ROTOR for Team Lampre-Merida

2014 will see a second Pro Tour team riding Rotor products – Team Lampre-Merida.

The team has aligned with ROTOR specifically for their know-how and investment in biomechanical studies. This is evident in their flagship products like Q-Rings (eliptical chainrings) mounted on the 3D+ and Flow cranks and the new Power Meter cranksets. The riders and team are confident to benefit in their performance from this know-how in their training and in races.

The MERIDA bikes will be equipped with Rotor 3D+, Flow and Power Meter cranks. Each rider will have the choice between a wide selection of chainrings and Q rings for their best performance set up. ROTOR will support the transition with one on one testing and set up sessions during the training camps.

Brent Copeland, Team Manager of Lampre-Merida: "On behalf of Team Lampre-Merida I would like to say it gives us great pleasure to be working with Rotor starting for the 2014 season. They are a professional and passionate company who go out of their way to please every need of our riders and mechanics. It is the first time for our riders to experience Q-rings. There has been a lot of curiosity from the riders and after some transformation period and time for them to test, we will be confident to see a positive response. We are looking forward to building a strong relationship with Rotor in the future to bring about the best results for all involved."

Rui Costa, UCI Road World Champion (btw, wearing customized Sidi Wire shoes featuring rainbow graphics): “I adapted very quickly to the Q-Rings and It gave me a more aerodynamic feel. Most importantly it eliminated the dead spot in my pedal Stroke.”

Andreas Rottler, Director of Sport Marketing at Merida: "We decided to go for ROTOR because we believe in the products and the support they provide. The Q-Rings combined with the new power meter makes a perfect system for training and racing for our riders.”

Ignacio Estelles, CEO of ROTOR Bike Components : “I feel very privileged to be joining the Lampre-Merida Team with the current world champion Rui Costa . Their synergy of Pro-Tour expertise and innovative bicycle design will help ROTOR to develop and test our products at the highest level. Especially their dedication to wind tunnel testing and aerodynamics is very much in line with Rotor product design philosophy. "

In photo, from the left: Brent Copeland (team manager Lampre-Merida), Rui Costa (World Champion), Ignacio Estelles (CEO Rotor Bike Components) e Wolfgang Renner (general manager Merida Europa).T

Rotor answers the question, "Why use elipitical chainrings anyway?"

Rotor Bikes - Q Rings a Road Cycling video by Rotor


The Rotor website is  www.rotorbike.com

p.s. don't remind me about Shimano Biopace rings :-)

Rui Costa photo: by Bettini

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Major Theft at Lampre-Merida (Please Retweet)

PLEASE RETWEET

The Team-Lampre service corse in Usmate Velate (Milano) has been broken into and robbed of all bicycles, accessories and and material between the night of Saturday 23 November and Monday 25 November.

The thieves forced themselves through a window of the blue-fuchsia-green team warehouse, and broke in by destroying the alarm system, telephone system and internet connection, then continued on to clear the warehouse and team vehicles of all valued materials, aiming mostly at the bicycles and accessories, all the material is personalized for the team and identifiable by code:

• Merida Time Trial Warp Bicycle, team color, complete with wheels and groupset
• Merida Reacto Evo Bicycle, team color, complete with wheels and groupset
• Merida Ride Bicycle, team color complete with wheels and groupset
• Merida Scultura Bicycle, team color complete with wheels and groupset
• Merida Frames
• Shimano Di 2 Dura Ace groupsets (Electronic)
• Fulcrum Carbon wheelsets in personalized Lampre-Merida color, in all various models, TT Disc wheels and all other carbon models (80 mm-50 mm-35 mm e light - 25 mm)
• Selle San Marco saddles all from 2013 season and all Prologo saddles all for 2014 season.
• Power meter systems: SRM power meters from 2013 season and Rotor power meter crank system with Garmin computer for the 2014 season.
• All spare parts and accessories as well as a small truck and team car were stolen
  
  In the first hours of Monday morning the Monza and Arcore police were present to do all the necessary steps that need to be done in these circumstances and are working on a hopeful recovery of material.
  
  This is a huge loss for team Lampre-Merida, as the bicycles were all ready for distribution to the various riders in there first training camp of December, thus creating logistics problems for future consignment of the bicycles for the 2014 season.
  
  All the material is easily identified as it is all personalized for team use and thus the team is hopeful of recovering as much material as possible.
  
  Team LAMPRE-MERIDA welcomes any possible information with regards to the theft and a reward will be offered in return, please contact via e-mail or phone by contacting team@teamlampremerida.com or the teams mechanics at +39 335-6217725.
  
