As the organizer of the third of the world’s three grand tours, Victor Cordero spotted a unique opportunity to turn the 2008 Vuelta a Espana into something special when Spaniard Alberto Contador won this year’s Giro d’Italia.
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I’d like to tell you that this week’s headline refers to a late-summer triumph here on the ultra-competitive Boulder road racing circuit, but I can’t. No mountain bike wins either. Not even a lotto scratch ticket.
Garmin-Chipotle’s Will Frischkorn returns to Souderton, Pennsylvania, this weekend to defend his title at the Univest Grand Prix, lining up against a top field of domestic and international teams in a race that has grown to be one of the country’s largest. The weekend features Saturday’s tough 100-mile road race, which courses through the rolling countryside of Bucks and Montgomery counties before the uphill finish in Souderton, and continues on Sunday with the fast, tactical Univest Criterium of Doylestown.
The biggest crowds all day were not for autograph signings but for trying the bike with Shimano’s Dura-Ace 7900 electronic shifters on it. Hold down a shift lever to get a green LED indicator of battery level. Push a button for three seconds next to the LEDs, and they light up red, indicating that you are in adjustment mode. At 12 steps per shift, the adjustment you then perform with the shift buttons to line it up (by ear, while riding) under each cog is a finer adjustment step than turning the notched barrel adjusters on a Shimano cable system. And if you crash on the derailleur, it moves resistance-free out of the way. Then you push the adjustment button repeatedly once you are back up and riding to dial it in.
With a Vibram sole, Kanji letters, and no hint of a Shimano logo unless you look carefully for the imprint in the suede upper, this shoe has already become a hit with the flat-pedal crowd.
Using stereo lithography, Zipp can make a newly-designed wheel within a day out of plastic that it can test in a wind tunnel. The cost of $10,000 per wheel is steel for an unrideable wheel, but it is far cheaper than making a mold and producing only a single prototype or two out of it.
You can bolt an inner chainring to it from the inside with four bolts, or run it as a single ring. The Vuma crank is available from 165mm to 180mm.
The new Zipp Vuma time trial crank claims to be not only the most aerodynamic crank on the market, based on wind tunnel tests, but also the stiffest. The big chainring bolts on with 10 bolts and is essentially a ring of teeth on the exterior of a carbon disc. Tests of flex on the chainring with the chain under heavy load in a cross-chain position reveal far less tooth deflection than with any other crank, according to Zipp.
The Deda Zero Nero stem is all carbon with no metal inserted in it – the strongest thing you can build with carbon is a full monocoque. But to attach it to the handlebar and steering tube, you need metal parts. A full aluminum handlebar clamp that wraps around the carbon holds the bar firmly, and two pinch bolt clamps secure the top and the bottom of the stem to the steerer.
The Eurobike show started on Thursday in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and it is a huge show. Here are a few interesting shots from Day 1.
Carlos Sastre couldn’t put it off anymore. Despite his hope to ride the Vuelta a España without any unnecessary distractions, the rumor mill of where the 2008 Tour de France champion was going to land in 2009 was turning into just that. To end the growing media circus, Sastre confirmed what many already knew. After seven years racing under the tutelage of Bjarne Riis and Team CSC, Sastre will join the start-up Cervélo Test Team for 2009.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the sixth stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, a 150.1-kilometer race from Ciudad Real to Toledo.
Americans captured four medals and one world title last weekend at the 2008 UCI masters road world championships in St. Johaan, Austria. Kenny Fuller of Corona del Mar, California won the world title in the men’s 60-64 time trial to lead the U.S. medal performances. Fuller clocked a winning time of 26:6.62 seconds over the 20-kilometer course to finish 2.46 seconds up on silver medalist Kare Christoffersen of Norway.
How happy was Paolo Bettini after ripping across the finish ahead of Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) victorious in Thursday's sixth stage at the Vuelta a España? The two-time reigning world champion pumped both arms in the air, then his fist and before yelling something very Italian that might not be printable, even on the Web. Ever since 2005, Bettini's used the Vuelta as a trampoline for success at the world championships. He's won at least one stage in each Vuelta since then and won back-to-back rainbow jerseys in 2006-07.
Felt Bicycles has extended its sponsorship of Team Garmin-Chipotle presented by H30 until 2011. Under the extension, Team Garmin-Chipotle will race exclusively on Felt’s framesets for the next three years, including Felt models F1, Z1, AR and DA in 2009.
After many years with the same booth, Campagnolo has a new booth to celebrate the introduction of 11-speed cogsets to the world.
... but Isaac managed to snag it first.
