Only Good Stickers: Panini Sprint 2009

martedì 29 settembre 2020

Panini Sprint 2009

Panini Sprint is a sticker collection series dedicated to the world of cycling. It was created by Panini in the '70s for the Belgian market, when five albums were published (Sprint 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, and 1979). After 30 years, Panini picked up the series again, releasing the album Sprint 2009, which was followed by three more albums (Sprint 2010, 2012 and 2013).

In the cycling season 2009, Lance Armstrong returned after a four year break and finished third in the Tour de France won by Alberto Contador. The Giro d'Italia was conquered by Menchov and the Vuelta Espana by Valverde. Cadel Evans won the World Championship.

The sticker album of the season includes all the teams of the World Tour, with all the best cyclists of the year. After the contents and a brief introduction without stickers, the teams are shown in alphabetical order. There are in total 21 teams with 17 stickers per team: the jersey (shiny sticker), the team photo, and 15 cyclists. In the last part of the album there are two sections focusing on the best Belgian cyclists. The first is a gallery of Belgian champions, including stickers from old Sprint albums. Here we find among the others the stickers of Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Vam Impe and the most recent ryder Museeuw. The second section is dedicated to Cyclo-Cross, a popular discipline in Belgium. Here there are six stickers, with five Belgian ryders and the Dutch Lars Boom.