The Roadie Blog

The city of Stuttgart's request for an injuction to bar Paolo Bettini from racing in the World Championships road race on Sunday has been rejected, so he will be lining up to defend his rainbow jersey. T-Mobile is revamping their team for 2008, adding 10 new riders, the most notable of which is George Hicnapie and Bradley Wiggins. The Tour Down Under will receive ProTour status in 2008, a year earlier than anticipated. Mario Cipollini hosted a swank party during Interbike at the Mirage on Wednesday, then went out and raced in the USA Crits on Thursday. Oops. Michael Rasmussen was found to have used  Dynepo during the 2007 Tour de France. While not on the UCIs list of banned substances, it is questionable. WADA's criteria of positivity of a test have not yet adapted to the advances in the pharmaceutical market. Patrik Sinkewitz is now denying that Paolo Bettini supplied him with testosterone gel. Svitlana Semchuk of the Ukraine women's team has been declared "unfit to

Las Vegas, NV - September 27, 2007 - The fans have spoken and Joe Yule, a graphic designer and avid cyclist from Redondo Beach, California, has been selected as the winner of the "Get in the Slipstream" contest, sponsored by Slipstream Sports LLC and its chief venture, the Slipstream/ Chipotle Professional Cycling Team. The first-of-its-kind contest invited fans to submit design ideas for the official 2008 Team Slipstream/Chipotle jersey. A panel of judges, including Doug Ellis and Jonathan Vaughters, selected the five finalists who they felt best incorporated the team's orange and blue argyle, as well as logos for Chipotle, Felt and Slipstream Sports. Then, the voting opened up to the public and cycling enthusiasts around the world were encouraged to go to www.slipstreamsports.com to vote on the winning designer. Again, the fans spoke and Slipstream/Chipotle today announced that Joe will become the designer of the official team jersey, worn by the team in and

Yesterday was Day 2 on the show floor at Interbike 2007. Fixed Gear Gallery returns with a boatload of pictures: A visit to the Phil Wood booth A utility bike from Sycip New track bikes in aluminum and carbon fiber from Pinarello Dedicated track and fixed road bikes from Masi, some at very attractive prices Cruisers, commuters and a revamped Madison from Schwinn New very affordable carbon fiber bikes from Ibis. Pursuit bars from Profile Design A couple of track bikes from Temple New track wheels from American Classic From CyclingNews.com  : Deep, deep section wheels from HED The reintroduction of the very popular Gore Ride-On brake and derailleur cables Hot and cold weather riding gear from Craft From VeloNews : A slick looking ti cruiser from Lynskey An all carbon fiber time trial/tri bike from Parlee A look at some of the 'cross bikes ridden in this year's CrossVegas: Jeremy Power's Ridley X-Fire, Tim Johnson's Cannondale and Decker's Giant TCX.

Reports are starting to come in from the show floor. We start off today with a good number of pictures from the Fixed Gear Gallery . They are, of course, focused on the fixed/singlespeed/commuter world. Some of products they highlighted were: Cool weather gear from Gator Teschner and Colnago all carbon track frames Fixed bikes from Kind, Felt, SE, KHS, Kona, Co-motion, Salsa and Rocky Mountain Some very sweet looking wheels from Formula A Human-Powered System design competition sponsored by SRAM BikeRadar.com's Gary Boulanger filed his first report from the show: A new commuter oriented brand from Quality Bicycle Products called Civia An integrated time trial/triathlon hydration system from FSA/ Vision Tech A new wheelset from FSA's offroad brand Gravity New models from Lynskey Performance An extremely versatile bike from Ibis called the Tranny A new all-mountain bike from Trek called the Remedy Cycling News features: A less expensive, more comfortable new model from Cervelo

