ToC - HOW DID WE RATE? DAILY :K #6

The 2009 Tour of California has come to a close but Powered:By fi’zi:k is not quite finished with our tour behind the scenes. With an estimated 1.6 million fans and ToC participants, to say that we were proud to be there would be an understatement. Dirtied hands, unforeseen mishaps and speed bumps tossed into the mix, and fifteen hour days of labor and laughter, contributed to a remarkable experience for Powered:By fi’zi:k.



Come in she said I’ll give you shelter from the storm.”
-Bob Dylan

Of the seventeen participating teams at the Tour of California, fifteen enjoyed the luxury of having a home on wheels to shelter them from rainy stage starts and to provide them with a heated haven following four to five hours of bone chillin’ downpours. While visiting European teams reap certain unstated benefits of being an ‘invited’ pro tour team, not all US based teams have the required budget to pony up for a 33-foot chariot. For that reason (plus that other tidbit about the 1.6 million viewers) Powered:By fi’zi:k was pleased and proud to be able to step up to help out our newest sponsoree, Fly V Australia presented by Successful Living on two week’s notice!

It wasn’t our only team out there (eight teams riding fi’zi:k saddles) but ironically, it was the team most decimated by a nasty traveling inter-peloton virus. One by one, day after day, illness struck – and one by one they left. In the end, the 8-team member capacity team bus held two lone riders – Ben Day and Curtis Gunn*- there to weather the storm and finish what they’d started. (*Curtis Gunn started but did not finish the final stage due to a knee injury).

Curtis Gunn and Ben Day

TWO WEEKS NOTICE

Two weeks notice, an idea hatched over a cup of coffee with 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist Steve Hegg, and a wrap design created by Crank Brother’s Art Director extraordinaire Tim Van Gilder in the span of two hours, and Powered:By fi’zi:k was born. So…how did we rate when stacked up against the others?

Team OUCH presented by Maxxis

Team GARMIN-SLIPSTREAM

Team BMC

Team Quickstep

Cervelo Test Team

Team Jelly Belly

Team Rabobank

Team Liquigas

Team Astana

Team Saxo Bank

Team Columbia - High Road

Team Ag2r

Team Type 1

Powered:By fi'zi:k

How'd we do?

TOC – POWERED:BY FI’ZI:K - FROM INSIDE – DAILY :K #4, PART 1

From Inside the Team OUCH Car...

Team OUCH - fi’zi:k’s longest running US pro sponsorship partner - invited fi’zi:k into the team car for Stage Four’s 115 mile tour from Merced to Clovis.

There are a couple of things to know before jumping into a team car:

1. If female, limit coffee intake prior to getting in a team car – stopping for a female-appropriate relief break is rare (we’ve got this one down).
2. Be ready to settle in for what could potentially be a long, sleepy day.
3. No hanging out of the Team Car to take photos (our good friend Adrian Montgomery at Scott USA learned this one a few years back at the Tour of Georgia).
4. If a semi-hang out attempt is made for the rare photo opp (ie. of Lance) you may get the stink eye (experienced several years back at the Tour of Georgia). Thus, get ego in check.

Riding in a team car looks glamorous from the outside and can in fact, be absurdly exciting. Other than being a pro in the bunch, it’s tough to get much closer to the action. For the most part, the best view point will always be from the living room couch. Days can be brutally long in the team car - there’s no getting out to stretch or to stop for coffee - and if the hosting team car is ranked anything below Team Car #4 or #5 (the cars are numbered from 1-17 based on the General Classification), you are all but removed from the action. So, while exciting at times, the view from the tube is a great vantage point to watch a pro cycling race.


[Of special note, should the opportunity arise to jump in a team car, sharing the same language with driver and mechanic is a must. Otherwise, there is literally no one with whom to speak for approximately four to six hours. Chatting on the phone is a bad behavior.]

HOW IT WORKS:
Each team car (two cars per team at the ToC), has a Technical Guide that outlines the details of the day’s stage: left and right turns, railroad crossings, King of the Mountain Sprints, and the Feed Zone. The race usually starts with a few ‘neutral laps’ in each hosting start town – to put on a show for the locals – and after a designated distance, the race is officially on.


