<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Bike - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest bike articles from Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Wattbike rewards scheme]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9562.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Wattbike has introduced a rewards scheme for UK users and customers, enabling them to receive top cycling products as a thank you for recommending the Wattbike to their friends and colleagues. Wattbike VIP customers choose their rewards from a range of desirable products including Rapha gift vouchers, Castelli clothing, Bont cycle shoes and Suunto training devices.

Customers registering as a Wattbike VIP at www.wattbike.com/uk/vip will receive a unique code to be used when their friends purchase a Wattbike.  Rewards range from Rapha gift vouchers for a single VIP recommendation, through to a full cycling assessment day delivered by Wattbike Sport Scientists Eddie Fletcher for five referrals.

The Wattbike has gathered a committed community of owners and users, who value the capability of the bike to help them achieve their fitness and lifestyle goals. This community of advocates is vociferous, both face-to-face and online. Using Twitter, Facebook and comments on blogs, Wattbike users often respond to questions about the merits of the bike and training methods.

&ldquo;We really value our customers, many of whom love the Wattbike approach to training so much that they encourage their friends to try it out,&rdquo; says Ian Wilson, Managing Director of Wattbike. &ldquo;Very often these friends go on to buy a Wattbike themselves. We felt it was only right to thank and recognise those customers that champion training on a Wattbike.&rdquo;

The rewards on offer match the aspirations of Wattbike customers, who typically want the best available cycling experience. Rewards at launch of Wattbike VIP come from Rapha, Castelli, Suunto, Bont, Le Col, MuleBar and a great range of Wattbike incentives.

Wattbike users and owners can register today at www.wattbike.com/uk/vip]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Royles Zipp 404 deal]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9549.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Royles have limited stocks of Zipp 404 clinchers (2011 edition) in both Shimano and Campagnolo variants at a special deal price of &pound;1150. This represents a &pound;750 (39%) saving on the RRP of &pound;1900. At these prices we wouldn&#039;t expect them to hang around long - it&#039;s worth remembering that if they are out of the variant you need you can swap the freehubs and even with the cost of the new body it will still be a decent deal.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Vanhoenacker signs with Scott]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9550.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[With the ending of the Commerzbank Triathlon Team at the end of 2011, one of the athletes impacted through the loss of the team&#039;s sponsorship set up was Belgium&#039;s Marino Vanhoenacker. Six-time (consecutive) winner of Ironman Austria, where he set a world record time of 7:45:49 last year, the Abu Dhabi 2011 second placer was looking to replace his sponsorship arrangements for 2012 and beyond. With a talent such as his, including a third place at Kona in 2010, he is of course in a fine position to progress on that front.
Marino is opening his 2012 racing season this weekend at Ironman 70.3 South Africa. 
Having recently announced on his website a  new supporter in the shape of the Fuertentura based Playitas resort - location this week of the Cerv&amp;eacute;lo P5 launch - today confirmation that one of his key weapons he won&#039;t be changing his his bike brand, Scott (www.scott-sports.com), who have announced their Global Professional Triathlon Roster  for 2012 where riders will be on their range-toping Plasma3.
The full squad is:

Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) 
Luke McKenzie (AUS)
Sebastian Kienle (GER)  
Cyril Viennot (FRA) 
Christian Brader (GER)


As well as the Plasma3, Marino will also be using Scott Road Premium shoes and the to be launched Scott TT helmet, alongside the Zipp wheels, SRAM Red groupset and Profile Design bars her has been so successful with.
 &amp;ldquo;We believe this roster of athletes will represent us well worldwide.  In&amp;nbsp;the wake of shifting from a &amp;lsquo;team&amp;rsquo; structure, like we had with  Commerzbank,&amp;nbsp;we&#039;re happy to have been able to keep the  best&amp;nbsp;performing Triathletes we&amp;rsquo;ve worked with over the past few  years&amp;quot; said Florian Brugger, Marketing Coordinator Triathlon.
&amp;quot;With  Marino Vanhoenacker signed for the next three years we&#039;ve been able to add a  big gun to our roster and together with the other guys, he&amp;nbsp;will give us  important feedback to work on our Triathlon division. 
&amp;quot;Almost all of our  triathletes will compete in SCOTT bike-shoes and the new 2012 TT helmet, which  we developed together with Simon Smart for Triathlon and TT for Team GreenEdge,  and Christian Brader and Cyril Viennot will be&amp;nbsp;racing&amp;nbsp;and training in  our SCOTT Running shoes. We are proud to keep all of these talented  athletes&amp;nbsp;on SCOTT Bicycles and still have most of them supported by SRAM,  ZIPP and Profile Design, our long-term triathlon partners over the last years.&amp;quot;]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[London Bike Show: EDCO wheels]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9526.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[We hadn&#039;t seen these before but the Swiss/Dutch EDCO wheels look very bling and have some impressive backing including a full rebuild service if you manage to break a spoke. The new UK distributor, Veroli, talks us through the range.



