Some say that Cinelli has achieved cult status in the USA, on par with Ferrari, Vespa and Ducati. Although this may be true, the rich history of Cinelli is much more than a mythical story told by a fanatical few.

In 1948, a good professional racer with 15 years of pedaling in his legs and a knack for mechanics decided to make use of the brilliant intuitions he had developed during the many miles spent on every kind of road.

This man was Cino Cinelli.

Some may remember him for his cycling career; many more for his great gifts to cycling. Others remember him as the first president if the Italian Association of Professional Cyclists, an office to which he was elected for 15 consecutive years. Cino gave modern cycling its first aluminum handlebar, its first saddle with a plastic frame, its first footstraps, and its first clipless pedals.

Now fast forward 30 years to 1978. Cino handed the company over to a young entrepreneur in the steel tubing industry, a man whose heart was in bicycles and whose soul was afire with artistic passions. Enter Antonio Colombo.

His approach was different, possibly more visionary, with a look beyond the present. The company was transformed, and the inventions of the "design made by Cinelli" begin to gain notice the world over. The bicycle was changed for the better, but the greater victory was in Columbo's vision for those changes; laser was born, the lugs were abandoned, and TIG welding was introduced to frame builders. With this visionary approach to "design made by Cinelli", it has become the only Italian bicycle to win a Golden Compass award (1991).

Jumping forward to 1997, Cinelli became a division of Gruppo SPA; together with 3T Components and Colombus Tubing it has become part of a world-class production facility unrivaled in the field of high-end bicycle manufacturers.

These are the roots of Cinelli, and this is Cinelli today: Cinelli is mentioned in the Dictionary of Italian Design, and it appears in the ADI Design Index. For the last several years Cinelli framesets have been exclusively imported into the USA by Bicycle Technologies International, a leading distributor of innovative bicycle brands based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.