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The story of the bicycle is fascinating. It seems even Leonardo invented one! A generic historical survey is easily found on the Internet, and it is less easy to know the stories of the individual companies that have contributed to the evolution of this means of transport. The bicycle that will use Vivaldo Lleshi to participate in the North Cape 4000 Unsupported Bicycle/Live Event Adventure is a Bianchi. Bianchi is the world's oldest bicycle factory, founded in Milan in 1885. Today, it is part of the Swedish group cycleurope AB and in Italy is done only part of the design and assembly of the high-end models. The classic color of Bianchi racing bicycles was sky-blue, and Celeste Bianchi is just the color of our runner. He then enriched the frame of some retro-reflective graphics to be more visible during the night and personalized it for comfort. Through these really long journeys, about 300 kilometers for even 12 to 14 hours of continuous pedaling, the bicycle really has to become a body prosthetic.

Curiosity: in Friuli there were also several bicycle manufacturers' brands. Among these Vidussi and Diana, local factories operating between the 1930s and 1960s, Garlatti, which began in San Vito at Tagliamento and several other factories which, with various vicissitudes, have closed or are still often active as assemblers, such as Bandiziol, San Martino al Tagliamento, Capponi and Mathitech In Trieste, Colledani in San Daniele del Friuli, de Luisa in Udine, Novelli in Cormons, Velotek in PravisDomini, zanella in Zoppola.

In photograph: Vivaldo's bicycle

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