U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A...

   It came to my attention that my blog seemed lately like a running commentary on pro cycling, and that was never my intention. This is partly because I haven’t had much shop talk, with a disappointing lack of business this spring. Hopefully that’s only due to the erratic weather we’ve been having in the northeast, and that folks have yet to hit the roads in full force!

   I do have some interesting projects to discuss in the near future, but in the meantime I wanted to mention an interesting occurrence on the bicycle manufacturing front this spring. I’m not usually a big flag-waving nationalist, but builders in the U.S. are clearly putting out some fantastic machines. In fact, of the ten classic races that have been completed on the UCI World calendar, SEVEN have been won on bicycles made by American companies.

 

   I’ll also mention that Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège was won by Garmin-Sharp’s Dan Martin (photo above) on a bike made by Cervèlo, a Canadian manufacturer. That’s eight out of the ten winning bicycles from this continent. However, I don’t think a chant of “North America, North America...” has as much of a ring to it, so I’ll stick with my title theme. But for the Cervèlo win and two victories on German-made Canyon bicycles by riders on the Katusha team, in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Fleche Wallone races, the U.S.A. has dominated!

Let’s celebrate with some eye candy and take a look at these cool machines, starting with Cannondale. Moreno Moser won the Strade Bianche, but we’ll look the Synapse Carbon Hi-Mod Evo that his teammate Peter Sagan rode to victory in Ghent-Wevelgem.

 

The bike features a unique split seat tube.

 

Gerald Ciolek rode a Trek Madone 7.9 to victory at Milan-San Remo.

 

Bikes in the pro peloton are often personalized these days, in this case with the rider’s name and flag of his home nation.

 

Fabian Cancellara made a major contribution to this list with three wins, at E3-Harelbeke, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Except for a bit more beefy tires for the cobbles of Roubaix, his Trek Domane was set up virtually the same for each race.

 

The matte black finish is decorated in silver with sponsor logos and his “Spartacus” nickname on the top tube…

 

…and gladiator-themed artwork, including spears and a helmet near the headtube.

 

 

Finally, Specialized makes an appearance, courtesy of Roman Kreuziger’s victory at the Amstel Gold race. The S-Works Tarmac SL4 is basic black, but has a few team color accents of blue and yellow.

 

The Saxo-Tinkoff team car is loaded up and ready to go with extra bikes, in case of crashes or major mechanical issues. Some riders make intentional switches during a race for a different setup of components on the machine.

 

 

Now stop drooling!