A dominating performance given he averaged 31.2mph! Good to see him coming into good form in time for the Tour as he had an unlucky start to the season. Last year it would have been all over Slowtwitch, but with the change to Specialized from Cervelo it barely gets a blink.
Kevin
perhaps if specialized as giving to the slowtwitch community in term of participation, there would be more excitement? Who is the owner of specialized? the engineers? How often do they post or reply to questions? I only know one rep…Ian.
So, i guess cervelo is part of the slowtwitch family. I think that explain a lot the popularity of the company here.
A dominating performance given he averaged 31.2mph!
He even had time to raise his hands and celebarte the stage and GC victory before he crossed the line. Just like someone would do if they crossed the line alone in a mass start stage.
It was the second fastet TT stage in the history of Tour de Suisse (disregardig the prologues/short stage 1 TTs). Only stage 6 in 1994 was faster when Chris Boardman won with an avarage speed of 52.254 km/h 0:45 ahead of #2 Gianluca Pierobon): http://www.tds.ch/...atistik_tds_2009.pdf
it’s nice that you drink the cervelo kool aid since they sponsor you and all. and maybe since gerard posts here on st the company is so well regarded by triathletes. otoh, outside of the pro peloton, cervelo does very little for the cycling community beyond jacking everyone up for full price, where specialized sponsors dozens? of smaller teams. so before you start talking down about other companies maybe you ought to get a wider scope on what some of them actually do.
i wasnt talking down the company. Sorry if it s the way you saw it?
I said, if the company is a member of the board and post…it does make people feel like part of them. That explain why some company like cervelo, felt, nineteen wetsuits, desoto, etc and a few others are popular here.
I never critize specialized about what they do or not…simply explain why people like some company more than other HERE ON ST…
your a little grumpy i think today???
why does it make you so mad that cervelo is one of the few copanies that builds their bike on real engineering principles and that ST recognizes this fact?
=)
it’s nice that you drink the cervelo kool aid since they sponsor you and all. and maybe since gerard posts here on st the company is so well regarded by triathletes. otoh, outside of the pro peloton, cervelo does very little for the cycling community beyond jacking everyone up for full price, where specialized sponsors dozens? of smaller teams. so before you start talking down about other companies maybe you ought to get a wider scope on what some of them actually do.
otoh, outside of the pro peloton, cervelo does very little for the cycling community beyond jacking everyone up for full price, where specialized sponsors dozens? of smaller teams. so before you start talking down about other companies maybe you ought to get a wider scope on what some of them actually do.
Cervélo sponsored Cycling School FPD Víctor Sastre for for several years because Carlos Sastre made the contact through Team CSC: http://www.fundacionpdvictorsastre.com
Looks like they are sponosred by Giant this season though.
Cervélo also sponosr the Velokhaya formed by Cape Town’s Life Cycling Academy (LCA) in South Africa: http://www.velokhaya.com
And they sponosr the female team that is now part of Cervélo Test Team.
it’s nice that you drink the cervelo kool aid since they sponsor you and all. and maybe since gerard posts here on st the company is so well regarded by triathletes. otoh, outside of the pro peloton, cervelo does very little for the cycling community beyond jacking everyone up for full price, where specialized sponsors dozens? of smaller teams. so before you start talking down about other companies maybe you ought to get a wider scope on what some of them actually do.
Dozens? Really? They sponsor the DU and CSU, which means they get accessories (helmets, bars, etc) for 20% off. Bikes for CSU are through a local shop at cost + some.
Who else? Check this out:
http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCTeam.jsp?teamId=ROAD
Quick Step,
Saxo Bank,
Lampre (wait, those are Wilier!),
Silence (those are canyon bikes!),
USA National U23 (wait, they ride Blue!),
California Giant Cycling (uh oh! giant!).
Oh, and Team Specialized. They ride Specialized. 
Apparently, Specialized does a lot more than Cervelo, because Specialized also makes accessories, which they offer to other teams!
i can think of 3 other small teams in northern cal alone that specialized gives deals to, so yes, it’s probably a dozen or more by the time you add them all up.
jack, help me out. where did i point to cervelo’s approach to design and engineering in my response?
otoh, outside of the pro peloton, cervelo does very little for the cycling community beyond jacking everyone up for full price, where specialized sponsors dozens? of smaller teams. so before you start talking down about other companies maybe you ought to get a wider scope on what some of them actually do.
Cervélo sponsored Cycling School FPD Víctor Sastre for for several years because Carlos Sastre made the contact through Team CSC: http://www.fundacionpdvictorsastre.com
Looks like they are sponosred by Giant this season though.
Cervélo also sponosr the Velokhaya formed by Cape Town’s Life Cycling Academy (LCA) in South Africa: http://www.velokhaya.com
And they sponosr the female team that is now part of Cervélo Test Team.
And the HotTube junior team in the past, the (U23?) team that included Rinehart’s younger brother, individual athletes such as my wife, etc.
16 are listed here, including colleges and non-profit orgs. http://www.specializedriders.com/riders/list_teams?page=1&search=223&search=&search=&search=team
and as mentioned earlier, i can think of three other teams (smaller regional & masters) in northern cal alone that are sponsored by specialized.
