The Unknown.

27 September 2008

While I didn’t head over to Interbike and witness the spectacle that any trade show in Vegas is, I have been following the highlights on a few websites and came across the new Felt AR2 for the Garmin Chipotle team. I must say that I really like that bike, and I am really starting to like the team, riders and management.

Being a relatively new squad, originally under the name Slipstream Chipotle (with their strange argyle kits) when they first started, they were not seriously considered a threat. Another ‘American’ squad trying to make a go with the big boys of Europe. They were not automatically invited to all the big races, but did earn wild card entry into some of the large Tours. But after watching Le Tour evolve this year, I slowly started getting more and more behind their team, and especially Christian Vandevelde. A long time Domestique for Lance Armstrong and others, he has had an incredible amount of support shown from ex-PRO and current team owner, Jonathan Vaughters and found himself as the leader of the Garmin Chipotle squad. As the tour went on, he found himself consistently in the top ten, and the team made some serious moves to shake the peloton up. While I have no care for where a team is from, I do enjoy the underdog. The guy who is amazingly good, but always simple, quiet-spoken, and smiling and a team that can put the hammer down when needed, and when no one expects. That is why I am really excited to see where these guys go, and hope Vandevelde shakes some things up with next years Tour. Always more exciting with the unknowns than those with the big personalities and known talent.

// Jonathan