Cyclingnews Features

La Bresse World Cup start lists

Sue George — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:33:24 GMT

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Nove Mesto World Cup start lists

Sue George — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:21:50 GMT

Start lists Elite men cross country # Rider Name (Country) Team 1 Nino Schurter (Swi) Scott - Swisspower MTB Racing Team 2 Julien Absalon (Fra) Orbea Racing Team 3 Burry Stander (RSA) Specialized Racing 4 Manuel Fumic (Ger) Cannondale Factory Racing 5 Marco Aurelio Fontana (Ita) Cannondale Factory Racing 6 Stéphane Tempier (Fra) TX Active Bianchi 7 Jaroslav Kulhavy (Cze) Specialized Racing ...

NICA High School Cycling News Round-up May 6, 2012

Sue George — Sun, 06 May 2012 14:54:29 GMT

In the month of April, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) experienced another growth spurt. The founder and executive director, Matt Fritzinger, announced his transition from that role to a new one that will focus on special projects around league development. Then on April 15, for the first time 1,000 NICA student-athletes raced on one weekend in four leagues: NorCal, SoCal, Washington and Texas. A well-attended high school cycling leaders' summit also took place in Colorado; ...

Sea Otter 2012: New bars from Answer, Deity, KORE, Truvativ

Peter Hymas — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:56:59 GMT

We scoured the pits at Sea Otter and came across a smattering of promising looking new mountain bike bars and stems from Answer, Deity, KORE, Truvativ and Loaded Precision. Some are prototypes, but all can be expected for sale sometime in 2013. Check out our image gallery for lots more pictures. Answer ProTaper 780 and 20/20 bars Answer showed their new ProTaper 780 Carbon, which is "what everyone cuts their 800 down to", according to Struve. The new bar uses unidirectional carbon and ...

Sea Otter 2012: Danny Hart, Jared Graves & Tara Llanes' race bikes

Peter Hymas — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:08:07 GMT

The Sea Otter Classic isn't just about showing off new gear for the coming season – there's plenty of racing going on, too, and lots of race bikes to go along with it. Among the top-level talent on hand were gravity racers Danny Hart and Jared Graves along with inspirational superstar Tara Llanes. Hart's (Giant Factory Off-Road Team) Giant Glory was decked out in a manner befitting his current status as UCI downhill world champion and a member of SRAM's exclusive Blackbox athlete testing program, ...

Sea Otter 2012 component round-up: Continental to WTB

Peter Hymas — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:30:32 GMT

Sea Otter's wealth of exhibitors has turned the event into the de facto location for early-season product introductions. We've covered a number of the new bikes already (with more yet to come) but here's a look at some of the components that caught our eye over the weekend. Wheels and tires feature heavily in this first round-up, with new Dicut aluminum road clinchers and a new range of mountain bike wheels from DT Swiss called Spline on show. We also came across revamped 25mm-deep aluminum road ...

Sea Otter 2012: Felt Edict Nine 29er unveiled

Peter Hymas — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:19:51 GMT

Felt launched its first full-suspension 29er at the Sea Otter Classic , adding a big-wheeled variant to the current Edict cross-country platform . The new Edict Nine will offer the same 100mm of rear wheel travel and according to Felt, similar pedaling and handling characteristics for what should be a peppy-feeling machine. Felt carries over the FAST rear suspension design from the standard Edict – effectively a single-pivot layout with a linkage-driven rear shock but with flex built into ...

Sea Otter 2012: Cervelo boss launches Open mountain bike brand

Peter Hymas — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:18:24 GMT

We wouldn't have pegged Cervélo co-founder Gerard Vroomen as a mountain biker, and we were amused to learn Andy Kessler (ex-BMC and ex-Cervélo sales manager) was a downhill racer back in the day. However, what's really interesting is how this formidable bike industry duo have partnered on a new brand called Open , which launched at this year's Sea Otter Classic with a 29in-wheeled race bike, the O-1.0. Open claims the O-1.0 to be the lightest 29in hardtail frame available, with a weight ...

Sea Otter 2012: Ibis skips 29ers, moves on to the 59er

Peter Hymas — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:17:48 GMT

Ibis Cycles' new Ripley 29er didn't make its official production debut at this year's Sea Otter Classic but the company stole the show with someone entirely different that no one expected to see. It was big, heavy, fit no one, and had a highly questionable suspension quality – and yet it was all we heard about walking the aisles of the Laguna Seca raceway. In fact, the "Ibis Maximus" wasn't even built by Ibis. Intended as a sign for the Mendocino Coast Fat Tire Festival, creator ...

