thewashingmachinepost




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eddy merckx alloy racing

merckx racing

one of the major perks of being thewashingmachinepost is the occasional opportunity to road test some of the finest cycles on the planet - in this case from the finest cyclist the world has known. i have no idea why eddy merckx bicycles are not more prominent in the cycling world (this was the only merckx in a peloton of 360), because they compare favourably with anything else on the market. in this particular case, i took to the roads of southern britain and northern france on one of eddy's lesser offerings (pricewise, that is) and not only arrived on the champs elysees but made it there by way of the mont cassel cobbles.

however, don't let me keep you here chatting; take a gander at how the merckx and i fared on our way to paris.

read more...

posted on thursday 3 july

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along for the ride

the ride journal

in january this year, i was approached by philip and andrew diprose, dean taylor, and phil stringer asking if i would care to contribute to a new cycling journal they were planning as an alternative to those currently in existence. the plan was to assemble 'a collection of riding tales and killer photographs that capture the feelings of riding.let's not become too blase here; when someone you've never heard of writes and asks you to contribute an article to pretty much anything cycle related, it massages the ego very nicely. so of course, i said yes. putting together a daily page or article for thewashingmachinepost is time consuming, but not quite in the same league as producing content for print. so the fact that it was early february before i was asked to submit some text was no great surprise. and then again, the fact that i wasn't asked for my address until june (to send a complimentary copy) seemed quite in keeping with the remit outlined in that first e-mail.

last week, en route to the start of london-paris, i dropped by rapha in perren street, and luke handed me a copy of the ride (my own copy had turned up at home while i was travelling); and the chaps have, in my opinion, achieved their goal, producing a cycle journal that doesn't quite fit into any particular pigeon hole you'd care to mention. the predominant format is of a photograph on the left page followed by a one page article on the right - not everything is laid out this way, but that's the general flavour. and they have amassed a fine and unexpected roster of writers, including: vicky pendleton, greg lemond, florian hutter, rob warner, sir paul smith and even our very favourite painter, taliah lempert.

and it's a hefty piece of work, weighing in at 146 pages, with minimal advertising (that peanut butter ad makes another appearance) all printed on 50% recycled paper with soya based inks. however, were all that not enough, the ride's logo is finely crafted in a beautiful script inside a circle - class and unique.

if you'd like to avail yourself of a copy of the ride you can do so from a few select outlets (the first 1000 copies are individually numbered) or via the website. cost is £7, and it's a highly commendable first issue. very glad to see the chaps are already considering issue number two.

posted on wednesday 2 july

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rapha touring shorts

eiffel tower

there are times, believe it or not, when it is less than prudent to wander about in a built up area wearing our beloved lycra shorts. even quality badged lycra shorts, because to civilians, such badges mean nothing at all. and you do have to admit that such apparel does have a tendency to reveal anatomical details that we would, perhaps, wish to keep to ourselves.at a whisky festival not too far away from where i sit, several years ago, i proudly attended ardbeg's open day, clad in the jersey of choice, shorts and kneewarmers. while riding the colnago, this all looked perfectly normal - athletic even - but wandering around the still room, camera in hand, it was hard not to notice that people noticed. so if prudentiality (not sure there's such a word, but there is now) is high on your agenda, you could do a lot worse than cover your favoured lycra with rapha's new touring shorts.

now i can see people at the back murmuring about the fixed shorts that rapha have had on offer for a number of years, so why should we be interested in yet another variation? well, it's partly a style thing, partly a comfort thing. the fixed shorts are longer and somehow more agressive (don't ask, they just are) than the touring version, but perhaps the finest aspect is the tourer's anonymity.

overcoming the possibility of discomfort in the nether regions, rapha have inserted a full length gusset to obviate any seams at all in that area. if you've ever looked at the cycle shorts worn by the pros, there's sort of a band across the back where the sponsor's logo might go; in this case an embroidered rapha logo smiles out at the following cyclist. but it's not all form over function; this conceals a zipped, hidden pocket, doubling up with another front right for carrying loose change, hundreds of pound notes or just a credit card for those essential colnago accessories.

