Gianmarco Cilli, who operates Wilier US, was calmly pleased to tell us that the “Cento Uno” (101) will be the bike of Alessandro Ballan in 2009. This is a new frame from Wilier that represents the leading thinking in bicycle innovation today. We were impressed with what we saw.

According to Harry Ault of Wilier, “the frame has become quite a spectacle at this year’s Interbike.” We can see why, the curved top tube carries through to a continuous curve around the seatstays and the beefy chainstays. This is elegant and carries the stresses better. The 101 uses “46Ton” carbon, the world’s strongest, most resilient fiber.

The frame integrates several elements to create stiff parsimony and reduce weight.

• The rear triangle is now more fully integrated. Chainstays and seatstays are unified as a single (monocoque) unit. They are asymmetrical, with the drive side chainstay lowered to prevent chain slap. Instead of conventional joining of the chain and seatstays at a sharp angle, the angle has been “softened” to dampen and dissipate road surface impacts and vibrations. The drive side chainstay also has a textured alloy sleeve for protection.
• Taking the integration one step further, the 101 includes a new integrated bottom bracket shell. Bearings are now installed directly into the frame. This design does away with the need for externally-mounted bearing cups and integrates seamlessly with the most popular cranksets.

The Cento Uno is sold as a frame, fork and headset package for $4300. Six sizes from XS to XXL are available and the bike will come in 5 color schemes. 2 years of crash replacement are included with the frame.

Like I said, we were impressed.

The Wilier Cento Uno "101"

Exciting announcement: We’ve had a wave of interest from old friends and new friends that read about our adventure in the press. Some people are interested to learn more and some people have already committed fully to joining us in 2009! We couldn’t be happier, and are excited to have so many people wanting to join us.

10 Degrees Latitude is an event to traverse 10 Degrees of Latitude on every continent. In 2008 we traversed Europe. In 2009 we will traverse the North American continent. This adventure race will be heavy on the biking, with swimming or kayaking mixed in depending on the preference of the participants.

Click here to join us in 2009.

• Nottingham to Cambridge
• 70 miles
• 100 sheep. 25 cows. 1 pony on a leash (see video)

Today started out a bit rocky but ended on a high note.  We’ve been in the UK for nearly two weeks now, and the longest rain we’ve biked through has been 30 minutes…until today.  I guess we’ve been pretty lucky so far.  Today was a different story.  The skies opened up, and we were wet.  We’ve been wearing an Aqua-No Jacket, and today we even threw on the Aqua-No booties.  They did a good job, but were no match for the deluge that hit us.

Then at lunchtime, and without warning, the rain broke, and the skies were blue and beautiful.  The rest of the ride was quite enjoyable despite a stiff head wind.  Cambridge is a fantastic city.  It’s probably my favorite so far.  Neal’s mother Laura arrived into town and was there to greet us with a smile when we rode up to the hotel.

We are staying at the Crowne Plaza in Cambridge.  The hotel is absolutely beautiful and service has been first class all the way.  We were met by the duty manager Carlo, who had heard about our venture.  He wanted some pics of us with our bikes out in front of the hotel for some PR opportunities and local press releases — we’ll upload those when we get them.

Below are videos from the ride and photos of Cambridge.

A shout-out to Gu Energy Gel, especially our good friend and fellow athlete Holly Bennett, Marketing Manager. To keep us going during our 4-8 hours rides we consume 1 gel per 30 minutes and Gu H2o hydration in our bottles. The stuff works great and they are constantly innovating new flavors like Blueberry Pomegranate. It’s delic, who knew?!

Historically, Vetta has been a big player in commuter-level cycling computers. The V100 HR is a great leap into the world of serious athletes. It is feature rich enough to satisfy your every want and need, yet ease-of-use makes it a fantastic piece of equipment for the weekend warrior.

So lets take a look at the features and how well it works

First Look: Right out of the box I was impressed. Construction quality was solid. It felt substantial and well made as did the accessories. A flip through the manual suggested a very feature-rich device.

Installation was a breeze: Both the speed and cadence transmitters are small and sleek. I also like the fact that cadence is wireless

Put it to the test: One of the most common complaints about the V100 is battery life. The issue is a technical one that’s caused by the unit not turning off when you are done riding. I spoke with Vetta and they assured me that the culprit software issues were fixed early on, but the reputation has stayed out there. So obviously I’ve paid careful attention to this after each ride. To date I haven’t had a bit of trouble with this. At least in my unit, it seems the problem has been fixed.

