Cycling

Team Sky's Ben Swift got off to an encouraging start at Bayern Rundfahrt by sprinting to second place on the opening stage.

read more

André Greipel wins first stage of 2013 Tour of Belgium. Race Report The Tour of Belgium started today with a flat stage between Lochristi and Knokke-Heist. A small detour was made in the Netherlands. Soon four Belgian riders set up a breakaway: Olivier Chevalier, Laurens De Vreese, Dieter Uyttersprot and Alphonse Vermote. They got a lead of more than four minutes. In the peloton Lotto Belisol took command, in function of leader André Greipel. The team kept the gap under constant control. Chevalier and De Vreese stayed in front the longest, till 26 kilometers before the finish. Jürgen Roelandts accelerated 14 kilometers from the end, just before the Synergie Supersprint. He picked up 24 points and three seconds, a good cause with the aim of a good classification. Jos Van Emden and Thijs Al took off in the final kilometers, but they couldn’t stay away. With two kilometers to go the Lotto Belisol train moved up to the front and led André Greipel to the victory. He was stronger than Belgian champion Tom Boonen and Ramon Sinkeldam. Tomorrow Greipel will start in the leader’s jersey. Roelandts is now fourth in the GC at seven seconds. Information from Team Lotto Belisol press release used in the race report. Race Results Tour de Belgique (2013) - Stage 1 Lochristi to Knokke-Heist (194km) 22 May 2013 Stage 1 Stage Position Name Nationality Team Time 1 GREIPEL, André GER LOTTO BELISOL 4:34:53 2 BOONEN, Tom BEL OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP 0 3 SINKELDAM, Ramon NED ARG 4 VAN POPPEL, Danny NED VACANSOLEIL-DCM 5 VAN STAEYEN, Michael BEL TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN - MERCATOR 6 ARASHIRO, Yukiya JPN TEAM EUROPCAR 7 VAN ASBROECK, Tom BEL TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN - MERCATOR 8 TERPSTRA, Niki NED OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP 9 VANTOMME, Maxime BEL Crelan-Euphony 10 PETIT, Adrien FRA COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 11 VAN DER POEL, David NED BKCP - POWERPLUS 12 VANDOUSSELAERE, Sven BEL TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN - MERCATOR 13 GILBERT, Philippe BEL BMC RACING 14 NAPOLITANO, Danilo ITA ACCENT JOBS - WILLEMS VERANDA'S 15 TSATEVITCH, Alexey RUS KATUSHA 16 PONZI, Simone ITA ASTANA 17 BOOM, Lars NED Blanco 18 MAES, Nikolas BEL OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP 19 CHAVANEL, Sébastien FRA TEAM EUROPCAR 20 JANSE VAN RENSBURG, Reinardt RSA ARG 21 MEISEN, Marcel GER BKCP - POWERPLUS 22 MARTIN, Tony GER OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP 23 HENDERSON, Greg NZL LOTTO BELISOL 24 SANCHEZ GIL, Luis Leon ESP Blanco 25 DEMOITIE, Antoine BEL WALLONIE BRUXELLES - CREDIT AGRICOLE 26 VANMARCKE, Sep BEL Blanco 27 ERSHOV, Artur RUS RUSVELO 28 HOFLAND, Moreno NED Blanco 29 VAN AVERMAET, Greg BEL BMC RACING 30 VEELERS, Tom NED ARG 31 POULHIES, Stéphane FRA COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 32 HERMANS, Ben BEL Radioshack Leopard 33 LANDER, Sebastian DEN BMC RACING 34 MONFORT, Maxime BEL Radioshack Leopard 35 PORSEV, Alexander RUS KATUSHA 36 QUINZIATO, Manuel ITA BMC RACING 37 MANAKOV, Viktor RUS RUSVELO 38 DOMS, Steven BEL TWJ 39 JACOBS, Pieter BEL TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN - MERCATOR 40 MEEUSEN, Tom BEL TELENET - FIDEA 41 VAN KESSEL, Corne NED TELENET - FIDEA 42 VAN H

This article was originally published on Cyclingnews.com.

Former Italian champion attacks over top of late climb and keeps away read more

After mowing the grass, which seems to be in hyper-growth mode these days, I got out on the LHT for a nice evening fitness ride.  I know it’s humid and muggy, but I could live in this type of weather year round. This “flower basket bike” is sitting in a yard off of Old Quaker Road.  Again, my cheap camera zoom lens leaves much to be desired, but the bike looks to be a Ross or something similar with the “production” Brooks sprung saddle,  not in that bad a shape.  I s’pose it’s better that it gets some use rather than rusting away behind the garage. Distance: 10.3 miles  2013: 146.5