the shorts are a decent length, covering all the way down to the knee, and attention to detail stretches to a silk inner hem to prevent them sticking on legs or shorts while riding. the fabric is also highly breathable; i can attest to this, having worn a pair from hampton court palace all the way to dover in probably the hottest day i've experienced this year. they were superbly comfortable, and an excellent fit (i had the smallest waist size, but they can be had all the way up to a 38"). sitting in the arrival car park or slopping about on a cross channel ferry, these were a sight more practical than your normal lycras, while avoiding the old git on holiday look, most admirably. and before anyone else points it out, yes, my average speed probably did qualify as touring.

and in typical rapha manner, the internal linings are all edged in pink, and there's one of those idiosyncratic labels bearing the following legend:'campy or shimano? how about mistake number one or mistake number two? campy or shimano? i'm not part of that discussion. it makes me laugh. how about nine hours or ten hours? how about, will i be freezing cold or will i be freezing cold and wet? and which will make me happier?'

the rebirth of cool

rapha's touring shorts appear in graphite only, at a cost of £70 ($110)

rapha.cc

posted on wednesday 2 july

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gravel, slowing, holes, and car up

start

i think i may have mentioned on one or two previous occasions that i don't get out much. not here, but anywhere else; the vast majority of my cycling is around and about the greater principality of islay. however, last year i took the major step of participating in a proper sportive, and then some. the london-paris ride this year achieved premier status with british cycling as their flagship sportive, and it pretty much lived up to the hype.

most sportives, even the gran fondos beloved of the italians, quite possibly the progenitors of the current craze for sportive rides, take place over a single day with mini, medi and gran-fondos providing options for the faint hearted all the way up to the gravitational animals. the london-paris ride, however, is spread over three consecutive days, and every rider covers the same distance between leaving hampton court palace and arriving at the eiffel tower. grading is by way of grouping the riders into similar abilities; with nearly 360 cyclists taking part in 2008, the field was split into four groups, each categorised by their individual ability to maintain a proscribed average speed.

bikes

the added attraction of riding is the presence of personalities from the world of cycling. stephen roche, brian smith, max sciandri (who turned out to be cycling plus's rob spedding), geoff thomas, james cracknell and david harmon. it's still a slight disappointment that while everybody pays the same money to take part, few are the personalities that seem willing to ride in groups other than group one. it would be nice if they smiled on the less gifted on at least one occasion. this definitely did not apply to eurosport's david harmon who managed to cycle in every single group, often more than once. what a guy.

unfortunately, not everybody is as honest with themselves as they might be, and over the first day there's a bit of to-ing and fro-ing between groups, though there are those desperate enough to maintain the facade who probably struggle across all three days. last year i rode in group three (with fewer numbers in 2007, there was one less group), and this year with experience behind me, i moved up to 2008's group three, one up from the bottom; my accomplice from islay, jez hastings was in the same group. if memory works properly (some hope) the average speed for group three was to be 27kph across the three days. one of us made the wrong choice, and it wasn't jez.

calais

one of the changes since 2007 was the instigation of ride captains; one rider placed in each group, mostly recruited from sigma sport, whose job it was to maintain the group's integrity throughout each day; helping those in trouble and restraining the petacchis from letting loose. a popular move.

after a comfortable night at the sandown park lodge (thank you matt taylor) sign-on was at a police sports club at imber court and each group set off with subaru lead car, motorcycle escorts from british cycling, and following technical support to hampton court palace for the official start and the ride to dover. while a review of the steed de jours will follow timeously, a set of full carbon wheelsbike 3000s with tufo tubulars may not have been the best choice to provide for such a paragon of mediocrity. subsequent discovery that the brake pads were not carbon specific explained a great deal, but basically the brakes were either on or off and very scary.

