Interbike News and Tidbits
By Christy Nicholson
The largest edition of Interbike took place in Las Vegas this past week with 735 bicycle and accessory manufacturers showing their new lines. It is always fun to go check out the new products, run into old friends and spend a few days in Sin City. Here is recap on some of the fun things at Interbike that we saw. Check back later for manufacturer coverage.
Pro Rider Sightings
We ran into our old racing friend Tina Pic while walking the show. It was great to catch up with her and share some laughs. Tina was always one of my favorite people to race with and it is good to see she is still going strong. She'll be racing her last race this weekend at the Track Nationals at the ADT Event Center Velodrome and is really looking forward to some well deserved time off, before going back to work for Colavita / Cooking Light next year. The 4 Time National Criterium Champ is still perplexed on how her crash with Laura Van Gilder happened at Crit Nats, but had a great sense of humor about it.
We also had the pleasure of running into Olympian Tony Cruz (Toyota-United) and Jason McCartney (Discovery Channel). Tony will be returning to Discovery Channel next year and is excited to race in Europe again with his old team.
We encountered a few other star site sightings; US Pro Road Race National Champion, George Hincapie (Discovery) and his wife were spotted at Caesars Palace while we were dining at Spagos. We also saw star sprinters Mario Cippolini and Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricol), Fast Freddie Rodgriguez (Davitaman-Lotto) and former World Mountain Bike Champion Alison Dunlap and the Luna Chix.
Navigator's Team Director Ed Beamon was spotted having a long conversation at the Venetian with US Pro Crit Champion Brad Huff (TIIA-Cref).
Team News
We found out a few tidbits on the Team front that sound interesting. It looks like Anna Millward (nee Wilson) may manage the Women's T-Mobile Team. Having raced with Anna and seen her win many major races, I think she will be a great addition with her tactical knowledge and easy going Aussie personality.
It looks like Tom Schuler's Team Sports is going to merge and manage the Colavita Mens Pro Team and Target Training Pro Cycling Team. This means a bigger budget, but probably a lot of guys will be looking for a new team.
Scott Moninger and Mike Sayers are leaving Health Net/Maxxis to ride for the new BMC Domestic Pro Team and provide leadership to the younger riders. With Gord Fraser retiring too, this will leave a void on the Health Net/Maxxis roster.
Missing in Action
There were a few things that were missing from the show this year. I did not see pictures of Landis, Ullrich, and Basso used in the trade show displays. They may have been there, but they didn't catch my eye. It also seemed like companies weren't using photos of Euro teams and riders in their displays as much as they usually do.
Cannondale participated in the Outdoor Demo, but not the Indoor Show. Trek stayed in Wisconsin.
Best Happy Hour
One of my favorite activities at the Bike Show is hitting up the happy hours. After walking around the show all day, a nice cold beer hits the spot. A few manufactures that had the keg flowing were Power Bar, GT, Marin, Fallbrook Technologies, Accelerade and SRAM. Power Bar and Marin were giving away commemorative glasses for their 20th anniversaries. These companies have great taste in beer and were pouring the good stuff like Sierra Nevada and Fat Tire Ale. I have to say SRAM had the best happy hour with free flowing beer, chick arm wrestling and lots of schwag being tossed to the crowd.
In all it was a great time!