Check out all of our London Bike Show coverage articles:

  Wattbike video
  QimmiQ gel review
  Alter-G treadmill video

]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[London Bike Show: Wattbike]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9525.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[The first of our video reports from the London Bike Show in the ExCeL last week features the legend that is Steve Trew working out on a Wattbike. He&#039;s actually using it to check out how well he&#039;s recovering from his knee operation last year but the instant feedback on how efficiently you are pedalling would be a great benefit to any athlete.



Check out all of our London Bike Show coverage articles:

EDCO wheels video
QimmiQ gel review
Alter-G treadmill video
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Cav takes SPOTY]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9450.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[World road race champion and Tour de France green jersey winner Mark Cavendish won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award tonight making him only the second cyclist to win since Tommy Simpson in 1965.

He&#039;s reported on the BBC website as saying, &quot;This award is a landmark for cycling. For cycling to be recognised in a non-Olympic year is unheard of.&quot;

Golfer Darren Clarke was second while world 5,000m champion athlete Mo Farah took third.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Marko Albert joins Blue Competition Cycles]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9439.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Estonia&rsquo;s Marko Albert has confirmed that he will be signing with Blue Competition Cycles, cementing a relationship that began earlier in the year, and culminated with Marko securing 13th place at the Ironman World Championships in October.

&ldquo;I am really pleased to be partnering with Blue. I have been impressed by their detailed and passionate approach to building the fastest bike possible. The quality of my equipment is crucial to success in such a competitive field, and I believe Blue can help me get the best possible bike split,&rdquo; said Marko.

Blue Marketing Manager Chance Regina said that Marko would be a great addition to the team. &ldquo;Blue is excited to continue our work with Marko not just because we feel he has only begun to realize his potential at the Ironman distance, but also because he is a great person and fits the type of athlete we like to work
with&rdquo;.

Marko will be riding the second-generation Blue triad SL which is 200g lighter than the previous version but is just as stiff and aerodynamic. This is the same bike that is available to consumers with a free hour in the wind tunnel.

Marko represented Estonia at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics before making the move to half ironman racing in 2009, where he finished fourth at IM 70.3 Austria. After progressing successfully into the ironman distance, he is now focused on achieving a top five placing in Kona in 2012, as well as breaking the 8hr barrier at IM Austria in July.
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[AudioFuel for run, bike and swim]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9367.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[AudioFuel have been producing music assisted running programmes for a while now but recently branched out into other aspects of multisport with the launch of their swim and bike sessions. As the lady of the house is already a fan we handed over the headphones and pressed &#039;play&#039;...



A friend introduced me to the AudioFuel running system a while ago after I had been running for years with my own mix of music on an iPod. I was initially quite sceptical but the whole package is actually very good and Martin Yelling quickly became a regular running partner. I&#039;ve downloaded several of the sessions and they all give you a good workout and assuming you aren&#039;t entirely tone deaf it&#039;s easy to find the beat. I have to say that the one which is included in this package isn&#039;t one of my favourites but it&#039;s still a good interval workout. Most of the sessions I&#039;ve been doing have been aimed at longer distance and my needs aren&#039;t necessarily typical...

As I use a turbo trainer on a very regular basis I was very interested to try out the cycling module. I must stress that I have never taken a spin class in my life (and have little intention of ever doing so!) and I was concerned that being so used to having constant feedback from my cadence, power, speed and everything else that comes off the CycleOps PowerBeam I would be a little lost. However, if you are looking for a really solid interval session this module delivers. Even without the electronic aids I found that you rapidly pick up the beat, just as with the running modules, and you can follow along without any need for a cadence sensor.

