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Special cameras capture sprints like the one above with perfect accuracy.
We all know that bike races can come down to thousandths of seconds, but how do officials catch such close sprints? We’ve compiled an explanation of the most common timing systems out there to give you a better idea of how your favorite races are being scored, behind the scenes, from your local crit to the Tour de France…
Check out this stylish helmet made by oh joy. She was coveting this French motorcycle helmet and decided to make a cycling version using a Bern helmet and polka-dot decals. Voilà: a fun cycling helmet that’s very noticeable!
Found via Craft:.
Quickstep’s Tom Boonen comfortably bested the bunch in a mass sprint to take victory today in the 136.5km third stage of the Tour of Qatar.
Trek Livestrong’s young Brit Alex Dowsett was one of a three-man break right from the gun, a break that was caught after 25km; later, Gatis Smukulis (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Steven Van Vooren (Topsport-Vlaanderen) also made a jump, during a brief respite from the strong desert winds. Yet the peloton, unwilling to repeat yesterday’s mistakes, swallowed them back up with more than 25km to go.
It was all set, then, for a bunch sprint with Liquigas, and Saxobank’s Fabian Cancellara, pushing the pace in a flying last couple of kilometres… too early, it seems, as both teams faded. And in a long, scrappy sprint it was Boonen who edged it over Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo Test Team) in second and Baden Cooke (Saxobank) in third.
A nasty crash in the last 200m took place behind the front of the field, so had no effect on the Belgian’s first stage win in his quest to take the race for a fourth time. Exactly who was involved is as yet unclear, but it appears that four riders went down after wheels touched in the mêlée.
Boonen, wearing the Belgian champion’s jersey, now is third in the overall standings. Wouter Mol, however, looked comfortable, protected by his VacanSoleil team-mates in the pack, and his lead of nearly two minutes on third place still looks imposing.
PRESS RELEASE: Rebecca Rusch, three-time reigning 24-Hour Solo Mountain Biking World Champion, will host a five-stop movie tour featuring Race Across The Sky, the new documentary film about one of the most intense endurance mountain bike races of all time, the Leadville Trail 100.
This inspirational film has been shown in larger cities, but has not yet been seen in the core cycling communities of the Mountain West. Rusch attended the film’s premiere in New York City. That screening was intended to be a one-time only event, but after sold-out showings and multiple requests from cyclists and friends, she decided to bring the film to a select group of mountain towns. The tour will kick off in Rebecca’s hometown of Sun Valley, Idaho, and includes these screenings:
Presented by Specialized, each stop of the movie tour will be a fundraiser for International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) and its local chapter clubs. Rusch will be on hand for each screening to greet attendees and sign posters. She’ll also mingle with riders and fans and host a raffle with gear from tour sponsors, including Specialized, Ergon, Buff, Red Bull, and Adventure Medical Kits.
Time and theater locations at bottom…
VeloSolo is expanding its range of own brand parts with a range of chainrings. Not any old bits, though - these chainrings are anodized in a range of bright colours, and are made in the UK by a leading manufacturer of motorcycle sprockets out of 7075-T6 aircraft-grade aluminum. It means that, alongside its recently announced range of sprockets, the company now offers a co-ordinated, wholly British-made drivetrain.
Although the chainrings come in umpteen variations of BCD and for 3/32″ and 1/8″ chain widthes, they’re for singlespeeds only - of the MTB and track bike varieties. Mountain bike rings come with a large logo, whereas the road versions are also available in a cut-out style reminiscent of classic Campag designs. VeloSolo says they’re strong (at 4.0mm, 0.5mm thicker than industry standard) and very round - a common problem with fixed or SS set-ups is that poorly manufactured chainrings are slightly ovalised, leading to differences in chain tension depending on pedal position.
Colored chainrings are a matter of personal taste - they’re not my bag - but these look quality (the blurb uses impressive words like ‘chamfered’ and ‘hobbed’), and well-thought out for a range of different riding uses. Polished versions will be available soon.
Photo by hello_mynameis_1sway.
To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here.
After a week of buildup, Hayes Disc Brakes has finally unveiled their all-new Prime hydraulic disc brakes.
Featuring a slew of new technology, they represent the future of Hayes’ disc brake offerings. Chief among the new features are:
There’s also a big new feature that they’re not quite revealing called Poppet Cam Stroke Adjustment, and it’s said to be the “secret sauce” behind the new Prime brakes.
OK, lots more to cover. Go ahead and make the jump and we’ll get started…
These ghost bikes were placed at the scene of the accident in South Carolina.
The insurance company of a woman who struck and killed two cyclists as they completed a cross-country fundraising ride has agreed to pay a $5 million settlement to the family of one of the victims. Tom Hoskins was riding with fellow cyclist Lee Anne Barry in Lancaster County, South Carolina when the pair was hit by a vehicle from behind, killing the two cyclists. The driver, Sharon King of Greensboro, N.C., was charged with reckless homicide but later pleaded guilty to reckless driving in the incident.
Hoskins and Barry were completing the last leg of what they called the B.I.G. Ride, for Brain Injuries Greatest Journey, a cross-country fundraiser ride conceived by Barry and aimed at raising awareness of brain injuries. The pair were accompanied by Barry’s husband at the time of the accident, and were just miles from the finish of what would have been Barry’s fourth B.I.G. Ride. The $5 million settlement was approved by the judge for Hoskins’ family. A $2.5 million settlement was already reached and approved in civil court in Barry’s death.
