Euro-Style alert, as I was reading cyclingnews.com on some new shoes coming out from Interbike I came upon a line that struck a chord with my Euro-Style sensibilities.
The bright green-and-pearl white shoes are arguably a bit garish, but undoubtedly Euro-chic and proved to be surprisingly well-received by the decided US-centric crowd at Interbike. This may also serve as a more general indicator of changing US tastes, as Sidi will also bring in a number of bright hues formerly considered to be Euro-only stateside.
Nice, the same feature also has white shoes from Shimano, Northwave and Adidas. The trend is catching on in the US, which is good as I need to replace my Sidi HT 5.5’s since they have a slight gash on the toe from the Thater crash.
Interbike 2007 Part 10: Eat your heart out, Imelda
Black appears to be the new blue for 2007. Team kit designs for the pro peloton seem to follow common trends as each team has their own variation on a popular theme. The previoulsy trend was a blue team kit that started getting popular in the 1990s when cyclist realized they did not always have to wear black shorts. For a while it seemed as though just about every team sported a mostly blue colored team kit. It was tough to tell some teams apart. The most confusing moment came in the 2005 Paris-Roubaix when Juan Antonio Flecha (Fassa Bortolo), George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) and Tom Boonen (Quick-Step) where in a final break away. Their respective team kits looked so similar that it was tough to tell the riders apart from the helicopter. Now the team kit designers love affair with blue has come to an end as black seems to be the new popular color.
With Caisse D’Epargne and Team CSC daring to sport the almost all black look, many teams are following through and going dark too.
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Disclaimer: I will be racing for the Colavita-Spokpost.com racing team, this story is from Spokepost.com.
Spokepost has some great racing tips for all of you budding racers to use. I touched on a few of these back when I wrote about “How to keep up with the fast guys”. Now Bill Laudien, organizer of the Turkey Hill Country Classic writes some very valuable tips for those wanting to improve their racing results. The first tip is one I always try to follow and that is to never take an unnecassary pull or do any unnecessary efforts.
One of the main tactical difference(s) between the cat ½ races and all other events is that no self respecting cat 2 would take a hard pull unless he had a good reason to. Conversely, cat 4 races usually play out with everyone sitting around until someone attacks, then everyone killing themselves to catch the poor guy, then everyone sitting around again. Save your big efforts to either attack or to bridge to a break.
I have to admit that I had the sprinting idea backwards. A few races I competed in, I would wait untilt the last minute to sprint, but was caught out by riders that started ahead of me. I think I will try this next race.
I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible. Sprint early. Most new riders wait to long and find themselves in the middle of a mess. You’re usually better off going early and avoiding the chaos. Even if you get passed and finish 5th, its better than being trapped and finishing 12th or worse yet, ending up on the pavement. Also you’ll never really know how far you can sprint until you’ve gone too early a couple of times. Once you’ve seen how far you can go before you blow, then you can make the necessary adjustments based on wind, terrain, and circumstances.
http://spokepost.com/news/story/1216/
Fat Cyclist (via cyclelicio.us ) has a brilliant writeup on the latest Euro-style trend in hair. Jan Ullrich’s new hair cut and the Discovery Channel response:
“His curly, highly moussed locks clearly state, ‘I am the team captain. You must ride in support of me, and in support of my hair.’ I only wish that we had thought of this hair before last year’s Tour de France; perhaps we could have kept Vinokourov in check.
And he offers some insight into why Armstrong chose Ullrich to win the Tour instead of good friend Ivan Basso:
“I’m just glad that I’m retired,” said a concerned-looking Armstrong, pensively running a hand through his (rather pedestrian) close-cropped hair. “I mean, I’ve always said that Ullrich was my greatest opponent. With that new hairstyle, well, I don’t know.” Armstrong paused for a moment, weighing his words. “To tell the truth, I don’t think I could compete with that.”
Fat Cyclist: Pro Cycling Teams Unveil 2006 Hair Strategy
This week has been full of team presentations from the major Pro Tour teams and smaller continental teams. Everyone has the hope and ambition for the new year. Plus, the new kits are released for the coming year. Here is a look at a few team kits and my impression.
