All Content
Fred’s Eye View: How to do a road race road trip, on a budget.
The mission was simple: cram my Subaru with enough bikes, tubes, wheels and chamois to outfit Astana, and drive 360 rugged miles from Boulder to the other end of Colorado. Spend three days surfing couches, mooching beer and otherwise freeloading my way around Durango's cycling community. Have some laughs, see some old friends and — how could I forget — pin on a race number for the 38th annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. Do it all without breaking the bank — or getting dropped.
Project Pruitt: I’m back
I’m back. After my last fit session, I rode several times with my new saddle, new pedals and new position. I felt good, but I was still feeling that all-too-familiar burning sensation after about 90 minutes of recovery-pace riding. I was beginning to get really frustrated. I thought that I had plateaued and really wasn’t making any improvements. I decided to take a few weeks off the bike; the decision was partially my own, and partially dictated by my schedule — final exams were coming up and I really had no time to do anything but grade my students’ work.
UCI gives Astana a green light
The Astana team has passed a sort of financial stress test by the UCI, which said Wednesday that the team could continue to hold its ProTour license and compete in upcoming events. Astana secured a bank guarantee in time to meet a deadline of midnight Tuesday. The UCI said Astana could start the Tour of Luxembourg, which begins Wednesday evening with a prologue time trial. "The UCI has verified that Astana has fulfilled the conditions," the organisation said in a statement, one of those conditions being the fulfillment of outstanding sponsorship contracts.
Clothesline Review: Specialized Pro SL and Pro RBX bibs
Editor’s note: The Clothesline is new column about clothing, shoes, helmets and other cycling accessories. Perhaps the most personal of gear choices, clothing testing is subjective. Two riders can try the same jersey or helmet and come back with completely different opinions. With that in mind, we will try to get at least two editors sampling a product for a few weeks before reporting back on the fit and features. We hope you find it helpful. If it’s true that no two fingerprints are the same, is it fair to say that no two, um, butts are the same?
FSA focuses on compact mountain, Vision road line for 2010; road group still in the works
After finding great success with the compact road crank design it debuted in the 2002 Tour de France under Ivan Basso, FSA is pushing the concept to the mountain bike market. Carbon and alloy double-ring cranksets for off-road are among the new 2010 offerings from the company with headquarters in Italy, Washington and Taiwan. FSA is also expanding on the Vision line it acquired in 2004, positioning it as a road and triathlon brand with wheels, aerobars and more.
The Explainer – Who decides what’s “safe?”
Dear Explainer, By now, we’ve all probably seen the crash that highlighted the final kilometer of this year’s Giro d’Italia. While I was actually hoping for Danilo Di Luca to pull off a miracle win, I am pleased that he didn’t do it by having race leader Denis Menchov crash and lose enough time to lose the Giro.
Best Of The Best
Check out CyclingTips's author page.
A preview of the VeloNews July issue.
When American Taylor Phinney won the under-23 Paris-Roubaix on May 31, it made our decision to feature him on the cover of our July issue appear prophetic. It wasn’t, however, a tough decision to put Phinney on the cover. His elite world pursuit title in March saw the teenage phenom scratch the surface of his seemingly boundless potential.
Gallery: The road to the ProTour
This spring VeloNews' Senior Writer Fred Dreier and photographer Casey B. Gibson spent a lot of time at the USA Cycling development program's center in Izegem, Belgium. The two hung out with the young riders at the Belgium house that is the program's heart, as the riders ate, trained, raced, and met with their coaches. Dreier's article, illustrated by Gibson's photos, appears in the July issue of VeloNews, which went on sale on newsstands this week. Today Gibson is sharing some of the photos that did not make it into the magazine.
Plaxton and Gould maintain their series lead after Alabama event
Sprint finishes decided both the men’s and women’s professional events at Sunday’s Bump N’ Grind cross-country race, held at Oak Mountain state park in Pelham, Alabama. The event was the third round of the 2009 USA Cycling Pro Cross-country tour (ProXCT), and the second round of the Kenda Cup East. In the men’s race, Australian rider Sid Taberlay (Sho Air-Specialized) out kicked Coloradan Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher). Luna teammates Georgia Gould and Catherine Pendrel went toe-to-toe in the women’s event, with Pendrel coming out on top.
Menchov leads UCI rankings, and a change atop the national rankings.
Denis Menchov vaulted to the top of the UCI World Rankings this week, a position he owes entirely to his performance at the Giro d'Italia.
Haedo sprints up NRC standings
Colavita's Argentinean sprinter Sebastian Haedo has moved up from eighth to second on the latest National Racing Calendar individual rankings. Defending NRC champ Rory Sutherland (OUCH-Maxxis) remains in first place in the rankings, thanks to his win at the Joe Martin Stage Race and several stage wins and stage podiums this season.