ATLANTA, Ga. (October 25, 2007) – The annual Tour de Georgia cycling event and rolling festival will continue for a sixth season, April 21-27, 2008 and will be reorganized under new leadership, it was announced today by Lt. Governor Casey Cagle. Owned by the not-for-profit Georgia Partnership for Economic Development (GPED), the event will now be governed by a reconstituted Board of Directors with the Lt. Governor serving as Chairman. Medalist Sports will continue as the logistics and operations management company for the Tour, led by Chris Aronhalt and Jim Birrell. Elizabeth Dewberry, who has worked with Cagle for five years, will be named as Executive Director of the Tour de Georgia and will manage the marketing, business operations and strategic partnerships. The current GPED Board is taking action to ratify these changes.

“The Tour de Georgia is an internationally known sporting event. It is the largest cycling race in the U.S. occurring just before the Tour de France. The Tour represents an excellent opportunity to bring the world to our state – and that is what we intend to do. Through aggressive marketing and strategic partnerships, we will add this event to the ranks of historic Georgia sporting events like The Masters and the Peachtree Road Race,” said Cagle, who was elected as Lt. Governor in 2006. “The cities we will select this year will exemplify all the special qualities and Southern hospitality that make Georgia the greatest state in America. The race and activities focused around it in every community will encourage others to visit our state again and again - having a strong impact on our state’s tourism development and overall economy.”

The Tour de Georgia has enjoyed great success since its inception in 2003, attracting 2.8 million spectators to communities across the state and generating $148 million in economic impact in those five years. Last year the Tour expanded from six to seven days, allowing more communities to take part in the festivities. The week-long event will maintain its traditional “Tour de France tune-up” slot on the UCI international cycling calendar as a 2. HC (Hors Categorie) professional event during the third week of April. It is also part of the USA Cycling Professional Tour. The event has gained international acclaim for the strong field of cyclists who compete each spring, including seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong who competed in Georgia twice, and winning the overall title in 2004.

“The Tour de Georgia has established itself as one of the premier events for professional cyclists and for cycling fans in North America”, stated Levi Leipheimer, current National Road Race Champion (USA Cycling Professional Championships) and 3rd Overall in the 2007 Tour de France. “Personally, I enjoy participating in the Tour de Georgia as it is perfectly placed in the world cycling calendar in terms of preparation for the Tour de France. The challenging courses, enthusiastic crowds and southern hospitality are the best of any North American race.”

The Tour de Georgia, owned by GPED, a 501c6 organization developed by the state’s sales and marketing division, Georgia Department of Economic Development. In 2006 the Tour faced financial challenges that were resolved only weeks before the race commenced. Recognizing that this event was indeed a strong driver for economic impact and tourism, the office of the Lt. Governor is taking initiative to support the Tour de Georgia as a valued sports property for the state. The reorganization will focus on increasing multi-year business partnerships with the event and creating year-round publicity.

The challenging route for the sixth annual Tour de Georgia is expected to again cover over 650 miles of scenic roadways and communities across Georgia. Lt. Governor Cagle, in partnership with Medalist Sports, will announce the official route and Host Venues on November 14.

Source: Medalist Sports

About once a year or so we like to get the car serviced. The dealer is out in Tysons Corner.

Not that all of the area isn’t messed up traffic-wise but Tysons Corner is outstanding. For us though the bike trails aren’t too far away from the dealer (one of the main reasons we chose that dealer).

Drop it off nice and early, a couple nasty miles in ‘burb hell and it is time for the W&OD trail.

Pretty nice riding at sunrise on a nice warm fall morning.

Traffic looked bad on the beltway but I wasn’t on the beltway.

Traffic on the trail picked up as I got closer to town.

The W&OD wasn’t all that crazy for a MUT but when I turned onto the Custis Trail the excitement level seemed to ramp up with every mile.

It sure beats driving.

