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.

First Look: Blue Cycles new full-carbon tri bike, the Triad

Man, I love getting the inside track. Of course, they say, as in this case, "don't say anything just yet," but fail to realize they're releasing info to a person who's reason for existence it is to shout from the rooftops. I'm working on some goods for Slowtwitch, but wanted to get what little I do know out asap.

The guys at Blue Competition Cycles showed me some something I'd been told was coming: the first full carbon fiber bike from the growing brand. They've made a concerted push in ITU racing, and will have a bike under American medal hopeful Sarah Haskins in Bejiing this coming weekend. Pretty impressive for a company that has been around for less than, what five years?

But they realize who butters their bread—age groupers. Not the ones doing ITU racing, but doing 70.3s and Ironman and non-drafting Olympic-distance racing. So to keep up with the torrid technological spike in the last few years, they got busy. The result: the new Triad.

So, I was told to keep a relative lid on this. I like to push my chances when people say relative. I'll just bank on people not seeing my blog. Understand my quandry as a journalist? Who gets into the business of not telling people news?

Here's what I know—sorta. But I didn't say nuthin....

The new Triad is full-carbon offering which, upon first glance, it has rear chainstays similar to that of the new Scott Plasma, but takes on it's own looks thereafter. The seatstays are ultra low, and the bike has a 1" headtube. Blue's plan is sell this bike complete in a couple of build kits (SRAM Red and Shimano Dura-Ace), wiht Zipp 808 rear/404 front tubulars. They'll also have an Ultegra SL and SRAM Force version , with a more price-point wheelset.

Other details: the rear brake is located under the bottom bracket shell. It will have a BB30 bottom bracket shell with an internal cable run, and a geometry similar to their existing T-16 tri bikes with a 76-degree seat angle (with wide fore/aft variance with the three clamp positions on the post). And my sources say the rear end is super, super narrow—so narrow that a Mavic R-Sys wheel won't go in. Not that you would want to desecrate a bike like that with a R-Sys...

The bike will also come with something unique: regardless the build, once the bike is registered for warranty, Blue will send the buyer a certificate for one free hour of wind tunnel adjustment at the A2 Wind Tunnel, in Mooresville, North Carolina. For those that don't know, The A2 Wind Tunnel is a growing tunnel, which is a spinoff tunnel next to its big brother, the famed Aerodyne tunnel, which is rented out for the next year and a half and running 24/7 testing NASCAR cars and trucks.

So the consumer gets a very, very valuable benefit beyond the bike itself—much better than the ol' water bottle and cage that some shops try to "throw in." When you're buying a bike like this, the fit should be your next purchase... so why not make it happen in the wind tunnel? Just get yourself to Charlotte, hop over to A2 and get a fit that will rival anything you can get in the shop. It's one thing for a bike company to do the aero thing to optimize the bike, which they say they have done in creating the Triad. Few will kick in the extra to look after the rider's own drag.

The Georgia-based company currently has their newest charges, Ironman Coeur d'Alene Winner Heather Wurtele and husband Trevor Wurtele at the N.C. tunnel doing some fine tuning with their bikes for Ironman Canada and Kona.

And the bike will show up under one other person: Haskins. My Blue contacts tell me she was so taken with the new bike that she wanted it for Beijing. So on go drop bars and the bike makes it's race debut in the Olympic Games.

Pricing? Availablity? Don't know yet. I've probably said too much at this point... better sign it off.

Congrats Carlos the Wrist Wrapper, and the Superlegerra!

I've been back from Switzerland for a little while and just trying to get my wheels under me with work. A very gracious Brian Long of the Triathlon Club of San Diego allowed me into the Solana Beach Sprint Tri this weekend on a whim, and I was quite happy to finish fifth in my age group, especially considering my last swim (prior to a little open-water swim with my coach Hux's group at Moonlight Beach Friday) was in San Francisco Bay at Escape from Alcatraz. And my last run was at Alcatraz. Donna says I still have the altitude from training and living in Leysin for a month still with me, and I think she was right.

But when you show up to a race with a Specialized Transition S-Works, a 1080 on the front and a Sub-9 disc, I better have had a good bike. While I rolled it into transition, one guy stopped me and said I had no excuses.

Now that the Tour de France is over, I must say that I'm happy to have seen Carlos take the malliot jaune. The guy is one of the most humble guys. I recall emailing him for some quotes for a story I did in Triathete magazine about three years ago, and I didn't expect to get a reply, so I continued crafting my story, not expecting to get his insight. But a few days later in my inbox was an email from him.

Last year I had a chance to meet he, Fabian Cancellara, Frank Schleck and Bjarne Riis at the San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel. I started speaking to him in fractured Spanish, and he replied "we can talk in English if you want to." Whew.

