Easton Unveils EC90 Aero 55 – “The Single Wheelset Arsenal”

In 2014 Easton Cycling will have one of the most innovative wheelsets available to the market.

The cycling company has always engineered products that seem to take traditional qualities to the extreme. The newest wheelset takes all of these extreme, high-quality characteristics and accumulates them in to one product; the EC90 Aero 55.

Easton started from scratch when creating these wheels, innovating every individual component; an unorthodox reinvention of the hubset helps make this set of wheels incredibly comfortable and durable. The Echo Hubset takes the traditional set up and flips it completely around
to introduce a 95-millimeter wide hubset. By placing the bearings to the outside, the hub can be wider, placing creating less stress and more comfort. This makes the hub nearly two-times wider than most hubs and nearly two-times more durable.

The 55-millimeter deep rims are boasted to be faster than the competitors wheels that have deeper rims (80-90-millimeters). The tubular wheelset weighs only just over 1300 grams, considerably close to most climbing wheels. Yet, the EC90 Aero 55’s, boasts a 14-second lead over the next fastest competitor in a 40k time trial, thanks to it’s Fantom Rim design.

With the addition of a 19-millimeter width, the Fantom Rim design provides much more comfort than the traditional racing wheels.

These features are make this wheelset perfect for nearly any and all conditions and courses; the Single Wheelset Arsenal.

The clincher wheelset is available starting at $2800 in the spring of 2014 and the tubular wheelset for $2400.00 in the Winter of 2014.

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Chris Froome of Sky Pro Cycling Wins the 100th Tour de France

After 21 days of cycling, 28-year-old British superstar, Chris Froome, topped the final podium at the 100th edition of the Tour de France.

Froome came in to the Tour de France with several accolades, including 3rd at the 2012 London Olympics and 2nd overall in last year’s Tour de France, 3:21 behind fellow Sky rider, Bradley Wiggins. Froome claimed his first stage victory on the 8th day of the Tour, where riders tackled the highest peak of the entire Tour. Froome blew apart the race with this victory. Only 47 seconds separated 1st and 42nd place in the overall classification after 7 days of racing. Froome pushed himself 51 seconds ahead of the next rider.

Froome went on to claim 2 more stage victories and 2 more stage podium finishes, while continuing to wear the Yellow Jersey for remaining 13 days of the Tour.

Froome’s title came over 2nd place finisher, Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas of Movistar Team, who finished 4:20 behind the champion. Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver rounded out the podium with 84 hours, 1 minute, and 44 seconds. Alberto Contador of Team Saxo-Tinkoff narrowly missed the podium, but his 4th place finish aided in the team’s overall victory of the Tour.

Chris Froome won the Yellow Jersey prize purse of nearly $592,000 (€450,000).

Team Sky Pro Cycling after Chris Froome’s victory at the 100th Tour de France

Cameron Dye Wins the MPLS Tri, Kipp Kinsley Wins Elite Race

Saturday was a much-less-than ideal morning following an unexpected storm. Flash-flooding caused a lot of confusion, worry, and frustration.

Everything was behind schedule; as a result of the lightning, the transition area (originally scheduled to open at 4:30 AM) opened at around 6:30 AM. The rain subsided just before 7:00 AM and the Pro Start for the day was pushed back 2 hours to 9:00 AM. To the dismay of many of the athletes, the race directors had to cancel the International Course due to the flooding that had taken place on several parts of the 40 kilometer bike course and the 10 kilometer run course.

Many triathletes that had signed up to compete in the International Course were very upset as they thought that they would not be able to race. The Short Course (400 meter swim, 15 mile bike, and 5 kilometer run) was opened to all athletes after the bike course was adjusted to approximately 16.7 miles (another result of the flooding). Before the announcement could be made, many of the International Course triathletes had already taken their leave.

The Pro Race Course was also altered, as it was scheduled to take place over the same course as the International Course. The pros swam 2 laps of the 400 meter swim, then completed the Short Course bike and run.

Last year’s 4th place finisher and winner of the Toyota Cup, Cameron Dye, took first on Saturday with a time of 1:03:12, thanks to his incredible consistency across each leg of the course. Last year’s winner of the Minneapolis Tri, Hunter Kepmer, took second place, less than 20 seconds behind Dye.

4-Time Defending Female Champion of the Minneapolis Tri and the winner of the 2012 Toyota Cup, Sarah Haskins did not race this year as a result of her soon-to-arrive addition to her family. This left the field open for Alicia Kaye of Clermont Florida to take a commanding victory with a time of 1:10:14, over 2:40 ahead of the runner up, Lauren Goss.

Sioux Falls’ TJ Gleason came 17th over in the Pro field with a time of 1:10:51.

Pro racers in the series look on to the Chicago Tri on August 25th.

Additional local athletes Justin Manning of Sioux Falls and Kipp Kinsley of Yankton had strong showings at the race.

Kinsley, age 20, took first in the Elite Men’s race with an incredible time of 1:04:26, finishing his 5k race in 16:07.89. Manning is expected to have a highly commendable race time; however, due to electronic errors, he is not currently listed in the results, as the race organizers need yet to find his swim time.

Click below to view all of the results from Saturday’s race:

2013 MPLS Tri Results

 

Eneko Llanos Wins the European Championship

As the sun came up over Frankfurt, Germany, some of the World’s best IRONMAN triathletes toed the line of the 2.4 mile swim.  Over 2,500 athletes from more than 50 countries around the world attended the race this morning, with 5 superstar names competing to declare that they are the best.

The current defending IRONMAN World Champion, Pete Jacobs was definitely being watched from all angles, as well as last year’s runner-up of the European Championship, Sebastian Kienle, who is also the defending IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion. On top of that, Marino Vanhoenacker, the defending European Champion looked to prove why he won last year’s race.

Coming out of the water in first place was Harry Wilshire of Great Brittian in 46:00. 1 second behind him was Christian Ritter of Germany, followed by a very large group over the next 15 seconds, and many many more within the following 15 seconds.

First of the 112 mile bike was Vanhoenacker with a massive time of 4:20:25 (25.8 mph). The next set of cyclists rolled in to T2 5 minutes later.

Pete Jacobs, Eneko Llanos, Jan Raphael, and a few others formed a powerhouse chase pack. The athletes were transitioning to the run within seconds of each other, staring down the large gap between them and Vanhoenacker.

Nothing could match the incredible run time posted by Llanos, though. With a marathon split of 2:44:12, Llanos spread himself nearly 8 minutes between the runner up, Raphael. The winning time was 7:59:58.

Eneko Llanos after his win at the 2013 Frankfurter Sparkasse IRONMAN European Championship

Both Vanhoenacker and Jacobs fell hard on the run, posting marathon splits of 3:23:05 and 4:17:26, respectively, after both coming in to T2 in 1st and 4th.

Michael Raelert finished 7th and Sebestian Kienle finished in 9th.