Stop Your Teasing!

   My main intent for posting this week was to introduce a couple new projects that I've added to the project queue. However, with a number of bikes currently ahead of them in the pecking order, it may seem like I am leading on readers who will have to wait a considerable time before seeing these two come to completion.
   I was determined to move finished bicycles out of my shop to open up storage spots for new builds, but cycling's global market collapse has certainly affected my sales, especially since the audience for my vintage bicycles is already narrow. I've had some friends or customers ask, "Have you started working on (this) or (that)?", and I'll tell them that I have all the parts, but I need room to store the completed bikes.
   I have a limited amount of space in my shop, and I don't want another situation where I have 20+ bikes around the perimeter walls (and maybe even some in other rooms of the house) awaiting repairs and tune-ups. A couple of customers were doing the right things and brought their bikes in early to avoid the inevitable spring rush, though it really may have been a few days of warm weather that made them overly optimistic.
   Speaking of a tease, just when I thought I was getting myself back into some semblance of fitness by squeezing in a couple hundred miles the first couple of weeks this month, the cold and snow have come back with a vengeance! Someone told me that there were only four days of sun in January, and I even wondered if that was just of the hazy variety. I really hoped February would be different!

   What I have in store for the future is another Ciocc bicycle - I've built a handful of these wonderful Italian bikes over the years, including one that included a full repaint job for my sister-in-law's husband. This mid-1980s "Designer '84" certainly isn't as far gone (with rust) as Todd's was, but it will require some cleaning and polishing before I put it back into operation.

   I'm on a bit of a retro-modern kick lately, so I'm considering putting more modern Campagnolo components on this bike:

   Speaking of retro-modern, I'm planning on a really different tack with this next one, a late-1980s Scapin (pronounced skah-PEEN) frame, manufactured with Columbus SL tubing. Umberto Scapin had a shop in Piove di Sacco, about 15 miles southeast of Padua. His early 1980s bikes were known for their beautiful cromovelato finishes.

   While this isn't one of those, the dark green and silver is quite attractive, and I'm using - get this - SHIMANO parts for this build!  I've had a nice Ultegra group lying about the shop and decided to go against my own personal, Italian-only preference  - unless a prospective customer suggests something different.

   I don't talk too much pro cycling anymore, since it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm really looking forward to the upcoming season. Of course there is the intrigue of a Vingegaard/Pogacar/Roglic/Evenepoel battle at the Tour de France, but the current World Champion Mathieu van der Poel looks set to do big things. The Dutch star, fresh off his second World Cyclocross title in a row (and sixth in his career), is preparing to dominate the spring Classics.

   Van der Poel entered nineteen events this winter and won EIGHTEEN of them, much of the time making stars of the sport, such as Wout van Aert look like amateurs! At the Worlds event in Tabor, Czech Republic, van der Poel took off from the start, putting twenty-five seconds into everyone except one of his Dutch teammates. He rode alone four six laps of the nearly two-mile course and was able cruise over the finish line without being under any real threat the whole time!

   It's really hard to believe he is 29 years old, since he has only devoted the last five to his road cycling career. It is astounding to think of the damage he could have done if he had been a World Tour rider from the start!

Van der Poel celebrated his recent cyclocross world title, crossing the finish line with a classy acknowledgment of his machine