the speed was higher than i'd expected; couple that with my total crapness on any piece of tarmac that heads downward, and nervousness on the brakes, meant that it wasn't that long before there was more than just a bit of a gap between me (and a few others) and the main group three peloton. and it was very hot - not something that us northerners are overly used to. arriving at lamberhurst (a very nice vineyard) knackeredness was mine. it will come as no suprise that things didn't get any better in the afternoon, though i was not the only one to be suffering at the wheels of others. david harmon joined group three for the afternoon from group one, saying 'sod that for a game of soldiers'. after getting a bit lost on the approach to dover, i resolved to drop to group four on friday morning; finest decision i ever made.

boarding the calais ferry must have been similar to a walk round hampton court maze, achieved with musettes slung across shoulders and daily shoes on clipless pedals. interesting. the ferry journey took an hour and a half, giving jez time to knock over an espresso on the cafe counter.

calais

overnight stay in the calais holiday inn and up bright and early for an 8am start on friday morning with the prospect of maintaining a 25kph average over the next 204km to amiens. after flogging myself half to death on thursday, friday was a revelation; wheels had been changed to normal alloys which were much more manageable by the incompetent. throughout the day my climbing ability had been fully restored, and then some. i am generally of the opinion that the only cycling ability i possess is to defy gravity with a passion (the gold shoes and ponytail help) - on thursday, every time the road went up, my chain headed straight for the 25 sprocket, and that was barely enough. friday, however, i had rejoined the world of the mountain goat, and the 25 never saw a minute of use, even on the cobbles at mont cassel. the latter were absolutely the bees knees - the high point of my year (almost), and if i didn't think the rest of group four would leave without me, i'd have gone back down and ridden them again. (unfortunately, since i was riding, i couldn't take photos, and i have yet to receive any of the official pics - maybe later)

amiens has traffic; lots of it, but the skill of the french motorcycle team meant that it really troubled us not at all. the bikes were left overnight in a sports/leisure centre and we were taken to our hotels by coach. evening meal was in a restaurant just across from the massive waste of space that is amiens railway station.

church

final day towards paris and smiles from yours truly over reactions to what passed for a headwind; there are people on islay who sneeze harder, but nonetheless, it troubled some (so easy to be blase when you live in a wind tunnel). the climbs on offer today were quite excellent, and if anything thewashingmachinepost was faring better even than friday on any piece of road that went up. there was always the fear that i would disappear into the vertical distance and blow spectacularly nowhere near the top, but it never happened. i usually reached the top well ahead of everyone else, and the joy of group four was that i could than sit up and wait for the rest to catch up. of course, i then got well and truly blasted by everybody on the descent and had to do it all again on the next hill. ruddy brilliant.

at lunchtime, i met up with brian smith for the first time since we'd left london, and david harmon and i persuaded him to join group four for the ride to paris. and the guy's still got it. both being hardy scots chaps (don't argue) we fired ourselves willy nilly up every climb that showed its face, but i was very firmly reminded of my place in the grand scheme of things at the top of a 5km example of steepness. despite being less than half a wheel ahead of brian at the top, he was still in the big ring (!) the epitome of style.

at lunch i'd asked one of the guys in group two what he thought of the scenery: 'don't know - everything i've seen since thursday morning has had an assos logo on it'. group four had every opportunity to experience the delightful french countryside, including a long string of enormous wind turbines, canals, fields of corn, poppies, cattle, some very bizarre agricultural architecture and quaint little villages where folks came out their houses to cheer us on, and whole schools of kids hogged the railings as we passed. the attitude of french motorists towards cyclists is decidely more friendly than that on this side of the channel, and seemingly endorsed by the authorities.

