Indholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2021 i Cycling Plus

SUBSCRIBE! NEW SUBSCRIBERS TO CYCLING PLUS CAN GET A RITCHEY COMP SKYLINE SADDLE! WORTH £47.99! ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? Get access to exclusive content, competitions and offers. Turn to p70 It’s not often that we get to write about knee-length wool bloomers, hallucinations and Liquorice Allsorts on the pages of Cycling Plus, but the stories of pioneering female riders over time are no normal feats. Women’s cycling history has long been undersold but, while belatedly, it makes for a fascinating and inspirational collection of two-wheeled triumphs against a backdrop of suspicion and sexism. Author Hannah Ross’s story begins on p93 in 1868 with four women competing on velocipedes and continues throughout the next 150 years. I hope you enjoy it… SUBSCRIBE TODAY FOR ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE OFFERS & COMPETITONS AS PART…

£9000 The latest e-superbike arrives Hot on the heels of Cannondale’s SuperSix EVO Neo, Scott’s Addict E-ride and Orbea’s Gain comes another lightweight electric superbike – the MAHLE ebikemotion-equipped Cento10 Hybrid from Wilier Triestina. The five-bike Cento10 Hybrid range starts at £7110 for Ultegra Di2 and tops out at £10,080 for Dura-Ace Di2 and ULT38 carbon wheels. Our model splits the difference with Dura-Ace Di2 and Wilier’s alloy wheels. It’s based on the pro-level Cento10PRO with a frame that’s been structurally reinforced to take the 250W battery. It has a claimed weight of 1340g for the frame and 390g for the fork. The frame is based around kammtail-truncated aerofoil tubes, which ‘cheat’ the air into believing the aerodynamic tail is still there. Wilier’s own one-piece Alabarda bar is also aerodynamically…

The range of custom trousers available from SPOKE London is a little different from the norm. Many of SPOKE’s men’s range are designed tough enough for the rigours of commuting and SPOKE also offers bespoke sizing via its online fit service. Simply select a waist and inseam size and then choose your build, and within days you’ll receive a pair of trousers tailored to fit you, er, like a glove. Our pick of the SPOKE trousers is the Bulletproof, which is made from an 8oz two-way stretch fabric that sheds water and is breathable, thanks to its 97 per cent cotton content. The smart, tapered cut fits well and the subtle hi-vis details (reflective piping inside the legs and a fold-out orange flash in the back pocket) are great for…

VITUS ZX-1 EVO CRS ULTEGRA DI2 £3999 The aero road bike of Northern Ireland’s Vitus has seen a total refresh for 2021, with a new, aerodynamic frameset designed from the ground up to be as fast as possible. Despite boasting the cheapest price tag of the group by far, the 8.07kg ZX-1’s deep-section wheels, electronic gears and aero-profiled carbon components wouldn’t look out of place on a much pricier bike. CANNONDALE SYSTEMSIX HI-MOD ETAP AXS £10,500 The 7.9kg SystemSix from Cannondale is straight out of the WorldTour. Upon launch in 2018, the SystemSix was claimed to be “the fastest road bike in the world” and offered plenty of evidence to back this up. But can our Halo-spec model with SRAM’s AXS groupset live with British roads and year-round riding? SCOTT…

Felt’s original AR – ‘Aero Road’ – was released in 2008. The silhouette of the 2020 bike looks similar but, as always, the devil is in the detail. Tube shapes and carbon layups have been refined, exposed cables have disappeared while carbon wheels and hydraulic disc brakes feature. The latest, 2021, AR retains a slim frontal profile but is more muscular in shape, with wider, kammtail aerofoil tubes providing more stiffness. Felt says the improvements in this area are in the double digits, in percentage terms, but what matters is that the new AR feels taut, responsive and exciting. The position on my 56cm bike is typically racy, with stack and reach figures of 561mm and 394mm, respectively. The seatpost is split for comfort and has a saddle clamp you…

£1600 The 303 Firecrest has long been the cyclecross rider’s go-to choice (and still is); and now it’s been adopted as one of the premium choices for gravel too. Laying out the 303 as just a gravel wheel does it a disservice. The new design, which incorporates a wider hookless rim shape with a 25mm internal width is, according to Zipp, the optimum for 28mm road tyres. My testing of the 303s has predominantly been on-road using Michelin Power 28mm tubeless tyres and my initial thought was that Zipp has nailed it when it comes to ease of setup for tubeless. I was able to seat multiple brands of tubeless tyre (Michelin, Goodyear, Zipp and Schwalbe) with just a track pump. Zipp claims a weight of 1352g (not including tubeless…

