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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.

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.

120 Menja forks will also be available in Magura’s color of the year.

This bike is fast, but I'm not so sure about the motor.

The Camos chainstay is flippable by unscrewing bolts at the bottom bracket, thus making the rear end stiffer or more compliant.

Tires are the talk of the tent at WTB. Here a new Prowler MX 2.1 cross-country tire is compared to its older brother the Prowler XT all mountain tire that was introduced last year. The MX features aggressive siping and widely spaced knobs.

Climbing ‘The Snake’ in Burlington, Iowa memorial day weekend

Masi's elegant internal-gear town bike is enough to make any Italophile swoon.

Also part of the Prowler family is the new Prowler SL 29-inch tire. It comes in a 2.1 size and features a more consistent center tread for faster rolling.

SRAM's superlight Red cogset is totally hollow inside.

WTB co-founder Mark Slate has launched a new independent venture in addition to his WTB duties, which he still fulfills. OSBikes.com are one-speed 29er bikes, yet the OS stands for Of Spirit.

Spot Bicycles and its new subsidiary Carbon Drive Systems had one of the buzz booths of the day. It seemed everyone was talking about its carbon belt driven single speed drivetrain.

The Red rear derailleur is shockingly light to pick up, and it shifts great and has precision-ground pivots.

Yakima's Big Wheel was at the demo showing its smaller nephew the ropes.

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.

Dura-Ace SRM crank is fitted with a custom 46-tooth Dura-Ace outer ring, produced for sponsored athletes only

Ritchey alloy cockpits can be found on both of Heule’s bikes

Molly Cameron was sporting new wheels from sponsor Chris King. The 68mm Edge carbon rims were laced to new high-flange, cyclo-cross specific hubs

Danish national champion Joachim Parbo has been riding SRAM for three weeks and gives it a thumbs up

Parbo's cockpit is a mix of Selcof

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The brakes are Ridley’s 4ZA brand with BBB’s pads and post mount carriers

Barry Wicks and his new Kona Major Jake

Andy Jacques-Maynes's Specialized Tricross S-Works carbon frame

The team is using KORE’s new Kross Race cantilever brake

He relies on a single 42-tooth Rotor chainring mounted onto a 175mm Specialized S-Works carbon crank

FSA provides many of the team’s components including the top-end K-Force Light crank with a ceramic bottom bracket

SRAM Double Tap shifters operate short arm Tektro linear-pull brakes that don’t require adapters to work with road levers

Wicks uses a 44cm K-Force carbon bar

And the Phnom saddle is up to the rigors of cyclocross, says Jacques-Maynes. It has tougher titanium rails than the road-oriented Toupe

Ryan Trebon’s steed mirrors his teammate's, with a few slight differences. Trebon has a Dura-Ace front derailleur (Wicks uses an FSA model)

Pettyjohn

Trebon also prefers an SLK crank