eiffel tower

around 27km outside paris, all four groups were conjoined into one of the largest pelotons paris may well have seen, and at around 6pm on a saturday afternoon, twenty one years after riding there in yellow, stephen roche led us up the champs elysees past the arc de triomphe, off to the right and down to the eiffel tower for the end of the 2008 london-paris ride. and a few tears in eyes, handshakes and lots of photos.it took jez and i around twenty three hours to get from garde du nord to islay, but the memory of cobbles and the champs elysees will take a lot longer than that to fade away. thanks to jez hastings, david harmon, brian smith, anthony mccrossan, rob spedding, murph, graeme freestone king and sven thiele and moira finneberg, for making those three days some of the finest cycling i have ever experienced. and thank you to all the others who didn't have the energy to cycle away and had to sit and have me talk at them along the way.

i may just do it again next year. feel free to join me.

londres-paris.com

posted on tuesday 1 july

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not the sort of thing you get to do every day

eiffel tower

i need hardly point out that, despite jez hastings and i having travelled for twenty three hours to get back from paris to rainy, windy islay, there were others on this year's london-paris who are probably still travelling. this amazing event attracted riders from all four corners of the globe (well, if the world were still flat, you understand) many of whom are probably still sitting on an aeroplane while i lounge in the luxury of an armchair. a complete report will follow within the next couple of days when i've changed the names of the guilty, but there can be little better in the world of cycling than riding up the champs elysees on closed roads, round the arc de triomphe and down to the eiffel tower by way of ending 600km of fabulous riding. (and i have just received a mail from phil deeker of 300 cols fame, telling me we were within metres of each other at the eiffel tower - who knew?)

and lest you fear i was there for pure enjoyment, the ride included an eddy merckx road test, the trials and tribulations of using sportstracker software on a nokia mobile phone (don't laugh) and looking cool and sophisticated in a pair of rapha touring shorts. all this and some paris roubaix cobbles. those of you not included may go any delightful shade of green you wish. those of you who were included, and were decent enough to say hello, i hope you enjoyed the event as much as i - thank you all very much for the compliments (i am not worthy, i am not worthy).

i would also like to take the opportunity to thank and congratulate messrs smith and harmon for stepping up to the plate and joining those of us in lowly group four. it's not often you get the chance to cycle with a double british road champion and eurosport commentator; if comments overheard in the transfer coach in paris are anything to go by, the gesture was very much appreciated by all.

coming soon: the harmon/palmer cycling method for ten stone weaklings, and the harmon patented method for determining frame stiffness (as ignored by massachusetts institute of technology).

it's nice to be back.

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unfortunately there was a tragic accident on the second day of the ride. an official statement regarding this can be read here

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posted on monday 30th june

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legs are the primary technology

rapha bibshorts

i'm sure i've mentioned before that islay holds an annual triathlon; not something that will ever trouble hawaii's ironman but really to give locals and visitors alike something in which all can partake. while it's perfectly possible to stretch yourself and complete all three disciplines, most enjoy the teams classification: one to swim, one to cycle, and one to finish of the triumvirate and run.

i have competed in this event (as a cyclist only) on more than a few occasions, but with london-paris looming this week, i decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and stood on the sidelines with a stopwatch as an official timekeeper. much easier all round actually. however, one of my colleagues - let's all him cyclist a - competed as part of a team on a recently completed road bike, consisting of beautifully built lugged steel frame, handbuilt wheels on campagnolo chorus hubs, and a 2008 campagnolo veloce groupset. not much wrong with that.

on friday evening, i had a visit from cyclist b in order to have a broken chain repaired. while a decent course of action would have been to replace a rather worn-out and mucky chain, the sprockets at the rear of this lime green steel trek bicycle resembled shark's teeth, and it was more than likely that the chain would have skipped across the sprockets (eight, if memory serves well, changed by old-skool down-tube levers) until the cows came home. so i simply put in some new links at the break. the trek had obviously seen better days, as both wheels could have done with the cones adjusted, the headset was a bit loose, and the front brake cable had seized altogether. while the latter was replaced, the rest was left as is.

