The Swedish National Road Championships

Sweden may not be the biggest cycling country but we got one of the best cyclists in the world and today she showed how good she is. Emma Johansson dropped everyone and got over 4min to the 7 chasers in the group behind. Emma Johansson is on such level like Zlatan Ibrahimovic is. Absolute top both but only one has the media attention.

Anyway, it was a hard race today and already after first (of 10) laps the bunch was in small groups. After a couple of laps it looked like this:

The first group with Emma Johansson, Sara Penton, Emilia Fahlin, Sara Mustonen, Sara Olsson and a couple of more went hard and made the others suffer. Specially on the pavé section in the middle of Västerås:

Emma deserves a bigger picture, also a good one but I only got this:

Where 44 riders to start but only 11 finished as the other where too far behind. The last rider who finished after having 2 rear punctures but never stopped chasing was my Sumocycling teammate Eva Lindskog. Rode real Sumostyle and did a great first Swedish Championship:

Results:

1. Emma Johansson
2. Sara Mustonen
3. Emilia Fahlin
4. Alexandra Nessmar
5. Sara Penton

 

New bikes from Cannondale, Colnago and Wilier

The Cannondale cyclocross team is testing a new SuperX for next season:

Internal wiring like the Slate is the new thing I’ve seen.

Then Wout van Aert seems to ride a new Colnago CX:

Doesn’t look very Colnago so we’ll see what happens til the next season for Colnago.

Last is Wilier, no rumors, but a new frame. Zero6 that should be really light, 0,6kg as the name says. Here built up with beautiful but heavy Shamal wheels. Odd build for such a light frame I think:

Tour of Qatar, stage 1 and 2

This week the fast ladies race in Qatar and it seems like yesterday was a really good race. But first things first. Wiggle-Honda made a video from the 1st stage:

Feels like Qatar is the bunchsprintrace nr1. But not stage 2:

Pretty cool to see Ellen Van Dijk win on a Specialized an hour after I heard that Mark Cavendish won on his Specialized in Dubai 😉

1st and 2nd in the overall:

And the breakaway that was:

So could Emma Johansson win today on stage 3?

mtb=Zipp, road=Maserati

It starts to get unusual to find a special bike. Everyone has everything and very few tune their bike old school style. There seems to be an solution to buy for everything. But putting Zipp wheels on a mtb, that’s not so common:

Really cool. High profile on mtb is cool, like my friends Gipiemme he had on his Merida some years ago. I’ve been thinking of the opposite to glue roadtires on a mtbrim but the tires didn’t fit to my AX-Lightness rims I had then.

Another cool bike is this Colnago EPS stripped from paint and painted in Maserati blue and made for Campagnolo Eps. Like made for each other with Colnago EPS and Campagnolo EPS 🙂 7030g:

Dressed like a champion #gelatosocks

Heard some comments on my Gelatosocks:

And today googling pictures after reading Katja’s blog about CX clothing I have to share this. There are more people riding with this cool Swiss (or Italian?) socks:

But just because one guy more using them, is it right then? Like saying that an AX-Lightness rim is good just because people ride with them, it’s a difference saying Alexandra Engen won the World Championships on them. Used by a World Champion can’t be wrong, can it?

So to get to the point. Kathrin Stirnemann won the XCE World Championships this year and look at her socks:

Also used by other Swiss and Italian riders:

So just to order a pair or two you too 😀

Eurobike #1 Direct mount brakes

Will post pictures from Eurobike today in a couple of posts. First some with focus on Direct Mount road brakes:

EE on Parlee:

Colnago (?)

On the new Ferrari bike:

FSA again from De Rosa King XS:

Neil Pryde Nazaré 2 with Dura-Ace:

 

under the pro-top

Some bikes are just better looking than others. No matter much I hoped for Kessiakoff last years Tour but Vocklers Colnago C59 with Campagnolo Hyperon wheels was soo much better looking.

