I worked with Carlos for several years in the late 70's at a shop in Manhattan. His last name is actually Laborde and he is from Uraguay.
see http://www.zoominfo.com/
He is colorful indeed. The shop was full of funny incidents, with him fawning ridiculously over celebrities or turning bright red when a customer made him mad and then running into the bathroom to pour gallons of water on his head. A story would not be a Carlos story without some embellishment.
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Whitneyville, CT 06517
http://www.photoshelter.com/
Sorry, the link didn't translate. Probably because I failed to include it. Lou Deeter, Orlando FL USA
-----Original Message----- From: loudeeter@aol.com To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Sat, Nov 14, 2009 4:16 pm Subject: [CR] Story about Cuevas
Listmembers Jonathan Greene, Ron Edmiston, and I went to Miami yesterday to ride at the Brian Piccolo Velodrome. The manager, Carlos Lavorde, told us some interesting stories, many from when he lived in New York City. You can see pictures of Carlos and the velodrome at this link. Carlos is in pic # 8. He knows Gianni Pergolizzi and probably other listmembers. I believe Carlos is a former Argentinian rider of some success. It was Carlos' 60th birthday and he was in rare form. One story he told was great. He said that he went to Cuevas in the early 80s and asked if he had a large broken frameset in the back room. Cuevas said, "yes, I have many". So Carlos tells him to cut it up to make it a smaller frame. He said that Cuevas looked at him like he was crazy, saying that it would be easier to make a new frame than to take a large frame and cut it down. But, Carlos insisted, telling him that it needed to be a used frame and that he was going to give it to a lady who he guaranteed would win on it . So, without me knowing anymore details, such as the rider's name, he says that this lady went on to win the world championships on that bike later that year. I think it was track, but I don't know. He asked Cuevas why he didn't take the opportunity to put the world championship stripes on his bikes and Cuevas replied that many of his bikes had been ridden to world championships, but to put the stripes on it would add costs to the frame and he didn't want to do that. I have no idea of the validity of this story as Carlos is quite the story teller. But, it was interesting. Lou Deeter, Orlando FL USA