The humble bicycle being one of the most efficient machines on earth, perhaps it’s only fitting that the velodrome built for the 2012 London Olympics is the most environmentally sustainable building the village. The ‘drome will house all the usual track events plus BMX. The video above has commentary from one of the structural engineers and the project’s environmental engineer.

Click through to see a virtual reality walk through of the concept by Hopkins Architects from 2007…

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Flying under the radar on pro triathlete Cyril Viennot’s Scott Plasma 3 at Ironman World Championships in Kona last month was a “new” Mavic Cosmic Carbone 60 front wheel. That’s what is supposedly on Viennot’s bike shown here (pic from his blog, where he calls them “new”).

Mavic’s 2012 lineup includes Cosmic Carbone 80 wheelset and the new Cosmic Carbon SLE, which is 52mm deep. Thing is, neither look like the wheels shown here. The longer yellow decals don’t appear on any production wheels shown on Mavic’s website. The current CC80 has external spoke nipples, something not found on most of Mavic’s other high end aero wheels, and these here look to have external nipples but almost certainly aren’t 80mm deep.

Predictably, we haven’t received any official word from Mavic’s PR folk yet, but adding a bit of credence to this rumor is our buddy Herbert’s bike check post over at Slowtwitch.com (scroll to bottom), which clearly shows size differentiation between the front and rear wheels and lists the spec as Cosmic Carbone 60/80 front and rear.

Most of Mavic’s high end wheels now use their wheel/tyre system, selling with both as a package, and their tubular options jump from the 40mm deep Cosmic Carbone Ultimate all the way up to the 80. A 60mm depth makes a nice middle child that should appeal to a wider spectrum of riders. We’re guessing it’ll be tubular-only if they follow the design of the 80. That’s probably why we’re seeing external spoke nipples…no need to remove the tire to true the wheel.

More as we get it. Video interview with Viennot (in French) after the break that shows the bike in the background.

Big thanks to eagle-eyed Bogdan Ioachimescu for the tip!

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Photo submitted by Shiggy, Tech Support over at Titus/On-One/Planet X.

If you think you know what this is, post your answer in ‘comments’ section– the answer will be posted there on Tuesday! To send in your own Mystery Pic to be considered for the Monday feature, click here and attach your photo with all pertinent information.

Jerónimo Cycles, a Spanish brand that’s shown us some pretty nice and interestingly named titanium bikes in the past, has announced a new venture in steel for 2012.

Using high end Reynolds 853 tubing, they’ll produce a limited number of cZar road bikes and Rasputin mountain bikes. The Rasputin will be available in both 26″ and 29er, and all three models will have three sizes available and all are ready for racks.

More pics and the full PR after the break…

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What you’re seeing here is the first 2012 Cannondale Scalpel 29er to be delivered in the U.S., sittin’ pretty after just being unboxed, weighed and built by our friends at Freshbikes in Arlington, VA.

We’ve covered, seen and weighed these a couple of times with a full tech rundown here and the dream build here, but it’s always good to see what they end up at on the showroom floor. Click through for tons of pics…

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Inventor Maxwell von Stein, a recent graduate of The Cooper Union, has created a flywheel bicycle that stores forward momentum during braking to make acceleration quicker and easier when it’s time to go again.

Yes, adding a 15lb Porsche flywheel to any bike is bound to make the handling a bit off, but the concept is quite good. And it’s aimed at improving cars fuel efficiency, using our beloved bicycle as a test mule. Currently, flywheels are used in cars to maintain revs between shifts and keep the rotation of the driveshaft smooth while pistons are pounding away in an engine. They’re also partly responsible for helping slow the car when downshifting – like in this bicycle, which claims to help reduce speed by 20% when engaged during braking – by absorbing some of the rotational energy transmitted back into the system from the wheels. If Gran Turismo has taught me anything, it’s that lighter weight flywheels help the engine rev up faster, but they don’t carry the engine’s momentum as well when the foot’s off the gas, so striking the right balance between mass and weight will be one of the challenges in the progress of this design. We’d say this is a pretty great start.

Video by Science Friday, found on FastCoExist.

Not just for exercise or leisure, this bicycle works for it’s keep. Photo submitted by Rick Harris from a recent mission trip to Uganda.

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

While you’re home nursing your Black Friday wounds, hop on the computer and check out these neat bicycling inspired gift ideas from small businesses. The first one on our list, above, is a poster from MonkeyRope Press in Chicago for $25.00. Click more for the rest of the list.

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Truvativ sent over a little video showing the softer side of Danny Hart, the kid who bum rushed the DH circuit this year, capping it off with a sick World Cup winning run at Champery…so we’re leading with the vid of that, and the Truvativ video first up after the break. That’s followed by a vid from Morvelo clothing showing a few pieces of their autumn/winter collection and how a cyclocross bike should be ridden…

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Shifted is a new mountain bike video that’ll be aired online Spring 2012. Featuring up and coming riders and shot mostly around British Columbia, the film by Matt Butterworth and Eric Marciniak aims to show how these guys are trying to make a career out of riding. Via Pinkbike.

Apparently these came out earlier this year (or before?), but we just caught wind of them from an almost ridiculously in depth review over on Core 77.

As a fan of Knog lights after reviewing the Beetle and using their standard Boomer for a while, the USB recharging feature is a pretty solid looking upgrade. Like all their lights, the Boomer USB has a silicone stretch housing that has to be pulled off to get to the USB “stick”, which can then be jammed directly into your computer or a wall wart like those that come with an iPhone or iPad.

Run time on both is about 3.5 hours solid or 12 hours flashing. Front is 55 lumens, rear is 15, and the cases’ straps are oriented appropriately for wrapping around either the seatpost or handlebar as the case may be. They even have a discharge mode to keep the battery safe when you won’t be using them for a while. US MSRP is $39.95 and they come in blue, red, white, black, pink and clear-ish.

Photo submitted by Cristian, “Hi! Im from Argentina, and we took this picture this last weekend going up to the high peaks of Cordoba near the town of La Cumbrecita. I’m the rider that appears in the pic. The storm was in front of us and it did reach us when going down back to town!”

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