here.

24th of July: La Course by Le Tour de France. A one-day women's race, held in Paris, France, before the male cyclists of the Tour hit the city. Read more about it here.

19th of August: Crescent Women World Cup in Vårgårda, Sweden. Another women's race with quite hard-to-find information. The official web page is this one, with a little information about the 2016 edition of the race.

20th of August to the 11th of September: Vuelta a España. We rank this race as "the third race", together with Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. Read more about it here.

4th of October: Il Lombardia. Seriously, how can you not like a race named Classica delle Foglie Morte  - The Classic of the Dead Leaves? We do, and you can too. Read more about it here.

Our favourite teams for 2016 will (most probably) be Movistar Team on the male side, and Cervélo Bigla Pro Cycling Team on the female side. Movistar because we like Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde, and Cervélo Bigla Pro Cycling because we like Lotta Lepistö. (Actually Lotta Lepistö seems super cool.)

We can't have a blog post without a single picture, so here is Lotta Lepistö. (We borrowed this picture from Cervélo Bigla Pro Cycling Team. Hope that's OK!)

Ride safe!