But he said “bike under” as others have noted the cervelo’s are rarely under cavendish.

LOL,

Indeed - rough start to the year for Cav.

I'm sure we will see him riding to wins, on that failing Cervelo S5 in the Tour de France! :-)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I'm not sure this is accurate. Specialized and I believe Felt both had aero road bike lines before Cervelo even got into the road bike game. I remember because when Cervelo came out with their first road bike in 2003 or so I was excited to go buy one--being a fan of the P3, but that first offering (I think it was called R3) was a lugged carbon job and was thoroughly unremarkable and very expensive for what it was. I kept my aero(ish) and brutally stiff Specialized M4 for a few more years.

In my opinion Cervelo lost their way when they stopped making long and low bikes for racers and started listening to "bike fitters" or whomever provided the company with feedback on how to fit a wider cross section of athletes ie. tall headtubes. As a result they started losing the trend setters/fast riders who were looking for more aggressive geometry and couldn't get the new geometry to work for them. Cervelo were able to coast off their brand name for awhile and were able to sponsor a lot of cool athletes and so continued to sell lots of bikes to the masses but I really believe that lots of people moved on to bike companies that made aggressive racing bikes, especially once the aero advantages that Cervelo built its reputation on were copied and/or improved upon by other bike companies.

I have good flexibility with my work schedule so I commute TO<->LB. I drive in early and leave late to beat the traffic. I'm very happy and still able to train enough to make me pretty fit for a single sport.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

I'm very happy and still able to train enough to make me pretty fit for a single sport.


"Single sport"?

Did I miss something? :-)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Just got the new R5 this past weekend. Having only ridden a CAAD10 for 7 years prior for general riding, and more specifically road racing the last 4.5 years, I had no idea what to expect from a high end full carbon frame. The stiffness and responsiveness out of the saddle was a nice perk I noticed right off the bat. But when I crested the top of a big climb and pointed that thing downhill into a technical descent...that's when I really thought WOW!

The only disappointment I had was how harsh it was on poor roads. I was expecting a little more vibration dampening over my CAAD10, but it wasn't forgiving at all. I was running 90/90 psi on GP4000S 25's. The good news is that even those tires have about 5-6mm of rear wheel clearance on both sides at the stays, so 28's (measured 30+) should work. Those might be a requirement for me on less than stellar roads.

But when the roads were nice...super fun diving into corners and accelerating out of them.

Cervelo claims to be the first to introduce an aero road bike, with their aluminum Soloist in 2001:

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/...ng-road-bikes-172711

Of course, that ignores all the steel aero road bikes introduced in the 1980s after Shimano Dura-Ace AX hit the market (e.g., by Miyata), but I don't think your claim that Cervelo was behind, e.g., Felt is at all correct.

Good for you. I looked at a job there (possibly the same one) but figured they wouldn't hire someone in a different city that would require flying down.

Actually Cavendish' bikes often are so fast they can become airborne (for a bit).

Thanks for posting here and bringing the perspective of the Cervelo corporate side.

Given the way other corporate Representatives respond, I'm doubting youll answer this question, but I am genuinely curious as they are probably among my favorite professionals: what was it about the Wurtel team that didn't meet Cervelo's standards?

AFAIK, they rank very highly among the nicest, most liked, most respected and social media savvy triathletes out there. I probably watched Trevor's funny race recaps a few dozen times.

Canyon has a location 4 miles from my house in carlsbad, sooooo......

Been following her since she rode for TWENTY16 Professional Cycling. The rest of the girls too. Used to race against Ruth Winder and was with Megan Guarnier the first time she rode the track.

And since we’re talking about Cervelo, I still have my Prodigy road bike that Steve Larsen sold me. And one of the first P2K frames sold in NorCal.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Well. Aren’t you the lucky one. I stand corrected. Had no idea that had physical stores.

They don't really. Canyon USA is headquartered in Carlsbad, and the HQ has a showroom. They might let you test ride out of HQ, but I'm not sure about that.

As far as I know they have absolutely zero plans to extend that physical presence beyond the HQ.

I wonder the same thing. All respect to Frederik van Lierde but he has a limited social media presence and about the charisma of a wet towel; the Wurtele's on the other hand are way more exciting and dynamic and fun and also credible as far as the brands they recommend.

Hi All -

This is Sarah P here. I just wanted to respond to what Jak wrote. It is true - I am no longer with Cervelo and I am riding on a Canyon currently. Losing my Cervelo sponsorship was a very hard thing for me personally as I have never ridden on any bike OTHER than Cervelo since I started triathlons back in 2009. Their bikes are AMAZING. There is a reason that they are a leader in the industry. But, as Jak said, sometimes companies have to make tough decisions, and I was one of many athletes that had to be part of that.

