Got this unattributed link from our friends at Cycles de Oro…if anyone knows where, when or who this mess is, let us know.

The Cape Epic is a 8 day mountain bike race, covering around 722kms through South Africa and tackling over 16,000m of climbing through the beautiful hills of the Western Cape. Competing in the race are both amateur and professional riders who race in teams of two, with both riders having to stay together at all times. This year saw 1172 racers lining up on the start line to pit themselves against the tough course, which promised strenuous rocky uphills, technical downhills, difficult river crossings and plenty of stunning forested single track.

This year’s race was won by the German Bulls team of Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm who amazingly count this as their third victory here, with previous wins in 2007 and 2009. Karl Platt also won the inaugural race in 2004 as part of a different team. With a finishing time of 29 hours, 47 minutes and 46 seconds for the 722km course, that gives a staggering average speed of just over 24kmph or 15mph.

For more details and photos click more.

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“73377_119270” by Archival Clothing. They produce waxed cotton cycling musettes and totes and are currently expanding their line to include a rucksack and field bag. Their webshop should be up in a few weeks–Check out their blog for information about their archival musettes available now or for contact information.

To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here.

Whip it with Matthias Dandois from BMX Freestyler on Vimeo.

Flatland BMX gets a pretty raw deal when it comes to coverage in the cycle media, but then a clip like this surfaces and, in a matter of seconds, totally mesmarises anyone who rolls on two wheels, or one as is often the case in this clip.

The video is of 20-year-old Matthias Dandois who is currently filming a section to be featured in an up-coming edition of Props Video Magazine. Check out Dandois’ blog here.

Rapha's checked caps are new for 2010. MSRP $60

High end cycling apparel manufacturer Rapha has been slowly announcing its product lineup for 2010, and it will include some new pieces as well as old favorites heading into the new season.

Rapha noted the return of some of their most popular accessories, including their  leather town gloves, overshoes, arm and knee warmers, and merino base layers, which are all back on stock for 2010. The company will also offer its traditional cycling trousers in grey, a new color for this season.

New to the lineup is the Rapha checked cap, a handmade cycling cap made from Italian fabrics, offered in three different styles. The distinctive checkered pattern will be available in red, blue, and grey “colorways” as Rapha would put it, and are priced at $60. The company also introduced a casual long sleeve shirt, expanding on their recent move into casual city clothing designed for riders. The long sleeve shirt is tailored to fit well on the bike and uses breathable fabric with a little stretch, and even has a small pocket on the back, just like a jersey.

These come in addition to Rapha’s expanded women’s line, including jackets, jerseys, and shorts which we talked about here, as well as the club jersey and Transit Elite sweater, all new for 2010.

The sharp new Rapha Condor Sharp pro team kits are also available for purchase on the Rapha website, a new offering this season. You can see those kits here.

See full pictures of the new products after the break.

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Photo: http://ibikelondon.blogspot.com/

Last Friday saw around 600 cyclists reclaim the streets for London’s Critical Mass. It followed a call by many London bloggers and forums to come together to mark three recent deaths on London’s roads caused by large goods vehicles.

On 9 February, Professor David Vilaseca was knocked off on the corner of Tower Bridge Road and Druid Street. Then, on Tuesday 9 March, Muhammad Ahmad, a medical student, collided with a tipper truck on the corner of Weston Street and Snowsfields, only a few hundred metres away. And, just the day after, Shivon Watson, a charity worker was killed on Victoria Park Road in east London.

Critical Mass, which meets on the South Bank by Waterloo Bridge on the last Friday of each month, visited all these sites to lay flowers and pay respects to the victims.

These tragic deaths come as the London Mayor unveiled his Cycling Safety Action Plan. It has been criticised, however, by Jenny Jones, a Green member of the London Assembly, as inadequate. She believes the Mayor is encouraging novice cyclists on to dangerous roads, while cutting the numbers of traffic police and safety cameras. She also called for a peak-time ban on HGVs on key routes

The March Critical Mass ride was also swelled by members of the London Fixed-Gear and Single Speed forum, which had planned – before the memorial ride was announced – to celebrate its 5th birthday at the event. The forum, a tight community of London cyclists, is becoming increasingly active in promoting road safety for all the capital’s cyclists.