come saturday's event, cyclist a finished with a personal best, no doubt aided by a daily commute to work of around 36km and joining the velo club d'ardbeg peloton on a sunday morning which always includes the sprint for the 30mph sign at bruichladdich. unfortunately for cyclist a, however, cyclist b completed the route around 20 seconds faster, while wearing a greg lemond era helmet, t-shirt, football shorts and trainers. and as far as we know, cyclist b is not anything like a regular cyclist. which, if taken at face value, rather undermines what we are continually fed by way of technological improvement; the biggest improvement comes from the speed of the legs.

in mitigation, cyclist b is around half the age of cyclist a. i leave you to draw your own conclusions.

posted on sunday 22nd june

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would you cycle to paris with these chaps?

beat the brains

somewhat of a rhetorical question, because in fact, i am cycling to paris with both anthony mccrossan and brian smith. well, not quite; with around 400 riders pedalling all the way to the eiffel tower (except for the wet bit) it is necessary to split all into four groups, based on real or prospective abilities - speed, if you have to put a specific name to it all. jez hastings and i will be riding in group three, anthony's in group two while brian, as one of the demi-gods of international cycling will ride in group one (though he has promised to drop back to favour the proletariat in group three with his presence for a kilometre or so).

for those who will remain in pelotons other than the london-paris ride, you can enjoy the june edition of beat the brains and try to beat the amalgamated cycling knowledge of cycling.tv's finest while i try to keep their rear wheels in sight as we near the eiffel tower.this way, everyone has fun.

posted on saturday 21st june

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blazing saddles: the cruel and unusual history of the tour de france by matt rendell. velopress. 301pp illus. $24.95.

blazing saddles

before we start properly, i must point out that the copy under review came from velopress in colorado; this is the american version of the book previously published in the uk by quercus. hence the dollar pricing.

regular readers of the post will have perhaps picked up on my complete lack of brevity when espousing on subjects that are close or far from my heart. pretty much everything really. from memory, i believe i once wrote an article on changing a brake cable which ran to close on 1500 words; it would have been a lot quicker to change the cable. part of the reason for this is the total lack of restriction on space, meaning i can (and do) drone on ad finitum. fortunately the same is not true of the published word, and coupled with the skill of a true writer such as mr rendell, certain worthy and possibly lengthy subjects are tamed into words and pictures that are just ping diddly for the reader.

blazing saddles (great name for a film) deals with every year of the tour de france since the race started in 1903 and is bang up to date by finishing at the 2007 edition. had i been the writer, we would have been talking the encyclopaedia britannica; mr rendell has the succinctness and perspicacity to reign in the endless stories and anecdotes that abound concerning le tour and present them in a way that engages and satisfies the reader. couple this with some superb photos, particularly from the early part of the 20th century, and you have a book that will last forever as a work of reference. in fact, you don't even have to read the book chronologically - it's an ideal volume to dip in and out of as the fancy takes you, and will doubtless allow for the regaling of anecdotes in the sunday peloton for many a long year.

to suspend the superlatives for a few pixels, each year ends with the top three finishers, along with their finishing times, and a finely worded chapter on the discrepancies of the statistics provided by the guide historique each year, and pretty much every other source of tour facts and figures. this is by way of matt rendell explaining why some of the numbers presented in this volume may not agree with those in several other tour de france books.

the writing style verges on the jocular, which works a whole lot better than my bland description may indicate - matt rendell has a very distinct way with words and the overall posit of the book is particularly enjoyable and eminently readable, almost disguising the amount of serious research and the fierce amount of editing that must have been involved in the book's preparation. even if you think that the tour is overblown hype rather than real bicycle racing, this is still a book that you would be ill advised to miss. thoroughly enjoyable.

velopress.com

posted on saturday 21st june

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really, really super

super record rear derailleur

i know that i have been somewhat cynical over campagnolo's introduction of eleven speeds to their top three groupsets, something that itself caused confusion when the rumours were rife at the beginning of june. since at that time, campag's top three groups were record, chorus and centaur, common consensus at the time was that those were the three gaining that extra sprocket. of course, reviving super record (first introduced in 1973) and popping it in at the top of the tree makes everything clear, but confounded the rumour mill at the time. now that all is common knowledge, campagnolo have released a fine set of photographs of the important components that we will all desire, but the current dearth of mortgages means we probably can't afford.

