Nick Nuyens proved he could ride as a classics contender with his second-place finish at Sunday’s Tour of Flanders. Nuyens, Cofidis’ newest strongman, bridged to a surging Juan Antonio Flecha in the final kilometers of Belgium’s most famous single-day race in an attempt to bring back Quick Step’s streaking Stijn Devolder. While Devolder took the win, Nuyens took the sprint for second, as well as his best-ever classics result.
In this four-part video tutorial, VeloNews Tech Editor Matt Pacocha walks us through the procedures involved in properly gluing tubular tires.
Team High Road's Kim Kirchen won Thursday's fourth stage of the Pais Vasco in a sprint finish, while Astana's Alberto Contador retained the overall lead. It was Kirchen's second stage victory in this year's event, and left him in fifth place in the overall standings. Contador came in 20th with the same time as the stage winner to retain his overall lead, three seconds ahead of compatriot Ezequiel Mosquera. Kirchen covered the 171 kilometers between Viana and Vitoria-Gasteiz in four hours, 17 minutes and 33 seconds to edge his teammate Morris Possoni of Italy at the line.
You’re saying there’s a chance? Well, when there was, Mario was ready to turn some heads. Carbon Sports, the manufacturer of Lightweight wheels, was commissioned to build Rock Racing's Mario Cipollini something special for Milan-San Remo, but when Cipo and Rock Racing didn’t get an invite, then parted ways, this special wheelset became obsolete — to Cipollini anyway.
Our annual Buyer's Guide features several tours of bicycle and bicycle accessory factories and labs. Here are some outtake photos from VeloNews' photo editor Brad Kaminski's visit to the Bell Sports headquarters in Santa Cruz, California. To read Fred Dreier's complete article on Bell Sports, along with other factory tours and in-depth product reviews, you'll have to grab a copy of our Buyer's Guide.
Spain's David Herrero of the Karpin team won the 195km third stage of the Tour of the Basque Country on Wednesday between Erandio and Viana while Astana's Alberto Contador retained the overall lead. Herrero had finished third in the first two stages of the race, and now lies third overall, eight seconds behind Contador. The 28-year-old Herrero beat out compatriot Luis Leon Sanchez and Italy's Olympic champion Paolo Bettini in a sprint finish for a time of 4:54:24.
Oscar Freire’s knack for winning chaotic sprints made him a favorite to win the 70th edition of Ghent-Wevelgem as a huge 77-rider pack thundered toward the finish line in this small Belgian town. And while the cagey 32-year-old did emerge victorious to become the event’s first Spanish champion, Freire and his Rabobank teammates earned the win the old-fashioned way.
Kim Kirchen (High Road) drove a fierce sprint up a rising finish to upset two-time world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) in Tuesday’s attack-riddled second stage at the Vuelta al País Vasco. Riders went down in the middle of the pack in the final surge to the line as teammate Michael Barry gave Kirchen a perfect lead-out to spring the Luxembourg all-rounder to a morale-boosting victory ahead of the Ardennes classics later this month.
Are longer cranks 'harder to push'?
Alberto Contador’s “Revenge Tour 2008” continued Monday as the Astana rider uncorked a blistering acceleration on the last of seven climbs to bolt away from a soggy and cold peloton in the 137km opener at the Vuelta al País Vasco. Contador won the stage three seconds ahead of Ezequiel Mosquera (Karpin-Galicia) and takes an unexpected eight-second lead on his main adversaries in an exciting opening day of the six-day Basque Country tour.
When it’s a hard day in the Tour of Flanders, the home riders nearly always come out on top. And Sunday’s 92nd edition of the gnarly Belgian classic was one of the hardest, with hail showers, even some snow, and long bouts of heavy rain blasting the riders through the middle part of the 264km race, which started and ended in spring sunshine. So it was fitting that the reigning champion of Belgium, Stijn Devolder of Quick Step-Innergetic, emerged with a gutsy solo triumph.
