STOCKHOLM, February 8 2013: Sweden’s “Cycle King” and Bianchi owner Salvatore Grimaldi has called for “rock-solid” contracts to prevent riders from doping.
Speaking at his new Bianchi Cycles and Café store in Stockholm, the millionaire entrepreneur said that doping belonged to the past. “The future belongs to the clean sport, it stands for health, it stands for pure energy, it stands for a lot of different things.”
The only way to do that was by becoming increasingly strict with riders, he said. “You need to be rock-solid with them. You need doping police, you check them beforehand and you agree rock-solid contracts whereby if they dope, or even if they’re suspected of doping, then you can say ‘you cannot take part’. Then I think it will pass.”
Entrepreneur Grimaldi, who was born in Italy but moved to Sweden at the age of seven, bought Bianchi in 1997 and it is one of more than a dozen cycle brands owned by him.
Grimaldi rued the demise of Sweden’s Postgiro cycling team, saying that even though twenty years has passed people still talk about it.
His new combination of bicycle store and café has become a hit in central Stockholm, and he says it came about due to a desire to combine the best of Italian history.
“I thought Italy, and Italy’s history which is 151 years, and Bianchi and Bianchi’s history, which is 128 years and there’s no big difference.
“Then it struck me that they could be combined – Italian history, Italian food, Italian culture. And then I thought that we would create a bar with everything Italian, and combine it with Bianchi.”


STOCKHOLM, Feb 8 2013

SWEDEN’S “CYCLE KING” CALLS FOR TOUGHER CONTRACTS TO PROTECT AGAINST DOPING

SHOTLIST

1. EXTERIOR, BIANCHI CAFÉ AND CYCLES
2. EXTERIOR SIGN, BIANCHI CAFÉ AND CYCLES
3. DOOR PLAQUE, BIANCHI CAFÉ AND CYCLES
4. ENTRANCE HALLWAY, BIANCHI CAFÉ AND CYCLES, FEATURING BIANCHI BICYCLE
5. WIDE SHOT OF CAFÉ GUESTS WITH HANGING BICYCLES
6. BIANCHI MOUNTAIN BICYCLE HANGING FROM CAFÉ CEILING
7. CLOSE-UP OF BIANCHI BICYCLE
8. WIDE SHOT OF SALVATORE GRIMALDI, OWNER OF BIANCHI CAFÉ AND BIANCHI BICYCLES
9. SOUNDBITE (SWEDISH): SALVATORE BIANCHI SAYING:
“When you go into a bicycle shop, the whole floor is filled with bikes, so you don’t see the bicycle itself. So then I thought ‘this is not good,’ you don’t see the bikes, it’s always cluttered and difficult. And when you come into the shop, it often happens that a mechanic comes out and says ‘what do you want?’. My God, it can’t be like that. So then I thought Italy, and Italy’s history which is 151 years, and Bianchi and Bianchi’s history, which is 128 years and there’s no big difference. Then it struck me that they could be combined – Italian history, Italian food, Italian culture. And then I thought that we would create a bar with everything Italian, and combine it with Bianchi.

10. CYCLE FRAMES HANGING
11. CLOSE-UP OF CYCLE FRAMES
12. SOUNDBITE (SWEDISH): SALVATORE BIANCHI SAYING:
“I believe we can learn a lot from these doping scandals in many different ways. There is only one thing – doping, we have arrived at, belongs to the past. The future belongs to the clean sport, it stands for health, it stands for pure energy, it stands for a lot of different things. And them – you need to be rock-solid with them. You need doping police, you check them beforehand and you agree rock-solid contracts whereby if they dope, or even if they’re suspected of doping, then you can say ‘you cannot take part’. Then I think it will pass.”
13. BIANCHI JERSEYS
14. BIANCHI JERSEYS CLOSE-UP
15. SOUNDBITE (SWEDISH): SALVATORE BIANCHI SAYING:
“Sweden is very big in cycling, in the amateur sport – Vätternrundan, the Vasa Cycle and many more. And more are coming. Vätternrundan alone has 20,000 registered, it’s fantastic. Unfortunately they closed the Postgirot team and there’s many that still talk about it, even if it’s been gone for twenty years.”
16. BIANCHI RACING BICYCLE
17. EXTERIOR WIDE OF BIANCHI CYCLES AND CAFÉ