The Roadie Blog

Velonews has pictures of the new Giant Trance X, cyclocross bikes from Ridley and Scott and a new pedal from Look. Crank Brothers continues to expand beyond pedals with new threadless headsets, cranks and wheels. 

The Indianapolis-based folks at Zipp have been very busy lately, and they are using the Eurobike exposition to introduce the fruits of their labor to the world.  We talked a little bit about this one earlier in the week, but the new Sub-9 disc wheel is said to achieve negative drag when paired with Zipp's new dimpled tubular, the Tangente2. Zipp says that it produces a negative 80g of drag at a 15 degree yam angle, yielding 11 watts of forward power.  Their updated 202 wheel is as light as ever, but has seen aerodynamic improvements in the form of a different cross section, a slightly deeper rim section (32mm) and Zipp's ABLC (Aerodynamic Boundary Layer Control) dimpling. The 1080 is a deep, deep section wheel that is said to be 29 seconds faster than a 3 spoke wheel over 40km. It handles crosswinds just as well as a 3 spoke wheel while being 80g lighter.  Zipp is best known for their wheels, but they have some other, equally amazing products. The new VumaQuad crankset bests Zi

ESPN.com is reporting that a decision in the Floyd Landis doping case should come by the end of September. This is based upon information in a memo written by the chair of the arbitration panel, Patrice Brunet. In the memo, Brunet informs the lawyers for both sides that the arbitrators will be holding the last of their meetings with their scientific advisor (Dr. Francesco Botre) on September 12th. After that meeting, the panel should be able to officially close the hearing, and have, at that point, 10 days to render a decision.  Ten business days after the 12th is September 25th. I, however, am not confident that they will close the hearing immediately after meeting. Surely they will have to get together at least once more to discuss the meeting with Botre.  Trust But Verify has extensive coverage of reactions across the blogosphere to the ESPN story. As of today, the Floyd Watch calendar is at 71 days. Will it go all the way to 91 days? Let's hope not. 

Here are a few new products from Day 1 of Interbike: SRAM officially rolls out the new Red group Felt introduces their 2008 line Zipp rolls out some new equipment , including a disk claiming to have negative drag Sampson Sports is showing off their latest iteration of a complete drivetrain group Kuota has a new track bike as well as a new Tt/Tri bike. Other models get updates Colnago makes some small adjustments to their excellent line of bikes Selle Italia is collaborating with Troy Lee! Giro introduces new eyewear . Weren't we supposed to see this last year (along with some shoes?) ROI Bikes is looking to expand More to come later, I'm sure. 

The Trek web site has been updated and now features all of their new models for 2008. They are, of course, focusing on the new line of Madones. There are 13 bikes in the Madone line including 4 "Pro" models and 3 that are designed especially for women. There are 4 ranges of carbon that are being used on the Madones, ranging from OCLV Red Carbon in the Pro line to something called TCT Carbon at the low end. I'm curious to see what will happen with the Madone line now that they are not backing the Discovery Channel team.   I really like the Portland (above), a nifty looking commuter bike with fenders and disk brakes. If I start riding home more often, one of these may be in my future. A lot of the Madone technology, as well as lessons learned from the Pro Tour, Ironman competitions and wind tunnel testing goes into the updated Equinox Tri/TT series (below).

Vuelta Preview Here's a collection of various news stories related to the final Grand Tour of the year, the Vuelta de Espana: Pez Cycling News has a great overview of the course and the stages Looks like Michael Rasmussen won't be able to find a sponsor in time to ride the Vuelta.  12 Protour teams have agreed to a new doping pact. The teams will face additional out of competition testing (15 blood tests and 15 urine tests throughout the year). The teams are: Liquigas, Team CSC, T-Mobile, Rabobank, Euskaltel, Caisse d'Epargne, Saunier-Duval, Quick-Step Innergetic, Lampre-Fondital, Team Milram, Predictor-Lotto and Gerolsteiner. Full story here. Alberto Contador, winner of this year's Tour de France, will not be racing at the Vuelta, but will be watching it closely. Stijn Devolder will be Disco's team captain for the race. Team Milram has confirmed that sprinters Alessandro Petacchi and Eric Zabel will be going to the race, aiming for stage wins. 