£89.99 A super-customisable helmet Specialising in helmets and eyewear across cycling, snow and watersports, Rudy Project might not be the first brand to come to mind when you think of urban lids, but it certainly has a lot to offer. The Central + aims to blend top-end protection with sleek city style – although this won’t be to everyone’s taste, and to me it feels at little… equestrian. It comes available in matte black or white and you can easily replace the straps in red, pink, sky blue or silver for a brighter touch. Be careful how you store the helmet when not in use, though, as the matte paint can get scuffed easily. For more customisation, you can remove the sturdy peak to replace with a flip-up face shield…

FROM THE EDITOR… As if the chance to save 35 per cent and to have every issue of Cycling Plus delivered direct to your door wasn’t enough of an incentive, this issue we’re offering readers a free Ritchey Comp Skyline saddle worth £47.99. Comfort is king here in the Cycling Plus office, so we’re all fans of the Vector wing technology in this lightweight saddle, which means no hot spots and a happy, mercifully pain-free posterior. Matt Baird, Editor PLUS ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE OFFERS & COMPETITIONS AS PART OF OUR SUBSCRIBER CLUB! FEATURES • Featuring trustworthy chromoly rails • Lightweight foam with a total weight of just 311g • Ideal for riders who want more support • Vector wing technology to eliminate hot spots GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE > Receive…

From the ultra-powerful phones we carry in our pockets to online shopping and casting Schitt’s Creek, electronics permeate every aspect of our lives. While our bikes may utilise GPS to record every kilometre we cover, electronics don’t yet dominate our riding experiences. Admittedly, designers are using advanced computing power to optimise aerodynamics and carbon fibre construction, but the simplicity and genius of the bike remains relatively unchanged in a century. Electronic advancements do exist in Shimano’s Di2, Campagnolo’s EPS, FSA’s WE drivetrain and SRAM’s fully wireless eTap AXS. Until now, the unifying factor is a largely prohibitive price. If you wanted the advantage of electronic shifting, you’d be looking at north of £4000 before you can consider cutting-edge shifting tech on a bike. So, unlike the mobile phone, this technology…

To find the best gravel shoe it’s first necessary to define ‘gravel’, which isn’t quite as obvious as it seems. For some of us it’s simply a jaunt down a few green lanes, while others regard gravel as anything that mixes tarmac and dirt in one ride – even if that dirt calls for what are effectively drop-bar mountain bike skills. For this test we’ve mixed up country lanes with dirt tracks, bridleways and forest roads on daylong routes. Nothing too extreme technically but all calling for dismounts to push up steep climbs, open gates and to hit the socially distanced coffee queue. Road shoes aren’t built for walking comfort, so unless your experience of riding gravel is never having to dismount, you’ll need something more forgiving. At the other…

£159.99 Do the road shoes masters tick the trail boxes? WEIGHT 383g COLOURS Black; Red; Dark Blue; Grey; Military Green WOMEN’S MODEL No SOLE Carbon/TPU CLOSURES Boa/Velcro Fizik describes its Terra X5 as a mountain-bike shoe. The X5’s carbon outsole features deep TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane)-injected studs, while the synthetic Microtex upper has laser perforations for ventilation. The fastening consists of an asymmetric Boa and toe strap pairing and the shoe’s profile is broad. A detail that we really appreciated is the heel loop, which not only helps you get the shoes on easily, but they’re also handy for drying the shoes between rides. My standard size 46 (EU) shoe fitted well, although it wears slimmer than the shape would suggest – and I say that as a rider whose feet…

The word áspero in Spanish translates as ‘rough’ and on its 2019 launch Cervélo described its Áspero as a bike “made to haul ass, not cargo”. And while it’s a bike designed for gravel, it doesn’t compromise on the key values that Cervélo is known for, qualities that include innovative aerodynamics and low weight. That was the story a couple of years ago, when I was hugely impressed by the Áspero’s performance both on and o_ road. This was a bike for gravel racers, stripped down and speedy, certainly not a bike for bike-packers or tourists but one for Cervélo fans looking to broaden their horizons. When I heard about Cervélo’s upcoming new gravel bike, I expected the Canadians to crank up the versatility, adding fixtures and fittings like pretty…

