With the 2010 Tour de France over, we once again crown Alberto Contador the overall GC winner in Paris as Mark Cavendish sprints to another top of the podium finish in Paris. Winning by the 4th smallest gap in Tour history, Contador edged out Andy Schleck by a small margin of 39 seconds. The 2010 Tour de France was one of the more exciting races in recent memory. With the final showing my Lance Armstrong and the nail biting beginning [...]
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Lance Armstrong Goes For It…and Fails – Stage 16 – Tour de France
Lance Armstrong set out on Stage 16 of the 2010 Tour de France with one goal in mind, a stage win. With seemingly the worst luck in Tour de France history, Lance Armstrong’s last stand at the Tour has been riddled with mechanicals and a series of wrecks that even baffled the 7 time winner who arguably has the most Tour experience in history. To try to regain composure and go out on a high note, Lance Armstrong wanted a [...]
Should Contador Have Waited? Schleck Loses Yellow
Attacking with the yellow jersey in the last 4 kilometers of the daunting Bales Pass, the Luxembourg rider, Andy Schleck, made a surprise effort to gain additional time on his key rival, two-time winner Alberto Contador. But then suddenly he stalled. Moments later, Contador propelled around Schleck in a stunning counterattack. Soon, however, Schleck came to a complete halt, dismounted his bike to fix the chain that had been thrown from his chain ring while shifting. Ahead Contador powered along [...]
Stage 11: 3rd Win for Cavendish – Renshaw Booted from TdF
Stage 11 of the 2010 Tour de France came down to an exciting sprint finish. As legendary lead-out man Mark Renshaw made his move to position Mark Canvendish for the sprint win, he head butted Garmin Slipstreams lead-out man Julian Dean as he pulled out Tyler Farrar. What does it mean for the best sprint lead-out man in the Tour? He is now kicked off the Tour de France. Mark Renshaw’s Statement Regarding Removal: “I’m extremely disappointed and also surprised [...]
Results: 2010 Tour de France Stage 10 – Chambery to Gap
The breakaway finally keeps off the chasers. In a fantastic effort by Sergio Paulinho (Team Radio Shack) and Vasili Kiryienka (Caisse d’Epargne), the two riders kept off the chasing packs and ended in a sprint that was won by Paulinho in less than have a wheel length to bring a stage win to team Radio Shack. As Chris Carmichael at Bicycling said: It was no surprise that Stage 10 had a breakaway winner. After three hard days in the Alps, [...]
Results: 2010 Tour de France – Stage 9 Morzine-Avoriaz – Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
The 204.5km 9th stage of the 2010 Tour de France from Morzine-Avoriaz to Saint Jean de Maurienne marked one of the most exciting stage finishes outside of all out sprints. A breakaway containing Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux), Luis León Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) and Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) was almost assured a breakaway success with a run at the finish. Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck, however, had other plans. Closing a several minute gap coming out of the [...]
Results: 2010 Tour de France – Stage 8 – Station des Rousses – Morzine-Avoriaz
Stage 8 of this year’s Tour de France promised to be an exciting event. With the GC contenders taking it easy in Stage 7, the steeper slopes of Stage 8 and a rest day on Monday guaranteed that the riders looking for yellow in Paris were going to bring out their climbing legs and start attacking. With everyone betting on an Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong shootout, the day took a very different turn that resulted in a very confident [...]
Results: 2010 Tour de France Stage 7 – Tournus to Station des Rousses
Stage 7 of the 2010 Tour de France marked the first of the climbing stages as the peloton headed into the Alps. What was supposed to be a calmer day of climbing was rocketed forward by team Bbox as they took control of the stage and brought up the average speed. Things began to get interesting on the day’s penultimate climb, the 15.7km long category 2 Col de la Croix de la Serra, when a group split from the main [...]
Results: 2010 Tour de France Stage 6 – Montargis – Gueugnon
Hammering to the finish, Mark Cavendish (HTC/Columbia)…the Manx Missile…tears up the asphalt to claim his second, consecutive stage victory. Followed by Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) and Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) who appeared to not even have a chance to challenge the talented sprinter from Britain. If the critics were wondering if Cavendish could get the job done for Columbia/HTC in the 2010 Tour de France, they are now silenced as Cav seems to be on a roll that will continue into [...]
