Battaglin Marosticana:

“At the time, I used to live in San Luca di Marostica, a small town. Even today, there are little more than 500 residents. It was very small, with only a few people living there, and hardly anybody came to visit. The landscape, though, is a dream for any cyclist: hills at your back, you can ride flat for kilometers, and then start alternating between plains and short ascents (2km max). This is perfect to get your legs going at the start of the year. In the beginning, it’s better not to go uphill for too long, because if you do, you spend too much time with an increased pulse rate— and you’re not in that kind of shape yet. This meant we used to start with short climbs and plains, and then, as the days went by, we would turn towards Monte Grappa and the city of Asiago, to start pushing on longer climbs, up to twenty or so kilometers. That’s how we trained back then: gym and pedals. And that’s about it. We climbed into the saddle in the morning and didn’t stop until it was dark. […]

My day started in San Luca di Marostica. I left home to meet Luciano. I lived on the hills, and he lived on the plains, so we used to meet halfway. We took the road to Schio and Recoaro: it was a pretty hard workout, with two or three climbs. Then we rode to Vicenza, to Luciano’s house, and then I could go back home. By the way: at the time, I used to live at the top of a 6km climb, which was perfect to end the workout session.”

In the Veneto region in North-East of Italy, there’s a road that starts from the city of Vicenza and leads to the province of Treviso. In a span of just 79 km, this road takes you through some of the region’s most beautiful scenery with spectacular mountains, vineyard-covered hills and small villages giving you a glimpse into everyday life in Italy. And as you get closer to the town of Marostica, the world-famous medieval castle standing on a hill appears in front of you. The view is just wonderful.

This road is called Marosticana, and it’s the road that Giovanni Battaglin would take in winter to pedal back home from Vicenza, after a full day of training on his steel bike. For Giovanni, creating the Officina Battaglin steel bike brand many years later meant going back to his roots. That’s why when the time came to give a name to the very first Officina Battaglin model, a lugged frame made from Columbus SL, he thought of those hard workouts through his home region.

And he decided to pay homage to that road he would ride every day with the Marosticana.

For more information about the Battaglin Marosticana, or if you would like to begin the process of ordering a frame, you can contact Officina Battaglin direct at: https://officinabattaglin.com/ or the Battaglin experts of Lakeside Bicycles by phone (W-F 10-7, Sat 10-6, or Sun 12-5) at 503-699-8665 or email at Info@Lakeside-Bikes.com

Videos

A Classic Itallian road frame with modern components

Leroy, the owner, is a passionate cyclist from the Netherlands. He reached out to us because he was looking for a classic-looking Italian steel frame, custom-made to his specifications.