After a designated amount of distance (usually 20 miles or so), the race is then ‘open to feeding’. At this point, the riders can drop back to their team cars to grab bottles, snacks, or to drop off or pick up clothing. There’s an organized system to ‘feeding’ that goes like this (we’ll refer to Team OUCH since they were the hosting car). Team OUCH rider drops back to the rear of the main pack and raises his hand (as if to ask a question). The race radio announcer in Commissaire Car #2 spies the rider’s hand, and then announces over the team race radio, “Team OUCH for feeding.” In the meantime, Team OUCH rider has already radio’d his Director (driving the car) that he’s coming back for bottles – and Team Director (Mike Tamayo) has thus already made his way up through the caravan (Team OUCH was car #11 during this stage) toward the back of the pack by the time Team OUCH car has been called up.

Tim Johnson grabbing bottles.

Cam Evans doing domestique duties.

Photo time.

Another potential action photo opportunity occurs during flat tires and crashes. We usually refrain from snapping during crashes. FIRST THE FLATS…

While flats are a fairly common occurrence during race action, requiring the team car to find their rider and swap out their front or rear wheel (a technique mastered by mechanics taking less than ten seconds) – they can make or break the cyclists overall GC standing. This can depend on the terrain and what’s happening in the race when the flat occurs.



When a rider flats, the rest of the group doesn’t just ‘wait up’. The amount of effort required to catch back on has been known to crack many a cyclist – causing them to throw in the proverbial towel on the entire race. For example, if a flat occurs just as the speed picks up (fast rollers or descents), that rider can be severely off the back in the mere seconds it takes for the team car to find the rider on the right side of the road (they always pull to the right), swap the wheel, give him a push and then attempt to pace him back to the main group.

It can take 30 miles to get your rider back to the main group, riding at a full effort.

Even George Hincapie needs to be paced.

Such was the luck of Karl ‘Ten Men’ Menzies and Bradley White (Most Courageous Rider, Stage 3) early on during the stage. They eventually caught up with the main group but it was after a heroic effort – one that Mike Tamayo labeled – the best catch back on I’ve ever seen. It was an effort that completely destroyed Team OUCH’s John Murphy who sacrificed himself for his teammates to help them re-join the main field and make the day’s time cut.


THE CRASHES: When a rider goes down in front or near the team car, the risks involved with this ‘job’ become real. We’ve seen a few ugly crushes over the years; it’s an odd - sickly spectacular - but uncomfortable site. Inside the team car, the desire is high to stop to help – but the peloton doesn’t stop and the team car screams on (unless, of course, the fallen rider is one of yours). The hard reality in bike racing is that you never really know how or where your day is going to end. For BMC’s Scott Nydam and Team Columbia Highroad’s Kim Kirchen, the day started in Merced under sunny skies and ended at the Fresno hospital.


POWERED:BY FI’ZI:K - FROM INSIDE
MORE TO COME.

TOC POWERED:BY FI'ZI:K DAILY :K #1 - Extra Grip is Extra Hip in the Pro Peloton

Admittedly and perhaps somewhat shamefully…we’ve been overlooking the popularity of the fi’zi:k Extra Grip with the pros. We’re discovering here at the 2009 Tour of California that it is 1. semi-coveted but, yet 2. still a fairly well-kept secret.
Biggest fan of fi’zi:k Extra Grip in the Tour of California peloton?
The award goes to Garmin-Slipstream.
Nearly half of the Garmin-Slipstream Pro Cycling Team is using fi’zi:k Extra Grip either on their TT bikes, or as noticed today, during sloppy, long road stages.

Extra Daily :k Feeding
1: In the middle of Saturday’s short Prologue, head mechanic for the Cervelo Test Team - Alejandro – scurried up to the fi’zi:k bus in search of an extra Aliante for one of the riders while also inquiring, Can I have that thing Garmin-Slipstream has that keeps them from slipping forward on their TT bikes?

That thing, it turns out, was the Extra Grip. And as for the Aliante? Since the fi’zi:k bus was stocked only with the new Antares, fi’zi:k’s John Cordoba was kind enough to loan Alejandro his personal Aliante, right off his bike. Turns out that loaner was for none other than Brett Lancaster, multi-time Team Pursuit World Title winner as well as the 2005 Giro d’Italia Prologue winner (and thus, wearer of the maglia rosa). Perhaps there will be magic in that saddle when it is finally returned to Cordoba.

