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Riva del Garda, a small town at the northern tip of Lake Garda, has become one of Europe’s major mountain-bike Meccas over the past decade, largely due to the spectacular trails coming down the mountains overlooking the dark waters of the deep, narrow Alpine lake nestled in Italy’s northern border. For the last eight years, Riva has hosted a springtime mountain-bike festival and manufacturer show that this year attracted around 10,000 visitors, mostly from Germany. Mountain bikers filled the town for five days and tried their legs en masse on the second day of the festival in an off-road

Salient features: The Deda Magic bar has a 31.8mm clamping area (rather than the standard 26.0mm) and comes in a medium-depth ergo bend or a deep-drop round bend. The bar has a "K.E.T." (Kinetic Energy Treatment) that hardens the metal by "bomb-peening" it with heavy shot. The Magic stem is cold-forged in three dimensions, a process that allows Deda to create unique shapes without compromising the strength-to-weight ratio. Likes: The stiffness of this stem and bar combination is immediately noticeable, especially in long sizes. When sprinting or climbing out the saddle there is no noticeable

You may have thought that Il Diablo, a.k.a. Didi Senft, is the craziest guy that follows the major European bike races. But that’s only because you see him waving his pitchfork on TV and you haven’t seen some of the unique race groupies who don’t get on TV. My current choice for most way-out is Skippy, an Australian who rides every single stage on his bike ahead of the peloton. He starts on the course a couple of hours before the race starts and finishes each stage just before the peloton. The publicity caravan that precedes the racers has around a hundred cars in it, each with a giant

Oscar Camenzind outsprinted Davide Rebellin, David Etxebarria, Francesco Casagrande and Michael Boogerd in an exciting finish to the Ardennes classic, Liége-Bastogne-Liége. The Swiss Lampre-Daikin star followed the moves of the powerhouse Fassa Bortolo team of Casagrande and Raimondas Rumsas, who led in the bunch seconds after the first five. Another Fassa Bortolo rider, Dario Frigo, had been off the front for well over the hour in a group that shrunk from 13 down to six by the time it was caught with a mere 10km to go. Fassa Bortolo then lined the field out on the approach to the

It looks to be a fine day tomorrow for Liége-Bastogne-Liége. The weather reports call for mostly sunny skies with scattered rain and temperatures in the high 40s. Expect a strong ride from Fassa Bortolo, especially Raimondas Rumsas. His teammates Francesco Casagrande, Dario Frigo, Wladimir Belli and Ivan Basso, second Wednesday in the Fléche Wallonne after a day-long breakaway, will all be dangerous on this course too. Mapei’s Michele Bartoli and Paolo Bettini, last year’s winner, Rabobank’s Michaël Boogerd, and Liquigas-PATA’s Davide Rebellin are all be riders to watch as well. The

Okay, okay we admit it; we've lusted after Campagnolo Record components about as long as we've been riding (which in our case means five-speed freewheels and friction shifting). Normally we wouldn't make a big deal about someone's promotional contest, but… hey, you can win a Campy 10-speed Record group and, oh yeah, wheels and clothes, too. Log on to win.campagnolo.com and give its "Win Your Record" contest a shot. If you win because you went through this site, you owe us a set of pedals, okay?

In its third year of existence, the GAS women’s road team promises to be a force to be reckoned with in everything from major Tours to World Cup individual races and overall. Sponsored by an Italian jeans and sportswear company, the team has added more power this season to an already star-studded roster. At the team introduction on February 26, GAS spokesman Piergiorgio Dal Santo said, "We want to be the Mapei team of women’s cycling, both in terms of setting the standard for professionalism as well as by being the best team in the world." Joining 1997 world road champion and 2000 Giro

Cannondale expanded its motorized product range this weekend with the release of its FX400 All-Terrain Vehicle. The ATV joins Cannondale’s MX400 motocrosser released last year and the XC400 cross-country motorbike, due for release in April. The first of the ATVs was delivered last week to Pennsylvania motorsports dealer Gatto Cycles to what the company says was a very enthusiastic reception. The $8000 FX400 sports a four-stroke engine with electronic fuel injection, and the industry’s first twin-spar perimeter aluminum ATV frame. Cannondale founder & president Joe Montgomery praised the

Former world road champion Alessandra Cappellotto is an energetic woman. She claims to be old for cycling (33), yet a normal February day for her consists of a five-hour training ride followed by an afternoon spent driving all around the area near Bassano del Grappa visiting suppliers for her bike shop. As she dashes from place to place in her silver Mercedes wagon, she handles calls on her cell phone regarding her bike shop, her teams, and the wellness center she will be opening in the fall. Her final meeting at saddle manufacturer Selle San Marco behind her, she rushes north to Bassano to

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Written by Josh at Zipp:Here is an excerpt from a PM I sent to somebody a few weeks ago on this identical topic. I hope this helps clarify things somewhat... The outer aluminum hoop in our clincher rims weighs only 200 grams, and therefore will get much hotter than a standard aluminum rim. Since the temperature of something is relative to the energy input/mass, a 200 gram rim will get twice as hot as a 400 gram rim for the same energy input. What happens is that if your descending a mountain at 70 degrees and you brake for 2 minutes and your standard aluminum rims heat to 220 degrees (an