Alex Wrubleski (Webcor Builders) and Santiago Botero (Rock Racing) wrapped up the overall titles at California's Redlands Classic on Sunday. Wrubleski not only won the Beaver Medical Group Sunset Road Race in a bunch sprint, just ahead of Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) and Kim Anderson (Team High Road), but took just enough bonus time in Sunday’s final stage of the Redlands Cycling Classic to take the overall from Mara Abbott (Team High Road) by a mere second.
German ace Judith Arndt out-kicked American Kristin Armstrong to win the women’s Tour of Flanders, the third round of the 2008 UCI women’s World Cup. It was the fourth career World Cup victory for Arndt, the silver medalist from the 2004 Olympics, and the first for her team under its new High Road label. “It was a perfect victory; a perfect day for us,” said Arndt. “It was a team victory.”
Emilia Fahlin (Team High Road) and Jeff Louder (BMC) won Saturday’s 1st Centennial Bank-KWB Wealth Managers Criterium, the second stage of the 2008 Redlands Classic in California. Fahlin, a 19-year-old Swede, took the bunch sprint ahead of a hard-driving women’s peloton in Saturday’s 1st Centennial Bank-KWB Wealth Managers Criterium. Hot on her wheel was Canadian Alex Wrubleski (Webcor Builders) and Advil-Chapstick’s Brenda Lyons.
The Absa Cape Epic stage race wrapped up Saturday with the Bulls team — comprising the German riders Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm — capturing the final stage while the overall title goes to the Cannondale Vredestein duo of Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang and Belgium's Roel Paulissen. With a nine-minute time advantage built up of over the last couple of stages, the Cannondale Vredestein team solidified their position by finishing in the lead bunch. The Bulls team secured second place overall.
Liam Killeen (Specialized) and Sarah Kaufmann (Roaring Mouse) won the NOVA Marathon as the second leg of the National Mountain Bike Series kicked off on Friday at McDowell Mountain Regional Park outside Fountain Hills, Arizona. Killeen won his 70-mile race in 4:00:43, five minutes up on Evan Plews (Scott USA). Tinker Juarez (MonaVie-Cannondale) finished third in 4:13:09.91. Kaufman won the women’s race in 5:14:53, nearly an hour ahead of runner-up Kristen Hayden Phillips (Red Rock), who finished in 6:09:56. Caroline Goulard (Sho-Air) was third in 6:19:09.
Colombian Santiago Botero (Rock Racing) took the win in Friday’s Beaumont Circuit Race, the first stage of the Redlands Cycling Classic — and his first win in America. After working in a break with five other riders beginning in the second of five 17-mile laps, he attacked in the final lap and powered across the finish line a resounding 52 seconds ahead of Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home) and Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) in second and third.
In the penultimate stage of this year's Absa Cape Epic, some new faces competed for the men's stage win, while the overall standings were largely unchanged for the men and women's events. In a surprise stage finish, the Full-Dynamix Rsm team — Sweden's Fredrik Kessiakoff and Italy's Massimo Debertolis — took top honors for the first time during this year’s event. Hot on their heels was the USN/adidas team, Brandon Stewart and Max Knox, who arrived seven seconds later.
Under a dreary Southern California sky that made for nearly ideal time trial conditions, Mara Abbott (Team High Road) surprised few by winning the Redlands Cycling Classic prologue — The Sun Time Trial — by a resounding 25 seconds over second placed national team member Katharine Carroll (Aaron’s). Abbott’s teammate, Kim Anderson, rounded out the podium less than 1 second behind Carroll.
For the first time since winning the prologue, the MTN Energade team of Kevin Evans and David George won Thursday's 130km Absa Cape Epic stage in a sprint with two other teams. The previous day's stage winners, the Bulls team of Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm, were second, followed one second later by the Cannondale Vredestein team, Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fuglsang, who aggressively defended their overall lead. On stage 5 Paulissen had to ride the final 18km on a bare rim and the team finished in fifth position, losing about half of its overall lead.
