COLNAGO C40 MAPEI, Shimano Dura Ace 7700, 57cm (1996) – SOLD

Ernesto Colnago was born on February 9, 1932 in Cambiago, near Milan, Italy. At age 13 he entered in world of two wheels and immediately he fall in love with bikes and cycling. In 1952 he founded Colnago and started to work as mechanic for several professional teams. Colnago’s bikes still have a domination of the world’s cycling sports because Ernesto was always an innovator and pioneer of new technologies which supposedly provide more efficency or comfort.

In 1994 Colnago started to produce their very successful model C40 — ‘C’ for carbon and ‘40’ to commemorate Colnago’s 40th year in business. Full carbon frame with Master profile carbon tubes bonded to carbon lugs. Colnago solved the problem of how to make a carbon frame durable enough to win the toughest cobbled Classics yet light enough to soar up Alpine cols. That’s the reason why the C40 is the favourite bike of all time for so many people — including Sir Bradley Wiggins. Colnago could have created something with perhaps a swoopy, futuristic profile befitting its revolutionary design. Instead he kept the tubes ramrod-straight in the traditional style — albeit with the star-shaped cross-section that he had pioneered with the steel Master.

Mapei was an Italian-based pro cycling team active from 1993 to 2002, named after sponsoring firm MAPEI. They were the biggest and most ambitious team that cycling has ever seen and won practically everything. Looking back from another decade, we examine that Mapei team earned a unique place in cycling history. For 7 years in a row (1994-2000) they won UCI Team rankings. Stars riders included Abraham Olano, Johan Museeuw, Michele Bartoli, Franco Ballerini, Óscar Freire, Frank Vandenbroucke,  Andrea Tafi, Tony Rominger, Manuel Beltran among the others…

The Colnago C40 won 5 out of 6 editions of Paris-Roubaix in years (1995-2000) and several world champion titles in years 1996-2002 . The funny fact: If you check the Colnago ”Hall of fame” musseum we can find a Johann Museeuw’s Colnago C40 Mapei winning bike from World Championship Lugano 1996. It’s clear that he rode black seatpost and extraordinary ADA handmade carbon wheels which were are huge advantage back then (basically those wheels were the base for Lightweight). Only a few pairs of this ”futuristic” wheels were ridden in the pro peloton back then. This make us understand why they are so special, even Colnago musseum don’t have them.

Proudly offering a legendary COLNAGO C40 Mapei Team edition winning machine from 1996.  The frame is marked with M3 (each Mapei’s rider had a number so the frames were marked with M1-M25) and build  with Shimano Dura Ace 7700 groupset, (7410 crankset) same build as Museeuw winning bike from WC Lugano 1996.

A real jewel! For all Colnago fans. Extremelly rare.

Frame & Fork: Colnago C40 Mapei / steel precisa fork (M3 marked frame)

Size:

– seat tube (c-t): 57 cm

– top tube (c-c):  55 cm

– headset tube: 13.4 cm

– standover: 80 cm

Crankset: Shimano Dura ace 7410

Front Derailleur: Shimano Dura Ace 7700

Rear Derailleur: Shimano Dura Ace 7700

Levers: : Shimano Dura Ace 7700

Brakes: Shimano Dura Ace 7700

Hubs: Shimano Dura Ace 7700

Cassette: Shimano Dura ace 7700

Chain: Shimano HG

Headset: Shimano Dura Ace 7700

Saddle: Colnago Master C40 (original, by Bassano)

Stem: ITM  (105mm)

Handlebar: ITM 225

Pedals: LOOK

Tubulars: Vittoria Rally (new)

Handlebar tape: Colnago, blue (original)

Condition: Used, but excellent condition. Low mileage. No dents, no cracks, not bent. Groupset and components are in very good condition. All parts are working fine.

Year: 1996

PRICE: SOLD (April 2024)