Even more from CORE: Oval Concepts, Fizik and CycleOps

Oval concepts were at CORE bigging up their R 9-10 Aergo integrated bar and extension system, which is certainly very versatile. The main system is the bar – with ergonomic drops and a super-wide flat section at the top – and stem, which comes with a choice of stem caps. There are five in all, one standard and four that give different mounting options for extensions depending on your normal bike position. You can mount the tri bars above or below the main bar, and the elbow pads can be either attached to the extensions or the extended stem. There's even an aero carbon stem bolt cover for saving that extra 0.002 seconds...

Fizik's Arione saddle has been somewhat of a revolution with its longer, flatter profile and they're now building on that success with a new model, the Antares. In terms of shape it's pretty much bang in the middle of the Aliante and Arione. Fizik have re-engineered the chassis (there's no wing flex) and claim that the Antares has 3 times as much padding as similarly feathery (145g) saddles from competitors. It's available with Carbon and K:ium (Ti) rails.

CycleOps were showing off their Powerbeam Pro trainer. They're mighty proud of it and with good reason, as from first impressions it looks like an excellent machine. The heart of the system is a clever constantly variable magnetic resistance unit which uses the same strain gauge power-measuring technology as the Powertap hub and can adjust its resistance to smooth out fluctuations in rider input. Sound complicated? What it means in practice is that if you set it to 200 Watts, it'll take 200 Watts out of your legs no matter what (within reason) you do. It really works, too: increase the cadence and it slacks off the resistance to compensate. There's a wireless control unit and HRM strap, and the Powerbeam Pro features CycleOps' new wider, stiffer chassis. It's quiet too, and capable of massive resistance, up to 1600 Watts.

You can create your own workouts, and it's designed to work with the PowerAgent software that CycleOps have been developing for a few years. It's not VR, but all the elements are in place: I wouldn't be surprised if the Powerbeam was the platform that CycleOps use to make the jump.