This year Astana got the parts to run over Voeckler and others. Campagnolo Super Record EPS and sad to say but Corima Viva MCC is really good looking:

Hard to beat but after last years Sram dominance Campagnolo have found some ground again and showing that you can’t forget the most classy brand. AG2R-La Mondiale rides with Campagnolo EPS too, and with new Fi’zi:k components topping it with Fulcrum wheels and frame matching blue:

The two best looking bikes in the top this year. But which one is best looking? (more not as good looking Pro team bikes here: Cyclingtips) But it happening things in the U.K. getting the drool coming. Europcar styled bikes but with more clear colour, more Boras and a new team. The women Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling Team:

 

Colnago C59 Team Edition frames, Campagnolo Super Record EPS (groupset of the year?), Campagnolo Bora Ultra Two, Deda stem, seatpost and handlebars (Alanera on the bike above) and Fi’zi:k seat, bar tape and shoes. And is it a new Alanera with classic bend?

I was hoping for Emma Johansson’s Orica-IAM to succeed this year and love to see Marianne Vos attack and win but Scott and Giant with Shimano can’t be compared to these Colnagos. Classy bike, classy kit and some really fast riders. Let’s hope for a big improvement in the broadcasting of womens road cycling this year. Hear a Wiggle Honda rider bang in some extra gears with a click, hear the swosch swisch from the Boras and see the smile on the rider attacking with such a nice Colnago. 

Until the dreams come true we can watch a video from their Team launch:

Grote Prijs Sven Nys and Women’s Namur

Todays racing wasn’t as good as I hoped for but good anyway. Zdenek Stybar came second:

And you see, 1min 11 seconds after the winner, Kevin Pauwels. That’s hard. Blame routine as Stybar did some mistakes he shouldn’t have done if he was racing cyclocross all season instead of just showing up for a couple of weeks. But love to see him back even if it’s just for now. Last belgian race for him today, just the Czech Championship in 1,5 weeks left for his season.

 

Results (happy that Niels Albert didn’t caught Stybar even if it was close.

1. Kevin Pauwels – Sunweb-Napoleon Games (new sponsor)

2. Zdenek Stybar – Omega Pharma-Quick Step

3. Niels Albert – BKCP-PowerPlus

And then the nice video from Petitesrennes from the women’s world cup in Namur. He knows how to show how hard and awesome CXracing is. Just change the top of the podium from Katie Compton to Sanne van Paassen and it would be perfect 😉

Start the new year in a good way

15.00 CET today it’s Cyclocross! Sven Nys own race in Baal, but without Sven Nys this year as he is sick 😦 Will Zdenek Stybar take his first win of the season at his second last race? Will we the see the stairs that is there just for this race and will Niels Albert crack? Hard to say now but all we know is that it will be a race and I hope it will be exciting. And racers in new teams, clothes as it’s the first race of the year. Watch it here:

Sports-Livez

Cyclephotos is at the race and took this picture from U23 race?

CX World Cup Roubaix

The livestream started in a swedish way like this, who are they?

 

Then showing last part of the womens race. Tight racing between Katie Compton and Sanne van Paassen. Unfortunately Compton was too fast for Paassen today so won.

1. Katie Compton – Trek Collective

2. Sanne van Paassen – Rabobank

3. Jasmin Achermann – Rapha-Focus

9. Eva Lechner – Colnago-Südtirol

Then it was time for the men elite. If you watched the videos I linked to this morning it’s not like todays racing. Same course but 2min shorter. As normal Klaas Vantornout and Lars van den Haar is fast starters but something happened because Vantornout dropped a lot and was back at Sven Nys. The other strange thing was that Niels Albert was 5th on the first lap, he got a good start for once. Julien Taramarcaz took the commande followed by Tom Meeusen, got company by Kevin Pauwels and Niels Albert. Taramarcaz rode impressive but they got caught by Sven Nys and Meeusen had to drop. Good racing with those 4 in the front for the rest of the race. Taramarcaz lost a little at the end of last (12th) lap and Albert didn’t got the legs that Nys and Pauwels had today.

1. Sven Nys – Landbouwkrediet – KDL

2. Kevin Pauwels – Sunweb-Revor

3. Niels Albert – BKCP – PowerPlus

4. Julien Taramarcaz – BMC Mountainbike Racing Team

Sad parts today was first when Katie Compton and Sanne Cant crashed, Cant went down hard and was carried away later. And then Simon Zahner crashed on the barriers tried to jump them so runned later. And the missing in action Klaas Vantornout lost his chain and or rear derailleur and to run some. Then we could see Magnus Darvell on screen here in the swedish championkit: