Bicycle Racing News and Opinion
Friday, January 30, 2015

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Campagnolo Workers Strike

Campagnolo's logo in 1953

Campagnolo is being struck by workers in its legendary Vicenza, Italy, factory. Wanting to bring down production costs, Campagnolo opened a factory in Romania in 2005. A few years later a second Romanian factory was opened.

On January 21, 2015, Campagnolo announced it was going to lay off 68 of the Vicenza facility's 399 workers and knock down some of the Vicenza factory's famed buildings. Needless to say, that news did not get a friendly reception by the Italian employees. Two days after the lay-off notification, the Vicenza facility's employees walked off the job. The strike continues. The workers' union objected not only to the layoff, but the lack of any plan to make the Vicenza plant competitive in the world market.

Campagnolo said that its research and development will continue to be done at the Vicenza facility as well as production of many high-end products, but in order to compete in a world market, it has to bring down its production costs, hence the Romanian facilities.

Campagnolo was founded in 1933 by Tullio Campagnolo and is still owned by the Campagnolo family.

Tour Méditerranéen Will Be Run

Tour Méditerranéen 2014 edition winner Stephen Cummings. Sirotti photo

The Tour Méditerranéen will be held after all, but drastically reduced in length. André Martres organized the last two editions of the race, but had enormous difficulty getting the 2015 editions set up. In fact, it is not on the UCI calender. But he has found the resources to put on a three-stage edition, down from its previous six stages. It will be held February 12 - 14.

Stage 1: Figueres - Figueres, 121.6 km

Stage 2: Beziers 23 km individual time trial

Stage 3: Cadolive - Pegomas, 177.5 km

The race was created by Lucien Aimar, winner of the 1966 Tour de France, and in 2005 was elevated to 2.1 status by the UCI. Among the race's winners are some of cyclings greats, Eddy Merckx, Tony Rominger, Gianni Bugno and Jens Voigt.

Here the race's podium history with links to historical results

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