The winners of the 2007 Absa Cape Epic, the Bulls squad of Stefan Sahm and Karl Platt took their first victory of the 2008 race, winning the fifth stage from Swellendam to Bredasdorp. The two out sprinted the Alb-Gold team of Hannes Genze and Joschen Kaess for the win. The victory took a sizable chunk out of the overall lead of the Cannondale-Vredestein squad of Jakob Fuglsang and Roel Paullissen, who crossed the line in 5th place, nearly eight minutes down.
Mark Cavendish (High Road) charged to victory in Wednesday’s second stage of the Three Days of De Panne in Belgium, while Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld) retained the overall lead. Cavendish, who notched 11 wins in his rookie season last year, unloaded an electrifying sprint to relegate Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) to second with Sebastien Chavanel (FDJeux) coming across the line for third.
The Dolphin-Trek squad of Alban Lakata and Bart Brentjens took the fourth stage of the Absa Cape Epic, winning the 121km journey from Riversdale to Swellendam in 4:28:38. The duo finished 23 seconds ahead of MTN Energade and race leaders Cannondale-Vredestein.
As a companion to our annual Buyer's Guide we are featuring some behind-the-scenes photos, taken by VeloNews photo editor Brad Kaminski during his visit to the Specialized headquarters in Morgan Hill, California. To read Fred Dreier's complete article on the Specialized factory, along with an array of other factory tours, you'll have to grab a copy of our Buyer's Guide.
The lead has again changed the men’s division at South Africa’s 2008 Absa Cape Epic as the Cannondale-Vredestein squad of Jakob Fuglsang and Roel Paulissen won the stage 3 journey from Calitzdorp to Riversdale, and assumed the yellow leader’s jersey after the Songo.info team of Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser abandoned.
David Salomon (P&S-Specialized) and Leda Cox (America's Dairyland) were crowned the champions of the 22nd Tucson Bicycle Classic after the third and final stage on Sunday. Brian Forbes (RideClean) and Clare Vlahopoulos (America's Dairyland) won their respective races during the finale, the Artisan Prosthetics Circuit race, run on a rolling, 5.6-mile loop with 300 feet of climbing per lap.
Barry Wicks’ transition from top-tier cyclocrosser to mountain bike strongman appears to be going well. The 26-year-old Kona rider, already a household name on the domestic ‘cross scene, took his first-ever NMBS victory at Sunday’s short-track in Fontana, California. Wicks out-sprinted breakaway companion Adam Craig (Giant) to take the STXC win and then followed up the victory with another win, again out sprinting Craig to take the Super D title.
If Jennie Reed couldn't quite believe her world title, then neither could the home crowd at the Manchester velodrome. Reed's jubilant gold medal in the women's keirin, the climactic event in five days of racing, was greeted with stunned silence by the British fans who had become drunk on the success that Team GB had claimed in the 2008 World Track Championships. "This is the first world championship of my career and I have got a gold medal so I am just elated," Reed said, as she came off the track.
God has indeed saved the queen, judging by the number of times we heard the British national anthem during the world track championships in Manchester. I don’t know the lyrics, so I kept singing our domestic knockoff, “My country ’tis of thee. . . .” I was dying to hear the American national anthem.
Day three of the 2008 Absa Cape Epic produced a third stage winner in the men’s category, as Jakob Fuglsang and Roel Paulissen (Cannondale-Vredestein) took top honors. The two, runners-up in 2007, gapped race leaders Christoph Sauser and Burry Stander (Songo.info) on the grueling 137km journey from George to Calitzdorp. Stander and Sauser, however, retained their overall lead.
American Jennie Reed ended Britain's gold rush when she overpowered Victoria Pendleton to win the keirin in the final event of the world track cycling championships on Sunday. Defending champion Pendleton, a gold winner in the team sprint and sprint, claimed the silver medal, with Germany's Christin Muche taking the bronze after a photo-finish decision.