After allegations that current World Champ Paolo Bettini supplied Patrick Sinkewitz, and his refusal to sign the "Commitment for a New Cycling" agreement, Germany is trying to bar him from riding in the World Championships road race on Saturday. Signing the agreement is voluntary; Bettini is said to have signed a version which stated that he was not involved in O.P. and that he would provide DNA if requested. Also, Sinkewitz's lawyer has stated that he did not refer to Bettini during procedures related to Sinkewitz's positive doping control in June. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled yesterday that it could not bar Alejandro Valverde from competing Saturday, either. The Spanish Secretary for the Sport Jaime Lissavetzky was pleased with the decision, stating that it was important to safeguard the presumption of innocence. Australian Allan Davis and Czech Rene Andrle were cleared to race under the same decision. Veteran racer Inigo Cuesta completed his 14th consec

Fabian Cancellera is having a good couple of years. 2006 saw him winning Paris-Roubaix over the previously dominant Tom Boonen and winning the Worlds Time Trial competition later in the year.  He won the prologue and Stage 3 of this year's Tour de France and held on to the yellow jersey for 8 days.  Now he overcomes pressure, rain and a tougher course to repeat as the World Champ. He finished nearly a minute faster than Laszlo Bodrogi of Hungary and Dutchman Stef Clement. American Dave Zabriskie has been having good performance at time trials this year, but only managed 12th place today. 

The competition kicked off with U23 and Women's time trials. World U23 Cyclocross champ Lars Boom of the Netherlands came out on top in the U23 time trial, besting Mikhail Ignatiev of Russia by 8 seconds. Jerome Coppel of France came in third. The only American, Tejay Van Gardern, came in 38th.  Boom says that he is not going to switch to the road, but will continue to focus on CX. In the women's competition, Hanka Kupfernagel of Germany did her home country proud by posting the best time over defending champion Kristin Armstrong of the U.S. Christiane Soeder of Austria got the bronze. Americans Amber Neben and Christine Thorburn took fourth and fifth, respectively. 

Yesterday was Day 2 of the Outdoor Demo. The weather was said to be very non-Las Vegas like and agreeable, though some, like Matt Pacocha at VeloNews mentioned that getting out to Bootleg Canyon took an unusually long time. This report from CyclingNews focuses on cyclocross gear: A new titanium cyclocross machine from Litespeed that comes in at under 17 pounds The revised Jamis Supernova, now 50 grams lighter The Xpedo Twin pedal featuring dual hinged step-in engagement  That's not all they saw, however: Cannondale has 4 new 29er models for 2008 Foes was showing off some prototype machines, as well as a really cool work stand Lezyne: This all new company has some very cool multitools and pumps, with more in the pipeline Fizik had new saddles as well as gelato.  Interbike's New Product Showcase has a boatload of new products: Rotor's super light new S1 stem New road tires from Kenda A bike-park/slopestyle bike from Jamis Duratec a bicycle manufacturer based in the Czech R

Do you have some sea salt on hand? Okay, pop a grain into your hand. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can report that there is talk of a country-spanning Tour of America being planned for 2008. This web site has preliminary information about the race. The race is said to have 27 stages that will be contested over 30days. It would start in New York and finish up on the west coast, winding through as many as 22 states. They seem to be tying it into 9/11 as they are trying to start close to that date and the first stage is said to complete at Ground Zero.  They are offering $11 million in prize money, with $1 million going to the overall winner. They expect to invite the top teams in the world to come to the race.  I'm all for this. I'm ready to sign up and volunteer, as it looks like a stage will be passing right through my area.  Joe Lindsey, writer of the Boulder Report blog at Bicycling.com is thinking "What the... ?" There are some things that cas

The Road Cycling World Championships kick off tomorrow in Stuttgart , Germany with U23 and Women's Time Trials. The Elite Men will have their time trial on Thursday. Road races will start on Friday. The course for the race is 19.1km long with several challenging climbs. The Women will do 7 laps, the U23 riders will do 9. Elite Men will race on Sunday, covering 14 laps for a total of   267 km. Paolo Bettini is looking to keep his rainbow jersey, and will not sign the anti-doping pledge. He and the rest of the Italian team (Alessandro Ballan, Danilo Di Luca and Davide Rebellin ). Alejandro Valverde will be in there gunning if he gets to race, and the Schleck brothers can't be dismissed either. The US team, consisting of Hincapie, Vande Velde and Zabriskie , could pose a threat as well.

