In this issue:

September Specials
FREE Bike Maintenance Course – 10 spots left
Street Bike Fashion at Fusion – Custom Charge bikes
Fusion Trisuits – new design
Customer Profile – Dale Blackburn
Fusion Criterium 8 November – its on again!
Brisbane to Gold Coast Ride – join the Fusion Team
Upcoming Events
Fusion Fanatics ride to Townsville for Cancer Research
Nutrition Tips - Can vegetable juice improve performance?

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September Specials

15% off all 2009 bikes instore: Cannondale, Orbea, Bianchi

Bike Review

Cannondale SuperSix Road Bike

Fusion Cycles is the only place you can see the 2010 SuperSix bike on display.  Be the first to see it!  

Stiffness to Weight: Cannondale’s engineers have again shaved weight without sacrificing stiffness, making the new SuperSix an extraordinarily efficient road machine, wasting none of the rider’s energy.

Power Transfer:  The SuperSix uses matching-radius overwraps on the massively oversized BB shell and chain stays. The design does away with flexy lugs and maximizes carbon contact surfaces – resulting in superior power transfer.

Compliance:  Some carbon frames ride like dead wood. Cannondale perfected ‘lively’ ride feel with alloy frames and have injected carbon frames with the same ride qualities via our proprietary layup methods. Snappy, responsive frames instantly transmit pavement conditions for improved road manners and performance.

Specs:  Campagnolo Super Record groupset, Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLR Wheels

RRP: $12,000             

FREE Bike Maintenance Course Sunday 27 September 3-4pm

Course Content:

• How to change a flat tyre and tips to do it fast
• What to do to maintain your bike after riding in the wet
• General maintenance to prolong the life of your bike parts
• Bike servicing – how often, what your bike will need

Bike Maintenance course is FREE and will be held at Fusion Cycles 68 Commercial Rd, Newstead. Click here  to register by email.

PLUS: Trent Patten from Reddog Triathlon Training will present a 15 minute “Top 7 tips to improving your race performance in a triathlon” seminar following the bike maintenance course.

Street Bike Fashion at Fusion – Charge bikes

Charge fixie's are the ultimate in street bike fashion and more and more of our customers are choosing to customise their fixie’s.  Whether it’s a different style of handle bars and grips or a coloured chain or wheels, fixie’s are an opportunity to make a style statement, and they sure do turn heads.

With top of the line components, retro design and innovative geometry, Charge bikes are terrific value.  Join the revolution of the underground street bike! Priced from $1149.

Fusion Trisuits – new design

Fusion Cycles is a sponsor of the Gatorade Triathlon Series in 2009/2010 and we have asked Cannibal to extend our Fusion kit to a trisuit.  We expect these suits to be instore in the next few weeks.  Like our cycle kit, these are great advertising for Fusion Cycles so we are selling them at a great price.  Fusion Trisuit: $199.95

Customer Profile – Dale Blackburn

How did you get into cycling?
A keen runner and BMX rider as a kid, my brother got me into triathlons at 16.  My best Olympic Distance Triathlon time is 2:07 at the Hervey Bay Triathlon.  The Mooloolaba Triathlon is my favourite event, with the cycle leg my best discipline.

I came across Fusion Cycles while visiting friends in New Farm and after reading about SRAM I decided to visit the shop and discuss the option of changing from Shimano to SRAM.  Matt explained exactly how SRAM operated and gave me confidence the Fusion Cycles team would provide high quality after service.  So the journey to use SRAM began, and a Fusion customer I became. 

My new pride and joy is a Cervelo S3 with SRAM Red.  The Cervelo S3 is unbelievable, I feel 5% fitter and the responsiveness and handling is superb.  The frame design is state of the art, and I know why it was used by the Cervelo Test Team in the 2009 Tour de France.

