The Cervelo Test Team rider from Australia, Simon Gerrans, took the win on Stage 14′s grueling uphill climb.  Saturday’s stage was the first of four through the Apennine mountains.  Finishing time was 4:16:48.

Danilo Di Luca finished in 11th at 1:04 behind Gerrans, but race leader Denis Menchov was hot on his heels in 13th and in the same time group, retaining a 34 second gap and the maglia rosa.  Levi Leipheimer came in 17th at 1:07 and remains in third place overall at 43 seconds back.

To put this 172km stage into perspective, I offer this: Several of our reviewers and I are at the BURN 24 Hour Challenge this weekend, racing our little hearts out (hence the lack of posts Saturday and, likely, Sunday).  Currently, we’re floating around 8th place in the Men’s Open team category.  When it’s all said and done, I’ll likely ride a grand total of 56 miles, or about 90km.  It’s only 1am, I’ve only ridden 28 miles, and I can’t for the life of me imagine getting back on the bike to do this again on Monday.  I am happy to report that all of the gear we’re flogging this weekend for review is working out well, and the weather is much, much better than expected.  Hope you’re all having a great Memorial Day weekend!

Photo from AP, and check out UniversalSports.com for live and recorded video coverage of the Giro. Hit “more” for stage results and overal standings…

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This coming weekend, which looks as though may be a bit cold and wet, we’ll be fielding a team in the BURN 24 Hour Challenge in Wilkesboro, NC.  And, as much as experience has taught otherwise, I’ve strapped a bunch of new stuff to the bike just before the race.  Fortunately, I’ll get two or three rides in before the gun goes off, but look for some reviews with some serious race testing on the following items about a month from now:

	Hayes Stroker Gram hydraulic disc brake. So far, only the front is installed because I’m waiting for a new rear wheel to resolve some technical issues (yes, more new stuff just before a race…), but replacing the mechanical disc that was on the bike shaved 96g total, and I won’t have to worry about cable contamination given the forecast. Very excited about this.
	Continental Race King tire – Before I saw the forecast, I was thinking this would be a very fast option.  This is a new tire for Conti, and it’s light at about 480g for the 2.0, but narrower than I expected…they look thinner on the bike than the 2.0 Kenda it replaced.  The rubber is grippy feeling, and the one ride so far is promising.
	Specialized S-Works Mountain Bike Shoes – These are a serious upgrade from the 3- or 4-year old Specialized Pro MTB shoes I had, and much more comfortable than some other brands I’ve used.  Only one ride, and already a little scuff…the anticipated mud this weekend doesn’t bode well for their cosmetics, but the lacing system should keep them more snug than shoes with full velcro straps would in wet conditions.
	It’s almost like someone at Energizer knew we had a 24 Hour race coming up.  Their new Trailfinder LED headlamps, which are available in this and a 6-bulb version, which, oddly, is the same price as this 3-bulb version.  It should make latenight pit work and food prep a lot easier, not to mention reading the scoring sheets to see the gap we’re putting on everyone (natch).

Check back soon for reviews on these and other bike stuff.

From the The Cleveland County Carolina Thread Trail: Our Master Plan Project is in full swing, and we need your help!

We’ve created an online project site to help you easily follow the planning process, and even more importantly, give us your thoughts, on such aspects as where new trails should go, and how you would plan
to use new trails and greenways in Cleveland County.

Surveys, Message Boards and Photo Sharing are a few of the activities where you can sound off on all project related subjects. All new plans will be posted, for your review, and you’ll even get email updates on our progress, and reminders of public meetings you may wish to attend.

To join with your neighbors, fellow hikers, cycle buddies and others, just go to WWW.WIKIPLANNING.ORG, and enter the password CCTT (Cleveland County Thread Trail) when prompted. Thanks! Your participation will definitely make a difference…and Ride Safe!

Not sure if these are coming stateside anytime soon, but the Cooper Car Company announced they’ve created a bicycle division.

The first bike available will be the T100,  a sub-£300 single speed fixed gear number. Like the Mini USA site allows you to build your own car (I’ve done it a number of times, dreaming the days away), their bicycle website will allow you to pick and choose the options, colors, frame size, seat, rims and handlebar.  Custom orders should be delivered within three days. Frame colors include the iconic Cooper Racing Green, metallic blue, silver, gloss black or white, and they all get the classic Cooper badge.

Get on the mailing list at cooperbikes.com.

UPDATE: 12:47pm: For launch – and to mark the 50-years since the groundbreaking F1 World Championship win – it will be available in a special edition of the classic Cooper Racing Green, each personally signed by Mike Cooper.

Mike Cooper commented: “The Cooper Car company has always had a passion for bicycles and we have been thinking about diversifying the business for a while.  We wanted to turn our engineering know how to making a bicycle that offers both simplicity and the best value for money.”

