Tour Tech on Show in Monaco

What are we in store for in France this month? Have a look...

Everyone in the industry seems to think I am in Monaco for the Tour. Sadly, I am not. As they say in France, C’est la vie. But this technical editor, however, on vacation in Switzerland, visiting my wife Donna Phelan, just as I did last year at TeamTBB camp in Leysin. It’s great seeing old friends (coach Brett Sutton and athletes Rebekah Keat, Lizbeth Kristensen and Erika Csomor), and all the new faces on the team. I brought my road bike and am excited to head out today after a day of jetlag sorting… got some new stuff to test, in a beautifully appropriate locale, the Swiss Alps. It’s a beautiful day today, and am sure it will be the same around the corner in Monaco for the race start today.

And among the things we’ll see during the month-long saga? There’s a ton...

Oakley Antifreeze Radar
This one debuts with Oakley's sprinters, who will wear an appropriately wicked liquid green frame that looks like frozen Prestone (which is in effect an impossibility what with it being call, you know, antifreeze... but Oakley makes the impossible possible), with a Jade Iridium lens.They’re limited edition, available in the standard Path lens or the new XL, with a longer 7mm nosebridge (which is functionally great for when down in the aerobars, so you're looking through the lenses and not over the frame) and available soon in that limited run at Oakley.com get'em while you can.

Castelli Apparel
While on invite at the request of Cervelo to see Carlos Sastre and Thor Hushovd do some aero testing at San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel this February, I had a chance to meet the folks from Castelli, and saw some prototype apparel they said would be debuted this July.

While you’ve now seen the new reverse jerseys (white instead of black), my interest lay in their tunnel-tested gear.
Like the Aero Race Team Jersey; the wind tunnel tested skinsuit, shoecovers and aero gloves will give the riders a technical edge to cut through the wind as well. Here's a shot of defending Tour champ Carlos Sastre checking out some of the fabric that Castelli's Steve Smith is showing him.

Further, and more of an aside: keep an eye out for a totally new TT helmet from Catlike with the Cervelo TestTeam; they had something at the wind tunnel that they were vehemently preventing me from taking photos of. Pretty cool stuff.

The body of the skinsuit is made using Castelli’s BodyPaint technology: a single piece of fabric to eliminate seams and cover your body as if it was painted on. It’s cut short in the front so that when the rider is bent over in the riding position, it lays perfectly flat on the front. A flat elastic leg opening means for smooth air flow. It’s finished with an aerodynamic flap to cover the riders race number. (maybe we’ll see this in triathlon?)

Castelli’s Aero Race Shoecovers also have a “golf ball dimple” fabric.

Giro TT helmet
We’ll see this one today; a two-year project, with aero testing taking place at the University of Washington Aerodynamics Laboratory Kirsten Wind Tunnel, as well as at UW’s liquid tanks doing fluid flow. It’s pretty impressive testing, which they captured on video and you can watch here at http://www.giro.com/en-us/media/#/asset:59/category:default/type:default. It' follows testing the team did with Lance Armstrong at the San Diego Wind Wind tunnel last Spring as well, in an effort to find yet another optimized helmet shape that will fit Lance's highly curved back. And there's the thing: not every aero helmet will fit every head.. but this one may be best for you.
Giro marketing director Kevin Franks went on record saying:

"Based on extensive wind tunnel and ride testing, we can report that the new Giro TT helmet that will debut on Giro riders tomorrow in Monaco is the fastest TT helmet in the world. The helmet is considerably faster than any other helmet in zero degree yaw situations, and remarkably faster in 5, 10, and 15 degree yaw situations. The helmet represents a paradigm shift in aerodynamic helmet technology."

We've asked if Normann Stadler will be wearing this at the Roth Challenge next weekend in Germany, and.. afraid not, Franks said... but probably in Kona.

Rotor’s 3D Carlos Sastre Crankset
The new 3D Crankset is of keen interest; designed in concert with Cervelo TestTeam, it has three longitudinally CNC-machined holes through the length of the crankarms to cut weight, while maintaining structural integrity. For the Tour, the crank goes yellow for one man: defending race champ Carlos Sastre. It will be available to the public, however.

