Indholdsfortegnelse for February 8, 2024 i Cycling Weekly

For those who didn’t spot it, last week’s issue had a rather egregious error included within. Indeed, a ‘flagitious error’ according to one reader! Alongside the ever-popular archive image, we wrote: “Bernhard Thévenet declines a leaflet offered by a protester … as Tom Simpson looks on with a fair degree of nonchalance.” But this was an image from the 1973 Tour de France, and, as many of you know, Tom Simpson died while riding the 1967 Tour de France. An embarrassing error on our behalf that we apologise for. The conversation then moved on to who this rider was. One of the first readers to get in touch, and several more thereafter, thought it was Roger Pingeon, and the similarity is clear. However, Pingeon did not start the Tour that…

Great Britain’s women’s sprint team continued their charge towards the Paris Olympics with a gold medal at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Adelaide, Australia, their first at the competition since 2012. The trio of Emma Finucane, Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant – the latter replaced by Lauren Bell in qualifying – rode increasingly faster throughout the three rounds, clocking 46.023 seconds in the final to beat China, whose first rider suffered a seat mechanical failure. “At the end, I didn’t know if we had won, or if they would restart,” said Finucane afterwards, who added that she was “surprised” by her team’s sterling form. “The main goal this year is obviously the Olympics, and we’re really training hard through this,” the 21-year-old sprint world champion said. “It’s really nice…

British Cycling is in a race against time to finalise plans for both Tours of Britain, said Jon Dutton, speaking in Manchester last week. The national governing body was clear in its commitment to both events, although in their current form they lack route information, stage details and sponsorship. Nevertheless, my first impressions were that neither Dutton nor Day seemed fazed by that. The advantage for the national governing body here is its leadership. Both men mentioned the positive feedback that they had received from potential parties interested in coming on board with their plan, and they both seemed genuinely enthused to see it all come to fruition. This wasn’t just a PR exercise, this was the governing body excited at being able to make a difference. Last year local…

CONNOR SWIFT INEOS GRENADIERS, 5TH (2022), 19TH (2023) Make sure you brake before any corners and not during the turn, and don’t be afraid when you feel your bike move underneath you. It takes time to get used to those new limits, but you have to embrace it. Relax, don’t be stiff, and absorb the roughness of the gravel with the legs and arms. Over rougher sections, you almost have to hover over the saddle by one millimetre or so. As for the tyres, I’ve raced the route on both 30 and 32mm tyres, both times with a pressure of around 85psi. I’d recommend tyre liners if you’re using tubeless in case you puncture on a sector. TIM WELLENS UAE TEAM EMIRATES, 2ND (2022), 3RD (2023) I don’t think a…

Last week, Dutch component and accessory brand BBB released a first-of-its-kind minipump that offers an impressive amount of power in a super-compact 120mm-long form. The new two-piece pump design can be stowed down to a length of just 120mm and when assembled, the four-piece air-chamber technology can produce 35cc per stroke. To put this into perspective, a long-term favourite of ours, the Topeak Race Rocket, delivers 38cc per stroke, but is 180mm in length – considerably less pocket-sized. It’s a simple push-fit design too, which should eliminate the risk of ripping out valve cores. The DoubleShot is able to pump to a maximum claimed pressure of 16psi/8 bar, and has an aluminium construction which BBB claims makes it durable, while weighing just 83 grams. At €59.95 (UK pricing still TBC),…

The week: 1-7 January 2024 Location: Scotland and Spain Training for: Cyclo-cross World Champs (4 Feb) Twenty-one-year-old Scot Corran Carrick-Anderson, who is the current British U23 cyclo-cross national champion, is following the Tom Pidcock route to success. Coming from a mountain bike background, Carrick-Anderson is a former junior national cross-country (XCO) champion. In his first year in cyclo-cross as an under-23, he won the 2021/22 National Trophy series in the elite category as well as his age category. He rode the Tour of Rwanda on the road in 2023 with a Great Britain team and, despite his preference for knobbly tyres, does much of his training on the smooth ones during the winter. The multi-talented rider spoke to us just a few days before the World CX Champs, where he finished…

GOLD Women’s team sprint Emma Finucane, Sophie Capewell, Katy Marchant, Lauren Bell Men’s team pursuit Josh Tarling, Charlie Tanfield, Will Tidball, Rhys Britton, Josh Charlton Women’s Madison Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker SILVER Women’s team pursuit Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris, Megan Barker Women’s keirin Katy Marchant Women’s omnium Katie Archibald BRONZE Women’s elimination race Jess Roberts Men’s team sprint Jack Carlin, Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnball Men’s Madison Josh Tarling and Ollie Wood…