  The photo contains the following bicycles Merida TT Warp, Merida Reacto Evo, Merida Scultura and Merida Ride.
   

Content for the Italian Cycling Journal is based upon contributions from readers. Please contribute. Stories about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. 

Brent Copeland is New Team Manager of LAMPRE-MERIDA

Tasks, restructuring and internationality. These are the three main guidelines that Team LAMPRE-MERIDA considers to be crucial in order to find the correct balance between professionalism and organization in today's cycling world; looking ahead, these are the ideas that will be decisive for the blue-fuchsia-green team to work towards the future.

This is the reason for the team's decision to nominate Brent Copeland as team manager into the organization, replacing Giuseppe Saronni in this role. Despite his young age (41 years old) Copeland has vast experience on an international level in the sporting world.

Copeland’s cycling career began in South Africa, coming to Europe for the first time in 1994, racing in the élite category with Velo Club Lugano, racing with team mates such as future world champion Oscar Camenzind and Rubens Bertogliati, who as we know gave Lampre (at the time with the name of Lampre-Daikin) the yellow jersey in Tour de France 2002.

When Brent stopped racing he turned his interests to working in the cycling world with Lampre in 1999 as sport director, directing world champions Camenzind, Igor Astarloa and Alessandro Ballan. Meanwhile, he was also nominated South African National team manager in three editions of the world championships.

Copeland’s relationship with team Lampre carried on until 2009 when Brent then moved to motorbikes. In 2010, he joined the MotoGp world as coordinator of the activities of American Ben Spies, travelling with the rider and MotoGP for three seasons gaining vast experience in this top level sport of the motorbike world with which Copeland is still in touch and in which he has gained various management skills.

In 2013 he made his return to cycling: Copeland was called upon for organizing and the launch of the first African team to obtain Professional team status, MTN-Qhubeka, which saw them go on to win the memorable Milano-Sanremo thanks to Gerald Ciolek.

Copeland’s career, together with his knowledge and skills and the appreciation he received on an international level convinced Team LAMPRE-MERIDA to put this trust in him and offer him the role as team manager: he will be responsible for the management and organization of the team, both staff and riders working in close contact with the sport directors, the medical staff and responsible for the training, logistics and race program.

The undertaking of these tasks by the South African manager, during the season in which Team LAMPRE-MERIDA will have in its roster the world champion once again (the Portuguese Rui Alberto Faria da Costa), will give Giuseppe Saronni the chance to concentrate and focus more on the research and management of financial backers, sponsors and partners for the team.

The nomination of Brent Copeland is consistent with restructuring the team is taking, in the past 12 months Michele Bartoli (responsible for training and race program ) and Angelo Zomegnan (senior advisor) have been added to the team.

New ideas, various skills and knowledge that enrich the team's history and offer a new progression for the future. Copeland explains: “The request of taking on the role of team manager makes me proud: Lampre has always been my Italian family, they welcomed me fifteen years ago, there has always been a special bond with the blue-fuchsia colors. The choice to accept this responsibility has been easy, even if it was not based only on sentimental reasons. In fact, I appreciate been involved in these changes of internationalization and the evolution of the team, an evolution which we working towards finding the perfect balance of professionalism and organization in this modern world of cycling in which we find ourselves. I’m ready and determined to support this challenge of transition and I know I can rely on a group of excellent people that are professional in each one of the indicated areas. This is a team effort which I am looking forward to working in, we starting from a good level of experience, which we want to broaden into a wider international dimension, this is a fundamental resource for our future”.

Tomorrow, Copeland is going to take part in a meeting with Michele Bartoli and the technical staff in order to begin, with the team leaders, to plan the schedule of next year's season.

Content for the Italian Cycling Journal is based upon contributions from readers. Please contribute. Stories about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com.

A Team's Logistics at the Giro d'Italia

Team Lampre-Merida discussed what is involved in the organizational support of a World Tour team at the 2013 Giro d'Italia:

-24 people: 9 riders, 1 general manager, 2 sport directors, 1 doctor, 5 masseurs, 3 mechanics, 1 driver, 2 communication managers.

-the automotive crew had 1 bus, 1 truck, 2 vans and 5 cars. They travelled a lot, covering many kilometers: one team car covered 6,000 km, the same distance as from Milano to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, home of former Lampre rider Abdujaparov.