THE GOLDEN RULE IT’S A FIT-UP A proper bike fit really is essential in order to use all the riding positions mentioned below most effectively MEET THE COACH LIAM HOLOHAN Ex-pro rider for UCI teams Team Wiggins, Rapha Condor and Madison Genesis, Liam coaches in Shrewsbury at Holohan Coaching While there are only two fundamental positions when cycling – in or out of the saddle – each has its optimum moment to be employed, and within both there are nuances that riders use to improve performance, increase speed, enhance control or retain energy. Switching positions too often will just waste energy, though you may find that to reduce muscle fatigue on long rides, it pays to take any opportunity to stretch or move from aero to upright. “CLIMBS, DESCENTS AND…

MEET THE AUTHOR MARK BAILEY A sportswriter and four-time Haute Route finisher, Mark regularly interviews pro cyclists and experts to explore the latest health insights Thanks to the summer weather and longer evenings, cyclists are getting out and about on the roads more often. But don’t pack up your turbo trainer just yet. Although nothing beats an outdoor ride, a sprinkle of indoor sessions can inject some crucial specificity into your summer training regime. Targeted indoor workouts can really boost your preparation for big European climbs, says Adam Daniel, master trainer at Wattbike (wattbike.com). “Indoor ‘ramp’ workouts target improvements in muscular strength and endurance, which are two key components for climbing,” he explains. “The strength comes from the ever-increasing demand of the ‘steps’, and the endurance from holding a near-average…

Do the best rivalries in sport need an element of animosity or needle to elevate it to new levels of appeal to us, as fans? Certainly, it rarely does any harm. It’s usually a total gift to sports journalists, for whom column inches flow more readily from the pen when there’s a heated squabble between the top competitors – and there’s often little hesitation to stir the pot. For a personality like Lance Armstrong, the one-time seven-time winner of the Tour de France, he almost needed grievance in a rivalry to light the fires. Disliking riders such as Marco Pantani – whether rooted in reality or fictionalised for effect – was the secret sauce that spurred him onto win so many yellow jerseys. Well, one of the secret sauces… What…

BIKE-BUYING ADVICE YOU CAN TRUST… We take our testing very seriously at Cycling Plus. For more than 25 years – back to an age when disc brakes, Di2 and super-wide 1x gearing weren’t even a glint in a designer’s eye – we have been putting road cycling products through their paces. Warren Rossiter, our senior technical editor, has nearly a quarter of a century of riding experience in just about every discipline. He can separate the great from the also-rans when it comes to bikes, clothing, accessories and more. And if it gets our seal of approval, you can be sure that you’ll be bagging a great buy! CYCLING PLUS’S SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR PREVIEWS HIS ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS… WARREN ROSSITER SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR This month brings you a great mix of…

649.99 Budget-friendly ride around Well, they don’t make ’em like that any more,” I thought about the Parkside. Except, of course, in the case of Cambridge’s Light Blue Cycles, they do. This contrasts with most of the bikes we test, which major on lightness, aerodynamics, dozens of electric gears and cycling’s latest technological advances. Not the Parkside. Not at all. No electronics, no carbon, no graphene, no skinny saddle and not even derailleur gears, as this Light Blue has the latest incarnation of that most venerable gearing – the internal rear hub. The Parkside even has something I don’t think I’ve seen at Cycling Plus this millennium: a quill stem. Welcome back! Even the frame size is imperial rather than metric. Perhaps its only nod to modernity is its Tig-welded…

01 FIGHT VEGAN GUMMIES £16.99 These great-tasting berry gum drops are packed with vitamin D, calcium, phosphorous and more in a formula designed to promote bone strength, helping balance out the nutritional needs of athletes and, in particular, vegetarians and vegans. Fight recommends eating a couple of gummies a day so a single bottle gives a month’s worth of nutritional supplements. 02 FIZIK SADDLE BAG £21.99 This 65g pack is made from a polyurethane-coated fabric and promises total waterproofing when combined with the storm zip closure. Its semi-rigid 80 x 110 x 60mm size is big enough to fit a tube, tyre levers, multi-tool and patch kit, with a mesh pocket inside to hold heavier items in place. The 38mm-wide Velcro strap attaches the pack securely to your saddle rails…

