BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

Despite a cracked clavicle, Tyler Hamilton came fourth in the Tour de France, His pain suppression and teeth-grinding courage was filmed for a 40-minute IMAX movie, the large-format film that has to be screened in format-specific cinemas. 'Brainpower' will be a great movie but with only 250 IMAX cinemas worldwide it will have limited distribution. But BikeBiz.com has learned it is to be made available in other formats too, including digital 3D and hi-definition video.

Madison's B2C website was available live at the Shimano Sleepless in the Saddle 24-hour MTB race thanks to a DSL dish.

The NBDA's June-First Half RDC Analysis estimates that new bike sales in the US are down 10-11 percent in units and 5-6 percent in retail dollars through the first half of the year. During the same period, there have been 245 store closings representing an IBD reduction of 4.6 percent. The full analysis is available here as a PDF download.

Jacques Hanegraaf, manager of Team Bianchi, has told German news agency dpa that his Bianchi-sponsored team does not have any financial problems, the search is for a co-sponsor not a rescue package. PLUS: Bianchi officials have yet to confirm or deny the details in the BikeBiz.com report that a Lombardy union claims Bianchi will be moving bike production away from Italy

And that's not all, there are all sorts of 'trading unfairly' concepts to get your head round. The UK government has issued a consultation paper on the draft EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices. The proposed Directive includes a general prohibition on business-to-consumer unfair commercial practices and specific rules aimed at combating misleading and aggressive practices. The aim of the Directive is to enable consumers to buy, and for business to sell, with increased confidence anywhere in the EU.