Happy 51st Birthday Mario Cipollini

[Tony T]

Rouleur:

"At the départ I showed up with my own Cleopatra, who was a stripper. I was the first to say “If I wasn’t a rider, I’d be a porn star,” the first to make a mobile phone call during the race, the first to have a picture of Pamela Anderson on his stem, the first to ride in the Papal colours in Rome [at the Giro d’Italia], as a tiger in Holland, baroque in Genoa. All my ideas, silly but fun."
Happy 51st Birthday Mario Cipollini

[weisan]

[MattTuck]

In the context of Cipo, Sagan seems pretty tame.

[weisan]

Originally Posted by MattTuck

In the context of Cipo, Sagan seems pretty tame.

You got that right!

[pdmtong]

The one year he raced the AToC he came into our LBS. I just missed him by half an hour. I heard from folks who were there it was a pretty fun time. Quite a character for sure.

[FlashUNC]

Cipo is god.

[fiamme red]

Originally Posted by MattTuck

In the context of Cipo, Sagan seems pretty tame.

Cipollini was wild in his antics, but I found his method of winning sprints using his lead-out train rather boring and predictable. Sagan has various unpredictable ways of winning sprints.

[cnighbor1]

Road Bike Mag current issue has a nice ride up on his CF bike $15,000.01

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Cipo is god.

[Tony T]

This is an edited extract from Rouleur 62:
Mario Cipollini: “Real sprinters are like heavyweight boxers”

[RonW87]

There's a guy located north of Toronto who used to distributed Cipollini brand bicycles. At one point a few years ago he mentioned that Mario would be stopping in Toronto (perhaps on his way to Interbike?). I thought "that's interesting" but didn't think about it again. A few weeks later I'm riding on our usual "donut" ride north out of the city. I look to my left to see a tall guy all dressed in black kit in a really long and low position. I then did the ultimate double-take because, sure enough, there I was riding alongside the Lion King himself.

[fiamme red]

Originally Posted by Tony T

Full Article:
Mario Cipollini: “Real sprinters are like heavyweight boxers”

Great interview!

Honestly, in your life, more victories or women?

If I only had 198 women, the same numbers as my victories, I’d have to be considered a loser.

[redir]

Same birthday as William Shatner. I can see something there.

[DG24]

I always thought that his tactic, especially when he had his train, was fascinating in it predictability. Everyone knew what was going to happen, and it happened anyway.

Some noteworthy comments in that article.

[GregL]

Originally Posted by fiamme red

...but I found his method of winning sprints using his lead-out train rather boring and predictable.

Cipo was pretty good without his train when he had to be. At Gent-Wevelgem in 2002, he bridged to the small leading group and then schooled them in the sprint without any assistance. Later that year at the world championship, his lead-out train was only two national team members (albeit one was Alessandro Petacchi...) and again he won with ease. I miss Mario!

Greg