It might only be 19 years since the late Marco Pantani won the Giro D'Italia and Tour de France in the same year - however Bianchi have released details of this Specialissima a year early with the same colour scheme as the Mega Pro XL that Pantani rode to his famous double in 1998.
Review: Bianchi Oltre XR3 Potenza
Bianchi launches Aria road bike
While the Mega Pro XL was made with light aluminium, the Specialissima is all-carbon and superlight, built for climbers like Pantani himself. The frame and fork are hand-painted, with a recreated Bianchi eagle badge in the same gold colours as on Pantani's bike adorning the head tube. The frame is 780g, with Bianchi's 'Countervail' vibration cancelling technology for a smooth and stable ride.
The bike is built with light components to compliment the frame, with a Campagnolo Super Record mechanical groupset, Bora Ultra 35 tubular wheels and a gold FSA K-Force carbon stem.
There's no information available on when the bike is set to land, pricing or how many will go on sale just yet, but we're guessing it will only be through a small number of Bianchi dealers should you want to enquire about owning this slice of cycling history....
After cobbling together a few hundred quid during his student days off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story), Jack bought his first road bike at the age of 20 and has been hooked ever since. He joined road.cc in 2017, having previously worked for 220 Triathlon magazine. Jack's preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking (the latter being another long story), and on Sunday afternoons he can often be found on an M5 service station indulging in his favourite post-race meal of 20 chicken nuggets, a sausage roll, caramel shortbread and a large strawberry milkshake.