I'll be doing news digests as I can compile them. If there is an item that particularly interests me, it will get its own post.  Velonews started their coverage of the event yesterday . They were at the Outdoor Demo along with everyone else. They noted that the Outdoor Demo has been moved to Bootleg Canyon , NV . This location offers 65,000 sq. ft of exhibit space along with plenty of space for MTB trails, a BMX course and road rides. Chris King was showing off new cyclocross hubs, wheelsets for road and cyclocross. Spot Bikes has a new carbon belt driven single speed system. Fulcrum rolls out a new line of mountain bike wheels. Tomac returns to the fray with a completely new line of mountain bikes. Mike Sinyard, the President of Specialized Bikes, rode the 600 miles from Morgan Hill , CA to Vegas for Interbike ( http://www.bicycleretailer.com/news/newsDetail/420.html ) Advanced Sports, Inc., which owns the Fuji & SE Bikes brands, has announced plans to acquire Kestrel. They

Stage 20 - September 22, 2007 Samuel Sanchez picked up his third stage win in this year's Vuelta, narrowly beating race leader Denis Menchov by 12 seconds and Stef Clement of Bouyges Telecom by 14 seconds. He gained 19 seconds over Cadel Evans, possibly securing a position on the podium for Sunday's final stage.  Stage 21 - September 23, 2007 Daniele Bennati took another chance to thumb his nose as those selecting riders for Italy's World Championships team, taking his third stage win at the Vuelta.  This final stage was more of a parade than a race. Nothing much happened until the racers reached the city limits of Madrid, when Jesus Redondo and Raul Garcia de Mateo attempted attacks. The Liquigas team also tried to put a couple of riders out front, but ultimately it was the Lampre and Milram teams that took control. Alessandro Pettachi and Daniele Bennati went shoulder to shoulder down the final straight, with Bennati able to dig a little deeper and take the sprint.  Denis

"83.  On 17 May 2007, during the hearings, the Respondent brought a motion to strike the testimony or Greg Lemond..." (my emphasis) I'm sure that Floyd would have loved to strike Lemond. 

I'm not a lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt.  I don't even know if Floyd has a (legal) reason to file a suit, but my thought right now is that he should forgoe the appeal to the CAS and instead, file a civil suit against the LNDD and the Chatenay-Malabry lab. If I recall correctly, the burden of proof in a civil case is different from that in a criminal case, and I think that out of a jury of 12 reasonable people, there might be at least a few that would look at the procedural missteps, wacky test handling and such that took place and find in Floyd's favor.  This occured to me after reading Christopher Campbell's dissent, specifically where he says: "These doping allegations can cause substantial harm to a human being financially, physically and emotionally. It can destroy families. If, from time to time, WADA's mission obligates it to inflict such harm, it should be obligated to get it right -- all of it. As athlete's have strict liability rules, t

Stage 18 : Luis Perez Rodriguez goes out with a bang, closing out his 13 year career with a stage win in his home country.  4 riders dropped out before the start of Thursday's, the most notable of which was World Chamion Paolo Bettini. 24 riders tried to make an early escape today, but were captured by the peloton at 40km. Soon after, another group of 19 riders broke away. Even that group splintered, and we ended up with a group of 12, consisting of chasers and breakers at the 56km mark. Some of the notable names in the break were Menchov, Sastre, Evans, Sanchez and Mosquera. Chasing closely behind (38 seconds back at 76km) was a 10 man group containing Efimkin and others.  At 93km, the second group was caught be the peloton, while the leaders extended their advantage to 2 minutes and 45 seconds. The leaders cooperated well over the final climb and kept their lead. With 13km to go, Rodriguez put the hammer down and quickly pulled out to a 26 second lead. He managed to keep ahead al

Courtesy of Pez , here are some of the new products that will be intro'ed at Interbike 2007. The Bontrager Race X Lite Blade bar: ergo top, round bend and a slighty shorter reach A Sidi Ergo shoe in multi-hue reflective materials A line of road brakes from FSA Limar's new superlight Pro 104 helmet A semi-custom line of orthotic insoles from eSoles The show kicks off Monday. Visit back here for the new product news from all over!