Most folks turned off at the Key Bridge so the little stretch Mount Vernon Trail I used was quite calm. A short hop across the Potomac on the Roosevelt Bridge and “Hello Work”!

Work wasn’t bad today but there was this car to pick up.

Bike ride!

I had to get across the mall to meet Miss M before crossing the 14th Street Bridge and taking the reverse route from this morning.

The Mount Vernon Trail gets pretty busy on a nice warm afternoon. The Custis Trail is always a fun little climb. After those the W&OD seems almost calm.

Almost.

Still it beats driving.

We have always noticed a big difference between the morning and evening commutes.

Mostly in the morning anyone out just wants to go about their business and stay out of everyone elses way. In the evening OTOH there are always sport folks out looking to race anyone who dares go faster then them.

Miss M won’t put up with that foolishness (let’s face it, we have seen far too many stupid crashes on the MUTs to ever want to play games while riding). No one is allowed to get on our wheel-too bad since I was hoping to get some pix of Miss M blowing through stop signs for Gregory Taylors thread but we were going way too fast at the intersections for me to be comfortable shooting.

Other than that is was a very nice evening to ride and we were treated to a subtle sunset.

Alas, every so often as we were enjoying our ride we would catch a view of traffic-not pretty. Why anyone would ever deal with that on a regular basis is beyond us (and alas we were getting an idea of what we were going to have to deal with driving home).

As for driving; let’s just say that we would rather ride.

Turned out to be about as bad as we expected (took us a nasty hour and a half to get home driving (a lot longer than it took us to get out there on our bikes)) but at least the car is taken care of for another year.

MB1
Ride your bike.

As many of you may know, I live and travel quite a bit throughout Europe … so its high time I give you a user review of some of the many high-tech “free” or “near-free” bicycle rental programs that can be found in many EU cities. This is especially timely given that Paris (my town) has put a highly successful system in place this July.My one-word review: a.w.e.s.o.m.e!

These systems, the way in which they make living here so pleasant, the thinking behind their implementation, the common desire to make these city centres vibrant and eminently livable places are all things that make even thinking about moving back to the States very difficult indeeed!

But on to the subject.

Many of you may have heard of “free” bike programs or “town” bike programs - indeed, some places in the States have experimented with these. Typically these have involved (as in the past in Amsterdam abd Copenhagen) providing cheap, sometimes refurbished, and oftentimes yellow-hued bikes in large quantities for all to take and use as they see fit. The thinking was that once you finished your trip, you left the bike out for the next person to use, and so-on. The reality of these systems is that most bikes ended up a. trashed, b. abandoned or c. in the bottom of the local canal or its last users garage (or all three!). These systems had a very limited success and gave the image of cycling as a somewhat marginal activity that remained the remit of those who make it a point to spend their lives imbued in an alcoholic haze.

The systems I will describe below are to these “yellow-bike” programs what the Airbus 380 is to the Wright brother canvas and piano chord flyer (and by that, I don’t mean hugely complicated and prone to cost over-runs… but I digress)

The principal of these systems is that all bikes are electronically tracked (via GPS or by docking stations) and all bikes are attributed to a registered user with a form of payment on file. The bikes themselves are purposely heavy, simple bikes that are made for robustness, not speed and are thus perfectly suited for city travel in most EU cities. The tariff systems are biased for short-term use (often less than 30 minutes) and the thinking is that these can help city inhabitants avoid using cars for the most frequent and shortewst of their trips. There are two major “families” of these programs - the approach used by J.C. Decaux in (Paris, Lyon, Bruxelles, etc….) and that used by the DBahn (the German Railway Company). I’ll describe the JC Decaux system first.

Vel’lib and other JC Dcaux systems

JC Decaux (http://www.jcdecaux.com/content/jcdecaux_en/accueil/) is a the a major outdoor advertising and urban “furnishings” (read park benches, lamp-posts, bus stops…) supplier that afew years ago had an idea to combine “free bikes” with high tech tracking and billing in order to offer cities with an innovative sustainable transportation package. The deal was that the cities would receive the equipment for free and JC Decaux would run it and in return, the cities would install the systems and provide Decaux with a negotiated amount of billboard advertising space. Thus the cities get a great addition to ytheir transport systems and the company gets access to some prime advertising real-estate throughout the city.

