After a year of racing as part of one of the best amateur teams in France, Alex Howes is returning to his roots, rejoining the Slipstream organization, as he will be racing with the U23 team VMG/Felt for the 2009 season. Through it all, Alex has chronicled his adventures through his blog sharing his ups and downs with the world.

The 20-year old (almost 21) Alex Howes was born in Golden, Colorado. He came up through the ranks of the Slipstream organization first as a junior with the 5280 team and then spent a year with the Slipstream squad in 2007. He capped that season with a foray to France racing at the Tour du Limousin and the GP Plouay where he launched the first attack of the ProTour race.

At the end of 2007, he joined one of the best amateur team in France, the VC La Pomme which is based in the Marseille area to continue his to learn to achieve his goal of racing professionally full-time in Europe.

I caught up with Alex right before the US Cyclocross Nationals where he finished fourth in the U23 race.

How did you get into cycling?
Alex: My father did it for quite some time. It just kind of happened, he put me on a bike, he put me on another bike.

And that was it?
Alex: And that was it. Now he doesn’t really do it much anymore and I spend 30 hours on my bike (chuckles). I was brought up through the ACA here, the American Cycling Association, the local club, they have a very good juniors program, so it was pretty easy as far as trying to find races and things like that.

How did you get with the Slipstream in 2007?
Alex: I was with the junior development team [5280 Magazine] and I don’t know, I guess I got a couple of results and Jonathan [Vaughters] was looking to bring a couple of the younger guys up, it was and to some extent still is a development team so he brought me and Peter Stetina up from the junior ranks …. and he handed me the contract at Nationals one year, it was right after I got third, a third place that I was really disappointed with, I cramped up just before the line, I probably should have won but it [the contract] was a huge surprise: ‘well you lost, here’s a contract’. ‘Whoa, all right’.

You were with the team with Slipstream in 2007, and then moved to France. Why?
Alex: I was with Slipstream the whole year that season. The reason I went over to Europe in 2007 is with Slipstream, I did a couple of races here and there, the road races we did were Chateauroux, Limousin and Plouay.

Why did you decide to stay in France in 2008?
Alex: The reason was because Slipstream had gone from a development into a more or less a ProTour team, it went from a team that was hoping to get into mildly fast French races to want to race the Tour next year. It was a huge jump, too fast for me and all parties decided that it was better if I found a team that was a little bit more geared towards a little lighter racing schedule. While I was over there, Vaughters made a couple phone calls and helped set me up with a really good French team.

Read the rest of this entry �

The Tour De France is one of the most intense and grueling events in all of sports!

VERSUS, the exclusive cable television home of the Tour De France, is celebrating clean competition with “Take Back the Tour”. The campaign was created to champion the riders who compete clean, while giving a platform and a voice to the passionate fan base that supports them.

Check out Christian Vandevelde talk about racing in this year’s Tour de France through the mountains.

At just 23 years old, Steven Cozza (Garmin/Chipotle) has faced adversity in his cycling career. In 2007, he sustained a serious head injury after crashing in the rainy Stage 3 at the Tour de Picardie and still suffers from the trauma. Upon his return, after a 3 month long recovery period, Steven won the Best Young Rider classification at the Tour of Missouri, and then followed that up with his first professional victory in Stage 6 of the Vuelta a Chihuahua.

His 2008 season started off with top ten showings in the Tour of California prologue and stage 1 of the Vuelta a Castilla y León, but Steven was sidelined with a broken collarbone from a crash at the Three Days of De Panne in early April.

Steven Cozza (Garmin/Chipotle) attacks in Stage 1 of the Tour de Nez

I caught up with Steven right after the first stage of the Tour de Nez, the 75-minute Reno criterium, had put in multiple attacks that were neutralized and he finished tenth in the bunch sprint. With his well-known honesty, Steven answered my questions with self-deprecating wit and a smile.

Read the rest of this entry �

Elite cycling squad officially renamed Team Garmin-Chipotle Presented by H30

Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, announced today its title sponsorship of Slipstream Sports, an elite cycling team that will be showcasing its dedication to clean competition in one of the biggest events in professional sports: the Tour de France. In tackling the daunting stages of the Tour — and redefining the face of cycling — Team Garmin will train and race with the Edge 705 GPS-enabled cycling computer and travel with nüvi 770 personal navigation devices. The sponsorship will extend through 2010 and the entire team – from kits to cars, will be re-branded for the Tour de France.

“Slipstream cyclists are setting the standard for success through integrity and sportsmanship,” said Jon Cassat, Garmin’s vice president of communications, “and this fresh perspective on work ethic and accountability is in keeping with Garmin’s worldwide reputation for accomplishing great things through teamwork.”