Jens Voigt (Team CSC) won the Critérium International on Sunday in Charleville-Mezieres. The 36-year-old Voigt took the leader’s yellow jersey after finishing second in the morning’s stage 2, a 98.5km leg between Les Vieilles Forges and Monthermé won by Australian Simon Gerrans (Crédit Agricole) with Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) third. The third and final stage, a 8.3km time trial, was won by Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team High Road), seven seconds ahead of teammate Tony Martin and a further six in front of Gustav Larsson (Team CSC).
Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita-Sutter Home) sprinted to victory Saturday in stage 2 of the San Dimas Stage Race. Borrajo overpowered Henk Vogels (Toyota-United) and Jonathan Cantwell (Jittery Joes) to take the 84-mile San Dimas Hospital Road Race. Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) retained his leader’s jersey, but at a cost — a 5 percent time cut that trimmed 17 riders from the field saw the team lose Peter Dawson, Rahsaan Bahati and Adam Switters, leaving a five-man squad to defend Sevilla’s lead in Sunday’s finale, the Incycle/Cannondale San Dimas Classic criterium.
Carlos Hernandez (P&S-Specialized) and Leda Cox (America's Dairyland) won stage 2 of the 22nd Tucson Bicycle Classic on Saturday, a windswept affair run on a rolling, 20-mile circuit. Hernandez and teammate David Salomon finished one-two in the Sahuarita Loop Road race (80 miles for men, 60 for women). The duo crossed in 3:12:25, 13 seconds ahead of a chase group containing race leader Joshua Liberles (Colavita New Mexico-JNF), led in by Alex Bhogal (Mazurcoaching.com).
A beaming Jennie Reed, cheered on by her American teammate, Taylor Phinney, stepped down from the medal podium in Manchester after claiming the bronze medal in the women's sprints, to pronounce herself "very pleased" with her third place, behind Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania and - look away now if you're suffering from Brit-fest fatigue - gold medal winner, Victoria Pendleton of Team GB.
Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) and Georgia Gould (Luna) picked up where they left off on the National Mountain Bike Series, winning the 2008 NMBS cross-country opener in Fontana, California, on Saturday.
Reigning world marathon cross-country champion Christoph Sauser and his young teammate Burry Stander grabbed the overall lead of South Africa’s Absa Cape Epic in winning the race’ stage 1 from Knysna to George. The Rocky Mountain duo of Pia Sundstedt and Alison Sydor took the victory in the women’s race, also moving into the overall lead with seven stages remaining.
Those no-hope breakaways that inevitably get reeled in within sight of the finish line seem to be working more these days. Some say it’s a sign that the peloton is cleaning up and that attacking riders have more chances of winning. Others insist it’s business as usual, at least tactically, and that sometimes breakaways work, but usually not.
Joshua Liberles (Colavita-New Mexico-JNF) and Melissa McWhirter (Colavita-Arizona) took the honors on Friday as the 22nd Tucson Bicycle Classic kicked off with the Old Tucson/McCain Loop Road Time Trial. Liberles finished the 3-mile course, which featured a pair of stiff climbs, in seven minutes and 35 seconds. Drew Miller (Landis-Trek) took second at three seconds back with Phillip Gaimon (Fiordifrutta) third at eight seconds. McWhirter won the women’s race in eight minutes, 16 seconds, with Sarah Swanson (Summit Velo) second at 0:22 and Melanie Meyers (Specialized) third at 0:27.
The Beijing Olympic mountain bike course is punctuated by short, steep, smooth climbs that favor a powerful rider like Giant’s Adam Craig. The descents on the Chinese course, too, are smooth. It’s the sort of terrain that doesn’t offer advantage to Craig’s Anthem Advanced full suspension bike; rather it calls for a light, stiff frame able to transfer maximum power on smooth trails. Giant just delivered on Craig’s special request for an Olympic hardtail.
