Found here on eBay is Maurizio Fondriest’s spare Legnano bike from the 1988 season – the year when the Italian won the World Championship road race in Ronse, Belgium.
Take a closer look at Fondriest’s Legnano bike here on eBayView Deal
Fondriest’s illustrious career included victories at Milan-San Remo, Flèche Wallonne, Tirreno-Adriatico and two stage wins at the Giro d’Italia – as well as eighth place overall at the 1993 Giro.
But if you followed professional cycling in the late 1980s, you would have seen – or, more likely with the lack of worldwide TV coverage then, read about – Fondriest’s win in the road race at the 1988 World Championships, when crashes and disqualifications in the group of three riders he came to the finish with made for a very different podium to the one you might reasonably have expected going into the last few hundred metres of the race.
Canada’s Steve Bauer felt that he had closed the door to Belgian Claude Criquielion when the two ran to the line, with Criquielion striking the bridge and Bauer tangled up in the crash. He let 23-year-old Fondriest cross the finish line as the new world champion, while Bauer, second, disqualified and Criquielion overcame the chasing group, meaning Frenchman Martial Gayant won silver and Spaniard Juan Fernandez bronze.
Fondriest only played professionally with Legnano executives for one season, in 1988, with the Alfa Lum-Legnano team. Although the motorcycle for sale here has the same design and color as the one that was set that year through Fondriest, the dealership says it’s your spare motorcycle, so you may not have noticed as much action, which you can also say is only for I’ve saved it a little bit.
It turns out it’s in good condition, with its original paint, and the custom-made Columbus SLX metal frame comes with a Campagnolo C-Record organization and wheels, 3TTT bars and a 3TTT gallows and a San Marco Saddle.
The so-called Legnano, along the way, comes from the city, to the gates of Milan, where the motorcycles were produced. The company started as a motorcycle manufacturer, but sponsored a cycling team from 1906 when it began manufacturing motorcycles, and the illustrious calls that crossed the team’s ranks came with Italian cycling legends Alfredo Binda, Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali. The motorcycle logo was later sold to Bianchi, but remains a popular logo for collectors.
The seller’s list includes the photo Bettini Photo, then fondriest in the rainbow shirt of his world champion, who would have been in one of the Italian end-of-season races that competed in 1988: Il Lombardia or Giro dell ‘Emilia.
Fondriest then joined the Del Tongo team and Pinarello motorcycles, for the 1989 season, and continued to travel for Panasonic and Lampre, before setting up his own motorcycle business and riding his own motorcycles the last years of his career with Roslotto and Cofidis, retiring at the end of the 1998 season.
Take a closer look at Fondriest’s Legnano motorcycle here on eBay
Neither we nor the distributor founded in Berlin, Germany, we are sure of the Legnano model, however, what you get here is the genuine item, with the so-called Fondriest engraved, not too expert, it will have to be said, in the most sensitive tube. As such, the sale value of the motorcycle is significant: US$14,999.99 (12030 euros).
We’re constantly on the lookout for unique and rare cycling relics on eBay. If you have any suggestions or leads, please send them to [email protected] with ‘eBay Finds’ in the subject line.
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