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Zabriskie had a disappointing ride, finishing 12th

Bob Parlee debuted his all carbon time-trial and triathlon bike this year at Interbike. Like Parlee’s Z1 through Z3 models the bike is fully custom to its buyer. Every tube that sees the wind on this $8500 frame has a true NACA airfoil shape.

Arokiasamy says the plan isn't as nutty as it appears.

TRP (Tektro Racing Products) cyclocross cantilever brakes, in carbon (top) and aluminum in various colors.

The champ redux

The final production bike will have a choice of horizontal dropouts so that the rear wheel can be tucked up into the seat tube. The seat stays are also designed using NACA shapes.

TRP's low-profile carbon cantilevers

Some soggy spectators

The rear brake is tucked up under the bottom bracket.

Rotor provides the Maxxis team with chainrings as well as ceramic bottom brackets for their Shimano Dura-Ace cranks.

Ignatiev was favored, but he's satisfied with silver

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McGrath’s bike was equipped with Jagwire’s carbon fiber cable ferrules.

Coppel rounds out the U23 podium

Dillon Clapp, from the accessories manufacturer Lezyne, shows the company’s new Pressure Drive mini-pump. It will cost $30-35 and is rated to 120psi. The pump has a stowable hose with Schrader and Presta adaptors at opposite ends.

Instead of bringing a full catalog’s worth of 2008 models to the Dirt Demo, Ironhorse picked three models and gave them special Monster Energy green paint jobs along with consistent Deore XT and SRAM X.9 level components.

Van Garderen caught his minute man... but was also caught by the eventual winner

Clapp illustrates the use of the Pressure Drive’s stowable hose, which makes it 30-percent more compact than other mini-pumps on the market.

After the show the bikes will be split into two groups and spend the next eight months on respective East and West coast demo tours.

Boom is heading to the dirt as soon as he gets a chance.

Lezyne is also manufacturing mini tools with smart features. Here’s the Stainless 21 – featuring 21 gadgets in all - with L-shaped 2 and 2.5mm Allen heads that allow you to actually get at hard to access reach brake lever reach adjust bolts.

Crankbrothers kicked in its custom Interbike colored Acid pedals for the project.

Van Garderen had Zabriskie right behind him

Wordsmith and ’cross fanatic Mike Ferrentino, turned Santa Cruz marketing guy, showed the Stigmata. It’s a 1300-gram (size 54) U.S. made frame that retails for just $850 with a powder coat, the anodized version costs $100 more, but weighs 1200 grams

And WTB made special seats for the special Dirt Demo bikes.

Cannondale’s new Scalpel is light and is picking up right where old bike left off, winning international level mountain bike races. The bike attributes its inevitable world cup success to System Integration, says C-Dale product tester Doug Dalton.

Boom still wants to race 'cross.

Dalton has been on three iterations of the bike; he picks its lack of pivots as his favorite part of the bike making it simple, light and able to provide great rear-wheel traction because of the slightly shorter chainstay length.

Kupfernagel powers to a win.

Bells and Whistles like DT’s SSD Carbon rear shock bring a large Scalpel’s weight down to 22.5 pounds.

Kupfernagel had to wait until Armstrong finished to celebrate.

Yeti’s new all carbon ASR-AC weighs only 4.2 pounds in a size medium but is 50 percent stiffer than the old alloy ASR. The frame has a 92.5mm bottom bracket shell that relies on Shimano’s threadless composite cupped bottom bracket.

Austria's Christiane Soeder rounds out the podium

The ASR-AC most attention getting feature is its integrated seat mast. It maximizes a rider’s power transfer, says Yeti GM Chris Conroy. The mast has four clamp options the lightest is 75mm in length and allows for 30mm of adjustment.

Armstrong said the course suited an all-around rider. Maybe she'll be riding 'cross this winter.

Yeti’s ASR Seven has been in development for three years. It has 7-inches of travel and weighs 7.2 pounds. The rear end has two oversized aluminum seatstays and one large carbon non-drive chainstay, to which the rear wheel mounts concentrically.

Thürig missed the podium this year

Because pivot is at the axle the bike will have active braking characteristics. The absence of a drive-side chainstay leaves weight and noise behind.

Despite the expression, Boom really is happy about his win.

At the opposite end the massive chain and seatstays provide protection to the brake caliper and a stiff rear end that promises to track well.

Ignatiev was favored, but he's satisfied with silver

Maxxis’ mech and factory team cyclocross rider Adam McGrath has one of the only new Litespeed CX bikes built and ready to race.

Coppel rounds out the U23 podium

His teammates, Geoff Kabush and Mat Toulouse’s bikes are still waiting to be built with only 29 hours before the Vegas Cross race.

Despite the expression, Boom really is happy about his win.

12. Fulcrum’s mountain bike wheels will be ready for retail sale come October. Three weeks ago the Red Metal Zero disc supported Julian Absalon’s latest world championship win. The wheelset is said to weigh 1570 grams will cost roughly $1100.

The cage of the Red front derailleur is all titanium. It is tightened up in spacing and shaping to produce its best performance specifically with SRAM chainrings and chain. It only comes in braze-on style. You can use a superlight spring-steel band.

The BH Speedrom is a stiff, precise, great-riding monocoque carbon bike. The frame weighs under 1000 grams, yet this Ultegra SL-equipped model I rode retails for under $2,800!

The Red Metal Zero’s aluminum spokes have been lightened from those first seen at Sea Otter this past April, but they are still laced using Fulcrum’s 2 to 1 drive/disc to non-drive/disc spoke count.

