RABOBANK STARTS BELGIAN SEASON OFF STRONG WITH PODIUM FINISH AT KUURNE-BRUSSELS-KUURNE

28th February 2010 - filed under Road

Dutch rider Rick Flens battles to second at Belgian semi-classic

The 2010 Spring Classics season is underway, and 26-year-Dutchman Rick Flens put Rabobank on the podium with a gutsy second-place finish at the 63rd Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in Belgium on Sunday, February 28.

On a wet, miserable day that saw just 26 of the 198 starters finish the 194-kilometre race, Flens made the winning three-man break and then sprinted to second place behind fellow Dutch rider Bobbie Traksel.

Rabobank riders were active in both the weekend’s Belgian semi-classic races—Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Together, the two races mark the start of the season in Belgium. Both Lars Boom, a former Cyclo-Cross World Champion, and Nick Nuyens, a Belgian veteran of the classics, launched attacks for Rabobank in Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. And on Sunday Flens rode his Giant TCR Advanced SL to one of the best finishes of his three-year professional career.

The Belgian classics season gets fully underway in March, with races such as Ghent-Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Boom and the rest of his Rabobank teammates will be part of the action throughout the spring season.

PROJECT BOOM

25th February 2010 - filed under Road

Rabo’s Dutch cyclo-cross champ turns his attention to the Spring Classics

At 24, Lars Boom is already on his way to owning one of the most complete trophy collections of any professional cyclist. The Dutch Rabobank rider from Vlijmen has won multiple Cyclo-cross World Championships, a major European stage race and a stage at the Vuelta a España. He even donned the climber’s jersey for a day at the 2009 Vuelta, his first grand tour.

Few other riders can claim such success in both the mud-splattered Northern European Lowlands and the arid mountains of Spain.

Now Boom is setting his sights on the races he has long dreamed of: the mighty Spring Classics. “I want to do the big races,” Boom told CyclingNews.com at the conclusion of his rookie pro road racing season last Autumn. “Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Amstel Gold—they are the ones that motivate me.”

This past year has been a transitional one for Boom. After dominating cyclo-cross at every level—winning World Championships as a junior, Under-23 and Elite Professional—he announced his aspirations in road racing. It was no great shock—Boom had already dabbled on the road as an amateur, and he rode to the 2007 U-23 Time Trial World Championship in Spain.

Boom’s road to the Spring Classics began in earnest a year ago, when he was called up from Rabobank’s Continental Team to the ProTour squad. He proved a quick learner, riding his Giant TCR Advanced SL to his first major stage-race victory at the five-day Tour of Belgium in May.

In August Boom embarked on his first grand tour, the three-week Tour of Spain, and on the 15th stage he launched a daring solo attack on the day’s key climb. Boom held on for the win, claiming another first: a grand tour stage win. He went on to finish 15th overall.

The transition to road racing was proving a success.

As the 2009 road season concluded last Autumn, Boom found himself in unfamiliar territory. Instead of his usual autumn routine of ramping up for cyclo-cross, he began prepping for this year’s Spring Classics. Hurdling barriers and skidding across frozen cow fields would have to wait for now. Instead, he headed south to pile up base miles in the mild temperatures.

Boom admits it felt strange. “In January, instead of getting ready for the Cyclocross World Championships in the Czech Republic, I was doing six-hour road rides in Spain,” he said. “I watched the cyclo-cross races from the hotel on my laptop computer.”

Though his focus is clearly on the upcoming road season, Boom still managed a short midwinter return to cyclo-cross. His 2010 ’cross season lasted exactly eight days, during which he raced twice.

The second of those two races was the Dutch National Championships in Heerlen. Boom showed up at the January 10 race to defend his National Champion’s jersey, and as he rolled to the start line in frigid temperatures, it was immediately clear he wasn’t messing around. He rode a matte-black prototype Giant TCX composite cyclo-cross bike. Gerben de Knegt, his Rabobank teammate, had one too.

Sure enough, after a hard-fought battle, Boom and de Knegt finished first and second. It was an important milestone in the prototyping phase of the next-generation composite TCX. When it comes to developing new technologies, this is how Giant does it. Nothing beats product testing under the most demanding conditions possible, and the feedback from athlete partners like Boom is critical to the process.

“The new compositeTCX is a big step forward,” Boom said. “It’s lightweight, stiff, and handled incredibly well in some challenging conditions.”

Then, just like that, Boom’s ’cross season was over. He placed his fifth Dutch National Cyclo-cross medal in the trophy case, hung up the TCX, and caught a flight back to Spain.

