Giant Bicycles brought a prototype TCX Advanced SL carbon bike to Interbike for Adam Craig to race in Wednesday night’s CrossVegas event, and VeloNews took an exclusive first look mere hours after team manager Frank Trotter finished building it.
The rumor that Interbike 2009 might be smaller than in years past didn’t seem to hold up on opening day — there was quite a crowd queued up at 8:45 a.m. for the show's 9 a.m. opening at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, and we’re seeing plenty of cool new products in every category.
The first ever Mellow Johnny's Classic will be held at the Juan Pelota Ranch near Austin, Texas.
For most cyclocross pros — almost all of whom make their living racing mountain bikes or road bikes during the "off season" — CrossVegas is an odd confection: one of the most visible races of the North American season, with arguably the best field. Yet it comes so early in the season, and is on such an unusual course, that many racers enter it with something of a hit-or-miss attitude. "It's like the Tour of California for cyclocross," Jeremy Powers (Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com) said Wednesday.
While most domestic road racers view either the Tour of Missouri or the USA Crits series finale in Las Vegas as the end of their long season, a select few are extending it through this weekend for the inaugural TD Bank Mayor's Cup Professional Criterium, held Saturday in Boston.
After a challenging summer fraught with sponsorship problems, Katie Compton has her program back on the rails, just in time for cyclocross season. For starters, she signed with Planet Bike as her primary sponsor. Then, a few weeks before opening weekend, a choice blend of product sponsorships fell into place, including Stevens Carbon Team frames; Zipp wheels, bars, and cranks; and SRAM Red drivetrain parts. Planet Bike gave the duo freedom to forage for supplementary sponsors, and they came up golden. “It’s a dream sponsorship for us,” said husband Mark Legg-Compton.
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has announced a major shake-up of the world road race championship program as of 2012, which will be held in the Dutch province of Limburg. Limburg topped rival bids from Genoa in Italy and the Belgian town of Hooglede-Gits on Wednesday to win the right to host the 2012 world championships. The 2012 competition is set to begin with a trade team time trial, and throughout the week will also host the junior men's and women's road races and time trials, which have been held separately from the elite world championships for the past four years.
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