Sea Otter 2012: Specialized offers up a blast from the past

Peter Hymas — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:17:12 GMT

Specialized wasn't showing much of anything new at this year's Sea Otter Classic (aside from the elusive Demo Carbon downhill bikes , which were decidedly tough to nail down). However, a pair of retro racers from the mid-90s was arguably more interesting. Ned Overend's old Specialized S-Works Ultimate was (and still is) a stunning machine back in its day, built with custom carbon fiber tubing bonded into titanium lugs TIG-welded by Merlin Metalworks. Barely two inches of travel came courtesy of ...

Sea Otter 2012: Trek teams shows plenty of prototypes

Peter Hymas — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:16:06 GMT

Sea Otter has become a mini tradeshow for the industry, and just about every booth you walk into has something new to show. But due to the event's competitive side, there are also exciting prototypes floating around that manufacturers would rather keep wraps on – particularly so at this year's show, since it's an Olympic year. Just about all the members of the Trek-Subaru cross-country team are gunning for medals at London 2012, and the squad's sponsors have offered up a range of prototypes ...

BMC TeamElite TE01 29 introduced

Peter Hymas — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:39:27 GMT

BMC knows how to make bikes ride like silk. With the 2011 launch of the TeamMachine they introduced their Tuned Compliance Concept (TCC), where a more elastic composite material and layup is used in non-key areas to boost comfort, and this has now proliferated throughout their line. The latest model to benefit from this technology is the new 2013 TeamElite TE01 29. This 29in-wheeled cross-country race rocket builds on the design of the GranFondo GF01 classics machine , launched just two weeks ago. ...

FOX 2013: New CTD damper, 34 forks and more

Peter Hymas — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:57:17 GMT

FOX – formerly known as FOX Racing Shox – has debuted yet another giant round of new products for model year 2013: an expanded 34 fork range, a much lighter 29er cross-country fork, and its long awaited DOSS seatpost , which we covered in depth already. But the biggest change is the new CTD damper, which refines FOX's already excellent hydraulic design into a simpler interface that's intended to help any rider more readily extract the most performance possible without requiring a degree ...

Fontana targets 2012 London Olympic Games

Sue George — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:59:18 GMT

Italian cross country national champion Marco Fontana ( Cannondale Factory Racing ) has his sights set on the 2012 London Olympic Games in August. "The Olympic season is always special. It's the most important race that we have in mountain biking. Not just because it's every four years, but because it's a chance to show our sport all over the world," said Fontana to Cyclingnews . "There are journalists from everywhere, and there is more space in magazines and on TV for us. I feel ...

Houffalize World Cup start lists

Sue George — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:37:41 GMT

Start lists Elite men cross country # Rider Name (Country) Team 1 Nino Schurter (Swi) Scott - Swisspower MTB Racing Team 2 Burry Stander (RSA) Specialized Racing 3 Manuel Fumic (Ger) Cannondale Factory Racing 4 Julien Absalon (Fra) Orbea Racing Team 5 Jaroslav Kulhavy (Cze) Specialized Racing 6 Lukas Flückiger (Swi) Trek World Racing 7 José Antonio Hermida Ramos (Spa) Multivan Merida Biking Team ...

Meet NICA student athletes Brian Duke & Hannah Rae Finchamp

Sue George — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:14:16 GMT

Cyclingnews profiles two National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) athletes each month during the Spring and Fall high school league seasons. This month, meet Brian Duke and Hannah Rae Finchamp, both from California. Brian Duke "NorCal was really the start of mountain biking for me. I started riding with the Salinas High team as a guest when I was in junior high. Once I saw how the team operated and the size of each NorCal event, I was hooked." Those are the words of Salina ...

More cross country tech from MTB World Cup #1

Peter Hymas — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:54:19 GMT

We've already brought you loads of tech news from the first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup of 2012 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa but we still have a few things to show you from the pits. Included in this round-up gallery are more single-ring and tubular wheel setups on the cross country rigs, a possible new carbon hardtail from Boardman Bikes, and in-depth looks at the bikes of Lukas Flückiger (Trek World Racing), Julian Absalon (Orbea) and Kona privateer Spencer Paxson....

