Birth of a carbon wheel

Each and every Easton carbon wheel begins as a sheet of carbon laminate. It's an elaborate, labor-intensive process that takes about seven hours from start to finish (for each wheel!). In this captivating short video, we'll take a tour through Easton's own factory in Tijuana, Mexico, and show you just how much care and attention goes into these Tour-winning wheels.

Fabien Barel presents Episode 2 Ripping Andorra with CG

Fab is back again with more details about the life and times of the world's most famous dirt riders. This time it's a visit to Cedric Gracia's home terrain in Andorra. After years as competitors on the world cup DH circuit, these guys reconnect and discover their shared passion for the sport and the spirit of mountain biking.

TNA Westside Classic neutral support

Here's a few pics from the TNA Westside Classic.

Bike gallery will also be offering neutral support for the upcoming UBC Grandprix and Gastown race.

Liquigas-Cannondale: moving forward with Mavic

Liquigas-Cannondale is one of the three elite professional teams using Mavic products. It's a long-standing relationship, and this top Italian team benefits from a wide selection of race-caliber wheels and tires. Similarly, Mavic engineers benefit from the product testing and feedback that is possible only with the extreme and varied demands of pro cycling.

EASTON CYCLING presents: AGGY's NZ ADVENTURE

Graham Agassiz is joined by a motley crew of characters, including 10-time DH world champion, Frenchman Nicolas Vouilloz; and world cup DH stars Sam Blenkinsop and Cameron Cole. We hit some of the South Island's best destinations including Nelson and Christchurch, we did some downhilling, some trail riding and built some slopestyle-sized booters.

Filmed and edited by the Coastal Crew. 

Hesjedal wins Giro d'Italia!

Ryder Hesjedal of the Garmin-Barracuda team became the first Canadian winner of the Giro d’Italia. He used the time trial on the last stage to overtake Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha). These two cyclists rose to the top of the peloton over the course of the three week race, but Hesjedal’s superior TT ability sealed his historic victory. On the final classification, the Garmin rider was just 16 seconds ahead of Rodriguez.

Athletes on Mavic-sponsored teams shone during the entire three week race through Italy. The Garmin team won the team time trial, beating Katusha by just a handful of seconds. From this point onward, Hesjedal and Rodriguez were locked in a tight battle for the pink jersey. Ivan Basso of the Liquigas-Cannondale team also moved within striking distance. On one stage, these three riders finished 1-2-3 for a complete podium sweep, and they spent several days as the top three on GC.

© Bettini

In the end, Mavic teams won 4 stages, wore the pink jersey for 12 days, and finished in first, second, and fifth (Ivan Basso) on the overall final GC. Way to go guys!

Associated products:

 Cosmic Carbone 80  and  Comete Road  wheels were choose by all Mavic sponsored riders for the TTT and final TT.

Ryder was riding a Special Service Course full-carbon R-Sys in mountain stages.

Rodriguez and Basso choose the  Cosmic Carbone Ultimate .

Garmin riders are also wearing Giro Aeon and Selector helmets.

Giro d'Italia: Pinotti wins final stage

Hesjedal finished sixth in the 28.2km Milan test, which was won by Marco Pinotti (BMC Racing), ahead of Sky’s Geraint Thomas and RadioShack’s Jesse Sergent.

© Sirotti

Associated products:

Pinotti is on BMC TM01 equipped with  Easton EC90 Aero  wheel and  Attack TT  handlebar. Also wearing Bell's Javelin TT helmet.

Giro d'Italia: Fast team award
Lampre - ISD wins Fast Team classification at Giro d'Italia. The Lampre - ISD team is riding on Vittoria tubular and clincher tyres. 




7th US Pro Time Trial Title for Z-boy!

© Jon Devich

© Jon Devich

A typical hot, humid day greeted the 35 racers contesting the US Professional Time Trial Championships in Greenville, South Carolina. Held on a clover shaped loop ridden three times, the field faced 33 kilometers under the sun.

Setting the fastest time through all three loops on the CU-ICAR campus, David Zabriskie (Garmin-Barracuda) took his seventh professional time trial championship with a time of 40:41:44. In second place was Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) at 40:47:90 and in third was teammate Brent Bookwalter at 41:08:06.

©Jon Devich

Associated products:
Dave Zabriskie was on Mavic's  Cosmic Carbone 80  and  Comete Road  wheels. Also wearing a Giro Selector TT helmet.
Van Garderen and Bookwalter were on BMC TM01 equipped with  Easton EC90 Aero  wheel and  Attack TT  handlebar. Also wearing Bell's Javelin TT helmets.

Duggan US Pro Road Champion!