Just six of these cranks have been made (good luck getting one), hand-painted by a design studio that does up custom MotoGP helmets.

Specialzied Shiv
Sure, we’ve seen this at the Triathlete magazine website. But we haven’t seen the new paintjob. Here’s Fabian Cancellara’s rig being built up in Monaco for today’s TT. Get some.
Cervelo S3 Tour Limited Edition

To commemorate Cervelo TestTeam's first Tour entry (and of course Sastre's title defense), a super-limited run of a black and yellow S3 frameset will be made available. Check cervelo.com for more info.

Interbike Redux, Part I

Now that I'm out of Vegas, I can look back on it with a bit more clarity. My quick impression? Lots of new, different ideas. Bike and parts manufacturers can no longer just show up with an aero bike. They have to come strong, with data. When we're spending $7,000 on a bike, there better be some science behind the design. Everyone, from Ridley to Fuji to Ceepo were bringing something different to combat the wind. Even Kestrel had a new redesign of the Airfoil Pro that I was impressed with.

Which is where Cervelo has built it's empire. Phil White and Gerard Vroomen did the best to build a bit of hype—and deliver on it—with the debut of the P4, backed with a healthy dose of science, and $1 million of development.

And the hype behind the debut was a unique scene, one reminiscent of an Apple keynote, with Phil and Gerard presenting the bike with head mikes on, and a group of media and other onlookers on-hand for the unveiling. I Saw Simon Whitfield looking on, colleagues like Dan Empfield and Lennard Zinn, as well as a few other engineers from rival brands, all awaiting the unveiling. It was amazing the amount of people from competing brands that made time to visit the Cervelo booth. When I saw the below, I just had to get a shot.
Maybe Fausto Pinarello, caught by my camera, was irritated by my candidly catching him languising in the Cervelo booth. Or maybe he was longingly looking at that P4 in the case. To his credit, Pinarello's top-end TT bike is pretty solid aerodynamically. If they ever paid attention to triathlon beyond putting Cam Brown and Leanda Cave on their bikes, they'd make waves.

I take off Tuesday for Kona and will update here again before I head to the island... then will be updating here from the island as I cruise around town as a journalist, at the same time looking after my wife Donna, who is racing with her TeamTBB teammates. I have assignment to cover the women's race, so I'm excited to see what ought to be an incredible race, even in the absence of Sam McGlone and Michellie Jones.

The men's race will be excellent as always. If the weather is shit, expect Normann to do his thing and make life hell on everyone. If it's calmer, Macca is still my pick. His confidence is worth a lot to that guy, and he has all the confidence.

Of course, you have Torbjorn, Chris Lieto and my biggest x-factor, Steve Larsen, who will also look to inflict damage. It will be a fun race.

From Moto in North Carolina in to Velo in Vegas: a month redux

Been a while, eh? I'm in Vegas for Interbike, which officially kicked off today with the first day of Dirt Demo. It's gonna be full-go for the next few days to see all the hottest new stuff.

I happen to be staying in the hotel with the guys who has been at the maelstrom of the "hottest" anticipation. Indeed, I ran into Phil White, half of the Cervelo brainchild with fellow engineer Gerard Vroomen. We walked and talked about a mile down the strip—he to do some shopping, me to get my credentials at the Venetian. There has been buzz about whether the new P4 Carbon would be coming. And like Gerard told me at the Tour de France earlier this year, he and his media team said they'll let me know when they have something ready. He told me that they've invested—get this—over $1 million in the development of the P4 Carbon. So when they want to let the world know, they said I would be on the short list of those who would get an inside track.

So... stand down, Cervelo-ites...at least for now.

Last we spoke, it was Olympics time. Jan Frodeno surprised us, and Emma Snowsill didn't. Great fun was had by all.

Around that time, I was the guest of Specialized to a unique test. I have a piece that will be going into Road Bike Action magazine as well as in Triathlete magazine. It was exceptionally informative, and unique: Specialized brought out the brains (engineer Mark Cote) and the brawn (six-time Australian National Time Trial ChampNathan O'Neill... that's Mark getting on Nathan's nerves, giving him a hard time about his helmet straps) to do some interesting tests, to draw some quantifiable numbers as to what the true benefits of a tri bike are over a road bike, in terms of rider position benefit, wattage output benefit, even bike-only aero profile benefit. It was quite interesting, and will make for good reading... at least for those who like to look at numbers and what they mean.

