The Tour Divide leader board is up and things are already strung out. It looks like 42 riders made the start this year. As always it will be interesting to see how many complete the 2,500 race. Even more interesting, too me anyways, is how many people opted for sign up option number 2 “(1)Prospective racers are encouraged to declare but may also (2)simply show up in Banff on June 12th.”
A demonstartive video from the engineering department proving the strength of thin walled hollow cylinders. Only Mavic forgot to tap the side of the can while standing on it.
The details of the SRAM XX MTB group are now fully out and tech geeks across the country are drooling. But with my initial puddle of drool starting dry up, a closer look leaves me thinking that some of the details are a bit… meh. Now I’m not trying to bash SRAM, I am grateful that they took the initiative to put an end to the granny gear. But, I’m hoping at some point in time that a major manufacture will just stop dissappointing.
First up, wholy what the hell are they thinking with a $300 plus cassette. Sure you can easily drop way more ridiculous cash on a frame or a wheelset. But at least those items can be rationalized as investments that can last several years. But under normal use a casette is good for maybe a season. Now throw in a few mud rides… and you’re looking at $1000+ of cassettes every year. Maybe they’ve teamed up with some trail conservancy and came up with a plan to finally keep riders off trails when they are too muddy. Or maybe they just plan on doing major cassette shwagg tosses at DSG every year. The cassette effectively makes the XX a “Masters” group because the old guys are going to be the only ones that can afford to actually race it.
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