Indholdsfortegnelse for September 15, 2016 i Cycling Weekly

As Sir Bradley Wiggins rolled over the finish line at the end of the Tour of Britain the 36-yearold called this year’s edition of the Tour of Britain — the race he won in 2013 — “brutal; probably the hardest it’s been for years”. Billed as perfect preparation for those vying for the rainbow jerseys on offer in Qatar next month, the roll call of world class sprinters and time triallists in the starting line-up was evidence enough of how seriously riders and teams now take the British race, as it continues to prove itself to be one of the most challenging stage races on the calendar. Riders talked all week of how difficult the Tour of Britain is to control with just six riders per team, and with a…

The 2004 Tour of Britain was the first edition of the race in the modern era. Its opening stage, held over 207 kilometres and starting and finishing in Manchester, also marked Rob Partridge’s (NFTO) debut at this level. Then 19 and riding for Wales, the now 30-year-ended up spending 180km in the breakaway. “It was a stupid decision but I was egged on by one of my team-mates as a bit of a joke,” he told Cycling Weekly, laughing. “There was me, a South African dude and a Scottish guy. Those two were duking it out for the King of the Mountains [points]. I got dropped on Nick o’ Pendle and then I spent the next 70 kilometres by myself. I got caught by the bunch and got dropped by…

Stage 3 Congleton > Tatton Park 179.4km Tuesday, September 6 After eight starts in the Tour of Britain it was fitting that Ian Stannard would take his first stage victory in the race on the roads of Cheshire where he has lived and trained for the last 11 years. The Sky rider’s house is just nine miles from the stage three finish in Tatton Park and he admitted he knows the roads inside out. The fact his family and young daughter were there to watch him gave him extra motivation to go on the hunt for a win. With his team focused on stage wins rather than the overall, Stannard was given the green light to go for glory, and the 29-year-old was one of four British riders who rode…

With six-man teams, the Tour of Britain is notorious for being difficult for riders to control, so how do squads with an interest in the general classification manage on a day like stage four, when the roads are unforgiving and attacks are constant? For Dimension Data the day’s plan was to protect Steve Cummings’s (pictured) second place overall. “You’ve got to try and second-guess what everyone else is doing, that’s how you stay in control,” explained Roger Hammond, Dimension Data DS. Having a pre-race plan is one thing, but adapting to what’s happening on the road is a real skill. Road captain Bernie Eisel’s experience and ability to make instant decisions can make the difference, when riders from multiple teams are all continuously trying to get away from the bunch,…

Stage 6 Sidmouth > Haytor 149.9km Friday September 9 The slopes of Haytor proved to be where the Tour of Britain general classification came alive, as Steve Cummings took the race lead with just two days left to challenge the overall win. Cummings seemed to have been sitting in wait ready for his moment to pounce on the overall all week, having been just six seconds behind Julien Vermote since stage two. And on the slopes of Dartmoor the GC contenders all played their cards, as Vermote finally cracked and Wout Poels took the victory on the line. The Dimension Data rider finished 20 seconds behind Poels, but it was enough to give him the yellow jersey by 49 seconds over Tom Dumoulin, with the time trial in Bristol still…

The Bristol circuit used for the day’s two stages may have just been 15 kilometres in length but best described as ‘technical’ it was tough enough before the rain began falling in the morning for the time trial. Starting in Clifton Downs before moving towards the city centre, it featured a tricky descent, twisty roads with sharp turns, the narrow crossing of the Clifton Suspension Bridge and a leg-sapping climb, that required full concentration from the go. Seven riders crashed in the time trial — including Dan McLay (Great Britain) and Taylor Phinney (BMC) — as the rain fell heavily and made the already testing course slick and slippery. “The conditions were treacherous really; the rain, the white lines, the manhole covers,” said race leader Steve Cummings of the TT…

World champion Lizzie Armitstead placed fifth in the Olympic road race on her S-Works Amira, a women’s specific version of the men’s S-Works Tarmac. The majority of the components come from SRAM and its brands. Shifting uses SRAM’s eTap wireless groupset with Blip satellite shifters on the inside of her bar’s bends. Her crankset is a 170mm S-Works carbon model with 53/39 SRAM Red chainrings. A Quarq power meter replaces Specialized’s standard spider. Wheels are 45mm-deep Zipp 303 Firecrest tubulars with 26.5mm wide rims that roll on Specialized S-Works Turbo tyres — their low profile file tread add a bit of extra grip and cornering power. Zipp also supplies the SL Sprint -12° carbon stem and the bars on Armitstead’s bike. She has a SRAM out-front computer mount. Specialized supplies…

