There’s a little detail on the top tube of this Concorde Squadra that reveals the true origin of the Dutch marque: a brazed-on Italian flag. The device can also be found on Ciöcc frames, who supplied Concorde with frames to be branded as their own. This example was carefully rebuilt by Stephan Wijland, a Nederlander who tracked down the source of the early-90s semi-pro team it belonged to.
Any Ciöcc rider will testify to their quality and Stephan’s Concorde is a similar pedigree. They were prominently seen underneath the PDM-Concorde pro team, contesting the classics during the late 80s and early 90s. This Squadra was built for Eddy Vancraeynest, a rider for the KSV Deerlijk-Westauto’s team, active around 1993. The bikes were supplied by Jowan, a Belgian shop.
Stephan’s Squadra is built from aero Columbus Ego tubing and was originally going to be assembled with a Dura Ace 7700 groupset, until he happened upon a donor bike equipped with somewhat more appropriate Campagnolo Record, which was installed instead. He deliberated over the wheels before deciding upon a Mavic CD Ceramic pair.
The frame is a fine example of bi-laminate and fillet brazing, a rarely seen departure from the standard offering from Ciöcc. Shooting the bike in front of the Westauto’s showroom, the original sponsor of the team, was a nice touch. Take a look at the rest of the photos on Stephan’s flickr stream, and you can read the story of the build process on his Retrobike thread.