There was actually protocol for three separate tests that we were : a wind tunnel test at the new A2 Wind Tunnel, located in NASCAR's hometown of Mooresville. That was interesting enough. Then there was a 1k trial at an area loop for some outdoor comparison.

Then the finale was a series of 10-mile road trials at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. The test was held on the actual NASCAR track, which, for me, was a thrill. It was also held in conjunction with the Carolina TT Cycling Association series,which hosts a monthly time trial on the track. One of the coolest things I'd ever seen, cyclists of ever level out laying down the watts, in individual and TTT format.And then.... there was a unique prototype setup. Not a proto bike, but proto measurement device. You'll have to read the mags to see what that's all about.

The heat of the day gave way to the cool of the night as athletes raced under the lights. I'd wish I brought my bike! But it was Nathan, after a day of 10-mile time trials under the hot sun, who put on a blazing display in his last lap—just to see how fast he could go. He nearly fell over after the hot lap, but it was fun for us to watch from the infield grass. He passed on the customary infield tire burnout donuts.

One of the coolest dynamics I'd ever seen took place there as well: athletes warmed up in the garage alongside spare cars belonging to Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon. How unique. I had to get a shot of it, which you see to the left... that's Carl Edwards' Office Depot No. 99 behind the bikes.

With that trip finished, I headed home, excited about the coming Pepsi 500 NASCAR race in Fontana, Calif., up the road.

Enter Specialized marketing magician. Nic Sims. He's British and has the voice of the Geico gecko. And he's a great guy. Because he picked up my NASCAR fetish (I was flipping out as we drove past DEI headquarters), and made something cool happen.

MyDad retired a couple weeks ago. Dude can sleep in as long as he wants now. But I wanted to send him out with a bang, and Specialized helped me to that end.

All the boys in my family (that being my dad, brother and I) are big NASCAR fans. We went to PIR in Phoenix over a decade ago to see Dale Earnhardt race, several years before he passed. I like Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards. Dad and bro like Tony Stewart. But we all agree on one favorite: Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the 88 car.

It seems Specialized sponsors one of the Sprint Cup drivers, and as such has access to the races. When I said “hey, if the ones in Cali never get used, gimme a ring,” I didn’t think anything of it.

But Nic rang, and got myself, and dad and brother, not only in, but in with garage and pit passes. For four hours, we got to wander up and down pit row. It’s the equivalent of courtside seats for the Lakers—at 78 thousand decibels. And you had Drew Carey shouting for the gents to start their engines, as well as some celebs I’d never heard of (whos’s heard of The Hills? Apparently, two actors were there and causing a stir). I guess I’m losing touch with what the kids are watching these days.

But we all knew who was passing from the garage to their cars. So we got to basically hang out behind Junior’s pit and watch Tony Eury Jr. do his thing directing the frenzy. The pit crew are surprisingly athletic, going through stretches, some running up and down pit lane to get their lungs blown open a bit.

That done, I went to Malibu to cover the Malibu Triathlon weekend. I did the Olympic-distance race with my brother Jon (finished 8th in my age group in 2:20, was pleased with that) But the next day I got to watch the paparazzi descend on Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey like flies on carrion. It was disturbing. John Segesta, Rich Cruse and I stood back and watched the rudest guys trample, bump and otherwise ignore anyone else around to get that money shot. Whatever. One tried to warn me he was coming thru. I promptly stopped, squared up, looked him in the eye and made him go around me. I have a greater understanding why once in a while, celebs snap and haul off on these clowns. I totally get it now.

That stated, it was chaos to even try to talk to any of the celebs as a journalist. But I got lucky. After the vultures left McConaughey to stalk J-Lo, who was still on the course, I cruised over and asked for 2 minutes. He gave me about seven, talking about his race in great detail. It sounds to me like he'll maybe be doing more triathlons. The fact that he was getting training advice from respected L.A. area coach Ian Murray of Triathletix meant he was taking it serious. The "coach" J-Lo was working with was no tri coach, that's for sure. Anyway, it was all good for the sport to get names like McConaughey and Lopez to lend exposure to triathlon.

