Gallery: Inside Team Columbia-Highroad’s Tour of California compound

    by Steve Frothingham

    • February 14, 2009
    • Comments Off

    By Ben Delaney

    Columbia compound: Hincapie's time trial bike.
    Columbia compound: Hincapie’s time trial bike.

    Photo: Ben Delaney

    Columbia-Highroad is in the midst of making a bike switch from old sponsor Giant to new sponsor Scott. While the guys are all on Scott road bikes, the time trial bikes present more challenges.

    “It’s all about the little details in the time trial,” said team director Rolf Aldag, adding that the riders will stick with their old machines “until we have it perfect” with the new Scott models. Team mechanics were busy Saturday prepping the bike ahead of the afternoon’s prologue in Sacramento.

    Photo Gallery

    • Columbia compound: Hincapie's time trial bike.
    • Columbia compound: On Hincapie's bike, shift and brake cables are tucked neatly inside the integrated bar/stem.
    • Columbia compound: Hincapie's front brake is similarly hidden from the wind.
    • Columbia compound: The rear brake routing on Hincapie's bike.
    • Columbia compound: Mark Cavendish, eighth in the 2008 prologue, runs a low bar on his Highroad-branded TT rig.
    • Columbia compound: A close view of the front of Cavendish's low-profile integrated front end.
    • Columbia compound: You can see Cavendish's brake, but the wind can't.
    • Columbia compound: The young Swede Thomas Lövkvist is one to watch.
    • Columbia compound: Lövkvist's shift housing is Nokon, while the brake housing is standard.
    • Columbia compound: Lövkvist's cylindrical cable stop allows for the side-pull design.
    • Columbia compound: Columbia-Highroad mechanics are working to move riders over to the new Scott TT machines.
    • Columbia compound: Michael Barry's Scott is ready to roll.
    • Columbia compound: Barry's Columbia TT rig is so new it still has the size sticker on it.
    • Columbia compound: Kim Kirchen's Scott Addict.
    • Columbia compound: Columbia-Highroad is one of the many teams on Fi'zi:k saddles. Kirchen used the Antares.
    • Columbia compound: Power — it's not just for training anymore. Kirchen uses an SRM on his race bike.
    • Columbia-Highroad has four riders on the Shiimano electrics components. Mark Renshaw is not one of them. "I don't need to take the risk, he said. "I'll wait until they fine-tune it."
    • Columbia compound: Adam Hansen is one of the Columbia-Highroad riders using the Shimano electric components.
    • Columbia compound: The power station — Hansen's SRM power meter on a Dura-Ace crank. The Shimano battery is on the downtube.
    • Columbia compound: Adam Hansen's electric Shimano levers.
    • Columbia compound: Columbia Highroad mechanics zip-tied the electric cable to the chainstay. The white cable stop goes unused.

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