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Expo - Vegas 70.3 World Champs   Bookmark and Share
images by Nick Salazar   •   Sep 8, 2012   •   hits 43,788

The Sea Sucker is a cool concept I haven't seen before: vacuum-mount bike racks, versatile enough to go on virtually any car with a minimum of fuss.
 
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The Vegas 70.3 World Championships has become one of the most hotly-contested races in recent years. Last year, the crown went to King Crowie, who became the first person ever to win the 70.3 and 140.6 World Titles in the same year. Tomorrow he and women's champion Melissa Hauschildt (formerly Rollisson) are back to defend their titles amidst stacked fields on both sides. It will be an incredible race to watch. Here's what we saw at the expo, and stay tuned for race-day photos and features tomorrow.


Zipp just launched their first carbon clincher disc, the venerable Super-9. It's just as stiff and fast as its tubular brother, but now comes in carbon clincher convenience. I am DYING to get my hands on one.

Alongside the Super-9 carbon clincher disc, Zipp has also launched the 202 Firecrest, for now just as a carbon clincher (the tubular version is still the old 202). It's not a triathlon product per se (very few athletes will have need for anything shallower than a 303), but it's never a bad idea to show off your new product.

Zipp and SRAM usually coordinate their launches with some nice apparel to push the new product. If you go to the booth and nag them for a Super-9 shirt, they'll be only too happy to oblige.

The new RED is a beautiful group, but one I haven't yet been able to ride in person. SRAM keeps telling me it's on the way, but I haven't seen any boxes show up yet. I'm very curious how well that new YAW derailleur works.

Craig Alexander and his manager have been able to secure some great non-endemic sponsors (companies whose primary business is not related to triathlon). It's a great step forward for the sport, and one which will hopefully continue even after Crowie retires.

The Vegas expo was an ocean of tents that provided much-needed shade in the 105-degree heat in Henderson, Nevada.

Felt Bicycles founder Jim Felt is often on hand whenever his company is out promoting a race or event. The guy has a smile that's a mile wide, and it's rare not to see him wearing it.

The 2013 Felt lineup was on hand, which we covered last month in detail.

The 2012 Felt DA is almost unchanged for 2013 - just the new aerobar, new VR bottle, and new paint schemes. It's a great bike, and there wasn't much that needed changing.

For 2013, Specialized has introduced a number of new colorways for the Shiv. This matte black S-Works module is absolutely STUNNING. Several bike makers are now producing stealth black or nude carbon schemes, which I think is an absolutely fantastic choice.

Specialized's Pro-level frameset will come with no fewer than five different sets of decals, and athletes can choose what color to put on their bike. You could even do a combination of colors, or a different one for each letter, as shown here.

The Pro frameset is basically nude carbon with a glossy smoke clearcoat. I love it.

The Shimano booth had a replica of Craig Alexander's 2011 Kona bike. Crowie already has a new 2013 Shiv that he'll be riding tomorrow in defense of his title.

The Beaker Concepts Blaze is going to be acquired by Inviscid Design, and renamed the Speedfil R3. It will come with this single-bottle mount, perfect for attaching a cage right behind the saddle.

The Sea Sucker is a cool concept I haven't seen before: vacuum-mount bike racks, versatile enough to go on virtually any car with a minimum of fuss.

Obviously the first question a consumer will have is whether the mounts are secure. To answer that question, Sea Sucker had this bike mounted horizontally, on the car's windows. I didn't test how secure it was, but it definitely looks cool.

Here's another shot of the Sea Sucker mounts. Definitely worth a look if your car can't support traditional rail systems.

The Cervelo P5 is perhaps the most sought-after bike of 2012. They are virtually impossible to find in stock anywhere, and most customers have had to wait patiently on a list for theirs to ship.

The P5 is VERY clean and elegant all over. The frontal profile is smooth, and uninterrupted by excess hardware or loops of cable.

The P5's integrated Aduro bar mates beautifully with the frame, and aero-matched spacers allow an athlete to increase stack without much of an aero penalty.

The Aduro bar, from the back. It's a slick piece of kit, and even has an integrated BTA mount.

The rear cluster on the Cervelo P5



Cervelo had some neat swag to help fans cheer on their athletes.

Here's a P5-Six without the front 'beard' installed. Again, I really like the looks of the bike with the UCI-legal Three fork, and bet it would be just stellar with an Omega up front.

The P5 has a neat system to add stack without using round spacers. But its compromise is that to set the height of the base bar, you have to cut the fork and can never go up from there.





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