The Continental

“I met Danilo Di Luca [former Italian pro who was banned for doping] through a mutual Italian friend, went in open-minded regarding past misdemeanours, and he turned out to be a lovely bloke, and he loved our stuff. As soon as we met he was talking about our clothing and did we want to work with him on a bike, as he’d gone into that side of things now. We worked on this for about 18 months with him, and persuaded him to brand the frame as Di Luca.

“It was difficult because we were trying to design a ‘plastic’ bike with a classic look, something a bit different. It’s a stiff, arse-in-the-air performance bike, but looks-wise we developed it and worked on the colours, getting the blue right and the gold, which can be difficult, but I think it’s worked well.

“We spoke to Di Luca about the Shimano groupset but he just said that they don’t use Campagnolo because Shimano works. I tried to explain that in the UK an Italian bike is expected to have Record on it, so we’ve had one made.

“We’ve gone with the Brooks saddle and tape because they suit the bike, same with the gumwall tyres.

“We just need to develop a metal badge, because I think our logo will make for a great badge.”