Red's Double Tap lever guts. The shift lever and the brake lever are both adjustable for reach, making this the only high-end road lever that can be adjusted to fit small hands.

The following is a statement from Anne Samplonius regarding GenevieveJeanson'srecent admission that she used EPO during her carrer:Overall I am happy that Genevieve Jeanson has finally been able to begin to come to terms with everything, with herself, to admit what she did was wrong, very wrong.I understand to some degree what the influence and control of both her father and (Andre) Aubut had over her, and realize that she was for the most part a victim. I knew that all along and my disgust over the entire situation was always more against those in control of GJ, which were Aubut and her

Those familiar with off-road dirt bike competition will know that Tire Balls are small air chambers that fill out a tire in lieu of a tube. They’re more puncture resistant and allow tires to stay in service even with major sidewall gashes.

Zinn's own marketing targets an often over-looked segment

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. Maurice Hessel’s “Climbing ‘The Snake’ in Burlington, Iowa memorial day weekend” is one image we kept letting our eye drift back to. We’ve seen a lot of images of “The Snake” before, but Maurice managed to capture the essence of the climb and gave viewers reason to understand why that cobbled hill earned its name. Nice work, Maurice. Please drop us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.comto work out the details and we’ll send you

Wade Summers, the father of nine-time GNCC national championship winner Scott Summers is the creator of Tire Balls for motorcycles and now bikes. A wheel’s worth of tire balls weighs 300-grams for the 2.5-inch downhill size.

The Mavic TraComp features composite spokes working in both Traction (i.e., in tension) and Compression. In a crash with another rider, a test rider caught a pedal in the wheel that broke four spokes. The wheel was still true.

Cordero says it requires a commitment to keep the sport credible

Tomac is officially back, to date, there are roughly 550 new Tomac Snyper and Caliber bikes in riders’ hands worldwide. In fact, Japanese Olympic mountain bike team member, Takei Forza won his country’s professional title on a carbon Tomac Caliber.

Since the spokes in the TraComp are not under high tension at all times, the spoke heads could move in the hub as the wheel rolls but the red cylindrical insert prevents that.

We spotted Chris King’s new 68mm tall carbon cyclocross wheelset under the command of Molly Cameron at the September 22 Seattle Star Crossed race. Edge, the rim manufacturer, is based in Ogden, Utah. The turquoise hubs are King’s new 'cross model

Tomac's downhill bike the Primer 220 is close to its production form. The 220mm travel bike is designed by Doug Bradbury and is similar to the old Tomac Magnum 204 in function.

Shimano's new Dura-Ace wheel now uses normal nail-head straight-pull spokes with nipples at the rim so that wheel truing is done conventionally, by tightening and loosening spokes at the rim, not at the hub.

Along with King’s Pretty in Pink program, which benefits the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation, King is investing a portion of the profits from its DreadSet rasta colored headsets that will benefit Hans Rey’s Wheels 4 Life foundation.

You may remember the 5-inch travel Trance X from Eurobike reports, but I was able to ride on in Bootleg Canyon.

IRC's Formula Pro Tubeless road tire has a thinner, more supple casing and stickier rubber than Hutchinson tubeless road tires to further close the gap on performance versus a tubular tire.

A regular King headset base plate is on the left, and the new High-Five base plate is on the right. The High-Five plate adds 5mm to fix bikes with a problem of fork and downtube interference. It costs a mere $12.

Giant’s communication manager Andrew Juskaitis was our personal tour guide on Bootleg’s Caldera trail, a hour and a half long loop with embedded volcanic rock that will bite back if one gets to brash.

Fizik's 2008 high-end mountain-bike saddles are now built to go with specific types of bike riding, which is also dictated by the bike’s suspension travel. So you select the saddle model based on how much suspension travel the bike has.

The 1516 gram Edge-King carbon wheelset is not yet ready for public consumption, but the $699 Classic Cross clincher wheel set is. It’s built with DT’s RR1.1 aluminum rim, King’s Classic Cross hubs and DT’s Competition spokes. The set weighs 1590 gr.

At the end of the ride, it was perfect to find Chris King serving gourmet beef tip sandwiches back in his booth, and yes we all took him up on his offer. Thanks Chris.

Fizik's free gelato was a big hit – who wouldn’t like gelato on a sunny day?

Classic Cross hubs (the two sets at the lower right) are available in an array of colors. The front weighs 136-grams and the rear is 278 grams. The have a five-year warranty and cost $479 for the set. King offers them in 28, 32 and 36 hole versions.

This is a letter you never want to receive.

Pivot's Mach 5 full-suspension trail bike with five inches of rear travel utilizes the tried-and-true DW Link suspension system. Pivot was founded by Titus founder and former owner Chris Cocalis

Magura’s new $175, 415-gram (front, with 160mm rotor) Louise brakeset is available for sale in the U.S. The model accepts all of Magura’s rotors including the Venti, which flows air over the caliper to keep it cool.

Boulder Cycle Sport Wrench, Mike Doyle, dials in the nicest cross bike I have ever ridden.

Thus far Pivot has six bikes using two DW Link frame models, the Mach 5 and the Mach 4 four-inch-travel cross-country frame.

Each year Magura picks a color of the year and offers some special edition products with it. This year the color is pink. 300 sets of the Louise BAT brake will be available in pink.

Ahhhhh.... The fresh smell of tubular glue. It must be 'cross season.

The Bianchi Camos has a flexing carbon chainstay for lateral stiffness, vertical suppleness, and low weight.