The Hed Black Dog aero bar sells for $900 and weighs a mere 660 grams. Its “Lazy S” curved extensions allow the rider to drop lower on a descent with less back strain due to a more relaxed grip. Two hand positions on the extensions and flip-up pads are all designed with gaining time on climbs in mind.
The eeBrake has an elegant quick-release arm that lifts to open the brake. The superlight curved front spring is all that is needed to return it. The pads slide in easier and without a cotter pin, allowing easy pad change when switching from carbon rims to aluminum rims. A pair of calipers weighs as little as a single caliper of a many high-end brakes (195 grams/pair with pads).
Craig Edwards, former owner of Sweet Wings, now has his superlight eeBrake in production. It pivots about an eccentric center bolt to which the caliper clamps with a pinch bolt. Lowering the pads to reach the rim is done half with the rotation of the eccentric center bolt, and half with the half-length brake pad slots, resulting in less loss of leverage with longer reach. Short pivot distances, wider pivots, and non-layering of brake arms means higher stiffness and no arm-twisting.
Now you, too, can own a Parlee ... well, at least the 7-gram Parlee front derailleur clamp and use it on your own bike (with any 1-3/8” seat tube and braze-on front derailleur). A quarter the weight of an aluminum clamp, yet it’s purported to be as tough.
The Lezyne mini floor pump has a flip-out stand to stand on when pumping. An option is a pressure gauge in-line with the hose.
Lezyne’s miniature floor pump folds up into an extremely compact package. You have to bend over pretty far to use it, but it beats the heck out of a standard mini pump for getting air into the tires without damage to the valves, thanks to a hose rather than a chuck integrated into the pump. I don’t know whom else it appeals to, but it looks like the solution to me for traveling with a coupled travel bike in a small S&S bike case, which requires deflation of the tires but is too small to fit a floor pump.
The Specialized Myka FSR is an entry-level women’s full suspension bike. The $1650 Comp model with RockShox Tora Le Femme 100mm fork has a steeper seat angle, lower spring rates, and lighter construction to accommodate a woman’s lower center of gravity and lighter weight. 10 percent of the retail price goes to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to fight breast cancer. Specialized designates as Komen Foundation products some women’s bikes, shoes, helmets, and saddles and gives 10 percent of retail price on any of these to the foundation; the company will donate $250,000-$500,000 in 2009 through this program.
Look’s foray into full suspension to complement its 986 carbon hardtail, the 996 frame has an all-carbon front end and features a DW Link articulating the swingarm at the bottom bracket. The frame sells for $2,500.
Yakima’s Fork Lift roof rack trays require no additional crossbars; they mount directly to the factory rack’s crossbars. The clamp’s tool-free installation feature is easy to use; it opens wide to click into any of three settings in order for it to fit on crossbars of different sizes and shapes. A single-knob adjuster of the locking skewer speeds installation of the fork onto the mount. Each unit (that holds one bike) sells for $139.
The Effetto Mariposa Giustaforza torque wrench now comes in colors, and with a case with receptacles for its bits. Effetto Mariposa also offers cases of bits alone.
1. Cantitoe Road introduced its new seatpost designed by Salsa founder Ross Shafer and Cantitoe Road owner Tom Petrie. Elastomers surrounding the Kent Eriksen saddle clamp allow the saddle to move a bit in all directions, providing more comfort. Different elastomers of varying durometer are available to tune the ride to your preference. I rode prototypes of this seatpost over the summer and found it to indeed increase saddle comfort.
Despite not winning a race in 2008, French veteran Christophe Moreau will retire with Agritubel at the end of the 2009 season. The French team announced on its web page that the 37-year-old will conclude his 14-year cycling career with the team next year. Moreau is the last active rider of the infamous Festina team that was kicked out of the 1998 Tour de France after evidence of widespread doping was revealed within the squad. Moreau served a six-month racing ban and resumed competition in 1999.
It looks like 2009 will be the season of the comeback, and at least in Italy there won’t be a return to competition more watched than that of Ivan Basso. After months of avoiding the spotlight, Basso is taking his first tentative steps toward his full re-entry into the cycling world with a press conference next week in Italy ahead of the Giro di Lombardia. Basso won’t be racing in Europe’s last major race of the season, but it will be a chance for his new Liquigas team to break the ice with the media on Oct. 17.
After a heavy late-season schedule that included the Olympic Games, the Vuelta a España and the world time trial championship, Astana’s Levi Leipheimer is finally back in the U.S., enjoying his off-season at the Santa Rosa, California, home he shares with his wife, former pro racer Odessa Gunn. When VeloNews reached him on October 1, Leipheimer was just back from a mountain bike ride through Santa Rosa’s Annadel Park, the largest State Park located within a city limit in California.
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Spaniard Javier Benitez burst from the bunch in the final 100 meters to take the stage 1 sprint at the Vuelta Chihuahua on Monday. The Benfica rider stopped the clock in 3:19:30, with Steffen Radochla (Elk Haus-Simplon) and Juan Magallanes (Tecos-Trek) completing the podium at the end of the 147.8km ride from Chihuahua to Camargo. Benitez won by more than a bike length.
Spaniard Javier Benitez burst from the bunch in the final 100 meters to take the stage 1 sprint at the Vuelta Chihuahua on Monday. The Benfica rider stopped the clock in 3:19:30, with Steffen Radochla (Elk Haus-Simplon) and Juan Magallanes (Tecos-Trek) completing the podium at the end of the 147.8km ride from Chihuahua to Camargo. Benitez won by more than a bike length.
