I’ll be honest, I’m not much of
a Mark Cavendish fan. But, I’m
going to put that aside and give
props where they’re due, and
Cavendish proved me wrong this
past season. I had written him
off after some less-than-stellar
(by his standards) seasons and
figured he would simply flounder
and fall away after moving to
Dimension Data. I was way off.
After four stage wins in the Tour
de France, he now has the very
real possibility of pushing aside
Eddy Merckx for the outright most
Tour stage wins within the next
season or two.
A NEW APPRECIATION: On a
trip to Italy this past October I had
the opportunity to visit the home
of Selle Royal and, more specifically, the production facility for
Fizik saddles. Every single Fizik
saddle is handmade in their
factory that’s located about an
hour’s drive from Venice. We were
shown the complete process of a
Fizik saddle’s construction, beginning with the foam being applied
to the shell and all the multiple
steps until it’s actually boxed and
ready to ship. No fewer than a
dozen people work on each
saddle in different stages of
construction. It took seeing it firsthand to give me perspective on
how much time and attention to
detail go into each and every one
of their saddles.
BEST RACING INNOVATION:
I know, thru-axles are about as
exciting as watching paint dry, but
considering disc brakes are back
in the pro peloton, the discussion over who has the fastest and
easiest thru-axle system for mid-race wheel changes has already
resumed, and at least for racers,
it’s kind of a big deal. Mavic’s
new Speed Release system they
co-designed has the potential
of bringing a standard thru-axle
design to race bikes, since it
could be the fastest axle system
out there, including quick release.
The 12mm thru-axle doesn’t
require a proprietary hub, but
does need a specific fork with an
open right-side dropout. I’m
optimistic we’ll see broad acceptance from a number of brands,
but universal acceptance of the
design is surely a pipe dream.
COMEBACK
KID:
EDITORS’
CHOICE
