At first glance they offer the sleek performance, look and feel that we are used to seeing in shoes at this higher price range. The quality of build appears good, but I can’t attest to that personally.  Bont has a history in building shoes for competitive sports, but only recently expanded into the cycling market with noticeable success.  They offer technical shoes with specially sourced grade of carbon fiber from Toray, Japan for a strong, light platform that cushion your feet with closed cell memory foam (which doesn’t absorb water.)

The tech specs sound like they stand up to the competition and their designs remind me of Northwave shoes with sweeping lines and Velcro straps. I can’t wait to try them out.  Anyone have some long term riding on these and want to chime in?

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“Every ride starts with those slow steps to the bike – even for Tom Boonen and Co. The only difference? Tom Boonen has World Champ socks. Perhaps Optimus Prime is good for the legs.”

New cycling shoes and products will focus on customization like never before. If you’re going to buy a new pair of shoes in the coming year you can expect to have a plethora of cool styles to choose from. Needless to say the decision will be hard to make.

We’re gathering our notes now and will be bringing you the headliners soon. Until then consider these kicks a tease.

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blame it on Johan

Please Lance, if you are going to be around for another year will you please leave your ugly black cycling shoes at home? They have no place in the Tour de France and no place in Europe. All this talk about doping is wasted calories because the UCI needs to confiscate his shoes as soon as he deplanes in Charles de Gaule.

Unless I am mistaken only three riders in the 2009 edition of the Tour regularly wear black shoes: David Millar, Yaroslav Popovych and Lance Armstrong. Granted, here in America I see tons of black cycling shoes on the road every weekend (they are often accompanied by dated jerseys and helmet mirrors) but they just seem awkward in the European pro peloton these days. Many blog sites already agree.

Armstrong wears black socks all the time, which makes it seem like he’s wearing thermal booties in July, but he looks consistent — consistently like an old man. Blame it on Johan.

Millar seems to go back and forth with his socks but the black shoes certainly make him look British (if that makes any sense). Fellow Brit Bradley Wiggins also wears black socks and Lance tweeted about it after a mountain stage. But Popo almost always goes with the white sock/black shoe combo, perhaps as an homage to the old Russian national teams…or Cosmo Kramer.

But after watching endless hours of Tour coverage during July I realized with the exception of the aforementioned cases, the rest of the pack is white. This truly makes Popovych, Millar and Armstrong black sheep. Popo does it because he’s a slut to the American and Armstrong does it because he’s a tacky Midwestern frat boy.

It’s funny that 99% of Europeans always wear black casual shoes but white cycling shoes are still very Euro. I watched a day of American football and discovered that even the rough and tumble badboy sport will still attract the skills players to wear mostly white shoes. The linemen wear black, but in the NFL it’s a tossup.

Speaking of Tour coverage, if you make nasty phone call to Directv about dropping Versus, you may or may not receive a bunch of movie channels through the end of the year gratis.

I digress, Sidi’s been doing it long before 1983, but white shoes became popular in the late 80’s when Andy Hampsten won the Giro in his white Lakes and then Delgado led the way for Time to outfit entire teams with their sweet looking white, grey and red kicks. I still think the second-generation Time model was probably the coolest looking cycling shoe ever. Or should I say…of all Time.

Lance Armstrong has three older children with his ex-wife Kristin. Those children were conceived using IVF and sperm banked before his cancer battle.

Max was concieved naturally with Anna Hansen, a weekend-warrior type chick Armstrong may have met in Colorado.

When born on Max Armstrong weighed in at 7 pounds 5 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Maybe I shouldn’t have titled this article with boring because nothing about a pair of Ergo 2′s is boring – they are one hot shoe with more cool factors, fit and features than anything on the market but a simple Italian stripe down the side doesn’t cut it for me.

Take the National Football League. That’s right, American Football – the NFL. It takes a lot of money to score a touchdown in the NFL so celebration is expected, almost required in this day and age. You gotta dance, maybe spike the ball, even if it costs you a fine come Monday it takes a lot of work to get a football in the endzone in the NFL. And in this case Sidi fumbled.

Usually Sidi is known for their style, their flare, and they regularly deck their athletes out in some pretty dope shoes. This shoe represented their home countryman, Filippo Pozzato’s big National win so they had license to really show off but they didn’t. Now Pozzato will sport the colors of the Il Tricolore for a year but his shoes will appear mostly white… and a little boring.