At the time, I thought his presence in the tunnel was token, that they were there to split hairs over Cancellara on his TT position. But Bjarne, Phil White of Cervelo and Andy Ording of Zipp Speed Weaponry were really on it with his position, too.

One thing that I recalled as he was sewing up his race win with a solid TT was that tunnel session. Phil and Andy (he's in the black shirt below) were toying with his forearm position, but ultimately were going with the flat-level option that he has always run.

But it was his wrists that were an aero culprit. It seems that when Carlos starts applying power in the aerobars, his wrists wrap under the extensions, turning the inside of his forearms skyward. The engineers found his drag rose, significantly enough that they had to remind him to keep his hands straight, that it wouldn't affect his power. "But I always want to do this," Sastre said. Bjarne said "no, you have to do it this way."

I was straining to see shots of Carlos, if he was keeping those forearms straight instead of wrapped—the shots weren't too great, but he looked pretty dialed—great position, and yep, straight arms. Looks like Cancellara knew who the star of the show was gonna be. Great work, Carlos, and congrats to the entire CSC /SaxoBank squad.

On a product note, I just got the details on the new Louis Garneau helmet that debuted with French Bouyges-Telecom team at the Tour—I know we all saw the dimpled golf-ball front of this one.

I think this helmet ought to get some more play. For one, it recalls the old Troxel aero helmet, which also had a bit of dimpling. If I recall, Paula Newby-Fraser rode that helmet, like, really fast. Maybe there is something to the dimples.

But this helmet has probably the most ventilation, while maintaining a slick aero profile. For those that must wear an aero helmet, particularly at a hot venue, this ought to be high on your list. LG says it will be available in 2009 (I'm sure we'll get to touch and feel it at Interbike before then), but no prices as yet. But I cant expect it will be a whole lot more expensive than the existing $179 Rocket of the same shape and design, absent the dimples.

Now that I'm back stateside, I think I'll be able to update this blog with some more regularity... it was just hard when I would sit at the computer and Donna would say "hey, want to come ride to Evian, drink a bottle of the namesake water and eat a fresh eclair from the boulangerie? I mean, who could pass that up? Now I have no such attractions (until Donna arrives home in a month), and can get back to work.

Ironman Switzerland

Been a bit slack, but been a bit busy. The Tour de France was a whirlwind trip, followed by a TGV to Paris, a night there, and a train back to Switzerland.

I posted much of my tech/gear stuff at slowtwitch.com, so not a lot for me to show here.

I've since moved on to Zurich, doing a bit of kicking around, checking out the scene at Lake Zurich, getting in a little swim with Donna and Rebecca Preston. Other than that, it's been quintuple checking the bike and laying on the hotel room bed, watching the Tour.

Since I have no tech for you just yet, I thought I'd give you this: a journalist (me) photographing another photojournalist (this guy) at the Tour.

I told Donna that they gave me race credentials for the tour "this time" but that I would have to come back with "cool facial hair." She said no. Damn, I wanted to rock this. Oh well, whatever the boss says...

Will have some stuff from Ironman Switzerland... the expo has revealed some gear we North Americans don't get to see a lot of.

Riding with the Girls, Running with the Foxes

I've been here three weeks and have spoken little about where I am here in Leysin, the encampment for TeamTBB. I was sick during the rainy first week and a half here. Since then, I've gotten a chance to ride south to catch a stage Tour of Switzerland, and southeast along the valleyfor another ride, as well as do some trail running up here in the mountain.

And yesterday, I had a chance to ride north for a flat tempo ride along Lake Geneva. I rode down the mountain for a 60-mile spin with Donna, Erika Csomor, Rebecca Preston, Marilyn McDonald and soon-to-be Beijing Olympian Mariana Ohata to Lausanne and back. Well, closer to 70 for Donna, Mariana and Erika, who met up with Belinda Granger and Chrissie Wellington to ride back up the hill as I joined the McDonald (who's back is recovering steadily from a bike spill) and Preston, who still had Ironman France in her legs for the train ride back up the hill.

We hoped, hoped, hoped the operator wouldn't come back to collect the $14 for the one-way trip with our bikes up to Leysin (And Marilyn hoped the back door of the car wouldn't pop open, pouring her out the back as the train ascended at about a 30 degree angle). Of course, the ticket collector came, and out came the Swiss Francs. Anytime you can get away without having to pay the toll is a victory, but they're few and far between. Regardless, Saturday's ride was probably the nicest since I've been here; it was flat, it wasn't windy, and I could just tag to the back of these swiftly-moving girls and take a scenic tow. And we stopped for pastries and soda once in Lausanne. Donna recalled that we were at the same spot where she did ITU Worlds as an age grouper... and Mariana did it that same year, as a pro.

