It was a soggy day in Stuttgart as the elite men set off in pursuit of the world time-trial title. But a little rain couldn't keep Fabian Cancellara off the top step of the podium for the second consecutive year. Nor could it prevent Casey Gibson from chronicling the day's action.
Cycling’s international racing calendar was turned upside down Thursday after the UCI announced that the three grand tours and select one-day classics are no longer part of the ProTour cycling calendar. In a sweeping restructuring of the European racing calendar, the UCI vows to forge ahead with its controversial ProTour concept that will open with the Tour Down Under in 2008 and potentially include national tours in China and Russia in 2009. “This is about being realistic and pragmatic,” McQuaid said. “It’s not a position that the UCI has created. (The grand tours) could have come aboard
Nearly 19,000 people packed into the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the opening day of the indoor portion of the 2007 Interbike trade show on Wednesday. Aisles were packed and booths were abuzz on the show’s opening day. And besides the goings-on inside, two races were organized alongside the show. The first was the Boulder-Denver Courier Events-produced Excel Sports CrossVegas, held Wednesday night. Kona-YourKey.com’s Ryan Trebon won the well-attended event — and in the process took some revenge on Christian Heule (Stevens), who won Star Crossed and the Rad Racing
Frank Arokiasamy, the man behind the proposed 27-stage Tour of America in 2008, realizes racers and race fans are skeptical of his plans for the race from New York City to San Francisco. Nonetheless, he has hired a 25-person team to handle logistics, sponsorship, team management and other hurdles — including convincing people that he is serious. “I’ve been working on this for the last five years,” Arokiasamy said. “It started, actually, while I was watching the Tour de France, July 2002. I was watching the American really dominate the race. I got frustrated because … I couldn’t watch the
Specialized founder and president Mike Sinyard, along with trusted colleagues Chris D’Alusio, Don Langley, and Mark Reidy and friends Randy Berggold and Mark Duroy arriving after riding from Morgan Hill, CA to Boulder City, NV
A good champagne dousing awaited the six riders after their 600-mile, 5-day odyssey. Reidy said, “at times, with Chris and Don on the front, this was hard as the (famously hard) Specialized lunch ride, in the middle of a 140-mile day!”
A well-deserved champagne toast from water bottles was bittersweet “Yesterday we were feeling sad it was almost over,” said Sinyard. “It was a fantastic ride. You can’t imagine riding across Death Valley!”
Tire Balls as packaged, 30 per tire, pre-inflated. Currently, they are only made for downhill tires.
Thisis why you can’t pinch flat with Tire Balls; the air can’t move out of the way when you your tire hits a sharp edge. Instead of moving, the air must stay right there and increase the pressure, like a progressive spring in an air shock.
Installing the tire with Tire Balls in it is no easy task, as they are already inflated (with a basketball pump) before you put the tire on the rim.
The inside of a TAG wheel.
TRP (Tektro Racing Products) cyclocross cantilever brakes, in carbon (top) and aluminum in various colors.
TRP's low-profile carbon cantilevers
Outdoor Demo Day 2 - A Zinn's Eye View
This Spot Brand steel belt-drive single speed 29er is decorated with heat marks and clear powder coated.
The Spot beltring won’t leave a rookie mark on your leg like a chainring can.
The Carbon Drive Systems (CDS) belt has carbon strands in it and is almost unbreakable under tension.
The dropout for a belt drive must come apart, else you could not install the belt on the bike. CDS sells dropouts like this with a key that allows it to open up.
The Lenz Sport Milk Money is a shiny, full-suspension single speed 29er with 80mm of rear travel and nary a cable guide to break up its clean lines.
The concentric pivot of the Lenz Milk Money. As the swingarm pivots on the bottom bracket shell, the length of the chain does not change as the suspension compresses – a critical feature of a single-speed full-suspension bike.
Lenz dropouts are horizontally adjustable to properly tension the chain. Since the seatstay bolts to the dropout, this is one design that could work with the CDS (Spot) belt drive, since you could swing the seatstay out of the way to install the belt
You lube the Milk Money’s pivot with an automotive grease gun through the Zerk fitting under the bottom bracket.