The Eureka Cafe is the beating heart of Wirral cycling. That little peninsula between the Dee and Mersey is home to many champions and enough cyclists to fill 100 cafes. They’ve all had a cuppa in the Eureka — some clientele almost look like permanent fixtures. The cafe dates back to 1929 when George and Maud Longman bought a house in Two Mills, called ‘The House That Jack Built’ and turned their two front rooms into a cafe. Sitting just north of Chester where the A540, which runs the length of the peninsula, and the A550, which runs across it, meet. Sitting between the beautiful, quiet roads of North Wales and the densely populated North-West, it’s the perfect location. At first it opened only at weekends, but demand grew through…

Steve Cummings took the biggest stage race win of his career at the Tour of Britain, as he transformed himself from breakaway king to general classification contender to become only the second British rider to win the race in its modern incarnation. The 35-year-old Merseysider’s only other pro GC victory in his career came in 2014 at the five-stage Tour of the Mediterranean, and he managed to match Bradley Wiggins’s victory in the home tour in 2013 (Jonathan Tiernan-Locke was stripped of his 2012 victory for doping) and go one step further than his second places in 2008 and 2011 by securing the win in London under beaming sunshine last Sunday. The Dimension Data man has become known as a breakaway specialist following solo victories in the Tour de France,…

No, cycling is evolving along with technology. If you argue for not using tech products in cycling, I would think that you would want cycling to revert back to what cycling was like when racing was first introduced. Kyle Chung The big power meter debate: ban them from Grand Tours. It’s killing the racing. We want to see racing, and not 198 cyclists riding according to what a power meter recommends. We want to see GC riders take risks and blow up on big climbs, attacks, counter-attacks. We aren’t getting this any more; it’s become too clinical. John Camp Bike gadgets should continue to evolve, as should bike design. However, the race between the riders needs to be just that. Too many support cars and oversized teams are leading to…

Stage 2 Carlisle > Kendal 195km Monday, September 5 In the last four seasons Belgian Julien Vermote has clinched two victories — both have come in the Tour of Britain, both have come from breakaways. In 2014 the Etixx-Quick Step rider was the last survivor of a breakaway and went on to win in Brighton. Two years later in a drizzly Kendal, the 26-year-old (pictured below) again made it to the line first after spending all day in the break. However, while he won solo in Brighton, this time around Vermote had to outsmart and outsprint the rider who has become known as the breakaway king: Dimension Data’s Steve Cummings. Vermote was part of a 15-man break that went clear after 12km. The group, however, was never afforded more than…

Rarely can a breakaway say it has riders as closely linked as the all-British quartet that escaped from the peloton in Cheshire on stage three, all tied together by Tour of Britain veteran Kristian House. The One Pro rider is the race’s most capped participant, having competed in every edition from 2006, and he recorded his highest ever finish on a stage by securing third spot in Tatton Park after getting in the day’s breakaway. Yet it was almost a case of six degrees of separation for House and his breakaway companions Ian Stannard, Graham Briggs and Matt Cronshaw. Like Stannard, House is a Cheshire local and lives in Middlewich during the season. “Stannard lives nearby, I see him out on the bike and ride with him every once in…

Stage 5 Aberdare > Bath 194.5km Thursday September 8 Two years ago on stage 15 of the Tour de France, a devastated Jack Bauer slumped on the floor behind the finish line, head in his hands and in tears. The New Zealander had spent the day in a breakaway and been caught by the peloton with metres to go to the line, victory snatched from right in front of him. Fast forward to stage five of this year’s Tour of Britain and Bauer put the ghosts of races past to bed. Like that day in France, he escaped as part of a breakaway, just like before the peloton was incoming fast as the line approached, but this time there was no catch, no last-minute heartbreak, but victory. The 31-year-old Cannondale-Drapac…

Stage 8 London 100km Sunday September 11 Steve Cummings went into the final day of the Tour of Britain knowing he realistically just had to stay upright on his bike to secure his victory on the line. His closest challenger Rohan Dennis sat 26 seconds behind him — meaning even if the Australian collected all the bonus seconds on offer throughout the stage, he still would need to distance Cummings before the line to take the yellow jersey off him. As it was, the Dimension Data rider looked relatively at ease throughout the 100km flat stage through the centre of London. With the sun beaming, the roads around Whitehall and Picadilly Circus were lined deep as the group completed 16 laps of the 6.2-kilometre circuit. A four-man break consisting of…

