It is often said that races are won - and lost - in the off season. One thing is certain: The rider who steps to the top of the podium on the last day of 2008 Tour of California has surely been training with rock-solid focus over these past few months, and those who haven’t will soon pay the price. The Tour of California is back with a vengeance.
A forced time-out can sometimes be a good thing. As long as you're allowed to return to what you did before, have the strength to come back and deal with the consequences, it can make you a better rider. Perhaps even a better man.
Dear Lennard,
I'm confused about the BB30 design. How do they increase the spindle diameter from 24mm to 30mm and put the same sized bearings inside the BB shell? Is a larger diameter BB shell the design change the article mentions?
James
Dear James,
Yes, the bottom bracket shell is larger. Here are specs: www.bb30standard.com.
Lennard
This time the sprinters got it right. A day after Philippe Gilbert (Francaise des Jeux) upset the peloton’s fastest men with a late-stage attack, the sprinters got it back on track Monday in the second stage at the Mallorca Challenge in Spain’s Balearic islands. A heavily bearded Graeme Brown (Rabobank) won easily ahead of Denis Flahaut (Saunier Duval) and Gert Steegmans (QuickStep) in an eight-up sprint that saw the bunch splinter in the late going in the 162.7km rolling stage across eastern Mallorca from Cala Millor to Son Servera.
The North American Handmade Bicycle Show was quite a draw this year for boutique frame builders and their fans — including Lance Armstrong, Brian Lopes and Robin Williams.
From now on, February 11, 2008, will be known as a significant milestone in the globalization of cycling. It saw an successful all-Asian breakaway that lasted some 150km, and the first Korean winner in the Tour de Langkawi. Cycling is no longer a sport that excites only those in Europe, or attracts fans interested only in European racing. One of a quintet of riders who escaped on the longest leg of the race, Won Jae Lee (Seoul Cycling) wasn't the favorite - that was Meitan Hompo's Koji Fukushima, who initiated the move on his own after 60km before being caught 20km down the road.
Yury Trofimov (Bouygues Telecom) sewed up overall victory in the 38th Etoile de Bessèges on Sunday. The Russian won the five-day French race after finishing safely in the bunch behind Borut Bozic (Cycle Collstrop) in Sunday’s 145km finale into Bessè. The 24-year-old Trofimov took the jersey in the third stage and then followed the sprinters into his biggest win of his career. Mike Friedman fought into the day’s main breakaway for Slipstream-Chipotle and was only reeled in with less than 5km to go to set up the mass gallop.
Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux) uncorked a late-race solo attack and surprised the sprinters to win Sunday's opening of the five-day Mallorca Challenge. Sprinters typically hold court in the 100km circuit race, run on a flat, out-and-back circuit along Palma’s stunning seaside promenade anchored by the towering Gothic cathedral. But Gilbert had something else in mind.
A half hour before the doors opened for day two of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Portland, the crowds piled into the Oregon Convention Center’s lobby to wait. Each had paid $18 for a day’s worth of access to more than 150 of North America’s finest small- and medium-sized frame builders, as well as a few big-time component manufacturers.
After the dramatic events of Saturday, the sprinters' teams decided there would be none of the same Sunday in Sitiawan. However, a disorganized chase in the final kilometers led to chaos — but thriving in chaos was Jeremy Hunt, who showed that at age 33, he's still got the legs to beat the best. Without a lead-out train in sight and sensing a lack of unity, the veteran Briton, who switched teams this year to Crédit Agricole, found himself in a 10-man move that skipped clear of the peloton 5km from the finish.
After just one day in the saddle, the Tour de Langkawi finds itself in an intriguing position. On a stifling Saturday afternoon in the mainland's far north, a select breakaway group charged to the finish in Kepala Batas way ahead of schedule and more than 20 minutes clear of the rest of the field. And in one fell swoop, it's likely to have changed the race for overall honors into a 19 horse race.
The 2008 North American Handmade Bike Show kicked off Friday in Portland, Oregon, with more than 152 exhibitors ranging from solitary tradesmen to the giants of the industry.
Santa Barbara, California’s Adam Duvendeck turned heads with his eighth-place finish in the men’s sprint at the Los Angeles round of the World Cup, held January 17-20 in Carson City, California. The result stood as the top finish by an American male sprinter throughout the entire meet, and set the 26-year-old Duvendeck up as a strong candidate to represent the United States at the Beijing Games.
