aspen’86

The new silk carré ASPEN’86 for SUPERLEGGERO is my personal tribute to the COORS CLASSIC, a race held in North America between 1975 and 1988.
The race was considered the fourth biggest stage race on the world cycling calendar after the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta.

From a 3-day of racing in Colorado in the first years, the race grew to 2 weeks with stages across Nevada, Colorado, California, many of them criterium races or time trials like the time-trial hill climb up to San Francisco’s famous Telegraph Hill.
For a young Italian corridore viewing the evening television summary reports, it was wonderful. The level of the racers was not so high, the race was run in July or August when in Europe a racer had just finished exhausted from the Tour de France or was preparing for the Vuelta.
But what fascinated me were the designs, so different from what were normally worn by racers in Europe. Those were the years of teams like Toshiba, 7-Eleven, Descente, Z-Vetements. And what to say of the first OAKLEY goggles that made ANDY HAMSTEN look like a Martian?
At the Coors Classic, the race leader wore a wonderful red jersey with white diagonal stripes – some years horizontal – with new graphics yearly, inspired by the two main sponsors. What a splendid obsession!