I enjoyed the translation, adds nicely to what I wrote in a prior post. We didn't use wood because it was too hard for a jamming tool and didn't mold nicely to our hand in a tight grab. Also if you fell hard on the tool in a spill the wood was most unforgiving on your hip, banging on the track and subsequent sliding down the track onto the flat was quite enough, thank you, without adding insult to injury. Some guys didn't have a team short with jamming tool pocket, placed the tool inside their shorts and took tape and wrapped around the tool on the outside of the trunks holding the jamming tool in place. Occasionally the single layer short material got pulled too hard and rrrip, occasioning the genteel ladies among the spectators to hold ther hand(s) over their eyes. I'll bet they peeked through their fingers. The lycra stuff did come in but it was not nearly as nice as the wool stuff that the topline Italian and others made. That's progress. Ted Ernst Palos Verdes Estates, CA
> 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