I have no recollection of George riding for Toga.
I say that George's first sponsor was Corso/ Atala.
John Issendorf got chummy with Louis Corso from Stuyvasant bike/ Corso distributing because he was his banker (loan officer). Corso sponsored an elite team of the Kissena Club. George was 14 at the time. The team consisted of George, his older brother Ricky, John and Vinny Afenita, Jim Lehane and maybe one more rider. I was honored that John called me to apologize for not putting me on the team. I never in a million years thought I would even be considered... They wore blue and white striped jerseys with Atala as the tile sponsor. See my ebay "about me page" for a photo of George in the jersey. My ebay name is jamieswan.
When the Corso thing dried up Fred Mengoni picked up the team. Most of the riders had changed but the core of Charlie, Ricky and George stayed the same with Charlie's father John at the helm. For a few years George spit his time between Mengoni and the national team and then he turned pro. Unless there is something I'm forgetting... Jamie Swan - Northport, N.Y.
Richard M Sachs wrote:
> snipped from this a.m.:
> > Jamie Swan wrote:
> Green and yellow was the team colors for the elite Tempo/Toga
> Thunderbolts, sponsored buy Lenny Prehiem, part owner of Toga Bike
> Shop in Manhattan. Many of the team bikes were made by Richard Sachs.
> Lenny sold a lot of Richie's bikes back then.
>
> The Toga squad was the premiere team in the metropolitan N.Y.C.
> area.Lenny would draft the top 6 to 10 riders and ruled over them with
> an iron fist. His most famous charge was Nelson "T-Bah" Vails, who
> went from being a N.Y.C. bike messenger to winning a silver medal in
> the sprints at the '84 Olympics in L.A. Buy me a beer and I'll tell you
> a few stories about him, including the time I rode a (miss) matched
> sprint against him. T-Bah used to wear his hair in corn-rows with green
> and yellow beads braided in.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> ****lenny was also george hincapie's first <real> sponsor.
> e-RICHIE
> chester, ct