The large collection of bike brands from Italy often have a deep history in the sport. Italian based tyre manufacturer, Vittoria, is no exception
Early Days
Italian brand Vittoria have been keeping bike riders gripped since 1953. Tubular tyres have been used since the very early days of road cycling. From the early days, Vittoria have been the experts at producing fast, reliable tubulars before broadening their range to include clinchers and tubeless. Vittoria had almost 40 years at the pinnacle of bicycle tyre manufacturing. By 1990, however, the business was in financial strife. The then owners took over the business and took the drastic step of moving production to Thailand through a subsidiary company – Lion Tyres. Since the production move, the business as gone from strength to strength, producing up to 7 million tyres for road, gravel and MTB per year. In 2020 a private equity fund from Milan bought the company from its Dutch owners, returning the headquarters to Bergamo, Italy.
Developments
Throughout the 20th Century, tubular tyres (glue-on) were the only choice at the top end of the sport. They were chosen for their mix of low rolling resistance, comfort, grip and light weight. Tubulars were lighter because rims didn’t need hooked side walls to hold the tyre like clinchers (clinchers became more comparable in terms of performance with tubulars in the late 1980s). The mix of lightest tyre and lightweight rim were the ultimate in performance for much of the 20th Century, particularly in mountainous races.
Choice of Stars
The list of Vittoria tubular tyre users through the 20th Century is impressive, these include – Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, Pantani and Moser. In the modern era, Vittoria are supplying the current crop of stars, including Pogacar, Roglic, Van Aert and Van der Poel.
Worldwide Facilities
Along with their headquarters in the Bergamo region of Italy, Vittoria have production and admin facilities all over the world. These include; Thailand, Hong Kong, The Netherlands and Oklahoma City USA,
Range of Features
Vittoria have been associated with tubular tyres for a long time. However their broad range has evolved into all tyre fit types, each cycling discipline and performance level. Vittoria’s open tubular clinchers offered much of the ride qualities of tubular tyres but with the more user friendly clincher benefits. The use of cutting edge materials, such as Graphene, matched with excellence in manufacturing and the technical abilities to mix 4 compounds in their tread layers (4C) has brought Vittoria tyres many new fans across the world. Not just in the world of road cycling either. Vittoria’s range of gravel, cyclo-cross and mountain bike tyres has helped transform the ‘road only’ perception of the brand.