Panaracer Race D Evo 3 tyre The Race Evo range features the D, presumably standing for ‘Durable’. The new tyre is claimed to be 24 per cent more puncture resistant than the previous Evo 2. Contact: www.zyrofisher.co.uk Price: £39.99 Test report: October Orange Seal Tubeless Sealant Orange Seal is a US brand of latex based tyre sealant. Tubeless technology is gathering pace and with most tyre and wheel brands jumping on board it seems like a good time to get testing some of the fluid that makes it all possible. Contact: www.extrauk.co.uk Price: £12.99 Test report: October Specialized S-Works Venge Vias Disc eTap Despite the addition of disc brakes, Specialized claims its S-Works Venge Vias disc is as aero as its predecessor due to losing bulk around the down tube…

The Canadian brand has a strong reputation for innovation and cutting edge bike design, but is the muchrevered P5 really worth the high price tag? Frame Undoubtedly aerodynamic, the P5 here features a fork that is fine for Cycling Time Trials events and triathlons, but owing to the 3:1 rule is not currently UCI legal. Although these rules are set to change, the Dimension Data team actually uses the Cervélo P3 forks on its bikes. According to Cervélo, the P5 is “a superbike engineered for the real world: fast enough for world champions, and simple enough for everyday use”. I strongly disagree. While fast, maintaining and adjusting this bike seems far from straightforward. The frame features Magura hydraulic caliper brakes, which are considerably more of a faff than cable-actuated calipers.…

Seeing a climb up ahead can send a quiver of fear and excitement up a cyclist’s spine. We’re drawn in by a masochistic urge to make the body suffer and sickened by trepidation in the face of imminent pain: when the road ahead rises, we know what’s coming. “It is a psychological battle for fairly obvious reasons. There’s no escape, there’s no hiding and there is a fear factor with climbing,” says Steve Benton, performance director at One Pro Cycling. He highlights how the difficulty of climbing entices many riders into the sport: “In the UK, more than in the Pyrenees or Alps, we have one-in-three, one-infour [25-33 per cent gradient] climbs where we don’t know if we are going to get to the top without putting a foot down.…

CW Difficulty rating: 6/10 This year’s event: Nov 20 65 miles 725 metres ascent November can be a dull month. Conditions are often dreary and cycling isn’t always at the forefront of the mind. But a relatively new penchant for winter sportives is firmly taking hold and events like the Performance Cycles Winter Mini-Sportive may be the thing to tempt you out on the bike — much more exciting than staring at the garage wall while clocking up the miles on your turbo. This route hits some stiff hills through the Cotswolds north of Cirencester, which is nicely complemented with easier flatlands around Fairford that lie just off the eastern edge of the Cotswolds on the River Coln. Where is it? The Performance Cycles Winter Mini-Sportive starts at Waterland Outdoor…

Nairo Quintana’s (Movistar) victory over Chris Froome (Sky) and Esteban Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange) at the Vuelta a España on Sunday cemented the domination of Grand Tour podiums by Britain and Colombia. All three had already achieved Grand Tour podium placings this season — Froome and Quintana at the Tour in first and third respectively, and Chaves at the Giro in second. Thanks to these three riders, Colombia and Britain account for six of the nine Grand Tour podium finishes this season — up from just two last year (Froome and Quintana in first and second at the Tour). The strength in depth of the upcoming talent in Colombian cycling has been well known for years but this season it has blossomed into high-profile results. Addressing the huge turnout of Colombian fans…

Stage 1 Glasgow > Castle Douglas 161km Sunday September 4 With the World Championships road race on the horizon, the Tour of Britain is a chance for sprinters to showcase their form, and also for André Greipel to prove he should be Germany’s team leader ahead of Marcel Kittel. With Kittel winning in France at the GP de Fourmies minutes before the finish of the Tour of Britain’s stage one in Castle Douglas, Greipel gave the perfect response as he too crossed the line in first place to ensure the selectors’ job isn’t made any easier. The stage was almost as straightforward as they get for the sprinters. As the riders rolled out of Glasgow’s sunny George Square, a five-man breakaway went clear with less than two kilometres of road…