Designer John Villarreal, from Wisconsin, has come up with this futuristic concept bicycle.  Intended to offer a peak into the future, as advances in material technology and manufacturing techniques allow the creation of structures that would currently be impossible, this bike was created by paring away everything non-essential to its function. The hubless wheels appear to turn on bearings running around a modified rim, with unspecified futuristic materials allowing the designer to impart enough stiffness without excessive weight. I don’t think that the big wheel makers will be looking to this as the next big thing but, of course, anything is possible in the future! The integrated handlebar, brakes and lights add to the sleek, futuristic appearance which won’t be to everybody’s tastes. Maybe if Michael Knight is looking for an environmentally friendly alternative to KITT he could speak to John Villarreal.

NAHBS 2010 – Signal Cycles was among the contingent of builders representin’ the Pacific Northwest, and in fact they crated their bikes to the show with Vanilla and others.

They only had a few bikes on display, but man were they sumthin.  The orange city bike you see here was built up with some old school XT thumb shifters and derailleur, Paul vee-brakes and chrome fenders for a great wet-weather bike.  The blue rando/touring bike in the background was one of my favorite paint jobs of the whole show, and they had a great 29er hardtail in candy apple red.

Hit ‘more’ for all the pics…

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NAHBS 2010 – Confession: Totally weak reporting on Caletti Cycle’s bikes, but good pics.  This blue fixed gear had one of the more trick paint jobs with an airbrushed stencil cityscape across the head-, top- and seat tubes, plus a nice bent seat tube to bring the rear wheel up close.

John Caletti is a small builder out of Santa Cruz, CA, that gives a portion of sales to groups working to save the environment through 1% for the Planet, along with supporting IMBA and MBoSC (Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz).

Check out more great pics after the break…

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ASO has announced the teams invited to the 2010 Tour de France today, with wild cards going to:

• BMC Racing

• Cervélo Test Team

• Garmin-Transitions

• Katusha

• Team Radio Shack

• Team Sky

This assures the big-name appeal of the 2010 peloton: Lance Armstrong, Bradley Wiggins, world champion Cadel Evans, Carlos Sastre, Thor Hushovd and Christian Vande Velde will all be vying for position, along with a host of other names capable of challenging for jerseys or a top 10 GC finish.

No big surprise, maybe. Team Sky’s results and line-up have more than justified its inclusion; arguably the Tour could not afford to ignore any of these teams, except (perhaps) Katusha. But the decision will disappoint Skil-Shimano, who returned to the race after an absence last year, and Vacansoleil in particular, the Dutch team that put on such a strong show in the early season, winning at the Tour of Qatar and the KBK.

It appears that Lampre – Farnese has sorted out its licence woes, and stays among the 16 Pro Tour teams automatically included under a 2008 agreement with the UCI.

These are: AG2R La Mondiale, Astana, BBox  Bouygues Telecom, Caisse d’Epargne, Cofidis, le Crédit en ligne, Euskaltel – Euskadi, Footon – Servetto, Française des Jeux, Liquigas – Doimo, Omega Pharma  – Lotto, Quick Step, Rabobank, Team HTC-Columbia, Team Milram and Team Saxo Bank.

Bring it on!

NAHBS 2010 – Boo Bicycles fuses carbon fiber and bamboo to make some lightweight, resilient bikes of all types.  Shown above is a fantastically painted track bike (detail photos after the break), and they had a belt drive cyclocross bike and 29er mountain bike on display, too.

Each bike uses bamboo tubes that are hand wrapped with 3K carbon fiber tow (thread).  The wrapping technique was the senior thesis project for several Princeton students who then took the idea and are having the frames made in Saigon, Vietnam.

Check out this and the other bikes after the jump…

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Tour de France race organizers have announced the full list of invited teams for the 2010 race in July.

Six wild card invites went to Garmin-Transitions, Team RadioShack, BMC Racing Team, Team Sky, Katusha and Cervelo TestTeam.  They join the 16 teams that secured automatic invites due to deal with the UCI in September 2008, which include Team Milram, Quick Step, Omega Pharma-Lotto, Team Saxo Bank, Caisse d’Epargne, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Footon-Servetto, HTC-Columbia, AG2R La Mondiale, Bbox Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis, Française des Jeux, Lampre-Farnese, Liquigas-Doimo, Astana, and Rabobank.

Absent are the two Dutch continental pro teams Skil-Shimano and Vacansoleil, disappointing both teams hoping to make a hometown start when the TdF rolls out of the Netherlands on July 3.

The wildcard invites will pit all the superstars against each other, lining up Lance Armstrong, Bradley Wiggins, Cadel Evans and Christian Vande Velde with the rest of the big names.