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USA Cycling awarded the final ten stars and stripes jerseys over the weekend as the 2008 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships concluded at the ADT Event Center velodrome at the Home Depot Center on Sunday.
Jason Sager (SagerSports.com) edged Erik Tonkin (Team S&M) for the victory in Sunday's Cross Crusade race in Portland, Oregon. Ryan Trebon (Kona) lined up on a single speed, taking an early lead, but eventually faded to fifth place. The race attracted 1,267 registrants and was held on a rain-slick course at Alpenrose Dairy. The former USGP venue featured mud, grass, pavement, off-camber turns, gravel, stairs and even a lap in a velodrome. In the women's A race, Sue Butler (Monavie Cannondale) and Wendy Williams controlled the race and went 1-2.
Colombian Leonardo Paez and Swiss Petra Henzi won the second and final round of the UCI Marathon Mountain bike World Cup, held in Ornans, France on October 5. Paez (Gewiss-Bianchi), took a two-minute victory ahead of Swiss rider Lukas Buchli, with newly crowned German marathon champ Karl Platt (Bulls) in third.
With his win, Paez took the World Cup overall, beating defending champ Thomas Dietsch (Gewiss-Bianchi), 390 points to 370. Austrian Alban Lakata (Dolphin-Trek) finished third.
German cyclist Stefan Schumacher, a double stage winner at this year's Tour de France, has tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin), according to L'Equipe website on Monday. Gerolsteiner rider Schumacher is the second rider named Monday to be caught using a new generation of EPO called CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator) at this year's race.
Former Saunier Duval climber Leonardo Piepoli is facing a ban from the sport after the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) announced Monday he had tested positive for banned substances twice at this year's Tour de France. Piepoli, who won a stage and helped former Saunier Duval teammate Riccardo Ricco win two stages at the race, will now come before a CONI commission on Friday in connection with the failed tests on July 4 and 15.
It’s official; “comeback” is the word of the year in professional cycling. Following in the wake of Mario Cipollini (un-retired and then retired again), Lance Armstrong (un-retired and already making waves) and Alexander Vinokourov (trying to beat a doping rap and un-retire), Mexican great Raúl Alcalá is now getting back in the game.
Alexander Vinokourov, banned for a year after doping at the 2007 Tour de France, confirmed on Sunday that he wants to return to the sport. The 35-year-old told Belgian TV station Sporza that he wants to race again in 2009. "I love cycling. I want to come back because I didn't want to end my career in this way. I feel as if I can win once again the big races."
Phinney flies to another elite national title.
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Spaniard Juan-Antonio Flecha claimed his first notable victory this season when he won the Circuit Franco-Belge Sunday after a final stage won by Belgian Sebastien Rosseler of Quick Step. Rosseler's victory on the fourth and final stage put smiles back on the worried faces of Quick Step after their leader, former world champion Tom Boonen, crashed 75km into the ride. Boonen got back up slowly and feeling the pain, but was apparently uninjured and looks likely to bounce back for a victory bid at the Paris-Tours classic next week.
Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong hit back Saturday at insinuations that he sullied cycling's premier event, saying he reigned over the race when the sport's popularity was at a peak. "The last time I checked, I won the Tour seven straight years and was never once found to be guilty of doping despite seven years of intense scrutiny," Armstrong said in a statement.
Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi and his LPR team have been forced off next weekend's Paris-Tours race for failing to agree to the UCI's new blood passport program. Organizers of the French one-day classic, ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation), said Saturday that two other teams, Mitsubishi and Collstrop, will also be denied a start for the same reason.
Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Chipotle) lost control of the leader’s jersey at the Circuit Franco-Belge in Saturday’s third stage when a late breakaway stayed clear of the pack. Ten riders pulled clear in the closing kilometers and Farrar, despite a strong effort to close down the gap, finished in the main pack in 12th at 18 seconds back. Farrar, who overtook the lead in Friday’s second stage, tumbled from first to 11th at 23 seconds back with one stage left to go. Belgian national champion Jurgen Roelandts (Silence-Lotto) pulled the double to win the stage and overtake the lead.
It’s the doping scandal that will never end. Just days after a Spanish judge tried to close the legal proceedings for a second time on Operación Puerto, an appeal has been filed to keep the case open yet again. Ruling judge Antonio Serrano signed off on the long-running scandal Sept. 26 when he ruled that no laws had been broken in the alleged blood doping ring under existing Spanish law at the time of the May, 2006 raids. Despite the latest ruling, lawyers asked Spain’s attorney general to reconsider the case and move forward with possible prosecutions.
Disgraced Tour de France star Alexander Vinokourov has announced plans to return to professional cycling, with the Astana team of Lance Armstrong, according to reports in Belgium on Saturday. The 35-year-old Russian from Kazakhstan was handed a one-year ban after testing positive for homologous blood doping at the 2007 Tour de France, from which his former team Astana, then under different management, was thrown out.
The Vibraser will be ridden by Time’s pro teams in the classics and in training for its added comfort.
Giant’s TCX is ready to roll from the showroom floor to the cyclocross race course. It is easily one of the best-priced workhorse cyclocross racer’s for 2009. The Aluxx alloy bike borrows technology including a tapered steerer tube and big ‘MegaDrive’ down tube from the new TCR line.
The old 96er, yep, Moots’ Gristle is named after a steak in the movie the Great Outdoors. Jon Cariveau, Moots Brand Manager, says that he likes how the smaller rear wheel handles versus a straight 29er. It’s got more snap, but you have the roll-through of the front wheel.
The Vision drink system allows you to drink without breaking your aero position. FSA claims it makes the bike faster than without. Hydra Pak makes the internals that hold one liter and it can be refilled on the fly.