“outside of the pro peloton, cervelo does very little for the cycling community beyond jacking everyone up for full price, where specialized sponsors dozens? of smaller teams. so before you start talking down about other companies maybe you ought to get a wider scope on what some of them actually do.”
i think there are two ways companies “give back.” one way is through advocacy, i think some of the biggest companies (specialized, trek, and nowadays SRAM is the notable example) do that quite well; and another is by sponsoring athletes. i’m quite sure specialized does more of that in road, and cervelo does more of that in tri. i think that’s to be expected, since cervelo is bigger than specialized in tri, and specialized is bigger than cervelo in road. all that aside, it might be best to consider that specialized is probably somewhere between 10 and 20 times the size of cervelo, it might be fair to consider that before one compares cervelo’s road team sponsorships with those of specialized.
but then, nobody compares with specialized when it comes to road sponsorships. i’m guessing (based on what folks have told me who sponsor these and other pro teams) that specialized spends in cash well more than any other bike company to sponsor, in the aggregate, saxo bank, quickstep and ISD. some specialized folks monitor this forum, maybe they can disabuse me of my error if my guess is far afield. i don’t know if that’s in the category of “giving back” to the cycling community. if so, yes, you’re right, specialized is the king of giving back
His new prototype TT frameset still seems to do the job fine.
Hmmm…I thought that according to the “clarification” discussed last week that “non-production” or bikes that couldn’t be bought “on the open market” (i.e. from custom builders) weren’t allowed??
I understand that the “reprieve” on the 3:1 AR enforcement was pushed out January 2010 (with the exception of bars which will start July 1, 2009), but does that mean that the requirement for “offset fork” shapes to fit within the head tube template is pushed off until next year too?
Man, the “selective enforcement” is really out of hand with those guys…
i wouldn’t characterize paid sponsorship of pro cycling teams as ‘giving back.’ both cervelo and specialzied (and felt, trek, etc) cover that ground. rather, specialized sponsors many small cycling clubs (that will never appear on the versus or cycling news), colleges, non-profits, jr development team, etc. by way of deals and discounts. cervelo wins the popularity contest here on st but is less visible in other parts of the sporting universe.
“cervelo wins the popularity contest here on st but is less visible in other parts of the sporting universe.”
pardon, i thought you were against “talking down” other companies. i don’t know what you mean by “popularity contest,” but it sounds like you’re talking down cervelo. or do you mean that you just don’t like certain companies talked down?
i think specialized and cervelo are each popular on slowtwitch, and i don’t think it’s because of some sort of subversive contest cervelo is running, i think each company earns its popularity through robust corporate performance.
a decade ago cannondale was roundly criticized by a lot of people in the industry because of the sorts of sponsorships i think you’re talking about: basically cutting out the retailers and selling bikes at wholesale or below, directly to uscf club-team members. i don’t think c’dale was “giving back,” i think it was a shrewd move to get bikes under a critical mass of fast riding local decision makers.
i don’t know if specialized is doing these sorts of sponsorships. but if they are, i don’t think those tactics are bad. they’re tough tactics. they’re smart tactics. but i don’t think it’s charity or advocacy.
but it sounds like you’re talking down cervelo. or do you mean that you just don’t like certain companies talked down?
how is that talking down? i merely re-stated your comment: “since cervelo is bigger than specialized in tri, and specialized is bigger than cervelo in road.” cycling is part of the ‘sporting universe’ outside of tri, right? did i say that one company’s product is superior to the other? because that would be talking down. a p2sl was actually my first tri bike, and i won a number number of tts on p3c last season. it was (is) a phenominal bike, and would still be at the top of my list if i were shopping.
i don’t know what you mean by “popularity contest”
come on slowman, the cervelo love is nearly omnipresent on st. that’s fine since this is a tri forum and cervelo has done a better job with this community.
i don’t think c’dale was “giving back,” i think it was a shrewd move to get bikes under a critical mass of fast riding local decision makers.
fair enough. although what about college team sponsorship? non-profit support?
Is it not that far fetched to believe that someone in a room somewhere calculated a return on investment for every sponsorship decision made by any company. It is about making money because it is about growing business. This does not exclude the occasional donation from large companies as good brand image can be factored in to the companies ROI just like money can be.
Hey guys,
I’ll be the first to say how excited Specialized is for Cancellara to be back racing in good form. He had a rough start to the beginning of the season dealing with sickness at the ToC so we’re really glad that he’s psyched and back to his normal riding. Good luck to him, the Saxo Bank team, the Cervelo Test Team, and everyone else in the peleton. I really hope people remember that our companies are all full of people who love cycling; watching, participating, and living the sport every day. Of course I’m routing for the team that we developed bikes for so yea, go Saxo. They love the the new bikes and it fuels our engineering team to see them winning aboard products developed over many long hours.
I haven’t posted on here for a while because I (and our entire engineering team) has been stacked designing and building the new bikes. When we have some good stuff to share (WT data, track results, etc.) I’ll definitely post and let everyone get a bite at what’s going on.
I just want to note that no matter what company or affiliation a person has on this forum, I firmly believe we’re all in this together. We’re trying to build better, more scientifically driven bikes that help riders ride faster. Most of you who know me from this forum before know that I was at the MIT Wind Tunnel, was fortunate to intern with Cervelo, worked at a wind tunnel in Colorado tailored for Garmin/Slipstream, and have found a great home to grow as an engineer with Specialized. In every one of these situations, the engineering/development teams worked hard to make faster product.
Mark Cote
MITaerobike
Specialized Road Engineer/Aerodynamicist
Mark Cote
MITaerobike
Specialized Road Engineer/Aerodynamicist
So, do you have any comments in regards to the new UCI interpretations. Specifically as they relate to the very large head tube template of the specialized prototype bikes?
