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Bright lights, big city. Boulder Cycle Sport's Colby Pearce makes his way back to Sin City after the race.

Boulder Cycle Sport Sales Manager Rob Ferola trying to put the moves of Cipo.

With his bikes still in Las Vegas, Whitey Debroux does his best rendition of a crazy Belgian super fan.

The chase.

One hour before this photo was taken, Trek's Travis Brown rolled into Boulder, stole a mountain bike from Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski's garage, then came out for a little Las Vegas detox session.

Pereiro in the maillot jaune during the '06 Tour

Dear Readers,In Deliveranceof the bird man, a reader wrote in to ask about an incident in which his group ride was buzzed, and in response, the ride leader flipped the offending driver “the bird.” As you may recall, this immediately led to an altercation between the “bird man” and the “enraged and rather large passenger.” In that column, I wrote that “the bird” is not constitutionally protected speech, and may even be a provocation to fight. In response, I received the following letter. Hi Bob,Interesting discussion of the "bird," although lacking in brevity and accuracy. I take issue

Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: Them there's fightin' words, boy

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

Contador is ready to join Bruyneel at Astana

The $2500 Mojo SL frame builds into a 21.9-pound bike using Ibis’ WTF ultra light kit. The kit includes an XTR drivetrain, Easton cockpit and NoTubes wheels, all of which is super light, but still very usable.

Fizik makes perforated bar tape matching the perforated center stripe on its 225-gram K:ium-rail Arione saddles.

Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of our most recent contest. Reid Beloni’s “Early trip to the races” made us remember all of those foggy-headed mornings driving to any number of local races near or far. Yeah, yeah, we’re waxing nostalgic and Reid managed to capture the image that started us down that road. Nice work, Reid. Please drop us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.comto work out the details and we’ll send you a copy of our new Coors Classic DVD. Meanwhile, go ahead and take a

'Cross bike of the year? Well, Time’s Cross ProTeam frame is definitely on the short list. The $3250 module (frame, fork, integrated seat post, headset and stem) weighs 2125 grams, while the frame alone is 1280 grams. Available in five sizes.

Brooks has a new basket and roll-up rear panniers. The panniers roll down and have a magnetic flap closure. The basket is lightweight tubular aluminum with a leather handle and wooden bottom.

The RAAM Fall FestivalA celebration of the people and inspiration of one of the world’s greatestexperiences!You and your friends are invited to join the RAAM Family for the InauguralRAAM Fall Festival in Boulder, CO, USA – the World Headquarters of RAAM.The fun happens Saturday October 13th, 2007.Schedule of Events10:00 Ride!A group ride of 35-50 miles exploring the foothills of the Rockiesnorth of Boulder. Here’s your chance to catch up with your RAAM friendsand ride with RAAM veterans. Bring your RAAM jersey or buy one from ourstore. We’ll start from the home of the Race Director.4:00 Show

Like the frame, the Mono-bloc fork is made by Time. The fork features fibers that run continually from drop out to steerer. The legs feature Vectran for compliance and the steerer is reinforced with Kevlar to protect it from a stem’s clamping forces.

Dario Pegoretti is battling cancer, and this get-well poster for him is centered around a caricature of the Italian framebuilder cooking the crab (representing, of course, his cancer) over a flame on a bike fork. Keep Dario in your thoughts.

Look’s new 586 breaks the sub-1000 gram mark including an uncut integrated seat mast. The new frame is more than 130-grams lighter the 595, but not quite as stiff. The frame set, including fork, headset and E-Post will cost $3700.

Time’s Ergo Force handlebar is molded in one-piece, unlike many of its competitors who build handlebars in three pieces. The 230-gram bar comes in three widths, 42, 44, 46, and costs $420.

Mavic’s answer to Lightweight, ADA and Lew: the Cosmic Carbone Ultimate. Weighing only 1120 grams/pair (520g front; 600g rear), it sells for $3,000/pair and is worth buying Mavic’s MP3 no-questions-asked warranty for.

The E-Post seat post system offers three different clamps, which differ in offset. The standard comes with +/- 20mm of adjustment, while there are reversible 32mm and 5mm options (pictured from left to right).

Pairing Time’s ULTeam RS carbon shoe with an RXS style pedal gives you, as Time claims, one of the industry’s lowest pedal and shoe stack height combinations at 21.4mm. A pair of the RS shoes weighs 580-grams and costs $285.

Prologo has a rail-less saddle and offers cradles to fit various seatposts that will grab the grooved saddle base. The saddle is still suspended at the front and rear, despite having no rail.

Giro’s Xen mountain bike helmet is a fixture in the trail segment, its design and greater coverage remains unchanged for 2008, but its style continues to evolve. The finish on this helmet is actually a fabric.

19. Stan Koziak the founder of NoTubes.com has a new ZTR Race rim that only weighs 283-grams. He’s tested rims weighing as little as 262-grams in MTB World Cups. Koziak has been a long time sponsor of Seven’s Mary McConnelogue and Mike Broderick.

Hed’s new Vantage 8 aero bar weighs a mere 490 grams complete with extensions and elbow pads that swing up out of the way when grasping the bar near the stem. The name refers to eight different adjustments.

We first saw the $225 Ionos helmet in the 2007 Tour de France. It has 15-percent more vent volume than the Atmos thus keeps a rider’s head 15-percent cooler, says Giro.

