Road Bike Racing - Cervelo now has it's own team: Test Team.

from: http://www.cervelo.com/news.aspx?m=About&i=News

Bike industry’s thought leaders put a new spin on professional cycling and product innovation

Cervélo, Zipp, Speedplay, Vittoria and 3T are pleased to announce Cervélo TestTeam. Beyond racing, this new professional cycling team will provide a comprehensive, engineering-driven test ground for new product development.

"Cervélo TestTeam will be managed by Cycling United Racing out of Switzerland, together with the professional women’s team currently known as Team Cervélo-Lifeforce,. “As a partner of the women’s team, we have seen their very high level of professionalism and their impressive results,” said Andy Ording, President of Zipp. “So it was a natural decision to use the current platform and reinforce it with additional staff.”

A four-year commitment of additional private funding provides a competitive budget to race at the highest level. With the core of the roster now confirmed, detailed announcements will be made in the next few weeks.

As for the team name, Cervélo TestTeam is a working title. Several companies have already expressed an interest in becoming a major sponsor, which may affect the final name of the team"

------------Working title, apparently. Sounds very Hollywood.

Stories of similiar teams have been published in Bicycling Magazine.. In fact, Bicycling Magazine has a team of cyclists who test bikes for their own in house bike reviews. Should you trust them.... What A job.. Wish I had a good enough resume in order to apply for a job with them... Cervelo.. How lucky can one get.

Yea, that 50g fork is safe, go ahead and race it so we can get some data. Not a problem.

They will be as much of a test team as CSC was, CSC rode prototypes all the time as do most of the pro teams.
Interesting to see if Sastre goes to them or stays with Saxo bank.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/aug08/aug28news3

Cervélo forms TestTeam, LEAVES CSC

that's the biggest news. does this mean Bjarne is going to start buying frames at retail now?

I'd like to see a team compete on frames from ADK or Axman, just to prove a point ;)

Velonews linky. (http://www.velonews.com/article/82432/cervelo-others-sponsor-new-pro-road-team)

Couldn't tell if they left CSC, or if CSC left them. I wonder what CSC will ride next year.

Just read the cyclingnews link.

So, Specialized is going to sponsor how many teams now?

Just read the cyclingnews link.

So, Specialized is going to sponsor how many teams now?

Quick Step gets frames, Lampre, Silence-Lotto and Milram get shoes, shades, helmets and other crap.

Saxo Bank will end up with the same deal that Gerolsteiner had.

Will Specialized step up and actually produce a TT bike?

Will Specialized step up and actually produce a TT bike?

I doubt it.

There isn't much that Specialized can do to improve on the Walser rigs they buy.

Will Specialized step up and actually produce a TT bike?
Isn't the Transition a TT-Tri bike?

Isn't the Transition a TT-Tri bike?

The Transition is a piece of crap.

I don't see why they would lose their biggest marketing tool... the csc-cervelo deal seems so good for both sides... csc gets an entire company's product line to play with and cervelo gets some big wins...

also, is cervelo dropping truetemper for 3T?

and if cervelo is getting zipp (owned by sram) would they get sram too?

Isn't the Transition a TT-Tri bike?

Please enlighten me as to which team was riding a Transition in the Tour, Giro, or any other UCI race this year. I'm guessing there is a reason.

Please enlighten me as to which team was riding a Transition in the Tour, Giro, or any other UCI race this year. I'm guessing there is a reason.

Quick Step. The Gerolsteiner Walser rebadged was already in use since 2003, and since it was a better bike than the Transition, there wasn't any need to bring in the Transition for use.

http://www.grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.nsf/images/08giroSt1/$file/2.jpg
Oy.

The Transition is a piece of crap.

Seemed to work OK for this guy (see pic, notice jersey, check on finish at World's).

His comment to me was "best TT bike ever".

With all the recalls Cervelo has had it's quite possible that it's a money issue.

Quality control and detail stuff hasn't lived up to their conceptual engineering.

Seemed to work OK for this guy (see pic, notice jersey, check on finish at World's).

His comment to me was "best TT bike ever".

With all the recalls Cervelo has had it's quite possible that it's a money issue.

Quality control and detail stuff hasn't lived up to their conceptual engineering.

"All" the recalls?

There have been two in their entire existence.

Granted, they have both been large scale operations taking almost the entirety of a product off of the market and replacing it. Still, two is pretty good.

"All" the recalls?

There have been two in their entire existence.

Granted, they have both been large scale operations taking almost the entirety of a product off of the market and replacing it. Still, two is pretty good.

