PANTANI K2 KARBON, 2002

‘In 2002 we took back sponsorship of Mercatone Uno, and we made this bike specifically for Marco. It was different to the ones from our normal production and the rest of the team, who rode on aluminium bikes with carbon seatstays,’ says Gastaldello. ‘We made it in collaboration with a company called C4, which made monocoque frames in Italy. It was stiff and light, but there were problems with the quality of the structure. I think we had 10 made and Marco broke three or four of them just riding – cracks would start in the head tube and the bottom bracket.

‘This cost around €2,500 to make back then, so €5,000 now. That is far too expensive to ever sell, especially when they would break after one or two years.’

Indeed, this frame has cracks beginning in the head tube, which says a lot about early exploits into carbon frames given that Pantani’s fighting weight was 57kg. However, the K2 remains a marvel of the time, quite unlike the carbon-tubed, aluminium-lugged bikes that arrived in the mid-1980s and the ‘traditional’ looking all-carbon bikes that followed. Instead of being bonded from separate pieces, the K2 and other C4 creations were made entirely in one piece, from one frame-sized mould.

Today C4 operates in the realm of sports diving, its founder, Marco Bonfanti, having moved on from bikes to design fins and spear guns. Yet the company’s bikes remain highly collectible, from its own ‘Joker’ to early collaborations with Bianchi, both of which featured striking seat tube-less designs.