Tour of California

[bikerchick68]

bcipam... cool pics! The one of Bobby J is really good. He's HOT! How cool that Thor used you for support... he's a big guy compared to a lot of the other riders... impressive how fast he can go considering his comparative size...

Slinke thanks! I had fun putting the show together... good thing they only allow 100 pics or you'd all still be watching... LOL!

Bluetree... those are the new Cannondale frames. Cannondale custom paints them for Mavic and then they add their badges. The Cannondale logo is still there but painted the same color as the bike... it's a pretty cool setup. They have custom gearing that can be used quickly for any rider... campy or shimano makes no dif... and they have setups for climbing, sprinting etc. Fascinating to listen to the guys explain it to people asking. Wish I understood it all better. If you ever see the Mavic group out, stop and talk to them. They like answering questions for people... it's good for them and good for the fans of racing...

[Bluetree]

One more question, albeit a silly one...

How do you pronounce Mavic? I've heard people say Mah-vic, May-vic... etc.

Boy, did I get grief when I pronounced SRAM "S-RAM", which was the way everyone I knew pronounced it. It is simply... "Sram'

[slinkedog]

We always say, "mah-VEEK." Don't know if it's right or not.

[bikerchick68]

Mavic... like havoc...

here's what it stands for:

Manufacture d'Articles Vélocopediques Idoux et Chanel (French wheel manufacturer)

(I googled something one day and stumbled across that... ) and the history:

Two brothers, Léon and Laurent Vielle, created a 'nickel-plating' business in 1889. A little later Charles Idoux and Lucien Chanel ventured into the 'manufacture and the sale of spare parts for bicycles'.
While the Vieille brothers founded Etablissements Métallurgiques du Rhône (EMR) with the brand name AVA, the latter created MAVIC, Manufacture d’Articles Vélocipédiques Idoux et Chanel (Idoux & Chanel’s Manufactory of Articlesfor Velocipedes). The common factor between these two businesses was their President, Henry Gormand.