Several weeks ago, while out on a group ride, I had 3 flats within the space of less than 2 hours and 25 miles. I only had one tube on me, but was fortunate enough to be riding with some very generous people that not only shared tubes with me, but also helped me put them in. One of these individuals took a look at my wheels and theorized that my flats were likely being caused by tube to rim contact, as opposed to road debris or pinch flats.  When I got home, I took off the wheels, removed the tires and tubes and took a good hard look at the rim strips. Sure enough, the Velox strips were a bit narrow, and in places, just barely covered the spoke holes.  I knew that I had to find a solution. I was tired of buying new tubes every couple of weeks. After some research on the internet, I came across these Specialized brand rim strips . I made some phone calls to local bike shops to see if anyone carried them, with no luck. I ended up ordering them directly from Specialized.  When they arri

The Eurobike trade show starts tomorrow. I won't be there in person, but I'll try to bring you all of the latest news and product introductions as they come out. Some of the latest trends and innovations that are expected to dominate the show are: The growth of the bicycle touring industry, especially among racing enthusiasts. Bicycles adapting to match the consumer's lifestyle, making them suitable for commuting, casual rides in the evening and touring. Carbon fiber technology allowing bikes to get lighter. Full suspension mountain bikes weighing under 10kg are expected Shimano will be showing off a new, lower profile XTR derailleur Storck will premiere its Fascenario 0.8 race bike.  The fashion show will be good for some giggles. The products are always interesting, but the presentation looks like something out of "Zoolander" Elite will be presenting new rollers that can simulate mountain stages with 20 percent grades.

Considering that the arbitration panel is probably taking weekends off, they've had 67 days to deliberate on the Floyd Landis issue.  I previously said that the Supreme Court doesn't usually take this long to make a decision. They do take this long, and longer in some cases. That said however, their case load is a bit larger than the Landis arbitration panel. The Supreme Court Recent Decisions page  shows 75 cases upon which they have issued formal decisions this year, and these are matters of constitutional law. This page says that their caseload is more than 7000 cases on the docket per term.  As best as I can determine, there are only 3 members on Floyd's arbitration panel. This is, as far as we know, the only case that they are deliberating, though I'm sure that they all have full time jobs, families and other commitments that take up their time.  Under the rules of the hearing, the prosecution and the defense were each allowed 25 hours of testimony before the pane

Cyclingnews.com covers an interview that Greg Lemond granted to the Colorado Daily Camera , in which he made some drastic recommendations to clean up the sport of cycling. Some of this has been proposed before: primarily, reworking the UCI, which has known for a long while that doping has been taking place, but only recently started doing something about it.  Other recommendations include sequestering riders before races to limit unauthorized contact, increasing the number of randomly tested riders and lowering the hematocrit limit.  I don't see the point of limiting contact. Riders can dope days before a race and still receive benefit. All that sequestering will do is make them have to get up earlier in the morning. I'm all for more random testing. If riders start to think that their chances of getting randomly nailed are increasing, they'll be less inclined to take the risk.  He goes on to propose a system in which riders that test positive could plea-bargain by ratting

Here's some news from the racing world from over the weekend: Luciano Pagliarini took the fifth stage of the Eneco Tour de Benelux , but Nick Nuyens holds on to the leader's jersey. Stjin Vanderbergh stayed close enough to the front to hold on to the lead of the Tour of Ireland . This is the first stage race victory of his professional career.  Marcus Ljungqvist and Aaron Olson round out the podium.  Vanderbergh also gets the nod for best young rider and Unibet.com takes the team award.  With the Discovery Channel team going the way of the dodo, Tom Danielson will be moving to the Slipstream Sports/Chipotle team for 2008. He joins David Zabriskie, Christian Vandevelde, Magnus Backstedt, David Millar, Daniel Martin, Julian Dean, Christophe Laurent, Huub Duyn and Martin Maaskant. Portland, Oregon will host the world's first single-speed cyclocross world championships in November.  I don't think that the UCI is really going to be watching this one too closely. 

Here are some of the latest headlines from the world of cycling.  Giro winner Danilo diLuca faces yet another hearing about doping allegations. Michael Cavendish's outstanding debut season continues with a stage win at the Tour of Benelux. Nick Nuyens of Cofidis is holding on to the overall lead. Young rider Stijn Vanderbergh fended off the riders of Team CSC to win the second stage of the Tour of Ireland. Levi Leipheimer is very close to making a deal for 2008. On Trust But Verify: It's been 3 months since the close of Floyd Landis' arbitration hearing, and the panel has made nary a peep .  Cycling News has a good review of the BMC Pro Machine SLC01 I'll be posting a review of Specialized Product's nylon rim strips soon. They just went on the bike late last night, so I need to get out for a cruise to see how they behave. I'm looking forward to going a long time without a flat.  Have a good weekend!

Yahoo Sports reports that Michael Rasmussen is looking for a new team to finsish the season. He has his sights set on the Giro di Lombardia, the final single day race of the season.  He met with the director of the Acqua & Sapone team on Wednesday for about 30 minutes. Director Palmiro Masciarelli states, "He wants to finish the season with us. He showed me all his papers. The problem is with the Danish federation."  You'll recall that Rasmussen was kicked out of the Tour and off of his team for allegedly lying about his whereabouts to evade doping tests. Masciarelli states that Rasmussen should not have been dismissed because he missed two tests, but if I recall correctly, the dismissal was over the lying, not the missed tests.  If I was a team director, I would be very reluctant to add a rider who was under such heavy scrutiny. In today's environment, one bad egg could bring down an entire team.

