Anatomy of a Photo: Sleepless in Belgium
I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Rule #5.
Thanks to Michael for bringing this matter to our attention.
I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Rule #5.
Thanks to Michael for bringing this matter to our attention.
Not to pick on Silvio, given Nicolas, Vladimir, and the aforementioned W, entre autres.
wow….all I can say is wow….
miss a day, miss a bunch of Belgians making their patrons proud spoonin
Now THAT is a photo that deserves a “full spread”! (wink, wink, nod, nod) :)
Oh God! I’ll never look at my Sidi shoes the same way again!
btw, have a look at the leopard team site…
the new kit is totally rad!
@Pedale.Forchetta
Yeah, nice!
Yes, that sure is cool kit! Another Team in black though? Black is definitely the new black…
@Pedale.Forchetta
@Oli Brooke-White
@frank
Thanks be to Merckx it doesn’t have spots. Now replace those blue stripes with Molteni orange and we can really talk.
@Pedale.Forchetta, @frank, @Oli Brooke-White
Me no likey… too plain. I’ve yet to see a kit for 2011 that really turns the crank for me. Bianchi’s gotta LOVE it tho…. Celeste!
sweet kit!
simple, understated, suits me but I know many will say its bland and nothing. I like it.
now, if that Trek logo was gone, it would be perfect. At least its under the pits…
@Souleur
I know, right? It’s gonna kill me to see Spartacus and Jens on Treks. Unless of course they’re laying down the V, in which case, they could be on a Scattante.
@frank
Looks like a national champion jersey to me. Not a big fan, but it beats the hell out of Radioshacks and Garmin’s 2010 jerseys.
I agree Marko.
Its gonna kill me too seeing Jens on a Trek, and Spartacus TT on a TTX.
For what good it is, I’ll try to keep it up and up. My LBS buddy emailed me the Trek ‘for public’ comments bragging about the whole endeavor. He’s excited like a sophmore that got asked to go to the prom by a hot blonde senior chick with a good reputation. So, good for him. I like my LBS, he’s great, got a small gig and Trek/Fisher is the only one out there that will help him out, so that it the feather in their cap.
But, man, I wish they would do something original, just one thing.
a tear just rouled out my eye for Spartacus
Saeco-Cannondale had an awesome advert campaign a few years back “There’s something brewing in Bedford”. B&W photo with SuperMC, Salvodeli, possibly Gotti? and a few others all dressed in their finest Italian suits pacing the streets of Bedford. Very mafia-esque, uber cool and completely locked my impressionable young brain to love Cannondale for life. FOR LIFE!
@D-Man
I’ve always thought this one is creative.
@Souleur
At least they had the good sense to put electronic shifting on Motorcus’s bike. And Shimano. Imagine how wrong it would have been to put Campy on there. It would be like putting Campy on a Cannonda…oh.
Not any more, Liquigas are on Sram now!
@ frank: right on.
Everyone knows Cannondale should only don SRAM, so at least they are on the up and up. Is there a Rule woven in the fabric of this?
So will give Trek credit where it is due
But my goodness, that rear wheel….makes me queezy.
reminds me of the shacks
@sgt
His wife was having their sixth(?) baby. He took the day off.
@Souleur
I don’t need a bike company that tries exciting and new things. I just want a solid ride at a decent price. My first road bike was a Trek 1.5 and I still ride it fairly regularly. Aluminum? Nine speed? Doesn’t make much of a difference on the road for me. I still keep up just fine with the folks around here.
The only thing that really bothers me about Trek bikes is that everything under $4200 comes with a compact crank or a triple. Not everyone needs a compact crank. Some of us live mostly in the flat land and/or have the legs to go up hill in a 39T…
Basically this guarantees that my next bike will not be a Trek because I’m just in no position to drop more than a couple grand on a bike.
@zach
good to hear. We have alot of common ground.
No doubt, its about the bike, the ride, the road, the gear, the rules.
Compact rings serve a limited purpose, IMHO, see Rule #5 repeatedly until it is served up warm and understood on the 53t. Triple chainrings, see the same aforementioned Rule #5 until the inner ring is thrown away.
I have to admit being of the ritualistic V-cognoscentia that I am, I hold out a glimmer of hope Spartacus puts a Trek decal over the undisclosed ‘prototype’ of something else and causes a bit of chaos.
@Souleur
Word. Don’t ride triples; drink trippels.
@ZachOlson
Sixth?????…Dang… Sounds like Mme Jens-elle is no stranger to The V herself!
@frank:
Thats what Jen’s Cheerios really are, he eats them for breakfast everyday, & nobody knew til now that they are really little rings!
@Souleur
Yeah, they’re just his worn out 11T cogs; they look like O’s but thats just cuz the teeth are worn off. Then he eats them.
Ok. Now we’re just making stupid Jens Jokes.
It’s ok, Jens makes stupid jokes too.
More facts about Jens.
(Click on the picture, HT to RBR)
@Buck Rogers
Speaking of Garmin 2010 jerseys, on 1/1/11 morn I saw Ryder out in his new kit. I bet he was happy to ditch that old f’ed up looking one. This new Garmin kit is a nice mix of Cervelo’s and Garmin’s even though it now looks like Sky’s and this new Schleck kit.
Compact rings are the V.
