Made in Biella, Italy by Vittoria.
Available from in white, black, red, yellow, and blue colors.

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blame it on Johan

Please Lance, if you are going to be around for another year will you please leave your ugly black cycling shoes at home? They have no place in the Tour de France and no place in Europe. All this talk about doping is wasted calories because the UCI needs to confiscate his shoes as soon as he deplanes in Charles de Gaule.

Unless I am mistaken only three riders in the 2009 edition of the Tour regularly wear black shoes: David Millar, Yaroslav Popovych and Lance Armstrong. Granted, here in America I see tons of black cycling shoes on the road every weekend (they are often accompanied by dated jerseys and helmet mirrors) but they just seem awkward in the European pro peloton these days. Many blog sites already agree.

Armstrong wears black socks all the time, which makes it seem like he’s wearing thermal booties in July, but he looks consistent — consistently like an old man. Blame it on Johan.

Millar seems to go back and forth with his socks but the black shoes certainly make him look British (if that makes any sense). Fellow Brit Bradley Wiggins also wears black socks and Lance tweeted about it after a mountain stage. But Popo almost always goes with the white sock/black shoe combo, perhaps as an homage to the old Russian national teams…or Cosmo Kramer.

But after watching endless hours of Tour coverage during July I realized with the exception of the aforementioned cases, the rest of the pack is white. This truly makes Popovych, Millar and Armstrong black sheep. Popo does it because he’s a slut to the American and Armstrong does it because he’s a tacky Midwestern frat boy.

It’s funny that 99% of Europeans always wear black casual shoes but white cycling shoes are still very Euro. I watched a day of American football and discovered that even the rough and tumble badboy sport will still attract the skills players to wear mostly white shoes. The linemen wear black, but in the NFL it’s a tossup.

Speaking of Tour coverage, if you make nasty phone call to Directv about dropping Versus, you may or may not receive a bunch of movie channels through the end of the year gratis.

I digress, Sidi’s been doing it long before 1983, but white shoes became popular in the late 80’s when Andy Hampsten won the Giro in his white Lakes and then Delgado led the way for Time to outfit entire teams with their sweet looking white, grey and red kicks. I still think the second-generation Time model was probably the coolest looking cycling shoe ever. Or should I say…of all Time.

That was 2003, now as the 2009 Tour de France welcomes Lance Armstrong back into the peloton let’s take a quick look back and remember a past pedal mishap in racing history.
Shoes seldom play a role in mechanical problems so memorable but Lance Armstrong nearly lost the Tour due to his following a scary crash with a spectator.

July 21, 2003 was a day Lance Armstrong needed to attack to put the seal of victory over his rivals in the Pyrenees. The foggy weather shrouded the Col du Tourmalet in Stage 15 of an already stressful Tour for Armstrong. He was clinging to a lead and going head-to-head with Iban Mayo and Jan Ullrich on the penultimate climb of the day when strange things started happening.

As Armstrong gapped Ullrich with Mayo right on his wheel, a spectator’s bag caught the Maillot Jaune’s right handlebar and Armstrong shot over the bars. Mayo went down as well, over the top of Armstrong, while Ullrich swerved left to avoid the dumped duo.

A teammate helped pace Armstrong back into the fold. Ullrich wasn’t attacking, but a few switchbacks later Armstrong was shaken by another surprise when his right shoe slipped off his pedal slamming him into his top tube. He had never fully clipped back into his pedals after remounting from the initial wreck. In the video you can see how he was shocked by the disturbance – but the moment was mostly overlooked by some news reports on the stage.

It’s unclear what shoes Armstrong was wearing that day, but from the video they appear to be Shimano. The point is trivial though because Armstrong replaced his orthopedist the following off-season.

Either way, Armstrong overcame the brief moment of chaos and used his adrenaline to power up the climb and overcome the unlikely series of inconveniences.

Watch the video here, the pedal incident happens just after the 1:20 minute mark.

NorthWave: So, we have this barbaric idea to promote our new shoe and you’d be perfect for it.
Tom Boonen: Do I get to ride an ox?

NW: No, Mr. Boonen, there will be no ox riding. But interesting that you should mention the Roman Empire. We are going to have to ask you to put on this man-thong made from the hide of a Spanish field mouse.
TB: Will my girlfriend like it?

NW: She’ll love it. Sexier than a commercial for Gilette. Now, we are going to need you to put on this Conan suit worn during the filming of all 7 Conan movies. Don’t worry abou the itching. We know it was never washed, but the Terminator doesn’t have any STD’s… at least none we’ve discovered yet. Just take a look at the Kennedy he bangs day and night, there’s nothing wrong with her. The rash which you will see in 2-4 weeks should disappear quickly. And nevermind the scaring, with the power you’ll get from this skin suit one day you might win Paris-Roubaix three times!
TB: OK. So, can I some more product for my hair?

NW: Hairstylist! Sop him up will you?
TB: When are you bringing in the ox?
NW: No oxen, maybe another time.

TB: What’s this white dust in this pocket?
NW: That’s a special gift from the Terminator. NOW FLEX!!

I’d rather see an ad with Boonen’s girlfriend instead.
Note: the poster from the ’98 DBR campaign is NOT Boonen’s girlfriend. We all know Tornado Tom only dates 16-year-old’s.

In 1994, Sidi introduced the Sidi Tecno, based off the Genius 2 shoe. Today the Tecno has evolved into the coveted Ergo 2 and the Genius series lives on in the Genius 6.6 Carbon. There’s a little trivia for your group’s next retro ride. You know, the ride where everybody dresses up in bright pastels of neon pink and green? Oh yeah they happen from time to time, check your local listings.

In 1983 French mythic legend Bernard Hinault was featured in this unfortunately cropped ad for the Sidi Cycle Sport shoe. Sidi’s are still the top choice of professionals today, but ads are less likely to list the stores they are available in. So in the early 80s the only place in New York where you could get a pair of Sidi’s may have been from Staten Island.
Who says Staten isn’t the best borough?

Vintage cycling shoes like these are retro to go.

Dromarti offers quite the discerning eye for vintage with these retro leather shoes. Real craftsmanship goes into the styling and stitching of supple and rich Italian leather complete with ventilation holes for breathability.

The Race model is produced with the 3-hole cleat mounting threads for Look and Shimano pedals. But if you still ride a clips and straps pedal the shoes can be fitted with Dromarti’s own traditional cleats. Or you can simply order the Storica model instead, but it looks ready for the office and forgoes the sporty ventilation holes.

However, if you are one who takes matters off-road they do make a mountain bike shoe as well. The Sportivo model is made of an attractive darker brown but with additional tread for hike-a-bike traction. These will accept a clipless SPD cleat as well as toe spikes.

All models use laces as the enclosure system and come in whole sizes from 37 to 47. You can order direct from Dromarti. The road shoe is $199 and the mountain version is $212 – both including value added tax.