Basically any time a week of racing bikes somewhere kicks ass, we’re going to do a Ten Reasons piece. There’s just so much to tell on these perfect weeks that there would be pages and pages for you, the unfortunate reader, to wade through. We’ll just condense things a bit here … Ten Reasons why World Cup #2 in Offenburg was the bollocks:
Namrita O'Dea and Chuck Wheeler took top solo honors in the weekend’s 24 Hours of Vail Lake at California’s Vail Lake Mountain Resort. The race, part of Granny Gear Production’s 2008 Suzuki 24 Hour Series, wrapped up Sunday morning, with Wheeler defeating 2007 24 Hour National Series men's solo champion, Rob Lichtenwalner, riding 17 laps for a total of 173.4 miles.
This year’s Sea Otter was better than ever with regards to new product roll-outs. There was too much to see during the short four days I was in Monterey, but we caught the vast majority in the hottest new stuff category. I’ll cover the rest of the best in this final photo gallery, but look for a few more stories from the Otter that go deeper than these galleries have. You should expect a rundown of Shimano’s new Saint group online tis week, while reports on Tomac, Yeti and FSA will pop up in future pages of VeloNews and VeloNews.com.
Cadel Evans' plans to go one better than his runner-up place at last year's Tour de France remain intact after what has proved to be an ultimately confidence-boosting week of bike racing. Yet on Sunday the 30-year-old Australian was left wondering about his form at the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic, where at least one of his yellow jersey rivals put his climbing potential on full display.
Italian Davide Rebellin conceded defeat to the "faster legs" of Spanish rival Alejandro Valverde after their thrilling battle for one of the most prestigious crowns in one-day cycling Sunday. A runner-up to Italian Danilo Di Luca last year and winner in 2006, Valverde left Rebellin struggling to match his pace when he capped the tough, 12-climb 261km epic with a winning sprint a few hundred meters from the finish line. Rebellin's victory here in 2004 rounded off a superb week in which he won the Amstel Gold Race and the Fleche Wallonne classics.
The 8.25-inch-travel bike features a single down tube and new larger pivots for the FreeDrive suspension system.
Mongoose’s ECD downhill racer has evolved into a new model called the Boot’R for 2009.
For your amusement: We spied this 6-Works in the Cannondale camp, obviously a play on Specialized’s S-Works — same font even. It seems the guys from Bedford, Pennsylvania, get a kick out of taking jabs at the competition in Morgan Hill, California.
The rest of the Rize line employs a Lefty equipped with Fox’s RLC damper.
Cannondale offers two versions of its Lefty Max fork with the Rize. The PBR (Push Button Lockout) model uses Rockshox’s Solo Air spring technology and a Cannondale-designed damper to achieve a 2.9-pound weight. The top aluminum and carbon models use this fork.
At its heart is a seat tube and bottom bracket that’s 3D forged out of a single piece of aluminum; both frame versions use this seat tube. The carbon model joins a carbon head, top- and down tube assembly to the forged piece using the co-molding technology developed for System Six.
Cannondale’s newest trail bike, the 130mm travel Rize. Two versions are available, one with a carbon front triangle and one made from all alloy.
The ABP system we rode on Trek’s Fuel EX last summer was phenomenal and the technology promises even greater benefits as travel goes up.
Besides suspension technology, Trek incorporated a tapered, 1.125- to 1.5-inch headtube. Since Fox does not yet make a 40 fork with the standard, the DH uses a reducer to accommodate the un-tapered 1.125-inch steerer.
The final stage didn't bring any major changes to the standings, but it was still certainly fun to watch. Here are some photos of the 2008 Tour de Georgia finale from Casey Gibson.
The Session 88 DH is one of two gravity models that Trek introduced at Sea Otter. Both incorporate Trek’s newest suspension developments including ABP, Full-Floater and the EVO link. The DH is meant for competition, while the Session 88 FR package offers the same technologies for the freeride crowd. Both bikes have 200mm of rear wheel travel.
Trek launched a new beer to go with its new Session premium-level long-travel bikes.
The Break-away seat tube joint.
It’s made from steel and sports horizontal dropouts.
Ritchey had its newest Break-away on display, a fixed gear road bike.
The caliper is where the Ace differs. The four-pot one-piece monobloc caliper pushes pads against the rotor that are 40-percent larger than the two-piston models. This brake’s story is its power; Hayes claims it to be its most powerful ever. The Ace costs $209.
The Ace is the first four-piston brake Hayes has ever made. The lever is longer for more mechanical advantage, but for the most part the master cylinder is the same as the rest of the Stroker line.
The brake has an aggressively cast radial master piston, no-tool reach adjust, titanium hardware, two-piece caliper and alloy backed semi-metallic pads. The Gram will be available in June.
Hayes had new models of its Stroker brakes at Sea Otter. The gram is its new lightweight model. It weighs a claimed 357-grams with a 160mm rotor and hardware.
From our brief look, Titus looks to be on track. The steel ExoGrid bike had plenty of rear tire clearance.
Titus also had its first cyclocross bike on hand. The manufacturer had never produced a ’cross bike before this example. The bugs are already worked out and Titus will have three models available this season: Steel ExoGrid, titanium and titanium ExoGrid. The models will cost $1895, $2300 and $2900, respectively.
The prototype frame shown is said to weigh 3.4 pounds with its seat mast.
The prototype mountain bike combined all of the industry’s latest fads: Big wheels, carbon, a seat mast, integrated headset and BB30.
Titus showed a prototype titanium IsoGrid 29er. This is the first mountain bike it built using IsoGrid technology and is currently still undergoing testing.
The Power Clamp by Foes was the best ‘gee wiz’ item I saw at Sea Otter — one I’d love to have, though. It’s an industrial quality bike stand with a pneumatic clamp. Step on the foot pedal and the clamp opens or closes. The Power Clamp costs $995 for the basic stand that bolts to the floor or a Park Shop stand base and is set to run off of an existing compressor.
SwissStop has developed one of the best brake pad compounds for carbon rims with its Yellow King compound. The manufacturer didn’t show any new compounds, but it did show a new Campagnolo compatible pad shape. The new shape has deeper grooves to clear debris from the rim more efficiently. The new shape is available in all three of SwissStop’s compounds.
Besides the white powder-coated magnesium arms, the new brakes have best in class features for the wide-profile ’cross brake segment. They have both mechanically adjustable toe-in and a straddle stop mounted barrel adjuster. I’m absolutely stoked to race on a set of these this fall.
Besides the R960, TRP showed its Euro X Mag brake. The brake first appeared last year as a prototype but it will be available to consumers for this ’cross season. TRP also reminded us that Sven Nys rode its brakes at the world championships last year and will continue to use them in the coming season.
The brakes are available in red and black. They’re first forged then they receive a heavy dose of post machining to shave as much material as possible. The brakes come stock with SwissStop’s black pads for alloy rims and TRP’s own carbon compound pads.
TRP had new dual-pivot brakes on display for the road called the R960. It is claimed to be 40 grams lighter than Shimano’s Dura-Ace and only 10-grams heavier than Zero Gravity; keep in mind the Zero G brake has a single pivot.
Race starts at 1:00 p.m. ET
The 2008 Tour de Georgia couldn’t have ended better for Team High Road on Sunday, as Kiwi sprinter Greg Henderson won the final stage and Belarusian Kanstantin Sivtsov secured his overall race lead by four seconds ahead of Slipstream-Chipotle’s Trent Lowe.
Graham Watson shares some images from the 2008 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which saw Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) take a second victory ahead of Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) and Frank Schleck (CSC).