Sep
27
Good Morning Interbike Day 2
Filed Under Attendee News, Exhibitor News, Interbike | 1 Comment
So here’s who’s showing up the booth as I write for this morning’s show:
Sky Yaeger and Tim Parr from Swobo. Fausto Pinarello of, um, Pinarello. Ned Overend representing Specialized. Axel Merckx is on his way, too.
At 9am for an extended edition of GMI, I have planned Jonathan Vaughters, Greg LeMond and then Mario Cipollini and Max Lelli.
Should be fun. Starts live at 8:30 Pacific time.
Sep
27
Interbike Expo Day 1 and Cross Vegas
Filed Under Attendee News, Exhibitor News, Interbike | Leave a Comment
No time for photos tonight. I’m too tired after the long day (and night) to download the pictures off the camera and resize them and upload them tonight. I got some great ones, so I will definitely get to them.
Today was day one of the indoor tradeshow. We had the Bikes Belong-Interbike Koffee reception this morning. Gave away 1,000 stainless travel mugs (not disposable!) this morning. I hope someone saved one for me since I was in the Media Center for the beginning of programming there.
The first program each morning in Good Morning Interbike. We managed to line up all the guests for all 3 days ahead of time this year so I wouldn’t have to tackle people in the aisles and drag them over to booth 5175. This morning we had Sheldon Brown, Tim Rutledge of Redline Bicycles, and Mike Sinyard, founder and president of Specialized lined up. Mike was set to be the person who would open up the show with a countdown to the doors opening.
Everything’s all set with our Cycling.TV crew (all AWESOME guys, by the way) when 5 minutes till we go live, their distribution amp died. I didn’t know what one was, but now I do. Without one of them, the signal can’t get out to all the monitors we had throughout the show and lobby areas. We managed to get the live Internet stream working, but no one at the show could see us. Arrgh! We started the show late and did the show as normal with the countdown, but it lost it’s impact without the signal to the screens for retailers out in the lobby waiting to get in and in line getting their badges.
We go thigs straightened out about an hour later, but the damage was done. We still had a great day in the MC, but it wasn’t perfect.
Retailers showed up in droves and attendance numbers for the first day are up across the board over last year. And last year was up over the previous year. That made me fell better. Most importantly, the vibe was great. Lots of happy retailers and manufacturers.
Saw the usual cast of celebrities. Since I was walking around with James, a Cycling.TV cameraman, capturing video highlights of the show, I got to meet and interview a bunch of celebs including Dave Mirra, Magnus Backstedt, Nelson Vails, Stuart O’Grady, Alberto Contador and Gary Fisher, among others. All of them were really friendly and happy about being in town. Good people, these cyclists…
Other media companies’ programs in the Media Center had more celebs. I managed to catch Levi Leipheimer, Tom Danielson, and Steve Hegg on the couch in the MC.
Around 5pm I did a quick interview with the guys from BicycleRadio.com about how the show was going. They were camped out in the “lounge” area of the MC doing a special broadcast of their show. It’s different than the typical online bike shows. You should give Sean and the guys a listen.
It’s getting late. Wait a minute, it IS late (12:21am), so I have to wrap up. Before I go, I HAVE to mention Cross Vegas. Wow. What an event. The venue was in a soccer complex and was mostly hard grass fields with rolling hills and some paved paths. It was a really fast course. It seemed like half the Interbike attendees were out cheering on the racers and brought a party attitude. It was packed and everyone was having a great time. The guys at DBC that organized the race did, I think, a flawless job: great venue, great announcers (Richard Fries and Dave Towle), entertainment (Elvis held the lap cards and sang “Viva Cross Vegas” between the men’s and women’s races, and very strong fields of racers. A VERY welcome addition to Interbike week, if I may say so myself. Hats off to Chris and Brook and their team! And, I wan to add that an audience made up entirely of bike industry people makes for an electric atmosphere ate a bike race, let me tell you.
I guess against our better judgment, following the race, we decided to hit the famous Sinclair Imports party at the Mirage. It was a new venue at the Jet nightclub and was packed. It’s an invite only party that most of the Interbike celebrities show up to. The line was long, but our passes (we’re Interbike, after all) got us right in.
One surprise to most people at the party was the presence of a one Mario Cipollini. Not surprisingly, he was surrounded by a circle of women on the dance floor. He hasn’t made an appearance at the show yet, so this is the first sighting. I’ve been working with his partners at Max Lelli Bikes for a week or so on some promo stuff for him at the show, so I had the rare opportunity to act like a big shot and walk right up to his group and have them know who I was. I chatted with them for a bit about their time in the Media Center on Thursday morning and was introduced to Mario. “Hello, Rich. Nice to meet you.” he said. We’ll all get to see more of him tomorrow at about 9:30 for an interview in the MC and then in a presentation for his friend, and former pro himself, Max Lelli’s new bike line.