i have yet to receive confirmation as to when the new groupsets will be sitting on retail shelves, but yet again campagnolo have succeeded in creating desirable componentry that would look as good sitting on the mantelpiece as it would joined to the appropriate carbon fibre parts of my colnago. sadly it seems likely that neither will turn out to be the case. last year these very pixels were fawning over an all carbon rear derailleur from german carbonists, lightweight, but i have to say that the super record offering looks like it might just displace that as the current object of desire.

while vicenza's carbon chainsets favour the so called multi-directional carbon - the stuff that looks a bit like black marble - they have returned to that wonderful woven look on the super record mech, both in the parallelogram and the outer cage plate. the only real differences between this and the standard record offering is the exclusive use of titanium at the top of the range, and black anodising of the metal parts. admittedly, i'm not usually a great believer in anodising, preferring polished aluminium, but you have to admit, the one above does look rather exciting.of course, there's always some fly in the ointment; while it's excellent to see campagnolo endorse ceramic bearings throughout, including the slightly larger jockey wheels fitted to the super record derailleur, in the finest tradition of useless acronyms, and on something that everyone else has sensibly used for a number of years, campagnolo have applied usb and cult. the former: ultra smooth bearings (honestly, i'm not making this up) and the latter: ceramic ultimate level technology. after such a great introduction, it was bound to hit rough ground eventually. however, whatever silly names they want to call it, super record is an excellent example of what we really, really want.

the hard part is how to break that to mrs washingmachinepost.

campagnolo.com

posted on friday 20th june

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where did you get that hat?

tartan cap

not that i own one, but you may remember photos of anthony mccrossan and brian smith in braveheart fund tartan cycle gear from last october's braveheart ride in ayrshire. it seems that many of scotland's cyclists are pre-disposed towards wearing jerseys, shorts, or both to proclaim their country of origin, something that seems almost unique amongst velocipedinists as far as i can see. granted, there are items of cycling apparel representative of british nations other than the northern hordes, but i have yet to see one being worn in any particular peloton. but then again, i don't get out much.

and in a surprising twist, yet another fine indication of scottish cycling heritage has been uncovered at urban hunter in a location about as far away from scotland as can be managed: brighton, england. as if that weren't enough, the item in question (though the photo above is a bit of a giveaway) isn't even produced in the united kingdom at all, emanating as it does from california. made by a small family business in vista, california, the walz tartan cap is made with four panels and bears a soft peak, making it ideal to roll up and stick in a back pocket. that way, you could carry a spare. it's the sort of thing that no self respecting scots cyclist should be without, and definitely not if you plan on riding the braveheart ride this october. brian smith would be proud of you.

the cap is available in small/medium or large/xl, retails for £23 (plus carriage) from urbanhunter in brighton, and they are happy to send abroad. if you're across the pond, try walzcaps.com - it translates to red plaid in north america.

posted on friday 20th june

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but does it really?

felt ar

firstly, not only is it good news that slipstream chipotle now have a new title sponsor in garmin gps wotsits, but that the argyle pattern will remain a part of the new jersey design when it changes for the this year's tour de france. however, that's something that is merely coincidental to this diatribe, though doubtless you'd figured that out for yourselves. yet again, i shall tread fearlessly into areas in which i am completely out of my depth. and this time, just for a change, it concerns bicycle design. if you cast a glance at the new felt ar bicycle as supplied to the slipstream chaps, it's rather self evident that it is the result of some major styling application. but rather surprisingly, this is not a time-trial bicycle, but the standard fare for the team's road stage riders.