In Paris, the JC Decaux-supplied Vel’lib system in operation since July 15 (other cities have had their systems in place for for several years) has been a huge success. Everywhere you look you see some of the 14000 bicycles (will be 20000 bicycles by the end of the year) tooling around the city streets or at some of the 1000+ (will be 1451 by December) docking stations. The goal is to have a station every 300 metres.

You must be registered with the system to use it (either w/ a day or week pass) and at a minumum must provide a CC# that can accept a payment of 150 euros if the bike is not returned. Registration can be done at any docking station or by mail for a year pass. I have a year pass which for 29 euros gets me a magnetic swipe card that I can use at any docking unit without having to go by the central panel of the docking station. The first half hour is free, the second half hour is 1 euro, the third is 2 eusros and every half-hour afterwards is 4 euros. As you can see, the system is set up to ensure that trips are short and that there is a high turn-over — thus maximising the transportation function of the system. Want to have the bike for longer? Just dock it at any station and re-check it out .. the 30 minute timer gets set back to zero everytime you bring it in! You can check online or via your cell phone to see where the closest station is and how many bikes are currently available.

During both day and night, there are special trucks with trailers that go about redistributing bikes to stations as required (the exact routing of the trucks is determined via the real-time docking info).

Here is the link to the Paris system: http://www.en.velib.paris.fr/comment_ca_marche

DBahn’s Call-a-Bike

The German Railway company operates another type of system in several large Germ,an cities (Berlin, Cologne, Munich, etc.). The bikes are slightly clunkier and have an on-board GPS unit that allows the control centre to track all of the bikes. You register by calling up the center and giving your cell phone # and CC#. Once registered, you can pick up any bike whose light is flashing green. The bikes can be left anywhere but they request that you leave them at intersections to make it easy for others to find them — there are also many marked stations where bikes are lined up. Once you have selected a bike, you call up the centre with your cell and enter the bike number. The computer system gives you your release code which you then type into the LCD touch pad on the back of the bike. You can now move aside the arm of the built-in locking mechanism, the light turns from green to red and the bike is now yours to use. If you want to lock it up for an errand, just re-position the arm and the bike is locked up (the light stays red indicating that the bike is not available for hire). When you are ready to go, just re-enter the release code (which you also get as a SMS text message). When you are ready to return the bike, just leave it at an intersection, call up the system and it gives you the terminating code which, once entered into the keypad, indicates to the system that you no longer have the bike. The light turns from red to green and the bike is available to be hired by someone else. Billing is monthly and the tarif system is more expensive (it does not depend on advertising for its operating revenue) but cannot surpass 15 euros a day. Link here: http://www.callabike-interaktiv.de/k…0146e6…00000

Originally posted on roadbikereviews.com forums @ http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?p=1197125

October 24, 2007 – Salt Lake City, Utah

Wicked Fast Sports Nutrition, makers of research-proven nutrition products, Energ-Ease for pre-exercise energy & endurance and Recover-Ease for post-exercise recovery enhancement today announced limited-time special pricing to celebrate another record-breaking year.

According to Wicked Fast founder and Ironman triathlete, Dr. Shawn Talbott, “We had such a phenomenal 2007 season, that we wanted to celebrate with some early off-season specials.” Continued Talbott, “Many endurance athletes will be wrapping up their 2007 season – and this is the perfect time for them to get their nutrition dialed in for next season. We have more research studies than any other endurance nutrition company – proving how well Wicked Fast products work to improve endurance and recovery, so this is the perfect opportunity to give them a try.”

Team Wicked Fast had several dozen members competing at the Ironman World Championships in Kona – and will have dozens more competing at the 70.3 Championships next month in Clearwater.

