Two iconic Italian cycling greats meet in guise of aluminium frame
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An aluminium Mapei Colnago Dream frameset on eBay(Image credit: physioworks / eBay)
Mapei-QuickStep's road race world champion, Oscar Freire, pushes his Colnago to the limit during the 2002 Züri-Metzgete(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
A closer look at the Mapei-decorated, star-shaped top tube(Image credit: physioworks / eBay)
Another look at the Dream’s star-shaped top tube, and its beautiful paintwork(Image credit: physioworks / eBay)
Defending champion Stefano Garzelli shows of Colnago's signature star-shaped top tube during the 2001 Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The iconic blue, orange, yellow, black and white paint job will make this Colnago Dream frameset much sought-after(Image credit: physioworks / eBay)
We've now featured a few Colnagos among our 'eBay Finds', and that's no great surprise given that they remain one of the most – if not the most – lusted-after frames of modern times.
This aluminium Colnago Dream, dressed beautifully in a Mapei team paintjob, will certainly appeal to fans of the Italian marque.
It feels like an age ago that Deceuninck-QuickStep rode on anything other than Specialized bikes, but the Belgian squad's predecessors – and Mapei, in particular – were long-time users of Colnago frames.
Colnago provided the Spanish Clas team with bikes from 1989, and the squad rode into the 1990s as Clas-Cajastar, with the likes of Fernando Escartin and Pello Ruiz Cabestany on its books, with Tony Rominger joining in 1992. It became Mapei-Clas in 1994, and then a merger in 1995 with the Italian GB-MG team – where today's Deceuninck-QuickStep boss Patrick Lefevere was a sports director – saw the new team continuing with Colnago frames, and the establishment of the true Mapei/QuickStep behemoth.
The Dream model dates from the late 1990s, while a later Dream Plus model was 'upgraded' to include a carbon-fibre rear triangle. We can find no evidence of the Dream being ridden by the pros – although we're more than happy to be corrected – but many pros were certainly still riding high-end aluminium frames well into the 2000s, as well as more recently – at the 2020 Tour Down Under.
Mapei-QuickStep's road race world champion, Oscar Freire, pushes his Colnago to the limit during the 2002 Züri-Metzgete (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Most of the Mapei team's victories came on Colnago's famous carbon C40 model, and later the C50 and C59, until in 2003 – as QuickStep-Davitamon – the team moved to Time frames, followed later by Eddy Merckx bikes and Specialized.
The Dream boasts the same star-shaped top tube as Colnago's pricier carbon models, which became somewhat of a trademark. At AU$1,900 (£975 / US$1,225), it's on the pricier side for a used aluminium frame, but when it comes complete with those Mapei cubes, it's going to interest a fair few people, and the seller – based in Australia – is happy to ship the 57cm frame worldwide.
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Continue to dream about owning a C40 – we'll allow you that – but this Dream will tick a lot of boxes for Mapei and Colnago fans.
We're constantly on the lookout for unique and rare cycling relics on eBay. If you have any suggestions or leads, please send them to cyclingnews@cyclingnews.com with 'eBay Finds' in the subject line
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