As Rabobank team training camp commenced in mid-January in Spain, Boom swung a leg over his other composite race rig, the Giant TCR Advanced SL. It’s the bike he rode to victory at the Vuelta last September and the one he’ll rely on as he takes to the cobbles this spring.

Created and developed at C-Tech, Giant’s composite engineering think tank, the TCR Advanced SL features a laundry list of technical innovations that have allowed the bike, and Rabobank pros like Boom, to redefine the rules of performance.

It starts with the material, a raw composite called T-800 that’s meticulously woven at Giant’s own composite factory. Giant takes that material and employs it’s unique, unparalleled construction techniques to produce a bike that best balances the three most desired traits for grueling 260-kilometre races like Paris-Roubaix: weight, stiffness and comfort.

And the crux of the story is this: Boom and every one of his Rabobank teammates will roar into the Spring Classics with the confidence that comes from knowing Giant has carefully conceived and controlled every step of the process from which the bikes are born. Materials, engineering, design, construction, prototyping. No other major bike brand can claim the same.

Project Boom, target Spring Classics. It’s all systems go.

FREIRE STRIKES AGAIN!

23rd February 2010 - filed under Road

Spanish sprinter scores second straight stage win for Rabobank at Ruta del Sol

Oscar Freire chalked up another win for Rabobank, scoring his second straight stage victory at Stage 3 of the Ruta del Sol stage race through southern Spain. Freire survived a tough, hilly 162.5-kilometre race from Marbella to Benahavis, and sped past Grega Bole (Lampre) and Simon Gerrans (Sky) to win the final sprint on his Giant TCR Advanced SL team bike.

Despite riding without Laurens Ten Dam, who was injured in a crash near the finish of Stage 2, the Rabobank team controlled the race, setting the pace over the final 15 kilometres and putting Freire in position to contest the final sprint.

Freire, the three-time world champion from Spain, is off to his best season start in years. The Stage 3 win at La Ruta, a traditional early-season stage race in Spain, was his third victory of the season.

Stage 4, a 10.9-kilometre time trial, is expected to be decisive in the General Classification. The race concludes on Thursday, February 25.

FREIRE SPRINTS TO STAGE WIN IN SPAIN

22nd February 2010 - filed under Road

Rabobank rider scores his second win of the season at Ruta del Sol stage race

Rabobank’s Spanish sprinter Oscar Freire surprised German Robert Wagner with a come-from-behind sprint victory in Stage 2 of the Ruta del Sol stage race in Córdoba, Spain.

Freire timed his sprint perfectly, powering his Giant TCR Advanced SL team bike past a surprised Wagner at the finish of the 182.2-kilometre stage. In beating some of the world’s top sprinters, including Brit Mark Cavendish who was fourth, Freire showed the top form that has earned him three world championship titles.

Now in its 56th year, the Ruta del Sol is a traditional early-season stage race in Spain. Freire won the overall here in 2007, and another Rabobank rider, Joost Posthuma, won the race last year.

This year’s five-day Ruta del Sol travels through southern Spain, concluding February 25. Riders face a hilly 162.5-kilometre route in Stage 3 and a decisive 10.9-kilometre time trial on Stage 4.

PUTS THE FUN BACK INTO EVERY RIDE

19th February 2010 - filed under Mountain

Recently What Mountain Bike tested Giant’s Anthem X 4 scoring it a massive 4.5 stars, now MBUK have Wrecked & Rated the same ride in their March issue.

First up Workshop Wisdom praises Giant’s Maestro Suspension System which lies at the heart of every Giant full suspension bike;

“It’s neat, beautifully engineered and arguably one of the most elegant suspension systems currently on the market”

“The Maestro rear end manages what all suspension systems attempt and few achieve – small bump suppleness, big hit versatility and a ‘connected’ trail feel..”

The ‘wallet-friendly’ Anthem X doesn’t just have the suspension performance, it has the looks and frame design to match;

“The Anthem X 4’s clean lines hide subtly hydroformed tubing that put’s aluminium where it’s needed for strength or stiffness and removes it where it’s not”

Combine a ‘svelte’ frame taking advantage of Giant’s ‘unparalelled’ access to ‘cutting edge manufacturing technology’, an ‘impressive’ shock and fork and an uncompromising spec and you get another test winner with another 4.5 stars!

“Giant’s superb Anthem X platform puts the fun back into every ride, providing a light, torsionally rigid and extremely supple suspension system. Simply put it’s peerless..”