Tim Duggan (Liquigas-Cannondale) captured the USA Cycling Professional Road Race after attacking out of group of five in the closing smaller circuits of downtown Greenville, South Carolina.

© Jon Devich

The Liquigas-Cannondale team is sponsored by Mavic

Absalon triumphant at La Bresse XCO

Orbea's Julien Absalon scored his 25th UCI XC World Cup victory in front of a home crowd in La Bresse, France. This 4th round of the 2012 World Cup season was located 30km from Absalon's home and he was pleased to have a strong result.

Absalon told the website Cyclingnews, "It is maybe one of my best races. It's been in my mind forever - the first world cup at home is a lot of pressure, and I'm happy."

Associated products: 

 Crossmax SLR 

 Crossmax ST 

 Fury 





Powerful performance in California

Riders on Mavic wheels are winning races on 2 continents! Peter Sagan (Liquigas) won the first 3 stages of the Tour of California and holds the leader's jersey. In the Giro d'Italia, Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barracuda) wore pink for 4 days before Joaqim Rodriguez (Katusha) took it on stage 9. Good job to all these Mavic pro teams!

The Tour of California was successful on many levels for riders on Mavic wheels. The Liquigas-Cannondale and Garmin-Barracuda teams dominated the stage victories and overall classification. Riders from these teams won a total of 5 of the 7 stages.

Peter Sagan with the Liquigas team won a record 4 stages, including 3 in a row to open the week. He wore the overall leader's jersey for 4 days. Dave Zabriskie with the Garmin team dominated the time trial and took the leader's jersey for 2 days.

In the final ranking, Liquigas-Cannondale was the number one team. And Garmin-Barracuda had riders in second and third on the overall general classification.

Associated products:

 Cosmic Carbone 80 

 Comete Road 

 

Garmin-Barracuda et Katusha dominent le CLM par équipe au Giro !

L'étape 4 du Giro d'Italie 2012 a été intense du début à la fin. Au final, les coureurs de l'équipe Garmin-Barracuda ont remporté le contre-la-montre par équipe avec 5 secondes d'avance sur l'équipe Katusha, qui a également réalisé un très bel effort. La course exemplaire de ces équipes place leurs prétendants au classement général en position de force pour les prochaines semaines de cette course emblématique.

Grâce à cette victoire, Ramuna Navardauskas (Garmin-Barracuda) a pu endosser le maillot rose de leader. Ce sont en fait les 4 premières places du général qui sont désormais détenues par des coureurs de Garmin. Dans l'équipe Katusha, le leader du classement général Joaquim Rodriguez a pu également grappiller de précieuses secondes sur ses concurrents.

L'équipe Liquigas-Cannondale, également sur roues Mavic, a, quant à elle, complété l'épreuve chronométrée au 7e échelon, en accusant un retard de 26 secondes.

Roues utilisées (par les trois équipes sur roues Mavic)

- Cosmic Carbone 80

- Comete Road

Garmin-Barracuda

- Casque aéro Selector

BettiniPhoto©2012

Garmin-Barracuda et Katusha on top in Giro TTT

Congratulations to Garmin-Barracuda, who won the stage 4 Team Time Trial at the Giro d’Italia! Their 5-second win, just ahead of Katusha (also a Mavic team), put team rider Ramunas Navardauskas into the pink jersey. Now it’s all Garmin guys in the top 4 at the Giro! Liquigas-Cannondale (the 3rd World Tour team on Mavic) ended up in 7th place 26 seconds down. 

Wheelset setup (for all three teams on Mavic)

- Mavic Cosmic Carbone 80

- Mavic Comete Road

Garmin-Barracuda 
- Giro Selector TT helmet
 

Jany Mitges wins 1st O-Cup

Jany Mitges, our Opus Ambassadress, is winning all races !

Last weekend as the O-cup season finally arrived and the first one was held at Mansfield Outdoor Centre, she puts in an amazing ride to cross the line first and then stood on the podium with two incredible women, Leigh Hobson and Noelle Wansbrough.

Great job Jany!

Read more on Jany's blog:

janymitges.wordpress.com

Easton EC90 Aero review

Here's a review of the Easton EC90 Aero Clincher wheelset on bikeradar website.

bikeradar.com

Nibali wins Tirreno-Adriatico

On a dramatic final day in the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race across Italy, Vincenzo Nibali of the Liquigas-Cannondale team secured overall victory with a strong final TT. His time trial was 20 seconds faster than the original GC leader, so he moved from third place into first. This victory in the overall completed a series of increasingly strong performances from the Mavic-sponsored Liquigas team.

