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.

Gear Extra!! New Scott Plasma Images, Shimano proto wheels spied, new Rotor cranks and Nuun's new flavor .. and the Giro TV Schedule

I’ll cut to the quick on a bunch of stuff;

First, Wildflower: killer weekend last weekend. Too much fun with great people. I got to piggyback my wife’s association with TeamTBB, which is sponsored by Avia shoes—which also served as Wildflower’s title sponsor. So Avia was there in full force, and looked after its athletes with a killer team environment for all its athletes, a great spread of food (cooked up by grillmaster Kenny Souza) and even the live pay-per-view broadcast of the Pacquiato-Hatton fight on Saturday night after the long-course race. It was “roughing it” in a cool way. Donna finished 10th, a great result given that she was two weeks removed from taking fourth at Ironman China. Trooper.

On to some other stuff.. namely, gear:

SHIMANO
I received a press release from Shimano that Craig Alexander is fully-sponsored by Shimano for the year, meaning he’ll not only be running Shimano parts, but he’ll also be running the new Di2 Electronic tri group. I’ve had a chance to play with the electric shifters, and it’s pretty wicked.

But what caught my eye was the attached image of Crowie. Check this out:
What stands out? How about the deep-section wheels?

I contacted my peeps at Shimano for some comment, and none was forthcoming. Shimano’s Devin Walton said that indeed, Shimano is working on some prototype products, a full-Shimano product (they are Shimano's own rims, not Zipps or anyone elses) that Crowie is testing, but that none of that means it will actually see the light of day in terms of production.

From what we can see, it’s about a 75mm rim, and as with their existing Dura-Ace wheelset, is set on Shimano’s silky D-A hubs. If there’s one thing the public has wanted from Shimano in their wheel line, it’s a deeper, more aero race wheel. (They already have a disc in the PRO line).

What does this all mean? Well, selfishly I hope to see those wheels become production—a deep-sectioned wheel on Dura-Ace hubs will be among the silkiest race wheels on avail. Those hubs are bad-ass. But more importantly, it shows that Shimano is really recognizing the tri market. They’ve slipped as SRAM has come on strong the last few years, but by actually prototyping with the reigning Ironman World Champ, hell, by hiring him on to ride all their products full-time, means they are making an investment.

An aside: for those looking at my previous blog post about Shimano’s new brake levers, the Dura-Ace levers will price at $185 while the alloy one I’m trying to track down pricing for.

SCOTT
Those wheels lead us to our next debut. On the fortnight of the team time trial at the Giro d'Italia, Scott sent the press some info on the new Scott Plasma. I'm gonna read up on it (as I just got the link), but wanted to post not only the below photo but a link to a presentation about the bike, which you will find at http://www.scott-sports.com/download/PlasmaTT/start.html


We'll be getting into this one as things settle down to see if and what the application is for triathlon. From my talks with Scott marketing manager Adrian Montgomery, the existing Plasma is still earmarked for triathletes geometrically. So this may be a TT-specific product, built within the handcuffs set forth by the UCI. Stay tuned.

ROTOR
Rotor Cranks is also using the Giro to debut its newest crankset, the 3D. They're doing a Giro version (with some pink accents) for reigning Tour de France champ Carlos Sastre. I was at the tunnel in advance of the Tour of California, and Carlos had a sort-of drillium crankset they were testing. It seems they are moving away from that and going into this new 3D direction. It seems to make a lot more real-world sense on its face. See the press release below;

Cervélo TestTeam and ROTOR collaborate on new 3D Cranks Product to debut at the Giro

Cervélo TestTeam riders will be using the new 3D Cranks from ROTOR Bike Components, when they start the 09 Giro d’Italia.

“The 3D cranks are the first cranks to have been designed with the input of a pro cycling team together with our ROTOR engineers,” said Ignacio Estellés, President ROTOR Bike Components. ”Drawing on a wealth of technical experience, this innovative product was developed collaboratively with Cervélo’s engineers, TestTeam riders and the TestTeam’s mechanic staff. We are passionate about supporting the riders, because they need these products in order to do their job well.”

“We have a four step protocol for product development with the TestTeam,” explained Damon Rinard, Cervélo TestTeam Race Engineer. “A partner, in this case, ROTOR develops and tests the proposed new product. We then review it and check the in-house data, testing it in different riding situations. Then the Cervélo TestTeam mechanics install it and the riders try it in training; both provide us with their feedback. Once it’s been approved at these three levels, the product is then available for the fourth level: use in races.”

