Tandem Cycling - How's This For a Tandem Team?

Jan Ullrich and another Telekom rider going out as a tandem team? They'd do RAGBRAI in a half a day!

This is my attempt to get my handle off the tandem board's latest poster!

http://www.smilies-world.de/Smilies/Smilies_gross/a_smil13.gif

LoL, interesting pic. That's Erik Zabel on the front, Gus.

velo

Originally posted by velo
LoL, interesting pic. That's Erik Zabel on the front, Gus.

velo

Darn, I should of known that!

i LOVE it!
i have this nightmare....
i'm stoking.
lance(or jan or mig) are "captaining".
he turns around and says "stooooop pedaling......you're slowing me down!!!!"

:D

Originally posted by velo
LoL, interesting pic. That's Erik Zabel on the front, Gus.

velo


Bicycling says Zabel is the best cyclist..Not Lance.
I wonder why they are riding a MTB tandem?

This picture first made the rounds in December and Chris Timm posted a note to our off-road tandem forum that filled in the background. Relevant extracts of the note are appended below:

"The pic was taken at Team Telekom's pre-season presentation, an annual get-together topped off with an MTB race of the team against journalists. They [Ulrich & Zabel** are riding a Soil 'Hard Line' FS MTB tandem. Soil is a brand name used by the traditional German bike manufacturer Schauff, a large family-owned company. Schauff holds a license to build entry-level bikes under the 'Team Telekom' brand name, so as one of the team's partners they were invited to the presentation and brought a tandem along just for fun. Jan Schauff is on the German tandem listserv, and he hopes that the pic will increase interest in tandems."

The picture was also picked up by one of Lance Armstrong's Web masters and posted to the LA Web site which put it into much wider distribution.

FWIW: Regarding the yellow tandem, Chris previously rode a Soil F/S Tandem and posted what is his admittedly "subjective test report" at the following URL:
http://tandem-fahren.de/Mitglieder/Christoph_Timm/Soil_Hard-Line.html

Regarding the comment about RAGBRAI, there is a satirical article on the Web (www.slowtwitch.com) written by Jim Riccitello in which he relates his experience stoking a tandem for Gord Fraser at this past year's Tour de Tucson. While they didn't cut the course record in half, they did capture 1st place overall beating several other pro-level riders in the process.

For those not familiar with the names, Jim Riccitello has been a top pro triathlete for the past 20 years and Gord Fraser is a Canadian Pro Rider for Mercury-Viatel whose speciality is sprinting.

Jim is a regular contributor to slowtwitch.com and beware, the title of his article is "Memoirs of a tandem bi_ch" -- pulled from the Harley lexicon -- so bear that in mind before you head off to the URL to read the article: http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/features/riccitello/tandem.html