Men’s WorldTour teams don’t tend to dabble in track cycling, but Ineos Grenadiers have, supporting their performance engineer Dan Bigham to the Hour record, and then doing the same for their star rider, Filippo Ganna. Perhaps they could do more, though, with the track talent they have on their hands – could a tilt at the team pursuit record be on the cards? Ineos has a history of supporting projects like this, with the brand also behind Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-two hour marathon. Cycling Weekly put our idea of the all-star TP to Tarling, who did not immediately bat it away. “Yeah yeah,” he agreed with the strength on offer. “We’ve got me, [Filippo] Ganna, Elia [Viviani], and Ethan [Hayter]. And Dan [Bigham], we’ll stick to just riders though. Elia would…

I’m probably going to be the 900th reader to point his out, but although it was a great archive photo in CW 1 February of Bernard Thévenet in the 1973 Tour, turning down a leaflet from a protester; he was being watched not by Tom Simpson as the caption states, but by his team-mate Roger Pingeon, winner of the TdF in 1967, the race in which Tom had died on Mont Ventoux. Roger of course rode for Peugeot, as did Tom, and arguably had similar ‘hawkish’ features. And of course the Peugeot colours remained unchanged, and would continue as such for a number of years, into the eras of Robert Millar and Sean Yates. By the time of the 1973 Tour, Tom would have been 35 and, had he not…

When Chris first asked me to help write the script for Ghost in the Machine, while being flattered I was also slightly bemused. Up until then, I’d regarded motor doping as just another conspiracy theory – motors hidden in pros’ bikes seemed barely more credible than 5G chips hidden in Covid vaccines. There’s always a huddle of paranoid people noisily advancing wildly cynical notions. But then I began to reckon with the evidence, the weird circumstances of Femke Van den Driessche’s case, the countless suspicions about other riders – emanating not just from the usual online trolls but in many cases from people well connected at the highest level of the sport – as well as the sketchy detection protocols and the ever-developing motor tech. I haven’t exactly changed my…

Weight 208g The Rab Cinder Kinetic Waterproof Shorts have become the latest piece of clothing in my cycling arsenal and I can no longer claim foul weather for keeping me off the bike. The baggy gravel focused shorts are constructed of proprietary Proflex fabric – a fabric which was originally developed for the demands of mountaineering. The flexible membrane claims a waterproof rating of 10,000mm and a breathability level in excess of 35,000cc/m²/24hrs – far more breathable than the majority of current cycling rain jackets. The shorts come with a twin button and zip closure system, along with an elastic pull to refine the waist size once on the bike. A generously sized zip pocket is positioned on each upper thigh, with zip access points allowing access to your cargo short…

I’ve found that racing, primarily on Zwift, can offer up a pretty good impersonation of a formal, prescribed interval session. For example, if you’re given an anaerobic workout to do, look no further than the Downtown Dolphin Crit course in Watopia. Each 2km lap is flat, save for a ramp two-thirds of the way around. It’s customary in Zwift races that all competitors jam it up the climb in a bid to drop the weaker riders. The pace of the race then generally drops down to Zone 2 before the next effort – and hence an anaerobic session has been created, all while competing for the win.…

ROAD RACING SAT, FEB 3 Lee Valley YCC Freezing Races round two (Redbridge circuit, Essex): 1, 2, 3, 4: 1. Paul Opie (Lee Valley YCC) 58.15; 2. V. Pretorius (Primera-TeamJobs) +0.10; 3. W. Pollard (Lee Valley YCC) +0.12; 4. G. Hale (VORANGE); 5. D. Eoan (Kingston Wheelers); 6. S. Cooke (Lee Valley YCC) +0.13; 7. J. Somerfield (Trash Mile); 8. D. Lloyd (trainSharp Development Team); 9. A. Rowles (Lee Valley YCC); 10. A. Herd (Oxford University CC) +0.14. Full Gas Winter Series round 16 (Lee Valley VeloPark, London): 2, 3, 4: 1. Oliver Curd (Primo RT); 2. M. Pomfret (GFTL); 3. C. Cole (Team Solo Vinci); 4. D. Belton Owen (VC Londres); 5. T. Strickland (London Dynamo); 6. T. Corbet (Primo RT); 7. J. Buchanan (Balham CC); 8. C. Eibich…

Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) added a fifth stage race victory to his palmarès on Saturday when he sealed the overall at the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia, crossing the line first on the fifth and final day. There was stage race success too for UAE Team Emirates rider Brandon McNulty, who won the 75th edition of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in north-east Spain on Sunday. The 25-year-old American took the race lead on stage four, the penultimate day, when he emerged as the strongest on the double-figure ramps of the Alto del Miserat in the finale. The fifth stage was won by McNulty’s compatriot Will Barta (Movistar), while the UAE Team Emirates rider went unchallenged in the GC. Earlier in the day, Ceratizit-WNT’s Cédrine Kerbaol claimed the one-day…