After a 15 year hiatus, the Tour of Ireland has returned to the international racing calendar and is attracting teams from both Europe and the United States (Navigators Insurance, Slipstream/Chipotle and Colavita-Sutter Home). The five stage tour starts in Kilkenny and ends up in Dublin, traveling through the rolling hills of Southern and Western Ireland. Tour organizers are hoping for good weather, as cold rain and winter-like temperatures have messed with Ireland's short summer season. Weather forecasters are calling for partly cloudly skies for most of the week.  There will be 109 riders from 16 teams. Some of the big names scheduled to appear include the Schleck brothers from Team CSC, Bernhard Eisel and Aaron Olson from T-Mobile and Baden Cooke and Luis Pasmontes from Unibet.com. Irish locals will likely be cheering for native sons Nicholas Roche (and the Irish National team), David Deignan, David McCann and David O'Loughlin. Ireland's Continental team Murphy and Gunn

Trek just held Trek World, their major product introduction event, in Madison, Wisconsin. John Burke, the President of Trek, unveiled new bicycle models and accessories as well as a new advocacy program called One World Two Wheels . We all know that gas is expensive (and getting more so every day) and, say what you want about global warming, it's an irrefutable fact that cars pollute and that there are more and more cars on the road every day. This program aims to address some of the world's problems through cycling. Trek is encouraging people to use bikes for short trips, work for more bicycle friendly communities and to ride to work. Ostensibly, Trek is promoting this program as a benefit of not having to finance the Discovery Channel team for 2008. Since that announcement only came a couple of weeks ago, and rolling out a campaign such as this takes more time than that, I'd say that this has been in the works for some time. That said, Trek deserves some points for not tr

One of our stops on vacation to give the kids a break from the car was COSI Columbus. Their IMAX theater was featuring the movie " Wired To Win - Surviving the Tour de France ". While the kids were off playing, I took the time to see this movie, which presented footage from the Tour interspersed with computer graphics and medical imagery to demonstrate how the brain deals with what some have called the ultimate test of the human brain. The movies follows the efforts of Francais de Jeux riders Baden Cooke and Jimmy Caspar as they pursue their destinies in the 2003 Tour. We watch as they struggle to avoid danger, fight crushing pain and fatique, control their emotions, seize opportunities and stay motivated. Apparently, the movie producers originally planned to follow Tyler Hamilton, but his doping scandal at the Vuelta a Espana forced them to change to focus to Caspar. Caspar was caught up in a huge crash in the first stage of that year's Tour and the cameras followed him

I've been away on vacation and haven't been able to post, so some of this may be old news. The Discovery Channel racing team has disbanded , leaving Tour de France winner Alberto Contador (as well as third place finisher Levi Leipheimer) looking for a new home for the 2008 season. Levi Leipheimer is reportedly being pursued by the Predictor-Lotto squad, and George Hincapie is rumored to have already signed with the T-Mobile squad. Yaroslav Popovych may be closing on a contract with Tom Booonen's QuickStep-Innergetic team. Discovery's departure leaves a Pro Tour license available for the 2008 season. The Slipstream Sports-Chipotle team could take that license, but they have repeatedly said that they were pursuing a wildcard entry to the Tour de France for 2008, and would go after a Pro Tour license in 2009. The Astana team has taken a self imposed month off from competition after team members Alexandre Vinokourov and Andrej Kashechkin both failed doping tests in the past

I'll be on vacation for the next week, so no new posts until around the 20th. 

Pinarello has extended their Opera brand with 3 new Luxury models.  The Mercurio is a singlespeed city bike with butted aluminum tubing and interchangeable dropouts so a derailleur can be added if you so desire. This bike may just make you the envy of all the hipster kids down at the local coffee shop. Even if it doesn't you'll have fun getting there and can arrive in style.  Other Luxury models were also announced:  The Caravaggio, a sloping tube model with an 8-speed internally geared hub and a Brooks saddle  The Artemisa, designed specifically for women, with a mixte frame, 26 inch wheels and a 3-speed internally geared hub.  Check out the Opera line at:  http://www.operabike.com/home_eng.php

Ice cream may be one of the best post-ride recovery foods that you can find.  A typical half cup serving of ice cream 3 grams of protein, vitamin A and 9 percent of your daily value of calcium. If your body doesn't get around 1000 mg of clacium a day, your fat cells begin storing fat. Calcium also helps build and strengthen bones, lowers the risk of colon cancer and helps to reduce PMS symptoms. In addition, calcium increases your metabolism to help you burn fat. Two to three servings of dairy a day can help you lose 11 to 15 pounds over a year.  When Greg LeMond was asked what he thought about while racing, he replied "Ice cream. God, I dream about ice cream." Since I'm using their picture, I'll throw out a little love to Graeter's - Cincinnati's best ice cream. By the way, they ship nationally. Just ask Oprah. 

