Sergio wrote:
>I asked a friend of mine who has been a good track cyclist, and is now
> an instructor
> at an Italian velodrome. Here is his reply on the Madison change.
>
> Feel free to publish it to the List, possibly with a translation .
> Andea Costa told me he does not mind at all, of course.
The attached response of Andrea did not get forwarded to the list, so I am including a translation below:
"When I rode the Padova 6-day race as a cadet in 1982, alongside "Bicio" De Lazzari, I wore the shorts with the "salami". They were already made out of Lycra or similar elastified material by then, with a single layer in the legs and triple or even quadruple layer around the waist. I remember having received them personally from Nane Pinarello in his shop in Treviso; on the left side, there was an internal compartment, similar to a long narrow pocket, that held the so-called "salami." The salami was fashioned out of a piece of wood that was then wrapped in a tensile medical bandage and then finished off with medical tape once it was the size and shape of your hand. They generally were about 12 cm long.
The Salami was used for the changeover. At the time it cadets and juniors were not permitted to use handslings. Then with time, things did pass over to hand slings, as you effectively had to get very close to your partner, and on steep tracks, could actually fall due to the rear of the slung rider's bike becoming completely unweighted.
I remember well the first sling that I gave to Bicio who weighed 10 kg less than me, his rear wheel came at least 10 cm down the banking, luckily Padova was not a super steep track."
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