-on the team truck there were 56 Merida bikes:for each cyclist there were 2 Reacto Evo frames, 2 Scultura frames, 2 TT Warp frames. For Scarponi and Niemiec, there was one additional Scultura frame.

-the wheelsets that the mechanics had prepared set before the start were 75 (pairs), all with tubular tires mounted; in addition to which there were 90 extra tubular tires available.

-mechanics used 40 boxes of brake pads and 50 chains, each of 135 cm of length for a total of 67.5 meters.

-auto vehicles, bikes and mechanical parts were clean and shining thanks to use of the washing liquid "Chante Clair": 100 bottles used during the Giro.

-masseurs prepared sandwiches using 470 meters of aluminum foil and they used 2,000 bottles, for a total of 100 liters of liquid, a large part of which was for hot tea.

-Lampre-Merida sent 170 tweets during the race to 10,600 followers, and 170 posts to Facebook to 10,800 followers. 

Photo: Bettini for Team Lampre-Merida

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Michele Scarponi: Banished, Vanished, Or??

I've noticed no sign of Michele Scarponi in the first four races of the season for Team Lampre-Merida. Those races were the Tour Down Under, Tour of San Luis, Tropicale Amissa Bongo and Challenge Mallorca.

A press release on February 1st, introducing the new leisure clothing sponsor of Clique, has Scarponi missing from the team photo (click to enlarge):

Where is Michele Scarponi?

A Lampre-Merida photo shoot published in cyclingnews.com on February 1st (here) did not include Scarponi.

The only mention of Scarponi this year by the team was in a press release on January 24th which was about SIDI being the shoe sponsor.  He is listed on the team website.


Michele Scarponi: Banished, Vanished, Or??


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Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com.  There are now more than 2,700 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

Team Lampre's Merida Scultura SL

In September came the announcement that beginning in 2013 Wilier would no longer be the bike supplier to Team Lampre, ending a 10 year relationship. Beginning next year the bike sponsor is Merida, it will be the Taiwanese company's first venture into the top tier of professional road racing. The team is renamed to Team Lampre-Merida.

Team Lampre will be using a newly launched Merida frameset, the Scultura SL (scultura is Italian for sculpture). The Lampre version is pictured above. road.cc had a short review with many photos of a Sculptura SL here if you want for information. As pictured above the bike is equipped with Shimano Di2; we'll have to wait for the official announcement to learn of the complete configuration of the team bikes.

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com.

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There are more than 2,600 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.   

Team Lampre: Goodbye to Wilier, Hello to Merida

This surprised me! Press release:

MERIDA enters the UCI World Tour

Merida Europe GmbH is pleased to announce its commitment to the UCI WorldTour as per January 1st 2013. With the UCI ProTeam Lampre a both likeable and successfully established team has agreed to be supplied with MERIDA’s high-end equipment for the next three seasons and to compete under the official name “Team Lampre-MERIDA”. With the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM, Taiwan’s second-largest bicycle manufacturer has been supporting one of the world’s most successful mountain bike racing teams since 2004; entering the UCI WorldTour thus was a long-awaited and logical next step in order to get the best showcase possible for the brand’s premium road products as well.

As per 2013, the new Team Lampre-MERIDA will be competing on state-of-the-art equipment: The SCULTURA SL is setting benchmarks in terms of stiffness, agility and vertical compliance, thus making sure that the Team Lampre-MERIDA can participate not only at the big races such as the Giro d’Italia, the Vuelta a Espana and the Tour de France with legitimate aspirations. On top of that, early in 2013 a time trial bike that has been developed from scratch to meet the demands of time trialling with the world’s elite is going to be presented. More team bikes tailor-made to suit the needs for cobble-stone classics such as Paris-Roubaix or particularly aerodynamic models for long escapes and building a lead-out train for a sprinter are going to be presented throughout the next year.

MERIDA is the private brand of Merida Industry Co., Ltd, Taiwan’s second-largest bicycle manufacturer. The company had been founded in 1972 by Ike D.H. Tseng in Yuanlin, Taiwan. After the founder’s death in January 2012, his son Michael Tseng took over. At its three production facilities in Yuanlin, Shenzen and Shandong (the latter two based in the People’s Republic of China), about 3500 employees produce about 2.5 million bicycles per year that are being distributed in 70 countries around the world. MERIDA’s world-wide workforce sums up to about 52.000 people. Ever since 2004, MERIDA has been participating in international competitions with great success with the “MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM”, a team that has Olympic and World champions in its line-up with riders such as Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja, Ralph Näf and José Hermida.

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome.

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Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 2,600 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.