The result is the 3D Crank - extremely stiff, to meet the high demands of Thor Hushovd and the TestTeam’s sprinters, yet lightweight enough to satisfy the needs of Carlos Sastre and the climbers on the team.

Utilizing a special manufacturing process, named the “Trinity Drilling System,” an extruded aluminum bar is intricately CNC machined with three drilled holes through the length of the crank. The result is a unique triple hollow crank arm that enables ROTOR’s engineers to remove the excess aluminum in the core while still maintaining the structural strength of the crank. With this new system ROTOR has significantly improved the Hollowminum technology they developed for their Agilis Evo cranks.

No attention to detail has been missed by ROTOR; even the graphic design on the 3D Cranks is unique with their impressive laser graphics. A special limited edition version of the product, with pink stripes along the crank (in a nod to the Giro) has been created for Carlos Sastre, with a special symbol that Sastre contributed etched with his name.

NUUN
Off gear, onto nutrition: I was just sent some of the newest Nuun flavor: Banananuun. (please excuse the soft iPhone image).

Very, very good stuff. same as the rest of the line in terms of operation (drop in a bottle of water and suddenly you have instant electolyte drink with 180mg of sodium and 50mg of potassium) and ease-of-utility. I dig it, but still like Kona Cola best among their lot. Will have to try it with rum, maybe a bit of Mai Tai mix. Certainly worth trying.

Finally... the Giro on Live TV! his is great news-we can follow the Giro on TV. Below is the stage-by-stage broadcast
schedule for Universal Sports...

LOS ANGELES – May 8, 2009 – Universal Sports announced a multi-year deal today to broadcast the Giro d'Italia as
the race celebrates its 100th anniversary, starting tomorrow. Lance Armstrong will make his debut in this race as he
returns from his retirement.  Coverage of the race begins with a team time trial on May 9 from Lido di Venezia on the
Universal Sports Network and live online, all broadcast times available at UniversalSports.com.

Universal Sports continues to solidify its commitment to broadcast top cycling events with the multi-year broadcast
agreement. As part of the deal, Universal Sports will provide television and online coverage, including archived video
and television re-airs, for the 2009–2012 Giro d'Italia races.  Previous to this agreement, the race was available on a
limited basis on the Versus network, and through pay-per-view on Cycling.TV. In addition to the Giro, Universal
Sports has had a long-term agreement with the International Cycling Union (UCI) to broadcast world cups and world
championships in Road, Track, Cyclo-cross, Mountain and BMX, as well as the Tour of Basque Country, Tour of
Missouri, Tour of Georgia and the Deutschland Tour.

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS:  Universal Sports, available in 45 million homes, will present same-day
coverage of the 2009 Giro d'Italia, with nightly re-airs at 9 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET. The Universal Sports broadcast
team consists of Steve Schlanger and former professional cyclist Todd Gogulski, with Scott Ogle on the ground in Italy.
 
Date            Events                                                                   Time (all times ET)
May 9  Lido di Venezia        12 p.m.
May 10 Jesolo to Trieste       12 p.m.
May 11 Grado to Valdobbiadene     12 p.m.
May 12 Padova to San Martino di Castrozza   12 p.m.
May 13 San Martino di Castrozza to Alpe di Siusi  12 p.m.
May 14 Bressanone to Mayrhofen     12 p.m.
May 15 Innsbruck to Chiavenna     12 p.m.
May 16 Morbegno to Bergamo     12 p.m.
May 17 Milano       12 p.m.
May 18 Rest day 
May 19 Cuneo-Pinerolo      12 p.m.
May 20 Torino to Arenzano      12 p.m.
May 21 Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore    12 p.m.
May 22 Lido di Camaiore to Firenze    12 p.m.
May 23 Campi Bisenzio to San Luca (Bologna)   12 p.m.
May 24 Forli to Faenza      12 p.m.
May 25 Pergola to Monte Petrano     12 p.m.
May 26 Rest day 
May 27 Chieti to Blockhaus      12 p.m.
May 28 Sulmona to Benevento     12 p.m.
May 29 Avellino to Monte Vesuvius    12 p.m.
May 30 Napoli to Anagni      12 p.m.
May 31 Roma       12 p.m.

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSALSPORTS.COM:  UniversalSports.com will provide exclusive, live
coverage of the entire Giro d'Italia, starting with the Stage 1 team time trial
Saturday at 9 a.m. ET. Full schedule, as well as full-length videos, highlights, stage
maps, photos and breaking news available at UniversalSports.com/cycling.