Welcome to the 2007 TCR Show at Sandown Park in Surrey. This is the 5th outing for the UK's premier exhibition for triathletes, cyclists and runners and features a host of exhibitors, trade stands and mini events including the Taut 10k, the EAS Indoor Time Trial, the BlueSeventy swim zone featuring an endless pool plus seminars and guest speakers throughout both days.

Tri247 will be wandering the halls from our base on stand E31 and bringing you the latest updates and product information. If you drop by the stand, or see one of the crew in their white polo shirts, grab a business card off them. It'll have a secret code word on the back and if you enter this along with your email address when you sign up for the newsletter you could win one of three iPod Nanos.

Sunday news

New USE bars

Seems like everyone has a new tri bar this year and Richard Stannard brought over a set that he has been working on with USE, who are one of his sponsors. Designed specifically for the draft-legal circuit the Boost bars incorporate a neat titanium bridging bar and are millimetre length legal. The clamp will work with both stardard and oversize bars and the arm rests are unusually close to the bars for minimal offset. Uniquely, as far as we know, the rests are mounted on a "knuckle" which allows them to be adjusted both for angle and rake which means you can get a really personalised fit. The gel pads have been produced in conjunction with Fizik and should prove extremely comfortable. Pricing is expected to be around £100 and the weight is approximately 200gm. USE also have their one-piece Tula oversized fit carbon bar with integrated aero brake levers and length adjustable carbon extensions. The rests have the same knuckle arrangement as the Boost and the bars come in 38, 40, 42 and 44 widths. Price, including the brake levers, is £399 and weight is less than 500gm. USE website: www.use1.com

Clothing round-up

With TCR moving back into February it was always going to be a squeeze for the major players to get their 2007 clothing lines into the country. As it turned out, Orca managed to bring samples of clothes and stock of their suits while 2XU trumped them by bringing the lot. And, judging from the brisk business at the Sigma Sport stand, the 2XU clothing was going down a storm. The new triathlon lines and the compression gear were all bringing positive response from people we talked to and the ladies seemed to like the pink colourways.

While 2XU did have their full range of wetsuits on show, being the new kids on the block they were a little overshadowed by Orca and BlueSeventy. Orca set up their own stand doing fittings on the new 3.8, Apex 2 and Evo suits before sending the customers off to buy from their retaillers and BlueSeventy once again sponsored the Endless Pool and Swim for Tri.

Isaac Efficiency 2007

Sigma Sport are showing the new 2007 Isaac Efficiency as something of an exclusive on their stand. Long a popular frameset among triathletes and extremely competitively priced at £1,219 for the frame, fork, headset and seatpost it has been on a starvation diet and now weighs under 1.3Kg which should improve the responsiveness. Cable routing is now internal for improved aerodynamics and the downtube is a bit deeper too. The paint job is also very striking!

Hiding just behind the Isaac is the 2007 version of Sigma's Kronos which is being sourced from a new supplier this year which means that you get a fully aero triathlon or time trial frameset for just £999. Thames Turbo's elite team will be riding this for the coming season you when one of these goes past you you'll be able to appreciate that it really is a great bike for the money. Details on Sigma Sport's website: www.sigmasport.co.uk

GPS your phone

The never-ending march of technology integrating into sport seems to be throwing up all sorts of interesting new possibilities. SportsDo is a new company which is producing software that allows your mobile phone to integrate with a GPS unit and act as a recording system to track speed, distance and altitude. The software runs under Windows Mobile or on Java enabled devices like the Symbian powered phones and talks via Bluetooth to a stand-alone GPS pod. The software is just £35 if you already have a GPS pod or you can have it with a basic pod for £95 or a full HRM-capable unit for £195.

The SportsDo desktop is a slightly different system to the phone software in that it will download from existing GPS units like those from Garmin and this costs £20 or £75 with a basic GPS pod. Both systems link up to the SportsDo portal and you can share your data via the web and have routes plotted out on either Microsoft's Earth or Google Earth mapping systems. The idea was originally developed for skiing and is used on BBC's Ski Sunday to show downhill routes so it's well proven and robust. For more information and downloads of the software see the SportsDo website: www.sportsdo.net

Taut 10k

Andrea Whitcombe won in an unofficial time of 35:55 closely followed by boyfriend Simon Wilson and Paul Whittaker was 3rd. Full results are available through the Results panel on the left.

Waterproof your iPod

Launching on Thursday through a new website are a range of waterproof cases and headphones for all the iPod models. The case was being shown on the Sundog stand, the up and coming sunglass company who are one of the BTFs sponsors, but will be sold by a new company called Wraice.com (apparently the only spelling of "race" not already registered...) The cases will range in price up to £55 or can be bought as a complete kit with the headphones for prices up to £90 and we hope to get a sample to test very soon. They are also marketing a range of accessories like swim belts and armbands so the cases can be used outside of the pool as protection for the iPod on the bike or out running. The new website is: www.wraice.com

Sundog are also now signed up with Ironman UK as their official eyewear partner and with fixed lens glasses from £35 and interchangeable lens models going for £45 (two lens) and £50 (three lens) offer an exceptional alternative to higher priced brands. All the sports models include hydrophobic lens coating to shed water and hydrophillic grippers to keep the glasses in place even when you're sweating.

Saturday news

New kit from Madison

Madison are among the biggest of the bike trade distributors and handle key brands like Cervélo, Shimano, Profile, Giro, Bell and more besides. They exhibit at TCR every year, both to support the dealer network and to promote their Ultimate Pursuits mail order operation. New on the books this year are new tribars from Profile and Pro, a range of Profile branded Aquaman wetsuits and the full 2007 model line-up of Cervélo bikes.

The new Profile Carbon-X 1.5 bar is an evolution of the well-loved Carbon-X and is lower in profile for a more agressive position. As an alternative, there's the Missile bar from Pro which has virtually no rise at all on the pads and extremely dropped hand sections. The extensions are available in either straight or curved and are length adjustable for a custom fit. The Pro bars are £399 and you can use a stem of your choice while the Profiles are £250 and currently only come with a 10cm integrated stem.

The two new Cervélos on the stand are the SL versions of the R3 and the Soloist SLC, so it you've got £3,499 in spare change then the latter will do just fine in a 56cm, thank you! The P2C and P3 models are unchanged other than the striking new colour schemes.

VIP visitors

Simon Ward borrowed the Tri247 stand to interview Normann Stadler this morning and Normann will be back later to answer questions from us as well. Tim Don also dropped in to meet us and spent time on the sofa being grilled by John Levison and Bob Holloway - we'll post the interview up in full next week.

Planet X bars

Most tribars look pretty much the same -- indeed it's often hard to distinguish one from another until you spot the logos. What caught our eye on the Geoffrey Butler/Planet X stand were these -- the first production set in the country. Very definitely carbon - you just couldn't do that in alloy - and exceptionally ergonomic in design they are also very unusual in that they are specifically designed for use with STI levers and you cannot fit bar-end shifters at all. Pricing for the Xentis bars will be around £250 and they will be available in 42cm and 44cm widths.