On a bright, sunny February morning, Road Bike Action was invited to visit Ernesto Colnago at his world HQ in Cambiago, Italy. The beautiful day was a big change from the cold, rainy and snowy weather that had been battering Northern Italy this winter and the rays shined down on Signor Colnago on his 77th birthday. Colnago was born February 9, 1932, when Herbert Hoover was still the American president and Benito Mussolini, 'Il Duce" had been in power for 10 years in Italy


We sat with Colnago for an hour in his memorabilia filled office, more like a museum than a workplace. Colnago always has a busy day, filled with meeting and visitors and his 77th birthday was made even more chaotic with constant phone calls and visits from his many friends and local acquaintances in the town. Calls came in from many pro riders to wish Signor Ernesto well, like Pavel Tonkov (who was celebrating his 40th birthday on February 9th). Colnago is always close to his riders and at at 77 years old, Signor Ernesto still has the same burning passion for the sport of cycling as when he was a young racer 60 years ago. "I'm really happy to get all these messages today, from Italy, Japan, Belgium and America, where we just started Colnago America."

Our first question concerned the most recent major win for Colnago, that of 'cyclo-cross cannibal Sven Nys, who has ridden a Colnago for all of his 11 year pro career and has won the UCI Cyclocross World Cup yet again. Colnago told Road Bike Action "I like Nys a lot; he is a real winner and has a great image. He was a perfect teammate at the World Championships; the Belgians rode very well and Nys escaped at the end for third."

When we asked Colnago if the 2008 season was a disappointment because of the doping scandals that hit his sponsored team CSF Navigare hard at the Giro d'Italia, he responded by saying "I've been in this game for 55 year. I've seen it all. I've sponsored so many teams, and won over 2,000 races on my bicycles. Olympics, World Champonships...you name it. Let me ask you; do you know a pro team that is really clean? This (doping) happens in all all kind of sports; it can't go on like this with all the scandal. There have to be limits. What happend with (CSF-Navigare) was with a few riders on the team, not the whole group. But it kills them all. It hurts all of cycling."


"So I want to know why, in all the other sports; auto racing, motorcycle racing, downhill skiing..it's all about the aerodynamics and many things are allowed. In cycling, it's different. The UCI blocked my creativity in designing these bicycles! I proved that carbon fibre was a valid material for bicycles, with all the wins in Paris-Roubaix and so many other big races all over the world."

"I guess another thing thing I want to explain is that at Colnago, we make custom carbon bicycles all the time. We've made big investments in different lugs to build custom bikes. The others, they have mostly made monocoque carbon fibre frames in a few sizes to save money; small, medium large and extra large. But if a rider has longer legs, or a short torso, before the bike was made to fit the rider but now the rider has to fit the bike...it's all the same for everyone. But that's not right, especially for elite riders. But that is the way fashion has gone, and I'm sorry but I don't like this. A lot of cheap carbon fibre bikes are being made in Asia, poor quality products that have fancy, bright colors. Where is the real soul of the bicycle in that? People are buying these inexpensive bikes and are not getting quality products. They need to buy a quality bicycle to have the best experience...that's what is happening in the bicycle market today."


Always a keen observer of the pro cycling scene Colnago was interested to see how the comeback of Lance Armstrong unfolded. "I am happy to see Lance back. I'm hoping to see him at the start of Milano-Sanremo, to shake his hand and welcome him back to racing in Italy. Lance is a great man, who has it all and has come back to cycling to help the fight against cancer. I wish him well and think he will be a winner again.  To show his willingness to do this is the strongest thing in the world."



One race that has escaped the win column of Ernesto Colnago is the Tour De France. In a previous visit to Colnago World HQ in Cambiago, Road Bike Action saw Michael Rasmussen, a close friend of Colnago and a Colnago dealer in Italy at his bike shop Los Lobos, near Lake Garda. We asked Signor Ernesto if he expected to see Rasmussen back in the peloton this season. Colnago replied "his suspension ends in July and I expect to see him back racing, but it will not be easy for Michael Rasmussen to return. In my opinion, they robbed him of victory in the 2007 Tour De France. He showed he was the strongest when he beat the Spaniard (Alberto Contador) in the mountains. Yes,  he did lie but the team management knew where he was all along. They made him the scapegoat and that was not right. What did he steal from anyone? Rasmussen did a lot of drug tests at that Tour, he was tested 14 times and was never positive. Yes, he wants to come back but there are a lot of forces against him in the sport. I feel badly for Michael Rasmussen; he's a guy who always gave his all and was a very serious rider."

For his next adventure in cycling, Ernesto Colnago has decided to launch Colnago America and at 77, Colnago has the excitement of a teenager for his newest venture. "We grew our sales a lot in America over the last few years, but we were never satisfied with the way things were going over the last ten years so. We were hearing a lot bad things from our dealers and in early January, I decided to start this new project of Colnago America. We thought of doing this ten years ago but decided to stay with a traditional distribution model."