And now?
I cycle 4 to 5 times a week combining Fusion group rides, racing at Murarrie and riding with friends I've met through Fusion.  I love the getaway of cycling and riding on weekends with my wife, Kelli, ending with breakfast at a coffee shop.  Kelli and I enjoy catching up for a chat with everyone at the Fusion Shop and getting together at race events.

What’s next?
My goal is a time of 4hr 50min for the Gold Coast Half Ironman in October.  After that, I'll compete in the Noosa Triathlon for the first time as an individual competitor and participate in the Gatorade Tri Series.

Fusion Fanatics ride to Townsville for Cancer Research

Fusion Cycles and our customers supported the Smiling for Smiddy Challenge in 2008 when 50 riders raised $419,000 for prostate and melanoma cancer research.

The Bottlemart Smiling for Smiddy Challenge is a gruelling bike ride from Brisbane to Home Hill, covering 1600km in 8 days. The ride is in memory of Adam Smiddy who died of melanoma at the age of 26.  This year the ride begins on 5 September.

This is the 4th year of the ride. Olympic swimming gold medallist Duncan Armstrong is a rider and Australian cyclist Phil Anderson is riding the first 4 days. In 1981 Phil was the first non-European cyclist to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France and then held it for 9 consecutive days in 1982.

This year Fusion is represented by Tina Gilbert and Peter Allonby.  Donations can be made by credit card online:  http://www.everydayhero.com.au/tina_gilbert
http://www.everydayhero.com.au/peter_allonby

Nutrition Tips - Can vegetable juice improve performance?

Mum always told you to eat your vegies and there are lots of individuals out there that swear by their vegetable juices.  Well now it seems it may help you perform better on the bike.  A new study that has recently been published, supplemented subjects with 500ml of organic beetroot juice every day for 6 days.  The study showed an improvement of time to exhaustion in healthy, generally fit males by around 16% while using less oxygen at low intensities.  This 16% improvement in time to exhaustion equates to around a 1% improvement in something like a time trial.  The interesting part of this is that at sub maximal intensities the subjects used less oxygen for the same amount of work compared to when taking the placebo (low joule black current juice cordial).   

How does Beetroot Juice improve performance?

It is based on the fact that beetroot juice is high in chemicals called “Nitrates”.  In the body these nitrates are converted to Nitrites (mainly by bacteria on the tongue).  It is theorised that these nitrites are then absorbed into the body and in turn increase the amount of Nitric oxide in the body.  Nitric Oxide is a powerful neurotransmitter that has a number of effects, one  being increased vasodilation (effectively blood vessels expanding, leading to more blood flowing through).  More blood flow to working muscles equals more delivery of oxygen.  Basically the researchers suggest that improvements in time to exhaustion are derived from the improvements in oxidative metabolism.  Meaning that the body uses less oxygen to produce the same amount of power or produce the same amount of energy.    The researchers were unable to definitively explain how this occurs so the jury is still out if the effect is real or just a placebo effect.  The problem is that when the subjects increased intensity to higher levels, the effects of oxygen sparing where not evident.   So its relevance in performance nutrition is not yet evident but keep an eye out for the Beetroot juice supplements to start hitting the market. 

How much improvement in performance is beneficial?

Would I advise an athlete to take beetroot juice to improve performance?  At this stage no.  The evidence at this point in time is not convincing.  This leads to an important question – how do you remove the hype from what the supplement can actually do?  Yes it could potentially improve performance in a TT by 1% but there are a number of other supplements, training and sports nutrition strategies that will have far greater effect than 1% especially in the subjects in this study. 

Looking more deeply at the study we see the subjects are only slightly trained or recreational cyclist at best.  They are also fasted going into the trial.  So if I look at the benefits that 1) training and 2) nutrition can have then at this point in time I am not convinced beetroot juice can improve performance in well trained and even moderately trained individuals. It also should be noted that there has been some suggestions that high intakes of Nitrates could increase the risk of cancer.  It is important to look beyond the hype of any new supplement.

Greg Shaw
Sports Dietitian
Department of Sports Nutrition
Australian Institute of Sport

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