Trek Speed Concept Goes Public

For just over a year now, Trek sponsored athletes Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and Chris Lieto have been seen riding a prototype triathlon and time trial bike. The look of this bike, with it's unique aero tubing and hidden brakes, has has been generating a lot of interest. Now, finally, this bike has been released to the public.

To tie in with the time trial at the recent Tour of California, Trek held a launch for the new bikes, inviting journalists form around the world. These reports are now on line and you can see and read about the bikes for yourselves.

BikeRadar.com

Triathlon.com

FirstOffTheBike.com (including video from the official launch)

Trek president John Burke described the new Speed Concept as the most technologically advanced bike Trek have produced. It uses a revolutionary aero tube shape called Kammtail Virtual Foil to create a frame that beats all others in the wind tunnel. It also means that it is incredibly aerodynamic in cross winds too, which are more likely in 'real world' situations.

For all the details on the bike, see the dedicated web page here.

These bikes are available now through the Trek Project One program that allows you to choose the colour of your bike, along with the wheels, groupset and components. This can result in a truely unique bike that not only looks good, but is the fastest bike out there.

But don't think that these benefits are restricted only to those with loads of money. Later this year Trek will also have available the Speed Concept 7 Series and 2 Series both of which will offer most of the benefits of the 9 Series.

You can also check out an interview with Trek/K•Swiss team triathlete Chris Lieto here, courtesy of FirstOffTheBike.com

Trek/K•Swiss Triathlon Team

The team camp and launch was 2 months ago, but just to remind you of the Trek/K•Swiss tri team, check out this video:

And to update you on how the team is doing, well, Julie Dibens won the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon soon after the team launch. She also gave an interview with Slow Twitch just before the Abu Dhabi event. You can read it here.

For one of the Australian connections on the team, recognition came on the local front too. Paul Matthews from Murwillumbah was interviewed by his local paper, the Tweed Daily News. Get his perspective on the team and the season ahead here.

Also being discussed earlier this year was the Lance vs. Lieto Twitter Time Trial. Not long after that, Chris Lieto gave an interview to VeloNews about the mini-TT and the possibility of Lance one day doing the Hawaii Ironman. Interesting reading. Check it out here.

To keep up to date with the team, keep an eye on the Trek Cycling Team page for the upcoming launch of the team website. Or you can follow TrekBikesAust on Twitter. You can even hear straight from the horses mouth and follow Chris Lieto and Julie Dibens themselves.

Trek/K•Swiss Team Camp

Over the last few days the newest team to hit the triathlon scene, Trek/K•Swiss, has been having a team camp over in Santa Monica, California. This included Aussie team members Paul Matthews and Joe Gambles, pictured below.

Photo courtesy Triathlon.Competitor.com

A team that includes athletes from the USA, UK, Germany and Australia means that the whole team is rarely all together. This team camp, right at the start of the season gives them a chance to be fitted to new bikes, out fitted with new team kit and shoes and of course plenty of time for the all important media obligations.

 Photo courtesy Triathlon.Competitor.com

For full of coverage of the camp, including lots of photos and video, check out the coverage on Triathlon.Competitor.com, Ironman.com, XTri.com and the website of team member Fraser Cartmell

For more info and news on the team keep an eye on the Trek Cycling Teams web page for the launch of the official team website. In the meantime, you can follow the team via the Trek or K•Swiss pages on Facebook.

Welcome back!

Well I hope you all had a great Australia Day and were able to relax, whether it was with a ride or around a BBQ. Now we are post Australia Day holiday it seems everyone is heading back to work or school. There was certainly a LOT more cars on the road this morning as I rode to work. I never get tired of the feeling of passing cars sat stationary in traffic!

By now of course you would have heard the results of the Tour Down Under. Unfortunately Team Radio Shack were not able to get up for a stage win although they did show themselves at the front of the pack on almost every stage.

Photo courtesy CyclingNews.com

The most exciting stage though had to be stage 5 featuring the two climbs up Willunga Hill. With the early breakaway pulled back in Cadel Evans attacked and got a gap, followed by Valverde and Sanchez! An Australian World Champion attacking on the climb in front of thousands of cheering Australian fans! What a sight! At one stage Cadel was the virtual leader on the road, but by the end of the stage they couldn’t stay far enough in front of the fast finishing peloton for Cadel to slip into the leaders jersey. I watched it on TV (which was great in itself to have live coverage) and can only imagine the atmosphere that must have been on the hill itself. Will have to make it a priority to be there next year! You can read some reports of the stage here, here and here. Were you watching the stage? There in person or on TV? Are you planning on going next year?

Meanwhile, in the world of triathlon, Trek have been busy joining forces with sportswear brand K•Swiss to form the 2010 Trek/K•Swiss Triathlon Team.

Expanding the support they have given to Chris Lieto and Julie Dibens, the team has 9 triathletes who focus on Ironman, 70.3 and Xterra events. The team also features two Aussies! Joe Gambles and Paul Matthews will be flying the flag for Trek and Australia as they compete across the world. See the official announcement here.

And not to leave the MTBers out of the sponsorship news, it was announced over the weekend that Trek World Racing will be taking on rising XC star Emily Batty for the 2010 season.

Emily had a fantastic season in 2009, wining multiple Canadian Cup races, a Pan American Championship and getting 10th at the World Cup in Belgium. She will be competing in the full World Cup season and taking aim at the U23 World Championships that will be held on her home soil of Mt. St. Anne. Read the full announcement here and read a recent interview with Emily here. Combined with the Flu brothers, the TWR XC team is looking very strong! Of course not to forget the DH riders, check the video news story on the second round of the NZ DH Cup that Justin Leov won recently. What a great looking course!

While one career is taking off, another comes to a close. Last year Chris Eatough announced his retirement from full time MTB racing. CyclingNews recently had an interview with Chris where he talks about his stellar career and his plans now that he won’t be racing full time.

That’s it for today, catch you tomorrow!

Not to forget the Tri-Geeks…

Back in October was the Holy-Grail of triathlons, the Hawaii Ironman, sometimes referred to as the Ironman World Championships. Trek sponsored triathlete Chris Lieto put in his strongest performance yet to finish second, leading during most of the bike leg and until less than 10kms to go of the run. He did record the fastest bike leg split on board his new Trek Speed Concept bike, as previously used at the Tour de France. Check out this video piece about his bike with Trek Road product manager Tyler Pilger.

Also on the triathlon front, Trek sponsored athlete Julie Dibens won not only the Xterra World Champs and broke a World Record in the process, but backed up only 3 weeks later to when the 70.3 (Half Ironman distance) World Champs. What a champ! Read more about Julie over on this Up The Road blog post.