GIANT ANNOUNCES MAJOR EXPANSION OF ITS PRO MTB PROGRAM

12th February 2010 - filed under Mountain

New Rabobank-Giant Off-Road Team and expanded Giant Factory Off-Road Team will feature top cross-country and downhill athletes

With the addition of the all-new Rabobank-Giant Off-Road Team, which will focus on World Cup, cross-country and cyclo-cross racing, plus an expanded Giant Factory Off-Road Team, Giant is dramatically increasing its mountain bike racing presence in 2010.

Between the two teams, Giant has assembled a diverse group of off-road athletes including Olympians, world champions and freeride stars. All play critical roles in Giant’s continued commitment to develop and test Maestro-equipped suspension bikes, XtC hardtails and TCX cyclo-cross bikes in the demanding conditions of professional competition.

The newest component of Giant’s off-road program is the Rabobank-Giant Off-Road Team. With four full-time XC racers, including U.S. Olympian Adam Craig, this will be a year-round global operation supporting XC riders during the mountain biking season and cyclo-cross riders in the fall and winter.

“From an athlete’s standpoint, it’s the ideal setup,” Craig said. “There are certain similarities between cross-country mountain biking and cyclo-cross, and there’s always some athlete cross-over between the two disciplines. So structuring it under one team makes sense.”

For the 2010 mountain bike season, Craig will be joined by a trio of talented young XC racers: Emil Lindren (Sweden), Fabian Giger (Switzerland) and Henk Jaap Moorlag (The Netherlands). All are all under 25 and rising through the ranks of World Cup XC competition.

“I’m thrilled Giant is stepping up its commitment through the new partnership with Rabobank on the off-road side of things,” Craig added. “Both brands have been committed to racing for a long time—it’s an honour for me to be a part of this new partnership.”

Giant Factory Off-Road Team Expands

In addition to the new team, the Giant Factory Off-Road Team is expanding for 2010. The roster includes two new gravity racing talents who will compete globally on the  World Cup circuit: two-time U.S. Downhill Champion Duncan Riffle and 18-year-old British downhiller Danny Hart, winner of the 2009 World Cup DH Junior series and bronze medalist at the 2009 World Junior Downhill Championships.

Riffle, 23, is currently ranked 21st in the UCI world downhill rankings and looking forward to focusing on the most prestigious international downhill events.

“I’ve always been a fan of Giant bikes and I can’t wait to hit the 2010 World Cup series on the new Giant Glory,” Riffle said. “To be successful on the World Cup circuit, you need the right equipment and the right support, and I know I’ll have that.”

The other Giant Factory Off-Road Team rider with a global agenda is 2008 Red Bull Rampage silver medalist Kurt Sorge. The 21-year-old Canadian has developed into a household name in slopestyle and freeride competition and will headline the biggest freeride competitions and films in 2010.

Four other Giant Factory Off-Road Team riders will have a continental focus in 2010. One is Australian Jared Rando, a veteran Australian DH and slalom racer who medaled at both the Sea Otter Classic and Crankworx events last year. Rando will focus on Australian and North American events and will continue to play an important role in Giant’s product development efforts.

Three familiar names make up the cross-country contingent of the Giant Factory Off-Road Team. Former U.S. National Champions Carl Decker and Kelli Emmett will each continue to focus on North American XC and Super D racing, and British Olympian Oli Beckingsale will compete primarily in U.K. and European XC events.

With two teams canvassing every major event in mountain biking, Giant looks forward to its biggest year yet in off-road competition.

Rabobank-Giant Off-Road Team
Adam Craig (USA), XC, ST
Fabian Giger (Switzerland), XC
Henk Jaap Moorlag (The Netherlands), XC
Emil Lindren (Sweden), XC

Giant Factory Off-Road Team
Oli Beckingsale (Great Britain), XC, ST
Carl Decker (USA), XC, ST, Super D
Kelli Emmett (USA), XC, ST, Super D
Danny Hart (Great Britain), 4X, DH, DS
Jared Rando (Australia), 4X, DH, DS
Duncan Riffle (USA), 4X, DH, DS
Kurt Sorge (Canada), Freeride

PRO CYCLING TEST THE WORLD'S FASTEST BIKE

11th February 2010 - filed under Giant

"The performance of Rabobank's TT bike matches it's superb looks"

Giant's futuristic Trinity Advanced SL features in Pro Cycling's Season Preview edition and tester Ellis Bacon soon discovered that The World's Fastest Bike's incredible looks are matched by it's incredible performance.