Discovery Channel:
New design for the jersey this year looks a bit more like the Quick-Step team jersey. They chose a blue grey mix. The front of the jersey is grey from the shoulder down. This grey also flows to the side of the jersey. Although this looks good enough on sketches, but the end result is that skinny 135lb men look like they have beer bellies. Not a good look, see the pics for yourself. The grey belly is not flattering. Perhaps it is taking a note from a shark like last years Disco team jersey? If so, is Jabberjaw their inspiration?
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Weather has been extremely good for cycling in Upstate New York. Usually in January you wouldn’t dream of riding on clear roads with little to no salt. Sunday called for a club ride, even though I missed out on my first team ride (My email wasn’t coming through from Yahoo Groups for an odd reason).
The weather forcast called for a sunny day with temps in the low 40s Fahrenheit. Problem is that I do not have a decent pair of booties to keep my toes warm. No problem, I will use Johan Museeuw and other Belgian Classics riders as my inspriation and use a pair of socks instead of Booties. The solution is as simple as it sounds. Get a pair of socks, put them on over your shoes. Once the socks are on snugly, take a pair of scissors and cut out around your cleat. I find it easier to trim the socks after you have them on than to try to guess where to cut beforehand. Make sure that you have a large enough opening so that any extra sock material does not get caught in the cleat.
Once you are done, you will be riding with old school Euro Style.
The new kits for 2006 are slowly dribbling out. Some teams have stayed the same, such as Bouyges Telecom and T-Mobile, while others are changed for various reasons.
Each year provides subtle gasps at the Euro-uglyness of some team kit, or the new cool style. Case in point is the Lampre team kit for 2006. Squares in non-symetrical alignment just don’t do it for me or anyone else. What is with the pink? It is distinctive, but it is not a corporate color for either Lampre or Fondital. Damiano Cunego does not look to happy with the new style. His face seems to be saying, who the heck decided on this design? Blah. The new kit is designed by Santini which usually makes some classy kits, but this one is average by comparison.
Winning races does make the kit look cooler, so we will have to see what the final verdict for the Lampre new look will be at the end of the season.
One feature that makes this kit stand out more is the toning down of the blue color. With several teams already sporting a mostly blue kit, there is fear that it would be hard to notice different teams. Remember Paris Roubaix 2005? Boonen, Hincapie and Flecha all had blue team kits, and they each looked a bit similar. It was hard to tell from some helicopter shots just who was who since they each blended in blue with grey or white. So points go to Lampre for adding a bit more pink to the kit to make it stand out more. Just don’t ride to close to any T-Mobile guys.
Velochimp will be racing a bit more this year as I joined the new regional amateur team for Colavita Olive Oil. The team picks up several riders in the area that were formerly part of the Aurora Cycling Team and Maxxis-Spokepost.com. The new team currently has 24 riders that race in various levels from Cat 2 all the way down to Cat 5 (me). The Team will be know as Colavita Spokepost.com. We are the Central New York Regional Amateur team for Colavita Olive Oil. There are several teams already established as an amateur branch of Colavita Olive Oil, and anyone can join the general organtization through the Colavita website.
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An important part of being a Euro-style guy is to be able to go fast when needed. You don’t need to be a Hammerhead, but you want to keep up with the fast guys on the club rides, and have a good showing when you race.
In cycling, no matter how fast you are, there is always someone faster than you, so getting faster is a steady progression that never ends. There are a few tips that you can use that can give you that extra bit of energy when you are riding with guys/girls that are simply much faster than you are. The key behind most of these tips is to save your energy. You main goal is to stay with the group as long as possible, so here are some tips to help you acheive this goal.
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The new kit is slowly coming out for 2006. We had Saunier Duval ruin their understated kit by including many chickens.
Next we have Quick Step going for a US Postal style look. They darkened the blue and removed the white sections. Now Casse d’Epargne-Balears (that rolls off the tough does’t it?) released one of their new jerseys. It seems that since Casse D’Epargne and Illes Balears sponsor the team 60/40 repsectively, they have the team wear completely different jerseys depending on where they race. The look of the Casse D’Epargne dominant jersey is above and looks very stylish with black as the dominant color with a carbon like pattern. Nice work. Will the black jersey translate well in the sweltering July heat?
Grande Ciclismo