Lapierre have made a few tweaks to this year’s Zesty frame, but the most interesting feature of the Zesty 514 E.I (£3,399.99) is the inclusion of E.I (Electronic Intelligence) technology. E.I is a collaborative effort between Lapierre and RockShox, and is an electronic system used to manage the compression and lockout settings of the rear shock automatically and on the fly.There are accelerometers on the fork and stem cap, along with a speed sensor on the fork and cadence unit on the bottom bracket. A small servo motor mounted on top of the RockShox Monarch RT3 E.I rear shock then adjusts the amount of low-speed compression damping according to hits going through the fork and the amount you're pedalling. The shock can automatically toggle through the three low-speed compression settings: open, platform or locked. There’s a small screen on the bar to display what setting the E.I system is in, along with various other details including speed, time and distance.A small servo motor adjusts compression dampingThe 514 frame boasts full carbon front and rear triangles, housing the well established OST+ suspension system. Cables are all internally routed, for a clean finish, with routing for a RockShox Reverb Stealth post. The head tube is tapered and there are ISCG 05 tabs for anyone wanting to add some chain security. Lapierre have lowered the seat tube height to improve clearance if you use a dropper post. They've also stiffened up the bottom bracket area to improve pedalling efficiency. A 12x142mm rear axle is present to bolster stiffness, and the length of the chainstays has been increased to 430mm for improved stability on faster trails.The 514 also includes a transmission mix of Shimano’s XT and SLX, and a Mavic Crossride wheelset wearing Schwalbe Nobby Nic and Rocket Ron tyres. The fork is a 150mm travel Fox 32 Float Evolution CTD model. Stopping the Zesty is a set of Formula’s RX brakes.Bar-mounted controls for changing E.I settings on the moveFor more information see www.lapierre-bikes.co.uk. A full BikeRadar review will be coming soon.

Carousel short title: Giro SPF 30 Ultralight Cap Price: £24.99 Gallery Image Reference: Giro SPF 30 Ultralight Cap Giro's SPF 30 Ultralight Cap is an extremely lightweight cap that keeps your head drier than without and also provides sun protection, especially handy if you're follically challenged. Road.cc verdict: A lightweight cycling cap ideal for the spring and well into the summer Road.cc rating: 7 Weight: 22g Contact: www.madison.co.uk read more

Michael Morkov's power output varied greatly during stage 5, thanks to a tough climb and a brutal crosswind. Photo: TrainingPeaksStage 5: Santa Barbara to Avila Beach (116 miles) On a day that should have been for the sprinters and one without a GC shake-up, stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California provided an exciting and unpredicted finish. Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Leopard) affirmed his legendary status again, taking the win and foiling the sprinters’ plans as he launched the winning move with just 5km to go and soloed to the line. Michael Morkov (Saxo-Tinkoff), who placed 56th, again shared his SRM power data from the stage with TrainingPeaks and VeloNews. Results 1. Jens Voigt, RadioShack-Leopard 2. Tyler Farrar, Garmin-Sharp 3. Thor Hushovd, BMC Racing 56. Michael Morkov, Saxo-Tinkoff View Morkov’s SRM data in TrainingPeaks. As expected, an early breakaway escaped before the only categorized climb on the stage, the San Marcos Pass. The climb may not have been enough to split the main field but it definitely took its toll on the riders. Morkov averaged 299 watts up the 7-mile climb, cresting the summit in just over 32 minutes with the main group. San Marcos Pass 32:03 7.1 miles 299 Average Watts 4.2 w/kg 314 Normalized Power (NP)* 13.4 mph 139 Average Heart Rate 84 Average Cadence *Normalized Power provides a better measure of the true physiological demands of an effort. It’s an estimate of the power you could have maintained for the same physiological “cost” if your power output had been perfectly constant rather than variable. About 60 miles into the race, as the sprinters’ teams gathered at the front to begin the chase in earnest, a fierce crosswind buffeted the peloton and the predicted outcome of the race was lost in the wind. It was during this windy section that Morkov set his peak 12-minute power of the stage, fighting to keep contact but ultimately unable to make the lead group, finishing 56th — 1:07 behind Voigt. Morkov’s power output between the largely steady state climb and the erratic crosswind section was very different. An erratic, “up-and-down” effort was required to stay in position in the winds, while Markov managed a steadier output on San Marcos. Morkov had over 30 spikes above 600 watts in the 14-minute crosswind section, compared to just a couple at the end of the 32-minute San Marcos Pass climb. For the 14 minutes in the crosswinds, Morkov pushed 357 watts (5 w/kg) with a NP of 381 — a difference of 24 watts, indicating the high physiological effort of his frequent surges. Compare this to the difference of only 16 watts between average power and NP on the San Marcos climb. The percent difference between the average watts and the normalized power is also known as the Variability Index (VI). With about 34 miles to go, a severe crosswind caused chaos and trouble for some of the top GC contenders, including race leader Janier Acevedo (Jamis-Hagens Berman). The UCI WorldTour teams smelled blood in the air and rallied their strong men to the front (including team leaders), causing the peloton to shatter into several smaller groups before Voigt’s winning attack. All in all, the effort of the day cost Morkov over 3,700 calories — the equivalent of nearly 10 of California’s popular In-N-Out hamburgers at 390 calories each. Stage 7: Livermore to Mount Diablo (91.4 miles) With a mountaintop finish on Mount Diablo, riders with GC aspirations knew that this would be the last opportunity to move up in the overall standings, as the final stage on Sunday would be mostly flat and would likely end in a bunch sprint. 24-year old Chris Butler of (Champion System) shared his SRM race data from the stage. Results 1. Leopold Konig, NetApp-Endura 2. Janier Acevedo, Jamis-Hagens Berman 3. Tejay van Garderen, BMC Racing 28. Chris Butler, Champion System View Butler’s file in TrainingPeaks. The young American had a plan for the stage: Get into the early break and hopefully hit the final climb with a big enough gap to hold off th

The Boombotix Boombot2 is loud acoustically and visually. It lets you bring the party to the trail, the...