Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Saturday, December 26, 2015

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An optimist is someone who gets treed by a lion but enjoys the scenery. - Walter Winchell

1934 Madison Square Garden 6-Day video

Writer Les Woodland (this is a link to one of his books) sent me this fun and interesting video of a chapter from racing's past:

1934 Madison Square Garden 6-Day video

Giant-Alpecin and Liv-Plantur racing kits for 2016 presented

Team Giant-Alpecin maintains much of its 2015 design to increase recognition, with just a few slight changes for 2016.

Team Giant-Alpecin continues to capture the team’s DNA through the two dominantly visible “Keep Challenging” stripes on the jersey. The left stripe represents the continuous development of the riders both as individuals and as athletes, and – in a collective sense – the development of the team as a whole. The right stripe represents the creation and continual enhancement of an elite sports environment. The stripes lead upward without interruption, indicating the continuity of both processes.

Giant-Alpecin and Liv-Plantur kits for 2016

The team is proud to once again work with Etxeondo, its partner producing the team’s premium-quality clothing. The team welcomes Renson on the lower back side of the shorts, while Sunweb shifts toward the shoulder section of the jersey. Last but not least, the team welcomes its newly announced fleet partner, MINI, on the jersey.

Taiwan fears Dumping Duties Circumvention Investigation
by European Commission

This was in Bike-EU:

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Because of the slump in demand for high-end sports bicycles in China, which is affecting Taiwan’s industry, manufacturers are turning to Europe. And even to such extent that it prompted the European Commission to warn the Taiwan government that Chinese-made bicycles are being exported to Europe via Taiwan.

Estimates on the drop in sales of high-end sports bikes on the Chinese market say that it amounts to over 30%. This leaves its traces within the Taiwanese bike industry that in recent years heavily invested in the opening of new factories in mainland China.

Recent export data on bicycles shipped from Taiwan do not reflect the slump in demand in China. In fact that data shows a big double digit growth of over 18% in units in the January – August 2015 period. In terms of value Taiwan’s bike export grew by 16.5%. This, as well as other signals from the European industry, must have triggered the European Commission to recently send a notification to the Taiwan government warning for dumping duty circumvention practices with Chinese made bicycles being exported from Taiwan to the European Union.
The notification from the European Commission has prompted Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Affairs to take action. These actions are aimed at, “Preventing products made in China from having access to Free Trade Zones for transshipment and being falsely declared as products made in Taiwan, thereby circumventing EU anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties imposed on products made in China, and thus causing the EU to launch anti-circumvention investigations,” says Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade in a recent online statement.

Here's the entire story in Bike-EU

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