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Shiv road bike project – Part II
This past Wednesday I wrote a post regarding the Shiv road bike that Specialized’s creative director Robert Egger has been riding on the the company’s famous lunch ride. Like many of you I was intrigued by the idea of taking a time trial bike – in this case the Shiv – and converting it to a road machine. I wondered out loud how the Shiv frame would handle in a road situation and if there had been any modifications to the frame to make it more road-like. I e-mailed Robert and he was kind enough to respond to my...
read moreAsheville bids for 2014-15 cyclo-cross nationals
Three cities are in the running to host the 2014 and 2015 cyclo-cross National Championships: Boulder, Colorado; Austin, Texas; and Asheville, North Carolina. To determine viability, USA Cycling examines the strength of each bid after reviewing the proposed course, venue location and available facilities. Additionally, USA Cycling meets with the local convention and visitors bureau and sports commission staff. The Asheville promoters hosted a reception for USA Cycling’s National Events Director Kelli Lusk at Pack’s Tavern. In addition to...
read moreThe 2014 Shiv road bike?
If you’ve ever gone to a car trade show you’ll see prototype cars that will never make it onto the highway. Known as “concept cars,” these are a rolling laboratory for ideas that might dribble down to other projects. They are also great for marketing as it shows to the public that they are always designing “the next best thing.” If you’ve ever visited Specialized you might have ridden their famous lunch ride – an under one-hour training ride that is balls out from the gun. Several years ago I participated in his daily ride on a...
read moreVintage Tour de France YouTubing
I’ve been in a bit of a retro mood lately. Regardless, If you’re new to bike racing (or you forgot about the pre-carbon days) go back into the archives of cycling broadcasting via YouTube and watch the Tour de France circa the late 80s. These were the days of split stages and 50 mile time trials. Riders didn’t seclude themselves in the team bus. Instead they hung out next to the team station wagons or vans getting their legs massaged as they waited for the stage to start. The American broadcast of the Tour had a soundtrack by...
read moreHead Badges and Soul
I picked up the January issue of Bicycling Magazine the other day. When I say, “picked up” I mean purchased it electronically. As I scrolled through one article caught my attention – Badges of Distinction by Leon Dixon. It’s a good article about the history of badges that are placed on the head tubes of bikes. As I looked at the images of the plates I saw the Viking logo. My dad rode, and I think raced, for Viking bikes back in the late 50s or early 60s. I have raced bikes since I was a teenager, employed in the bike industry most of...
read moreThe SRAM Red Group slow release
In addition to training camps, it’s also the time of year we look for the release of new products. Campagnolo showed off their new electronic group and Shimano is said to be rolling out 11-speed. One other component company is doing the same – SRAM. You might remember around the beginning of this year SRAM teased us with images of their Red group with a difference. The Chicago based company released photos of just a small section of the component – a jockey pulley, a portion of the big ring – not the entire component. In the case...
read moreMaster of top-secretness: Allen Lim
Back at the 2010 US Pro, I joined Allen Lim for the hot scoop as we followed Taylor Phinney on the TT course. He’ll be sharing more of his wise words on this Sunday’s live TourChats for Cycling Fans show. And this week we’ve got three guests for the price of two: Co-authors Dr. Allen Lim and chef Biju Thomas, will talk with us about their new book, The Feed Zone Cookbook – drink of choice for this segment is beet juice. Then cyclocross star Ryan Trebon of LTS/Felt will join us, so have your beer hand ups and best...
read moreAwkward team training camps
It’s that time of year again – awkward team photos! It’s hard to design a kit because something on paper can look entirely different when actually produced. And sometimes an idea for a photoshoot might sound good in conception but the reality turns out quite different. Case in point: do you remember the kit from the women’s Skoda ladies team with the red chamois that continued down their inner leg? Hmmm… And a kit that I’m sure was created on a drunken dare was the Footon kit of golden-brownish with a large footprint across the...
read moreCan’t make the team photo shoot? No problem
Sometimes it’s hard to get a whole organization to a photo shoot. In the case of Leopard Trek it seems that sports director Lars Michaelsen couldn’t make it to the location. So the webmaster at the team did the next best thing – Photoshopped his head onto Torsten Schmidt’s body. Should Michaelson be upset at the choice of body doubles – I don’t know. Schmidt, according to his biography, is a long-time professional racer and at least didn’t let himself get sloppy like some ex-pros I could mention. But I wonder if Michaelson was...
read moreThe Sufferfest: Hell Hath No Fury
The creator of the Sufferfest training videos has once again designed a devilish workout. The newest edition to the Sufferfest library is Hell Hath No Fury (HHNF). This video’s focus is two, 20 minute efforts ridden at a perceived effort of 7 to 8 out of 10, which translates to threshold intervals. The bread to those meaty efforts is a five and a half minute warm-up and a three and a half minute time trial at the conclusion. Previous Sufferfest race footage has been of men, but this time the women get their due and are the stars of the...
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