The American Way is  part of the Peloton Presents series that highlights a variety of innovative manufacturers based on geographical location.  This roll highlights ENVE and our focus on US Manufacturing.

Following suit of its predecessor the Cross Disc fork, our new disc compatible road fork has been designed to the same exacting ENVE standards. These standards result in an innovative new fork that addresses the unique challenges of integrating powerful disc brakes to light weight road bikes.  At the same time, the Road Disc fork maintains the lightweight, durability, and confidence inspiring handling that ENVE forks are known for.

Features unique to this fork are, 140mm post style caliper mounts, and ENVE’s integrated disc hosing retention clip.

More details...

By: Neil Shirley

The Crusher in the Tushar is a race in Beaver, Utah that is as brutal as the name suggests. Three factors contribute to its difficulty: the 69 mile race includes more than 40 miles of dirt roads with 10,500 feet of climbing, and all of it at extreme altitude. The event is the brainchild of a former teammate of mine, Burke Swindlehurst, who grew up in the area and trained on the very same roads as the race. He was a mentor to me during my early years on the road, so it was a big deal for me to be competing in his race. It also created the perfect opportunity to act as a bike designer/product manager as once we'd secured an entry we set about to build the perfect bike for the event that would embrace some of the newest thinking in dual purpose road bike technology.

See Complete Story Here

Lucy Hall visits Drag2Zero wind tunnel

Lucy Hall visited Drag2Zero at the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One wind tunnel last week to fine tune her riding position ahead of representing Great Britain in the triathlon in Hyde Park on 4 August.

“I first came into the Drag2Zero wind tunnel in January with some of my elite squad team mates.  We all learned a lot from Simon Smart about how to make ourselves more aerodynamic, trying out various positions in the wind tunnel” says Lucy says Lucy, 20, who is set to make her Olympic debut next month.  “I have really worked at carrying those position changes over into my riding in the last few months to improve my performance on the bike split, so it was great to return to the tunnel to confirm that my hard work had paid off and also to make some further adjustments prior to next month’s event.”

Simon Smart, Technical Director of Smart Aero Technology, who has worked with the likes of current time trial world champion Tony Martin and European Iron Man champion Timo Bracht says “It has been great to work with Lucy and her elite squad team mates and see them apply the science to improve their riding.  You can see that she has really worked on her riding position in training since she was in the tunnel the last time.  Working with triathletes in the wind tunnel is an interesting challenge as we are trying to help them save energy on the bike so they have more available for the run.    We have seen some dramatic improvements in performance with the triathletes that we have worked with so far this year.”

Lucy rides Smart ENVE System wheels, the wheels were designed by Simon Smart in the same wind tunnel where Lucy worked on her position.

“I have been riding the Smart ENVE 6.7 wheel set this year and they are amazing!  My initial thoughts were that the deeper rim would make them difficult to handle in the wind but they are really stable so I plan to use them in my races this year.”

Bottrill Takes British National 100 time trial championship. 

Matthew Bottrill, www.Drag2zero.com, Became National 100mile Champion on Sunday morning. After so many near misses over the years, Bottrill finally took the top spot on the podium in the 100 mile race in a time of 3.37.13. With medals at 10mile (silver), 25miles (Bronze) and 50miles (Silver) Bottrill signed off his National campaign in style. 

Photos

The 2012 ROTH Challenge held this past weekend saw some fierce competition all day long.  In the end South African, James Cunnama emerged victorious after battling it out during the run with ENVE's Timo Bracht.  Despite Timo's second place overall position he secured his spot as the 2012 ETU European Long Distance Triathlon Champion.  Timo was riding his Giant Trinity Advanced SL featuring a recent fit from Simon Smart and opted to use a pair of the Smart ENVE System 8.9s which have repeatedly proven faster than a disc wheel on certain courses and weather conditions.

In the women's race Sonja Tajsich of Germany battled it out with Rachel Joyce (GBR) to finish second on the day just 4:43 behind Rachel.  Sonja had the second fastest bike split on the day riding her Scott Plasma 3 w/ Smart ENVE System 6.7 Clinchers


Congrats to both Timo and Sonja for your stellar performances.

For complete results and story visit Slowtwitch.

On Saturday afternoon www.drag2zero.com sent two teams to the British National Team Trial Championships, Team A consisted of Matthew Bottrill, Mark Holton and Charles McCulloch and team B which consisted of Scott Povey, Jon Simpkins and Jeff Jones.

The teams came with one mission: to put in the fastest performances possible. With all riders having been set up like Formula 1 race cars from their team sponsor Simon Smart, owner of Drag2zero.com, there could be no excuses on the day!

Covering 2 laps of a nearly 18-mile circuit starting in Preston Candover, North Hampshire, the course provided a mix of undulating climbs, twisting lanes and a fast descent. Full concentration would be needed to take the victory.

First to leave the starting area were Povey, Simpkins and team captain Jones. They were chasing In-Gear Quickvit Trainsharp RT, who came through at the end of the first lap with the new best time of 37:02 (later equalled by High Wycombe CC), but it wasn’t quick enough and the Drag2Zero.com team overhauled it with 36:31.

One more lap and they stopped the clock at 1:15:32 to take the lead by 48 seconds from High Wycombe CC. Arctic SRAM RT where the next to finish in a time of 1:15:45 – good but not quite good enough to pip Povey, Simpkins and Jones. With two podium places now filled it was up to the Drag2Zero A team of Bottrill, Holton and McCulloch to decide the outcome of the silverware.

Leaving the starting area at 3:57pm, the trio were soon into their stride and thundering down the road like lightning on their Giant bikes and Enve wheels. On the first lap the team were on fire and riding through the stiff westerly wind. Coming into the finish area on the first lap, the news was good – team helper Pete Lavine gave the thumps up and a time of one minute up to lead the race! With the team on the rivet, all they had to do was keep upright and the keep the power going. Putting their full knowledge of aerodynamics into play, the team stopped the clock in 1:13:59 for victory!

Asked about the team’s performance, Matt Bottrill said: “Yes, we are pretty pleased with today’s result. Our team sponsor Simon Smart and Natalie Atkins have done a great job in getting the team into shape for this event, making sure every rider had the optimal position to perform and the clothing to match. So much help has gone into making this possible, from our sponsors Enve, Giant, ZipVit, Smart Aero, Bont, Ultimate Ceramic Bearings and Mg Decor, and this is a great way of saying thanks to all of them. The ride on the road went really well, I was a little over keen at times, but Charles played a good captain’s role and basically just told us what to do.”

Jeff Jones was delighted with his team’s result, saying: “Although we hadn’t ridden together before, we gelled really well on the day and all rode to the best of our abilities. To come away with silver was really satisfying: Arctic SRAM pushed us pretty close though!

“Jon was pretty nervous as he’d not ridden an event like this before. But after doing a practice lap of the course we settled well and he was strong throughout. Scott suffered more on the hills than Jon and I but he did sterling work into the headwind section on the A30, which helped us keep our speed along that section. I had good legs and was happy to shoulder more of the work while making sure we kept together. It worked out really well.”

A great result for the team and another set of national medals to add to their growing collection. Check in next week, as the team will be tacking the National 100 Championship with Matt Bottrill, Scott Povey and Derek Parkinson.