At 4.5 kilometres long, averaging eight per cent gradient and maxing out at 20 per cent, the Struggle is not to be underestimated. Add in a mix of drizzly rain, low fog that limited visibility and the fact the category-one climb came after 160km of racing, it hit many riders hard. “I think a few guys maybe looked at the roadbook and went a bit too hard at the bottom,” said Etixx-Quick Step’s Dan Martin, who finished third on the stage. “I knew how the climb would be from reading about it, so I just paced myself.” Unlike most, Martin chose a 32t sprocket, something he said worked to his advantage. “It was nice to be able to take a good cadence up there and pedal up,” he explained. Even…

Stage 4 Denbigh > Builth Wells 218km Wednesday, September 7 The longest stage of the Tour of Britain eventually ended in a bunch sprint but with over 4,000 metres of ascent packed into its 218 kilometres — the most at the race this year — it was the most relentless day for the peloton so far. LottoNL-Jumbo’s Dylan Groenewegen — a stage winner at the Tour de Yorkshire this year — took the honours on the line, by just half a bike length from Great Britain’s Dan McLay, with Ben Swift (Sky) close behind in third to move into a podium spot on the GC. Yet the run-in to the finish was far from straightforward for the sprinters. Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), Caleb Ewan (Orica-BikeExchange) and Sky’s Elia Viviani were…

Stage 7 a & b Bristol 15km/90km Saturday, September 10 Stage Seven A Tony Martin took his debut victory on British soil in the 15-kilometre time trial — the first of the two stages on day seven — as Steve Cummings limited his losses to those he called the “superstar time triallists” to finish fourth and retain his race lead. The German went into the time trial playing down his chances against the likes of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and Rohan Dennis (BMC), having not won against the clock all year apart from at the German National Championships. The technical course was made more difficult by rain, though Bradley Wiggins tried to brighten the mood by giving a mock victory salute as he went over the line even though he went…

Helped by a laid-back atmosphere channelled from their charismatic figurehead, Team Wiggins’s Mark Christian was able to finish top of Britain’s domestic riders in this year’s race. The 25-year-old Manxman placed 12th, 4-02 behind overall winner Steve Cummings, meaning that the national tour’s highest-placed rider from Britain’s UCI Continental squads came from Team Wiggins for the secondconsecutive year. “There’s always a relaxed feel in the team, I think it’s part of what this squad is about,” said Christian. “Yes, there’s the desire to perform to the best level that we can, but I think we get results because there’s a laid-back approach at the top. “The team showed last year [when they helped Owain Doull finish third overall] that we can do well in this race and I went into…

Angeles Creative Spektrum jersey £90 With its eye-catching design inspired, says Angeles Creative, by mountain climbing and the dizzying view from the top, the Spektrum is one for those riders who want to stand out from the crowd. But aside from the stunning design, the Spektrum jersey really delivers on performance. Best saved for the height of summer, its super-lightweight fabric is highly breathable, and the fit distinctly racy with no loose fabric at the front or at the shoulders. My only concern is its fragility with long-term use, as the care instructions say it won’t even stand up to the rigours of a washing machine. Henry Robertshaw 94g www.weareomnium.cc 9 Mavic Yksion Pro Griplink/Powerlink tubular tyres £134 If you’re using the Mavic Griplink/Powerlink tyres as race tubs for good conditions…

Final overall classification 1, Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar in 83:31.28; 2, Chris Froome (GBr) Sky at 1-23; 3, Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-BikeExchange at 4-08; 4, Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff at 4-21; 5, Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac at 7-43; 6, Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-BikeExchange at 8-33; 7, David de la Cruz (Esp) Etixx-Quick Step at 11-18; 8, Daniel Moreno (Esp) Movistar at 13-04; 9, Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac at 13-17; 10, George Bennett (NZe) LottoNL-Jumbo at 14-07. In the end, there was nothing Chris Froome (Sky) could do other than sit up and applaud. On the final climb of the final mountain stage of the Vuelta, the outrageously long Alto de Aitana that towers over the Prebaetic System near the Mediterranean coast, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) remained glued to his wheel. When…

The cafe stop has a very long and distinguished history. The first man to ride from London to Brighton on the predecessor of the bicycle, the hobby horse, was reported to have stopped at an inn on the way, and that was almost 200 years ago in 1819. Inns remained a cycling staple. In the 1870s the Christchurch Bicycle Club in Dorset were noted for their night-time rides to local inns, where they sang songs, drank a great deal, and then attempted to ride their penny-farthings home in the dark. During the first rush of enthusiasm for cycling, this handily kept membership numbers under control. In Paris the cafe stop moved up a gear. While the Christchurch club were getting tanked in a variety of Dorset boozers, Parisians could enjoy…