The sixth Tour de Georgia began Monday with a short and — for Toyota-United — sweet stage from Tybee Island into Savannah. Ivan Dominguez battled his way through the well-orchestrated lead-outs of Gerolsteiner and High Road to take a commanding sprint win on the 70.4-mile flat stage ahead of Jelly Belly’s Nic Sanderson and Gerolsteiner’s Robert Förster.
This week coach Frank Overton will be analyzing the power readings from Health Net-Maxxis rider Frank Pipp, as he competes in the Tour de Georgia. VeloNews will be sharing Pipp's SRM power files and Overton's analysis after each stage. Those interested in seeing the complete power files can download them from Fascatcoaching.com. What follows is Overton's preview of the race. -- Editor
Spain's 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is to reappear in the Criterium du Dauphine on June 8 he announced on Monday. The 25-year-old, who has been controversially barred from this year's Tour de France because his Astana team were not invited by the organisers, has been out of action since winning the Tour of the Basque Country on April 12. Contador, who took a week's rest after his victory, explained that while he had resumed training he has been taking antibiotics for the toothache that plagued him during the Tout of the Basque Country.
Racers, dignitaries and the media mingled on Sunday during the kickoff press conference for the 2008 Tour de Georgia, held at The Mulberry Inn in downtown Savannah. Our man Casey Gibson was there with cameras clicking; here's what he sent home.
Miguel Martinez (Look) and Kelli Emmett (Giant) sliced through the wind on Sunday to win their respective cross-country races at the Sea Otter Classic. France's Martinez, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, escaped a strong eight-rider group on the second lap at Laguna Seca Raceway in California. Short-track victor Sam Schultz (Subaru-Gary Fisher) took silver with Sid Taberlay (TIS) third. “In France, the Sea Otter Classic is a very prestigious race. To win here makes me very happy,” Martinez said.
The climax of South Africa’s 2008 Absa Cape Epic mountain-bike race came in the final kilometers of stage 5, a hot, dusty 146km slog from Swellendam to Bredasorp on April 2. Belgian Roel Paulissen rode the rim of a Mavic Crossmax SLR rear wheel for nearly 18 kilometers on gravel and pavement to preserve his Cannondale-Vredestein team’s lead. The sketchy move paid off: Paulissen and his teammate Jakob Fuglsang lost only three minutes on the day, and went on to take the race’s overall win four days later.
Nothing was going to spoil Damiano Cunego’s good mood after winning in Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race. Not even a journalist asking him if he still believes he can be a GC threat in grand tours. In fact, it’s the question that perhaps Cunego is better suited to the classics than three-week tours that sometimes irks Italy’s “Little Prince.” Despite some hiccups since his breakthrough 2004 Giro d’Italia victory, he’s never lost faith that he can shine in both.
Fox has a slew of improvements to its product line for 2009, but two stand apart: A remote lockout for the F80, 100, 120 RL forks and a new thru-axle standard called 15QR, which is an option for all of its 32mm stanchion forks.
The Everti 29R is a hardtail titanium 29er frame, designed and built in British Columbia. Kurt Knock of Everti said the frame has been in development for about a year. It features 3/2.5 titanium, with double-butted top and seat tubes, and straight-gauge elsewhere. The downtube is oversized and ovalized at the head tube, and the head tube is longer than most 29ers to distribute the extra stress created by a longer fork, Knock said. The frame also features a mini-gusset at the head tube/downtube juncture and full length cable housing.
Robson looking good after one lap as JB signals his next move (Durand, WI Road Race)
Intensity at the Superdrome!!!
Peter Glassford at the 2008 Sea Otter Pro XC race
Early morning poseur attack by Team Orven at Walburg, TX
The Ritchey/Syncros single-bolt seatpost clamp is simple and easy to use, as long as the post is on the bike so gravity assists you). As the bolt pulls the clamp ears against the rails from the side (squeezing them against an inboard stop), the lower lips of the clamp ears follow a tapered surface to pull the clamp down against the rails. Three different clamp pieces are available for standard rails and two different dimensions of oversized carbon rails.
Fox and Marzocchi are pushing a new front hub through-axle standard, 15mm X 100mm, which has been adopted by Shimano, Mavic, DT and many other hub and wheel makers. It is intended for the cross-country and all-mountain market; 20mm through-axles remain the standard for big-hit forks. Fox claims it is faster than using a 9mm quick-release axle while being stiffer and very light. RockShox and Manitou have not adopted the 15mm standard.
