Arkea-Samsic at Bianchi HQ
The Arkéa-Samsic team visited the headquarters of Bianchi, our cycling partner from the 2023 season, in Treviglio, Italy, at the beginning of the week. The programme included discussions with the Italian brand’s employees and engineers, a visit to the production site and the new factory… as well as a visit to the museum and the discovery of the bikes of the campionissimi who wrote the legend of the brand, such as Fausto Coppi’s or Marco Pantani’s, which brought back childhood memories for Nacer Bouhanni: “I had exactly the same saddle as him when I started cycling. I shaved my head in secret to look like him, I even had his bandana to look like the Pirate“. In the showroom, Hugo Hofstetter also brought out photos of the years and anecdotes from his junior seasons: “I had this Bianchi for 2 or 3 years, it was my very first bike with the gears on the handlebars“. Two rewarding days that allowed them to work hand in hand in view of the 2023 season.
“Meeting the people who developed the bike, seeing where they are assembled, is enriching for us riders and the team as well as for the Bianchi staff with whom we were able to talk. It was a way to pass on my impressions to the engineers after the first rides on the new Oltre RC, to ask questions and to better understand all the thinking and the process that led to this beautiful tool. We were also able to immerse ourselves in the very long history of the Bianchi brand, its past, and we, the Arkéa-Samsic team and all the riders, are now the actors who will continue writing this story.”
“A visit like this allows us to get to know the men and women who will collaborate with us, those who make this brand shine around the world. For our riders, it was also a moment that allowed them to immerse themselves in the Bianchi heritage, the champions who forged its history, who preceded them. They were able to get a closer look at the future machines of this great world brand that will be accompanying the Arkéa-Samsic team from 2023. For me, it brought back some very good memories: my first professional bike was a Bianchi.”
“On the mechanical side, during these two days, we were able to discover the whole assembly line, the specificities of the bike in its smallest details. This allows us to establish a good basis for working together. These are moments of exchange with, on our side, our feedback on bikes that we have had in our hands for a few weeks in order to be as precise as possible.”