March 15, 2012 (Quebec City, QC) – The 27th annual Salon Info-Vélo (consumer bike show) was held March 9-11 at the Ross Gaudreault Terminal de Croisières in the Old Port. A record number of 14,871 visitors came to the show according to organizer Jean-Yves Labonté. “It was my best year ever,” claimed Labonté who noted that some of his exhibitors ran out of pamphlets to distribute. Many notable brands and exhibitors were on hand including Apogée, GTH (Cannondale), KMI (Merckx, Lapierre), ARG Sports (Bicycle Line), Multi-Caisses, F3 Distribution (Nalini, Kask), Shimano, Mont-Sainte-Anne, Vélo Québec and many more. Labonté also sold some 1,500 tickets at the door to support his Elicycle club – admittance to Salon Info-Vélo was free.

This year’s show featured 120 kiosks, a full program of conferences, and demonstrations of cycle-ball and artistic cycling (both recognized by UCI). Cycle-ball, for the uninitiated, is a version of soccer where the players are on bicycles. But the star attraction this weekend was an interview with Giuseppe Marinoni, the two-time champion of the Classique Québec-Montréal (1966 and 1968) and founder of Cycles Marinoni. He was interviewed at the show by Radio Canada on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Unfortunately, Marinoni, 74, fell ill and was unable to give a second interview on Sunday morning. Pedal reached his wife, Simone, at the company head office on Tuesday. She explained that Giuseppe was diagnosed with pneumonia and is now on antibiotics. “He’s not really doing better yet, but should be soon as the antibiotics take effect,” said Simone. Giuseppe is still a very dynamic cyclist; he put in 8,000km last year. It is also apparently very difficult to persuade him to take a day off work. Pedal joins the cycling community in wishing him a speedy recovery.

Simone Marinoni visited the Salon Info-Vélo this year for the first time telling us she, “…liked the show a lot.” She noted that the architecture of the show was designed so that visitors made a tour of all booths, “…so none of the exhibitors had a bad spot for their booth.”

Labonté, a long-time fixture in the Quebec cycling scene, is better known as a coach. He mentioned that four members of his junior Elicycle club are presently at a training camp in Arizona with Pierre Hutsebaut of Montreal’s Peak Centre. Labonté disbanded his men’s senior team in 2011, but kept the women’s senior team lead by Elisabeth Albert. She is also a speed skater of note and finished third in both the 500m and 1,000m events at the 2011 Canada Winter Games. Albert is currently at a speed skating competition in western Canada. Labonté promised more news soon about his riders.