Before moving on to less important matters, I’d like to acknowledge the passing on Monday of Sheldon Brown, one of the giants of bicycle maintenance, technology and general bicycle mechanical understanding. He will be sorely missed, particularly for those seeking simple, straightforward answers to a vast array of bicycle-related questions. His white bearded visage with eagle-adorned helmet has long been the online face of Harris Cyclery in West Newton, Massachusetts.
If you look closely at the disc wheels on Astana’s time trial bikes, you may notice striations running from the hub to rim; much like those on a Lightweight Disc wheel. Well, there’s a reason for that. Despite the Bontrager branding, Astana is riding on Lightweight Disc wheels. Even though the wheel sports a large Bontrager logo, the wheel is actually the 850-gram DT Swiss equipped disc is made by Carbon Sports who sells the wheels under the name Lightweight.
Heath Blackgrove (Toyota-United) and Janel Holcomb (Webcor Builders) won Saturday’s Boulevard Road Race in Crestwood, California. The eighth annual race was run by the University of California San Diego cycling team. The 90-mile men’s race was a sweep for the Toyota-United squad, which put Blackgrove on the top step of the podium followed by teammates Ben Day second and Jonnie Clarke third. Holcomb took the 67-mile women’s race ahead of Leah Guloien (CA Pools Racing) and Cara Gillis (Team Vegan).
Tom Boonen might be known as Mr. Classics, but the road to glory in April goes through the wind-blasted deserts of Qatar. Ever since trekking to this Arabic nation overflowing with petro-dollars for the first time in 2004, Boonen has used the weeklong sprint-fest as a trampoline for spring-classic success. “The last few years we’ve been good here, so it’s become somewhat of a habit,” said Boonen, who relegated Alberto Loddo (Tinkoff) to second with Luciano Pagliarini (Sauner Duval-Scott) third in Friday’s finale. “If we weren’t going good, then I’d be worried.”
Danilo Napolitano (Lampre) received a nice birthday present Thursday as he steered clear of a nasty crash that KO’d classics candidate Magnus Backstedt (Slipstream-Chipotle) and won stage 5 of the Tour of Qatar ahead of race leader Tom Boonen (Quick Step). While Backstedt wound up with a broken right clavicle, barrel-chested Napolitano bolted ahead of Boonen’s derailed train to snag his first win over Boonen, who retained the overall lead over teammate Steven De Jongh with just one day to go.
Maybe Tom Boonen is mortal after all. After winning the opening two stages of the 7th edition of the Tour of Qatar (three if you count Sunday’s opening’s time trial), Boonen was relegated to second in Wednesday’s 131.5km fourth stage when a brisk wind and a surprisingly strong Alberto Loddo (Tinkoff) took him down a notch.
Despite spills and splits in the bunch, Tom Boonen (QuickStep) just keeps stacking up victories at the Tour of Qatar. The Belgian bomber won for the second day in a row despite getting caught up behind a late-stage crash that pushed the race leader into a second group with about 40km to go in Wednesday’s jittery 147.5 third stage. When the group came back together, QuickStep drove it home to deliver Boonen to the line in winning fashion in what’s his 13th career Tour of Qatar stage win
The first day of the second annual Serotta Science of Cycling Symposium offered participants some welcome opportunities to take on a few sacred cows of the sport.
A storm blew across the Qatari desert Monday, but it wasn’t one of the sirocco winds that can scour this flat desert wasteland. Instead, it came in the form of a super-motivated Quick Step team that left the Tour of Qatar peloton flayed like a lonely flag tattered in the wind. Coming a day after its team time trial victory, QuickStep didn’t miss a step and hammered through stiff crosswinds in Monday’s 137.5km second stage from Al Zubarah to the Doha Golf Club to shatter the race into pieces.
Slipstream-Chipotle came within two seconds of a Hollywood ending in Sunday’s opening team time trial at the seventh Tour of Qatar in the first race of what will be an ambitious 2008 campaign. Anchored by big engines Magnus Backstedt and David Millar, Australia’s Chris Sutton crossed the line first for the argyle gang in 6 minutes, 37 seconds, and looked to have the win in the bag with only defending champion Quick Step still on the short but fast 6km out-and-back course along Doha’s palm-lined corniche.
Never did the man who came to the 2008 Tour Down Under with aspirations of winning a sprint or two believe it was possible to win the race overall. But on a picture-perfect Sunday in Adelaide, that's exactly what happened to Andre Greipel.