CyclingNews and other outlets are reporting today that Floyd Landis has lost his appeal to overturn the sanction for his positive drug test from the 2006 Tour de France. The arbitration panel was split 2 to 1, with Christopher Campbell dissenting.  It is anticipated that ASO, the organizer of the Tour de France, will now officially remove Landis as the winner of the 2006 race and will name Oscar Pereiro in Landis' place. Landis will now be required to serve his 2 year ban, which will likely date from the end of the 2006 Tour (although the New York Times is stating that the ban will be retroactive to January 30th of 2007). At this point, Landis can either accept the decision of the panel, or he can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). He has a month to file the appeal. I would look for it by this time tomorrow.  The 84 page decision acknowledges that the initial screening test to measure his testosterone levels was not done according to WADA rules, but that the lat

Specialized has already rolled out much of their new products for 2008 in advance of Interbike.  Saddles: Specialized found that, because of its comfort and light weight, many of their mountain bike riders were using the Toupe road saddle off road. They saw that they could use the same technology to make an MTB saddle that is as light and comfortable, but more durable and off road specific. The result is the new Phenom saddle. They also are rolling out a new time trial/tri saddle called the Tri-Tip. This is very similar to the Toupe, but with a longer and wider, slighty more padded nose. Tires: Specialized grew their tire team this year and worked with long time advisor Ned Overend on a new line of mountain bike tires. This year sees the introduction of the Control line, with S-Works, Captain, Armadillo and S-Carve models. The S-Works tire was designed to be lighter while increasing cut resistance.  The Captain is an all around tire, while the Armadillo is focused on overall d

Vuelta de Espana - Stage 17 : After a very successful year, Daniele Bennati was understandably upset when it was announced that he was not selected for the World Championship team for Italy. He took his frustration out on the peloton at the Vuelta today. There was an early two-man escape today, but the pelton was able to keep the breakaway under control. They were never more than six minutes ahead, and, with 34 km to go, their lead was whittled down to 2 minutes. With 20k remaining, the Euskatel-Euskadi, Lampre and Milram teams all worked together to catch the break. Inside of the 8km mark, the break was overtaken. Race speeds were said to push as high as 65km/hr at points in the race. Milram worked to set up Pettachi for the final sprint, and T-Mobile was in there as well. The bunch sprint was dominated by Zabel, Pettachi, Bettini and Benatti. Benatti pulled out from the center, with Bettini in second and Pettachi in third. No significant change in the G.C. today. Other News : Pat Mc

In a press release issued today, the Eurobike Exhibition seems to be looking to grow even larger, with 2 new exhibition halls and additional parking. The full text of the press release is below: Heavy construction machinery has been put to work now that the expansion of the exhibition grounds is in full swing at the East Entrance. Lord Mayor Josef Buechelmeier, chairman of the Messe Friedrichshafen supervisory board, has given the go-ahead for work to begin on the expansion of the exhibition grounds, scheduled for completion in 2009. In addition to new parking facilities in the immediate vicinity of the grounds, the expansion plans include the construction of two additional clear-span halls and a new entrance complex complete with seminar and conference facilities. The new exhibition halls are expected to be already available for use in October 2008. The revamped East Entrance, complete with Foyer and conference rooms, will be inaugurated in summer 2009, the Eurobike schedule

