Campagnolo

Campagnolo is one of the world’s leading components manufacturers. The company specialises in groupsets, both mechanical and electrical, as well as wheels for road, gravel, triathlon and track bikes.

History

Tulio Campagnolo founded the company in 1933, working out of the back room of his father’s hardware store in Vicenza. The quick release system started mass production in the same year after it was patented by Campagnolo in 1930.

After the launch of the quick release system, Tulio Campagnolo spent much of the 1930s with professional cyclists, gathering information to help him design the next big thing. The rise of Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi around the same time only benefited the company’s innovative streak. In 1940, it launched the ‘rod gear’ levers. Ten years later, after a World War and countless Coppi-Bartali duels, Campagnolo released the first rear derailleur - the Gran Sport 1012. A final version was launched in 1951, fitted with a single cable and return spring.

Throughout the rest of the 1950s, Campagnolo’s passion for innovation continued as it released a seat post, headset, pedals and crankset - the latter completing what is today seen as the ‘groupset’. With races becoming more brutal, the company launched a triple crankset in 1961.

In 1963, the company began exporting its products worldwide, thanks partly to opening a new factory near Bologna. The 1970s saw the arrival of a groundbreaking product, the Super Record rear derailleur. Produced up until 1987, it was Campagnolo’s standout product thanks to its lightness, precision and aesthetics.

In 1983, following the death of Tullio Campagnolo, his son Valentino took over the company. The two decades that followed saw Campagnolo expand its product range further, including completely-assembled wheelsets, and achieve Grand Tour successes with the likes of Hinault, LeMond, Indurain and Pantani.

Additionally, the Ergopower system replaced downtube shifting, with Campagnolo’s design the first to involve internal cables. 1994 also saw the birth of the first full-carbon high profile wheel, the Bora.

The innovation continued throughout the early 2000s before Campagnolo launched its first two electronic drivetrains in 2011 - the Super Record and Record EPS. In the years that followed Campagnolo released its first gravel groupset, the Ekar 1x13.

Did you know?

Pro cycling

Current sponsorships: AG2R Citroën Team.

Highlights:

• Both Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi used early Campagnolo rod gear shifting mechanisms during their careers.
• Eddy Merckx uses the Nuovo Record rear derailleur to devastating effect in the early 1970s, winning his first four Tour de Frances with it fitted to his bike.
• The company also produced lightweight parts for Merckx's Colnago Hour Record-breaking bike in 1972.
• Campagnolo launched its first fully-carbon wheel in 1994, the Bora.
• Tadej Pogačar delivered back-to-back Tour de France titles in 2020 and 2021 whilst using a Campagnolo Super Record EPS groupset - the first maillot jaune for the component manufacturer since Vincenzo Nibali's in 2014.