Cruising In The Slipstream

I thought I was doing a fairly decent job of keeping up with the movement of Jonathan Vaughters and Slipstream/Chipotle, but I was still pleasantly surprised by some of the riders he signed for 2008 [especially the oft injured Tyler Farrar].

I know that Vaughters has been advised to lay low for a year, and not to build up a team too quickly, but if they happened into a ProTour license today their 2008 roster would certainly be more than competitive abroad.

David Millar
David Zabriskie
Christian Vande Velde
Tom Danielson
Julian Dean
Magnus Backstedt
Christophe Laurent
Tyler Farrar
Pat McCarty
Chris Sutton
Mike Friedman
Tom Peterson
Trent Lowe
Danny Pate
Will Frischkorn
Ryder Hesjedal
Huub Duyn
Martijn Maaskant
Daniel Martin
Jason Donald
Lucas Euser
Kilian Patour
Steven Cozza
Timmy Duggan

Farrar, who some had tabbed as the next George Hincapie, will be a welcomed asset to Maggie Backstedt in the cobbled races when not seeking his own fortune. After making a name in the junior ranks and then with Health-Net, Farrar signed a two year deal with Cofidis in 2005.

He joins a squad, in Slipstream, that seems to be a great mixture of seasoned ProTour veterans and up-start elite American professionals.

New Look
With a grand new outlook for Slipstream, it seemed only appropriate for Vaughters to want a bolder look for his team. But instead of coming up with it himself, he's thrown it open to the pubic. That's right, a design contest.

Before you start dreaming up some skulls and crossbones, here are some caveats: Argyle must be in the design, and Blue and Orange (pantone colors blue: 279 and orange: 144) must be used.

For the full instructions, click here.

You can download the design took kit here or from the Slipstream/Chipotle website. The deadline is September 15th, so get cracking.

The Triple Crankset will be throwing down on this one. We'll post our entry after the 3:00pm EST deadline. Submit an image of your design at that time [email: Granny's 30] and we'll hold our own mini-contest before the winner is unveiled during Interbike week.