Fi’zi:k’s has a new mountain bike saddle called the Tundra, and it’s already winning races under Geoff Kabush’s butt. It’s based off of the design of the Arione and will be available, to start, in two versions, one with K:ium rails and a black cover and another in white with braided carbon rails. Both will be under 200-grams.
The derailleur’s cage is shorter, so that it can be run very close to the cranks outer bashguard. Its short length also gives more tire clearance, and will work especially well for 29-inch wheeled bikes.
Shimano had sharp looking samples of its new SLX group on hand. Here are the wide ratio double crank and double-ring specific front derailleur.
The carbon 29er sports a special fork from RockShox. The decals say Reba Race, but SRAM representatives were keeping their mouths shut, as they have a planned product unveiling scheduled for Friday at noon.
Subaru-Gary Fisher rider Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski isn’t at Sea Otter, instead he’s chasing and Olympic selection, but his new team issue Superfly 29er was at the event.
McGrath says that the 28mm wide ZTR Flow rims give the tire a larger profile than other manufacturers’ 32mm rims because of their unique lack of a bead hook. The rims are lighter too; they’re said to save well over a pound when compared to their competition.
With Maxxis Team manager, Gary Wolff, in Belgium with the cross-country team, mechanic, Adam McGrath was holding down the fort for the gravity racers on the domestic front.
In addition to the Mach 4, Cocalis had a prototype version of the BH Connect on hand. The two-off version of the frame is fitted with a BB30 bottom bracket shell.
The 429 uses much of the same technology as the Mach 4 and 5, including the DW-Link suspension system, direct mount front derailleur and Shimano’s press-in bottom bracket system.
With the world’s best racers descending upon Houffalize, Belgium, for the World Cup opener, the Sea Otter Classic needed to supplement this year’s world class downhill races with something extra to keep the event growing. For the Sea Otter, now in its 18th year, the answer was to bolster the festival and promote the tradeshow aspect of the event. It’s a trend that has been building for the last few years as more and more manufacturers are using the Sea Otter as a launching point for new product coming down the pike.
California or Tibet?
A cold self-portrait
"Look Mom, I got second!"
A Nevada court has delayed ruling on a request by the owners of Lew Racing to bar competitor Edge Composites from displaying or selling products that Lew alleges were made using a “secret process” it developed.
High Road's Edvald Boasson Hagen won in a sprint between four breakaway companions to prevail in the GP Denain on Thursday. The 20-year-old Hagen took a commanding win over AG2R's Jimmy Casper and Credit Agricole's Jimmy Engoulvent. FDJ's Fredric Guesdon trailed by 10 seconds. Hagen was part of a day-long break of 15 that was then whittled down to six riders on the last lap.
Sea Otter 2008 is almost upon us. This event has become a mainstay of the cycling culture, not only for racers but for industry veterans as well. To reward attendees for their unwavering loyalty of this event, Cane Creek is offering headset upgrades to the brand new 110. The offer is available on-site only and will be installed at the venue to factory spec.
High Road is prepared for a tough tactical battle in the Tour of Georgia, says team sports director Allan Peiper. “With the decisive stage to the Brasstown Bald climb coming late in the race, and the team time trial preceding that, teams will have to keep their options open for as long as possible. We’ll be looking to do our best throughout.”
The seventh annual Cox Charities Cycling Classic has been set for Saturday, June 28, in Providence, RI. Recognized as one of the premier cycling events in the country, the Cox Charities Cycling Classic will attract nearly 300 of the top cyclists in the country and thousands of spectators to downtown Providence. The race has been added to USA Cycling’s 2008 National Racing Calendar (NRC), a collection of the 28 most prestigious professional cycling events in the United States.