And since I was shooting the race, I managed some shots of Matthew, and one I think my massive legion of women reading this blog (or at least the two who are reading it) will appreciate:

See? Milk (and training) do a body good!

Until next time... which should be not long after Interbike, and before the Hawaii Ironman in three weeks (three weeks!!!)

Beijing Bikes: Juraci Moriera’s Suplicy CS-0.7, and the Cervelo R3

If you race locally in San Diego, you know there’s a sprint race about every other weekend. And if you go to these races, you’ll always see the same guy at the top of the pro results: Brazilian Caue Suplicy.

Caue has been a friend of mine for several years, when we were both coached by San Diego Xtraining coach Sergio Borges. Like many local-level pros, Suplicy languished in pro triathlon limbo-fast enough to win local sprints, but with the payout of a box of PowerBars. (If you read Triathlete magazine, you might recall seeing Caue in a story I wrote about the unglamourous life of a pro triathlete).

Well, Caue could see the writing on the wall. Sure, he wanted to continue racing, because going fast is kinda fun. But he wanted to take his experience as an athlete, and apply it to bike design. So came the birth of Suplicy Bikes.

I didn’t think much would come of the brand, but he’s surprised me. For one, he has been scooping up wins on his own bike. and has a collection of nice gear, road and tri and his order-online website and a few local shops here. At the Encinitas Sprint Triathlon that he won a couple weeks ago, Caue told me he managed to get his bike under an athlete racing in the men’s Beijing Olympic Games Triathlon: Brazilian Juraci Moriera. And he pulled out the stops.

It was thought that Brazil would have just one spot for the Beijing Games, and Reinaldo Colucci had the points on Juraci. But a late surge put Juraci on a plane and on the start for this weekend. He needed a bike, and Suplicy, ready to help a friend, supplied his lightweight road bike, the CS-0.7.

The frame has a slightly sloping compact design a fork with a 1 1/8” carbon steerer with an integrated cut-to-fit seat mast, and, as sold, features some of Suplicy’s house gear, including wheelset, bar and stem. The bike comes in eight sizes, ranging 50cm to 60cm. The stock offering is completed with SRAM’s Force groupset. Complete with this kit, the CS-0.7 retails at $5,000.

For Moriera, Suplicy was able to secure a set of the 2009 version of the Lew Composites Pro VT-1 carbon wheelset. which feature ceramic bearings in a Tune freehub body, and weight a guaranteed 850 grams or less. Yes, it’s that $5,495 wheelset. Moriera’s race bike is fitted with a SRAM Red groupset, a Vision by FSA Mini Clip-on, and Speedplay Zero pedals.

Frame weight for his 58cm frame: Suplicy pegs it at 6 kilograms, or 14 pounds, complete. One nice little details, Moriera's bike has the plug on the top tube's underside, for a tidy race number placement on race day.

Here's what Juraci emailed me today: "I really like the bike otherwise I don't think I would be using it at the Olympics! I'm very impressed with how light it is especially for such a big frame," he said. "I definitely feel that this bike accelerates better and is more responsive than any other bike I've ever ridden. This bike will be my weapon to defeat the hilly bike course. I was able to ride on the Olympic course yesterday and felt very good — the hill didn't seem as bad as it was last year so I'm very excited to use this bike at the race. I'll be racing the lucky number "8" on the Suplicy on Monday!"

It’s not news for those that have been watching the Games to see that Cervelo has sent its road athletes to Beijing on the new S3 road bike, complete with a floating Olympic ring motif, and will make these bikes available in a limited run. Differing from the Soloist, the S3 has cable routing that ports in at the front of the top tube (avoiding the extra weight and shift slop of a full housing run) and new, more aero stays. While Fabian Cancellara used the S3 to bridge to the break, then take bronze in the road race, the triathlon will see a few athletes: Canadian Simon Whitfield and TeamTBB pros Reto Hug and Nicola Spirig of Switzerland, and Mariana Ohata and Reinaldo Colucci of Brazil.
So in a race with what will certainly be some of the finest bikes, a little Brazilian designer has the newest (and certainly one of the most expensive at $12,000 as Suplicy puts it) bikes in T2 this weekend. And Cervelo will certainly have one of the cleanest-looking (and aerodynamically-fastest) new models on the racks.