As with any turbo session you can work to how you feel with increases in gearing and cadence (and you&#039;re told all this very clearly as the session progresses). I repeated the session with all the electronics turned back on and checked everything was as I expected and then turned the display off to see if I could work to a harder level just using the music. The answer is that you can - it&#039;s a great way to drive you along through a session.

If I have one comment it&#039;s that the four minutes of rest in-between efforts is a bit too much - but then it wasn&#039;t that long after my last big race so perhaps that&#039;s just my perception and others might be very grateful for the break!

To get a different opinion on the AudioFuel approach (and because we don&#039;t have a waterproof MP3 player to hand!) we farmed out the swim session to Karen, a friend who routinely swims to music of her own choosing. Here&#039;s her verdict:

This programme is excellent. It consists of a pyramid workout; swimming progressively faster and then slowing down again using increasing then decreasing arm speed. It is easy to follow with the coach counting the beats to ensure you get the correct arm speed for each phase and the beats in the music ensure you keep swimming at the right pace.

Each phase of the pyramid is done by time not distance which means it can be used in any pool or even in open water. Also because I was concentrating on swimming at the correct pace and using good technique I found the time flew by and felt I&rsquo;d had a good workout. I have already recommended it to other people and would love to have a longer version.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wiggle Dragon Ride acquired by Participate Sport]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9363.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Participate Sport, the Mass Participation Sports Events business, has announced the acquisition of the Wiggle Dragon Ride from Breakaway Cycling adding it to their portfolio of events including Cycletta supported by Victoria Pendleton and the Festival of Sport. Started in 2004, The Dragon Ride has the reputation as the favourite sportive event in the UK and has gained the added prestige of being appointed as the UK round of the UCI Golden Bike World Series by the world governing body, the UCI sitting alongside iconic sportives such as the Cape Argus Cycle Tour, La Pinarello and the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge.

Event Director Lou Lusardi will be continuing his role as Dragon Ride Event Director working alongside the extremely experienced Participate team, previously responsible for the creation and delivery of Etape Caledonia and Hibernia, The London Triathlon and many other events in their roles as Directors at IMG until a year ago. He will provide his expertise and support Participate in adding new aspects of the event designed to create an even better experience for participants in 2012. The Dragon Ride will start and finish at a wonderful new venue, the route has been revamped to be more exciting and the whole start and finish process will be enhanced and improved.

In announcing the acquisition of The Dragon Ride by Participate, Nick Rusling, CEO said, &quot;I am so excited to add The Dragon Ride to our portfolio of events. It is a jewel in the cycling calendar and one I have admired and respected for many years. Participate&rsquo;s ethos is all about delivering the best possible competitor experience and can&rsquo;t wait to work with Lou on the event and see how we can take it to the next level. Our team have created world class and unique events and we hope to bring something special to The Dragon Ride. With our Cycletta events linked with Vicky Pendleton gaining their unique place in the calendar in 2011 and our new Festival of Sport being run in 2012 for the first time, we are looking forward to giving cyclists an incredible summer of challenges next year.&quot;

Lou Lusardi said, &quot;I am looking forward to working with Participate on what will be a very exciting future for the Dragon Ride. The Participate team have some exceptional event experience to support me in delivering a great event in 2012, with new ideas and also importantly taking on all the key feedback from the 2011 event.&quot;

In 2011, the 4000 places sold out in only 22 hours! Entries for the 2012 Dragon Ride open on the 14th December 2011 at 9am so set the alarm. In 2012, the event will be centred on Margam Country Park, offering riders some of Wales&#039; most breathtaking scenery.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Conti Tyres competition]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_9345.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Win a trip to the legendary Continental tyre plant in Korbach. You will be flown to Germany for a two day trip around the factory and maybe a beer or two... The trip will take place on the 17th and 18th January 2012.

All you have to do is simply tell them why you want to see a tyre being made! A winner will be picked in December, good luck!

Visit their Facebook page for more details and the entry form.

Terms and conditions

	The trip will be on the 17th and 18th January 2012.
	Entrants must be over 18, be a UK resident and have a valid passport.
	If you win all you need to do is get yourself to the airport, the rest will be covered by Continental.
	If the first drawn winner cannot attend, Continental will pick another winner at random.
]]></description></item></channel></rss>
