The Olympic Challenge

Between Paris '24 and Los Angeles '28, our journey continues through passion and innovation, technology, and courage, ambitions, and uncompromising performance. An adventure that has so far been the exclusive domain of national federations and Olympic committees now becomes the new challenge of a team that, like in motorsport, combines cutting-edge design, advanced materials, and pioneering experimentation to enable athletes to fully express their potential and achieve top-level sporting goals.

At the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture - Computational Mechanics and Advanced Materials of the University of Pavia, the TOOT RACING team, led by Romolo Stanco, Prof. Ferdinando Auricchio, director of COMPMECH, and Gianluca Alaimo, head of the Protolab at the University of Pavia, presented the Olympic challenge for 2024/2028. Since ten years ago when Giairo Ermeti asked Romolo to "design a bike around his needs" to win on the track, we have supported athletes of all levels in excelling globally through ideas, passion, courage, technology, innovation, and a revolutionary approach. Under the leadership of Erica Marson's team, and together with partners who have already believed in the project, the new challenge has been launched. After debuting at the UCI 2023 Track World Championships with the revolutionary X23 and the homologation of 16 components for the Paris 2024 Olympics, we aim to bring ideas, content, and technologies to the world of performance cycling to enable athletes to fully express their potential.

"We shouldn't be here."

On the "Champions" wall in the Montichiari workshop, there are prestigious signatures. About ten world titles, several dozen national and continental titles, talents from track and road cycling. TOOT engineering was born from the madness of Romolo Stanco and Erica Marson, with Argentine professional Facundo Lezica, from races, from the pursuit of limits, and from the perhaps arrogant ambition to "change" what is good but can be better. It's our way, not to be a "company" or a "brand" or anything else, but to always push the limit one step higher.

The weapons.

For CYCLINGNEWS, the X23 is the most revolutionary track bike ever. Unique and a concentration of ideas and technologies at the service of athlete performance. Every detail, component, and accessory has been designed and developed from scratch with the goal of surpassing today's performance limits. A challenge of ideas and technology tested on the race tracks by an international FACTORY TEAM capable of providing feedback for the continuous development of technical materials, as happens in motorsport.

The Humans.

The challenge of TOOT RACING aims to bring to cycling the pathways and methodologies common in Formula 1 and MotoGP. The team of athletes participating in international-level races contributes to technical evolution with concrete and essential feedback for the design team. The athletes of the FACTORY TEAM are exceptional riders and superb testers integrated into the team as a true internal DEVELOPMENT ACADEMY. Not just a sports team, but a true "RACING DIVISION" where athletes, engineers, and designers are driven by a single obsession: "to do it better."

Advanced innovations.

The sporting challenge pushes every element in play to the limit in races. Athlete performance alone is not enough to win. The "marginal gain" is the benchmark for improving every day. Like in motorsport, TOOT RACING, under the management of Erica Marson, can rely on a top-tier DESIGN TEAM led by Romolo Stanco - CTO of Bianca Advanced Innovations - and a solid partnership with the Computational Mechanics and Advanced Materials group at the University of Pavia, with the scientific supervision of Prof. Ferdinando Auricchio and the engineering direction of Prof. Gianluca Alaimo.

Il racconto.

Passion, show, competences.

The winning spirit has always been in the DNA of TOOT RACING, but this challenge tackles something completely different, entirely new, and more comprehensive. After more than one hundred victories, four world titles, and prestigious results in international events, it is clear that the winning strategy is to integrate the technological challenge with the sporting one, ensuring an unparalleled spectacle. Cycling is a sport of passion, and it is with passion, courage, and expertise that Romolo Stanco and Erica Marson have been transforming lines, ideas, materials, and technology into winning and revolutionary objects for years.

To win together.

The most important strength of this group is the way the entire team works together. Being part of the TOOT RACING OLYMPIC project does not just mean entering this sport as a sponsor, but forming a true partnership to nurture young athletes and transform them into the best in their field within a technical structure that allows them to have the most high-performing technical equipment available to achieve the best results and fulfill their Olympic dream. The dialogue between the technicians and athletes of the FACTORY TEAM allows for the development of ideas and projects with a speed and method unthinkable for the traditional cycling industry.

We are aliens.

"Engineers and high technology are not needed to win a challenge; ideas, passion, obsession are needed, the courage to surpass limits, fall, and start over. It takes being human and continuing to smile while spitting blood to achieve a goal." This is why cycling, the sport of "effort" par excellence, is Romolo Stanco's passion. Defined by the press as a "visionary" in the fields of industrial design, architecture, and motorsport, an expert in adaptive design and advanced materials, he has brought an absolute revolution to cycling: "performance design to help athletes win. Futuristic bikes and alien technologies are our weapons, our tools, not the end of our work."

Dream with us.

From Italy comes a challenge ready to surpass every boundary. We can conquer the world with creativity, imagination, and ingenuity, but above all, we can do it together. Thanks to international partners of the highest caliber, it has been possible to realize the dreams of many athletes around the world who have now begun a new challenge with us, a challenge called the OLYMPICS. This is the moment to change the rules of the game, without compromises. Do you want to be part of our challenge?

Romolo.

Having trained as a physicist and architect, before delving into the world of performance design, Romolo Stanco has designed all sorts of disruptive things: lamps made of shape memory alloys, vases that provide light made of liquid wood, and even a large cube capable of storing and releasing energy thanks to its photovoltaic skin (the latter was used at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in 2014 to represent Italy). Romolo Stanco is the mind behind every visionary project of TOOT Engineering: "The performance of cyclists and the means we can provide them with is interesting because it is based on simple, essential, direct objects, very difficult to improve upon. Bicycles are an exhilarating endeavor for anyone who loves complex challenges."

Erica.

Journalist, event curator, expert in communication and marketing in the field of architecture and design, Erica Marson has been one of the "faces" of the magazine Ottagono, curator of "cutting-edge" books, and organizer of internationally renowned events. Cycling has always been a part of her life. Between management and innovative corporate leadership, her genetics drive her to surpass the rules of the "bike industry" establishment by proposing a model strongly inspired by project management, interdisciplinary collaboration, and technological partnerships with cutting-edge companies. "Making bicycles is not our goal; it's just a way to leave a mark in history."

Facundo.

When you have been a protagonist in five World Championships as an athlete and you know how to sit in front of a computer designing the evolution of your own performance, you cannot simply be considered an "excellent tester." Facundo Lezica, Argentine, boasts a world-class athletic palmares infused with a technical sensitivity uncommon among "riders." "You can improve your legs, train, push beyond your limits. But if you can annihilate your true enemies like air resistance, mechanics, friction, and gravity with intelligence and creativity, then you can feel as one with your machine, and the impossible becomes easier."