It was a hat trick, but not quite the hat trick some might have predicted at the beginning of the year. Dutchman Lars Boom scored his third world cyclocross title Sunday, adding an elite gold medal to the junior title he earned in 2003 and the U23 rainbow jersey he scored at last year’s world’s in Belgium. His Rabobank teammate, Sven Nys, however, had to settle for third, missing out on an impressive triple of his own — a world title to add to his World Cup crown and the Belgian national championship — losing a sprint for second to Czech rider Zdenek Stybar.
If women’s cyclocross racing has just one rule, it has to be “never, never, never count out Hanka.” Germany’s Hanka Kupfernagel racked up an impressive win at the world cyclocross championships on Sunday after a season of insisting that her training was focused entirely on qualifying for the road and time-trial events at this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.
Niels Albert had just one question heading into the world cyclocross championships in Treviso, Italy, this year: Whether to jump into the elite category or ride his final year as an under-23. He now says he made the right choice. “I’m glad I did what I did,” said the 21-year-old Belgian. “I had considered making the jump, but now I can add this to the junior title (he won in 2004) and set my eyes on getting the third one.”
It appears Andre Greipel is a man who can do no wrong. Before this week, the palmarès of the 25-year-old from Rostock amounted to five wins in much smaller stage races. But all of a sudden, he's stepped up to the ProTour level in a very, very big way. And after a third stage victory Saturday in Willunga, he finds himself the likely champion of the 2008 Tour Down Under with just one stage remaining.
Arnaud Jouffroy lined up as the odds-on favorite on Saturday at the world junior cyclocross championship in Treviso, Italy. He didn’t disappoint, but he had to fight to live up to expectations. Based largely on the strength of his sixth-place finish at world’s last year, the fact that the five men who finished ahead of him had graduated to the U23 category, and his stellar results all season, the 17-year-old Frenchman was the pick of many in a sport often dominated by Belgians.
The stage has been set for a showdown of epic proportions. In searing heat, a highly animated fourth stage of the Tour Down Under had the potential to impose time gaps, but the finale in Strathalbyn saw the fourth bunch gallop in as many days. High Road's Andre Greipel took a convincing win over race leader Mark Renshaw, who kept his ochre jersey, thus leaving the door to overall honors wide open for Saturday's stage in Willunga.
The finish may still be three days away, but there's every possibility the 10th edition of the Tour Down Under will come down to the wire. And get this: The winner may well be the sprinter who can climb best.
So far, it's a Tour Down Under like we've never seen before. In years past, after two stages there's been only a handful of riders left in contention. But this year is clearly different: After Andre Greipel's scintillating stage victory in Hahndorf, three riders have the same time overall - all of them sprinters.
Dear Lennard,
I'm interested in buying the Deda Zero 100 stem you recently reviewed. However I noticed that the clamp size is listed as 31.7mm. The bar I wanted to use is the FSA K-Wing Carbon which has a clamp size listed as 31.8mm. Will the 0.1mm difference in size make this combination incompatible?
Steve
Dear Steve,
It's been four years coming, but on a baking hot Tuesday in Angaston, Mark Renshaw finally delivered on what he'd long set out to do. Maybe it was the hours spent behind a motorbike over the Australian summer, paced by his father over the dead roads of Bathurst in country New South Wales. Maybe it was the added strength that comes with three full seasons as a professional, under the wise-old wings of team manager Roger Legeay.
American Jenny Reed owns a trophy case full of World Cup medals — 17 to be exact. But before Sunday night, only one of them was gold. The 29-year-old Reed doubled that Sunday night by winning the keirin, holding off a hard charging Willy Kanis of the Netherlands in the finals. “With the keirin I’ve always had a good level of confidence,” said the Momentum Cycling ace, who took her other World Cup gold in the keirin at the Manchester World Cup in 2004. “But when I know my sprint is going good, that bumps my confidence up even more.”
Hanka Kupfernagel and Lars Boom (Rabobank) won the mud-splashed eighth round of the UCI cyclocross World Cup on Sunday in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands. Coming just one week before the world championships in Treviso, Italy, the race was an important benchmark for checking who is on form — and two riders definitely not up to snuff were U.S. champions Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) and Tim Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com). Compton was a non-starter, reportedly suffering from jet lag after returning to Europe. And Johnson was a DNF, thanks to an untimely cold.