as carbon fibre is no respecter of normal tube profiles, felt can pretty much get away with whatever they fancy, and the ar obviously fits that desire. it will come as no suprise that the frame design is the result of extensive low speed wind-tunnel testing, and bits of it, such as the seat tube doubling as a rear wheel fairing, are reminiscent of the bmw of the bicycle world: cervelo. thewashingmachinepost's favourite object of wrath, the integrated headset means that not only does the head tube blend smoothly with the fork crown, but it provides felt's paint shop with a nice canvas for the swoopy graphics. look closely enough and you can see the cables disappear into the top-tube before emerging at strategic outlets and the necessity for a braze-on front mech because the tube shape rather precludes use of a clamp.

and, to be perfectly honest, i think it looks rather swell; in fact in an alternative universe, i might even be tempted myself. and if the bike were being offered as a progenitor of style, you wouldn't even be reading about it here (probably), but a bit like the claims made for biopace, style seems to have been sidelined by the claims for function. let's not kid ourselves; if every claim made for every improvement in bicycle technology were to prove true, the face of racing would change on a daily basis. witness cannondale's bb30 bottom bracket. they've been using it since the year 2000, but has anyone seen the entire liquigas team finish on the podium lately?

felt ar

felt claim that the aerodynamics applied to the ar, are worth 75 seconds over a one hour period, which equates to a lead of over eight minutes at the end of a seven hour stage. except that maaskant finished seventh in its first race outing, and the six bicycles in front of him weren't made by felt. and if aerodynamics are so important in general racing, why is it that two of the slipstream guys, including dave z, have sprouted considerable quantities of facial hair. surely if the likes of felt are going to spend a large proportion of their r&d budget in the wind tunnel, it's a bit ungrateful of the recipients to negate all that work?

i would be interested to know whether the controlled conditions in a low speed wind-tunnel really relate to the average seven hour day of a professional cyclist. according to similar tests on a wide variety of wheels, the mavic r-sys that i had on the company colnago over the last nine months or so, were verging on having the aerodynamic properties of a brick. and, while i would not claim to have anything like the speed or endurance of a professional, neither have the guys i ride with, and believe me, i wasn't being left behind. so when the road can consist of so many surface variations, the wind can come from so many different directions (maybe we should test one on islay), and there are considerable other factors involved, i remain highly sceptical of 75 second claims. but as i pointed out at the top of the page, i am completely out of my depth here.

cool bike though.

posted on friday 20th june

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one more object of desire

campy eleven cassette

indulge me for a few pixels if you will, while i retrace a few steps to the advent of campagnolo's eleventh sprocket and knock down before i build up. according to francesco zenere, campagnolo's public relations chappie, the reason for the addition of one more places for the chain to reside, is vicenza's response to requests from pros and amateurs alike for one more sprocket. so, hands up all those who either asked or were asked by campagnolo for this shimano distancing feature (did i say that out loud?)? i thought not. even the most fanatical amongst us (and my hand is up at this point) cannot imagine robbie mcewen losing a sprint to oscar freire and stating: 'if only i'd had one more sprocket...'. this is definitely a spinal tap moment.

however, in a stroke of genius, campagnolo have become the apple computer of the cycling component world. currently apple offer the macbook and the macbook pro, and any self respecting professional in whichever field of endeavour will almost always plump for the pro designation, whether their efforts require it or not, because it says as much about their aspirations as anything else. campagnolo have done the same with their top three groupsets; super-record, record and chorus.

these have been designated as 'competition' groupsets, while centaur and veloce (mirage and xenon have been dropped) are for 'intense use'. if we take these designations at face value there are a lot of us who would struggle to justify having campagnolo on the bike at all but, of course, you can imagine the cachet within the cycling world if you were to be seen with a competition groupset. no more having sand kicked in our faces by the bullies of the peloton; the kind of status that moves you to the front of the supermarket check-out without having to say a word.

so by even mentioning this at all, campagnolo have created a demand for the top three - do we wish to be thought of as merely intense?

campagnolo.com

posted on thursday 19th june

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