Cinelli early 60-s Model B vs Model SC
Hello,
I'm looking for an expert view of someone with the knowledge of Cinelli's bikes from early 60s.
You'll know that Soviet cyclist Viktor Kapitonov won an Olympic race in 1960 riding Cinelli Model B. It was early days of the "iron curtain", yet it was highly unusual for the Soviet athlete to win thanks to a technology from the capitalist world. So the story in the Soviet/Russian media has always been that Cinelli equipped the team with a 2nd tier, touring bike, not properly suited for racing. As a quote from one of the books goes "a bike that Italian postmen used to ride".
I didn't buy into this story and did my own research, and it turns out that Model B was actually a fine racing machine. Surely, it wasn't a top model (Model SC or Supercorsa) at the time, but my perception is that it was far from touring bike as well.
What I'm trying to establish is how much disadvantage did Kapitonov actually have by riding Model B vs other teams equipped with Model SC (Supercorsa)?
I came across a discussion from years ago on one of the classic bikes forums, where someone claimed that Model B frame was heavier by 150 grams (which is nothing by the standard of 1960.
Any other thoughts or insights would be much appreciated.