You should be able to catch it live on our website. If all goes well with our
technology, that is.
BTW, we have been having a slow go at encoding all our shows and highlight videos at the end of each day because of the busy schedule in the MC. The gear and crew have been focussed on recording and editing. Be patient because we got tons of great footage from the Demo and day one! It may be slow to get up, but it will be quality.
Cheers! See you on day two at the Sands!
Sep
26
OutDoor Demo Day 2 and Indoor Setup
Filed Under Attendee News, Exhibitor News, Interbike, OutDoor Demo | 2 Comments
Wow. I love Interbike. Yeah, yeah. I’m paid to say that. But it’s true. I’ve met so many great bike people in these 2 days of OutDoor Demo (not “Dirt” Demo anymore, guys) that I just met and that I’ve known for a while. There’s just a great vibe, energy and passion at Bootleg Canyon. Bike people = good people.
Trying to keep up the daily posts during the show. Just some quick snippets from my perspective as I walked the show with the guys from Cycling.TV filming highlights and interviews with product managers and athletes.
I brought my camera on the Tour of Lake Mead ride this morning, but was so busy trying to hang on to the lead group that I couldn’t use until the turnaround/rest spot (here you see 2 riders in front of the Mavic neutral support vehicle that looked after us today. That’s Lake Meda in the backgorund). 298 riders participated. I have to admit that I was dropped on the 6 mile descent from Bootleg Canyon to Lake Mead park. I could blame the compact drive crank on my Masi 3v, but, no, it was all me. Oh, and Wayne Stetina of Shimano and Max Lelli, ‘97 Corestates winner driving at the front. Thanks, guys!
I didn’t catch their names, but the staff from Fizik were one of the big hits that the Demo this year. Not only were they handing out refreshing Italian gelato, but they did it in style. They wore ice cream shop uniforms and had 50’s-era Italian tunes playing in the background. They were all smiles and good humor. Awesome job, Fizik! Hey, just realized that I never got a gelato for myself…
This is the great legend, Ned Overend, telling us about Specialized’s new bikes for Interbike.com. On the right is James form Cycling.TV. Ned is all signed up to race the Industry Cup on Thursday night. We’ll also be interviewing him in the Media Center for Good Morning Interbike that will be streamed out live over the internet starting Wednesday morning at 8:30am (Pacific time). Ned and John Tomac will be on GMI on Thursday morning.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Queen of the OutDoor Demo. Without Lauren, ODD doesn’t happen. She’s in charge of the whole shebang on site. You may hear from me and your account reps most of the time, but Lauren and her team make it all happen. And she does it all with a smile. Super job Lauren!
Back indoors at the Sands, setup was starting to wrap up for most exhibitors. I was excited to see that Colnago had their Roman temple booth that I’ve seen in photos from the European shows. Now, is that column Doric, Ionic or Corinthian. I’m guessing Doric.
This is Matt from Cycling.TV in the control room of the Media Center during setup. While walking around the Demo these 2 days, we ran into so many retailers that watch and are fans of CTV. I even had a guy photograph cameraman James as he filmed someone to take home to show his friends.
Visit our Media Center Live page for live video and archived clips from the show starting Wednesday morning at 8:30am (Pacific).
Sep
25
OutDoor Demo Setup and Day One
Filed Under Exhibitor News, Interbike, OutDoor Demo, Photos | 3 Comments
Just got done with Day One of the 2007 OutDoor Demo. While I won’t be able to out blog the rest of you guys out there, I wanted to make the effort to at least post a few things this week. Maybe with a little bit of my perspective of the goings on. Here’re a few photos from setup day on Sunday and day one today. As always, I just love Interbike time. It’s alot of work to get here, but this week makes it all worthwhile.
This first shot is the Sands Expo Center hall where Interbike takes place that I took on Saturday afternoon after I checked into my room. It’s sort of the “calm before the storm.” Just a few people rolling out some carpeting and electrical. It’s amazing to see such a big room all empty and quiet. Over the next 3 days, a complete village of bike companies will be built here and come to life on Wednesday morning.
Over at the OutDoor Demo on Sunday morning, I notice that the Canadians from Norco beat all other exhibitors to Bootleg Canyon. Way to go, eh!
Santa Cruz arrives at the Demo in their always way cool streamliner bus. Later on we would be helping right their huge tent that got blown over in the wind onto the bus.
Here are Trek’s flags blowing furiously in the strong wind that blew over the Santa Cruz tent. It’s been keeping us all cooler than usual in the desert.
Finally got to see the belt drive that’s bee all the rage since show season started. Haven’t ridden it yet, but the Spot Brand/Chris King bike looks very clean.
Day one of the Demo, I spotted these very cool custom yellow hooded SRAM brake levers. With Mavic, you can never get enough yellow, huh?