It seems amazing that nobody has thought of using “Aerotic” as a model name for a time trial or triathlon bike before ...
Trek’s EX, Top Fuel full-suspension and 9 Series hardtail mountain bikes get the super-wide, net-molded bottom bracket shell like the Madone; the bearings press in (by hand) into net-molded (not machined after molding) bearing sockets.
Mavic is back in the pedal business now. Having been on the cusp of the date when Look’s patent ran out, the company changed the Look cleat design slightly to avoid a conflict. Nonetheless, the system works essentially the same as a Look or a Shimano SPD-SL, and the cleat looks similar.
On a standard threaded bottom bracket, the lateral position of Ultra-Torque cranks is held in place by means of a snapring on the drive side that locks the drive-side bearing inboard of holes in the threaded external bearing cup. But what about a current Trek Madone or a BB30 frame? Campagnolo, and, in this case, its fully-owned subsidiary, Fulcrum, have come up with new “OS-Fit” adaptors for frames like this and a tool for installing them.
The Campagnolo Ultra-Torque crank system has a problem with press-in bottom bracket bearing systems, because the bearings are attached to the crank spindle and are not pressed into threaded cups or into the frame.
The Eurobike show starts Thursday in Friedrichshafen, Germany, but I wandered around during setup yesterday and collected some photos. The show goes through Saturday for dealers, and Sunday is open to the public. I’m here through Saturday morning; I fly home on Sunday in order to accompany 100 middle-schoolers to Moab on Monday for a week of mountain biking.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the fifth stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, a 42.5 individual time trial at Ciudad Real.
On Sunday, three-time Italian time trial champion Marco Pinotti won the Tour of Ireland with a solo attack in the last 10k of the stage. The textbook attack was setup by his Columbia teammate Michael Barry, who was caught leading into the final circuit in Cork.
The career plans of Carlos Sastre were the subject of widespread speculation Wednesday, as the reigning Tour de France champion was linked to both the new Russian team Katusha and Canada’s Cervelo squad. The 33-year-old, whose contract with CSC expires at year's end, was reported to have signed a two-year deal with Katusha. That team, financed by a group of Russian companies, which has also recently snapped up Australian Robbie McEwen, Belgian Gert Steegmans and Italian Filippo Pozzato. Sastre, however, dismissed the report as speculation.
Back in 2001, Levi Leipheimer became the only American to stand on the Vuelta a España podium with a breakout third-place finish that announced his arrival to the elite levels of the sport. Flash forward to Wednesday’s 42.5km individual time trial on the flat, wide-open roads around Cuidad Real and Leipheimer made more history at the Vuelta. Following a fabulous come-from-behind victory, Leipheimer becomes the fifth American to win a Vuelta stage and just the second to wear the leader’s jersey.
It’s the “Tour de France” for the Under-23 crowd. The 45th Tour de l’Avenir clicks into gear Friday with an opening prologue followed by nine days of racing on a course that slices straight south across France toward the Pyrénées. Nineteen teams of six riders aged from 19 to 22 for a total of 114 riders will fight for the honors in the most prestigious U23 race on the calendar. Former winners include the likes of Felice Gimondi, Joop Zoetemelk and Greg LeMond, so success in the Avenir typically bodes well for a strong career in the pro ranks.
1. Aurélien Clerc, Bouygues Telecom, starts at 1:41 p.m.
2. Oscar Gatto, Gerolsteiner, starts at 1:42 p.m.
3. Stef Clement, Bouygues Telecom, starts at 1:43 p.m.
4. Cyril Lemoine, Credit Agricole, starts at 1:44 p.m.
5. Kevin Van Impe, Quick Step, starts at 1:45 p.m.
6. Ivan Santaromita, Liquigas, starts at 1:46 p.m.
7. Volodymyr Diudia, Team Milram, starts at 1:47 p.m.
8. Fco. José Martinez Perez, Andalucia-Cajasur, starts at 1:48 p.m.
9. Mikhail Ignatiev, Tinkoff Credit Systems, starts at 1:49 p.m.
10.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the fourth stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, a 170.3-kilometer race from Cordoba to Puertollano.
Neal Henderson is the Sport Science Manager at Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. He is a USA Cycling certified coach and works with a diverse clientele at BCSM. He has been Taylor Phinney’s personal coach since 2006 and traveled with Phinney and his family in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics. This is his wrap-up column following the Olympics. The 2008 Olympic Games have officially ended and Taylor Phinney had the best finish for an American men’s individual pursuit rider since Steve Hegg won gold in 1984.