# Hampsten won the Giro on a Land Shark?



## JTS628 (Apr 22, 2003)

Maybe this is old news, but I was cruising the LandShark site and in the "About us" section, it states that Hampsten rode a Land Shark in '88 and indeed won the Giro on a Land Shark. I had never heard this before but I'm assuming it's true or the claim would have been taken down long ago. Was this true throughout Hampsten's entire tenure at 7-11/Motorola?


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## MENTAL FLOSS (Oct 19, 2006)

my understanding is that lots of riders were riding frames that were painted as "team frames" I have heard that many times about A.H. I've also heard that many of Lances early wins were on Litespeeds


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## JTS628 (Apr 22, 2003)

agreed, riders using rebadged frames is certainly nothing new, but i'm surprised that i never heard the land shark/giro story before. i wonder if he *ever* rode a merckx frame during his career. i need to go back and look at the alpe d'huez stage and see if his bike had lugs . . .


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## ElvisMerckx (Oct 11, 2002)

JTS628 said:


> Was this true throughout Hampsten's entire tenure at 7-11/Motorola?


No, when Merckx began supplying 7-Eleven (later Motorola) with bikes, the team rode Merckxes. In fact, Hampsten had Eddy put the 1970s-era portrait of himself on the head-tubes of his racing frames that year, while the rest of the 7-Eleven team had the EM logo.


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## JTS628 (Apr 22, 2003)

ElvisMerckx said:


> No, when Merckx began supplying 7-Eleven (later Motorola) with bikes, the team rode Merckxes. In fact, Hampsten had Eddy put the 1970s-era portrait of himself on the head-tubes of his racing frames that year, while the rest of the 7-Eleven team had the EM logo.


doing some quick googling on this, i've seen posts in which it's claimed that hampsten still rode land sharks in mountain stages even after merckx signed on as the frame sponsor. anyone have a definitive answer? i know that there were litespeeds painted as merckxs, and of course there are the merckxs painted as calois, but i'd be interested to know if there were steel frames made by other makers painted as merckxs in the "modern" era.


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## kjmunc (Sep 19, 2005)

Yep, AH was on a Landshark built with Tange tubing while the rest of the team was actually on Huffy-badged Serottas built with True-Temper steel. Talk about rebadging.....

7-11 didn't make the swap to Merckx until after the Giro victory.


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## MENTAL FLOSS (Oct 19, 2006)

See the post above.... I've just finished building a team issued Motorola frame. Serial number was verified as being built for Andy Bishop. 92/93? At that time, I have been told that Andy was riding frames built by Andy Gilmore (Tucson, Arizona).


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## djg714 (Oct 24, 2005)

It was a Landshark. Confirmed by Andy's brother Steve of Hampsten Cycles.
www.hampsten.com


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## Evan Evans (Sep 14, 2004)

Why is everyone surprised? Merckx never road a merckx to any of his victories either! Merckx is a great cyclist but his bikes arn't that good.


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## Fivethumbs (Jul 26, 2005)

Blasphemy!!


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## ElvisMerckx (Oct 11, 2002)

Fivethumbs said:


> Blasphemy!!


That and "Troll!"


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## wasfast (Feb 3, 2004)

MENTAL FLOSS said:


> my understanding is that lots of riders were riding frames that were painted as "team frames" I have heard that many times about A.H. I've also heard that many of Lances early wins were on Litespeeds


Lance rode a LItespeed Blade as his TT bike in his first TDF win.


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## atpjunkie (Mar 23, 2002)

*well Eddy's were rebadged*

he had a couple hacks named ernesto and ugo building his frames


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## Richard (Feb 17, 2006)

I doubt Eddy ever held a torch. He even "sold" his name to Falcon in England for a mid-range bike they produced.

Yep, it was Ugo and Ernesto and I've heard he may have had a Faliero (i.e., Masi) or two.


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