Despite suffering a mechanical near the finish, Rock Racing's Oscar Sevilla scored a win in the opening stage of the San Dimas stage race, a 3.8-mile uphill time trial in San Gabriel Canyon. While losing more than 30 seconds as he fixed his bike, Sevilla managed a seven-second win over second-placed Peter Stetina (VMG-Felt), who now leads the under-25 category. In the pro women's division, team High Road's Mara Abbott and Kimberly Anderson took top honors, finish first and second, with times of 15:27 and 16:13 respectively.
Far from the hullabaloo and pre-Olympic hype surrounding Great Britain’s track team, Jennie Reed of the United States was quietly making her resolute way into the medal positions in the women's sprint finals. Reed, 29, has maintained the good form that took her to runner's up spot in the sprints in the Los Angeles World Cup earlier this year, where she also won the keirin.
Britain's Chris Hoy made a mark in track cycling’s history books by winning his first try at a world sprint title in Manchester, England, on Friday Hoy, the reigning world keirin champion and a former kilometer and team sprint champion, claimed the gold medal ahead of Frenchman Kevin Sireau in a tense two-round final. Sireau, racing in white as the reigning World Cup sprint champion, finished second to claim the silver with his French compatriot Mickael Bourgain claiming the bronze after a two-leg victory over Italian Roberto Chiappa.
Australia's reigning Olympic 500 meter time trial champion Anna Meares is celebrating after hearing she has qualified for the sprint event in Beijing. Australia's sole women's sprint spot at the Games was under threat because of Meares' place in the world rankings, but results from the world championships in Manchester, England, on Friday mean she can no longer be overtaken. Meares is absent from the world championships as she recovers from injuries sustained in a serious crash at the Los Angeles round of the World Cup in January.
Trek-Volkswagen’s Susan Haywood and Jenny Smith took the women’s category while Kevin Evans and David George (MTN-Energade) won the men’s in the opening prologue of South Africa’s 2008 Absa Cape Epic on Friday. The two women completed the 17km course, which spun a hilly circuit around the port city of Knysna, in 42:51.2. The pair, both regulars on North America’s National Mountain Bike Series, crossed the line with a 40-second advantage on the Rocky Mountain team of Alison Sydor and Pia Sundstedt.
Reigning champions Britain defended their team pursuit title in a new official world record time of 3:56.322 at the world track cycling championships in Manchester England on Thursday. Denmark finished second to claim the silver medal while Australia overcame some late race drama in their duel with New Zealand to claim the bronze. Australia, the Olympic champions, had set the previous world record in the 16-lap 4km event in a time of 3:56.610 in Athens in 2004 and they were quick to congratulate their new world pacesetters.
Reigning world sprint champion Theo Bos says he will not shy away from his rivals when the blue-ribbon event of the world track championships gets under way Friday in Manchester, England. And the flying Dutchman believes his main challenger, big Frenchman Kevin Sireau, lacks the necessary experience to battle his way through to the gold medal. With only five months to go to the Beijing Olympics, and despite keeping a low profile in the World Cup this season, Bos is still considered the man to beat in the men's prestigious speed events.
The world championships began with an unscheduled event, early morning blood draw from the UCI. The Holiday Inn was targeted at an ungodly hour for our teenage son (7am!) and no doubt, no one else was happy either. In any case, the Brits, Aussies, Dutchies and USA team were all tested. Welcome to the big leagues. Luckily, Taylor exercised his prerogative as a teenager and went directly went back to sleep after a little breakfast, of course (another prerogative of the teenager?
Until Wednesday morning, David Brailsford's ethical stance on Team GB's attitude to doping had been unquestioned. The British team's Performance Director has long championed clean and fair competition and maintained that any deviation from that philosophy would not be tolerated.
