On September 4th at the Misano World Circuit, the new award promoted by Velo Media – The Business of Cycling in collaboration with the International Bike Festival will be presented, named after the creative force who shaped an era at Columbus and Cinelli. Entries open until Monday, August 10th
Functional design in cycling, taken almost to the level of art. At Columbus and Cinelli, Antonio Colombo’s willingness to back the unorthodox shaped an era in the Italian and global two-wheel industry. The first international award for cycling design and innovation to be presented in Italy is dedicated to the revolutionary instinct of the Milanese entrepreneur, who turns 76 on August 5th.
On September 4th at the International Bike Festival, the Italian industry’s reference event, held at the Misano World Circuit in Misano Adriatico, the first edition of the Antonio Colombo Innovation & Design Award will be presented. The award is an initiative of Velo Media – The Business of Cycling, in collaboration with the International Bike Festival and with the support of Vitesse.
In almost half a century at the head of Columbus and Cinelli, Antonio Colombo fathered and fronted some of the most innovative and most argued-over products in the industry: the Laser (1981), the first track frame with aerodynamic profiles and later a monocoque structure; the Rampichino (1984), which brought the mountain bike to Europe and gave the category an Italian name before Italy had one of its own; the Spinaci of 1996, the clip-on road bars the peloton took up so quickly that the UCI banned them. And then the collaborations that pushed the bicycle towards art outright: in 1987, Keith Haring painted the disc wheels of a Laser.
At the Italian cycling industry’s most important gathering, the Antonio Colombo Award will single out the most disruptive product to come out of the two-wheel industry, judged on design and technological innovation. Any product that reached the market from January 2025 onwards is eligible, in any product category.
Entries will be judged by a committee of industry figures who shared a stretch of road with Antonio Colombo, better placed than anyone to read the restless instinct that ran through his working life.
“Antonio’s contribution to the spirit of cycling design cannot be overstated,” said Wyatt Wees, founder of The Business of Cycling. “It’s an honor to work with a true icon of the industry.”
Entries for the Antonio Colombo Innovation & Design Award are open until Monday, August 10th. The entry form is available at THIS LINK.
