PARIGINA, 1997

‘In 1997, in the last time-trial of the Tour de France,

Bjarne Riis [riding for Team Telekom] takes this bike and throws it like a butterfly,’ says Fausto with a wry smile. Indeed a clip can be found online of a distraught Riis tossing his Parigina – Italian for ‘Parisian’ – like a discus after two mechanicals in a row, first a puncture and then a dropped chain.

‘I know the reason. Riis [the defending champion] was nervous because the young guys were coming through:

Jan Ullrich [Telekom] and Abraham Olano [Banesto]. By the last time-trial the Tour was already over for him, but he wanted the stage. He was obsessed with weight, and he said the bike was too heavy so he wanted to lose one of the chainrings and the front derailleur. We all suggested he did not, but he did, and without the derailleur the vibrations from the road meant the chain came off. But the thing is, the same day Ullrich won and Olano came second on a Parigina [Pinarello sponsored both Telekom and Banesto].

‘The Parigina is based on the Italian track team bike from the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Commentators say it is for the lady because it has no top tube, and when the UCI saw Riis with it at the Danish National Championships they told us we had to cut the tail off if we wanted to take it to the Tour. So we did. It had so much material that we just took the same bike and cut off the tail with a saw and repainted it. In fact, it had so much material that the brake under the bottom bracket actually worked quite well because there was no flexing!’