A NoTubes ZTR Race wheelset built with American Classic hubs and DT Swiss Revolution spokes can weigh as little as 1230 grams.

Hed’s little 3rd brake lever attaches to the shifter. It can come attached to either the left or right bar-end shifter, in either Shimano or Campagnolo.

In the fall, winter and early spring 15-percent cooler isn’t always wanted, so Giro includes a winter liner with every Ionos it sells.

21. Hutchinson’s Marc Gullickson was showing the company’s new tubeless ready ’cross tires. Both Bulldog and Piranha 34c tread patterns feature a tubeless Kevlar bead and 127tpi casing that’s meant to be used with Hutchinson’s Fast’ Air latex sealant

Hed’s 3rd lever installed onto a rear shifter and into the right extension.

Bell’s $130 Drop full-face helmet meets CPSC and ASTM specific standards for Downhill helmets, which are specific to full-face helmets.

Early trip to the races

Devin Lenz built an entire chairlift chair including the pad in order to demonstrate how easy the Lenz Sport Ski Bike is to load on the chair.

Motor heads got the first look at Bell’s new Bell Star Moto GP inspired street helmet at Interbike. The design and Viper graphics all come out of Bell’s Santa Cruz facility. It will be available this coming spring.

Bruyneel's 'retirement' may have been shorter than you thought

Former Sweet Parts founder and designer Craig Edwards may have hit a home run with his new superlight (100 grams), easily adjustable and powerful EEBrake.

Fi’zi:k re-engineered two saddle’s specifically for off-road use. The Aliante Gamma XM comes with K:ium rails and Technogel padding. The new Gobi XM also has K:ium rails and has been designed to fit like the ever-popular Arione.

Chuck Ibis (aka Scot Nicol) took a full pound out of the Mojo Carbon full suspension bike in making the Mojo SL. The Mojo SL weighs only 4.9 pounds, yet has 5.5 inches of travel. The rubberized polyurethane coating comes in grey, brown or matte clear

See the little M5 bolt on the left just in front of the fork? Loosen that with a 4mm hex key, pull the brake lever so the brake clamps onto the rim, and retighten the bolt. Voilá. The brake is centered and stays that way.

Team Slipstream carried out a contest to design the team’s 2008 kits. Pearl Izumi, a company that has been absent from the professional road arena for two years, will manufacture the winning design.

A complete Mojo SL, shown here in matte clear, with the Ibis WTF parts package featuring XTR and Stan’s wheels, weighs in at only 21.9 pounds for a no-compromise all-mountain bike; that’s three pounds less than last year.

Only half of the pad-height adjustment is on the slotted arms, thus avoiding a large drop in leverage with long pad reach. The other half of the adjustment is the eccentric M6 center bolt offset from the big 3/8” center bolt on which the brake pivots

Pearl’s new sub-200 gram Octane SL road shoe (single shoe, size 43.) The shoes rely on an 88-gram uni-directional carbon sole and costs $300.

The Ibis Tranny carbon hardtail weighs 19lbs with Ibis’s WTF parts pick. It can also be set up as a 17.5lb single speed – or 16lbs with a Pace carbon rigid fork and Mavic Speed City wheels and road tires. The 1250-gram Tranny frame sells for $1399.

The Octane jacket is made from a breathable, waterproof four-way stretch material. It comes with a removable hood and drop down tail to keep both your head and bottom dry.

The key to the single-speed option is the carbon chainstay “box.” The box only weighs 70 grams extra, yet it allows over an inch of horizontal adjustability for chain tensioning, and it adds rigidity.

Dakine’s Apex pack $120 has been a hit ever since its release last year. This year it’s material pallet has expanded to include wool.

The bolt holding the chainstay box in position looks elegant, fits neatly behind the bottom bracket, and is easy to access to change chainstay length.

Ibis showed its Mojo SL, a sub-five-pound frame. It uses a higher modulus carbon as well as carbon headset cups and dropouts to shave weight. Even the main pivot shaft is made from carbon.

The bolt at the top of the seatstays allows the Tranny rear end to pivot to change chainstay length. Unscrewing this bolt and the chainstay box bolt separates the frame into two halves so that it, too, can fly in a small Ritchey or S&S travel case.

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

The new boss, same as the old boss

Bettini sprints . . .

. . . he knows he's got it . . .

Take that, you dirty rats! Tat-a-tat-tat!

The peloton, 190 riders strong, on the first lap

Hincapie wasn't having a great day

Jason McCartney working to bring the break back

VandeVelde and Hincapie

The final selection heads for the finish line

The podium

'Scuse me, honey, got to dash. I'll be back in a few hours with a gold medal and a pretty new shirt.

And so he was

Some Discovery fans were in attendance

And Big George took notice, signing autographs

The freshly re-crowned champ sings along with his national anthem

Yeah!

And a weary Julich and McCartney head for the barn

Even the hub-driven light gets some custom love with internal wire routing.

Armstrong stayed in the mix all day.

The top of the Fuentes sock.

That Fairchild solved neatly.

For 2008, Sidi’s high-end mountain shoes have full-carbon soles. The SRS replaceable tread system extends the life of the shoes.

Thorburn suffered a mechanical and finished a minute off the pace.

Obey

Kestrel’s bold designs will now be supported by the strength of Fuji’s distribution and logistics network.

What do you mean you’re hesitant to buy white mountain shoes?