ROLLING ALONG WITH FLY V AUSTRALIA P/B SUCCESSFUL LIVING

Fi’zi:k will be in the thick of it at the 2009 Tour of California. It’s live animation of passion, spontaneity, and high performance presence on the world’s premiere high performance saddles…and we want to see you out there!

THE SCOOP
Several weeks ago while fi’zi:k was making its annual Team Camp tour, we happened upon a meeting with the 1984 Olympic 4000m Individual Pursuit Gold Track Medalist, Steve Hegg. Hegg has been a long time fi’zi:k friend and has been directing and managing the Successful Living US Continental cycling team for the last four years. Each year Hegg approached fi’zi:k to sponsor, but each year we were inclined to decline simply due to bike sponsorship partnership criteria.

Late last year Hegg teamed up with an Australian group to form the Fly V Australia presented by Successful Living Professional Cycling Team. In so doing, they acquired a new bike sponsor, Parlee Bicycles. Parlee, while ultimately a manufacturer and distributor of framesets only, has always been a supporter of fi’zi:k saddles. You will always see fi’zi:k atop their complete bikes, in catalogs, at Interbike and most recently on their entire line of triathlon bikes at the 2008 Ford Ironman Kona World Championships. This time, we couldn’t refuse.

FAST FORWARD
“What do you think about the idea of assisting us with a motor home for the Tour of California” Steve asked.

With laughter, guffaws, and cynicism covered first, we started to calculate the numbers: number of impressions –vs- numbers of dollars and within two short weeks, the Team V Australia presented by Successful Living Powered by fi’zi:k Team RV was born.


FEBRUARY 12, 2009
The fi’zi:k RV is well on its way to Sacramento where we will meet up with Team V Australia presented by Successful Living to provide shelter and VIP treatment to the team for the next nine days. During that time, we’ll be displaying our new road Antares currently ridden by Ivan Basso, Dave Zabriskie, Carlos Sastre, Kim Kirchen, Michael Rogers, Trent Lowe and Ben Day, among others. You can also find us in the Scott USA/Columbia Sportswear booth as well as the Team V Australia booth.


Come grab a pair of :k cycling socks and (b)log in for stories behind the scenes, off the front and in the pack with the dot dot k.

Team OUCH pb Maxxis: R&D with fi'zi:k

The following is the story of the former Team OUCH pb Maxxis (Team Healthnet pb Maxxis) and their integral research & developement relationship with fi'zi:k. Documented in 2008.

While fi’zi:k has been long been supplying European and US professional cycling teams with saddles, Team Health Net presented by Maxxis is counted as fi’zi:k’s longest running saddle sponsorship in the US pro peloton. Now in their fifth year with the team as a saddle, handlebar tape supplier and contributing sponsor, it’s not just what fi’zi:k provides to the team that sets this partnership apart from most others, but equally important, what the team gives back to fi’zi:k.

“Fi’zi:k has always been involved in professional sponsorship for very specific reasons,” explains their US Marketing Manager Suzette Ayotte, “and this is why our sponsorship deal with HN pb Maxxis is really more of a partnership. I suppose when we first started sponsoring US pro road teams in 2000, it was more about getting our product out there in the peloton. Shortly thereafter, however, we stepped up our game ten-fold terms of product development and we really needed to be able to work with a team and management staff that could provide us with the necessary feedback to continually improve our product line.”

A case in point can be illustrated in early 2004 when fi’zi:k was still in the initial development phase of their microtex handlebar tape and bar:gel. With the agreement that the HN pb Maxxis team would act as guinea pigs to afford fi’zi:k the opportunity to make a differentiated and better product, fi’zi:k sealed its first ever handle bar tape sponsorship deal with a professional cycling team.

The team was first supplied with standard cork handlebar tape emblazoned with fi’zi:k logos, and the gel was served up to the team on plastic sheets that literally had to be cut out from the sheet and peeled off in what proved to be a rather tedious process. “The logos disappeared from the cork tape after about one ride,” Ayotte remembers, “and coupled with the all too thick gel, the bars become these fat cushiony pillows.” But the team used the sample cork tape throughout most of 2004 season while fi’zi:k continued with development. The purple tape came next.