The reason I am not riding on a Cervelo at the moment is that I decided this offered me a unique opportunity that I have never had before to try out a different brand/brands to see how other bikes worked for me. I am not sponsored by Canyon, nor did I get any sort of discount on their bike. I paid full price. I've researched MANY different brands and while some bikes are really fast I wasn't sure the geometry of the bike would be the best for me, or the road feel, etc. I consider many aspects of the bike, including aerodynamics. At the end of the day though, even the most aero bike won't be the fastest if the fit isn't right for the person. The rider provides the most drag, so riding a bike where you can put your actual body into a more aerodynamic position is key. So far the Canyon has been a pretty awesome bike to ride and I'm enjoying trying something new. I will also say that should I be lucky enough to have a bike sponsorship in the future, it will be on a bike that I can stand behind and really authentically say " This bike is amazing", in the same way that I was/still am able to emphatically talk about Cervelo for the 6 years I was with them. Some people take partnerships for the money, but I work with brands because I truly believe in the product they are making.

For a while I thought Cervelo was going to be releasing a new S5 this year. But I don't think so anymore.


Before the R5 was released, the inventory available for the R series bikes was becoming very thin. You could only order small and large size frames, and even those were limited. There simply was no inventory. The S5 at the same time of the year was experiencing the same thing. Very few bikes were available in mid range sizes and very few bikes were actually in the system all together. But in the last few weeks there has been a rather sudden flush of inventory. Most models that were sold out before suddenly have large quantities available.

The current S5 came out in 2015. The last one ran from 2012-2014. This generation is due for an update.

Hi davejustdave,

The Wurtele's were an absolute dream to work with. They are the nicest, most liked and respected as you said and we loved working with them. They are amazing ambassadors for any brand because they are truly loyal and believe in the products they use. They don't choose product for money but because they want the best equipment to be the best. We were very excited to work with them when they came on board and they represented everything we look for from a athlete sponsorship level.

The funny videos and social posts were the cherry on top, and reflects the down to earth and quirky personalities of the both of them. Again, not renewing their contracts was extremely hard for us to do, especially for the few of us here who worked with them personally.

Ultimately, we trimmed budgets and we could only keep only a small number of athletes. Most of the remaining athletes have been with Cervélo for a long time such as Caroline, James and Jodie who began riding Cervélo with team TBB. Fred has also ridden our bikes for around 10 years. That certainly factored in the decision, as well as their social presence and great personalities. We would love to see these athletes through until retirement like we did with Lisa Bentley.

I hope that answers your question.

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Jakub

Hey Sarah,

You were a big part of the P5X development and testing and we truly valued your sponsorship, so thank you. Congrats on your great race BTW!

Good luck on the rest of your season and see you in Kona :)

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Jakub

AFAIK, they rank very highly among the nicest, most liked, most respected and social media savvy triathletes out there. I probably watched Trevor's funny race recaps a few dozen times.


Dave,

I don't know what line of work you are in, but several times in my career, it's happened to me where the trap-door has just swung open, through no fault of my own other than perhaps being in the wrong spot at the wrong time!

Sometimes things happen in business, that defy real explanations. How great you are. How nice you are. How well you are doing. The value that you are adding . . . . all become irrelevant! And, boom! Since, I've worked in sales pretty much my whole life, one way or the other, you have micro events like this happening to you almost daily, and then the big macro ones happen, it's the same . . . you just move on. You'll kill yourself trying to figure it out . . so you move on.

When I see this happen elsewhere now, I just chock it up to this.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Andy,

The predecessor to the Soloist was the Cervelo Eyre Road bike. I believe they had this out it 1997. I had one of these - picture here from the Let's See Your Ride thread - https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...your_ride!_P1655982/

AS the story goes, they did not have much success with the first Cervelo road bikes starting with the Eyre Road in '97 - not sure if this was because of what Gerard and Phil were doing at the time from a business/marketing stand-point, or that the market was not really ready for a bike like this. Hard to say.

They did have more initial and early "success" with the TT/Tri bikes of that time, and more genuine interest from the triathlon market - which is NOT surprising. The Tri market has always been more open and willing to try new things, gear and brands. PowerBar - as another example, had more initial success in the triathlon market, than the running market, even though it was founder Brian Maxwell's intention to promote and sell into the running market first (Maxwell was a 2:13 Marathon runner).

It was not until the time of the CSC sponsorship deal ( early 2000's), with Bjarne Riis, that Cervelo's road bikes, and the new aluminum Soloist, started to have some real interest.

All this is talked about in new, just released book, on the history of Cervelo, written by co-founder Phil White's wife, Anna Dopico called, "To Make Riders Faster". I have been sent a pre-release copy of the book, and I had planned on starting a separate thread on it after I've had a chance to read it through.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Has Canyon gone on some big signing spree?

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I had forgotten about the Eyre, although I was certain that Cervelo was in the aero road bike business before the big players really expressed much/any interest.

Also thanks for the heads up about the new book. By chance I crossed paths with Phil and Gerard at the TAMU wind tunnel before Cervelo was even formed, so it will be interesting to read.

The two athletes I mentioned plus a few others have moved to Canyon......dunno if they are signed but they are def riding Canyon.

Signing up athletes but again, not with free rides. That's a good business model.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

My response my in reference to the bold part of the post, I didn't make the connection you were also the OP.

As for Sara's follow up post, I wasn't aware that she had purchased her bike, but quite honestly, that's an even bigger endorsement of the brand that if she was indeed sponsored.