Castelli Blog

Cervélo TestTeam’s final selection for the Vuelta a España. The decision has been made and the nine riders have been chosen for the last of the three 2009 grand tours. With a strong and balanced team that includes three home favorites, Cervélo TestTeam is primed to tackle the challenges of the 21-stage Vuelta a España. The tour begins in the Netherlands in Assen, on August 29 and finishes September 20 in Madrid, Spain.

Simon Gerrans (AUS), Ignatas Konovalovas (LTU), Xavier Florencio (ESP), Roger Hammond (GBR) and Philipp Deignan (IRL) will be looking for stage victories, while José Angel Gomez Marchante, racing on home turf, is focused on a strong result in the general classification. Alex Sans Vega (ESP) and Marcello Albasini (SUI) are the two sports directors with the Vuelta team and, along with their crew, will provide the riders with the best possible support to help them achieve their goals.

“The team has done a great job in its inaugural year on all aspects of the team’s mandate: equipment testing, fan access, and of course race performance,” said Thomas Campana, Team Manager. “But I am sure that we are not finished yet. The guys are still hungry, and they’re prepared to work hard to achieve top results in the next couple of months until the end of the season.”
Selection Cervélo TestTeam - Vuelta a España 2009

1.     Iñigo Cuesta (ESP)
2.     Philip Deignan (IRL)
3.     Xavier Florencio (ESP)
4.     Simon Gerrans (AUS)
5.     Roger Hammond (GBR)
6.     Ignatas Konovalovas (LTU)
7.     Jose Angel Gómez Marchante (ESP)
8.     Gabriel Rasch (NOR)
9.     Dominique Rollin (CAN)

Join the Cervélo TestTeam for a new episode of the hi-resolution documentary of ‘Beyond the Peloton’. This time, the filmmakers will take you behind the scenes of Italy’s Grand Tour.

Take me to Cervelo’s video gallery >

Saturday the 15th saw the coming together of the Big Dog’s of Cycling. Magnus Backstead,  Yanto Barker and the Big Dog Himself….Me! For the Brighton Big Dog Mountain bike race.

Pairing up with the local Caravan expert of the Cycling world, Paul Hopkins of BMV Leisure….plug… We competed in the 6hr Pair. The course was excellent, great climbing, amazing single track and dry! With an MTB Jumble from Retro bike, cakes and propercoffee the event was a true mountain bike festival with a great atmosphere.

The Race! Paul started and came through in 2ndplace not far down off 1st. We pushed on with one lap on, one lap off for the duration, taking the lead on lap two and building on it. We finished 1st and just missed out on clocking up another lap come the finish….a great day out. We cleaned up, packed up and got some chicken from the Barbecue before the prize presentation. A great effort for the ceremony, podium girls, goodie bags and sparkly stuff, you had to make the most of it! Also over the course of the day, I picked up the prize for thr fastest lap and received a very nice model sterling engine which has kept the office amused this week and the kettle on permanent tea duty!

So, rosette in hand, I am now the official “Big Dog” of Brighton….. Life’s complete.

Will deffinatly return next year: http://www.brightonbigdog.com/

Official site of Felt Racing: http://feltracing.co.uk/

Posted by Fatty (PBK) Hi we are very fortunate here to get a few products in to try to use and abuse and to generally evaluate long before they come to market, as well as a few items that are new but not unique,

First off is the excellent Castelli Body Paint bibshort, I was fortunately invited to the Castelli 24h race in Italy way back in June to race for there world team and Castelli kindly provided pre production samples of there latest designs for us to try (and keep).

So what can they do with a short you ask?? Well quite alot as it happens this short is as different as a short can be, to start with it is made of a single piece of engineered power stretch lyrca yes a single piece, it also includes integrated leg grippers, integrated so nothing bonded sewn injected or stuck on just a subtle increase in the amount of lycra content, But the real star is the pad, (ProgettoX2) this is a double skinned pad with a free floating pad next to the saddle and a fixed body hugging micro fleece next to the skin, There is a lot of science behind it , but you only need to know one thing, they work, they work very well in fact, they are by far the most comfortable short i have ever worn.

The nice people at Ritchey sent me one of there super logic seatpost to try. Now a seatpost is a pretty static thing so there is nothing to report (but that’s the highest praise going) it is light (approx 160g) hasn’t slipped , doesn’t creek there are optional heads available for oval rails (its supplied with ones for a round rail) and it is well finished, Its expensive but if you are after a premium seatpost you wont go wrong with it.

Ok a new product just in and yet to go on a bike is the New Look quartz pedal these appear to be a ideal compromise between Times simplicity , support and ruggedness and Crank bros weight, more news after the weekend.

Body Paint Bibshort:  http://bit.ly/1Tv9cS

Progetto X2 seat pad:  http://bit.ly/tah1l

PBK-blog: http://www.pbkblog.com