"All" is used here to refer to the number of units, and as you've noted the recalls have been quite broad. Frames and forks provide most of the company's profit. The inclusive costs of replacement, various litigations, judgements and logistics could not, even by the most generous of measures, be considered "pretty good".

When taken as a percentage of the total units Cervelo has sold over its brief history, compared to other manufacturers, it's pretty bad.

I own and race a P3c (my second Cervelo BTW), my comments aren't coming from some "hater" perspective.

"All" is used here to refer to the number of units, and as you've noted the recalls have been quite broad.

I can't speak for the current fork recall, but the R2.5 recall only applied to frames produced during one production run over a limited period of time. A fraction of the production of one frame over the total range of frames in production.

I can't speak for the current fork recall, but the R2.5 recall only applied to frames produced during one production run over a limited period of time. A fraction of the production of one frame over the total range of frames in production.

Fractions can be big or small. 1/10th is a small fraction. 7/10ths is a large fraction. "Limited" is open to interpretation. Some fishing seasons are "limited" to 10 months out of the year.

Absolute numbers might be a better measure.

According to Cervelo, 650 frames were recalled. The current fork recall affects 5800 forks.

Those are numbers from Cervelo's own press releases, which tend to understate the actual final numbers.

By time all was said and done it's not much of a stretch to figure the price tag on the R2.5 recall came in at around a mil or more, excluding some of the other warranty issues (drop outs taking their name literally for one). That's an ugly hit for a business trying to manage rapid expansion. I'm sure when the fork issue came up the guys didn't look at each other and go "hey, that's pretty good!"

Whatever. My speculation was that economics might be playing into their decision to no longer supply bikes to the most successful pro team out there and instead to take several steps down the ladder, and have someone else step into CSC. Cervelo's comment would seem to support that:

"The financial realities of pro cycling today have caused a change in priorities for the team, and we respect that."

There's also an amusing bit of talking out of both sides of their mouth about results not being of primacy then lauding the women's team for their "impressive results". And some amorphous statement about this team "making the sport healthier".

Again, whatever. I want them to stay profitable so I can bling out a P4cSL

http://velonews.com/article/82491/saxo-bank-to-ride-specialized-in--09

Seemed to work OK for this guy (see pic, notice jersey, check on finish at World's).

His comment to me was "best TT bike ever".

With all the recalls Cervelo has had it's quite possible that it's a money issue.

Quality control and detail stuff hasn't lived up to their conceptual engineering.

I have no idea who that is but is he the guy who got 2nd? Since a TT bike is only considered good or bad based on it's drag numbers, his subjective opinion is practically worthless. Maybe if he wasn't on such a crap frame he would be wearing a rainbow jersey right now.

I have no idea who that is but is he the guy who got 2nd? Since a TT bike is only considered good or bad based on it's drag numbers, his subjective opinion is practically worthless. Maybe if he wasn't on such a crap frame he would be wearing a rainbow jersey right now.

National Champion, 2nd at worlds. I suppose Fabian's opinion would be worthless to you also.

Tunnel people I've spoken to have said the numbers were good.

The BF "I call things crap based on my baseless opinion but you'll have to provide me with empirical data to prove me wrong" argument (then I'll re-frame the argument) is priceless.

Here's a twist. Show us tunnel numbers to prove YOUR statements Tugger and Convert. My P3c and I have no dog in this fight, but I'd like you to substantiate why a bike on which a very competitive national championship (and nearly Worlds) was won on is "crap".

Seemed to work OK for this guy (see pic, notice jersey, check on finish at World's).

His comment to me was "best TT bike ever".

With all the recalls Cervelo has had it's quite possible that it's a money issue.

Quality control and detail stuff hasn't lived up to their conceptual engineering.

1) Who is that?
2) What year did he win?
3) Which World's TT category are you referring to, because for the past 3 years these are the names of the 2nd place finishers in the Elite category: Bodrogi, Zabriskie, Gutierrez...

He is referring to master's worlds. A friend of mine was 4th (on a Felt), only 20 some odd seconds off this guy who can "feel" how good his CdA is. He was 3rd in CO state champs interestingly.

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/reviews/Cervelo-P3C-2008/lg/037_Cervelo_P3C_2008.JPG

Bad. (http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/reviews/cerveloP3C2008.shtml)

Bad. (http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/reviews/cerveloP3C2008.shtml)

Every FIST certified shops sells Cervelo, they are the ultimate shill, but yes, Specialized Transition is a very bad design.