For a limited time, all new orders will also receive a FREE pair of running/cycling socks. To take advantage of this “post-Kona” promotion, visit the Wicked Fast Sports Nutrition website at www.wickedfastsportsnutrition.com or call 800-422-5610 and place an order.

BOSTON - (October 30, 2007) The Boston LUNA Chix Cycling Team formally launched its brand new website today at www.bostonlunachixcycling.com. The team invites you to drop by, have a look around, meet the team, join our global community, and start something in your neck of the woods. The website is the team’s newest tool to help achieve its main goal to empower women to get out and ride their bikes. Savvy visitors will appreciate the sophisticated site technologies that the team has implemented in order to create an online community with cyclists’ interests in mind.

“Our team’s mission is to create a welcoming, non-competitive environment for women cyclists of all levels,” said Roz Puleo, captain of the team. “Our website and interactive Forum are key components to that mission. We’ve had women from the LUNA Pro team, novice racers, and non-racers all post to our site so far. To give women a centralized spot to link up for rides with other women, ask questions about gear or training, or talk about races, is what we’ve been striving for.”

Meet the team
What distinguishes the Boston LUNA Chix team (besides a Boston accent so severe it could peel paint off walls) is at once a unified identity as a team created and maintained by individuals. Headed up by Puleo, who holds the national Super D title in the expert category, team members voluntarily flex their own strengths to yield a team marked by innovation, structure, and poise. Meet the team here.

Boston LUNA Chix Women’s Cycling Forum, presented by Wheelworks
Wheelworks, one of the nation’s top 100 retailers according to Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, honored the Chix with a Supplemental Marketing Sponsorship for the team to build a Forum section into its site. Intended as a social networking tool, the Forum is the go-to spot to swap information about upcoming races and rides, gear, chit-chat on cycling and fitness, and events. For those of you keen on cooking and eating, the food and nutrition section of the Forum offers favorite recipes and tips from the nutrition specialists among us. Recent posts to the Forum include information on beginner MTB clinics, announcements for regional cyclocross races and local trail maintenance days, a snack recipe that will cause knees to buckle, and questions about bike maintenance and fall/winter fitness. The Forum is ever-evolving and, based on posting trends, new categories will be added on an ongoing basis.

The polished, professional look that the Chix desired for their Forum required specialized software, which would demand a bit more than the existing marketing budget had to offer. The Chix’s Supplemental Marketing Sponsorship proposal faced daunting competition since Wheelworks receives 800-900 sponsorship requests each year.

“Wheelworks is very pleased to support the local Luna Chix gang,” said Clint Paige, president of Wheelworks. “Their commitment to expanding the opportunities for women to get involved with cycling and improve their skills fits perfectly with our desire to see more people on bikes truly enjoying themselves. Their enthusiasm is infectious and the inclusiveness they practice should be a model for many such groups to come.”

The fit with Wheelworks makes perfect sense since it is the local shop for many team members, who already visit either Belmont or Ace Wheelworks on nearly a weekly basis.

Becoming a Forum member doesn’t get any easier than visiting http://www.bostonlunachixcycling.com/Forums/ and clicking on “Register” in the upper left hand corner.

Featured Product
Each member of the team has, on one or more occasions, pried open her wallet and plunked down her hard-earned cash to discover something that she simply couldn’t live without. The Featured Product section on the home page is where each team member gets to wax enthusiastic about a product or service that she has personally tested and found it worth every penny and more. With the exception of LUNA products, for which team members exchange time instead of money, featured products will include Crank Brothers pedals, Louis Garneau Merino wool full zip jersey, Tobasco sauce, Apavita sunscreen, and Helios state-of-the-art socks.

