Dura-Ace 9000 Series

First is the announcement and first hands-on previews of the new Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 series, including mechanical and Di2 versions.  Besides the move to 11-speed, there seem to be a lot of changes that make this group truly all-new an not just an update.  Reportedly it will be available this autumn.

Here is a link to a great article by Nick Legan at Velonews.  Look for many first ride reviews to be published around the web.

Strava

Ok, ok, Strava is nothing new but Steve the Bike Guy has finally joined the bandwagon.  Strava of course is the social media/motivator of GPS enabled cycling websites.  The great thing here is that anybody can create a ride segment exactly in the location they want it, and you don’t have to do anything to record that particular segment other than upload your GPS computer data.  More exciting is I actually hold 1st place in one of the segments.

However, I generally ride nowadays for the atmosphere and camaraderie, so it isn’t the best situation having to drop friends as I ride off screaming ” I think this is a segment”.

www.strava.com

Plea to Cycling Gods

Due to the Olympics, the Tour de France begins early this year on June 30th.  As it looks to me right now, the biggest battle may shape up to be a battle of the Queen’s riders with last years champion Cadel Evans vs. Bradley Wiggins.  I honestly think Andy Schleck doesn’t stand a chance with 100k of time trials as he will easily lose at least 3 seconds per km adding up to 5 minutes in loses.  In last year’s Tour, Andy lost 3.9 sec/km in the final time trial that would have won him the race.

However, it has been on my mind this week that the first week of the tour has now shaped into an extremely dangerous and nasty survival affair.  I really hope both these riders, along with the other contenders, can emerge unscathed to give us a great show.  Well for that matter, let all riders emerge injury free.  This could easily be a top 10 tour with less than a minute separating the top 4.