Exciting time to be involved in the cycling industry!

18/02/2010

The excitement isn’t just restricted to the top levels of the sport it has an immediate effect on the sport at a domestic level with the Premier Calendar receiving a real injection of teams and sponsors.

One very exciting event could lead to the re-emergence of a British Institute to the forefront of world cycling - more of which to follow.

Recently I have been travelling the length and breadth of the country going to Team and bike launches and generally thanking my lucky stars that I have this job.

First of was a real eye opener of a launch, of a new team with real long term plans to return to the pinnacle of cycling. A clue would be that it was set in rural surroundings near Nottingham. David Duffield (of Eurosport fame) was leading the introductions amongst the fanfare. Yep you guessed it was the relaunch of Raleigh along with the introduction of the new team. This team includes some big hitters in the domestic racing scene such as Dan Fleeman (Cervelo), Tom Barras (Plowman Craven) and Liam Holohan (Rapha Condor) to name but a few. 

I had a very interesting tour of the factory along with meeting the reps. The mood in the camp was upbeat at the very least. I think Raleigh are back with a bang, and hopefully will return to the top of the pile that they once occupied.

Next up was the launch of Team Endura (formerly Pedal Power – Endura) at the Porsche Centre at the home of motorsport, Silverstone. The reason for choice of venue will be explained later. They have their sights firmly set on winning the premier calendar and performing well in the European scene.

Leading the team is multi track world champion, Olympian and road sprint ace Rob Hayles. Also in the squad are 2 national road race champions, Rob Partridge of Wales and Ross Creber of Scotland. One extremely exciting signing is Frenchman Alexander Blain whom only last season was riding for Cofidis, one of the world’s top teams. He will be their ace up their sleeves and only just last week was their highest finisher in the Tour of the Med, in which several of the pro tour teams competed.

The reason for the unusual but glamorous setting for the Endura launch is that the centre hosts a cutting edge sport science and physiology lab and gym. This is where the riders are tested and training programmes will be tailor made to suit each rider with the aim to improve any specific areas such as lactate threshold, VO2 max, etc.

Nice2Tri will be stocking Raleigh and Look bikes (alongside other brands) and thus lending our support to the teams in these very exciting times. I myself am buzzing about this and look forward to a hopefully fruitful relationship with both Raleigh and Look.

All will be officially announced on our website in due course and hopefully see you in our showroom when these babies land!

Dave Paton.

Nice2Tri Bike Development Manager.