I took my camera along on the run and at the end of one trail, the trees opened up to the sight below: the valley just north of Aigle, looking toward Montreaux and Lake Geneva. I ran into Belinda on her run out there, continued on a bit more, found some fun old fireroad switchback up to even more gorgeous vistas, then discovered a sweet, rooty, rocky singletrack that bombed straight downhill. So much fun.
On the way back, I spied two foxes on the road ahead, both dashing up the embankment to the hillside above. While one bailed, the other stopped to have a look. It was the first time I'd seen a fox. Not as imposing as a coyote, but equally as skittery. I wonder if there's bears in these hills...

Tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll explore some more on my own, riding the southern edge of Lake Geneva across the French border toward Evian, home of that infamous water company. After seeing the glacial waters cascade off the mountains around here and the crystal blue color of the lake, I can see why this water can demand top dollar.

The weather (for now): epic. Sunny, 73 degrees F. Down in the valley, it can get into the mid 80s. It's idyllic. Of course, as I finish this, the rain has started this evening. Hopefully it blows out.

Mid-week, Morgan Nicol of Oval Concepts will be swinging by to pick me up for a drive clear across France to the Brest region to catch the first stage of the Tour de France. I'm looking forward to getting my first glance at this event, and will share some insights. After that, I'll jump on a bullet train back across to Switzerland to do a bit more work, then join Donna as she gets ready to do Ironman Switzerland on July 13. Then I have just a couple days in Zurich.. and head back to San Diego, leaving Donna behind to do another month of training in the mountains before she heads back stateside.

In the meantime, there's a big race this coming weekend, with Ironman Germany on the docket, the race featuring both Ironman world champs. Chrissie Wellington hopes to make it four-for-four in Ironman wins. And the men's field, headed by Chris McCormack, has the German contingent of Normann Stadler, Faris Al Sultan, defending race champ Timo Bracht, as well as former race winner Cam Brown.

I wondered how Ze Germans would see Macca this time, now with an Ironman world title added to his impressive race palmares. So a little chat with him runs here, at the newly-launched Road Bike Action website. Knowing Macca, it's an interesting read. While it seems things are settled between he and Normann, it's not the case with Faris.

Next update will probably be from France...

I've just returned from a 2.5-hour trip to Leysin from Biel, Switzerland, on press trip to visit with Schwalbe tires and DT Swiss. Biel is the home of DT Swiss, on the German side of town. (It's interesting that on one side of Lake Biel, the lake is called Bielsee, the German name, while its Lac Bienne, the French version, on the other side.) East of the lake, German street signs. On the west, French. Pretty cool. The train trips are great too... rolling past Montreaux, Lausanne and Lake Geneva, and all the gorgeous countryside that comes with this area.

Biel is also the home of Breitling, Rolex, Rado, Swatch and other timekeeping legends. Its also home to tons of CNC factories. So to say the that Biel is loaded with some of the world's top engineers is a fair understatement. And DT Swiss has a ton of 'em. I had a chance to tour the factory, which was an impressive scene. I hope to have a nice tour story, one that's pretty eye-opening (at least for those who wonder how much work goes into how something as simple as a spoke is produced) at Slowtwitch.com soon. I will never take for granted the lowly spoke again. Or rim, or spoke nipple. Or freehub body. All of which are created right there.

We did a good 3:30 ride, with about 2:30 of that climbing up to Mount Chasseral. Some turned back (the MTB guys.. I'm not naming names), while the rest of us continued up. Actually, VeloNews tech editor Lennard Zinn continued up on his own, ahead of us, eager to reach the massive radio tower at the top, while the rest of us refueled with water from all the little fountains you find in town through these parts of Europe. He said from there on a clear day, you could see the Grand Ballon and the Ballon d'Alsace in France, as well as the Alps. The mount is the namesake for the Mon Chasseral climbing wheelset. It consists of long grinding climb of about 40 minutes, a flat to recover, then another long climb through forest, opening to clear fields, and the iconic cows, bells clanging about their necks, finishing at the massive radio tower you see at top right. The reward is a view of Lake Biel and Lake Neuchatel... a gorgeous view after over 4,000 feet of climbing.

It also marked the start of the flies. For whatever reason that day (Donna said the files were bad in Leysin as well), flies were just... bad. Everywhere. On the climb, I was going juuuust fast enough for the flies to keep pace. Schwalbe North America's Henry Horrocks came up on my wheel and past me, and as I bitched about the flies, waving them off as I struggled to keep the bars in a straight line, he said "the trick is to go just a little faster than they can fly." Hard to do when the pitch is a steady 13 percent and you've been ascending for an hour and a half. Someone said the flies are slower at altitude too, a bit more sluggish. I tested that theory, and easily killed every fly that landed on my arm.

