First look

We were down in Portsmouth on Friday to have a look at the new Verenti bikes in the flesh. There's three frames: the lugged carbon Rhigos, which we showed you pics of earlier in the week; The Millook, a Superlight alloy front end mated with the same Carbon rear as the Rhigos; and the Kilmeston, an Aluminium training/entry level sportive bike that comes with a Carbon fork and full mudguards.

Winter's here, folks. Long behind us are the sunny afternoons on sticky tarmac with a pristine road machine between the thighs: it's time to get muddy. That might be on your winter hack on muck-strewn lanes, or atop your MTB but what you really want is a a bit of cyclocross action. The season for the traditional winter fitness keeper-upper is in full swing now, and we'll be seeking out a couple of local races to put our new test machine through its paces: the Genesis Day One Cross.

Condor is a British bike brand known for doing things with a touch of style a long time part of the London cycle scene they do more than just make and sell bikes for riding around London – although they also do some pretty cool bikes for doing just that.

Colnago have just released details of their 2010 range and they've certainly come up with the goods. Amongst the highlights are a limited edition version of the Master X Light, a new fixed/singlespeed bike in a retro stylee, an updated version of the CLX, plus a new carbon cross frame, a new range of carbon road bikes and a new line entry level aluminium road bike. There's also what looks to be a flat bar street bike, the Freedom, which will be coming in to the UK for the first time.

One of the more welcome distractions for bike journalists during the second rest day of the 2007 Tour De France was a press conference by none other than the Lion of Flanders himself, Johann Museeuw.

But the Leeuw wasn't here just to add his support for protégé Tom Boonen's bid for the points competition or speculate whether or not Rasmussen could hold the yellow jersey all the way to Paris.

Van NIcholas, purveyors of very lovely Ti bikes who have sent us details of two of their range highlights for next year – a completely new bike, the Mistral designed very much with the British sportive market in mind; and a complete re-working of an older big-mile favourite, the Zephyr.

With Eurobike almost upon us the new range announcements are coming thick and fast – and now it's the turn of Fixie Inc, the German purveyors of cycling high fashion with a sense of humour and an eye for detail. For 2010 they've re-worked their range and introduced a new model – the Backspin, and what is effectively a new model – the Peace Maker.

The 2010 announcements are coming thick and fast now, and next to hit the inbox is a sneak peek at the Genesis lineup for 2010. Genesis have been courting the attentions of a swanky London design agency for the graphics for the coming year's bikes, and the look is very stripped back BoHo. We're mostly interested in what's going on under the paint though, so let's have a looksee.

Wilier have released the first details of their new 2010 range, and an interesting one it is too. The range topper is the Cento, as it has been for a couple of years now, and that's available in a number of guieses including a super lightweight version – the Super Leggera, a specially tweaked Di2 versions, and one decked out in a world championship paint job in honour of Allesandro Ballan's 2008 win on one.

Kona have released details of the 2010 range and there are some interesting looking road bikes in the mix. Standout items are two new steel street singlespeed/fixed bikes plus a new cyclo-cross machine, also a singlespeed, and a new hub-geared flat bar road bike plus a very interesting new town bike.