50T ring means you can ride around all day in the hills without messing with the front shifter (here in new England we have none of this mysterious “flat” that some Velominati refer to in their posts).
34T ring is real handy when laying down the Rule #5 up sustained 18% grades in the Green Mtns.
Running 53/39 really just means hauling around several gear ratios that you never use, unless you are Jens or are comfortable pedalling at 60 RPM; I prefer that anything on my bike be something I am going to use, including cogs. If I could get a 12-23 Red cassette I would run it instead of the 11-23; I would much rather have an 18 instead of the 11. 50×12 is plenty of top end for me (yes, I do race, and no, I don’t generally do badly at it).
Stepping down off chainring soapbox now….
@xyxax
Jens is Rule #5. Great guy too. Those Team CSC days were pretty special – Jens, Dave Z, Jullich, early Cancellera, Sastre, JMac…thanks for sharing those Jens Headlines.
@Gianni
Why is Alexis riding a Specialized?
@frank
I have no answer for that but I bet Cervelo will not be a happy sponsor. Maybe she just signed with Garmin/Cervelo and they were too lame to supply a bike in time? That will learn ’em.
@blaireau
It’s good to hear a real bike racer come down on the compact side of things.
I should write up the definitive (my half-assed version) of the compact vs standard argument and let all this play out once and for all. Man it fires up the posturing and chest thumping. I just put a compact on my bike and there is a lot of love down there. Stand by.
@Blaireau, @Gianni… right behind you on the compact arguments… when the dust settles, I’ll show you the scars and bruises I’ve still got from last time I tried to fight that fight on this website… Good luck, though.
Frank may even rehash his ‘the aesthetics look wrong, as the inner chain ring needs to be at least 75% of the outer chain ring’
Compact doesn’t work for my legs,
lots of friends are happy with it, especially during the hardest granfondo
like the Campagnolo or the Pantani,
but I still love my big rings.
@frank
I think you may be forgetting possibly the coolest combo of the last 20 years – the Saeco Red Train with Cipo doing his thing at the end of it on a campy-equipped Cannondale (CAAD 6 from memory?).
And if Cipo has run it, it qualifies as cool.
@Gianni
If you need gear-inch, meters-of-development, speed-at-cadence numbers for your write-up, I just ran across this site.
Though most of you all may keep this in your head.
There is no mention of aesthetic double-ring diameter ratios, but I think that comes in advanced-credit courses.
Xyaxa – that’s way too cool. I could waste more time fiddling with that than on Angry Birds….
xyxax – sorry about the misspell on your moniker there.
Also should mention that the only truly uber-aesthetic chainring is the lone 52, paired with a fixed 14 cog, of course.
@ZachOlson
At the risk of making an argument that results in the purchase of a Trek, you do realize that one can swap out the crank, right?
I bought a bike in December that came with a compact. They swapped it for a standard and only charged me $75 (less than half the price of the parts).
In full disclosure, two weeks later the left crank arm fell off while I was riding, but now it’s been fixed and shifts as smooth as butter.
@Gianni
First, Alexis can take my wheel anytime, though I’d much more likely be taking hers unless she was on a recovery recovery ride.
Second, I wonder if they thought out the placement of the TaTa Motors logo that much. It is right where the tatas are. I’ll keep myself amused thoughout the season with that.
@Geoffrey Grosenbach
Oh yeah, I realize I can do that, but I’m a reasonable guy with simple needs, and I think that with all the bike manufacturers out there I can get EXACTLY what I want from someone else. I think the biggest(am I making that up?) bike company in the USA can afford to offer standard or compact/triple as an option all the way down to its entry-level bike. They used to. Fact is that the last few years the options on all their bikes at lower price points have been getting worse and worse. So, I will not purchase a Trek any time soon.
Not that I’m even in the market for a new bike right now, but if I happen to stumble upon a couple grand…
@ZachOlson
It’s pretty much that way with every manufacturer. Find a Cervélo, Bianchi, or any other stock bike under $5,000 that comes with anything but a compact. Example: A $4,300 Bianchi with Campagnolo Athena ships with 50/34.
Why is this is the one issue on which cyclists can debate endlessly without giving an inch? There’s just enough engineering involved to help each person feel secure in the conviction that the other is an idiot, unable to do math, or much more than two months from peaking.
I’m a chainring hedonist. Although I get my kicks on 53/39, I fully respect anyone who chooses a compact.
But a triple? Blood will be spilled!
@blaireau
On the 52/14 single-speed, I will have to defer to your superior eye and engine.
Speaking of monikers, are you a self-effacing francophone?
Even if she was on a recovery ride, wouldn’t you prefer to take her wheel?
@Collin
You really did stare at that photo for a while. If the women’s kit changes this season, we will know who to thank.
Garmin-Cervelo now has the men’s and women’s road titles and the men’s TT for Oz on their team. Nice.
@roadslave
They are a hostile and stubborn crew. A good argy will keep everyone in the Northern hemisphere warm at least. There is hardly any racing to think about so we might as well get on to this.
@xyxax
Thanks for the data, I’ll need all the help I can get. I should go through all the old posts/comments/diatribes but that would require effort.
50/34 and 11-25 for me. Gives me lots of gear choices, low end for the big hills around here and a higher top end than a 53-12. Flame on!