Blob (oops, blog!)
Here’s where the gals get a chance to rant, rave, or otherwise speak their mind on the team blog. The blog has been an active part of the site since May and blog topics range from an awkward flat change in the company of a vodka-swilling roadie to a “group” ride with the defending Olympic gold medalist and national cross-country champs from France, the Czech Republic, and the US. Locate the team’s pulse on the blog here: http://blog.bostonlunachixcycling.com/

The site, which has been in a beta stage since creation, throws open its virtual doors to the cycling community at large. More developments are on the horizon, we’ll let you know. Meanwhile, pay us a visit and tell us what you think, we’d like to know!

Email the Boston LUNA Chix Cycling Team - chix@bostonlunachixcycling.com

About LUNA and the Breast Cancer Fund
Support for the Breast Cancer Fund has been at the core of the LUNA brand since its launch in 1999. The two partner together on a variety of national initiatives including: LUNAFEST, a traveling women’s short film festival, and Team LUNA Chix, a network of women’s community based sports teams. Both programs raise money and awareness for Breast Cancer Fund through local events.

It’s a potent combination: LUNA is the best selling women’s energy bar and Breast Cancer Fund’s top corporate supporter. LUNA’s commitment to women’s issues, nutrition and environmental sustainability made them a perfect fit with the Breast Cancer Fund’s precautionary, prevention-focused, and sustainable approach to protecting human health from toxic chemicals and dangerous, environmental exposures. Breast Cancer Fund’s mission is to identify and eliminate the environmental - and preventable - causes of the disease. To date, LUNA has given over $1.5 Million in support of Breast Cancer Fund, 20% of which has come from LUNA’s community based activism and fundraising efforts.

About Boston’s Team LUNA Chix Cycling Team
Team LUNA Chix is a group of women nationwide who serve as ambassadors for the sports of cycling, running and triathlon. Boston’s Cycling team is a group of eight athletes dedicated to welcoming women of all abilities into the cycling community. The team conducts clinics and events for local women cyclists while also raising awareness for the Breast Cancer Fund. For more information, or to get involved, contact team captain Roz Puleo at chix@bostonlunachixcycling.com

Source: Booher Media Group

Four Months Out, Exhibitor Numbers Head for Record High
For Immediate Release 2007-10-24

SPEEDWAY, Indiana – The North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS), the world’s largest trade/consumer show for custom-built bicycles, is gearing up for one of the greatest celebrations yet of the art, craft, and innovation that is encompassed in the world of bicycle framebuilding. After two years in San Jose, California, the 2008 show will be held in the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon, February 8-10.

Show director, Don Walker, the founder of NAHBS and an esteemed builder of 10 years himself, says “on display will be the most beautiful objects in the cycling world, and I mean the whole cycling world. I have it on the authority of a respected British journalist that US builders are currently regarded as the cream of the international crop in bespoke frame making. For anybody who’s even remotely into bicycles, or design, or engineering, this is a ‘do not miss’ event.”

The array of beautiful bicycles will not only be rich, but vast. The show, which is gaining in popularity at an astonishing rate, has 92 exhibitors registered already. This is only 11 short of last year’s total of 103. Booth space sales are already close to the ‘07 figure of 130, and with seven weeks of registration remaining it is possible that all 200 both spaces might sell out. Exhibitor registration closes December 15, 2007.

Among the busiest booths are likely to be those of the carbon fiber master Nick Crumpton, Tony Pereira (winner of the Best Filet Brazed, Best Road, and Best Off-Road categories at the 2007 NAHBS), Coconino, Rock Lobster, Brian Baylis (see photo below) and of course Richard Sachs, who has a six year waiting list for one of his frames.

As the show continues to grow in size and status, Walker increasingly sees it as a venue for key manufacturers to reach their target audience. “As a sponsorship vehicle, the NAHBS show provides a two-fold opportunity. First of all, it is a place for the more upscale manufacturers to engender some brand loyalty - afterall, people just love this show and those that help provide it. Secondly, NAHBS is a unique opportunity for people like component manufacturers to connect with the handmade bicycles industry to find out the innovative ways their components are being used - uses that the large scale manufacturers would never conceive. These are the flagship display bicycles for component makers.”