Locally, our Greensboro news stations dropped the ball on covering our 200+ rider event, but Winston Salem (NC) got theirs on TV, which you can see here (there was no embed option).

Many other cities and rides were covered, too, just search “ride of silence” plus your hometown and see what comes up.  If you don’t find anything, make sure the news media are called ahead of time for next year…they’ve got their hands full sometimes and don’t always know about what we cyclists are doing.  Call them, email them and get them out to cover advocacy, rides and races to build awareness for our sport!  Take it from a media person, we LOVE it when people let us know about cool stuff…it makes our job much easier!

They are some good guys over at Ellsworth Bikes in Romona, CA, so we’re happy to bring you this article from the San Diego Union Tribune. Apparently the Navy Seals put together a cycling team, the Flying Frogs. And while they don’t parachute onto the race course under the cover of night, or ride night laps with NVG’s (night vision goggles), they’re definitely a team to be taken seriously. It comes as a surprise that our finely tuned forces were riding, as one seal put it, a “hodgepodge” of bikes. Some old and outdated even. That’s not like our seals. The good news is that the seals have upgraded (not such good news for anyone riding against them). While not sponsored by Ellsworth, almost all of the team has bought and are riding Ellsworth bikes. A proud moment for any company, especially an American made brand. Check out the full story from San Diego Union Tribune.

Elite debuted their Time Trial Kit water bottle and carbon fiber cage at the 2009 Giro d’Italia on Team Columbia-Highroad’s bikes during the opening stage team time trial.  Priced at about $110 in the US, it ain’t cheap, but it claims to save you 28 seconds (over a 40km distance) because it was developed using “the same wind-tunnel testing techniques employed by Formula One and Moto GP racing professionals.”

Total weight of the system is just 80g.  The squeeze bottle has a rubber nozzle and snaps into the cage and is said to have easy extraction. Consider it the gift for the cyclist who has everything.

 

PRESS RELEASE: Starting today, there’s HuckNroll.com, a store dedicated to dirt riders and our take-your-personal-best-and-shove-it-up-your-ass, meat-hucking, scab-picking habit known as mountain biking.

HuckNroll.com is an online mountain bike shop. You heard right. Online. And we wouldn’t be putting it lightly to say that the bike industry didn’t want us. The consensus when we first approached suppliers about launching a high-end mountain bike shop was, “It will never work, the bike industry is different.” Our response? “Damn right, it’s different. It’s the last industry in existence to accept the Internet as a viable sales channel.”

So we went for it. And along the way we’ve made friends with the industry’s best. In fact, the raddest brands in the biz are snubbing the status quo to team up with us. (They mentioned something about Specialized and Trek pushing them out of bike shops…) We’re stocking more than 6,000 products from 130 high-end bike-specific brands. We have components from Shimano, Race Face, Truvativ, Avid, Easton, and Gravity; apparel and accessories from Fox Racing, Troy Lee Designs, POC, Sombrio, Dakine, Endura, and Zoic; and complete bikes from Santa Cruz, Intense, Titus, Look and Rocky Mountain. (We’re the only authorized online dealer of Rocky Mountain in the U.S.)

Hit ‘more’ for a link to their contest where you can win a bike and other schwag…

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Rabobank’s Denis Menchov takes the stage and gets in the pink. Click here for a stage 12 recap and click ‘more’ for overall standings…

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Just something from the recent Niner Bikes email newsletter to make you smile…

I took this little collage of photos with the official Bikerumor.com iPhone.  Click on the image to enlarge, I’m guessing over 200 riders showed up for our 3rd annual Ride of Silence.  Sweetie and I had the kids in tow on the trailer, but had to pull out after about 30 minutes…the last one I rode only took about 15 minutes, we weren’t properly stocked with drinks and snacks to keep everyone happy.  Lots of good cheers from bystanders and good times had by all.  Thanks to the GSO PD for keeping the traffic at bay and riding with us.

 

Levi Leipheimer (Astana) set a blistering pace of 1:34:49 across the 60.6km stage 12 time trial, but Denis Menchov (Rabobank) swept in behind him 20 seconds faster, taking both the stage win and the overall lead of the 2009 Giro d’Italia.  Menchov’s average speed was about 38.7 km/h (~ 24 mph)!

LPR’s Danilo Di Luca finished 1:54 behind, taking 6th for the stage, and losing 34 seconds in the overall classification.

UniversalSports.com streamed the race live, which just ended a bit ago, and there’s usually a few hour delay before they get the recorded version up.  Check it out later this afternoon…and a little tip: Once the video starts, you can click anywhere in the timeline and it’ll jump to that part, they’ve done an excellent job buffering it and kudos to them for excellent coverage of the race.  The important part of what I just wrote is this:  Once it starts, click about 2/3 of the way into it and watch the big names duke it out.

Hit ‘more’ for full stage results…

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