Our friends over at Monocle Magazine have a great video regarding the Taipei Cycle Show.

The Taipei International Cycle Show is one of the most important bicycle industry events in the world, with nearly 900 exhibitors on hand this year. Held annually at the Nangang Exhibition Center in the east of Taiwan’s capital, it’s the place to go to see the latest in bicycle manufacturing and design – fittingly, as Taiwan is one of the world’s largest bicycle exporters. Monocle traveled to Taipei to see what’s new with the good old two-wheeler.

And check this out:
In 1970 in America the 10 speed bicycle sold 200,000 units.
In 1971 in America the 10 speed bicycle sold 8,000,000 units.

That is why Taiwan is so important to cycling. They came to fill the production need.

A few people out there have been wondering about Contador’s hat. The cap he wears on the podium after races. It is his own design and is available for sale here.

The hat is embroidered on the front with his champion logo and has three gallons on the back commemorating the Triple Trown: Tour, Giro and Vuelta.

Riding and Surviving in Orange County

We don’t know about you, but watching “Le Tour de France” last month made us all want to hit the streets on our road bikes! And there are plenty of beautiful places to ride in the OC—over 1,000 miles of bikeways (and according to the OCTA more to come!).

But some riders in the OC actually fear taking that road bike out of the garage. Why? Well, it’s because of the never-ending battle between motorist and cyclist. You may remember the recent tragedy in LA’s Mandeville Canyon that Bicycling magazine called “the road rage incident heard ’round the cycling world.”
Two riders were riding side by side on a steep, narrow road when a neighborhood resident came up behind them in a car. The driver exchanged some words with the riders, then pulled in front of them and slammed on his brakes. One of the riders went headfirst through the back window of the car and was seriously injured. The driver was found guilty of six felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon.

Many drivers feel resentment towards riders who they feel are not “sharing the road” by riding abreast. Some feel that they need to “teach cyclists a lesson”.

Rock n’ Road has been involved for years in the movement to increase the education of both motorists and cyclists in following the laws and co-existing peacefully. We’re sure you all do your part in educating your non-cycling friends and family on how they can respect the rights of cyclists, but it’s important that we all do our part too. You can help by:

* Riding on the road—the right side, not the left or the sidewalk. Share with cars so you don’t cause “road rage”! Single file if you need to.
* Using front & rear lights when riding at night. We’ll help you pick some out.
* Take good care of your bike: a well-tuned machine is a safe one. We can help you with this too!
* Obey lane markings & road signs, use hand signals so drivers know your intent.
* WEAR A HELMET! We have lots to choose from—and will help you find one that fits, looks, and feels great.

For info about OC cycling bikeways check out;
http://www.octa.net/bikeways.aspx

This Month’s Deal:
*Click on the coupon and print it out to redeem at your favorite Rn’R

By Andrew Hood VeloNews • Updated: Aug 3rd 2010 11:44 AM EDT

Alberto Contador will ride for Danish sport director Bjarne Riis next season in the latest round of major changes for cycling’s top GC contenders.

Riis announced Tuesday that the three-time Tour de France champion will join him in a two-year contract.

“Alberto (Contador) is a world class rider and it’s with great pride that I can welcome him onboard the team for the next two years,” Riis said in a statement. “With three Tour de France victories on his resume and a position as number one on the world rankings, he is sure to stay at the very top for several years to come.”

Riis also announced that current sponsor, Saxo Bank, has decided to continue and the new squad will be called Saxo Bank-Sungard. Both contracts are through the 2011 season.

For those of you that love then numbers behind the tour the below is taken from SRM’s site. Go there to read on:

Tour de France 2010: SRM Analysis Stage 17 – Col du Tourmalet

The Col de Tourmalet was first included in the Tour de France in 1910. The first rider over the top at 2,115 m was Octave Lapize, who also won the Tour de France that year.

It is one of most prestigious mountains in the Tour de France – alongside Alpe D’Huez in the Alps and the Mont Ventoux in the Provence. Winning a stage on the Tourmalet will always be something special,aAnd today it was a special moment when Andy Schleck crossed the line side by side with Alberto Contador. The two best climbers showed that they are on the same level and highly respect each other. There was no other rider who got close to their performance today. There is a difference between these two and Samuel Sanchez, Denis Menchow and all of the other runner ups.

It was great to see Chris Horner performing so well today. He had a perfect day – finishing 8th. That’s a world class performance, as he’s put in every day in this year’s Tour de France when he has showed stable, consistent riding. He knows his limits well, he got to those limits, but never cracked. We are really happy and thankful that he shared his data.