The infamous purple tape eventually evolved into what is now one of the best handlebar tape brands in the US market. “Purple just happened to be the only color that our tape manufacturer was able to sample us with using the unique buffed surface,” explained Ayotte. “Suffice it to say, the purple coupled with the orange Maxxis scheme made quite a stunning ensemble so we sent that off with some of the riders in the back training roads of Tucson and Iowa to try to keep the team’s classy reputation in tact. The purple tape, product-wise, was closer but feedback indicated that the tape was so thin it was curling all along the edges. “

“We were looking for the perfect medium so that the tape would be comfortable with or without the gel,” Ayotte explained. “Microtex is a completely different material than cork and doesn’t necessarily have that natural springy-ness to it. But we wanted to use microtex because it’s stronger than cork, it has a longer life, looks better over time, and is the same material we use for our saddles. Matching tape and saddles still held a small void in the marketplace and was thus, an opportunity ready to be seized.”

Eventually the ‘final’ product made its way to the team but not without additional problems. One would think, tape is tape is tape is tape. But when it comes to service and mechanics, and the time involved with replacing tape, nothing short of perfect really works. “We thought we were finished but the tape was too sticky and when the mechanics tried to replace the tape, it stuck to the gel and to the bars like super glue. Sounds fairly trivial but spending fifteen minutes picking tape off the bars throws a real monkey wrench into the mechanics time-management program.”

By the time 2005 rolled around, fi’zi:k had officially entered the aftermarket tape category, and is now in its fifth year of supplying handle bar tape and bar:gel to Team HN pb Maxxis as well as to all of their other US and European teams. “The point is, whether they fully realize it or not, Team Health Net was perhaps the most integral player throughout the entire development process for what has become our best selling product of all time.”

The opportunity to work this closely with professional teams is perhaps fi’zi:k’s number one reason for sponsorship involvement. “The easy answers are visibility and affiliation but the reality is, sponsors pay for that,” continued Ayotte. “Being able to work as intimately as we have with Team Health Net pb Maxxis is not necessarily a ‘right’ but a privilege. It’s not easy for the staff to ask or expect the riders to always be 100% motivated to act as product testers. Some will be into it and some will not. Training and racing is a job and there’s pressure on those guys to achieve decent race results. Anyone that logs a lot of miles knows that training is both physically and mentally exhausting. Add wives and children to that mix and you just don’t feel like thinking about anything else, especially not something as indiscernible as whether or not you’ve noticed a 20 gram difference in a saddle on a six hour ride. We get that. And that’s why it’s a privilege.”

In 2008, many of the Team Health Net pb Maxxis riders will be using fi’zi:k’s new Arione CX, the newest member of the number one selling high-performance saddle on the market, the Arione. The saddle boasts a 70 gram lighter-than-the-original-Arione difference by using newly formulated high density foam padding. Just after its 2007 Interbike aftermarket introduction while the saddle was just making its way to the production line, and when fi’zi:k needed to truly understand if the newer Arione CX could measure up to the comfort standards of the original Arione, Team Health Net pb Maxxis again stepped up to the plate.

“D.S. Mike Tamayo literally took the hand-off and one of our few only available show samples and sent it out to Rory Sutherland the next day. He’s been logging miles ever since,” explained Ayotte. The end result? According to Ayotte, the last email received from Sutherland went something like this:
As long as I am able to ride that prototype saddle that I am testing out now, for next season, then I’m happy :-)

Rory is still riding it.

Team OUCH presented by Maxxis Team Camp

Fi’zi:k is gearing up for an omni-presence of a different nature at the 2009 Tour of California. While that leaves us short for time and words – it would be ill be befitting to go forward herewith without applauding Team OUCH presented by Maxxis.

Team OUCH pb Maxxis is fi’zi:k’s longest running US Continental sponsorship partnership. The partnership is not just a contract – they have been invaluable research and development partners and the most loyal of all of our iconic fi’zi:k logo bum partners, perhaps, since the beginning of fi’zi:k’s existence.

As the former incarnation as Team Healthnet pb Maxxis, the team was the fi’zi:k’s numero uno guinea pig group to use and test fi’zi:k bar gel and tape from the very beginning of the development process. That story will be posted separately. Suffice it to say, the tape that you see in the aftermarket today was very much a direct result of team testing and feedback from this partnership. As we have always said, one of key reasons for sponsoring cycling teams is for the purpose of authentic and in-field product development and testing. If it doesn’t work for the pros, it will never work for the consumer.


