Description

MG Maglificio Cycling Team

MG Maglificio was an Italian professional road cycling team in the 1990s. The team started racing in 1992, under the management of Belgians Roger de Vlaeminck and Patrick Lefevere and Italians Enrico Paoloni and Paolo Abetoni. After a one-year co-sponsorship with Riso Scotti in 1998, MG Maglificio withdrew from cycling as a sponsor.

GB-MG Maglificio

MG Maglificio was already a co-sponsor in the 1991 season of the Del Tongo team by Abetoni. This team had riders such as Fabio Baldato, Franco Ballerini, Franco Chioccioli, Dag-Erik Pedersen and the young sprinter Mario Cipollini. In 1992, under the guidance of Flemish team management, and with GB and Bianchi as co-sponsors, the team was expanded and included such Belgian talents as Carlo Bomans and Andrej Tchmil, as well as neo-prof Davide Rebellin.

The team was immediately successful, with four Giro stage wins by Mario Cipollini, who was also victorious in Gent–Wevelgem. Chioccioli won a stage in the Tour de France and finished third overall in the Giro.

More Belgians arrived in 1993 with Wilfried Peeters and Johan Museeuw. Baldato won two Giro stages. Polish rider Zenon Jaskuła won stage 16 and finished 3rd overall in the Tour de France. Mario Cipollini was especially successful in the Flemish spring classics, winning E3 Prijs Vlaanderen and Gent–Wevelgem, among other races. To top that off, Museeuw was victorious at the Tour of Flanders.

The team saw many new riders in 1994 as many old Ariostea riders joined the team, along with its manager, Giancarlo Ferretti. Davide Cassani, Alberto Elli, Rolf Jaermann, Pascal Richard and Marco Saligari now joined the ranks of GB-Maglificio-Bianchi. Danish rider Rolf Sørensen and British time trial specialist Max Sciandri also joined the team. Cipollini and Chioccioli left the team, however. GB-MG won many one-day races this year, including the Amstel Gold Race (Museeuw), but also the final classifications of the Swiss stage races Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse (Richard). Sørensen was the best at Paris–Brussels, among other races.

MG Maglificio-Technogym

In 1995, former World Champion Gianni Bugno was signed by the team, now called MG Maglificio-Technogym. Head sponsor GB and manager Patrick Lefevere left the team, taking Johan Museeuw with them to Mapei-GB. Peeters, Bomans, and Ludwig Willems joined them, removing the Belgian influence in MG Maglificio, which was now a team with many Italians, a few Swiss, and one rider from Denmark and Great Britain each.

Like previous years, Italian specialists like Cassani and Richard won many major one-day races in Italy. Baldato also won a Tour de France stage.

In 1996, Michele Bartoli joined the team from Mercatone Uno. He won the Tour of Flanders and Giro dell’Emillia, among many other races. Baldato was again victorious in the Tour de France with a stage win, but also in the Vuelta a España where he won two stages. Pascal Richard won a special race in Atlanta, where he became Olympic Champion in the road race, where he won in front of former teammates Sorensen and Sciandri, who had left MG-Technogym earlier in 1996.

In 1997, MG signed then 22-year-old Paolo Bettini and Matteo Tosatto, who made their professional debuts. Gilberto Simoni and Mauro-Antonio Santaromita were other new riders on the team in what would be it’s last under the MG-Technogym name. In this final success year, Bartoli won Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Coupe du Monde and Alessandro Bertolini won Paris-Brussel.

MG Maglificio remained a sponsor in cycling for one more year, co-financing the Riso Scotti team of Alberto Volpi, with only a few riders from the old MG Maglificio team (among them Baldato). This team wasn’t nearly as successful as the old Technogym team, although a young Danilo Di Luca did win the Baby Giro of 1998, after which he scored an internship with Riso Scotti in September.

Excerpt from Wikipedia

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The History of the Cycling Cap

The cycling cap, or the ‘casquette’ in French, is a bit of an icon in the cycling world. The simple cloth cap graced the heads of all the greats, with the history of the cycling cap going back through the last century and beyond.

The Early Days

The first documented cycling races started up in the late 1800s, exposing riders to the harsh elements. Some sort of headwear was immediately needed, so the rudimentary flat cap was the obvious choice as opposed to top hats and tails.

The flat cap was a step in the right direction, but tweed is not an ideal athletic material. This set the groundwork for the cycling cap. Riders wore plain white skull caps, which eventually turned brown and grey with dust and grime over the years. It was purely functional, keeping the sun out of the eyes, absorbing sweat, and keeping the rain and muck out.

The Hayday

By the 1950s, the cycling cap became the ultimate mark of a professional cyclist. The design was refined through the 60s, coming to resemble what we know it today. Sponsors began branding caps, and it became a way to spread your name in the cycling world.

Not only were they worn on the bike, but on podiums and on the heads of coaches and everyone else inspired by the cycling greats. Those who may not be able to afford a Campagnolo-equipped bike could afford a Campagnolo cap, so it became an entry into the cycling culture.

The Decline

With the introduction of helmets to cycling in the 70s and 80s, the cycling cap became less of a necessity. Although it was no longer the mark of a professional cyclist, it remained a part of the cycling kit. The helmet and the cycling cap were not necessarily mutually exclusive, and many cyclists chose to wear a cap under their helmets in cold and wet weather.

July 25, 2020 by Sarah Lauze – Excerpt from iLove Bicycling