I’ve had the V100 for several months now and it works great. The heart rate monitor and the cadence have worked perfectly. I love the screen. It’s compact yet it contains a ton of information. The three button-interface is very easy to navigate through at speed. Speed and distance accuracy is nearly perfect. Battery life has not been an issue.

A positive review, with 3 gripes:

• The first is a gripe I have with 95% of the computers on the market so I can’t fault Vetta alone for this. The wireless speed transmitter is not powerful enough to work from the rear wheel. This forces you to install it on the front wheel and therefore becomes useless on an indoor trainer. (Note: the V110 solves this!)
• The manual makes a valiant attempt to be thorough, and in fact, it is thorough. The problem is that it isn’t completely clear. Maybe it’s just me, but it reads as if it was written in a different language and simply copied into some freeware translator software. Another issue is that it doesn’t read smoothly. I was trying to learn how to use the different features and screen modes. I had to read through pages several times to understand certain details. One example – they spend some time discussing the IDS and STP screen mode, but they don’t reveal what IDS and STP stand for until 4 pages letter. (it’s Intermediate Distance and Stopwatch btw).
• Occasionally (maybe 3-4 times) the unit fails to turn on for some reason. I turn the wheel and nothing happens. I press the button on the transmitter. Still nothing. The first time this happened I spent about an hour trying to figure out the problem. I was 30 seconds from throwing the thing away. I took the battery out of the head unit, reinstalled it and it worked perfectly. The next time this happened, I went straight to the battery and fixed the problem right away. This only happens when starting the unit. Once I’m riding, I’ve never had any issues with losing signal. Odd.

Conclusion: The V100HR is a great computer for both serious athletes as well as the weekend warrior. It’s easy to install and easy to use. It has tons of features that work together seamlessly. In my experience it has debunked it’s critics and has been a dependable cyclocomputer.

Read the NPR article
Listen to NPR audio

Or better yet, listen to it right here.

In other (more germane) news. Adam and I swam some nice yardage today and tried out our brand-new Tyr swim trunks and Tyr Mentor hand paddles. Tip to all you swimmers out there — hand paddles make you feel like Phelps. I recommend them to anyone. They turn any swimmer into a rock star. And boy do they make your shoulders hurt.

We’ve sang the praises of Cadence Cycling many times before, but in my mind the one thing that sets them apart more than any other retailer I’ve ever come in contact with, is their coaching staff. They have the most impressive collection of brain power and coaching prowess you could imagine. Yet their packages can be dumbed down for a couple of amateurs like us. They do it all, from newbies to pros, and they do it all very well. They get attention/press based on the pro cyclists and triathletes they coach, but it’s much more important to me for them to be able to turn a weekend warrior into a stronger competitor. I found it very convenient that we were located in Philly and have access to this place, but as it turns out, you can establish a coaching relationship and participate in training sessions from anywhere in the world. In early 2008 Cadence will be launching Cadence.tv. It is a completely interactive online training system that allows you to be a part of professionally-coached training sessions either live or On-Demand. If it rolls out as described it could be an awesome training tool. We’re signing up right away, and we will pass on our reviews as soon as possible with the good the bad and the ugly.

We’re really excited that Mike was willing to clear room in his schedule for us. He has an impressive professional resume and has competed and won at the top levels of road racing, mountain bike racing and cyclo-cross. Most important to us is his ability to transfer his knowledge and experience to make us better. He’s done it before, and we’re hoping he can do it again. He’s turned rookies into seasoned vets. He’s turned amateurs into pros, and he’s turned pros into champions. Seriously. We’re stoked.

We’re excited to announce a great commitment of support from a cycling industry heavyweight. Profile Design has jumped on board and we couldn’t be happier. Even if you only have a cursory knowledge of the cycling industry, you no doubt have seen Profile Design products in action. They truly hold a dominant market position in almost every product area they touch. They put extensive efforts behind product development, and craft some of the most light-weight aerodynamic components you can put on your bike.

I had a few conversations with the fine people at Profile Design throughout the summer, and finally had the opportunity to meet with them face-to-face during the Interbike show. I was very impressed with their professionalism and the attention to detail they put into the most minuscule aspects of their components. They have a first rate organization, and so for me it was clear that this was the type of company that I wanted 10 Degrees of Latitude to be associated with. They felt the same way, and the relationship was formed. I look forward to reviewing a lot of their product offerings and giving you the straight scoop on the good the bad and the ugly.