Next time I see him I going to punch him in the liver for a real Merckx experience

The carbon wheels AG2R is using, seems to be rebranded Reynolds clinchers. They also used Reynolds clinchers last year in the Tour.

Thx. It's indeed quite a job to do the uploading... here are some great pictures of team CSC:








Every rider can make it's own wheel choice. Basso was the only one to opt for 202's. Is #194 using another (alloy?) seatpost here?





Can someone explain me why his wheel magnet isn't oposite to the valve? And what kind of wheel magnet is that? Seems a nice one.


It is said before in this topic: Lombardi is still on the Cervélo R2.5. Why? If Gerard Vroomen is reading this, feel free to answer. Thx.

@ Gerard: from all the teams I've been to, the equipment of team CSC was the most impressive. My sincerest congratulations for that!




Then Lombardi gets a last minute adjustment to his rear wheel... I think his valve extender was making a nasty noise when touching the rim (a problem all riders of aero wheels have faced on time).
Btw Lombardi is not on team socks, but all white socks. I guess (read: kinda sure) these are DeFeet Aireator socks.




Note some riders are having only 1 bottle cage!! In that case a real weight weenie would have removed the bolts as well.

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Jens Voigt prepares to go and sign in:




I'm wondering the whole year now... do these yellow sunglasses Voigt is wearing have a certain meaning? Hmmm. I have such a respect for this man, it's the first time I got so close to him and I did not dare to ask.




Here's Bobby. Is he looking sharp, or not?




At least his O'Symmetrics are sharp like hell. See his Ultegra front derailleur!

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casran you are a genius!!!!

who makes these coll track mits csc use? gerolsteiner also use cool mits, both have no strap could you find out from one of youre many contacts!!!?

thank you .......

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so far...king fast
A new forum-Cycling with Power...also a Junior Training section...come check it out!

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CASRAN... i will lost my sleep with your pics... pleeeeeeease....
dont do that to me with Cervelos!
Keep up the good work... make us lose our sleep!

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"It may be near when it seems so far"

Real nice pics!!!

The CSC team really seems ready for this giro.

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There's no point in living if you can't feel alive - JB

Great pics as usual Pieter.

But who's the guy in the reflection of Jens' glasses?

And the man it is all about: Ivan BASSO... He is sitting in the team car, having a final chat with Bjarne Riis.



And adjusting his Bell Sweep R helmet.




To me this is a magic moment... Bjarne Riis himself giving Basso bike a final check!! Wow, if only my team director would be like that (instead he wasn't aware I turned up with special wheels this weekend, and was surprised why several riders came to look at my Lightweights ).






I'm glad about this one. I think it's one of the nicest pics I've ever made: it says so much, Riis holding Basso's bike.





Half an hour later, the CSC riders gather at the crowded start place. No way of getting close to riders here... euhm , unless you just know them and shout to come to you. When I arrived their, I was standing in the third row, and people asked me not to push... then I saw some riders I knew, I shouted their name and they rolled over to us: immediatly people stepped aside to let me shake their hand.




To give an impression of the hughe crowd at the start... Tomas Vaitkus is the AG2R guys with the fancy sunglasses somewhere on the left; I just spoke to him; I took this picture a few minutes before the start (I decided to leave this crowdy area and go and see the riders 500meters further). Basso is on the right at the front.




My camera found him: Ivan is there!
I wish that Lampre rider would have been Eddy Mazzoleni...





@ bike_add1ct: it's a cool detail, isn't it? It is a journalist. I almost got myself reflected in Ulles sunglasses... I would have succeeded in such reflection in McEwens and Simonis glasses, if only do would have worn darker and more reflecting ones.

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Descente is CSC's new cycling apparel sponsor for 2006: http://www.descenteathletic.com

http://www.descenteathletic.com/index.p ... rentID=123

Sweet pictures Casran.

That Riis attention to detail is on display. And Julich's bike got stolen soon after the photos, maybe the thief is in your pics?

You could have talked to Voigt, I used to know him when I lived in the south of France and he was with Gan. Nice guy. I guess so long as you didn't ask dumb questions (Is it hard sitting on a bike all day? Aren't you tired yet after all this racing?) he'd be cool to talk to someone for a couple of minutes.

When you say "sharp" do you mean thin? I know in French people say "affuté" to mean thin. I think the phrase in English is "ripped" but no one in cycling uses it.

"They took all the bikes off the roof racks, but there were so many people at the finish there today that Bobby Julich's bike has gone missing. It's his special bike with compact chainrings. It's going to be a hassle for the mechanics to get that organised.

We went looking for it. I saw three young kids riding across the other side of the river on bikes. So I got on a bike and took off after them, but it wasn't one of them... " - Scott Sunderland on cyclingnews

Casran?

(kidding )

//Edit: Beaten by Danton

What do you mean by that?
Ivan Basso's brother-in-law Eddy Mazzoleni transferred from Lapmre to T-Mobile for this season:
http://www.t-mobile-team.com/cms/tmotea ... =9158.html
Mazzoleni is not riding the Giro though.

Lol, how negligent of them...

Those pics of Riis inspecting Basso's bike are the coolest ever indeed. Cool sweater too

Exactly. I know a few CSC riders riding other stuff this season (and I think Lombardi is on other socks in my picture above), but that is the official sponsor indeed.

Hincapie was using the Nike TT gloves (without strips!) in the early spring classics this year as well. Very cool. I plan to do so as well in certain races.






Really? Julichs bike got stolen?! Pfff... what can you do with a stolen pro bike?

I heard Voigt is a cool guy yes... and I'm quite trained to quickly see when a rider is willing to talk (mind you, green jersey Arnaud Labbe proposed himself to make a picture of he with his Time bike ; would he read Weight Weenies?); point is guessing (1.) what languages a riders speaks easily (I'm not fluently speaking German; French, English, Italian and Dutch are no problem) and (2.) what thing are they willing to talk about (maybe Voigt thinks the colour of his glasses is a stupid question). I prefer above all not to bother these top athletes when they are not willing to have a chat.

That last thing is probably a bad translation of my part. Sorry... I mean: looking very in shape, as an endurance sportsman, with low fat percentage. My soigneur (the one who's giving massages) sometimes says: "man, you're having so less fat I'm wounding my hands on you!"...






I know he's not in the Giro. And yes, just forgot he is with T-Mobile now!

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