De Rosa

Thursday, De Rosa

Recovery ride in the rain and then off to the De Rosa factory, that is the plan for today, well not the rain, but we were just so lucky that it only rained today and not on any other day of the camp. We slept in (big day yesterday) and after the standard breakfast onto a nice and kind of special ride to the old part of Bergamo. To be more exact; Cita Alta. Some round stone covered streets, not exactly easy to ride on in the rain and uphill, thru the famous gate where the Giro and the World Cup Race; Tour of Lombardi has passed thru so many times. Quick stop at the town square and by now it is raining pretty hard. Enough of the sightseeing and time to head back towards the Hotel, we passed some slopes with wine yards and some really old building all surrounded by a wall, with the road snaking along the wall in between some really cool old houses, what a great place to live. Paolo takes us by his property he bought and intends to start an apple orchard on in the future, a really cool hidden location right in the middle of history. The rain just picks up and it is a couple of inches of water on the road by now and it is starting to get cold. We are soaked to the bone by the time we get back to the Hotel, but no big deal. 2 ½ hours in the rain is not the end of the world. Little lunch and a good clean up is next on the menu. This afternoon we have a visit at the De Rosa factory scheduled.
We have to do a short drive into Milan where the Factory is located and by now the sun is out again.
The pace is pretty old school, but still high tech at the same time. We get a nice tour through the pro shop where they have all different models and a lot of De Rosa clothing. Then into the actual factory where the bikes are made. Yes, they are made in Italy and they were very proud of that. We get to see the step-by-step procedure and a great explanation of the actual manufacturing of these sexy bikes. They are very open, no secrets here! These frames go through pretty stiff testing and the Italian craftsman ship is very is not compromised at any stage. Now if we only could sneak one out. This one was actually presented as a gift to me at the end of the visit ( sold it already on e-bay , sorry) Many Pro Teams has ridden these frames and still do today.Riders like Pettachi and De Luca and Garcelli have all been on these bikes . De Rosa has always been a bike that competed with Colonago and Bianchi, in other words the big league! Some souvenirs and we are on the way to a clothing company call Rosti . The Italian version of Verge . Cool to see how the cycling clothing is made and designed. We bought a few pieces to see what Paolo’s Team clothing is like .

A lot of drooling and dreaming today , not enough money in the bank though to bring home one of these ( I am talking about the Ferarri) , next year we will be more prepared !A fun day and now we are recovered and re-energized to do another epic ride , I am thinking Ghisallo!

First more R-5 and some Cassancelli and we will be ready to go!

Ciao

Roger