Oh well, the Italian National Championships were held in the Bologna town of Imola one week before the Tour de France on June 29. Filippo Pozzato won ahead of Damiano Cunego.

Not terribly far off from a stock pair of Ergo 2′s, the special edition shoes show off the three colors of the Italian flag on the sides and the front Velcro strap. That’s it. Come ‘on, this is your homeboy Sidi!

Team Katusha jerseys are red, white and blue so maybe Sidi was trying to downplay the color combinations. But Pozzato is also the captain of Team Katusha, and he designed his own version of the Italian National Jersey and wore it during the Tour but was hounded by the Italian Cycling Federation for a lack of respect saying that his redesign “does not conform to the tricolore design.”

Winning the prestigious race allows him to wear the special jersey for one year as the representative of Italy and road racing… kind of like winning the Super Bowl. Care to dance Sidi?

The Italian Federation was upset with the design Team Katusha used because integrating the Italian colors to the sponsor’s logo resulted in very little green. Before the end of the Tour de France, apparel maker Santini delivered a new jersey to Team Katusha for Pozzato.

Problems like this one have erupted before such as when Caisse d’Epargne captain Alejandro Valverde had to change his Spanish Champion jersey last year. In that instance it kept too much black from the standard Caisse d’Epargne team jersey than the nation’s traditional red and yellow stripes.

Filippo “Pippo” Pozzato has had a tremendous year. He also finished second in the 2009 Paris-Roubiax commenting that winner Tom Boonen benefited by using motocycles to expand his solo victory. Next year he may win the Paris-Roubaix and only then when he has cobbled, muddy grime on his shoes will his Sidi’s appear a little less boring.

More than two things separate Lance from his team Astana: his helmet, his gloves and those nifty Nike shoecovers for a more aerodynamic time trial. The Nike swoosh is on the same side of each foot. Interesting.

NorthWave: So, we have this barbaric idea to promote our new shoe and you’d be perfect for it.
Tom Boonen: Do I get to ride an ox?

NW: No, Mr. Boonen, there will be no ox riding. But interesting that you should mention the Roman Empire. We are going to have to ask you to put on this man-thong made from the hide of a Spanish field mouse.
TB: Will my girlfriend like it?

NW: She’ll love it. Sexier than a commercial for Gilette. Now, we are going to need you to put on this Conan suit worn during the filming of all 7 Conan movies. Don’t worry abou the itching. We know it was never washed, but the Terminator doesn’t have any STD’s… at least none we’ve discovered yet. Just take a look at the Kennedy he bangs day and night, there’s nothing wrong with her. The rash which you will see in 2-4 weeks should disappear quickly. And nevermind the scaring, with the power you’ll get from this skin suit one day you might win Paris-Roubaix three times!
TB: OK. So, can I some more product for my hair?

NW: Hairstylist! Sop him up will you?
TB: When are you bringing in the ox?
NW: No oxen, maybe another time.

TB: What’s this white dust in this pocket?
NW: That’s a special gift from the Terminator. NOW FLEX!!

I’d rather see an ad with Boonen’s girlfriend instead.
Note: the poster from the ’98 DBR campaign is NOT Boonen’s girlfriend. We all know Tornado Tom only dates 16-year-old’s.

Let’s take a preview and guess what the Pro’s might be wearing this season… The DMT Dragon casual still is sporty enough to be on the bike, but it has a soft outsole and no inserts for cleats.

Specialized has a relaxed looker that comes in either black, white and brown.

These Nalini “Logho” shoes might take the cake.

At Team Astana’s first American meet-and-greet training camp held in SouthernCalifornia it was clear Lance was riding Rocket7 shoes.

We can only speculate but these shoes were probably some he brought from home before Nike was able to equip the seven-time Tour de France champion. Since he has returned to racing he has been wearing Nike’s trademark swoosh.

Rocket7 cycling shoes are a special choice because they are created from a plaster cast of the rider’s feet. This kind of craftsmanship also makes them the most expensive line of custom shoes available.

Cycling Shoes Online has discussed Rocket7 shoes at length in an article before. We’ve also talked about why Lance’s choice of black shoes is interesting friction to pro cycling’s heritage.

Keep checking back with us for more on this. I have a feeling I can dig up some more juice on Lance’s private footwear.

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