Best of mechanical luck to all the athletes racing this weekend.

Limited Editon Cervelos: Black, white and... SRAM Red

Some months ago I got to build up my dream bike, which was a magazine test: a Cervelo SLC-SL. That bike sits in a case, surrounded by Pringles, spare tires, boxes of Kashi GoLean and bubble wrap. That's right, I'm talkin' road trip.

I'm doing Escape from Alcatraz in San Francisco this weekend, and while that course, with its hills, technical corners at the bottom of said hills makes it heaven-sent for Alcatraz, I'm not riding that bike there. No, I've road-ified the PK Racing Guru Crono (which you'll see in the July issue of Triathlete and you'll see on this blog in a few days in way more glorious detail than Triathlete delivered. If you're at the race, look for the blaze vermillion and silver rocket, strapped with Zipp 808s. Hard to miss.

No, that bike will sit in its box while I race Alcatraz. Because two days after the race, I'm on my way to Switzerland. Thanks to this MacBook, I can do my work from anywhere. So I'm gonna spend a month being my wife's soignieur, cook and grocery-getter while she's doing the Team TBB thing with her team in Switzerland.

So I'll be damned if I'm not bringing the baddest road bike to ride the Swiss Alps for a month. The Tour de Suisse passes nearby for a stage finish and start too, so I gotta check that out for sure.

So this test Cervelo SLC-SL delivers pretty much all I, as a triathlete, look for in a road bike. Light weight, great steering, tight compact design, and the thing few other road bikes offer: aerodynamics.

Sent as a frameset, I got to put what I wanted on it. I've been a big fan of what SRAM has accomplished in short time with its road offerings, and the new Red group was gonna make this thing... perfect. A Zipp Vuma Quad Crankset, Fizik Arione saddle and Flashpoint Racing 60 carbon wheels with alloy rims (in my opinion one of the most underrated wheelsets in the sport), and I'll be damned if I don't have one of the baddest bike around. I wish I was racing it in The City, but with a day turnaround, It would be impossible to pack it with all the other stuff Donna and her teammates are asking me to schlep from Encinitas to Leysin.

When I told the Cervelo folks that I built what I considered the perfect bike some months ago, they nodded, then said they had something up their sleeve. Those that know Cervelo know they only deal in Shimano. This year, as a bit of a test, Cervelo is doing a limited run of three models kitted with SRAM. Here's a traveler sheet with the info on the SLC-SL, outfitted with Red:

Love it, love it, love it. I wonder how many have swapped their Shimano spec for SRAM to complete their masterpiece on their own. Now, in an "act now!" kinda way, Cervelo plays liek Burger King and says you can have it your way, offering SRAM.

There's gonna be only 300 Cervelo RS bikes available kitted with SRAM Force, as well as 215 R3-SL kitted with SRAM Red. And my "dream bike," the SLC-SL, outfitted with SRAM Red? Just 180 of 'em.

Like I said, "act now," and save yourself from having to build it up. I sure hope Cervelo finds this to be a good litmus test as to whether they ought to be spec'ing SRAM. Not that they're having any trouble selling their bikes as it is.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to having fun in San Francisco. My younger brother Jon is doing the race for the first time, and I'm gonna try to steward him through the swim for a bit. While he knows pressure (in '95 he kicked a game-winning field goal with 22 seconds left to help our alma mater, the University of Arizona Wildcats, knock out a Jake Plummer-led Arizona State Sundevil team—in Tempe no less), he's making himself a ball of nerves. Just like I tell anyone else, just enjoy the experience...the boat, the bay, the sand ladder, Crissy Field, all of it. Because I've been to races around the world and there's just one race—Monaco 70.3—that rivals Escape from Alcatraz for sheer beauty. I'll be taking this one in, while tracking the race leaders on the course. You'd be surprised how much of the race you can follow on the bike and run while racing.. so look for a stellar race report at slowtwitch.com after the race.

