Desire: Legor Cicli time trial bike

Canadian cyclist Christian Meier made the podium at his National TT Championships five times during his career. For a so-called all rounder, he was pretty nifty against the clock. He retired in 2016 and then opened a shop called The Service Course in his adopted home of Girona. He still likes to time trial.

If you recognise this Legor Cicli TT bike, it might be because you saw Meier with it in the Desire section from issue 18.6. Maybe you saw it on the shop’s Instagram feed, which is where we saw it, and knew that we had to have it when we were in town.

Desire: Endura Pinstripe limited edition kit

We’re all inundated with gratuitous images of beautiful bicycles; online, in pages of our own magazine. Some float peoples boat, some sink them, but occasionally there’s a bike that everyone seems to agree on. In the case of the Rouleur HQ, the bike we agreed it was this Legor Cicli TT.

The man behind Legor is frame builder, Mattia Paganotti. He first started playing with metal in his father’s workshop when he was just 10 years old. And since turning his adroit hands to frame building in 2008, he has received high praise from his peers, which include the likes of Dario Pegoretti, who sadly died recently.

“It’s like when you arrive home and you need a wonderful dinner as soon as possible, but you don’t have anything in the fridge,” says Paganotti. “You don’t have time to panic; you don’t have time for anything, so you just start dreaming and cooking. I had some old Columbus tubes as well as some new ones. Paint it? I didn’t have time. This frame was made like this!” 

Christian Meier had an 11-year career in pro cycling where he competed in countless time-trials. Some went better than others. But he probably enjoys them even more now. 

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