Hushovd's move to BMC - punishment in place?

Yesterday Team BMC and reigning World Champion Hushovd confirmed the rumours that have been debated in the cycling community - he leaves Garmin-Cervelo for BMC. Hushovd signed a three year deal and will be closely followed during training in Monaco, something he says was important to him. At the same time, this indicates that he wasn't given the same follow-up while in Garmin. Team BMC will have people supporting Hushovd at several key training periods in Monaco, with a designated team car pacing him in the hilly mountains surrounding Monaco.

Hushovd's arrival at Garmin was debated back in the day, and many questioned tha fact that there were too many leaders in competing positions, something that could ignite some confusion within the team. I wrote a post about this in April, you can read that here.

Solo wins from Hushovd - a sight we'll be familiar with?

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The Vuelta
Last year, Hushovd did what many sprinters do, used the Vuelta as spesific training towards the Worlds. We all know how that went. Hushovd's personal coach told me before the season that Hushovd and he had three peaks as target for the 2011 season: the first week of April (RVV & P-R), the Tour and the Worlds. The two of them have identified that the Vuelta is a key factor for building and peaking the race form for the Worlds. Earlier this week, Hushovd's personal coach, Atle Kvålsvoll, said to procycling.no that he fears Hushovd will be punished for not continuing riding for Garmin. Kvålsvoll says that if Hushovd's not allowed to race the Vuelta, the US Pro Cycling Challenge is a possible alternative.

However, as of yet, nothing is decided. Jonathan Vaughters has not commented on the matter. The fact that Hushovd did a superb tdf and is the WC could mean that his position in the Vuelta is secure, but history says that riders who won't contribute next year isn't always getting their number one priorities. Vaughters has been clear that in Garmin-Cervelo, the word "team" is the most important one, not individuality. Will Vaughters prioritize to have sprinters leaving the Vuelta half-way, or focus on a possible top five GC? On the other hand, the organisers and team sponsors will probably want the reigning WC in the Vuelta for publicity.

I guess time will tell.


Photocredit: Sirotti, downloaded here.

More on Cervelo's superbike S5

On Sunday 26th of June I wrote a post on the new Cervelo bike, a post that turned out to be very popular. This was, at least to my knowledge, the first time the Cervelo S5 FM70 was used in a race.

Big head tube - notice the adjustment barrel for gears- mounted by the bike shop

Today I went into a bikeshop, to check on a bike I have in for maintenance. Suddenly I found myself gazing at the S5 himself, right there. I met a nice guy who works at the shop and we shared some stories about the bike and Cervelo in general. It turns out that the bike is one of only 4-5 bikes in Norway and it didn't even had a price tag. I asked what the cost was but all I got was an estimate. The shop is not allowed to sell the bike until August, allegedly due to some marketing "advice" from Cervelo.

When I first wrote about the bike I said it was a beauty. I was wrong, very wrong. It is not a beauty, it is a beast. Of all the road bikes I've seen, I can say without hesitation that this is the one built solely with the purpose of being fast. I know it is a cliché, and that every bike in the world is built for that purpose, but that is my general impression after seeing it up close and personal. Every detail screams it loud. I don't know if I would buy it, simply because it seems very uncomfortable to ride, a very aggressive bike indeed. Now I might be wrong because I didn't ride it.

That is some sized bottom bracket

The detail in this bike is thoroughly thought through (3 times in a row there..), and it is the detail I took pictures of. As you can see on the picture below, the downtube has been shaped to help the air flow around the water bottles.

Aero focus to the detail - waterbottles

My favorite part is that the seatstays seems to swallow the rear brake, letting the air flow around them as the bike is moving. Very clever.

The seatstays force the airflow around the rear brake

Aero seat tube

Large chainstays - the wheels could been better - not Gerard Vroomen's & co's fail though.

Cervelo's new superbike

Cervelo S5 FM70

Photo by Kristoffer Øverlie Andersen, downloaded here. 

The cycling industry is working overtime these days, prior to the tour. They produce new kit and kit with the special colour, in case a rider find himself in green or yellow. Some even produce a new bike. The Cervelo S5 has been rumoured to be in stores for some time, and eager fans have hoped to see it in bikestores tout de suite.


During the Norwegian National RR Championship, reigning WC Hushovd was using a somewhat special bike. It didn't look like a S3. @euanlinsay tweeted first about the bike being approved by the UCI, and I followed the race closely to find out more. And a nice bike it is.

Hushovd is familiar with S-series from Cervelo, after all, he won the WC on a S3 some nine months ago.
This S5 FM70 appears to be even more aero, and according to Hushovd himself, interviewed by procycling.no, saying the bike is "very stiff and responsive." The bike is so fresh that it arrived in Norway from Toronto via London a couple of days ago. A special engineer was sent from Italy to set up the bike properly. The UCI approved the bike on Friday.

Aero you said?

Photo by Kristoffer Øverlie Andersen, downloaded here. 

The interview Hushovd did and some more pictures can be found here, at procycling.no. The text is in Norwegian but that is manageable.