castelli RSS

“Not every one of you will become a Grand Tour guy.” Mike Sayers wasted little time before deflating some of the air out of the room filled with testosterone and aspirations emblematic of his audience of bike racers ranging in age from 16 to 23. For many riders present in the room, hearing these words from Sayers — the U23 Program Director at USA Cycling — was a first reality check of many as they began their transition from amateur bicycle racing to the professional peloton. This was their first day on the job at the Hagens Berman U23 Cycling Team. The real work started a few months later under the warm spring sun of Southern California when team principals Todd Herriott and David Richter pulled the team together for training camp. Between the hundreds of miles ridden in the Santa Monica mountains that week to the first race of the season at the Redlands Bicycle Classic, all the way to the the wet and blustery conditions in the season-closing race at the Bucks County Classic in Doylestown, PA the year was filled with its share of highs. There was Adrien Costa’s overall win at the 1/2 race at Tour of the ...

Team MTN Qhubeka p/b Samsung are the first Pro Continental Cycling Team from Africa – this is their story. From South Africa to the rest of the world, the team have made their mark on the sport. Watch the 6th episode of An African Bicycle Dream here.

An interview with Team MTN–Qhubeka’s Songezo Jim, a rider who made it to the professional peloton from a South African township. Source: inCycle

Autumn is here, but does this mean you immediately switch to wearing winter jackets or continue to wear jerseys?  Obviously this depends on where you live on the globe, but if it’s neither too hot nor too cold, here’s the first article on some autumn cycling clothing tips to help you out, let’s start with long-sleeve jerseys. Now to clear a couple of things up between the Castelli  Trasparente and the Alpha Jersey. At first glance that’s exactly what you should ask. But I’ll first give you my thoughts on the Trasparente Jersey, or is that a jacket. The reason I mention this is that unlike a standard brushed polyester Jersey, or Roubaix if you’re going to use the branded Miti fabric, both the Trasparente punch well above their weight compared to a standard long sleeve autumn Jersey. Trasparente Jersey The Sublime Jersey weighs in at 215g, the Trasparente 334g, and the Alpha 265g. Between a standard Jersey its a whopping 119g per size, or roughly a summer jersey. The Trasparente uses Windstopper’s X-lite plus fabric on the front. This basically negates the need for a gilet, but it goes that little bit further in that the wind proofing stretches down ...

Dan Martin sealed his second place overall in the Tour of Beijing today, ending the five day race just three seconds behind the winner Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and showing again that he has hit a form peak towards the end of the season. Martin’s run of form makes up for what was an at-times frustrating season. He crashed on the final bend of Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, losing his chance of taking a second straight victory, and also fell on the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia, sustaining a fractured collarbone. He missed the Tour de France but bounced back to take second on a stage and seventh overall in the Vuelta a Espana. Bad luck struck him again in the world road race championships when he was caught up in a crash and delayed, losing his chance. However since then things have gone better for him; he put in a superbly-timed attack to win the Il Lombardia Classic earlier this month, then took that stage win plus second overall in the Tour of Beijing. As a former winner of the Japan Cup, Dan will be one of the top favourites for that season-ending event. Photo credits: Graham Watson