It was an unpredictable precursor to the Tour Down Under as Germany's André Greipel, a relative unknown to most, upstaged his more fancied local talent to claim first blood among the sprinters in the Down Under Classic. The fourth-year pro, not quite as muscled as his Australian counterparts Robbie McEwen and Mark Renshaw - the two riders he convincingly beat to the line Sunday evening in Glenelg - patiently waited for Graeme Brown's Rabobank train to tire before his High Road crew placed him in the hot seat two-and-a-half laps from home.
Scott Sunderland’s ride of a lifetime in the men’s 1000 meter time trial netted the young Australian his first-ever World Cup gold medal, and smashed his existing personal best time by nearly one second. The effort also sent the hulking 20-year-old back to the Australian team pits with a trash can in-tow. Sunderland, whose massive legs and enormous neck appear better suited for a football game than a bike race, spent the next 15 minutes buckled over, losing his lunch after his winning ride.
Seventeen-year-old Taylor Phinney can pen another page in his quickly growing book of cycling successes. Riding just the seventh individual pursuit of his career, the high school senior rode with the calculated panache of a veteran to grab his first-ever World Cup victory, defeating Dutchman Jenning Huizenga in a winning time of 4:26:09. “I just suffered through it. I think the person who can suffer the most wins this race,” Phinney said. “I didn’t expect to win when I was six or seven laps in.”
When American Mike Friedman takes to the ADT Event Center Velodrome in Los Angeles for the qualifying round of the men’s World Cup scratch race Saturday afternoon, he’ll do so with the confidence that comes with winning a gold medal at the previous round in Beijing, China, in December.
North America’s only stop on the 2007-08 UCI track World Cup kicks off Friday at the continent’s premier velodrome, the ADT Event Center Velodrome at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, just south of Los Angeles. As the third of only four World Cup rounds on the 2007-08 calendar, the LA World Cup stands as an important stepping-stone in Olympic qualification for the 2008 Beijing Games. Series winners will earn automatic qualifications for the Games. USA Cycling is to name its track Olympic long teams on Tuesday.
Questions about torque wrenches, torque and threadloc
Dutchman Lars Boom (Rabobank) won the seventh and penultimate round of the UCI World Cup of cyclocross on Sunday, scoring his second win of this year’s series in a race in Léivin, France. Last year’s winner of the world under-23 cyclo-cross and road championships has enjoyed a solid year in his first year in the elite ranks, winning a World Cup round in Pijnacker, in the Netherlands, in November. Boom said the win puts him in solid position for a podium spot at the world’s in Treviso, Italy, later in the month.
Former world road race champion Tom Boonen is reported to be launching an audacious bid for an Olympic medal as part of a new Belgian team-pursuit squad in Beijing this summer. According to La Derniere Heure newspaper, the one-day specialist, one of cycling's best-known faces, will team up with Gert Steegmans, Sebastien Rosseler and Wouter Weylandt in a bid to score what would be a major upset. Australia holds the Olympic team-pursuit title, having won gold in Athens ahead of Great Britain and Spain.
On the heels of FSA's introduction of its BB30 bottom bracket system, Van Dessel has announced that its new BB30 Rivet frames are in now production, with delivery slated for late March. Built around the BB30 bottom bracket shell, Van Dessel’s Rivet will also feature a 1.5-inch lower headset bearing, in keeping with the recent trend of manufacturers moving to larger diameters at both bottom bracket and head tube.
You may not have ever heard of Giovanni Pelizzoli, but it’s likely you have seen his work on Ciöcc or Guerciotti frames, either one of which would be sufficient introduction of this small, graying, bespectacled framebuilder and frame painter. Pelizzoli’s shop is located in Curno, the village on the outskirts of Bergamo in north-central Italy that has long served the finish for the final classic of the season, the Tour of Lombardy.
Editor’s note: Tech editor Matt Pacocha is on vacation in Belgium racing cyclocross for two weeks. Upon his return, he will be buried in producing the 2008 VeloNews Buyer’s Guide. I won’t spill the beans about what he is working on, but I will say it involves thousands of dollars of product, highly calibrated tools and a band saw. Until the Buyer’s Guide ships in early February, I will be filling in for him on Tech Reports. — Ben Delaney
Two of Lennard's favorite new products.
The 91st edition of the Giro d'Italia will begin in Palermo and end in Milan after covering 3423.8km over 23 days, it was announced on Saturday. The exact course for the 2008 Giro, which begins May 10, was presented at a ceremony in Milan's Arcimboldi Theatre. It will begin with a team time trial and end with a 23.5km race against the clock. There will also be two other time trials throughout the race, including a 13.8km mountain time trial finishing atop the famous Plan de Corones.