About The North American Handmade Bicycle Show

The North American Handmade Bicycle Show is dedicated to showcasing the talents of individuals around the world whose art form is the bicycle. It aims to be a gathering point – online and in person – for framebuilders and consumers looking for custom-made bikes, for the sharing of ideas and promotion of this industry and its traditions. After three years of growing by leaps and bounds, NAHBS 2008 will feature still more exhibitors, consumers and a wealth of seminars. For more information, see

http://www.handmadebicycleshow.com

source: Paul Skilbeck

(originally posted by Francois)

We had to stop by the Cervelo booth and try the R3. This bike won the Roadbikereview ‘Best Of’ frame award this year receiving 43 reviews with an average of 4.5 stars.

http://www.roadbikereview.com/cat/latest-bikes/road-bike/cervelo/PRD_366584_5668crx.aspx#reviews

A lot of carbon bikes ride very similar nowadays. Surprisingly, the R3 is quite different. It seems to have gone to the extreme of stiff bottom bracket and lateral rigidity. The power transfer on this bike is just incredible. It loves to sprint and it loves to climb. Cornering is very stable too as the bike holds the line on demanding high-speed corners.

As far as ride quality, it is quite good, specially for a bike that has a front end and bottom bracket this stiff. This seems to be accomplished by the ultra-small, almost flat seat stays. The tubing on the frame looks imbalanced but that’s because this machine was designed to extremes on the qualities important on a race bike.

So if you want a bike to stay in decent shape or to commute to work, this might not be the bike for you. But if you want to fly and you want to race, this is a good choice.

Weight: 940 grams

Price: $2600 (frame only)

(originally posted by Francois)

Move over Japan and Italy, the USA has come to play in the arena of high end road components. The Red groupset by Sram is pretty. It is advanced and innovative. It is light and it is expensive. 1928 grams and $2142 are its vital statistics.

Sram assembled an armada of ultra-expensive bikes that were all fitted with the Red groupset. They mapped out a 40-minute road loop near Bootleg Canyon, Nevada that was filled with climbs, rollers, descents and corners.

I’ve never ridden an Sram road groupset before and I’ve never ridden the Scott CR1 bike used for the test. The bike is a rocket! But that’s for a later story. The first thing that floors you with the Red groupset is the shifting. Click, Click, Click. Wow, it’s a totally new experience. The shape and feel of the carbon shift lever is just right. The action is light, short and precise. The shift is sharp and almost instantaneous. These downshifts are so fast and precise that they’re a bit addicting. Upshifting is best described as a ‘eureka’ experience. To upshift, you use the same lever and the same direction as downshifting. But go past the downshift point by a few millimeters and the shifter interprets it as a dowshift. It works and it is consistent. And it is guaranteed to deliver and amazed look to the rider’s face during this initial experience.

Under power, shifting worked fine. The front derailleur moved the chain through the front rings with little drama or noise. Braking was powerful and it was easy to modulate. There was no noise or vibration experienced during the ride. Power delivery through the drivetrain worked flawlessly.

So on our first ride, we were left mighty impressed. This group has substance and style.

America’s Toughest Stage Race is on for 2008

Five stages, 342 miles, $75,000 purse and more than 30,000 ft. of climbing
is back and geared up

SALT LAKE CITY - Oct. 11, 2007 - Chairman of the 2008 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah Presented by Zions Bank, Greg Miller of the Larry H. Miller Group, announced that the bike race, whose fourth edition was cancelled earlier this year, is back on for 2008. Miller also announced that veteran Utah bike racer, coach and cycling advocate, Terry McGinnis, is on board as the Tour’s Executive Director. Billed as “America’s toughest stage race,” the 2008 Tour of Utah will feature more climbing than any other bicycle stage race in the United States: 342 miles and 30,000 feet of climbing in five days. Dates for the event will be August 13 through August 17, 2008.