Cancellara repeats as world time-trial champ
Cancellara burns up the soggy course
Bodrogi takes silver
Clement finishes with bronze
Zabriskie had a disappointing ride, finishing 12th
The champ redux
Some soggy spectators
Michael Schar gets a Swiss sendoff, complete with bells
'Scuse me, pal, can I squeeze a shot off here?
Cameron Wurf of Australia rolls onto the course
With just minutes to go before his start, Zabriskie learns his TT bars are too long for the UCI's liking
Thus a mechanic finds himself with a last-minute fix to make
Cancellara's bars, just before the start
Three ... two ... one ...
The national champ leads the way under the lights
The men's podium
The women's podium
Lynskey Performance had custom titanium cruiser in its booth, it seems the Ti cruiser is a staple showpiece for custom titanium builders.
Lynskey’s line bumps up the performance ladder by adding more radical shaping to its titanium tubes. Lynskey is also offering a performance guarantee, where they build specifically to a customer’s performance attributes, whether it be weight, a ce
While Lynskey still had some wacky ’80s inspired paint jobs in its booth they also had some more retro chic graphics, like this SS paint job on a Level 3 frame.
Bob Parlee debuted his all carbon time-trial and triathlon bike this year at Interbike. Like Parlee’s Z1 through Z3 models the bike is fully custom to its buyer. Every tube that sees the wind on this $8500 frame has a true NACA airfoil shape.
The final production bike will have a choice of horizontal dropouts so that the rear wheel can be tucked up into the seat tube. The seat stays are also designed using NACA shapes.
The rear brake is tucked up under the bottom bracket.
One of the coolest items Parlee had at the booth was its carbon fiber braze on front derailleur adaptor. Not only does the adaptor save 30 grams off of an aluminum mount, it protects delicate carbon seat tubes.
BH is making a strong push into the U.S. market under the guidance of Chris Cocalis, the founder of Titus Cycles. The Connect has an 890-gram frame and comes in four sizes and with four different gruppo choices.
The G4 will be AG2R’s team bike next year. It comes in three sizes and has an integrated seat mast. A medium frame weighs 860 grams and is paired to a 315-gram fork.
Cocalis will also be back on the dirt with his new mountain bike company Pivot. There are two frame models in the Pivot line, both of which were designed by Cocalis with the help of suspension mastermind Dave Weagle using a version of his DW-Link
Pivot models have a direct mount for an E-Type front derailleur and 92.5mm bottom bracket shell that accepts a slip fit Shimano carbon resin integrated bottom bracket like that found on Yeti’s new carbon ASR.
Cervélo’s new RS has a longer head tube and chain stays for a more upright ride. Seat stays have been -shaped to offer more rear-wheel traction. Frame and fork will cost $2200; a Dura-Ace-equipped bike costs $4000
At CrossVegas Lyne Bessette and Jeremy Powers debuted the cyclocrossworld.com team painted Ridley X-Fire
The bikes sport Mavic wheels; the tubular R-SYS is shown with Dugast Typhoon tires. TRP brakes handle deceleration; Powers uses the new EuroX model
The bikes also use SRAM's new Red group
Cannondale-Leer-cyclocrossworld.com’s Tim Johnson’s bike uses a SRAM Red group and TRP’s low-profile carbon brakes
Decker’s Giant TCX is a mountain biker’s ’cross bike, with linear pull brakes and a single ring
Michelin tubular ’cross tires. They feature Michelin’s Mud2 tread mounted on a Dugast casing
Frank Arokiasamy discusses the long ride from New York to San Francisco
Arokiasamy says the plan isn't as nutty as it appears.
Without the official numbers (those will be tallied by Wednesday), it can’t be claimed with any certainty that day two of the 2007 Interbike Dirt Demo in Bootleg Canyon, Nevada broke any records, but if the lines were an indication — it did. Those not lucky enough to make it onto the first round of shuttles to the demo area went on to spend more than two hours trying to get to Bootleg. In past editions of the show it has rarely taken more than 50 minutes. “They have five buses,” said Elaine, one of the senior citizens who was working for the Las Vegas chamber of commerce by making sure
Cyclo-crossers across the world, take note. A pair of past and present world champion ’cross racers, under-23 world cross champ Lars Boom and three-time world elite women’s champ Hanka Kupfernagel, each won world time trial titles in Stuttgart, Germany, Wednesday. And both credited the muddy discipline for their success. Taking it a step further, Boom said he would focus on cyclo-cross for at least two more years. Winning a world under-23 time-trial championship might be something all developing riders dream of, but Boom, a Rabobank continental professional development team rider has
When I think of China, one word comes to mind — underpants. Hear me out on this one, folks. Per usual, this mountain-bike column opens with a brief anecdote. The time: September 2006. The place: Rotorua, New Zealand. Yours truly clumsily tiptoed through ankle-deep mud on the world championship cross-country course in my flip-flops. I searched for a perch to crack open a Steinlager and observe the remainder of the U23 women’s championship when I spotted a small herd of galosh-wearing Kiwis. These were good people, and they offered me respite from the muck on a small tarp — and more beer.
