2010 World Cup XC - Dalby Forest The World Cup series kicks off with a very technical course at Dalby Forest in the UK. Burry Stander rides the Stumpjumper HT 29er for the first time in a World Cup, taking 3rd.	From: specialized411 Views: 939 4 ratings
	Time: 06:04	More in Sports

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	Wildflower Set-Up For the first time Specialized sent the official Factory Team truck to support our stellar triathletes at the 2010 Wildflower race. Here's a little of how they liked the extra support for a discipline that's normally very solitary.	From: specialized411 Views: 236 2 ratings
	Time: 01:29	More in Sports

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Photo credit: RoadBikeAction.com

The Giro d’Italia is well underway and the Tour of California started yesterday, so naturally I have been checking the tech sections of VeloNews, CyclingNews, Road Bike Action, and other cycling sites to see which race bikes they are featuring. The majority of the featured bikes are pretty predictable, but the bright red Specialized Tarmac SL3s that the Saxo Bank riders are racing in the ToC immediately caught my attention. I mean…how often do you see pro team bikes these days with a single color frameset and understated graphics?

It turns out that the bikes have that paint and retro graphic scheme to commemorate the original Specialized Allez bikes used in the 1985 movie American Flyers. Road Bike Action’s tech feature explains that Bobby Julich, now a directeur sportif for Saxo Bank, came up with the idea of creating these commemorative edition American Flyers bikes for the team to ride in the race. See more pictures of the new and old Allez bikes at RBA. Personally, I really like the clean looks of these bikes. If Saxo Bank wants to get back to their regular team bikes immediately after the ToC, I would be happy to take one of these red bikes off their hands… I’d even pretend to be a fan of American Flyers if that is what it takes.

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	2010 Sea Otter Classic - Women's XC Specialized Factory XC's Lene Byberg cruised to 2nd place in the Sea Otter Classic Women's Long-Course XC race atop the S-Works Stumpjumper HT 29er.	From: specialized411 Views: 1338 8 ratings
	Time: 03:06	More in Sports

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	2010 Sea Otter Classic - Pro Men's XC Specialized Factory XC team replayed their short track victories on the long course with only Todd and Burry switching places. In a spectacular sprint-finish, after an aggressive back and forth with Geoff Kabush, Burry Stander took 1st racing a 2010 S-works Stumpjumper HT 29er, Todd Wells took 3rd and Christoph Sauser took 4th.	From: specialized411 Views: 5630 11 ratings
	Time: 05:19	More in Sports

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	2010 Sea Otter Classic - Monster Energy/Specialized Dual Slalom Action Brendan Fairclough and Troy Brosnan of Monster Energy/Specialized were knocked out by the round of 8, but that didn't stop them from ripping up the course on their Specialized SX's!	From: specialized411 Views: 3217 12 ratings
	Time: 04:07	More in Sports

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	2010 Sea Otter Classic - Short Track XC Specialized Factory Racing's Todd Wells, Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser put the screws to the rest of the pack in the Pro Men's Short Track XC. Wells and Stander took 1-2 and Sauser picking up 4th. All three road atop Specialized's Stumpjumper HT S-Works 29er which seems to be a dominating bike on this fast course. Wells and Stander pushed the pace from the very beginning and didn't let up at all. Lene Byberg, riding her S-Works Era made aggressive moves in the women's short track race, ultimately coming in a close 2nd.	From: specialized411 Views: 2003 8 ratings
	Time: 05:11	More in Sports

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	2010 Sea Otter Classic - Super D Specialized's Sam Benedict runs down the free-for-all that is Super D, and introduces the new 2-man Specialized Trail Team that is Aaron Bradford and Matt Ryan.	From: specialized411 Views: 2756 14 ratings
	Time: 01:42	More in Sports

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	2010 Paris-Roubaix - Cancellara Victory A look inside Fabian Cancellara's victory at the 2010 Paris-Roubaix	From: specialized411 Views: 2654 20 ratings
	Time: 07:53	More in Sports

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1973 Merckx photo: www.lesamisdeparisroubaix.com

Paris-Roubaix is coming up on Sunday, and I am always interested to see the various teams’ equipment choices for racing on the cobbles. Cervelo posted today about the bike setups for the Test Team, based on R3 frames with 1cm longer chainstays to allow for mud clearance. The article also discusses the Vittoria tubulars that they plan to use. I am always amazed that any road tires can withstand some of the roughest pavé sections in the race.

The cobble sections of the “Queen of the Classics” are a great testing ground for equipment sponsors. CyclingNews points out that select Saxo Bank riders will be using prototype “Project Black” bikes from Specialized on Sunday. The bikes are likely to be the next evolution of the S-works Roubaix, so there is no better place to put them to the test than in the race that they were named for. VeloNews has more about Fabian Cancellara’s “Project black” bike, including a nice photo gallery that shows the details (the internal cable routing is a nice feature missing from the current Roubaix SL2). The other “classics bike” galleries at VeloNews are good too, so check them all out while you are there.

While I was searching for some of the bikes for this year’s race, I ran across Les Amis de Paris Roubaix (Friends of Paris-Roubaix).  That site has shots of some of the equipment that will be used in the 2010 race, as well as great photos of classic bikes from the race’s history. Eddy Merckx’s 1973 race winning bike pictured above is just one of many on the site that caught my attention. In addition to the photos, the page has interesting history pages if you can read French (or rely on the Google translation like I did).

In addition to the usual sources for racing news, I will be following Rich Hincapie’s coverage of the race on Twitter and the Hincapie Sportswear blog. His recent posts from Belgium have been interesting, so I am looking forward to his account of the race on Sunday…especially if his brother can pull off a win and bring a cobblestone trophy home to Greenville.

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