The racing season is winding down very quickly. The Tour of Missouri is finished, the Worlds are on the horizon, and the Vuelta will be coming to a close in Madrid on Sunday. Monday the 17th was the second rest day.  Tuesday's Stage 16 is a relatively short (161km) but tough day, featuring 2 Category 2 climbs and 1 Category 3 climb. 154 riders started today. The peloton stayed together today until the 58 km mark, when 18 racers managed to pull off the front. The lead built to 4 minutes, and then 6 minutes with 50km to go. The peloton didn't really expend any effort to catch the break, as Menchov had at least a 20 minute lead over the riders in the break.   Leonardo Bertagnolli was the first to try and attack out of the break, but he was reeled back in with 25km to go. Vorganov then attacked, but it didn't last. Finally, three men (Kolobnev, Duque and Horrach) pulled ahead as the breakaway started to splinter. They built a 42 second lead with 5km left to go and in the final

The new Bikeradar.com site (formerly cycling.co.uk) gives a first look at Look's new 586 high modulus carbon road frame that will come out in 2008.  It is 100g lighter than the frame it replaces. Like it's predecessor, it has an integrated seatpost, but this model includes elastomer blocks in the post that will help to soften the ride a little bit.  The same article mentions the introduction of the Keo Grip cleat. Apparently this is the Keo cleat with some rubber grip pads to help keep your feet under you when walking.  The new products can be seen at Look Cycle's web site . As an aside, I see that the review was written by Gary Boulanger, of the late, great Cycles Gaansari. 

Vuelta de Espana : Today (the 17th) is the second race day.  Over the weekend, Saturday's race started with the news that Michael Blaudzun of CSC and Carlos Castano of Karpin Galicia dropped out of the race due to injuries sustained during  Friday's stage.  Saturday's stage saw many early attempts at a break, but nothing stuck until the 66km mark, when a group of 11 riders went off the front. By 92km, they had built their lead up to 5 and a half minutes and they got as far as 7 and a half minutes up by the 163km point.  During the last climb, with 20km to go, the lead pack started to splinter as individual riders made attacks. It was not until they passed the summit, with 15km to go, that Jason McCartney (Discovery Channel) and two others got away. McCartney pushed as hard as he could to get away, and enjoyed a 41 second lead with 5km to go. He held on to win the stage over Thomas Lokvist by 28 seconds.  Sunday's stage saw an early breakaway of 20 riders at the 50km

Vuelta de Espana: It sounds like the rain in Spain stayed mainly on the plain today. There was heavy rain, and even hail, today. The pack mainly rode together while 3 riders - Andreas Klier, Tom Stamsnijder and Jeremy Roy broke away at the 20km mark and were able to maintain their lead for the remainder of the race. It ended in that order with Klier, Stamsnijder and Roy on the podium. No change in the general classification today. Tour of Missouri : Levi Leipheimer won yesterday's time trial. George Hincapie rolled in at 6th place, giving him enough of an advantage to take the leader's jersey. William Frickshorn is in 2nd and David Canada Garcia is in 3rd. Tour of Britain : The U.K. was riding high this year after the Tour de France had their prologue there this year, but yesterday's events show that they still need to do some work on their organization. The race was neutralized at the 80km mark yesterday when it was discovered that the council for North Yorkshire had fail

If you haven't had the chance to check out the comic strip Frazz, give it a look sometime.  Frazz, the lead character, is the most respected educator at Bryson Elementary School. He also happens to be the janitor. Frazz is a Renaissance man: an accomplished songwriter, avid reader, philosopher, custodial engineer, triathlete and much more.  Frazz has become independently wealthy from his work as a songwriter, yet still chooses to work as a janitor.  Frazz owns at least 3 bikes. His idea of a good time is a 200 mile bike ride.  He has an impressive collection of t-shirts from bicycle companies, bands and colleges (I've seen shirts from Cervelo and The University of Cincinnati over the summer). The strip uses a large number of cultural references, hitting on classic and contemporary literature, music, the arts, popular culture and more. Frazz acknowledges that he was a bad student but he has done much to educate himself.  The man behind Frazz is Jef Mallett. Mallett lives in

We recently reported that the arbitration panel was to have a meeting with their technical advisor on September 12th. At the time, we weren't sure if this would be the final meeting and if the 10 days to issue a ruling would be calendar days or business days. Recent reports in the news have stated that they closed the hearing on Wednesday, and that the ruling has to be issued within 10 calendar days. Given that, we should hear something no later than the 22nd. 

