Category: 29er
Specialized rider Burry Stander wins his first UCI World Cup
Lukas Flückiger, Julien Absalon, Burry Stander, Ralf Naf, Mathias Flückiger. Champery World Cup podium.
A week after winning the under 23 World Championships in Australia, 22 year old South African Burry beat two time Olympic champion and 4 time World Champion Julien Absalon to win his 1st UCI World Cup victory. (Burry is currently 2nd the the World Cup series behind Julien)
I read on Specialized team mate, Todd Wells’ website that last week Burry’s best lap at Worlds was 40 seconds faster than anyone elses. Granted, the u23 race was shorter and probably had less traffic, but still, it was a sign of things to come. Todd had the 3rd fastest lap and finished 8th on his Specialized S-works 29er.
We are really stoked for Burry.
Follow his blog on i-am-specialized.com
The making of a video. For www.i-am-specialized.com
This video was made for the “triathlon” part of the i-am-specialized website.
The a href=”http://www.i-am-specialized.com/triathlon” target=”_blank”>i-am-specialized website is aimed at being the public’s way of following Specialized riders’ racing and stories online. It is a new site and will mostly aim at internet video content. Internet video is the new TV.
I am honoured to be the 1st triathlete to have a video on the site.
Terrenzo and Macca will have videos soon…
The shoot started with swimming.
Bobby Behan – our Marketing Manager (and a few other things) used to be a pro triathlete himself, (we lived and trained together in Stellenbosch in 2000) so he knew exactly what needed to go into this movie. He sat in the director chair for 2 days.
Aaron Vogel just realized his dream job by becoming Specialized’s first in-house videographer. He says it wasnt really his dream job- he couldnt dream of a job where he could ride bikes and make movies AND get paid for it!
Anyway, Bobby decided we’ll kick off with swimming. And posing. Lots and lots of posing. I hate posing, but it was one of the many things I learnt about acting that fateful day….
Posing to da max. Oh yes, on the speedo issue- I’m old school (ie started racing tri in the late 80s) so I wear a speedo. End of story. At least its not lime green or pink. Like it was in
this picture from 1992!
Sea Otter Cycling Classic. I finished 8th in the pro Cross Country.
Loved the Specialized 29er Epic. Andy pimped my ride between thrashings. Note my new race kit for 2009. Made by Luma.- more later.
Christoph won comfortably. Todd had a flat, I gave him my CO2 and he finished 6th- which allowed him to win the Omnium-(Short Track and XC combined) Great for Todd, Specialized and the 29er. Lene finished 2nd in the XC and won the ladies’ Omnium. A great start for the season. Burry had a head cold from the previous day and saved it for this coming weeks World Cup in Germany.
I had a close sprint finish with Jeremiah Bishop for 7th. A lot of fun. Quite surprised at my results. (16th in short track and 8th in XC)
I was stoked to be “randomly selected” for UCI drug testing. (Photos below) The 180bs triathlete tearing it up at XC? Of course he needs testing!
More stories shortly.
Looking forward to a good XTERRA season.
Here are some slides: Go to flickr.com to see the pictures titles.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Sea Otter Cycling Classic- Specialized dominates the Short track
Bobby Behan, car fanatic and Specialized Factory Racing team manager with Mike Sinyards’ Mini Cooper Works.
Todd Wells won today’s Sea Otter Short Track on his new Specialized 29er hard tail (20lbs)- Burry Stander got 2nd, Lene Byberg got 2nd in the ladies and Sam Hill won the Down Hill.
In the short trak the guys dominated, turned the screws and about halfway into the race, Susi, Burry and Todd had broken away, but Susi burped a tire and the other two painted the podium red. Quite a day for Specialized and I was really proud to be part of the team.
I really enjoyed my 2nd short track (the other was 5 years ago and had about 25 riders!) and was in about 13th place out of 130 starters when our little group got pulled off the course with 1 lap to go. Once I caught my breath though, it felt like someone poured gasoline into my lungs! With a bit more sprint and AT training I’ll be able to hang in and hopefully get to do a few more of these races.
Burry (in the green Oakleys) & Todd pre-riding the XC course. The leg and arm warmers are not so much for the bite in the air as the bite in the Poison Oak!
Riding with the champions, NorCal High School racing league & Specialized.
Northern California has a booming High School racing programme. It is run a by a non profit organization and Specialized enthusiastically pitched in with a huge truckload of demo bikes for the kids to try out, and 3 World Champions on loan. Hence “Riding with the Champions.” Ned Overend, Rebecca Rusch and myself.
The kids could choose between the Specialized Epic, Stumpjumper, Stumpjumper 29er and the