Taylor Phinney continued his quest for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team on Wednesday, lowering his personal best time in the men's individual pursuit by more than two seconds and recording a new world-record time for a junior. His mark of 4:22.358 seconds placed him eighth in his first-ever UCI Track World Championships while his time of 3:17.523 at the 3-kilometer mark — the distance juniors typically race — surpassed the previous world record of 3:17.775 set by Michael Ford (AUS) in 2004. Phinney's previous personal best over four kilometers was 4:24.364.
Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins lifted British spirits by successfully defending his individual pursuit crown here at the world track cycling championships on Wednesday. Wiggins overpowered surprise Dutch finalist Jenning Huizenga in a time of 4:18.519 to claim his second consecutive gold after his victory in Mallorca last year. Huizenga, who had beaten Wiggins in qualifying, finished in 4:23.474 to claim the silver medal. Russian Alexei Markov claimed the bronze after beating New Zealand's Hayden Roulston in their medal match-up.
Rapha’s pricy, chic line of retro-modern cycling clothing is built from a mix of technical and natural fibers including Merino wool, wool hybrids and synthetic fabrics by Swiss Schoeller. They’re then tested by an outfit of London bicycle messengers, the Rapha Continental test squad, and — not to mention — cycling legend Andy Hampsten.[nid:73678]
The world track championships begin in Manchester, England, on Wednesday with the host nation’s Great Britain team expecting to dominate the five-day event. As if home advantage wasn’t enough, Team GB can lean on the experience and talent of riders such as Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Victoria Pendleton, as well as the fast-track progression of a clutch of young hopefuls.
The heat is on in chilly Manchester. The British press says it was the coldest Easter in 40 years but inside the velodrome it is definitely starting to warm up. You can feel the heat pouring from the vents. A hot track is a fast track: the air is less dense. It’s physics — bodies hurl through space faster with less resistance. This storied Manchester track is the British national cycling center. It’s the home of SEVEN current world champs. And it is proven that, in the right conditions on this track, world records will fall.
Karsten Kroon (CSC) wanted to win a stage at Paris-Nice earlier this month to demonstrate he’s on track for the upcoming spring classics. He could only manage second in a breakaway stage into Sisteron, but the 32-year-old Dutch rider made up for the close call with a tidy sprint finish Tuesday in the second stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León to prove his point.
Our annual Buyer's Guide features some in-depth factory tours. You'll have to pick up a copy for the full story, but here are some photo outtakes from our tour of the Calfee factory in La Selva Beach, California, taken by VeloNews photo editor Brad Kaminski. Make sure to check out the Buyer's Guide to read Fred Dreier's full article on Calfee, as well as factory tours of Specialized, Masi, Primus Mootry and other builders, big and small, around the globe.
Going back to the drawing board won’t be an option for Team Australia at the end of the world track cycling championships this week. With the Beijing Olympics just around the corner, the Australians — and fellow track giants Britain and France - know it's now time to set down markers or forget dreaming about gold medal success in China this August. Australia set a blistering pace on the Athens Olympic velodrome in 2004, but for the past two years the Aussies have been playing catch-up to the new track pacesetters Britain.
Are ceramics that delicate?
Dear Lennard,
In your article on ceramic bearings in the recent VeloNews Buyers Guide I got the impression that these things were not only smooth but durable as well. As a result, I ordered a ceramic SRAM bottom bracket with the Red crankset on my new bike.
To say the least, I was surprised when I read the SRAM maintenance instructions that came with it and saw the recommendation that one should disassemble and lube the bearings after every 100 hours of use and immediately after riding in the rain or wet.
Briton Emma Pooley won the Trophee Alfredo Binda, the second round of the UCI's World Cup, soloing to victory by more than a minute in the 120-kilometer race from Cittiglio to Varese in Italy. Pooley finished 1:08 of the field sprint, which was won by the Netherland's Suzanne De Goede, who finished ahead of former world champion Diana Ziliute of Lithuania. Pooley is now tied for first in the World Cup standings with Katheryn Curi Mattis, winner of round one in Geelong, Australia, last month.