On the descent: blat-blat-blat, they stung the forearms and face. Die, flies. And once we were back to the lakes, we weren't done yet: swarms of gnats hung in the sky, and even going 23mph behind the big figure of Zinn acting as a big cowcatcher for the flies, they still hit you, sticking to sweating skin, getting into the mouth, the nose, the vents of the helmet, inside the jersey. Showering at Rut von Gutte afterward and watching them all swirl down the drain was... just nasty.

That was a minor concern, however. One fellow scribe, Bicycling mag writer Dan Hart, took a spill on our descent from the mountain, overcooking a left-hander as I heard "whoa, whoa, whoa!" behind me. I circled back to find Hart prone on the pavement, his bike 35 yards further down the mountain, on the opposite side of the road. It took a while for the medics to arrive, but they scooped the young guy up and carted him off to Biel... then to Bern. Turns out his little offroad-to-rock-to-pavement adventure netted him three broken vertebrae. He destroyed his helmet and was totally lucid as I kept his mind off his aching back before the ambulance arrived...he was so concerned that his girlfriend was going to be mad at him. But at least he remembered he has a girlfriend. Unfortunately, Dan's first trip to Europe was memorable for the wrong reasons. Maybe he comes with his girlfriend next time!

Spinning the clock back, I was saved on the ascent from blowing up on two counts: gel and drink. I've been using the new Gu Roctane, which is simply awesome.. I think I've talked about that ad nauseum.. it's da kine. but I also sucked down two bottles of the new Fruit Punch First Endurance EFS. They styled me with their two new flavors, fruit punch and grape, and I opted to take fruit punch with me to Switzerland to try.

I've never done such a steady, long climb, but I brought the right stuff to sustain it. I had no idea how long it was, but being a triathlete, I settled into my tempo, letting the roadies attack early up the road. And watched some of 'em come back to me as I tapped out my tempo. First Endurance says its aminos (Glutamine, Leucine, Iso-leucine and Valine) helps keep your acuity sharp when fatigued. And it's loaded with 1,000mg of electrolytes and 270mg of sodium, which is what my body craved. For as long as that climb was, I was happy to say I held a straight line, bottom to top. Maybe it wasn't the drink... but maybe it was. Whatever, it tasted awesome, and it was wet. Those two were top of my priority list at the moment.

My wife Donna, on the other hand, is product-sponsored by PowerBar. But it hasn't stopped her from now religiously using First Endurance's Optygen HP, for two reasons: one, she's training like never before, and the stuff truly helps her recovery and ability to work hard, day after day under the TeamTBB regime while she gets ready for Ironman Switzerland. She never takes anything if she doesn't have to, and it didn't take much convincing from me to start using it. Now, she feels she needs it to keep her oxygen uptake and recovery on track. I used it every day when I did my 50-mile ultramarathon, and felt the same, that I had to have it to stay on point. It's really that good.

The other reason: they test their lots. The last thing Donna wants is an inadvertent positive test. The fact that First Endurance goes to the lengths it does via certificates to prove to its customers that its products are clean means a lot. It means it's safe.

Will have more to update... gotta chat about my ride to one mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse, and maybe my trip to the first few stages of the Tour de France....

New 2009 Scott Plasma: A video tour

If you look at the Short Interview video clips to the right, I have a new one at the top, showing the Zipp wheel. That Zipp is strapped to the new 2009 Scott Plasma. That Plasma is toured, front to back, by Scott Bicycles Marketing manager Adrian Montgomery.

I've cut down on some of my 'ums' and uhs'... I hope. I hope to be doing some interviews with some of the athletes here soon. It's be easiest if I do another with Belinda Granger. I can just say "go" and she'll do all the talking.

Meanwhile, here's some detail shots I took of the Plasma when Adrian visited Encinitas before I took off for Switzerland. I think this bike melds some great features from other bikes, while building in their own.. particularly in the chainstays and BB areas.

From my vantagepoint, it looks like it will give the Trek TTX and the Kuota Kueen K a run for being one of the stiffest through the bottom bracket. Montgomery didn't want to get into the comparison minutae against this or that brand, but he said the new Plasma is very favorable in the wind tunnel as drag numbers go, and ranks with the heaviest hitters. "We know now we're amongst the leaders in aero testing, and we know we've made marked improvements on our own design, Montgomery told me.

While this bike will represent Scott's top tri/tt offering, the existing Plasma platform will remain, for a lower price point.

While I know Lindsey Corbin is already aboard, I'll be curious to see who will be aboard this in Kona.

Take a look at the video, as Adrian gives us a look at the finest details on the new Plasma, including those stays, the new nice-and-thin downtube with a smarter aspect ratio than the previous iteration of the Plasma, the scalloped headtube as it sweeps back to the top tube, the clean frontal cable profile and that integrated fork. He did mention, in looking at the seat clamp close-up, that the seat can be moved forward to an effective 79 degrees of seat angle.

A new test ride is expected to arrive in SoCal in the next month. Enjoy the video tour of the Plasma with Adrian.