At least he got the tires right

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Bianchi-Campagnolo

Well, the trek hate goes far beyond the quality of their products, which is of course quite average. But the brand couldn't be more wrong, as the graphic and the general image, what they represent, etc... It's the chosen bike from diverse wrong characters, from Lance Armstrong to president George Bush. Trek bought and then destroyed brands which were infinitely better, like Gary Fisher, KLEIN, and even Lemond...

Not hating Trek enormously shows quite a lack of knowledge regarding cycling equipment culture, history, tradition and development. Not hating trek it's a shame, it's embarrasing.

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Happy Trails !!!
MTB / Giant Xtc '05 / 8.7Kg
ROAD / La Perla Negra - FM015 / 7.0Kg

That is because they are *professional*. It is not wise to shit in ones nest. Hence you will never hear a bad word about equipment - they are paying the bills. Hence also why riders always give rave reviews when the new bike sponsors are on board.

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"Physiology is all just propaganda and lies... all waiting to be disproven by the next study."
"I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG

Re: Liggeros post above.
Trek teaming up with Qhubeka is perhaps part of a strategy to get back into the public concience as a "good" brand. Their previous figurehead backfired enormously, but of course not before he'd helped them shift tons and tons of bikes.

I'm sure the Domane is a pretty nice bike. Shame it says Trek on it.

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Bianchi-Campagnolo

Phillipe Gilbert made a thinly veiled swipe at Easton wheels in a tweet just before the TDU.

https://twitter.com/PhilippeGilbert/status/293228929035153408

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Bike Pure

And if Easton was the sponsor probably the same style of tweet.

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"Physiology is all just propaganda and lies... all waiting to be disproven by the next study."
"I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG

I might have missed it but why the Trek hate? So they backed rider who doped, is there a bike brand who hasn't?

I'm thinking Taylor Phinney is going to win a classic this spring and going to do it great style.

The way I remember it Klein were virtually insolvent when they were bought by Trek, so if anything they were kept alive by the sale.

Klein died because they were known for producing fat tubed aluminium frames in a world of thin tubed steel frames. As carbon took over and alloy became unfashionable, they lost their brand image completely. Litespeed and Cannondale almost went the same way and had to reinvent themselves.

Sorry, this has nothing to do with Pro cycling.

It's always fun taking a dig on Trek, LeePatron.
Their treatment of Greg Lemond (with their wonderboy LA pulling the strings) was appalling. But I'm not hating, unless that word thas been watered out. I'm more like indifferent to the brand. I'd rather get a Merida.

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Bianchi-Campagnolo

Trek dumped the Lemond brand as a business decision if they had been the cash cow or the goose that laid the golden egg they would have kept it going. They were obviously a loss making part of the business so had to go. Maybe LA did have a say but if that had been bad for the business I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have happened.

I enjoyed my 6.9ssl it was a good bike now however I am over 40 so I had to get an Italian bike

yea i [s]think[/s] hope so too

Pros will offer a good professional critique of equipment and that sponsor will listen and make the necessary fixes before they race. They depend on a pros honest opinion before it they get to the target race or gets to market in some form.
The bottom line is that a pros performance is based on their fitness when it comes time to perform. Like I said there is bad luck, a mechanical, bad decisions, bad timing, or not being physically and mentally prepared.

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I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

Like stella says, it comes down to legs. These days, nobody make total rubbish. I think even up until a few years ago, there were some brands in the bunch not making stuff that was as good as others. The spread between performance of the major and minor brands now is very minor. The only exceptions I can see are contact points (long time users of one brand etc) or people w/ really funky geometry that might need something not offerred by a monocoque frame for example.

watching Dwars door Vlaanderen, Stannard looked super strong considering the blizzard of a race a couple days ago...