Colors of Tribute

Grief can end things, or it can start them. For Vlad Sabău, it began when his mother, Mariana, was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer while he was still in school. Surgery offered a fragile reprieve, but four years later the disease spread to her brain. In 2010, she passed away. “Her passing felt sudden and unfair,” Vlad says. “I was determined to do something meaningful in her memory.”

The first gestures were small. Pink argyle socks on race days, because she cheered whenever she could. Then came something larger. After two years of planning, Vlad built his first tribute bike in 2012—a pink Cannondale Scalpel. “Race the bike, raise awareness, auction it, and donate the proceeds.” Simple words, but they built a ritual.

That Scalpel carried him across national circuits, international stages, even World Cups. It also carried him into becoming close with the Cannondale CFR family, riding alongside the very heroes he once admired—Mani Fumic, Marco Fontana, Henrique Avancini, Maxime Marotte. Racing with them gave the mission weight, sharpened its meaning.

What began with socks became tradition. Each year, a new Cannondale. Each one painted, raced, then given away. Each one proving that “giving is more powerful than receiving, and small acts of kindness can truly impact a community.”

The latest frame for auction turns the colors forward. A Scalpel SE that shifts from purple to bright pink and back. Every single penny is donated to a foundation that is helping women who currently have breast cancer and need help.