Vuelta de Espana - Stage 12 : Alessandro Pettachi gets another stage win, narrowly edging out Danielle Bennati at the final sprint. Once again, no change at the top of the G.C. Denis Menchov holds on to the golden jersey, and leads Vladimmir Efimkin by a little more than 2 minutes. Despite Pettachi's two wins, he still sits in 135th place, almost an hour and a half off of the lead. Tour of Missouri - Stage 2 : There was a wreck early in the stage when Dan Schmatz of the BMC team seemingly hit an armadillo and went down hard. At the 50km, a breakaway group of 12 riders pulled away from the peloton, with at least one rider from every team represented. They only maintained a 30 second lead at first, but it grew to 7 minutes, and then 11 minutes. George Hincapie took both of the intermediate sprints, but was closely challenged by Domonique Rollin each time. With 85 km to go, the gap had opened up to 17 minutes. DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed made the initial moves to reel in the break, but

Vuelta de Espana - Stage 11: The day started with a two man breakaway at the 8km mark that saw it's biggest gap at the 40km point. The peloton was taking it easy, working only hard enough to let the break not get any bigger.  At 120km, the peloton started to reel in the break and they had made up the 3 minute advantage by km 150.   The Milram and Lampre-Fondital teams, along with Rabobank, did the majority of the work to make up the break. By the final 10 km, the speeds racked up considerably, with T-Mobile & Milram leading a long, single file peloton.  Milram took over the lead in the final 2 kilometers. Zabel did the work to set up Pettachi to take the final sprint at the last corner. Pettachi racks up his 18th career win today at the Vuelta.  coming by teammate Erik Zabel in the final meters of today's stage. Paolo Bettini took second, Zabel third.  The G.C. stays much the same with Menchov, Efimkin, Evans, Sastre and Miquez in the Top 5 spots.  Other News: Ivan Dominque

The Floyd Watch is at Day 79. At this point, even the arbitrators may not know how they are going to decide on the Floyd Landis case, but they only have 10 days from this point to publish a decision. Today is the day that the arbitrators are scheduled to meet with their technical advisor, Dr. Franceso Botre. This is said to be the last step necessary to close the hearing, but as I have said earlier, there's nothing to stop the panel from calling one last meeting before they issue their decision. Once the hearing is closed, they have 10 days to issue a decision.  10 business days from today is September 25th. I'm still hoping to hear something by the end of the month.  Of course, regardless of the decision, the whole thing is very likely far from over. It's already been stated that the losing party, whoever that may be, will appeal. Then we can start all over. It's been said that Floyd is nearly out of money. Any appeal is going to cost him money, and even if he wins thi

Today is a rest day at the Vuelta. I took my rest day yesterday, so here is all of the information from the last 3 stages.  Stage 8: Bert Grabsch of T-Mobile sets a blistering pace of 55 km/h to win Saturday's individual time trial. Laszlo Bodrogi took second and Stijn Devolder got third. Devolder made up enough time to cruise by Denis Menchov in the G.C. Devolder has a 30 second lead, with Menchov, Efimkin, Evans and Monfort rounding out the Top 5. Stage 9: Saunier-Duval's Leonardo Piepoli survived a number of attacks to take Sunday's stage. Denis Menchov was in there with him up until the end, but did not fight for the stage win, as he knew that he would still end up in the golden jersey at the end of the day. Stijn Devolder had a bad day, losing 5 minutes off of the leaders. For the stage, the leaders were Piepoli, Menchov, Miquez, Sastre and Zaugg. The G.C. is now led by Menchov. Previous leader Vladimir Efimkin in second, though a little over 2 minutes behind. Cadel Ev

