Regular readers of Ride Velo will know how much we love Bianchi bikes. So it’s no surprise that we were absolutely drooling when Bianchi announced back in July that they were going to be celebrating Marco Pantani’s 20th anniversary Giro/Tour double victories with a replica.
Their Specialissima Pantani is a commemorative edition, finished in exactly the same livery as the 1998 Bianchi MegaPro XL ridden by Il Pirata on his incredible double achievement.
The frame and fork are hand painted by Italian artisans – even the head badge on the head tube is a faithful recreation of the one that adorned Pantani’s double Grand Tour winning bike.
While Pantani’s model had an aluminium frame, this brings bike technology right up to date. The carbon frame is ‘ultralight’ at only 780g.
This is one of those bikes that raises the hairs on the back of the neck and has us fantasizing and scheming on how to raise the £4200 to buy it. Italian perfection.
You can read our tribute to the great Marco Pantani here.