Fi’zi:k is honored to be a part of the all-new Team OUCH presented by Maxxis for the 2009 pro race season. The WINNINGEST team in North America stunned all with NRC Championship titles in 2008 when they were clearly labeled the all-new underdog after winning the NRC team titles for the last few seasons. Joining ’08 teammates Karl Menzies, Tim Johnson, John Murphy, Roman Kilan and Rory Sutherland (#1 in the 08 NRC standings) is 2006 Tour de France victor, Floyd Landis (yes, we said that). Unbeknownst to most, Floyd has been riding the Arione Carbon Twin Flex Wing Flex for the better part of the last two years. He’ll take the start line for the Prologue in Sacramento at the Tour of California on the new :k Ares TT saddle and will transition the next day back to his favored Arione Carbon for Stage 1.


Many thanks to Team OUCH pb Maxxis for their excellence in marketing and promotions. Many thanks to OUCH and to Maxxis for supporting this team and this shared dream alive.

HISTORY OF THE fi’zi:k BUM LOGO – PART 1

It all started here: 2003. It was the brainchild of former fi’zi:k Marketing Director, Massimo Fregonese. He deserves accolades as the idea blossomed into what represents the :k today: it IS a key component of fi’zi:k branding. Today, we prefer our logo be there or no where at all.

The identity of the bum in the Saeco-Cannondale – fi’zi:k bum logo photo is unknown but is one of several Saeco team members who participated in the 2003 San Francisco Gran Prix. That race now sadly defunct, is among the peloton’s favorite race venues not only for the course and the fans but for the opportunity to hang in what is considered by many to be the most beautiful and most-European city in America. The bum is not Gilberto Simoni’s. He’s sitting next to Damiano Cunego (left of Cunego, you can see his leg). The photo was taken at Café Roma in San Francisco; Saturday morning, pre-race day. The guys agreed to stop in for an espresso prior to a jaunt across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was tradition. Mario Cipollini had made this a regular stop when he raced in the SF GP. He’d drop in unannounced, jump behind the counter, and pour a few espressos for whoever happened to be in line for a morning jolt.

The participating 2003 Team Saeco SF Gran Prix roster included Simoni and Cunego. Simoni had been victorious a few months earlier at the Giro d’Italia while riding fi’zi:k’s new and not yet introduced Arione, the saddle that ultimately changed the landscape of global saddle sales among all brands. Some lost, some gained. Simoni will forever be credited with a significant portion of fi’zi:k gains.

Perhaps most interesting about this day and unbeknownst to most, occured later that Saturday, post-ride. The guys were due for an appearance at Big Swingin’ Cycles, the City’s top Cannondale dealer. I met the guys at the hotel and guided them over (w/ Leonardo Bertagnolli in the passenger seat). We drove the course route as most of the team had not yet seen the famed Taylor and Fillmore St. climbs despite our earlier ride. These are climbs that decimated the peloton from about 150 starters to 25 finishers on the final bell lap of the first SF Gran Prix in 2002. Subsequent years, many opted for a triple or a compact, but at minimum a 53-25. Otherwise, you were a DNF merely measuring success by laps completed.

The scene was Big Swingin’ Cycles at their former Lombardi St. location. Gibo was the star and inside, Cannondale’s The Quest (documenting Simoni’s 2003 Giro victory) played on a continuous loop. Outside on the sidewalk, I sat with Cunego and Bertagnolli, sucking in the September sunshine while working through communicative language barriers. Current Saeco DS, Claudio Corti, exited the shop, meeting us on the sidewalk exclamating Vai, vai! Autografe! or something to that effect (come on guys, time for autographs). When Corti departed, Cunego said, “Dai…they don’t care about us, it’s about Gibo.”

No one could have predicted what would happen later in 2004. That was the year that our logo grew exponentially – emblazoned on the upper panel of the shorts where you see it today. It was also the year that Cunego won the Giro - the year that was, in all likelihood, Gibo’s last realistic opportunity to win the coveted Italian race. And…the year the media were forever blessed with yet another mano-a-mano-one-for-the-history-books team in-fighting Grande Tour episode perfectly punctuated with Simoni’s infamous “Il Bastardo!” comment following Cunego's crucial Stage 18 victory (not his first of that Giro), cementing his impending overall victory.

We were there. We were on the bums when Simoni and Cunego were teammates with an understanding. We were on the bums when facades were in order and leadership was in question on Lampre. We were on the bums when they segregated and separated with Simoni off to Saunier-Duval, each as leaders and competitors with similar goals. We are still under their bums, often unmarked and incognito, but we are there.