Peloton riding tough times Indoor fitness brand Peloton is facing uncertain times after posting a year-on-year decline in revenue from $792.7m (£627.5m) to $743.6m (£582.5m), and a net loss of $194.9m (£152.7m). The company’s share price also dropped 24% to $4.21 (£3.30) with its valuation now standing at $1.5bn (£1.18bn), a significant fall from an all-time high of almost $50bn (£39bn). “If we’re not failing, we’re not being aggressive enough testing new initiatives,” said CEO Barry McCarthy. SRAM lever recall SRAM has issued a recall on safety grounds for a faulty clamp inside some brake/shift lever models. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission website advised consumers to “immediately stop using the recalled SRAM shift brake levers and inspect their levers for tightness.” The levers affected are all 12-speed eTap AXS…

In the race’s inaugural year, 2022, only 44 of the 119 starters made it to Úbeda, and in 2023 almost half of the 112 were scooped up by the broom wagon or forced to drop out before the finish. It might not have the attritional length of the Monuments, but finishing the Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior is no easy feat for the pros. In 2023, American Andrew Vollmer was riding for the Spanish Continental team Electro Hiper Europa, and he was the last one across the finish line, almost 14 minutes back from winner Tadej Pogačar. This is how he remembers the day: “The race started out quite relaxed until we hit the first gravel section, and then when UAE started drilling it, it was just luck if you could…

Over the last decade, there has been a big change to what we consider to be a gravel bike. In times gone by every brand seemingly had its own take on the then-emerging genre, whereas today gravel bikes usually fit into one of three categories. All-road bikes are usually close to an endurance bike geometry, with increased tyre clearance. Gravel adventure bikes, meanwhile, tend to be optimised for comfort and handling over speed. And lastly, there are gravel race bikes, which generally sit somewhere in between. The first edition of the UCI Gravel World Championships – the pinnacle of gravel racing – was won by Gianni Vermeech on a road bike with cyclo-cross tyres, while the second fell to Matej Mohorič on a gravel adventure bike. So are WorldTour riders…

ONE UP Scott Addict RC Pro £9,499 One down from the top of the range, the Addict Pro comes with Zipp 303SE wheels and Dura-ace Di2 groupset. It is, however, the same HMX frame at the centre and interestingly doesn’t come with an in-built power meter, which our test bike did. FIVE DOWN Scott Addict RC 40 £4,799 The entry-level bike in the Addict range comes with a perfectly good 105 Di2 groupset. This is still a lot of cash for a bike with Shimano’s third-tier group but you do get the Scott HMX carbon frame, so the bike is going to feel not too dissimilar to one twice the price.…

Zefal’s lightweight 1.5 litre water delivery system fits slap-bang in the middle of budget backpack territory. Aside from having the right price, Zefal’s Hydro Race 1.5L comes with a separate zipped pocket that can swallow a handful of energy gels, as well as a multi-tool and puncture repair gear. The pack also sports a pair of straps at the bottom which allows you to cinch rolled up garments like wind cheaters or waterproof cycling jackets, so despite its pared down appearance, the bag is full of functionality. And it doesn’t stop at pockets and straps – a handy bike light mount also features, as does a hook for your car keys. In use the pack rests steady on your back while at capacity with water, and the ‘intelligent’ valve makes…

“Critical Power (CP) is the preferred benchmark among physiologists, whereas FTP is more common among riders,” says Alex Welburn. “However, CP is growing in popularity, particularly with WorldTour cycling teams. Typically, it is tested through two or three maximal efforts, usually of three and 12 minutes, then a calculation is applied to obtain CP. One of the advantages of CP is that it provides another element, W’ [W Prime], which represents how much work above CP you can do (in kilojoules) before you drop the power to below CP. In my research, we model the recovery of W’ so we can prescribe individual recovery durations based on your physiology for your effort, and even prescribe pacing plans. You can now assess your ability to recover between efforts as well as…

I was riding with my friend Bernard the other day, when the following exchange took place: Bernard: “Slow down, would you. It’s January.” Me: “I said I was doing a Zone 2 ride. This is Zone 2.” Bernard: “Zone 2? You having a laugh? I know Zone 2 and this ain’t it.” Me: “Well, it is for me.” Bernard: “Rubbish. This is Zone 3. Maybe Zone 3.5.” Hence my theory of physiological relativity. I suggested he might like to sit on my wheel for a while, but he didn’t like that either because that was only Zone One-and-a-bit, “And I don’t get all dressed up and go riding in six degrees for Zone one-and-a-bit.” He told me to speed up or slow down as I preferred. I have always thought…

Peter F from Harrogate writes: a mate and I were discussing our most embarrassing cycling moments, and mine is long enough ago that I thought I’d share it. I was spectating at the Tour de France in Yorkshire. Right in front of me, an AG2R rider stopped to change a wheel. As he was about to get going again, I spotted he’d dropped his chain and the mechanic hadn’t noticed. As an 'expert' cyclist, I nipped forward to help. He set off as I was still putting the chain back, dragging my hand into the chain/chainring interface, where it proved just the thing for improving the friction between the teeth and the chain. He had to stop to release me, with an audience of several hundred people watching.…