Castelli | InsiderNews – Page 81

cannondale-garmin, italia, italy, race, Racing, ride, riding, strade bianche, toscana, tuscany - March 13, 2015

Postcards from Italy: Strade Bianche

Between strenght and courage, in one of the most beautiful area of the most beautiful country in the world, Strade Bianche is a joy, theater of cycling. From San Gimignano to Siena, Strade Bianche is a race that all the world would like to have, a tour in the Tuscany on dusty gravel roads, that puts under pressure mind, body and bike, because having technical problems on the machanics of the bike or to flat a tyre is extremely easy. Zdenek Stybar the winner: “until the last kilometer Valverde could attack, but in the end Van Avermaet did it. Arriving in Siena, in Il Campo square will be a memorable moment.” Greg Van Avermaet, second place: “I thought that Valverde, would be the ideal winner for the race, so I attacked him but Stybar surprised me, overtaking me and going to victory.” Alejandro Valverde, third like one year ago: “The race is very hard, and this year we had a lot of wind that complicated the things” Diego Rosa, fifth place: “I was riding for my captain Nibali and when I realized that he was not in the front I tried to save energies for the final, but I could not ...

Sneak Peek: Spring/Summer’15

It’s official, our new Spring/Summer’15 collection is available in stores and Castelli-cycling.com. Dive into the catalog or watch the sneak-peek video, and see the new collection that takes commitment to excellence to an even higher level. Read the stories and see the great images from Italy with the professional athletes Songezo Jim and Jay Thompson (MTN-Qhubeka) to the famous Rocacorba climb around Girona with Jack Bauer (Cannondale-Garmin) and David Millar.

Chasing dreams, racing in Belgium

Bike racers are all tough, but the suffering that is guaranteed by a wet, cold, and nasty conditions will separate the driven souls. Dressed fully aero and protected from the elements wearing the aerodynamic Gabba Jersey, Body Paint Bibshorts, Nano Flex warmers, Diluvio gloves and shoe-covers, Jered Gruber is finally getting his chance to race in Belgium. This weekend, he headed south into Wallonia for a race in the never-ending hills of the Ardennes. I’m climbing the Cote de la Vecquee in the Ardennes. It’s a typical part of the 260 kilometer Monument, Liege-Bastogne-Liege. It’s not a major, prominent climb that forms any real selection in La Doyenne, but in today’s race, it’s doing a good job of sorting the good fruit from the bad. The once frantic group that fought so hard for position in the three uphill kilometers (plus the 50k before that) leading to Stoumont and the hard left hand turn, which signifies the start of the climb, is suddenly quiet. The profanities yelled in French, Flemish, German, and English are no more. There’s just breathing. It’s 3C°, it’s raining, I can barely see 10 riders in front of me in the fog, but it doesn’t matter, ...

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challenge, Duabi, Michael Raelert, Raelert, Triathlon - February 28, 2015

Michael Raelert impressed with powerful season opener

Michael Raelert started into the triathlon 2015 season with a strong result at Challenge Dubai. He took third place behind Terenzo Bozzone (New Zealand) and Tim Reed (Australia). “Of course I would have loved it to win here after my victory at Challenge Bahrain, but two guys were just a little bit better today. My warm congratulations to them.” said Michael Raelert after his finish. Due to strong winds the first edition of Challenge Dubai was a tough job for all of the athletes. A huge group with a lot of favorites already made themselves going fast in the water. This group including four-time Olympic-distance World Champion Javier Gomez from Spain, US-American Andy Potts, Pete Jacobs from Australia and Michael Raelert immediately tried to break away from the rest of the field. “On the bike there was nothing to expect but an absolutely hard pace,” Michael Raelert described later. Strong cyclists like Terenzo Bozzone, Martin Jensen from Denmark and Manuel Küng made an early move from the top group together with Michael Raelert. Although there were strong head winds and the new non-drafting-zone of 20 meters, the average speed was always around 45 km/h. “It was the first race of my season. ...

Preview: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad & Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne

This weekend will see the start of the cobbled spring classics when the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne take place on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Both of these Belgian classics, just like all the others, are renowned for their harsh racing conditions: cold wet weather, wind, small roads, cobbled climbs and a big bunch. The racing is expected to be intense and unforgiving, a spectators dream. The Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung riders are up for the challenge this weekend as a successful spring classics campaign is one of the teams definite season goals. A positive start this weekend will set the team up nicely for the slightly more arduous classics to come. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung will have 9 riders on hand this weekend with the final rosters for each race being determined closer to the race start. Edvald Boasson Hagen, Gerald Ciolek, Tyler Farrar, Theo Bos, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Kristian Sbaragli, Youcef Reguigui, Jay Thomson, Jaco Venter and Matt Brammeier are the riders hoping to show their hand at least one of the weekend’s races. The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad will see riders tackle 200km’s which will include 11 Hellingen climbs, 5 of which are cobbled, and 10 ...