New suspension tech from RockShox and Fox

Peter Hymas — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:50:30 GMT

The closer we look at the bikes of the first round of the 2012 UCI MTB World Cup in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa , the more we find. Suspension giants RockShox and Fox Racing Shox have equipped a number of key riders with new developments in fork and rear shock technology both on the downhill and cross-country sides ends of the spectrum. Lighter? Smoother? More adjustable? More like all three. New rear shocks, stanchion coatings, and seals from RockShox RockShox outfitted a number of downhill ...

NICA High School Cycling News Round-up - March 27, 2012

Sue George — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:22:40 GMT

It's the end of March, and the 2012 National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) racing program is going on in four leagues across the USA: NorCal, SoCal, Texas and Washington. It's mountain biking, which means that weather sometimes dictates the play. But they're mountain bikers so they are dealing with it. Here are the March stories from each league. Texas If the darkest hour comes before the dawn, for Vance McMurry, the founding chair of the Texas High School Mountain Bike League , the ...

Pro bike gallery: Cedric Gracia's Santa Cruz V-10 Carbon

Peter Hymas — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:05:44 GMT

Cedric Gracia (CG Racing Brigade) is one of the most colorful characters on the downhill circuit so it's no surprise that the aesthetics of his Santa Cruz V-10 Carbon matches his personality. What started life as a basic matte black carbon frame is now a flying rainbow of black, red, and yellow – all perfectly coordinated, of course. Gracia's machine isn't all flash, however, as there's plenty of performance tucked away beneath the bright livery, courtesy of Santa Cruz's well-proven VPP suspension ...

New Cannondale Lefty fork seen at World Cup #1

Peter Hymas — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:14:49 GMT

The first UCI World Cup mountain bike race is always ripe with new goodies for the season and Cannondale's Factory Racing team continues the trend with an all-new Lefty fork design. The most obvious trait on the new Cannondale Lefty fork is the round lower leg – well, at least the part you can see, anyway. Labeling elsewhere on the fork suggests there are still 88 steel needle bearings at work to keep the upper and lower legs from rotating relative to each other but we're guessing they've ...

New clincher and tubular mountain bike wheels from Mavic

Peter Hymas — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:58:10 GMT

We knew Mavic was set to launch some new wheels soon but we weren't expecting to see quite so many variants at the opening round of the UCI World Cup . Here in Pietermaritzburg, we spotted not only a new 29er version of the company's Crossmax SLR but also an alloy tubular version, a 26" Crossmax SLR alloy tubular, and even the elusive Crossmax Ultimate with carbon spokes. The new Mavic 29er wheels were showcased on the bikes of Cannondale Factory Racing – which also confirms a Lefty-specific ...

Prototype Shimano Saint bits on Aaron Gwin's Trek Session 9.9

Peter Hymas — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:18:49 GMT

Shimano isn't set to launch its revamped Saint gravity group until later this year but Trek World Racing downhill sensation Aaron Gwin's Session 9.9 offered an early glimpse at what's to come: a new Shadow Plus rear derailleur, new levers, and new brakes. As expected, Shimano will bring the excellent Shadow Plus pulley cage control from XTR over to Saint using what appears to be the same friction band mechanism neatly hidden inside a removable molded plastic cover. While downhill bikes already have ...

Carbon Shimano tubular wheels on Adam Craig's race bike

Peter Hymas — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:11:00 GMT

The tide of new gear in Pietermaritzburg continues, this time with Adam Craig's ( Rabobank-Giant ) Giant XtC Composite 29er and its prototype Shimano carbon fiber tubular mountain bike wheels and Terralogic-equipped Fox 29er fork. Rabobank-Giant's race tubulars use all-new carbon rims that, according to Shimano, are purpose-built for the project and not merely borrowed from the road range or rebadged from another company. While we didn't have calipers on hand to measure, they're visibly wider than ...

Nino Schurter wins World Cup #1 on 650b wheels

Peter Hymas — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:42:11 GMT

Former UCI World Champion Nino Schurter ( Scott-Swisspower ) repeated last year's win in Pietermaritzburg with a late burst to hold off local favorite Burry Stander (Specialized). Schurter's athletic performance was cause for impressive on its own but the fact that he did so on a new Scott Scale carbon hardtail with 650b wheels was cause for even more discussion. Alternative wheel sizes are nothing new at this point – after all, two-niners are hardly considered a novelty these days. But while ...