Sven Nys further solidified his lead in the UCI World Cup of cyclocross Wednesday, winning the latest round in Hofstade, Belgium. Nys, who also won in Koksijde and Igorre and racked his total World Cup tally to 39 victories.
It took Tim Johnson seven years to return to the top of American cyclocross, and it was fitting that the Massachusetts native grabbed his second-career elite ’cross title on a snowy day in Kansas City.
Bjorn Selander (Ridley Factory Team) came from behind to outkick Jamey Driscoll (FiordiFrutta) for the title in the under-23 men’s race Saturday at the windblown, snowswept USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships in Kansas City, Kansas.
Steve Tilford collected his fifth cyclocross national championship on Friday at wind-whipped, mud-spattered Wyandotte County Park in Kansas City, Kansas. The KCCX-Verge-Eriksen Cycles rider won the masters 45-49 race in 43:03, nearly two minutes ahead of Kevin Hines, with another veteran ’crosser — two-time masters national champion Gunnar Shogren (Fort Factory Team) — taking third at 4:03 back.
Like Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador, Trek Bicycles has chosen to stick with Johan Bruyneel and join the Astana team. The Wisconsin-based manufacturer will become the team’s official bicycle supplier on January 1, 2008. Trek Travel will also partner with Astana, offering behind-the-scenes access to the team. SRAM announced its sponsorship of Astana on November 25.
The Milan show had a lot more to offer than I could cover in the brief column I posted last week. Here are few more items from the trade show that celebrates both the technology and style of some of Italy's most respected bicycle companies. 1988 World Champion Maurizio Fondriest’s face, half of which is made of components, graces the booth promoting the bikes that bear his name.
Men's 200-meter sprintDutchman Theo Bos easily beat Frenchman Mickael Bourgain 2-0 to take gold in the men’s sprint at the second stop of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics that concluded Sunday. In both finals heats Bos overtook Bourgain on the final straightaway, winning each time by less than half a wheel length. After the second heat the reigning world sprint champion pulled off his helmet and sunglasses, then raised his arms in triumph, acknowledging the crowd at Beijing’s Laoshan Velodrome. In the bronze medal round German Stefan Nimke defeated France’s Kevin Sireau
American Michael Friedman won the men’s scratch race on Saturday at the UCI Track World Cup Classics in Beijing, China. Friedman beat Walter Fernando Perez of Argentina and Tim Mertens of Belgium to score the second U.S. medal of the meet. On Friday, Sarah Hammer rode to the bronze in the women’s individual pursuit. In other racing, Great Britain collected two medals, winning the team pursuit and the keirin with Chris Hoy. France scored thrice, with Francois Pervis winning the kilometer time trial, Arnaud Tournant placing second in the keirin and Sandie Clair and Clara Sanchez claiming
American Sarah Hammer rode to a bronze medal in the individual pursuit as the second round of the UCI Track World Cup Classics series opened Friday in Beijing. Australian Katie Mactier took the gold with Britain’s Rebecca Romero second. In men’s racing, Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain took the individual pursuit ahead of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Dyudya with Russian Alexander Serov winning the bronze-medal round against American Taylor Phinney. Wiggins, the reigning Olympic and world champion, made a late-race comeback to take the gold. Dyudya led at the 2000- and 3000-meter marks, but Wiggins
Due to having my computer stolen and losing a ton of information, photos, time and momentum, I had not yet posted anything about last month's Milan bike show. Scheduled in early November, its relevance as an important international bike show has declined over the years, but given the rich history and passion of the Italian bicycle industry, it nonetheless had much to offer in the way of eye candy.
Campy’s Red Shifters Red is, and always has been, the color preferred by Italian auto racing teams, says the Italian bicycle components manufacturer Campagnolo. And using this symbolism Campy will turn the Record shifters it supplies to its professional teams red. The letters on the shift bodies of both shifters will be changed from white to red.
Mickael Bourgain led a French domination of the men's sprint on the final night of the opening leg of track cycling's World Cup in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday. Bourgain fought off team-mate Kevin Sireau, winning both his races in the final. England's world keirin and kilometer time trial champion Chris Hoy prevented a French clean sweep of the medals, beating world team sprint champion Gregory Bauge of France for the bronze medal. "I felt very very good and I am happy with the tournament," Bourgain said. "My hardest match-up was against Greg Bauge, but that is how it goes.