Look. Over there in your garage. Behind that pile of old cardboard boxes from your last move. Or maybe under a dusty old drop cloth. It’s your bicycle. Clear away those old boxes and stick them in your recycle bin. Pull that bike out, dust it off and throw a leg over it. Do you remember how fun it was to ride when you were a kid, before you ever dreamed of owning or driving a car? It’s still fun, and it’s an easy, healthy and environmentally responsible way of getting around town.  I often use my bike to take the kids to the park in a trailer, run to the library or to go to the store to pick up something. A backpack is all that is needed for most errands, but with the addition of a basket or a rack, a bike can be very useful. Maybe your old bike has some flat tires, or the chain has succumbed to rust. There are now bicycle co-ops in town that, for a small yearly fee, supply very inexpensive parts and even help you build the skills to maintain your existing bike or even build one.  If y

She might show up at your next club ride. Model & actress Estella Warren is a triathlete. Apparently a pretty good one, too. She one the "celebrity" class at her first tri.  But hey, even if she doesn't show up, you'll still get to ride with some fun folks that are fit and like to do something that you like as well. You might even have a chance of going out for a beer with them after the ride. 

"Bikes I Love" will be an ongoing feature of Bike World. I'll be posting overviews of race bikes, and trying to look at a variety of news sources and reviews to give a good overall impression of the bike. I'm calling these overviews, not reviews, as I'm not in the position to get my hands on most bikes at this point. That said, I'm going to start this feature with a review of the Flyte SRS-2. In this case, I can call it a review as I actually own and ride this bike. Here's how I have the bike set up: 54 cm Flyte SRS-2 Reynolds Ouzo Comp fork Flyte stem (90mm) Airborne OS anatomic handlebar Tacx bottle cages Ultegra brakes 105 shifters Ultegra front derailleur 105 rear derailleur 105 cranks Generic carbon fiber seatpost Selle Italia saddle Look Keo Classic pedals Alex DA-28 wheelset Michelin Dynamic tires I purchased my SRS-2 frame directly from Flyte in the Spring of 2006. I was fortunate to work about 4 miles from their former office. The frame was on sal

Alberto Contador was coming down with something at the finish of the Tour, and states that he " was no longer the strongest rider on the team ." We also learned today that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has opened an investigation against Contador related to his alleged involvement with the Operation Puerto affair. This overturns the UCI's earlier decision to acquit Contador of any involvement in the case. Floyd Landis will be riding in the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race this weekend. Lance was scheduled to appear, but at this point seems to have backed out. Floyd will have to settle for racing against Lance's coach, who had been training to compete against him at the race. Another nail in the coffin for the Astana team: Craft, their apparel sponsor has cancelled their contract with the troubled team. This follows an announcement last week that their bicycle sponsor BMC dropped them. Vinokourov continues to claim innocence. The up and coming Slipstream Sp

All the news that's fit to sprint.... Patrick Sinkewitz admitted to using testosterone gel during the Tour. T-Mobile has fired him and the German police searched his house .  Jonathon Vaughters continues to build his Slipstream team , with an eye on obtaining a wild card entry to the 2008 Tour.  David Millar is coming over from Saunier Duval-Prodir and Dave Zabriskie and Christian Vandevelde are joining from CSC. Stuttgart will still host the 2007 World Championships after receiving agreements for addtional doping controls.  USA Cycling names its team for the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup event in Beijing.  Great photo gallery from the Tour on ESPN's web site Until tomorrow, keep the rubber side down. 

They're all cheats. They're all dopers.  That's the position of David Walsh , the author  From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France . In his latest screed, he claims that Alberto Contador, the winner of this year's Tour de France must be a cheat.  Why?  He climbed the Col d'Aubisque faster than Lance Armstrong did.  Hmmm. Interesting logic. Let me start off by saying that, yes, there were definitely cheaters in this year's Tour. Some of them got caught, and others probably got away with it.  Walsh previously stated that Lance was doping throughout his seven Tour wins. With all of the testing that stage winners and race leaders undergo. That would make Lance the luckiest man in the world.  So... let's look at some of his possible thought patterns.   Lance cheated and Contador cheated. Contador was faster. Contador must have had better drugs than Lance did. Or... It's been two years now since Lance won the Tour an