The space age machine was piloted to Giro d'Italia victory in 2009 by Rabobank's Denis Menchov, despite a dramatic Time Trial fall in the final stage, and is now available to anyone wanting to beat the clock and the competition.

"The Trinity Advanced is an impressively fast package, which lives up to it's billing out on the road"

The 'eye-catching' machine was tested in it's SL2 format, running Giant's own rims and new 6700 Ultegra and 'begged to be given it's chance to shine'.

Pro Cycling Season Preview is on sale now.  For your neares stockist of the Giant Trinity Advanced SL click the 'DEALERS' tab at the top of the page.

PRETTY PERFECT

11th February 2010 - filed under Giant

Giant’s new Trance X Advanced SL 0 goes through Singletrack Magazine’s ‘Grinder’ in the February issue which is currently on sale. Five weeks of intensive everyday testing later and Giant’s ‘phenominally light’ 5 inch Maestro equipped, trail taming monster left tester Matt Letch grinning.

The Trance X Advanced SL has a ‘very strong, very light’ frame thanks to the specially produced T800 raw carbon coming from Giant’s own C-Tech facility andadvanced construction techniques;

“Aesthetically the front end looks very tough with huge main tubes and tapered headtube, it looks like it could handle anything!”

Giant’s Maestro suspension platform which is fully active over all types of terrain and unaffected by pedalling or braking forces let Matt fly up ascents with ease and he ‘even had some breath to speak’ as he climbed;

“With the recent weather we’ve had, it’s ability to grip uphill on icy cobbles is incredible: while others had got off in disgust as their bikes spat traction this just kept going”

A bike that is so good at climbing could be excused for being a little twitchy on the descents but no need for excuses for the Trance X Advanced SL;

“..the rear suspension is so active it just swallowed up anything; rocks, roots, the lot.”

The finishing is ‘basically a wish list of top-notch kit’, with Giant’s new Contact SLR XC Riser Bar’s feeling ‘bang on’. All in all ‘it’s a great, light bike.’

“..the suspension is so capable of swallowing stuff relative to it’s travel it’s surprising what it’ll ride through…it’s totally capable of being raced on and you’re not going to be able to blame the bike if you’re not in the top ten.”

FREIRE RIDES GIANT TO HIS FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON

9th February 2010 - filed under Road

Rabobank’s three-time World Champion scores stage win at Spanish season opener

Rabobank’s Oscar Freire claimed his first win of the 2010 season on Monday, outsprinting the field in the second day of racing at the five-day Mallorca Challenge in Spain.

The three-time World Champion outsprinted German André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) on his Giant TCR Advanced SL team bike to take the Trofeo Cala Millor stage in his home nation of Spain. It was the 32-year-old’s eighth career win at the Mallorca Challenge, the traditional season opener in Spain.

Freire’s win, over one of the world’s fastest sprinters, marked a promising start to the 2010 season—especially after an injury-shortened 2009 during which he only scored two wins.

“To begin the season with a victory always gives you motivation,” Freire said. “I’ve achieved a win without being in top form, so I am happy.”

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TWICKENHAM STAGES GIANT ARRIVAL

4th February 2010 - filed under EVENTS

It’s a cycling revolution, as new bicycle store - Giant Store - Twickenham opens its doors for business.  The latest brand store experience begins with a ring of your bell as global big boys “Giant” open their fourth brand store right here in London.

Open for business from 30^th January, the Giant store aims to offer consumers a whole new cycling experience. 

Bruce Berkely, Manager of The Giant Store - Twickenham commented, “…we are working in partnership with our friends at Giant to bring the people of Twickenham a cycle shop experience second-to-none with the best selection of bikes around, we aim to set the standards of modern retailing… in our store it’s all about the consumer..”

Taiwanese owned Giant is the largest manufacturer of bicycles in the world, globally responsible for making around 5.6 million bicycles a year.  President of Giant, Tony Lo commented, ”…the location is perfect and the store looks great, genuinely representing the Giant Cycling World.”

The Giant store offers something for all whether experienced cyclists, city commuters or budding enthusiasts, it’s all about giving it a go and if you are not certain we actively encourage all customers to demo a bicycle.

Giant UK Marketing Manager, Collette Clensy said, “I’m delighted that our fourth UK brand store is open… I think this store will be welcomed by all locals, as they enjoy the healthier side of life and get right into the cycling culture”

The new store opened at 111 Heath Road, Twickenham, TW1 4AF on Saturday 30^th January.