2010 Tour De France Tech

I am going to interupt this blog for some 2010 Tour de France bike tech gear stuff. 

Funny, it's easier and faster for me to gather and post this, than it is for me to do race write ups of the last two hundred-mile mountain bike races. I have them started, just need to finish them both. 

I figured I would gather some of my favorite geek moments of this year's tour. Since I love tech, gear and bike tech stuff. I'll try to update this post as I find stuff, in the next three weeks of the tour.


first five photos taken by my main detail pic taker man: James Huang

Sweet Saddle looks like left over from last year's Tour. Note it's a setback seatpost and the saddle is almost as far back on it's rails as possible. 

 These large bottom pulley's seem to be installed on a few bikes this year. Theory is, they reduce the friction in the system. I am guessing we'll be reading more about this modification in popular news publications or websites. I don't see any negative's to having larger pulley wheels, these I am sure have ceramic bearings in them and are very light weight. Note the blue cable end cap. I love it when James H. finds the little details and gets photos.

This photo is left over from Paris Roubaix. Please note they are carbon and also note the grip tape on the inside of the cage to keep friction on the bottle, so it doesn't slip out.

I have used the Tacx Cages on my road bikes for year and now I have put one on my new Specialized Epic mountain bike. A great cage, I have never lost a bottle.

I do like this detail. Yes it's just an aluminum bolt, with some words, still cool non the less.








Some limited edition SRAM components painted up TDF yellow for the 2010 race. I am sure these will make it on some over priced trek bike at some point and then be purchased by some guy in a full on radio shack kit only to be seen riding in his TT bars on the local bike path.

Lance's hot rod for the Prologue had this funky carbon pulley cover / flat airwing installed between the rear derailleur and the top and bottom pulleys. Interesting idea, obviously this was tested in a wind tunnel, there must have been some benefit, or they are hiding some other type of pulley wheel tech.

Wonder if this hanging chad of a cable offsets the gain of the derailleur airwing? I think the internal cable is a great idea, but I am not sure the giant cable loop is such an aerodynamic piece hanging out there at the back of the bike. The derailleur cable entry point, does not allow for a very smooth or short cable combined with the exit of internal cable point. Odd the SRAM XO, XX derailleur's have a better cable entry point than the SRAM road.

The HTC-Columbia team teamed up with sponsors HTC, web giant Google and SRM for the 2010 Tour de France. SRM sensors on the team’s bikes collect data, such as speed and rider’s heart rate, then feed this data through Android HTC smartphones. The data is then displayed by Google alongside extra information provided by apps such as Google Maps and Street View.

7/8/2010
Additionally cool is this live up-to-date animated action of the race from Eurosport TV.  The legs on the cyclists pedal, which is fun and it's very accurate. I would imagine, based on gps tracking. I like to watch this during the mountain stages, when the peloton is strung out for miles up the mountains. The commentary is somewhat robotic and stale of any sense of personality, but there is always some good facts and figures about the tour, which you don't see on other US magazine tour tracking text updates.





pics by: James Huang


July 12: update
Wow, nice find today at the Garmin camp. Interesting design and can I just say....My mom always used to tell me not to use the word hate when I was growing up, but I can't stand Greg Lemond. His bikes sucked, he sucks, he's a whiner and a big baby that was a bad business man and surrounded himself with bad business decision makers.

On a positive note: i have heard nothing but great things about his "spinner" type bikes and would imagine if Garmin is on these and they were approved by Mr. Vaughters, they might be ok? Will be interested in the price point....I am going to lay out a guess of around 500-750 dollars US.

Tour De France Technology - Tour Tech 2

This looks like a Zipp wheel laced up to a Specialized hub and spokes. I am sure it provides for a very aero rim and stiff. Having such short spokes and the long 'flange' of the hub helps.




No one still has published what these yellow boxes are? From the Garmin Team. I think they are Power Tap GPS/Sat. Link boxes. The car receives the data from the Power Tap hubs or it goes up to a satelite directly to the web? Still waiting to find out.

Tour Day France 2009–Gunshots-Teflon and Poor George

Tour Day France 2009 – Gunshots, Teflon and Poor George

Well, finally, something happened in the tour that involved some riders doing something other than sitting in. Don’t get me wrong the breakaways are exciting to watch and watch those riders work or not work together. But, for the ‘contenders’ to sit on and wait for the mountains it a bit lame and provides for not exciting HD TV watching. I must admit yesterday’s stage in Switzerland was one of the most beautiful stages I have ever seen in a bike race. Watching it on HD, even better. That helicoper cam is one amazing piece of machinery.

Poor George. Sad for him. Sad for his team, they didn't really pay too much attention to big George getting in yellow. Maybe there is more money and exposure having Cavendish win the sprint? I say Teflon, since everyone wanted to point the finger elsewhere to blame who was responsible for George not getting into yellow. The old, "it's not my fault", it's their fault routine. Weak on many accounts. I would say Astana is to blame, contrary to their ability to run the press better than many of the teams and 'defend' their position. Teflon.

Thankfully, we didn't have to watch Contador shoot off his finger gun too much.

