The Dusk to Dawn, 12hour, 7th & 8th August

Here's to another great weekend of racing with Dusk to Dawn 12 hour at Canungra, 30 minutes inland from the Gold Coast. What a fantastic MTB event with a twist, ride from dusk to dawn for 12 hours on a 8 km loop consisting of single track, switchbacks, fire roads and flowing down hills. The main sponsor of this event is Ay-Up Lights, lighting up the way.


Cognition and one of our sponsored riders, Andy Fellows (Ay-Up lights) have joined forces and put together some awesome teams to compete on the weekend.
The teams include:
 3 Person team- Powered by Ay-up lights.com
 Andy Fellows, Chris Fitzgerald and Greg Long
4 Person team - Ay-Up Junior Elite
 Jack Jude, Roger Pogson-Manning, Declan Wharton and Nathan King
4 Junior - Ay-Up Junior Rippers
Seb Vejby, Jesse Hill, Ethan Kelly and Zack Aguis

Jack Jude and Andy Fellows in training

The team at Cognition are excited and proud to see some of our young, impressive and promising riders of the Sunshine Coast taking part in a gruelling yet fun event.
Good luck to everyone and may the cycling gods be looking down on you.

Greg Pott's Trip to the States

Greg's ready for one great DH experience

Greg on the Tarmac SL3

Greg Pott had a great time learning all about the fantastic bikes and products that Specialized offers, and to do this in an awesome place was a dream come true. He got to play in the mountains and use the ski lifts to do some wicked downhill. He got to try out the downhill bike, Demo 8 II (2011 model) and his comments were " an amazing ride, the faster you go the smoother the ride got".

Next the day, he changed his gear and got on the road. He tried both the Tarmac SL3 2011 and the Roubaix SL3 2011, both "the best road bikes he had ever ridden"

Greg on the way to the town, Montezuma.

The Tarmac SL3 is an competitive road bike which is extremely light and stiff while the endurance road bike, Roubaix SL3 makes a long ride comfortable and FAST.

If you are interested  to find out more about Greg's trip or what he learnt about Specialized, drop into the shop and have a chat and while you are there check out the early releases of the 2011 Specialized range.

Specialized Technology Dominates Tour

July 26, 2010 Morgan Hill, CA Every bike company dreams of winning the Tour de France: Specialized realized its dream and took it one step further, with Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck riding their Specialized bikes1-2 finish Sunday in Paris. This was the first-ever Maillot Jaune for the California company.
Of course there was also a wide array of Specialized equipment in the peleton, with riders on two teams sporting their brand new Prevail helmets, including grenn jersey winner Alessoandro Petacchi, and amy others using their shoes, saddles and various other accessories.

After many years of sponsoring Pro Tour teams, founder and owner Mike Sinyard was exuberant about the success of the teams (Astana and Saxo Bank) and riders with whom he's worked so closely for research and development on these bikes and equipment. He's also pretty psyched for the company!

"Winning the tour is a dream for us that has taken 36 years to come true" Sinyard said. 'It's clear example of successfully following our founding principle to focus on the riders need for technologically advanced products that provide true performance benefits".
With technology playing a bigger part in pro cycling every year, Specialized worked hand-in hand with the pros to dial in the perfect combination of ride feel and efficiency, resulting in the fastest, best-forming, most comfortable bikes possible. And unlike most companies who provide road and TT bikes, Specialized developed three different race-ready bikes for the event, specific to the ride experience of the day: Tarmac SL3 for road stages, Shiv for time trials, Roubaix SL3 for cobbleston- heavy stage 3.


The results speak for themselves:along with the overall podiums, Specialized enjoyed 5 individual stage wins, including two on the Shiv and three on a tarmac. The Shiv's unequalled combination of wind sclicing aerodynamics and road-bike handling allowed Fabian Cancellara to blow away the field in the race's two time trials.


The Tarmac, with its industry leading stiffness to weight ratio and race-proven geometry, helped propel Schleck and Alexandre Vinokourov to three dominant victories in the mountains.


Perhaps the biggest story, though, was the 2011 Roubaix SL3. After its early success this spring with the win at Paris-Roubaix, the riders appreciated its benefits over the cobblestones of stage 3.
"I not going to lose any sleep over Sateg 3" Contador said before the race. "The new bike(Roubaix SL3) Specialized has provided for me will be crucial"


Proving again that "smoother is faster", the Roubaix helped Contador and Schleck float over the brutal roads, gaining valuable time over their main rivals, and laying the groundwork for their eventual head to head battle for overall title.

In the gritty, down to the finish battle for the sprinter's green jersey, Petacchi put the Prevail helmet to the ultimate test....it passed with flying (green) colours! The best complete performance helmet proved its excellence in aerodynamics, fit, cooling-and of course protection-over three weeks of torturous conditions, from wind to heat to brutal, high speed crashes. And it always looked sleek and stylish-especially in full green on the Champs Elysees.


Top all that off with professional BG Fits and our sponsored athletes were able to push themselves beyond their limits, only to come back even stronger the next stage.




Sourced: Matt O'Connor, Specialized Australia.