Then the SLC-SL and I have a plane to catch...

BrainBike '08: Eight Lucky Consumers See Cervelo's Skunkworks

Two weeks ago just after the Tour of Cali, I was invited by Cervelo to the San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel. It wasn't the first time they've had me there, but it was with one of the most unique reasons. Yes, there was one pro there: Christiane Soeder, the Austrian from the Team Cervelo-Lifeforce women cycling team and bronze medalist in the time trial at the UCI world champs last year, doing some aero testing.

No, this focus was time on the consumer— a lucky handful that got to check out the behind-the-scenes of not only how and why Cervelo makes the bikes it does, but also aerodynamics testing in general. And with chainstay namesakes Gerard Vroomen and Phil White, Cervelo's founding engineers delivering the education.

As you'll see in the video chat Phil and Gerard to the right, they explain the purpose of this particular two-week stint in San Diego (And they also reveal that yes, the P4C is the next tri-TT bike in development, with a release date of.... TBA.)

So, back to the consumers. The two weeks were spent largely catering to Cervelo dealers, helping educate them on what goes into the bikes—Cervelo calls the conference Brainbike 2008. But at its website a month before BrainBike was to take place, Cervelo sent out a call to its buyers: a limited invite to eight lucky Cervelo owners. The offer: if you can fly yourself to San Diego for a few days, Cervelo will put you up, feed you and take you to the wind tunnel to not only see the testing, see the prototyping process (absent key pieces of a true prototype) of the P4C, and learn not only about Cervelo, but learn in general about aerodynamic testing of bikes, tires, wheels and bottle placement. Learn about carbon manufacturing in terms of layup schedules that create a ride characteristic. Learn about geometry and fit. Learn about bikes, from the ground-up.

And the P4C, supposedly on display? Perhaps those other journalists and bloggers in attendance were misled, but there was certainly no P4C on show. Attendees were not permitted to take photos of the prototyping bits on their frame skeleton but that said, what they had on show was certainly not a final product. The jigsaw puzzle capabilities of the steel skeleton for the P4C meant Cervelo could assemble any iteration of a bike from their testing for show to the dealers. And the bike on show was not anything they'd call a close iteration... they're smarter than that. So any inference to "a BB doing this" or "a downtube or seattube doing that" is erroneous at best. When Cervelo is ready to show us something, it won't be some shady look. We'll know.

It was an opportunity that people would pay a few thousand dollars to experience, with Gerard and Phil doing the instruction. Eight were selected, eight made the trip.

Much of what was learned is contained within a glossy, black book passed to dealers and the lucky eight that, even to myself as a journalist that has "seen it all," has incredible value. Again, within it is nothing about the Cervelo model line. It's all about educating the dealer, or in this case, the lucky consumer. If you have a Cervelo dealer nearby, ask to leave a credit card or a car or a child for collateral, take it home and have a read. It's truly enlightening, a unique collection of relevant bike education.

So, these eight—including Kylie Evans, a computer programmer from Monrovia, Calif. and Maj. Richard Lawson, a military test pilot from Maryland, got the opportunity of a lifetime. "You see 800 opinions online, but it's nice to see a company that shows that their bikes are developed and tested in the wind tunnel. It was great to see things tested," she said. "Of course, they talked highly of their bikes, but they weren't afraid to say where things might be close, or if an aero bottle was any good—the fact that they told us things that had nothing to do with their bikes was cool."

Said Lawson, a roadie and triathlete: "It was such a good deal, I thought they were kidding when they advertised it. The reason I ended up buying a Cervelo was all the blood, sweat and tears they've put into it.

"I'm active military and an engineer dork by trade. This is the stuff I do for a living on the military side, so it's really fascinating," he added. "I was shocked they had this opportunity. Gerard and Phil are amazing folks."

It was just another example of how Cervelo continues to push the envelope—not just in their product development, but in the education of the consumer. Because it's those that best understand what goes into the bike that have a deeper appreciation in the bike they choose—the very definition of an educated decision. In a market of smart buyers (that's us), deep tubes and sexy paintjobs only go so far.