Found this via FixedGearGallery by way of BikeMandan.com. It’s a handbuilt wood bike called the Birch Bike and was crafted by Alan Downey in Austin, TX. Sure, it’s a bit odd to see a double crankset on a fixie, but irregardless, it’s supposedely the first all wood fixed gear bike submitted to their gallery.
Another photo after the break, or just shoot on over to FGG for more…
Specific route details for the 2010 Amgen Tour of California professional cycling race will be revealed beginning tomorrow via individual stage videos, AEG, presenter of the fifth-annual event, announced today. The videos have been created in collaboration between the start and finish cities of each stage (designated at “host cities”), highlighting features of the route for the eight-day event. Two videos will be released per day throughout the week of Feb. 8, and they can be viewed online at the Amgen Tour of California Web site (www.amgentourofcalifornia.com), as well as the Amgen Tour of California’s Facebook page and on YouTube.
Stage-by-stage videos revealing the routes will be released on the following days:
You can check there, of course, or you can just check them out here on Bikerumor with all the other sweet cycling goodness…
Colnago’s top-end EPS road bike gets the custom white treatment from Pista Palace, one of the largest Colnago U.S. dealers. Occasionally, Colnago will do a custom, limited run of special paint jobs for dealers, and here’s the latest: The White Palace Edition EPS.
In 2009, they had a metallic candy apple red version that was pretty sweet, too, but for this year you can get three versions of the White Palace. If you’re a fan of steel, they’re also doing a White Palace Master Pista and Master X-Lite with some seriously nice chromed lugs.
More pictures, plus video of an EPS frame being built, after the break…
If you consider yourself a “roadie,” chances are you get a lot of strange looks from your friends, family, and coworkers when you don your Lycra skinsuit or they see the 15 bikes hanging in your garage. The cycling world can get pretty weird at times. Unless you are a rider, there is a lot of stuff that the general public just doesn’t get. Why do we shave our legs? What’s with all those wheels you have laying around? You spent HOW much on your last bike?
We are faced with these questions almost inevitably when we are in the presence of an “outsider,” and it can be tiring repeatedly explaining why we rabidly raid the refrigerator in search of calories or spend hours on end in a dark, damp basement counting watts on the trainer.
Enter Roadie: The Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer, by veteran race announcer Jamie Smith. After spending years explaining the little idiosyncrasies of being a bike racer, Smith decided to write a book to bring understanding to the masses. Roadie acts as a complete guide to the life of a bike racer, written for those confused friends, family, and coworkers in your life who have never driven two hours to race a 45 minute criterium, and have no idea what a 5 hour solo training ride feels like. Everything they ever wanted to know but never understood is covered in the book; training, equipment, racing, lifestyle and everything in between. The best part? It’s engaging, entertaining, and down right fun, from front cover to back.
Although written with the non-cyclist in mind, those more familiar with the way of the bicycle will get a kick out of the book also, as Smith captures every little intricacy of being a bike racer; a fantastically interesting self examination of cyclists. Each chapter, lesson, and story is dead accurate, but simple enough for your next door neighbor to understand. I found myself nodding in agreement with each page, as Smith picked apart everything it means to be a bike racer in a way that only a true roadie could.
The book is published by VeloPress and available online here for $21.95 or at most book retailers (editor’s note: Amazon = $14.93). You can also follow Smith’s blog here, where he keeps some hilarious commentary on various topics around the cycling world.
The Tour of Qatar was blown apart by a gutsy break by two smaller teams today in stage two, leaving all the big guns more than 1′40″ behind in the GC. Geert Steuers of Belgian team Top Sport Vlaanderen-Mercator narrowly beat VacanSoleil’s Wouter Mol after the pair held the main field off. They broke away early in the 147 km stage and held an on-the-road advantage that increased at one point to 11 minutes.
The chasing peloton was hampered by the wind once again, but despite a chasing pack stuffed full of the big sprinters, they simply didn’t pull hard enough to reel the two minnows in.
Steueur finished around 1′53″ ahead of third placed Roger Kluge (Team Milram) and Cervélo’s Heinrich Haussler in fourth. His commanding win must make him favorite for the overall prize and sets up an intriguing few days of racing: will anyone be able to make back so much time in the flat, windy, entirely unpredictable Tour of Qatar 2010?
In other significant news, Kurt-Asle Arvesen of Team Sky crashed early on and broke his collarbone, putting him out of the race. Coverage as ever on Eurosport or Versus.
Far out man. Just looking at the contraption makes me think of this transportation alternative. And to answer the question at the end of the video, “No. No it doesn’t.”
A quick heads up for cycling film buffs in London. Safety In Numbers, a 70-minute documentary by Nick Mason about the Fireflies is showing at the ICA tonight, for a special Monday-night price of £5.
The Fireflies is a group of mainly British amateur cyclists who, each year for the past nine years, have ridden 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) across the French Alps from Geneva to Cannes to raise money for leukaemia research.
Though they take on the classic climbs of the Tour de France - more than 20 in eight days, including Colombière, Télégraphe, Galibier, Izoard, Alpe d’Huez and Madeleine - they’re far from pros. I’ve ridden with them once, and can pay testament to the inspirational determination and team spirit that gets everybody safely through some of the most awesome mountains in the world.
From what I’ve seen, the film, shot in full HD, captures the amazing vistas, and the personal stories, beautifully, and there’s a sneak peek posted on the Fireflies website.
2010 will be the ride’s 10th year and the organisers hope to break the £1 million ($1.5 million) mark for cumulative funds raised for this lifesaving charity. As the ride’s motto goes: ‘For those who suffer, we ride’.
