This remembrance is prompted by the passing in early 2026—the same day that took Fausto Coppi, January 2nd—of Joe Montgomery, the inventor (also) of Cannondale bicycles. His bikes were based on the aluminum used to build the airplanes of another American visionary: William Boeing. For years, King Leone carried the brand, copied by the Wilton (Connecticut) train station and beloved by the acrobat Shaquille O'Neil.
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Joe Montgomery passed away sixty-six years after Fausto Coppi.
It happened on January 2, 2026, in Vero, Florida.
He was 86 years old
He came from New Jersey.
He was the Holy Man of Cannondale, a historic manufacturer of mountain bikes, motorcycles, carts, wheelchairs for the disabled, and bicycles that supported Team Saeco until 2004.
We met him at the height of his career through an invitation to the opening of a new creation. A bike, of course. Those were the years when Cannondale was a hit on the off-road circuit and was increasingly gaining ground on the road thanks to champions like SuperMario Cipollini: the Freccia di Lucca.
He picked us up from a bed-and-breakfast in New Jersey, along with the leaders of his core group. Cipollini was the guiding light of the moment and of the expedition. It was a chilly morning. He wore his usual wide-brimmed cowboy hat. He drove us around in a Volvo (his mountain biking partner) to the prearranged spot where a small private plane was waiting for us. He personally threw open the gate in the fence. He went "home." He loaded a couple of containers onto the plane with mail, drawings, and various documents, which he kept in the trunk.
Destination Wilton, Connecticut.
We'd left behind the headquarters, populated by engineers, advertising, marketing, and communications staff. An army of visionaries. And since Joe was dealing with a disabled person, the offices were frequented by disabled engineers and architects, "because no one knows better than them how a wheelchair should be made. In fact, we make such good ones, they're even used in world wheelchair basketball tournaments." It's all true.
“You go there because there, in Wilton, is the factory. As for our real story, it all began in a sliver of a loft vacated by an entrepreneur who packaged pickle jars. At the time, I was in partnership with Ron (Davis) and Murdoch (McGregor). Having worked there, I was well acquainted with the story of William Boeing, who in Seattle, on the other side of America, was revolutionizing civil aviation. And not only that. I thought to myself: if Boeing makes airplanes fly thanks to aluminum, why not try it with mountain bikes and racing bicycles too?” Montgomery began to tell his story, which ultimately meant telling the story of Cannondale.
Why Connecticut? "Because that's a state in America considered underdeveloped compared to New York and New Jersey: so the government provides grants... and we needed them," he confessed as he maneuvered his plane with authority.
A man of ups and downs, extraordinary surges and thunderous thuds, Joe flew the plane like the company, which, if from time to time on the second front, did not take into due consideration either the range or the balance, which are the basis of good aircraft maneuvers.
“We go to Wilton, yes… to Wilton. Do you know why our brand is called Cannondale? Because there's a suburb there called Cannondale. When the company was founded, I was in charge of handling the paperwork needed to get it up and running. I went to the nearest place where there was an AT&T payphone to ask for a connection. And when the person on the other end of the line asked me who to register the contract in, I realized we hadn't chosen the company name. I could have registered the contract in my name, Ron's, or Murdoch's. But I didn't want anyone to be displeased or overlooked. And then, looking around, I saw the sign for the Cannondale train station and… I did all the paperwork in the name of Cannondale,” he said in one breath.
The landing was smooth. Joe exuded confidence. And the same scenes as the departure. Another Volvo station wagon was waiting for us, the keys on the windshield visor. Everyone got in, and as soon as we exited the wooden fence, the gate was closed and off we went! To the factory.
Joe Montgomery was and will forever be Cannondale.
By then, more than thirty years had already passed since the company's fateful founding in 1971. Like other visionaries of the bike of the future, Montgomery had emerged from the loft, which for many Americans who have become famous in sectors that have taken enormous swathes of the global economy is equivalent to the cellar and garage: Apple, Microsoft, Google, and so on.
And like a good trolling fisherman, he knew how to wait for the right moment after a bad period. It's the same attitude as John and Dick Burke (Trek), the tightrope walkers who threw themselves down from the Tamalpais to San Francisco on bakers' iron bikes, before inventing mountain bikes (Tom Ritchey, Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, and Charlei Kelly), Roman Arnold of Canyon, and Mike Sinyard, who with his Specizlized continues to ride the rollercoaster of budgets and innovation. Far more rational were the Italians Ernesto Colnago, Ugo De Rosa, Falieri Masi, Lino Gastaldello, Giovanni Pinarello, Cino Cinelli, Giuseppe Olmo…
The key—both in the trailers and the motorcycle frames—was Boeing aluminum. And there, in Wilton, thanks also to the patience of Beppo Hilfiger, we discovered the pros and cons of what Mr. Cannondale had put together: from the motorcycle that ended up in oblivion, to the first racing bikes with a mid-section borrowed from mountain bikes and therefore…too heavy for giants like Cipollini and giants like Shaquille O'Neal.
Yes… leaning against a wall, inside a plexiglass cube, an ingenious machine subjected to stress a frame intended for the black “center” who had driven NBA (National Basketball Association) fans crazy for 19 years playing for Orlando, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Phoenix and Cleveland, before inventing himself as an actor and rapper.
Shaq fell in love with cycling before James LeBron and perhaps even more so than Mario Cipollini, who led Cannondale to indelible successes throughout Europe until 2004, but then ended badly with America. The Lion King's career—who between 2025 and 2026 found himself struggling with a few too many physical problems and more negative family relapses—effectively ended with the stars and stripes Rock Racing team of the fiery "stylist" Michael Ball of Rock & Republic, supported by strategist Andrea Bernholz. SuperMario had lost the superlative prefix and ended up surrendering to age, thinking of "his" true America, which happened to be Joe Montgomery's.
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