I just received a number of Eurobike Exhibition updates from Velonews.com These are dated throughout the exhibition.  August 31 : Giant rolls out refinements to their Maestro line of suspension bikes Ridley introduces an entry-level carbon fiber cyclocross bike Only cosmetic changes for Scott's road bikes, but new mountain and cyclocross bikes A new mountain/cyclocross pedal from Look New pedals, headsets, cranks and wheels from Crank Brothers A redesign of RockShox's SID fork for it's 10th anniversary September 1 : New clinchers from Lightweight A new line of cycling shorts and bibs from Assos Super light Nano Gram Zero pedals from Speedplay A new range of suspension forks from Maverick A little more about Selle Italia's new saddles with Troy Lee as well as a new Team Edition Flite model New white bars, stems and seatposts from FSA. Also, new compact shapes in the Plasma bar/stem combo and the K-Wing carbon bar, a new crankset, a K-Force tubular wheelset and an integra

Raul Garcia de Mateo and Jesus Rosendo broke away from the peloton only 3 km from the start of today's stage, eventually building up a nine minute lead. Their breakaway was aided by a big crash in the peloton with about 30km to go, but they still ended up being caught about 7 km from the finish.  The sprinter's teams worked to move their riders to the front, but another crash within 2km of the finish blocked many of the contendors from previous days, such as Pettachi, Bennati and Freire. Allan Davis, Eric Zabel and Paulo Bettini were lucky enough to be ahead of the pack in a bunch sprint and fought for the stage amongst themselves. Allan Davis looked to have it wrapped up, but Zabel came around on the left in the final seconds to take the stage. Davis took second and Bettini was in third. There was almost no change in the G.C. today, with Vladimir Efimkin still on top.  See the full story at CyclingNews.com Other news: Alejandro Valverde is expected to sue the UCI for the false

Pez Cycling News has posted another page of new items from Eurobike.  Be aware that there is one NSFW image at the bottom of Pez's page. Some of these have shown up here before, but some of the new stuff includes: One very ugly carbon fiber rear derailleur from THM One very sexy carbon fiber rear derailleur from Carbon Sports/Lightweight An all carbon clincher wheelset from Carbon Sports that comes in at 1090 grams A carbon clincher wheelset from DT Swiss that will weigh around 1250 grams New cranksets from Easton and Stronglight

Oscar Freire wins yet another final sprint today. He outran Spaniard Koldo Fernandez (who at least gave the locals something to cheer about), Angelo Furnan, Tom Boonen and Andre Koff for the win.   Freire owns the points jersey, yet Vladimir Efimkin has stayed close enough to the lead to hang on to the golden jersey. Denis Menchov, Carlos Sastre, Maxime Monfort and Stijn Devolder round out the rest of the Top 5. Somehow, Freire is all the way down in 81st in the G.C.  American Chris Horner moves up a little bit and is now in 28th place.  Other news: Johan Bruyneel confirms that he has been talking to team leadership at Astana about a position with their organization.  No firm date as to when he'll make a decision The 44th Tour de Avenir starts today, with riders aged 19 to 22 organized in a national team format.  In 2009, the Vuelta will start in the Netherlands, then through Belgium, and will not make its way to Spain until the 4th stage.  Looks like the missed test situation wi

The folks over at Neuvation Cycling are having an excellent sale on their very popular wheels. At $299, I think that the R28 SL3 is a killer deal. These compare favorably to a Ksyrium ES, but go for $500 less. Model              Weight        Orig. Price      Sale Price M28                 1720g          $  349             $  199 M28 Aero          1748g          $  399             $  229 M28 Aero 2       1740g          $  399             $  269 R28 Aero 3        1600g          $  499            $  349 R28 SL 3           1540g          $  499             $  299 C38                 1170g           $1499             $1199 C38C                1625g          $1499             $1199 C48                 1499g          $1499             $  899 C48C                1715g            $1499             $  899 C50                 1520g           $  999            $  899 Neuvation has a very high rating across the board from the readers at Road Bi

