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Very Vittoria

Vittoria Premium sole

Vittoria Free

Italian cycling shoe maker Vittoria has a new model called Premium, a stylish, lightweight road shoe with a carbon fibre sole and CRS fastening system.

Vittoria also a shoe called Free that's styled like the super-sandals that fill the shoe racks of outdoors shops, from companies such as Teva. It's SPD compatible, and intended for spinning or town cruising.

Worlds favorites

Sportful's maglia azzura

Sportful Tour bibs

Sportful is the official team supplier for the Federazione Ciclistica Italiana, otherwise know as the Italian Job ("Alessandro, you're only supposed to blow their b***y doors off"). This is the official team jersey that Ale-Jet Petacchi and his eight teammates will wear when they take the start in Sunday in Madrid at the World Championships.

Sportful is also very proud of its Tour bib shorts, which the company had front and center in Milano (and which Cyclingnews reviewed here a few months ago. The Tour shorts boast SoftTouch suspenders, high performance Chicane Lycra, and Sportful's Infinity shorts pad. Has to be said that we're a shade dubious about white, though...

Not so terrible

Ivan Basso

Decidedly not living up to his nickname of "Ivan The Terrible", Team CSC's Ivan Basso was one of the stars of the show at EICMA Milano. Here he is at Full Speed Ahead's stand signing posters for FSA's Ride Compact program to promote its compact cranksets.

DT's golden wheels

DT Swiss RR 1450 wheels

Over the last few years DT Swiss has gone from being a maker of very highly regarded spokes to a manufacturer of everything wheels-related with its hubs and rims. At Milano, the company was showing these these special limited edition RR 1450 wheels with gold-coloured spokes

Giro in Italia

Giro Atmos

Giro Advantage

Riders wearing Giro's Atmos helmets have won some major races this season, including Milano-Sanremo, Giro d'Italia and Tour de France and the American company showed new colors for 2006, including this attractive Red/White model.

Get an Advantage, but only in Europe. Giro has never marketed its sleek, speedy time trial helmets, but the new Giro Advantage will be available to consumers in Europe later this winter. Due to the UCI's 2004 safety mandate, Advantage is an in-mold CE safety approved helmet, not just a aerodynamic shell. With six vents and internal channeling, the 310 gram lid has been extensively wind tunnel tested

Assos for all sexes and seasons

Assos for all shades of winter

Assos for women

Swiss clothing maker Assos ssos showed off its winter collection at EICMA Milano, but this range isn't just for the depths of the cold months - Assos has created a whole range covering the sub-seasons of early Fall, Fall, early Winter and Winter itself. A highlight is the fugu jacket, shown in white at far right.

Assos also showed its new Elastic Interface Technology shorts pad specially designed for women.

Fisher and friends

Remember your roots

Gary Fisher (L) gave 2005 Tour de France king of the mountains Michael Rasmussen (C) his start on the international mountain bike circuit in the late 1990's and Rasmussen repaid the favor by winning the 1999 MTB World Championship in Sweden on a Gary Fisher. Soon thereafter, Rasmussen switched to road racing and hasn't looked back since. Rasmussen and his companion Carizia Munoz (R) are expecting their first child in December.

Gone but not forgotten

Andrea Tafi and Chicagoland Bicycle's Sarah Andreano

Cyclingnews ran into classics great Andrea Tafi at the Milano show, shown here with Chicagoland Bicycle's Sarah Andreano. A fit looking Tafi told us that he is still riding almost every day and misses racing, but has been working on his cycling hotel in Tuscany. "My agriturismo is now open so I want to invite Cyclingnews to come and visit me!" Look for a report soon and in the meanwhile, check out www.ilborghettodiandreatafi.it.