Tour De France 2009 - Tour Tech -

If the online news pages aren't going to highlight this stuff this week I will

It appears Saris has a new Computer Head unit they are testing out at this years Tour. It looks quite a bit like the size of my Garmin 705, but smoother on the front and sides. I like the yellow color. I wonder if it works in conjunction with the helmet mounted yellow boxes on the Garmin team helmets? Rumor has it the helmet boxes are just team radio's. but...who knows at this point. I am sure Saris will be teasing us with info in the next 2 weeks of the tour.

These are the only photos I have found of these yellow boxes. I am sure they are indeed race radio's, since the black wire runs down to the ear. Garmin's team director joked they are shock boxes and didn't really answer the question today.

Again, are they on the helmet to get a clear GPS signals?

These screen captures are from the actual Tour De France home page. I think this is the coolest thing in the world. Wow, if you see they have cartoon versions of each team's jersey/kits and if you click on the rider, their profile pops up. So friggin cool. The riders pedal their little virtual legs and the background moves like an old Road Runner/bugs bunny cartoon. You can zoom in/out and get a better view of the distance between the groups. If there is a break from the peloton, you can scroll down through the list of riders in that group. Again, really cool. I hope to dig around on this some more and see what else I am missing.


This is interesting - some info about all the internet access at the Tour this year. and Here from the IT side.

The anti-tour technology is two of the Tour stages will employ a NO RADIO rule. It's a controversial decision by race organizers. But, their ultimate goal is to eventually, ban race radios completely. Teams and riders say they depend on the radios for safety. Taking the radios away puts team leadership squarely back on the cyclists and benefits the those who can quarterback, think quickly and react to conditions on the ground.

Also - Training Peaks Website - is providing daily power files and ride info from certain riders. It's impressive data and really great to try to compare yourself to these superheros of the pedal world.
Also, The Garmin Team is uploading some great info as well.

Polar is providing live and up to the minute data from riders wearing Polar units.

Cancellara was wearing new versions of the Specialized S-Works road shoes. Note in the photo two of the shoe "dials" otherwise known as BOA. The S-Works road shoes I just purchased for myself only have one BOA adjustment. Cool. I love these shoes. Some S-Works MTB ones are on the ticket in the next week since I tore my others at Mohican 100.

Along these lines the trek based Astana team has been rolling on full spoked hoops, no longer riding on the paired bontrager spoked Aeolus wheels.


And some other cool fun stuff for last.
This Blog - celebrates the last rider in the Tour.


Other sites to visit and of note:
• http://www.podiumcafe.com
• Here is a Hater i think
• Andy Schleck's Blog Posts

Tour De France - Stage 9 - Sleep loss - Training

Ohhhhh, the tour is pretty exciting this year. Jen and I got into a 'Fantasy Tour' Pool with a few friends. I think her and I may be holding top 4 spots after today? Not sure.
I can say I would easily travel to France, just to ride these two roads, they certainly at least appear amazing, from the helicopter cameras. My first choice would be Italy over France though. Excited to go home and watch the stage tonight.
I had my hopes on Valverde, but it seems today he might have cracked. Ricco was amazing yesterday and I had him picked as a good climber early on. Today was the first time I actually saw some type of emotion from Cadel (at the finish during TV interviews today). He is usually so stoic - mannequin like. Let me see, I am sick to death of the Saab ads. I was finally happy to see interviews with Vaughters not wearing a turtle neck and corderoy jacket. Someone tell him he looks the same in every interview article with photos...He is good on TV though. I am enjoying listening to the audio from Eurosport TV, Sean Kelly's accent and commentating is great, a change up from listening to Paul and Phil for sure. I know Versus is shooting and broadcasting in HD this year, which would be great to see, but ahhh, who needs that really.
Next: Sleep Loss
So, I return from Chicago and can't manage to get my body clock back on right. I think I averaged 5 hours of sleep Wed-Sat. It was almost 3 a.m. before I went to bed on Friday night.
Next: Training
I had a pretty hard workout planned for Saturday, I think one of the hardest ever, maybe or OK, top 10. I get up, knowing I must be leaving the house to hit a family reunion at 1pm, and haul out the door on my bike. I head up North to find some uninterrupted roads (no traffic lights, no stops) to get this crazy workout completed.
I am 40% of the way into the workout and I just blow up. Done, put a fork in me, that's it, someone come and pick me up please - who is driving the hurt bus, I need a ride home.
Sunday - word has it... I should go get this workout completed.
Ok fine. I can do this. I recruit a friend to join me in my trip to the hurt bus again, telling him ahead of time, he's gotta ride his own ride or hang on to my wheel out of the wind, etc. (He did great and managed to do the workout as well)
We head up Dublin Road all the way to Route 42 and use that as a turn around. The workout seemed to all come together on such a stunningly beautiful day non-the-less. I think I'll ride more up that way, the roller hills up that way, would be way more enjoyable if I wasn't trying to get a crazy workout done.
I got home, after 2.5 hours/45 miles or so and wasn't completely blown. I even managed to be quite productive in our garage. I cut some wood for shelving, Jen helped and we got a ton of organizing completed. The 'man cave' is looking good. Pretty soon, I'll be able to pull out and work on my 1966 Chevelle without moving everything in the garage.