Terenzo Bozzone Signs with Felt Racing

TRIATHLON WORLD CHAMPION TERENZO BOZZONE

SIGNS WITH FELT

New Zealand’s talented 2008 70.3 Ironman Champ chooses Felt for 2010 and beyond

Irvine, CA (January 11, 2010) – Felt Bicycles is pleased to announce the addition of 2008 Ironman 70.3 World Champion Terenzo Bozzone to its lineup of talented Olympic and World Champion triathletes. The 24-year-old New Zealander will ride Felt bikes, including the DA triathlon bike and AR aerodynamic road bike, in 2010 and beyond.

“After visiting the company and speaking with Jim Felt and the rest of the crew, I had no doubt Felt was the place I wanted to be,” Bozzone said. “Felt’s track record of producing aerodynamically superior bikes is second to none, and I’m confident I will be on the best possible bikes and well looked after.”

Bozzone already has dozens of major victories to his name, including the 2008 70.3 Half Ironman World Championship title. Born in South Africa and raised in New Zealand, Bozzone has seen success at every level of multisport competition. As a junior athlete, fresh out of high school, he won the Men’s Under-20 Duathlon World Championships in 2001 and 2002, and the Under-20 Men’s Triathlon world titles in 2002 and 2003.

In the following years Bozzone chalked up elite category wins at nearly every major half-Ironman. In 2008, he dominated the Ironman 70.3 series, winning in Kansas, Idaho and California, before taking the 70.3 world title in Florida.

“Terenzo is a fantastic talent and we couldn’t be more pleased he is choosing Felt Bicycles to help take him to the next level of his career,” said Felt company namesake Jim Felt. “He’s a proven winner, and the sky is the limit for this young athlete.”

Having conquered 70.3 competition, Bozzone is now turning his attention to full Ironman-distance competition. His transition to the longer format got off to a solid start last March when he finished second at his first full Ironman in New Zealand.

Bozzone competed at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships for the first time last October and despite suffering badly on the run he finished 11^th, showing great promise. “I am really enjoying competing over the full distance races and I think I have gained a great deal of experience this past year,” Bozzone said.

For 2010, Bozzone plans to continue competing in key 70.3 events, while also focusing more on the Ironman events. “My main goals are to get an Ironman title under my belt and win a couple 70.3 races,” he said. “And a top-five in Kona would top off the year for me. Long term, I aim to be the best triathlete in the world, and the most recognized triathlon is Kona.”

Bozzone joins a talented roster of Felt-sponsored triathletes in 2010 including Australian Michellie Jones and American Tim DeBoom—both two-time Ironman World Champions—as well as current Olympic champions Emma Snowsill (Australia) and Jan Frodeno (Germany).

Felt's latest distraction-UPDATED with new pics and info!

"Wow" is all I have to say about the latest revelation from Felt Racing. Debuting at some small races in Europe is Felt's first aero road bike. The details have been requested, trust me. All I can see is an internal cable run at the front of the top tube, like the DA. There's a narrow seattube with curved radius that follows most of the path of the rear wheel. And I reckon for the sake of real-world convenience, vertical dropouts and standard front and rear brake placement.

The bottom line: this is going to give the Cervelo Soloist Carbon and the Kestrel RT 700 a run in a fairly lightly-regarded category. With triathletes realizing that some courses (Alcatraz, etc.) can be better suited to a road bike, aero road bikes are starting to pick up some steam. I'm excited to see this one when it's made public.

As soon as I hear some word about it (name, geometries, pricing, availability date), I'll have it here.

***

OK, just got the news, in the form of a press release from Felt Racing:

Irvine, CA (June 16, 2008)—Felt Bicycles is very proud to announce the introduction of its all-new road bike - the Felt AR. Conceived, designed and built on the premise that greater aerodynamic efficiencies could be applied to standard road bikes, and inspired by the direct desires of the Slipstream/Chipotle-H3O Pro Cycling Team, the AR successfully debuted in last Wednesday’s 23^rd edition of the 210K one-day Dutch Food Classic (1.HC), where Martijn Maaskant finished top-10 after an aggressive day of racing, including time off the front.

The AR combines already-proven Felt TT and track bike solo-effort technology and advantages while maintaining the necessary ride and handling characteristics of Felt premium road bikes. Wind tunnel testing has already shown that the AR is not only faster than all other road bikes in its class, in many cases it is faster than a great number of available TT bikes. In general terms, the new AR offers approximately a 2% savings over a standard road bike when in identical conditions. Depending on actual speed and wind conditions, this equates to a savings of 58-75(+) seconds over the course of a one hour ride.

The new AR frameset includes design highlights such as UCI-legal aero down tube, head tube, chainstays and fork blades, aero “wheelwell” conforming seat tube and shielded internal cable routing. The full carbon fiber monocoque design frame is built with Felt’s highest grade of carbon fiber, Ultra Hybrid Carbon (“UHC”). Aero bladed fork is also built with premium UHC carbon fiber and includes a full length carbon steering column. UHC is a blend of three distinct fiber types (SB60, M30S and T700) each specifically layered and integrated based on their own unique attributes and characteristics. The new AR frameset also includes revolutionary Nano technology, a resin-specific attribute which creates an effective “super-bond” in the carbon fiber material. The end result is an even stronger exterior, one which is considerably less susceptible to crack and impact damage, and offers greater compression and sheer strength than carbon fiber without it.

“We consider the AR another step in the continued and ongoing development of our road bikes” says Felt US President Bill Duehring. “With all we have learned from our various time trial related projects, it seemed like a natural progression for us. Knowing the AR will now be a big part of the team’s equipment arsenal is really very exciting, especially going into the Tour de France.”