Showtime

Last week Josh and I plus Simon and Matt from our Paraparaumu store got to fly up to Auckland for the day to check out the 2009 Avanti and Specialized ranges. After sitting through some interesting and then sleep-inducing presentations we got to check out the new bikes and bits. With the NZ dollar suffering and the world economy not much better, the trend is for higher prices for all bikes, from the low-end right up to the stuff we all love to drool over. Roubaix SL2. Inspired by Boonen's win in the Queen Of The Classics this year, it's lighter, stiffer and will require you to sell your first-born to be able to afford it. Handy if you're a doctor, you could sell someone else's baby or maybe just offload some kidneys.
Tarmac SL2. As with the Roubaix, comes with your choice of Shimano, SRAM or Campy groupset (in un-necessary 11 speed no less!). And no chain and a really poorly adjusted saddle by the look of it.
S-Works Epic, already a World Championship winner but lost a lot of cred with a paltry 4th place at the Olympics. No-one will want one now.
DT Swiss carbon fork and wheelset. So light that you can't actually ride them at all, but when they look that good, who cares?
S-Works Stumpy. There's more carbon Stumpys than there are alloy models this year, proving that aluminium is the steel of the 00's.... destined for the history books and small boutique framebuilders. Yeah right.
My favourite bike of the show. Good old Tricross Singlecross. Unchanged except for the paintjob, it is simplicity and a super-niche portion of the market that only 16 people in the world will appreciate. More singlespeed goodies over at SSSS.

Spot the difference

Somewhere on my Roubaix, I've carefully hidden a new bit of bike-bling. Can you find it?

Join the fight

Bike Snob NYC is on a mission; to rid the streets (of NYC, and now the world) of mobile phone-weilding drivers. We're not averse to this scourge here in NZ either, but maybe instead of Patrick Bateman-types, the offenders might look more like this...

The Cable Guy and a return to dirt...

Latest bling for the Roubaix: Nokon cables. Lighter, smoother, sexier. And you can do this funky shifter cable routing. * OH yeah, thanks to Josh for planting the idea, ordering them and installing them... he's a habitual idea-planter that one. Next up: chrome bar tape.

Yesterday the rain finally cleared and the mountain bikes were set free. The trails are in surprisingly good shape considering the amount of precipitation we've endured. Myself, Karl (Rata's), Josh and Michael "Hammerin" Naylor set out up the S-Bends, over to Deliverance and then reconoitered the course at Makara for the first PNP race in a couple of weeks. Lots of climbing and cool singletrack. It's going to be a tough one. About three hours later we were done, well and truly toasted but loving the MTB's again. There's no way I could be a full-time roadie, the dirt is just too much fun...
even if it's mud.... Not too bad for 40km of trails, mainly little patches and bogs, otherwise the trails were amazing, just check out these happy campers...

So graceful...

The Olympic gymnasts are certainly the most graceful of all the athletes. And this performance would have to be the pick of the bunch.... be inspired and amazed as Suzanne Uppingham dazzles with her floor routine.

Legend status; confirmed

Cancellara really is da man.

Hairy legs, The Shaman, a Dead Chef and a Dirty Sanchez

A lot going on over the weekend. Saturday was one of the coldest days of the year, hitting a high of 7C! Good day to be working, which I was, and for watching the mens road race at the Olympics. TVNZ's coverage was, as expected, pathetic. So The Minion and I sat in the bowels of work with beer and biscuits and watched it on the interweb. Cancellara is the man as far as I'm concerned. The way he came across to the break in the last km was awesome, but I reckon he should've just kept powering past rather than backing off and getting involved in the sprint. Samuel "dirty" Sanchez was a deserving winner though, Schleck is a class act and Rebellin is a legend who rode a great race too. Oh yeah, even Cadel had a dig on the final climb, but fell back when he stopped to drop his pants and moon a policeman on the side of the road who looked at him funny. Speaking of arsehole roadies, The Shaman had a crack at the Leadville 100 mile mtb race in Colorado, just as another doper did last year, and came away with the same result; first loser. The hairy-legged saviour, Dave Weins took his sixth win in the high-altitude suffer-fest, with The Shaman dropping back when he spotted a scrawny blonde singer/actress clone of his mother on the side of the road. Maybe he is this mystery lover?
Meanwhile, a real ladies man, Isaac Hayes aka The Chef died on the weekend. In his honour "I'm gonna make love to ya woman"...

Brew, haha

Some random bits and pieces here... A couple of 'beers of the week', one pretty average, one (as rated on the Josh-ometer) f#*@in awesome! And a couple of weird sightings in the shop.
New Zealand Lager. Well, it's not anywhere as good as it's namesake, but it's not as bad as some others either.

Josh brought back a couple of these little beauties from his dirty weekend in Auckland last week, and I wish he'd brought a slab or two now. It's from a local micro-brewery up there called Sawmill, at a place called Leigh. Never been there myself, but apparently it's a great venue for a dirty weekend, right Josh? (He's so tight-lipped his teeth are showing through the skin.) This is their 12 Gauge Strong Ale, and like a 12 Gauge shotgun, it will blow your head clean orf if not handled carefully. 6.5% of Magnum-like force. Now, did I drink 6, or only 5? Just one actually. Luv-a-leigh.

And then there's the strange things you see in the shop. Can't decide whether you want to ride or play tennis? Why not do both, and carry some other shit while you're at it?

How big is your cycle-computer? ASSIZE! This came with an exercise bike, which are usually ridden by people with asses too big to be shown in lycra in public, so I guess it's an appropriate brand. Gotta love those Asian-English translations.

Rad!

My one-time NZ road-trip buddy Rad Ross took a major win a few weeks back at the Downieville Classic, smashing up the XC and DH races to claim the overall title of "All-Mountain World Champion". Now while some may say that this title is probably akin to being the World Series champion in baseball (which only features USA teams), it is a great win nonetheless, taking out the 7-time champion and magazine poster boy Mark Weir. Beating a downhill field which not only included Weir but also former DH World Champions and gurus such as Myles Rockwell, Brian Lopes, Greg Herbold, and freeride legend Wade Simmons all while wearing a skinsuit, proves that abundant skill on a bike and lack of taste and dress sense aren't mutually exclusive...
In the XC the field was no less impressive with Canadian guns Andreas Hestler and Chris Sheppard amongst the vanquished.
Not bad for a guy who could drink like a fish all night, smoke a cig or two and still kick my arse solidly, even while crashing hard down the Exit Trail at RotoVegas. Nice work Radness!

First Loser

Le Tour is over for another year, and *yawn* oh excuse me I was just nodding off there....

So there were a couple of drug busts. And, surprise surprise, one of them was yet another former teammate of the sport's biggest shaman. Hmmmm....

Drugs aren't ruining the sport though. The lack of drugs is ruining it. The most exciting stages where the one's Ricco (and Piepoli) won, he was the only rider with enough balls (or enough go-juice coursing through his veins) to actually attack.

The only things Cadel attacked were policemen on motorbikes, journalists and cameramen. The guy didn't do himself any favours in the eyes of the fans with his petulant, bordering on plain weird, behaviour. And he rode like a dolt.
He apparently had a strange obsession with the sponsor's toy lions... here he loses it when someone touches his lion...

Here he tells someone he'll "cut your head off" if they stand on his dog.... should get a proper dog that you can actually see.

Pushes over someone with a bike (can't quite see who)then head-butts a cameraman....

And generally comes across like a twat...

But hey, he was still First Loser, for the second time....