A North Carolina sports management firm has announced preliminary plans to organize a 27-stage transcontinental “Tour of America,” with an $11 million prize list.In a release issued Wednesday, Aqu, Inc. promised to reveal further details – including dates – at a press conference scheduled for Thursday at the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas.In its release, the company said it expects the race will be “the largest spectator event in the history of U.S. sports, covering approximately 4000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.”Distances2007 Tour de France - 3553.9kmLongest stage:
Olympic and world cycling champion Paolo Bettini supplied sacked German cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz with doping products, according to television reports in Germany on Wednesday. Sinkewitz, 26, was dismissed by T-Mobile during this year's Tour de France when abnormal levels of testosterone were found in his blood during a pre-race drugs test. The German later admitted he had used 'Testogel' patches to help aid recovery. But according to reports on German channel ZDF, Sinkewitz is quoted in a document as naming the reigning world and Olympic champion and retired Italian Davide
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Dillon Clapp, from the accessories manufacturer Lezyne, shows the company’s new Pressure Drive mini-pump. It will cost $30-35 and is rated to 120psi. The pump has a stowable hose with Schrader and Presta adaptors at opposite ends.
Clapp illustrates the use of the Pressure Drive’s stowable hose, which makes it 30-percent more compact than other mini-pumps on the market.
Lezyne is also manufacturing mini tools with smart features. Here’s the Stainless 21 – featuring 21 gadgets in all - with L-shaped 2 and 2.5mm Allen heads that allow you to actually get at hard to access reach brake lever reach adjust bolts.
Wordsmith and ’cross fanatic Mike Ferrentino, turned Santa Cruz marketing guy, showed the Stigmata. It’s a 1300-gram (size 54) U.S. made frame that retails for just $850 with a powder coat, the anodized version costs $100 more, but weighs 1200 grams
Cannondale’s new Scalpel is light and is picking up right where old bike left off, winning international level mountain bike races. The bike attributes its inevitable world cup success to System Integration, says C-Dale product tester Doug Dalton.
Dalton has been on three iterations of the bike; he picks its lack of pivots as his favorite part of the bike making it simple, light and able to provide great rear-wheel traction because of the slightly shorter chainstay length.
Bells and Whistles like DT’s SSD Carbon rear shock bring a large Scalpel’s weight down to 22.5 pounds.
Yeti’s new all carbon ASR-AC weighs only 4.2 pounds in a size medium but is 50 percent stiffer than the old alloy ASR. The frame has a 92.5mm bottom bracket shell that relies on Shimano’s threadless composite cupped bottom bracket.
The ASR-AC most attention getting feature is its integrated seat mast. It maximizes a rider’s power transfer, says Yeti GM Chris Conroy. The mast has four clamp options the lightest is 75mm in length and allows for 30mm of adjustment.
Yeti’s ASR Seven has been in development for three years. It has 7-inches of travel and weighs 7.2 pounds. The rear end has two oversized aluminum seatstays and one large carbon non-drive chainstay, to which the rear wheel mounts concentrically.
Because pivot is at the axle the bike will have active braking characteristics. The absence of a drive-side chainstay leaves weight and noise behind.
At the opposite end the massive chain and seatstays provide protection to the brake caliper and a stiff rear end that promises to track well.
Maxxis’ mech and factory team cyclocross rider Adam McGrath has one of the only new Litespeed CX bikes built and ready to race.
His teammates, Geoff Kabush and Mat Toulouse’s bikes are still waiting to be built with only 29 hours before the Vegas Cross race.
Rotor provides the Maxxis team with chainrings as well as ceramic bottom brackets for their Shimano Dura-Ace cranks.