On stage 4, the Liquigas team rode on the front for most of the day to keep the race close. The 250km route featured many climbs, but it was the final 5km that proved decisive. Sagan's teammate Nibali helped power a lead group of 5 clear from the field, but he faded slightly in the last 1000 meters. Sagan salvaged the win for Liquigas in a powerful sprint.

The next day in stage 5, Nibali left nothing to chance and attacked on the final climb. With 4km remaining, he moved clear to win the queen stage on a summit finish. In doing so, he moved within 12 seconds of the overall lead.

With a time bonus one day later on stage 6, followed by his strong stage 7 TT on the final day, Nibali edged out Chris Horner for the overall win. Nibali’s win surprised the field and confirmed his form for the upcoming grand tour season.

Associated products:

Cosmic Carbone Ultimate
Cosmic Carbone 80
Comete Road

Liquigas triumphant in Tirreno

Liquigas-Cannondale riders pulled out the stops during a key weekend in the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race across Italy, and they came away with a pair of victories. First, powerful Peter Sagan outsprinted a lead group to win the mountainous stage 4. One day later, Vincenzo Nibali made a solo escape to take the stage 5 summit finish on top of Prati di Tivo.

On stage 4, the Liquigas team rode on the front for most of the day to keep the race close. The 250km route featured many climbs, but it was the final 5km that proved decisive. Sagan's teammate Nibali helped power a lead group of 5 clear from the field, but he faded slightly in the last 1000 meters. Sagan salvaged the win for Liquigas in a powerful sprint.

The next day in stage 5, Nibali left nothing to chance and attacked on the final climb. With 4km remaining, he moved clear to win the queen stage on a summit finish. In doing so, he moved within 12 seconds of the overall lead.

Associated products:

Cosmic Carbone Ultimate

Jérôme Clementz - The Precepts of Enduro

Enduro star Jérôme Clementz continues to ride the best terrain on earth. Here, he’s on flowing trails through the lush forests of Alsace, France.

Jérôme Clementz - The Precepts of Enduro from Bluegrass Board on Vimeo.

About Jérôme Clementz
Jérôme has been riding bikes for as long as one can remember. Racing both XC and DH when younger, he soon got bored with riding the same loop all afternoon or queuing for gondolas and decided to ride his own way, up and down the “Vosges” mountains range where he lives, before Enduro was called Enduro. He’s won all major Enduro events since, including the Megavalanche in l’Alpe d’Huez twice.

Andréanne Pichette : Californie prise 2

Un mois  s’est écoulé depuis mon retour de la Californie que j’y suis déjà repartie! Par contre, cette fois, je suis accompagné de mon nouveau vélo de montagne - Opus Fhast 1 29 pouces – et de mon pote Jérémy Martin. Nous sommes situés près de Palm Springs; une destination optimale pour le vélo de montagne. La chance nous a souri en nous offrant un environnement plus que favorable; les sentiers sont à 15-20mins en vélo, notre voisinage est des plus sécuritaire, notre appartement est full équipé, la température est digne des tropiques et à venir jusqu’à présent les sentiers sont fantastiques!

Pour le moment, j’ai 4 journées de vélo dans le corps et j’ai sans doute roulé les plus beaux sentiers de ma vie! Par contre, le terrain peut être surprenant par moment, voir très glissant, la prudence est de mise surtout à flanc de montagnes!

Le week-end prochain se déroulera ma première compétition de la saison à Bonelli Park près de où nous sommes présentement. J’ai bien hâte d’y consolider mes sensations sur mon nouveau vélo, que j’adore à venir jusqu’à présent. Par la suite, l’équipe du Québec arrivera en sol Californien et je vais passer 1 semaine avec eux avant mon retour à la maison! Deux semaines plus tard, c’est pour le Mexique que je vais m’envoler pour prendre part aux Championnats panaméricains, une première participation  pour moi!

Pour mon prochain billet, j’essaye tant de bien que de mal de trouver les talents de cinéaste bien cachés en moi pour vous présenter un montage vidéo de mon camp, filmé via ma GoPro. D’ici là, je vous dits à la prochaine!

Consultez son blogue pour plus de détails. 

apichette.blogspot.com

Mavic Tire development

Development with the Garmin-Barracuda Pro Cycling Team. To develop new products, Mavic depends on input from professional riders, plus a mix of laboratory and real-world testing. Tires in particular require extra levels of design work and validation. Have a look at the process and hear the comments from key Garmin-Barracuda riders in this new video.

Taylor Phinney's Giro shoes

Take a look at Talor Phinney's Red and White Giro Shoes. It's nice to be a professionnal cyclist!

Also, on BMC bikes, Easton wheels and accessories and Bell helmets.