A few, almost experimental, offerings in carbon fibre provided a touch of exotica, and steel tubing, ideally by Columbus and finished off with chrome plating, still ruled the roost. Aluminium alloy racing framesets were still made by bonding their tubes together, and titanium was both the the 'heir apparent' to steel as a frame material and the choice of the well heeled. Here was a cycling world in thrall to tasteless Lycra clothing, where 'sports eyewear' was better suited to apres ski and the more cautious pros had yet to embrace the advantages of gearshifting at the brake lever. Go back to the peloton of the early '90s, and the legend of the C40 becomes a little easier to explain. Yet all this, and more, is true of Ernesto Colnago's C40, which almost 10 years on from its first competitive appearance remains the most sought after machine in contemporary cycle culture. One, however, is so right, so outstanding, so complete in concept and execution, that it seems impossible that it should have been almost a decade in production, or that in that time it should have accumulated a palmares ranging from stage races to the hardest of the one day Classics, or that it should be virtually unchanged from the original test mule. Some are excellent in most respects but lacking a little something when it comes to the overall picture. Most have been competent enough, at least in the short term.
There have been many attempts at building a carbon fibre road bike frame. The following article was originally printed in Cycle Sport, February 2003 Eis um artigo que tudo explica acerca do até hoje considerado o melhor quadro de carbono do mundo, e que detem o maior numero de vitórias no seu palmarés do pelotão internacional durante os seus miticos 10 anos de produção - Colnago C(arbon)40(aniversário da Firma de Colnago (1993-2003)