Cannondale Pro Cycling Team has announced its roster for the 101st edition of the Tour de France. The American bike manufacturer made nine unique, custom-painted Cannondale EVO bikes for nine Tour riders, with the slogan of “The Nine Wonders of 2014 Tour de France”.
Astana Team’s Italian star Vincenzo Nibali has won the Italian national road title recently. The Kazakh team prepared for him a new jersey. And the “Shark” has a new bike – a dangerous-looking Specialized Tarmac.
Nibali’s new Specialized S-Works Tarmac is mainly black and white in color and has a shark figure with sharp teeth in the head tube. Campagnolo Super Record drivetrain, Corima Viva wheels, and FSA components are completing the kit.
I bought a pair of Bontrager R2 clincher folding road tires, and I rode over 560 km with them in 8 days. Here is a quick review.
First, some specifications:
What a stage it was! Andrew Talansky of Garmin Sharp surprisingly won the 2014 Critérium du Dauphiné, after being in a successful breakaway group in the last stage (stage 8). Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) finished second in the general classification. Former race leader Chris Froome started the stage in second place to Contador in the GC, and finished out of the top ten! Mikel Nieve Iturralde (Team Sky) won the stage.
Vincenzo Torriani (Novate Milanese, 17 September 1918 – Milano, 24 April 1996) was best known as one of the original “Giro Bosses” or organizers of the Giro d’Italia. He held the role for 46 years, from 1946 to 1992. This video clip is from the documentary named “The Greatest Show on Earth“. Soundtrack: “Di quella pira” – a popular tenor aria (or more specifically cabaletta) sung by Manrico in Act 3, Scene 2 of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, “Il Trovatore“. Tenor: Franco Corelli.
In late January 2014, Hampsten cycles launched two new road bike models under the same name: “Maglia Rosa”. Andy Hampsten, the first and only American to win the Giro d’Italia (in 1988, including the title of “Gran Premio della Montagna”, the Giro equivalent of Tour de France’s “King of the Mountains”), is a fan of Italian lifestyle and culture, and you can see this in the bikes that he produced (also in the model names).
Normally, the Hampsten Cycles offer a unique line of full-custom road bike frames and whole bikes, but the Maglia Rosa project is a slight departure from this norm. This project is more about non-custom, carbon, and steel road bikes. These two models below, the “Superissimo” and the “Il Carbonario” are first out of the gate for project Maglia Rosa.
Marcel Kittel, the sprinter of the team Giant-Shimano, in a video prepared in collaboration with the ASO (Amaury Sports Organisation – the Organizer of the Tour de France) gave the cycling fans some safety advice.
Kittel says: “Thanks for coming to the Tour to support us. Please respect the riders, protect yourself and especially your children.”
Campagnolo has launched entirely new Super Record, Record, and Chorus mechanical groupsets, and the Italian company’s third level groupset, Chorus now has an electronic version – Chorus EPS (“EPS” is the acronym for “Electronic Power Shift”).
Previously, the prototype of the new Campagnolo Super Record groupset spotted at Giro d’Italia, on the Colnago C60 of Europcar rider Maxime Mederel.
Stage 20 of Giro d’Italia 2014 finished atop Monte Zoncolan. It is widely regarded as one of the most difficult climbs in Europe: the Zoncolan has been compared with Vuelta a España’s El Angliru, in the Spanish region of Asturias. The steepest, 23.6% pitch of the Angliru is very short however, being part of a kilometer stretch that averages “only” 17.2 percent – while the Zoncolan has a kilometer of nearly 20%.
The “thing” is situated in Friuli Venezia Giulia and belongs to the Alps. Starting from Ovaro, the Monte Zoncolan ascent is 10.5 km long. Over this distance, you climb 1210 vertical meters. The average percentage thus is 11.5%.
There was a road race at Istanbul Park (the Formula 1 track) last week. It was quite a short race (just 42.4K), so I knew it would be fast and furious.
Around 100 riders were at the start line. A few of them were pros, some of them were amateurs and some of them including me were age group racers.