The $239 Exposure Joystick Maxx light is a small, bright, self-contained, rechargeable Super LED light with a long burn time that clips onto a bar mount or helmet mount. The $399 Exposure Enduro Maxx is three times as bright, being essentially three Joystick Maxx lights packed into a single, self-contained unit. In between is the Exposure Race Maxx with two Super LEDs. Batteries are Li-ion built into the unit. Burn times go from three to 24 hours depending on the setting (or many days on flashing mode!).
Lezyne’s new, long 100-gram frame pump gives the stroke of a framefit pump without the mounting hassles on today’s frames. It contains a pull-out hose to avoid stressing the valve stem while pumping. The 40-gram bottle cage incorporates a groove for the pump and will be available in a carbon option as well.
There are a lot of stationary sizing cycles out there, but the $2395 Calfee Sizer, designed by Bernie Mikkelsen, allows you to crank the length in or out using the wheel at the end of the long threaded rod while the rider is pedaling. The tape measure clamped to the steerer allows you to see the exact top tube length as it changes, and the handlebar height above the ground is its actual height above the ground on the bicycle. The Purely Custom no-tools quick-change seatpost (spin the saddle to release the saddle clamp to change the tilt or fore aft, and twist it back) and the adjustable-length crank with bubble level are both designed by Jeff Keller.
JHK employs duct tape to minimize play between his shoes and his Crank Brothers Eggbeater pedals. This is in contrast to Travis Brown’s Shoe Goo method.
Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski’s Superfly 29er carbon hardtail has two inner chainrings and a SRAM mountain bike front derailleur. The front derailleur is set too high, due to its long tail otherwise hitting the chainstay. But that allows JHK to switch from a 38T to a 40T large chainring without changing his front derailleur adjustment.
Sam Schultz’s Genesis 2.0 aluminum hardtail has a mountain bike front derailleur like JHK’s, but unlike his two teammates’ bikes, it uses two outer chainrings.
Matt Opperman’s HiFi 29er.
Matt Opperman’s HiFi 29er has a SRAM Rival front derailleur, two inner chainrings and an unanodized version of Bontrager’s new spider.
FSA gave a clinic on BB30, which is an open-source bottom bracket standard started by Cannondale. It features a 30mm spindle and cartridge bearings that press into a huge bottom bracket shell 68mm wide. Snap rings stop the bearings from proceeding too far inboard, and spacers are available for mountain bikes with 73mm bottom bracket shells. This is the new SRAM RED BB30 crank.
Technical writer Lennard Zinn is canvassing Sea Otter for tidbits — today he comes back with (among other things), three different ways on one team to devise a 2X9 system on a cross country bike.
Julien Absalon can cross Houffalize off his list. Before his victory at Sunday’s World Cup opener in Belgium, the Frenchman had won on every classic World Cup course save this one. In 2007 he came close, but had to settle for second behind a streaking Jose Antonio Hermida.
Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski’s Superfly 29er carbon hardtail has two inner chainrings and a SRAM mountain bike front derailleur. The front derailleur is set too high, due to its long tail otherwise hitting the chainstay. But that allows JHK to switch from a 38T to a 40T large chainring without changing his front derailleur adjustment.
The major technical difference is the 90mm threadless bottom bracket shell. Brown says that feature may appear on other Trek mountain bikes in the future.
It might surprise you to find out just what it takes to build a one-off bike. Travis Brown can sure tell you. The Trek test rider and product developer lost one after last year’s early fall single-speed world championships. Trek built Brown a custom polished one of a kind 69er single speed for the event in September. After a pre-ride, derby and race, Brown UPS’d his bike back to the U.S. and the men in brown promptly lost it.
The Cauberg climb was the scene of a stunning finale Sunday of a wild, action-packed Amstel Gold Race that saw Damiano Cunego (Lampre) score a huge victory against the attacking Frank Schleck (CSC). Realizing his only shot against faster rivals such as Cunego and third-place finisher Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) was to attack, the Luxembourger surged away with a vengeance with 500 meters to go to drop everyone out an elite group of nine riders except Cunego. Schleck’s raid almost worked, but Italy’s “Little Prince” had another ending in mind.