Here’s me, Carlton Reid and our European rep (and “Mr. European Bike Industry”), Uwe Weissflog. I had just run into Calrton at the VIP tent for the first time ever. The three of us will be riding the Tour of Lake Mead rid on Tuesday morning. Should be an awesome ride and a chance to loosen up the legs before the Industry Cup race on Thursday.
Gotta hit the sack now. Look for lots of great video that I shot today with ethe guys from Cycling.TV at Interbike.com starting tomorrow. Got some really good stuff.
.
Sep
21
I’m Outta Here - See you in Vegas!
Filed Under Interbike, OutDoor Demo | 1 Comment
The whole team is on the way to Vegas. I’ll be there Saturday afternoon. 5:30am Sunday we head out to Bootleg Canyon to literally pound stakes into the ground for a few hours for parking signs and to get ready for exhibitors to start arriving that morning to set up their own displays.
When the line of rigs and trucks start coming up the access road to the Demo, the gathering begins. I can’t wait.
Hope to see you all in Vegas!
Sep
21
Hammerfest Hour at OutDoor Demo (beer)
Filed Under Attendee News, Exhibitor News, Interbike, OutDoor Demo | Leave a Comment
Courtesy of our good friends at Pyramid Beer, we’re pleased to invite all OutDoor Demo attendees and exhibitors to attend the Hammerfest Hour party.
On Monday from 4 - 6pm, cool off with a cold brew after a busy day at the Demo. Relax and catch up with your friends and peers and relive the rides of the day. Trade opinions and reviews on all the gear and bikes you put through the ringer earlier in the day.
And remember, the last shuttle back to the Sands leaves at 6:30pm sharp. Go back to your hotel and rest up for Tuesday morning’s Tour of Lake Mead ride. That’s right: get a ride in while you’re at Interbike! Call your favorite exhibitor to arrange a ride for the 4th annual edition of this ride out to beautiful Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Sep
21
A First: Organic Food at OutDoor Demo
Filed Under Attendee News, Green Efforts, Interbike, OutDoor Demo | 1 Comment
With the greater flexibility we have out in the desert of Boulder City, we have been able to work with our caterers and food service providers to make organic food options available for the first time at the OutDoor Demo. It’s another small move among the many that we are taking to improve on the environmental performance of the industry’s tradeshow.
If you’re out at the Demo and hungry, check out the organic options. I haven’t seen the menu, but I hear that the choices are really good. I’m looking forward to trying them and helping to encourage the organic food industry and eating healthier at the same time.
Along with the new food, the eating utensils and dishes it will be served on will be made of biodegradable materials as will the garbage bags that they will be disposed in.
Every little bit counts, right?
Sep
20
Crit & Industry Cup Schedule Revision
Filed Under Attendee News, Exhibitor News, Interbike, Racing | 4 Comments
There’s been a slight change in the WCSN USA Crits Finals presented by Interbike schedule (phew!). Slight delay in the Industry Cup start time and a couple of new events. See below.
- Women’s Pro Finals - 6:15pm
- Kids Criterium - 7:15pm
- Handcycle - 7:30pm
- Bicycling Magazine Industry Cup - 8:15pm
- Pro Men’s Race - 9:15pm
Sep
20
Landis Decision is Out
Filed Under Industry News, Interbike, Racing | 4 Comments
Wow. WOW. Floyd Landis loses his arbitration case.
Check the Sports Illustrated article here.
CyclingNews.com here.
Sep
20
Solar & Wind Powered at the OutDoor Demo
Filed Under Green Efforts, Interbike, OutDoor Demo | 1 Comment
Continuing with the greening of Interbike, I’m really happy to announce a partnership that could be the start of something big. The VIP tent at the OutDoor Demo will be powered and cooled by solar and wind energy, courtesy of the guys at Eco-Pioneer.
Lance and I met Scott Gibson of Eco-Pioneer back in July of this year at Pedro’s Fest in Massachusetts. He had his self-designed eco tent set up with solar and wind energy equipment that powered a large screen tv showing live Tour de France coverage out in the middle of a farm field in the Berkshire mountains.
My thoughts instantly jumped forward a few months to our OutDoor Demo. With all the sun and nearly constant wind we get in Boulder City, it seemed like a perfect place to generate some green energy. He had a tent that he was cooling with renewable energy and we had a tent that needed cooling. We almost instantly put the invitation out to Scott right there at Pedro’s (after the end of the day’s stage coverage, of course). It took some planning on Scott’s part to make it happen, but we are super excited to have him with us.
What Eco-Pioneer will be doing is powering their swamp cooler system (perfect for the dry desert climate) with their system of solar panels and wind turbines to cool our VIP tent out at the Demo. In the past the tent has been powered by gas-powered generators. Any chance to turn off a gasoline engine is welcome. We use renewable Read more