At the age of 13 Ernesto Colnago, in order to work at the Gloria bicycle factory in Milan as a welder, changed the date of birth on the documents: he didn't have the legal age for working.
His extraordinary skills were discovered almost by chance by Fiorenzo Magni, who made him his official mechanic at the Giro d'Italia.
From there on, it is a continuous ascent driven by great intuitions and amazing creations.
Colnago has always been close to the riders, listening to their problems, caring about their needs, and - finally - bringing the most breakthrough innovations to the peloton
For Eddy Merckx's hour record, we crafted a steel bike that weighed only 5,750 kg.
In 1983 we introduced the Colnago Master. It was a true innovation. The tubes had a star-shaped section. This shape was never seen before: the effect was a more rigid frame and an extraordinary beauty of the product.
In 1987 Colnago collaborated with Ferrari. Many ideas came from that partnership. One intuition, in particular, was there to stay: to use carbon instead of steel to produce bicycles frames.
In 1995 a Colnago carbon bike won the Paris Roubaix. From then on, all the bikes in the peloton adopted this material.
In 2012, we launched a racing bike with disc brakes on the market. No one had ever done that. Today they are widely common.
