Spanish bike maker Orbea picked up their first ever gold medal in Beijing courtesy of Samuel Sánchez. Sánchez was handed Orbea’s 2009 Orca before its official unveiling for the event.  The carbon fibre masters at Orbea have taken an already insanely efficient bike and made it substantially more rigid, while at the same time shaving 10% off its previous model. Sánchez obviously has nothing but good things to say about the new Orca. “extraordinary for descents”, he says, as “it allows for risk, because it doesn’t perform badly. It is …

User birrilee in a weight weenies forum at starbike.com has come across a bunch of nice high res pictures of the new 2009 Bianchi road bike lineup.  With a straight fork and new (very) sexy graphics, 2009 looks like it is going to be a very good year for Bianchi.  The models shown are the 928SL, 928, and the FG.  Below are the specs for the 2008 Bianchi 928SL.  We hope to have a review of the entire 2009 Bianchi line as soon as it is officially released.

Frame
928 Carbon …