Twenty Nine Inches » Racing News

Leadville 2011: Could 29″ers Take The Top Spots?

Guitar Ted — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 23:09:51 +0000

Saturday the Leadville Trail 100 race will take place again. With so many “near misses” by 29″ers in the Men’s field and repeat champion, Rebecca Rusch, having already won on a 29″er and trying it again this year, is 2011 the year? Will the top spots be swept up by riders on big wheeled bikes?

Specialized happens to sponsor Rebecca and recent National Champion and top seeded LT 100 rider, Todd Wells. They think 29″ers will sweep both the top spots. Here’s a bit from a recent press release from Specialized:

Going into the Leadville Trail 100 this year we feel we have the strongest team possible: Two-time defending Women’s LT100 champion, Rebecca Rusch, and recently crowned US National Cross-Country Champion Todd Wells will both be gunning for victory this weekend at this grueling event.

Todd will be on the S-Works Stumpjumper 29 hard tail that helped him win his National title, while Rebecca is riding the newly launched Fate 29, which also helped her to win a National title as well as her Leadville qualifying race. Specialized’s Stumpjumper hard tail and Epic are the first and only 29ers ever to win a Marathon World Championship and other World Cup races, as well as the week-long Cape Epic in South Africa.

Who knows? However it goes, the course and the amount of riders on big wheeled bikes make this a very good year for this to happen. Tomorrow, we’ll find out. For now, Twenty Nine Inches wishes all the riders, whether on 29 inch wheels or not, the best of luck as they challenge this high profile, high altitude 100 miler.

Following are build specs and images for both Todd’s and Rebecca’s rigs……(click to see slightly larger)

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

Orbea Launches The Alma 29″er Gen II: Update

Guitar Ted — Mon, 31 May 2010 03:18:27 +0000

As we had reported earlier, the launch of the Orbea Alma 29 at the Mellow Johnny’s Classic was also to be its race debut. Due to some availability issues, only one bike was readied in time for the event and Georgia Gould of the Luna Chix squad put a top notch effort in on the new bike to score a win in some brutally hot, dusty conditions. Here are a couple of shots of the winning rig:

According to National Sales Manager for Orbea, Ronnie Points, the Luna Chix only had one day to set up the bikes, but Georgia was determined to make it work. After three fittings and about three practice laps on Friday, Gould felt the bike was dialed and was ready to race it on Saturday. Race day brought some brutally hot temperatures which made going hard out of the gate difficult, if not unwise. According to Georgia the 29″er allowed her to sit back with the leaders without pushing the pace in the first lap. Gould then went to the front and slowly pulled a gap on the chasers of up to three minutes by the events ending. It was reported that Gould was stoked at how well it handled the technical parts of the course and raved about how fast she pulled the double track.

Congratulations to Georgia Gould on a well deserved win, and congratulations to Orbea on their first victory for the new Alma 29″er right out of the gate.

Editor’s Note: Twenty Nine Inches would like to credit Ronnie Points for the race information and images that appear in this post.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

Race News: Down Under With Yeti, U.S. Specialized Sho-Air

Guitar Ted — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:43:58 +0000

Twenty nine inch wheeled bikes seem to be infiltrating into more parts of the racing scene and riders from “Down Under” will be getting a close up look at a machine being used in races in that part of the world. Meanwhile, U.S. fans will be seeing more of a carbon fiber “wonder bike” at XC races. Let’s take a closer look……..

Team Sho-Air/Specialized will be campaigning this S-Works Carbon Stumpjumper 29 throughout the West and other select races this year. We noticed the new Specialized “Renegade” 29 X 1.95″ on board here. it is Specialized’s newest tread design for big wheels and features 120TPI casing with a dual compound tread. Minimalistic knobs look to promote a fast pace which Team Sho-Air/Specialized will be cranking out on a course soon.

Down in New Zealand recently the brand spanking new Yeti Big Top was put into competition at the New Zealand Single Speed Championships under rider Marcus Roy. The bike was piloted to a top five finish and will be seen next at the Single Speed World Championships at Rotorua New Zealand on October 23rd, 2010.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

Orbea’s Updated Alma 29″er: Sneak Peek!

Guitar Ted — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:04:43 +0000

As we hinted at in our earlier European News And Rumors post, Orbea is introducing an updated Alma 29″er soon. Orbea is the brand that brought monocoque carbon frames to the 29″er category and is ready for an encore that includes 2 colors and 3 sizes for the updated version. We were forwarded a rendering of the general look of the bike shown below. Exact details will not be released until later.

This rendering appears to be overlaid on an image of a current Alma 29″er. We can’t really make out much for details for certain, but we expect many of the same bullet points to show up here as they do on the Alma World Cup 26″er. The semi-integrated head set-full 1 1/8th steer tube, Direct Route cable routing, and the signature “fender” molded into the down tube.

Word is that this bike will debut at the Mellow Johnny’s Classic May 29th with Georgia Gould of Luna Chix possibly using it in the race that weekend. A full presentation of the bike will be given then which will reveal the new Alma’s details. Stay tuned for any further updates.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News

German Federation Repeals Restrictions On Racing 29″ers

Guitar Ted — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:03:21 +0000

Word has come from Germany that the nations sanctioning body, the BDR, has repealed its restrictions against racing a 29 inch wheeled bicycle in off road competitions starting now for the 2010 racing season. The UCI, which governs international racing, was appealed to by Gary Fisher six years ago to allow international racing of 29 inch wheels and the UCI did allow for this then. However; each nation has its own governing bodies for national events and Germany was nonplussed by the UCI decision as it forbade the use of 29 inch wheels in any of its sanctioned events, essentially making a 29″er an outcast.

Could the German’s allowance of big wheels for racing make 29″ers more popular in Europe?

Now with this restriction being lifted, it will be interesting to see what, if any, 29 inch wheels are actually raced in Germany in 2010. It is also interesting to note that a major cycling publication based in Germany is conducting its second round of tests on 29″ers. Perhaps 2010 will see big wheel popularity increase in Germany to the point that some of the countries home brands will start dabbling in 29 inch wheels for future models.

You can read more about this on Revolution Sports here.

Twenty Nine Inches - 29er Bike Reviews, Rumors and News