“The purse is $75,000, which includes a brand new automobile,” said McGinnis. “We’re expecting more than 120 cyclists from the best teams in North America. This tour draws national attention, top-tier athletes, and will hopefully be one of only 25 USA Cycling National Race Calendar (NRC) events.”

“The 2008 Tour of Utah is going to be a huge draw to Utah,” said Swindlehurst, who also races with the Toyota United Cycling Team. “The Tour’s generous purse, experienced organizers, foresighted planning, riders, crowds, and events will mean one of the best cycling experiences of the year for the entire country. And it’s going to be beautiful.”

August 13, Stage One:     Nephi to Nephi
The first day’s event will mean 101 miles through rolling, central Utah. Beginning and ending in Nephi, racers will cut through neighboring towns of Fountain Green, Wales, Spring City, Fairview, Moroni and Mount Pleasant, and include a total of 4,851 ft. of climbing.

August 14, Stage Two:     Salt Lake to Ogden
Four climbs and a flat finish - 9,960 ft. of climbing. The road race will run 84 miles from Salt Lake City to Ogden, home of Weber State University.

August 15, Stage Three:     Downtown SLC Criterium
In the heart of Salt Lake City, the Downtown SLC Criterium is a 90-minute race around a flat, four-cornered track. Fast and furious, the circuit is one mile in length.

August 16, Stage Four:     Deer Valley to Snowbird
A mountaintop finish following four fierce climbs for a total of 14,778 vertical feet. From Deer Valley Resort in Park City, through the outskirts of Salt Lake to Snowbird Ski Resort: a road race of 99 mountainous miles.

August 17, Stage Five:     Miller MotorSports Park Individual TT
An 18-mile time trial starting and finishing at the Miller Motor Sportspark in Tooele, UT. The course begins with a slight uphill, then drops and turns aggressively skyward to the turnaround, where racers will head back toward the finish. Short, with 650 ft. of climbing, for a fast, tough time trial.

The Larry H. Miller Group is a consortium of companies owning automotive, sports, entertainment and other enterprises in and around Salt Lake City, including the Utah Jazz and Miller Motorsports Park. LHM’s involvement with the Tour of Utah dates back to 2006, when the Tour delivered Utah its “biggest cycling event in history.”

Source: Terry McGinnis

For Immediate Release
Berkeley, CA
October 16, 2007

Vanderkitten announces the establishment of Vanderkitten Racing, an experienced and talented team of Elite Women cyclists contesting the NRC Road circuit in 2008. Growing on the success of the one-woman team of Liz Hatch in 2007, Vanderkitten will be fielding a 6-woman elite team as well as developmental and regional support riders.

“Our success in sponsoring Liz Hatch in 2007 has convinced us that Vanderkitten and cycling go hand in hand. Our focus next year will be the majority of the NRC calendar, and to that effect we have signed 4 immensely talented girls with another 2 athletes to be announced shortly” says Vanderkitten’s Mark Zefeldt.

The current roster includes Leigh Valletti of Atlanta, GA, Mandy Lozano of Charlottesville, VA, Christine Vardaros of Mill Valley, CA, with Liz Hatch of Delray Beach, FL returning for another season. The team is accepting resumes and is in serious talks with several bike companies and corporate sponsors.

“Vanderkitten is thrilled to support these hard working, vibrant athletes and the sport of Women’s Cycling. We’re all looking forward to the upcoming season with great anticipation. Vanderkitten’s mission since its inception is to create a long-term relationship with cycling and raise the bar of sponsorships for women athletes. Highprofile athletes provide a tremendous marketing value to all parties associated with their image. Women influence both female AND male purchasing decisions. Why,
then, have women typically earned less than 10% of most pro male athletes salaries?” asks Vanderkitten’s founder David Verrecchia of Berkeley. Vanderkitten introduced a line of clothing and cycling apparel at Interbike whose proceeds go directly to build and support the cycling program. For more information please visit http://www.vanderkitten.com

source Jackie Baker
http://www.vanderkitten.com

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