HIGH ROAD FOCUSES ON KIRCHEN FOR AMSTEL The Netherlands, 17 April 2008 - High Road will be focusing on giving their Luxembourg-born rider Kim Kirchen as good a chance as possible in the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. Seventh in the Tour of the Basque Country and the winner of two stages, team manager Rolf Aldag says Kirchen - who has regularly placed well in the past in the Ardennes Classics - has more than justified his role as High Road team leader in Holland’s biggest one-day race. “He’s our man for Amstel.” Aldag says.
Most of the Graham Watson photos you see in VeloNews and on VeloNews.com illustrate the race action and, of course, the classic victory shots. His photos of the spring classic atmosphere are less often seen. Here's a selection of his atmosphere shots from this years Tour of Flanders, Ghent-Wevelgem, and Wallers-Arenberg.
Last year, the women’s world championship road race covered 172 kilometers, a distance that stirred little comment. With that in mind, it may be difficult to recall that as recently as 1990 a proposed 129km women’s road race was deemed “excessive” by the sport’s international governing body, which refused to sanction it. That race, and the 16 other stages surrounding it, not to mention the 22,000 feet the stages climbed and the 1067km (663 miles) they covered, took place anyway.
AThe annual Ardennes Trilogy opens this coming Sunday in Maastricht, Netherlands, with the Amstel Gold Race. A total of three classic races in the Dutch-Belgian hills will be held within one week. The ProTour race in South Limburg will be followed on Wednesday by the Fleche Wallonne (April 23) with its feared final climb on the „Muur van Hoy“ and the Classic Lüttiche-Bastogne-Lüttich on Sunday (April 27).
Base Training, Moab Style
The 32 and 36 Talus forks get a new three-position travel lever, 100mm, 120mm, 140mm and 100mm, 130mm, 160mm respectively.
The 32 Talus is pictured with the 15QR thru-axle at left, while the 36 Talus has a no-tool 20mm thru-axle. The 36 and 40 long-travel forks also get new dampers for 2009.
The remote works with all trigger shifters, but not with twist shifters. It locks via a thumb lever and unlocks via a knuckle button.
The RL Remote forks only have external adjustments for rebound and air pressure. They are factory set with the FRLC’s firmest low-speed compression setting, four clicks, to resist bob under efforts when unlocked.
Fox will offer a remote lockout on one model for 2009, the F-Series RL fork, which will be available with three different travel amounts, 80mm, 100mm and 120mm. The those forks will be referred to using the travel amount, so F100RL Remote is the 100mm fork with the remote lockout.
The 15mm diameter and standard was settled on as the best combination of weight and stiffness for trail bikes. Shimano will offer a pre-built XT wheel for the new axle design. As well as two XT hubs, one accepts six-bolt rotors and other is Center Lock compatible.
The fixed nut opposite the quick-release is removable and clockable, so that the quick-release lever can be optimally positioned.
The 15QR adds less than 20-grams to the F-Series chassis. In the 32-Series forks it reduces the weight by 26-grams, due to the re-designed and lighter lower casting.
Riders and families of the NorCal High School Mountain Bike League were greeted by a warm beautiful Monterey day when they all came out for race 4 in sunny Fort Ord. The unexpected warm temperatures added an extra stress for racers, but true to League character, most persevered to the end. Although the location was the same as the season opener, it was a very different race. With a few more steep hills, a downhill sand pit, some newly added windy single track, and poison oak that was in full bloom, the course provided a day full of epic attacks, surprises, and mishaps.
High Road's Mark Cavendish won the 207km Grand Prix de l'Escaut (also known as the Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen) for the second successive year on Wednesday just ahead of top sprinters Tom Boonen of Belgium and Australia's Robbie McEwen. Germany's Eric Zabel took fourth place but it needed a photo-finish to separate Cavendish and former world road race champion Boonen.
Chris Horner thought he was trading up when he left his role of helping Cadel Evans at Lotto to ride in support of Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer at Astana. Exclusions from many of the season’s biggest races, however, could mean Horner will miss the Tour de France for the first time in four years. Instead of riding up l’Alpe d’Huez come July, he’ll likely be at the Cascade Classic.