Chuck Schmidt wrote:
"I remember a John Wilcoxson article in International Cycle Sport where he paid a visit to Masi under the Vigorelli and saw Eddy Merckx's Masi being prepared for the Tour of Lombardy (October?) and noted that it had Campagnolo Record brakes, the first he had seen and very rare at that point."
In fact John Wilcockson first sees the new Campy sidepull brakes at the Paris Show in October of 1968 while en route to cover the Tour de Lombardy. This is reported in International Cycle Sport no. 8 of December 1968. The brakes are on the time trial bike of Bernard Guyot. the Lejeune teammate of Jan Janssen who won the Tour that year. Wilcockson also reports seeing the Superleggeri pedals for the first time in the Campagnolo booth.
Later in the same issue photos of Tour de Lombardy coverage confirm Merckx is using the new sidepulls.
In issue no. 9 of January 1969 Wilcockson does indeed report his visit to the Masi workshop where he is shown the bike Merckx used in Lombardy the previous week and is told just Merckx and Adorni are using the brakes because only a few had been made.
Now for the commercial message, these ICS issues are among the
collection I currently have at auction on e-Bay:
http://ebay.com/
Brook Watts
Longmont Colo