It was also a great stage for Kristijan Koren (Team Liquigas) and Rémi Pauriol (Team Cofidis) who got into the breakaway at kilometer 3 and stayed in front until they got caught on the final climb up the Tourmalet. They rode with SRM telemetry, so you could follow their data live during the whole stage.
Their maximum gap to the peloton was 9:15 minutes at the base of Col de Marie Blanque. It turned out not to be enough under the pressure of Team Astana, Rabobank, Omega Pharma Lotto and Saxo Bank going for the win on the final mountain stage of this year’s Tour.

You can’t compare today’s stage with the Queen Stage on Tuesday, when the riders had to climb two Category 1 and two Hors Category mountains – about 4,330 altitude meters of climbing, burning about 5,500 calories. Today the race was all set up for the “grande finale”, but still two Category 1 and the final Tourmalet (Hors Categorie) was only a little less in altitude meters (about 4,170 m) and burned calories (about 5,000).

http://www.srm.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=563&catid=112&Itemid=260&lang=en

Hinault leads Lemond back in the days of La Vie Clare. And I still wear the jersey Hinault wears on the days I go for a good climb.

Power data from the Tour – two sources worth browsing

First, for more power data for the number-fiends among you, there are two sites worth browsing:

1. Training Peaks – power output data from Saxo Bank riders (not Andy Schleck, unfortunately), with analysis
2. SRM - similar data, but for different teams, including Saxo and Radioshack, and a different take on some of the numbers.

Chris Horner: A top 15 rider (currently lying 14th), Horner has finished most of the mountain stages in a second or third batch of riders that include Ivan Basso, Andreas Kloden and within touch of Robert Gesink. Always in the top 20, he gives a good indication of what is happening at the very front of the race. Unfortunately, we don’t get this kind of data for Contador, Schleck, Menchov or Sanchez, to really see what is happening during the attacks in the final kilometers, but nevertheless, Horner’s data is interesting, as you will see.

On the short climb (3km) up to Mende in Stage 12, Horner finished 31 seconds behind Contador, having begun the climb with him. Horner’s average power output for 10 minutes of climbing was 6.6 W/kg (422W). Nothing wrong with that, it’s a really short effort at the end of what wasn’t a super-grueling day like those that followed in the Pyrenees.

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2010/07/power-outputs-from-tour-de-france.html

Velo News has confirmed Frank and Andy are leaving Saxo Bank.

Schlecks confirm plans to leave Saxo Bank

By VeloNews.com • Updated: Jul 30th 2010 10:14 AM EDT

Amid speculation that Tour de France winner Alberto Contador is poised to join the Saxo Bank team for 2011, brothers Andy and Fränk Schleck have confirmed that they will be leaving to join a new squad based in their native Luxembourg.
Frank and Andy Schleck are ready to leave the team they’ve ridden on for most of their careers.

Frank and Andy Schleck are ready to leave the team they’ve ridden on for most of their careers.

In an interview with the daily newspaper Le Quotidien, Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck said that while plans for the new team are incomplete, he and his 30-year-old brother will not extend their existing contracts with the team run by Bjarne Riis.

“Even if we don’t yet know what our future holds, it is certain, it’s official that we are no longer riding for Bjarne next year,” the 25-year-old Andy Schleck told the paper.

Andy Schleck has spent five years and Fränk eight alongside Riis, who had, in advance of the Tour de France, already conceded that the brothers were unlikely to remain on the team.

“I cannot imagine a new Luxembourg team without Frank and Andy Schleck on it,” Riis said.

Meanwhile, Andy Schleck acknowledged that Riis was actively courting Contador, but made it clear that the two wouldn’t be riding on the same team.

Earlier this week, Contador had rejected his Astana team’s demand that he make a commitment to extend his contract, which is set to expire at season’s end. With the departure of the Schlecks, Riis has turned is focus on the only rider who has consistently beaten the brothers, finishing ahead of Andy Schleck for the past two editions of the Tour.

While his team’s primary financial support from Saxo Bank will end at the end of 2010, Riis has already confirmed a renewed and increased commitment from co-sponsor Sungard and has said another company is poised to step in as the team’s title sponsor for the next two years.

I reached out to Craig Hummer over at Versus a few days before the Tour and he recommended the Tour Tracker on Versus. So I logged on and enjoyed the Tour from the comfort of my computer. Totally brilliant.