Oscar Friere takes his second stage of the Vuelta by outsprinting Daniele Bennati and Paolo Bettini out of the final corner at today's stage.  Despite his efforts Vladimir Efimkin hangs on to the golden jersey with Denis Menchov a little over a minute behind and Carlos Sastre in 3rd.  Looking through the rankings, there are only 3 Americans in the race. Chris Horner is once again in the domestique role, supporting teammate Cadel Evans, who is in 7th place.  Christian Vandevelde is in 63rd and Jason McCartney is 81st.  In other news: Astana has released rider Jose Antonio Redondo "for violating team rules." No other information has been made available. Vladimir Efimkin, the current leader of the Vuelta, says that his twin brother Alexander is looking for a team for next year.  Bjarne Riis returns to Team CSC after a self-imposed exile since the Tour. Here's a quote from Mr. Riis: "There doesn't mean there won't be cases and scandals, because there are alw

Some of you probably took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to take a long bike ride (not me, I had a nasty cold).  Floyd Landis took a long ride, too, participating in the Shenandoah Moutain 100 .  Reports are that he got to the race early, hung out with the locals , chewed the fat , had some beer and signed some autographs. He hung around after the race as well. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, he got third place in a very tough race.  I have to agree with Harlan Price (who took 2nd place at the SM100) that Floyd must love the sport if he keeps showing up at events like Leadville and Shenanhoah Mountain. Maybe he picks up a little bit of press coverage, but these are fringe events that the mainstream media largely ignore. Some may say that he is schmoozing fans, but that's not going to help his trial end in his favor.  Sounds to me like he's just an ordinary guy who loves to ride hard and party hard afterwards. He hasn't gone into hiding, he's up front,

Cycling News focuses on nifty CNC machined bits in their Part 4 Report : Disc and sidepull brakes, hubs, headsets, bottom brackets, air valve adapters, etc.  Part 5 of their report shows across the board updates to BMC's already fine line of bikes, new environmentally friendly cleaning materials and fabrics from Pedro's, updated tires from Schwalbe, and a super bright light from Niterider.  To paraphrase Robin Williams from WAY back.. "But wait, there's more!" Bicycling.com's Day 1 reports shows a new carbon fiber Dura-Ace crank weighing just 709 grams, as well as some new kit from Assos, a superlight new Speedplay pedal, and a Selle Italia saddle with an integrated water bottle holder. Day 2 shows a new lower priced Tri bike from Pinarello, revamped clothing from Campy and a new bike from Litespeed.  The exhibition is over now, but I'll post more reports as I find them. Interbike is coming up at the end of the month.

Here's the results for the first 4 stages of the Vuelta: Stage 1: Daniele Bennati wins the first stage with Oscar Freire, Alessandro Pettachi, Allen Davis and Tom Boonen rounding out the Top 5. Stage 2: Oscar Freire outsprints Paolo Bettini to win the stage and take over the lead. The controversial Erik Zabel is second in the G.C. with  Leonardo Duque, Aurelien Clerc and Alessandro Pettachi taking the remainder of the Top 5. Stage 3: World Champ Paolo Bettini gets Oscar Freire back for yesterday's sprint and takes today's stage. Freire holds on the golden jersey, however. Leonardo Duque moves to second, while Zabel drops to third. Rene Mandri and David Lopez take 4th and 5th, respectively. Stage 4: Vladimir Efimkin of Caisse d'Epargne survives a long breakaway to take the 5th stage and the golden jersey. The G.C. gets really tossed up, with Denis Menchov, Carlos Sastre, Maxime Monfort and the guy with the coolest name in cycling, Stijn Devolder in the next 4 spots. I&#