Results: 2010 Tour de France Stage 5 – Cavendish Brings It Home For HTC/Columbia
Shortly after a hard crash at the Tour de Swiss and a disappointing start to the 2010 Tour de France, Mark Cavendish and the HTC/Columbia Team get it done in stage 5 with a Cavendish sprint win. Carrying the peloton with 56% of overall effort during the 187.5 km spin from Epernay – Montargis, Columbia/HTC made sure their man was going to be ready and up front for the sprint finish. With several kilometers to go, it was an organized [...]
Other News
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Road Bike GoPro HD Footage: Regular Thursday Night Ride
For awhile now, I have been using the GoPro HD to record footage for the mountain biking section of Bike198. After some positioning testing, I decided to test out the helmet cam on the road bike in preparation for some product reviews and long downhill runs in the mountains to see how it would do. For this test, I mounted it to the stem and recorded some of our regular Thursday night road ride. As you can tell by the [...]
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Review: Bicycle Dreams – It’s The Race For Life
The crew over at Bicycle Dreams sent over a copy of their video for review on Bike198.com. The film goes on a journey with several of the solo racers as they attempt to conquer The Race Across America (RAAM). Before we get into the film, let’s take a look at what it is about and RAAM itself. From BicycleDreamsMovie.com: They are seekers, madmen, and angels hell-bent on riding across America on a bicycle in less than ten days. But what [...]
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The Roadie Attitude: Killing The Cause
Over the past couple of weeks, I have heard a couple of stories of roadies and drivers going at it because of actions taken on the road. While this is a super sensitive subject amongst cyclists, each of the stories involved a road cyclist that was in the wrong and they took it among themselves to attack the driver with words and flying water bottles. The Roadie Attitude In my mind, there are two different kinds of road bikers. The [...]
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SRAM Red and Shimano Dura-Ace: Are they really worth it?
SRAM Red and Shimano Dura-Ace…the top of the pack of road bike components that roadies all over the world lust after on a regular basis. With SRAM entering the market and having huge success at this years Tour, Campagnolo and Shimano now have some serious competition out of the once mountain only component group company. When you think of ultra-light, high performance components for road bikes, names like Red, Super Record and Dura-Ace are the go to groupos to shave [...]
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The Key To Getting Faster: There is no replacement for consistent miles
Our bodies are well oiled machines that rely on muscle memory to get the job done. Some of those actions are automated and others are conditioned over time to perform a certain task. With road biking, it is no different. If you are wanting to get faster on the bike, there is still no replacement for consistent miles over time to increase your speed and the distance you are able to ride in a day. Your Body: What Happens With Consistent [...]
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Road Riding Tip: How To Pull The Paceline
If you have been on a road bike for more than 5 seconds, you already know that you can ride faster with less energy exerted in a paceline. By sharing the wind resistance among multiple riders, the pack can move forward, faster as a whole than one at a time. In an organized pace line, riders take turns pulling the group over the course of the ride to insure proper pacing and energy release. However, there are certain things that [...]
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First Look: FSA K-Wing Compact Carbon Drop Road Bars
Road bike drop bars have changed a lot in design over recent years. With more road bikers spending the majority of the ride time with their hands on the hoods, component manufacturers have started to design the hoods and bars to accomodate a flatter top section for increased comfort. The FSA K-Wing compact carbon drop bars feature this shift in design to the extreme with solid flat profiles in the hoods and in the flats for climbing. FSA K-Wing Compact [...]
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Have a Coke and a Smile – Extra Road Riding Energy For The Last Climb
Are you looking for a cheap way to get some extra energy for those last climbs on your road ride? Next time you have a store stop, have a Coke and a smile. Over our last road ride last weekend, a friend of mine reminded me of a riding tip that actually produces real results and it all centers around having a Coke and a smile. I actually first learned about this trick from some marathon runner friends of mine. [...]
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