62 | August 22, 2019 | Cycling Weekly
Phot
o^ Yuzur
u^ SunadaICONS OF CYCLINGCinelli Spinaci bars
I
n the mid-1990s average speeds in
professional cycling started to rise
very rapidly. Now we know that
widespread organised use of EPO
was mostly responsible but a clever
invention by Italian component brand
Cinelli had a similar effect until it was
banned, ironically a very long time before
the most prolific dopers were.
The Spinaci bars – vaguely resembling
spinach in their shape and a good excuse for
Cinelli’s art team to draw Popeye with a
Cinelli winged ‘C’ tattooed on his bulging
forearm riding a set – were extensions that
bolted to the handlebar, adding just 220g of
“full strength vitamin-packed alloy”.
Spinacis allowed riders to adopt a more
aerodynamic position with their hands out
front and Cinelli also claimed that their
dual-pivot system, with its infinite
adjustability in height, reach and angle,
allowed users to achieve optimum positions
for climbing, time trialling and sprinting.
The original idea was said to have come
from the Italian under-23 team coach,
Antonio Fusi in 1994. Cinelli then
developed the extensions with Claudio
Chiappucci and Marco Pantani, who rodefor the Cinelli-sponsored Carrera team.
By the 1996 Tour, Cinelli estimated that
70 per cent of riders were either using
Spinacis or replicas by rival manufacturers
(most notably 3T’s Tiramisu) and the
bike-riding public loved them too. Available
in a whole rainbow of 1990s team colours,
they were the ultimate wannabe-pro
accessory. The blue and red Motorola
edition featured a little headshot of Lance
Armstrong on the packaging accompanied
by the suitably brash message ‘Get SpinaciThe most exciting new bikes and kit of 2019
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ON SALE THURS AUGUST 29“Spinaci’s
allowed riders
to adopt an
aero position”
Simon Smythe remembers a popular accessory from a notorious era
when pro riders tried anything and everything to go faster
Insurance For You And Your Bikeor get out of the way!’ There was also the
Spinaci Light which was drilled and featured
a bigger picture of a bubble-permed Mario
Cipollini either doing a double fist bump or
pretending to grip a set.
A couple of months after the 1997 Tour de
France, the UCI concluded that an entire
peloton riding at up to 70kph with 70 per
cent of riders unable to reach
their brake levers was not a
good thing. They banned the
Spinacis and their offshoots.
Once the pros stopped riding
them, most amateurs did too,
and they were gone almost as
quickly as they arrived.
Cinelli had invested
heavily in the production ofthe bars and had no advance warning of
their ban. It almost bankrupt the company
and it took them years to recover financially.
Over 20 years on, it’s still possible to buy
a set of brand new ones, even direct from
Cinelli, which claims a small stock of
Spinacis was recently discovered hidden
away in its warehouse.