Lightweight Lizard and Speed Lunatic

For the first time on gravel this year I had a lighter bike than Emil 🙂 He on his Ridley X-Trail and me on my Specialized Epic ht, was nice to try it on gravel too. Emil had some more speed as in his nickname Speed Lunatic when it went fast and my 34-11 wasn’t made for going fast. But an 8Kg hardtail with 2,1″ Specialized Fast Trak tires was really fun on gravel too. We had a great morning in the sun watching animals, talking children and discussing #aeroiseverything

Also sat some Personal Records and I got top 10 around Flaten after following Emil over some bridges:

Map and stats: Strava

After we had breakfast the clouds came and the weather turned grey. So happy I got up in time to enjoy the sun this morning with the fastest Sumo.

Cyclocross 2011/2012

There was a time when you could see Campagnolo Bora wheels cross the finish line first, when there was a women from the Netherlands beating Marianne Vos, when Sanne van Paassen was black and orange, when Niels Albert took the rainbowstripes from the my favorite crosser. Those beautiful days last season is collected by Cyclephotos in a lovely book just for us fans who remember, who loves, who knows what it’s all about, who knows why 100€ handmade tires is better than 20€, who knows why 60000 fans coming out a winter day, paying for standing at a small course and watch people suffer more then they did the hole season.

Today I got that book in my mailbox, Cyclocross 2011/2012:

You could do like I did and Henrik Öijer suggested before me and buy it here: Cyclephotos

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?

Cannondale Slice RS, and Stybar back in todays race in Essen!

Yesterday the bike was a dream, today it was hate and you saw blood and could have see tears but didn’t, instead ginger bread.

First time building bikes with internal everything and a lot of new things is never so easy. Specially as I did wrong, shouldn’t start mounting the crank and you should take out the liners after mounting the wires. And Cannondale should put in a liner in the chainstay for the builder.

But what a bike. Not that good brakes but like it anyway and everyone know that you shouldn’t brake to ride fast. And speaking of fast, compared the seatpost to a htc One X to show you how ”thick” it is:

And the result:

A 9,04kg Cannondale Slice RS Ultegra size 52. Clean front with integrated brake:

And from rear, nicely says AERO on the inside of the chainstays:

To the end, hope you didn’t miss the CX today in Essen. Zdenek Stybar is back and rode really well until the sprint. Sprinted and pushed Jan Denuwelaere into the side so he crashed. Was fast to go back and forgive himself and seemed to be happy that he didn’t broke anything. Stybar was first over the finishline but ended 4th.

1. Jan Denuwelaere (shows how fast you can ride with Campagnolo)

2. Rob Peeters

3. Niels Albert

4. Zdenek Stybar

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:

Olympic racing

Just because it’s a olympic year there are some new, odd riders on the world cup races. Like the cyclocrossrider Kevin Pauwels that came 57th yesterday in Nove Mesto: