Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Thursday, November 3, 2016

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When I lost my rifle, the Army charged me 85 dollars. That is why in the Navy the Captain goes down with the ship. - Dick Gregory

Recently completed racing:

• October 9: Paris-Tours
• October 11: Nationale Sluitingprijs-Putte Kapellen
• October 9 - 16: World Road Cycling Championships
• October 20-23: Abu Dhabi Tour
• October 23: Chrono des Nations
• October 23: Japan Cup
• October 22-30: Tour of Hainan

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Lance Armstrong appears in Federal Court

This story was in USA Today:

WASHINGTON — Lance Armstrong sat silently in a federal courtroom here Wednesday as the main defendant in the biggest case of his life — the United States of America vs. Lance Armstrong, a civil action filed against him by the federal government that still could cost him nearly $100 million.

Lance Armstrong at the 2010 Tour of Flanders

He didn’t testify or speak. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper instead heard arguments from attorneys on both sides in a lawsuit that essentially boils down to this:

Should Armstrong have to repay the government for all of his doping, drugs and lies as a rider on the U.S. Postal Service cycling team more than 12 years ago?

You can read the entire story here.

Finding info on BikeRaceInfo.com

Since we have more than 4,000 pages of results, essays, photo galleries, bike tech help, videos and more, we've done everything we can to make it easy to find what you are looking for.

First, and easiest, is the Google custom search box at the top of every page. It will only search BikeRaceInfo.com for results to your inquiry.

But sometimes, you have a particular search that can't be answered that way.

Race results can be found several other ways. We have 16 years of archived results.

First you can go to "Racing Results & Archives" in the top pull-down menu. If you are looking for race results for 2016, click on "year-to-date" race results. For earlier results, click on the "year-by-year results" Each year's results are in date order.

Or, on that same pull-down tab, there is the link: "Other Races". That will take you to a list of the races we cover, organized by type and importance. Clicking on a particular race will give you historical results. If the year has a live link, that will give you deeper results for that particular year's edition.

Are you a Tour de France fan? On that "Racing Results & Archives" pull-down menu, The Tour de France link will take you to hundreds of pages of Tour results, data, photos and stories.

Giant-Alpecin adds to coaching staff

The team sent me this update:

Team Giant-Alpecin is pleased to confirm the addition of the young and ambitious German duo Sebastian Deckert and Hendrik Werner to its coaching staff for 2017. The 26-year-old sport scientist Deckert is making the step to the WorldTour joining from the German Continental Team LKT Brandenburg, whereas 33-year-old Werner, also sport scientist, comes over as a trainer from the Swiss IAM Cycling. Both Germans will play an important part to further optimize the execution of the team's performance plans.

Deckert commented: “Joining Team Sunweb is an absolute dream come true. It has always been my ambition to apply my knowledge at the highest level of the sport and it’s great to do that in a German team with such a track record in both developing talents and achieving results in the biggest races on the planet.”

About his move to the team, Werner said: “I am very happy to have signed at Team Sunweb and to join a very professional structured team. The already strong roster will be expanded for next year and I am very much looking forward to joining and adding my value to the organization.”

Head of coaching, Rudi Kemna (NED) added: “We are happy to add both Sebastian and Hendrik to our coaching staff, both having an academic background. As a team we are not only looking for talents on the bike, but also off the bike. With the German-oriented development program coming up we need to expand our coaching and training team. As known, the development program will be an integral part of the team, so to consistently continue to work according to our philosophy all staff will be deployed for all programs, working under the same umbrella.

“At LKT Brandenburg Sebastian has shown his qualities and in him we see a very talented young trainer and coach with similar thoughts about the sport that we have, and are confident he fits well with our philosophy. As a trainer/coach he will support and guide the team’s riders from all three programs, with a focus on our new development program.

Hendrik already has experience in guiding WorldTour riders at IAM Cycling and in our team we will aim for the next level in performance guidance. He will hold a trainer’s function, covering riders from all programs.”

Team Giant-Alpecin parts ways with trainer Mattias Reck (SWE). The team thanks him for his contributions and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors.

Tesla brings new technology to E-Bike batteries

This came to me from Bike-Eu.com:

HSINCHU, Taiwan – It sounds like a fairy tale; e-bike batteries that last as long as the e-bike itself. A lifetime of over ten years is within reach. New cell technology also brings batteries capable of much more pedal-supported mileage. And it already comes in 2018. All this is thanks to Tesla.

That Tesla is behind revolutionized batteries for electric bicycles has all to do with the recent changes at the leading battery cell makers Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and LG. Together these four make out some 80% of the world production of battery cells.

These cells are like penlight batteries commonly used in every household. When connected lots of these cylindrical shaped cells make an e-bike battery when of course integrated technology is added like a Battery Management System (BMS).

The mentioned four cell makers used to supply huge numbers of cylindrical shaped cells to the IT industry. However, this industry changed completely from using cylindrical shaped cells to flat shaped batteries which are now used in laptops, tablets and smartphones. A small part of that lost sales was compensated by batteries for e-bikes and other Light Electric Vehicles. However, that sales was too small for Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and LG to invest in the development of new cell technology.

Until Tesla knocked on their doors placing huge orders for cylindrical shaped cells. It is in particular Tesla’s newest Model 3 e-car that pushed battery cell makers to new highs. This affordable e-car (retailing for about 35,000 USD) needed a much extended range at smaller dimensions and weight. This called for new technology. At first the battery cell makers were able to add capacity to the currently commonly used 18650 cells. According to GM Mo-Hua Yang of Taiwan based battery maker HiTech Energy, two years ago such a 18650 had a capacity of 2.2Ah. Now it stands at 3.5Ah. More capacity however called for a new cell.

At Eurobike of last September that new 21700 battery cell appeared on the horizon. No not as a bright light that catched everybody’s attention. This new phenomena wasn’t even on display. It was only mentioned in a press release by BMZ which is Europe’s largest battery maker. BMZ boss Sven Bauer explained to Bike Europe the revolution this new cell will bring to electric bicycles. In particular as the 21700 cell not only offers a much prolonged lifetime but also batteries with a much bigger capacity for more power and pedal-supported mileage.

You can read the entire story here.

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