Alberto Contador and his Astana teammates aren’t going to the Tour de France this summer, so they look intent on winning everything else instead. Just a day after Tomas Vaitkus sprinted to victory in Holland, last year’s Tour champ surged to an impressive time trial victory to open the Vuelta a Castilla y León on Monday in northern Spain. Contador stopped the clock on the technical 9.7km course in 11 minutes, 39 seconds, just 3.6 seconds faster than Tour of California champ and Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer.
It wasn’t a sprint or an attack over the Poggio that won the 99th Milan-San Remo. It was Fabian Cancellara's instinct for big drama in cycling’s biggest days.
Revising its original plan to reserve its Record Red Ergopower shifters for professionals, Campagnolo announced Thursday that it will offer a limited run of the special heavy-action shifters to the public. The pro Ergo levers incorporate stronger springs for a more tactile action. Campagnolo says that the change was made to appease elite riders who use the crisper action to “feel the shifts at the hardest moments of the race.”
Shimano’s electric Dura-Ace is becoming more and more common in the ProTour peloton. Gerolsteiner rider Stefan Schumacher scored a podium placing on it at last year’s world championships. For three years now an electric prototype group has been raced in the spring classics and semi-classics. Last year it was also in cycling’s biggest show, the Tour de France.
Quick Step is so deep in talent on its classics team it can put up a half-dozen candidates for victory. With the team’s big stars Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini resting their guns for Saturday’s Milan-San Remo, other riders are getting a chance to step into the spotlight. Last week, it was Gert Steegmans winning two stages at Paris-Nice.
Dear Lennard, Question for you re: forks for long head tubes. I'm 6'4" and have a Seven Axiom with a roughly 30cm head tube and a Seven rebadged Reynolds carbon fork on it. It is a bit flexy when braking while cornering and I'd like to improve that. What options are out there and how do they rate vs. each other? I know Alpha Q makes one with a steerer long enough (as seen on your bike) as does Storck, but want to understand if they are better than the Reynolds vis a vis flex/rigidity. Ted Dear Ted,
CSC's Fabian Cancellara held on to win the 43rd edition of the Tirreno-Adriatico following Tuesday's seventh and final stage. Italian Francesco Chicchi of Liquigas won the 176km run around San Benedetto del Tronto. But the 26-year-old Swiss, the current double world time-trial champion, kept hold of the leader's blue jersey and set himself up as one of the hot favorites for Saturday's Milan-San Remo.
Rabobank's Oscar Freire won a sprint finish to the sixth and penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race in Italy on Monday. Freire took the 196km stage from Civitanova Marche and Castelfidaro ahead of two Italians — Filippo Pozzato and Danilo Di Luca. Fabian Cancellara of CSC retained the overall lead ahead of Tuesday's final stage.
NEWS FLASH: I put Centaur Ergopower levers on my SRAM Red-equipped bike and have been riding it happily ever since with nary a hiccup in the shifting. I have a SRAM 10-speed chain, SRAM Red chainrings, SRAM Red front derailleur, SRAM Red rear derailleur, and SRAM Red 10-speed cogset mated with the Centaur 10-speed Ergopower levers. This means that Campagnolo and SRAM 10-speed road shifters, including their bar-end models, pull almost exactly the same amount of cable with each click.
In a hard, fast race full of attacks but few breaks, world-class German sprinter Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Team High Road) triumphed in the final stretch of the Visalia Criterium on Sunday, pulling around Brooke Miller (Team Tibco), who took second just in front of teammate and lead-out, Lauren Franges. Rounding out the top five were Canadian Anne Samplonius (Cheerwine) and Meredith Miller (Aaron’s).
Marathon cross-country specialists Thomas Dietsch (Gewiss-Bianchi) and Pia Sundstedt (Rocky Mountain) grabbed wins at the 90km UCI marathon World Cup opener in Manavgat, Turkey on Sunday. American Monique “Pua” Sawicki (Ellsworth-Topeak) finished in seventh place in the women’s race.
Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC) took the overall lead at Tirreno-Adriatico after winning Sunday’s fifth stage, a 26km time trial from Macerata to Recanati. The two-time world time-trial champion finished in 33 minutes and 41 seconds, with American David Zabriskie (Slipstream-Chipotle) second at at 0:22 and Thomas L?okvist (Team High Road) third at 0:53.
Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) survived a flurry of attacks to win the 66th edition of Paris-Nice on Sunday after Luis-León Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) took the slimmest of victories in the final stage around Nice. Rebellin, who saw the leader's jersey slip away to Alberto Contador in the finale last year, was delighted to have held onto it this time around.
Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo Lifeforce) put the hurt on a world-class field of pro women Saturday, winning the 40km Yokohl Ranch Exeter Time Trial, with over four minutes separating her from second place Aussie, Alex Rhodes (Team High Road), and third place Canadian, Felicia Gomez (Aaron’s). Canadian national time trial champion Anne Samplonius (Cheerwine) came in fourth, followed by US National Team member, Katharine Carroll (Aaron’s).
Bright-eyed, 21-year-old Robert Gesink might have time on his side, but Davide Rebellin used all of the savvy of his 15-year career to snatch away the Paris-Nice yellow jersey Saturday in nail-biting sixth stage won by Sylvain Chavanel.
Niklas Axelsson (PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni) slipped into the leader's jersey at Tirreno-Adriatico on Friday after finishing third in stage 3. Spaniard Joachim Rodriguez (Caisse d'Epargne) won the 195km leg from Gubbio to Montelupone with Italian Danilo Di Luca (Team LPR) second. An early escape by Jose Garcia Acosta (Caisse d'Epargne) and Lloyd Mondori (Ag2r) took a lead of more than eight minutes before being swept up in the final 20km.
Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) is one of those riders who can do just about anything. He chases down breakaways for the GC captains, goes on the attack to take off the pressure in the spring classics and even managed to finish 10th in last year’s Vuelta a España. Friday was payback time for the 26-year-old Barredo, who attacked late in the 172.5km fifth stage across Provence to drop the remnants of a 17-man breakaway and claim Quick Step’s third win in six days of racing at the 66th Paris-Nice.
Italian Raffaele Illiano (Diquigiovanni-Androni) won the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico on Thursday, edging out countryman Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld) in a sprint finish. Niklas Axelsson (Diquigiovanni-Androni) was third. The trio, with German Linus Gerdemann (Team High Road) and Saunier Duval teammates Riccardo Ricco and Eros Capecchi, went clear of the peloton on the last climb of the day, about 25km from the finale of the 203km leg from Civitavecchia to Gubbio.
Robert Gesink (Rabobank) couldn’t have picked a bigger stage to announce himself to the world. Holland’s first pure climber in a generation surged into the yellow jersey after Thursday’s summit finish on Mont Ventoux in a searing attack with 5km to go that left everyone choking on his fumes — except 2007 Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto). While Evans slipped past to win the stage, Gesink proved he’ll be a man to reckon with as he took control of Paris-Nice with three tough stages to go.
Titus Cycles, Inc., an Arizona high-end bicycle makers, has been purchased by Great Arizona Investments, a group that has holdings in a variety of industries. The new owners have created a business called GAI Cycles to operate Titus and any other cycling projects they enter. Titus, based in Tempe, had been owned by Vyatek Sports. The company was founded in 1991 and makes road and mountain bikes in stock and custom sizes, from aluminum, carbon and titanium. Titus CEO Pat Hus said the company has grown significantly in the last three years.
After racing the final 22 kilometers alone, off the front, Francaise des Jeux rider Philippe Gilbert crossed the finish of Omloop Het Volk last week in victory. It was the second Het Volk win for the Belgian; his first came in 2006. The 2008 win was special to two of his sponsors and was a milestone for road technology, because Gilbert crossed the line on a tubeless wheel and tire.