FYI, a poster of George and a USPS jersey, both signed by George to Toga, were recently put up in the shop, so there's some connection with George's past.
Robert Ragusa
New Yawk, New Yawk
>From: Jamie Swan <jswan@optonline.net>
>To: Richard M Sachs <richardsachs@juno.com>
>CC: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>Subject: Re: [CR] len preheim/toga/addendum
>Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 16:36:57 -0400
>
>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