Beating Erik Zabel and Luca Paolini, Oscar Freire takes a remark­able third world cham­pi­onship aboard a Colnago. “Oscar is a real cham­pion,” says Ernesto Colnago. “He’s enthu­si­as­tic and still gets excited over a new per­son­al­ized bicy­cle.” “I’ve been rid­ing a Colnago bicy­cle for years,” says Freire, “and it’s like wear­ing a com­fort­able pair of shoes, the bicy­cle fits me so well. I’m con­vinced of one thing: a good bicy­cle won’t win you a race but [a bad one] could lose you one.”

For Colnago’s offi­cial fifti­eth anniver­say, the com­pany cre­ates a spe­cial edi­tion com­plete bicy­cle with a mono­coque frame and cus­tom touches such as embroi­dered 50th anniver­sary saddle.