Packed with detailed maps of North America and Europe — and several million preloaded points of interest — the widely acclaimed nüvi 770 will help Team Garmin’s tour bus and support vehicles travel with speed and ease across two continents. Barely bigger than a deck of cards, the nüvi 770 features traffic alerts, Bluetooth compatibility, route-planning capabilities for multi-stop trips and instant answers to the questions: “Where am I?” and “Where’s my car?”

The Edge 705 represents several breakthroughs in cycling technology, including power compatibility, wireless unit-to-unit connectivity and the ability to monitor GPS position, heart rate, speed, cadence, altitude and gradient on the same display. And Team Garmin will be able to share data – including saved rides, waypoints and workouts –through ANT+Sport™ wireless technology.

Read the rest of this entry �

Irvine, CA — Felt Bicycles is very proud to announce the introduction of its all-new road bike - the Felt AR. Conceived, designed and built on the premise that greater aerodynamic efficiencies could be applied to standard road bikes, and inspired by the direct desires of the Slipstream/Chipotle-H3O Pro Cycling Team, the AR successfully debuted in last Wednesday’s 23rd edition of the 210K one-day Dutch Food Classic (1.HC), where Martijn Maaskant (below) finished top-10 after an aggressive day of racing, including time off the front.

The AR combines already-proven Felt TT and track bike solo-effort technology and advantages while maintaining the necessary ride and handling characteristics of Felt premium road bikes. Wind tunnel testing has already shown that the AR is not only faster than all other road bikes in its class, in many cases it is faster than a great number of available TT bikes. In general terms, the new AR offers approximately a 2% savings over a standard road bike when in identical conditions. Depending on actual speed and wind conditions, this equates to a savings of 58-75(+) seconds over the course of a one hour ride.

The new AR frameset includes design highlights such as UCI-legal aero down tube, head tube, chainstays and fork blades, aero “wheelwell” conforming seat tube and shielded internal cable routing. The full carbon fiber monocoque design frame is built with Felt’s highest grade of carbon fiber, Ultra Hybrid Carbon (“UHC”). Aero bladed fork is also built with premium UHC carbon fiber and includes a full length carbon steering column. UHC is a blend of three distinct fiber types (SB60, M30S and T700) each specifically layered and integrated based on their own unique attributes and characteristics. The new AR frameset also includes revolutionary Nano technology, a resin-specific attribute which creates an effective “super-bond” in the carbon fiber material. The end result is an even stronger exterior, one which is considerably less susceptible to crack and impact damage, and offers greater compression and sheer strength than carbon fiber without it.

“We consider the AR another step in the continued and ongoing development of our road bikes” says Felt US President Bill Duehring. “With all we have learned from our various time trial related projects, it seemed like a natural progression for us. Knowing the AR will now be a big part of the team’s equipment arsenal is really very exciting, especially going into the Tour de France.”

Photographer Ken Conley is down in Georgia covering the 2008 Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T, he’ll be checking in daily with a journal of each stage, as well as a photo gallery.

Today was probably the best day of my cycling photography career. First off, I got to ride the moto. Second, I got to ride the moto. Third, it was a fantastically designed stage. Not only was it a team time trial, but it was held on a racetrack so that spectators and photographers got many opportunities to see the riders. And fourth, I got to meet some people I only knew online (James of Bicycle Design and Frank of TdfBlog).

I started off the day shooting the Slipstream bikes once more, though I had a good reasons this time. I knew they were going to win and there was a good story element: the mechanic was attaching “Just Go Harder” labels to the back of the seatposts as a tribute to Timmy Duggan, who’s recovering in the hospital. I felt silly taking that many takes of the label, but there wasn’t much else going on, and I really felt that I would need a great take of it. James of Bicycle Design was there as well, busy shooting the Zipp 1080s.

I also stopped by the Rock Racing merchandise tent so that I could grab a shot of the aforementioned Beast that I helped load last night. I did my best imitation of the Rock-Racing-style-like processing that I learned about last night, but am having trouble translating from Lightroom to Adobe Bridge.

Read the rest of this entry �

As the leader of the Team Slipstream-Chipotle Presented by H30 at the Redlands Bicycle Classic, a relaxed Tom Danielson was riding in his first race after major back pains forced him out of the fourth stage of the Amgen Tour of California, in February. It was later diagnosed that Danielson had suffered a herniated disk from his crash at the first stage of the Vuelta a España in September of last year.

Tommy D at Redlands Time Trial, photo © Lyne Lamoureux

After weeks of rehabilitation, Danielson felt ready to race again and was eager to refine his form before one of his favorite races, the upcoming Tour de Georgia.

“I feel really rested, I feel like my back is strong, I don’t have any pain at all in it. It’s just really nice to be finally racing in 2008, it’s been quite a struggle to get here from my big crash in September but I’m here in America, enjoying American racing so it’s really good.” said a smiling Danielson.

Read the rest of this entry �