I enjoyed every stage live. And I mean live. No commercials. At first the first two hours of footage did not even have commentary. And because the feed from France does not have sound it was quiet. Kinda cool in some ways. Better than listening to the team from Universal Sports that handles other cycling races. They repeat themselves to no end. You also get on-demand stage access about two hours after the stage is over. So you can go back and watch whatever stage you want.

A few downsides. No sound. Can’t hear interviews with riders. Can’t hear crowds. Kinda weird. Don’t get to see commentators. That means you never see Hummer and Bobke. But you do hear a new commentator named Matt and with two hours of racing to go you hear Sherwin and Liggett. That is good stuff. Sherwin speaks through every part of the race and is fantastic.

And check out the response below from Versus when I asked how long the footage will be posted.

Hi there,
On-demand videos of every stage will be available until August 25, 2010.
Thank-you for your support! We really appreciate it.
Regards,
The Versus Tour Tracker Team

Sweet. I will watch a re-run stage tomorrow.

Cycling News had Greg LeMond on the blog roll during the Tour. Great blogs were posted. One of our favorites is below. Check it out.

Data of optimism?
By: Greg LeMond
Published: July 26, 10:05

Good news on this year’s Tour

Hating to be the bearer of bad news too often, I am really happy to be able to see some real positive statistics come out of this year’s Tour de France. The race between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck was great to watch. Either one could have won this year’s Tour de France. What made the racing so exciting was how close the competition was. Most importantly their rides are believable and fall within the historic norms of athletic ability.

I have been very critical of the sport and, I believe, justifiably so. I am a cyclist who took up cycling by accident. This sport is so exciting, so romantic and so beautiful that I spent half of my life dedicated to it. My only hope is to see cycling right itself and gain back the credibility that any sport needs to thrive.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/greg-lemond/data-of-optimism

Cyclist discusses Lance Armstrong in “Nightline” interview Friday at 11:35 pm ET

This should be interesting…

Andy B
outsideallday.com

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press

CHAMBERY, France (AP) Lance Armstrong said Wednesday he will cooperate with a “fair investigation” but not a “witch hunt” into allegations that he and his former cycling team were involved in doping.

Armstrong was responding to reports of a federal investigation of possible fraud and doping charges against him and former associates. He spoke before the 10th stage of the Tour de France, where he is 31st overall.

The New York Times reported that authorities have issued grand jury subpoenas to witnesses as part of the probe into allegations made by American cyclist Floyd Landis.

Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title for doping, said the use of banned substances was common on the US Postal team when he rode with Armstrong.

“Like I said, as long as we have a legitimate and credible and fair investigation, we’ll be happy to cooperate, but I’m not going to participate in any kind of witch hunt,” the seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor said. “I’ve done too many good things for too many people.”

Armstrong said he had not been subpoenaed or contacted by lead investigator Jeff Novitzky. He said he wasn’t aware of any riders who have been subpoenaed.

Armstrong said stories are being leaked to the media as part of an “agenda” against him and questioned the need for a federal probe.

“Would the American people feel like this is a good use of their tax dollars?” he said. “That’s for them to decide.”

Armstrong has said that Landis, who recently admitted to doping after years of denials, cannot be believed. He also said he didn’t believe that other riders had come forward with similar allegations.

“I don’t think the government will build a case on Floyd Landis,” said Armstrong, who has never tested positive for use of banned substances. “His credibility left a long time ago.”

Armstrong said the allegations should be investigated by the international cycling body, UCI, or the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“If you think that you have an athlete that’s broken the rules – this is not baseball, this is not football … we have a governing body to deal with that,” he said. “I have had 500 (doping) controls in my day. USADA deals with that, the UCI deals with that. WADA deals with that. We have an agency to deal with that. I have no problem playing by those rules.”

Armstrong repeatedly has denied any involvement in doping and reiterated that position again Wednesday.

“As long as I live I will deny that,” he said. “There is absolutely no way I forced people, encouraged people, told people, helped people, facilitated … Absolutely not. 100 percent.”

Armstrong also denied that he was ever a part owner of the Postal Service team, which was owned by Tailwind Sports.

“I was a rider on the team, I was contracted with Tailwind Sports, I never had any dealings – ANY – with the Postal Service – zero,” he said.

“I didn’t own the company. I didn’t have an equity stake. I didn’t have a profit stake, I didn’t have a seat on the board. I can’t be any clearer than that.”