Saturday Afternoon - It was drizzling in Oz this morning. That’s okay, because the track is covered making us feel less guilty about being inside. The scratch race has no consequences for the Olympics but it’s a popular event and full of surprises. Travis Meyer squeaked through in his heat. We remember him from his days at Junior Worlds when he won three world track titles in a 10 hour time span. His brother Cam took the bronze last night in the points. A poignant moment for me yesterday came when a struggling Magnus Bäckstedt (bronchial infection) was working with Travis to regain the
Chris Hoy won the men's keirin event as British cyclists claimed two goldmedals on the second night of the UCI World Cup track meet in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday. Hoy, the reigning keirin and kilometer time trial world champion,downed compatriot Ross Edgar and world sprint champion Theo Boss of theNetherlands to take gold. Great Britain followed up with gold in the men's team pursuit, beatingNew Zealand. The British team of Edward Clancy, Stephen Cummings, Chris Newton andindividual pursuit world champion Bradley Wiggins won in a time of 4:01.196seconds over 4000 meters. Team
Chris Hoy won the men's keirin as British cyclists claimed two gold medals on the second night of the UCI World Cup track meet Saturday in Sydney, Australia. Hoy, the reigning keirin and kilometer time trial world champion, downed compatriot Ross Edgar and world sprint champion Theo Boss of the Netherlands to take gold. Great Britain followed up with gold in the men's team pursuit, beating New Zealand. The British team of Edward Clancy, Stephen Cummings, Chris Newton and individual pursuit world champion Bradley Wiggins won in a time of four minutes 01.196 seconds over the
Editor’s Note: - Connie Carpenter is at the UCI World Cup in Sydney, Australia, this week, accompanying her son, 2007 world junior time trial champion Taylor Phinney, as he enters his first elite level track competition. The 1984 Olympic gold medalist has agreed to send us reports throughout the event. Friday Morning - All the buzz is in the infield as the Track World Cup got under way on Friday morning. The track is outside Sydney, further than the Olympic Park complex – in a quiet zone known as Bass Hill. It’s familiar, but oh so strange, to be here in my first trip to Oz. Everyone is
Dual Olympic champion Ryan Bayley and Athens silver medalist Katie Mactier delivered Australia a golden opening night at the cycling World Cup season opener in Sydney, Australia, here Friday. Bayley continued his build-up to next year's Beijing Games by spearheading Australia's Team Toshiba to victory in the men's team sprint final, while Mactier claimed gold in the women's individual pursuit. Australia's time trial world record holder Anna Meares took silver in the women's sprint as she seeks to make the event her own for the Olympics after her favorite event, the
Twenty Americans will compete in the opening round of the 2007-08 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics, which runs from Friday through Sunday in Sydney, Australia. The U.S. national team and seven American pro track teams are among the 48 nations and 23 trade teams set to compete in the season’s first major international event, which factors into Olympic qualification. The U.S. national team includes Adam Duvendeck (Momentum), Brad Huff (Slipstream-Chipotle), Bobby Lea (Toyota-United), Giddeon Massie (T-Town Express), Dotsie Bausch (Colavita-Sutter Home-Cooking Light), Liz Reap (T-Town
Much of what I do in life is collect information about bicycle technology, and earlier this month I went to the Milan bike show to do just that. But when my week-old MacBook Pro computer was stolen from me on November 7, I learned about some new technology that compromised my collections of bicycle information. I want to tell you what I learned with the intentionof saving somebody else the stress and hassle I went through.
The newest player in the road component market is apparently not being hesitant in its efforts to make a name for itself in racing circles. SRAM announced that it has signed a second ProTour-level cycling sponsorship after having reached an agreement to supply the reorganized Astana team with components. In a release issued Monday, the Chicago-based component company pointed to the light weight of its RED group as the reason Astana director Johan Bruyneel showed interest in the deal.
Katie Compton is on a crusade in the motherland of ’cross. She won round three of the Cyclocross World Cup in Pijnacker, The Netherlands on November 3. Daphny Van Den Brand, winner of the previous round in Kalmthout, Belgium, was second by almost a minute. This past weekend, Compton again put her stamp on an international field at the third round of the Superprestige Series in Gavere, Belgium. At the world cup, Compton won, but in Gavere, she dominated, taking first by a hefty 2 minutes and 46 seconds.
Rain, 30-degree temperatures, and a course greased so slick with mud that racing turned cartoonish at times caused words like "real" and "'cross race" to commingle during Sunday’s fourth round of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross near Trenton, New Jersey. Sloping hairpin turns that posed little threat during Saturday's dry conditions turned treacherous, and running them became faster than risking wipeouts. Defying the weather and the gossip that he can't race in mud, Ryan Trebon (Kona–YourKey.com) took his second victory in as many days.
Georgia Gould (Luna) and Ryan Trebon (Kona – Yourkey.com) claimed their first U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross victories of the season Saturday at Mercer County Park. Fit and fast, both Gould and Trebon rode races marked by power, technique and perhaps a little luck on a course that required rhythm, balance and acceleration. An interesting mix of twists and turns forced racers to stitch together angles and "highways" for an interesting race; a gigantic sandpit the size of three volleyball courts and eight 12-inch vertical steps made sure to drain them of any reserved energy.
With the news of Chris Horner joining fellow American Levi Leipheimer at Astana just hours old, another staple of American cycling also has also been linked to Kazakh team — Trek Bicycles. “We’ve definitely looked at it,” said Scott Daubert, Trek’s former Discovery Team Liaison and current road bike brand manager. “Johan Bruyneel was here right after the Tour of Missouri two months ago.” With the Discovery Channel sponsorship concluding in 2007, Trek officials knew they needed something else for next season. Daubert said Trek had three options: quickly find a ProTour team; take a year off;
David Zabriskie is the only guy in the world who has earned a very special yellow sticker shaped like the map of France for his top tube. The sticker proclaims “Fastest Time Trial Ever: 54.676kph, David Zabriskie.” Ever since he won the 19km prologue at Noirmoutier in 2005 at that record speed, beating a stellar Lance Armstrong and donning the yellow jersey, cycling fans have marveled at his great bike position. But despite having a very low, narrow, incredibly aerodynamic position, his first time ever in a wind tunnel was Monday, November 12. That will probably come as a surprise to many,
Boulder, Colorado didn’t get a USGP this year, but Chris Grealish and his team of Boulder-Denver Couriers put on a weekend of UCI ’cross racing that rivaled the best of the series. Crowd estimates were put over 2000 and CrankBrothers even made the trip out to set up a tent in the venue and do some racing. Since it’s more than midway through the domestic season there are not too many unseen tech’ secrets, but we spotted a few new items, mostly in the form of tires.Click Image for Full Gallery
There are some things I really like about this job and my regular trips to Italy have to be on the top of that list. I visited the offices of Guerciotti in Milan this week. Company founder Paolo Guerciotti and his son Alessandro welcomed me to the downtown facility that also serves as a showroom and warehouse. In its heyday in the 1980s, Guerciotti bicycles had a huge presence in the U.S., due in no small part to Ten Speed Drive Imports in Florida. At the time, Guerciotti was building 8000 bikes a year. Now, annual production is down to 1500, but the company continues to thrive thanks to
Repeating their dominant performances from 24 hours earlier at Saturday’s Redline Cup, reigning U.S. national cyclocross champions Ryan Trebon and Katie Compton crushed the competition on Sunday at the UCI C1 Boulder Cup cyclocross in Boulder, Colorado.
Reigning U.S. cyclocross champions Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) and Ryan Trebon (Kona-Yourkey.com) scored crushing wins at Boulder, Colorado’s Redline Cup on Saturday. A dusty Boulder Reservoir played host to the UCI Category 2 race, and what its long 1.5-mile course lacked in mud and climbing, it made up for with sections of loose sand. Riders powered through rim-deep sediment in a volleyball court and a long beach section — the latter forced less-skilled racers to dismount and run.
If you live in the three-country economic union known as Benelux – and ride a bike – odds are good that it’s a Ridley. The Belgium-based bike maker owns a 45-percent share of the road and ’cross market in its homeland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, according to the company’s international sales manager David Alvarez.
Consumers have more choice than ever when buying road components. Campagnolo, Shimano, SRAM all have viable options for those looking to equip a performance road bike. And those options may broaden even further in the near future with Eric Sampson’s plans to deliver a road group by January 2008. Will Sampson’s soon to be introduced Stratics road group be able to compete with the big three? It’s hard to tell by comparing his preproduction prototypes, but Sampson has the right attitude to compete. He says that he’s not trying to shave every possible gram. He wants to build it light but, first