13tooth from Italy - RAW Cycling Magazine

Tuesday, February 04th, 2014Saturday, April 11th, 2020 by Stefano Rizzardi

These guys of 13t personify the connection between this fascinating sport and nature. Lake Garda (Italy), their homebase, is definetely the perfect place to bike hard uphill to the Alps! These guys ride with the nature. In this interview we talk with’em about their attitude, history and about their new projects!

1. When and how start 13t project? Who are the members?

Basically 13t is a group of friends based in the North of Italy on the Lake Garda.
Everything started about 2 years ago ’cause we love Track Bikes and ride hard.

2. What’s the essence of 13t?

Now we are like a sort of small laboratory that organizes cycling events (criteriums, sprints, long distances…) sells vintage bike stuff, designs jerseys, works on videos, photos, decals…
And we are a team that rides every day more.

3. Your team is sponsored by Aventón. Can you tell us more about Aventón Mataro Frame?

We really love the Mataro frame, is lightweight and reactive, it’s a good frame for criterium and has road geometries, you know criteriums are 30/40′ of pushing hard, it’s not so much, but it’s not a sprint so you have to feel confortable.
We rode with Mataro a 200 km night randonnèe and we felt really really good too!
In conclusion, is a really versatile frame.
So thanks to our friends from Aventón.

4. How do you use to train guys? Road, track, CX? How many Km./week?

We usually train a lot only with our Track Bikes on our roads full of uphills!
We are really close to Alps!
We have a circuit too that is FCI (Italian Cycling Federation) approved, with a really fucking hairpin. That is a good train for pushing hard and learning the limits of our bikes, no CX at this moment. We do a lot of track bike on the road up and down and, once a week, a long trip with road bikes .

5. Stelvio Pass. Why do you choose Stelvio? Is there a particular reason? Small resume of the 34 km of hell.

The hell was 25 km uphill and 25 downhill brakeless with 47/17, from Prato allo Stelvio to The Pass and back!
We choose it , because it’s a monument in cycling , it’s a challenge and it’s one of the best landscape all over the world.
It’s a spiritual experience when you climb so hard!
The uphill was really hard, I think we were really smart in the way we managed the energies, and downhill was totally fun and kept our attention in a really high level. You can check the video on our website.

6. How’s the scene in your place? Do you organize any event or ride? How about the Italian Scene?

No scene at all in our city, a lot of road bikes or mountain bikes but no urban attitude!
Not so far from our city there are friends that ride in Trento, Bolzano, Rovereto that always come when we organize races!
In Milan or Turin the scene is really big, many teams grew up really strong. The Cykeln Racing Team (Cykeln is a really cool webzine too) Iride team in Modena, and strong individual riders.

7. New project for 2014? RHC maybe?

We have something really cool that we want to do, something like the Stelvio pass but… It’s a surprise!
RHC we are thinking about Barcellona and Milan, our New Jersey will be released, and there will be the second edition of Lord of Oltra a two laps sprint race!

8. Small phrase that express your passion for the bikes