Compact, laney and green, the Chiltern Hills are the day-ride haunt of many a Home Counties cyclist. At its north end in the well-to-do triangle of St Albans–Hemel Hempstead–Harpenden, is a cosy bike cafe with the core skills: classy coffee, exquisite cakes, front-room vibe. Owner Simon set it up in 2012, frustrated that he couldn’t find enough decent bike-friendly coffee opportunities on his own rides. Sibling shop, the Bike Loft, opened a few doors away in 2015. Simon divides his time between the two, while wife-to-be Lindy oversees the cafe. His email signature describes him as ‘King of Banter’, and you won’t go short on lively conversation when Simon’s about – he had an eventful career involved in international road and track racing, as well as 10 years working in…

Vitus has a rich history in cycling dating back to 1970s France. Despite some fallow years, the brand was revitalised in 2011 using a direct-to-consumer model. The ZX-1 is Vitus’s latest flagship aero race bike, designed in conjunction with the Silverstone-based aero specialist, Total Sim. Vitus says the new ZX-1 cuts aerodynamic drag compared to its predecessor by 18 per cent in a headwind, and up to 45 per cent in strong crosswinds. And the stout kammtail aerofoil tubes, hidden cables and deep-section carbon wheels certainly look the part. Vitus doesn’t claim the bike is ‘X seconds faster than every other bike over 40km’. Partly because the new ZX-1 has only been benchmarked in the wind tunnel against its predecessor and its Vitus Vitesse sibling. Vitus points out that performance…

When Scott released the second-generation Foil in 2015, it looked to tilt the balance more toward comfort without compromising efficiency. It’s this redesign that still forms the heart of the latest Foil, with changes to the frameset made purely to accommodate the addition of hydraulic disc brakes and internal cable routing. In many ways this is still a bike that performs admirably on a variety of terrain. Those looking for the latest, most optimised aero race bike in the world might feel short-changed, but riders wanting a comfortable all-rounder that doesn’t sacrifice efficiency will feel right at home. Scott doesn’t claim the Foil is the fastest bike in the world, instead saying that it’s sculpted to minimise aerodynamic drag without adding weight. That chimes with the Foil’s looks; the kammtail…

ENDURA PRO SL £149.99 Facts and figures Endura’s 245g (M/L) Pro SL is 35g heavier than the Genesis but it’s not noticeable. The inner cradle can be adjusted vertically while a ratcheted rear dial handles fit. It has 10 large vents; the Koroyd tubes slightly reduce air flow, which is only an issue on hot days. Fixtures and fittings The Endura uses Koroyd’s welded polymer, honeycomblike tubes inside the polystyrene. These are designed to “crumple instantly and consistently on impact, absorbing maximum force in a controlled manner… helping to protect your brain from direct and angled impacts, which may reduce the risk of suffering a lifechanging injury”. Plush padding inside the helmet ensures that these tubes don’t touch your scalp. School of hard knocks Another area in which the Endura…

£329.99 Updated pro-racing shoe The Vento takes the design direction of the R1 pro-level shoe and refines it further into a lightweight option that maxes on comfort and fit while retaining stiffness through the sole. The upper, made from a thin, highly pliable-lightweight Microtex Fabric, is shaped to control the volume of the shoe. The centre of the upper is dominated by a broad 60mm-wide section of material that tapers and wraps over the forefoot, controlled with a Boa IP1 micro-adjusting dial. This wrap of material pulls in the whole forefoot – while the uppers’ opening pulls in evenly creating a supportive fit around your foot. A second Boa IP1 dial controls the lower part of the forefoot with a zig-zag pattern to its lacing. It creates a superb fit…

01 It’s 12-speed The advent of 12-speed cassettes for SRAM means not just adding another sprocket but reinventing how we think about bike gearing. By re-assembling the ratios with more of a split towards the wide range at the back, it means chainring sizes can be reduced. So unlike traditional 11-speed systems, the largest chainrings in the AXS world become 50/37 as a match for 53/39. Instead, chainring sizing is set at 48/35 and 46/33 for double and a 43/30 in the WIDE system, plus 1x options of 40t and 46t. Cassette options vary between the AXS range too, but Rival comes in 10/30 and 10/36 options. The range that these options offer when compared to standard 11-speed systems is impressive, with the key element that the jumps between the…

01 FAST ENING/CLOSURES Technology has gifted us the Boa, which gives a rock-solid fit that’s easy to adjust even when riding, but less room for variation in tension through its length. A common combination is a strap over the toe section that allows it to be independently tightened, with a Boa over the mid-foot. It’s a construction that generally works well, as long as there’s enough adjustment in the toe strap. Old-school laces have their fans, though. If you have a high instep, you probably find that they allow for the differentiation in tension that gives a snug forefoot fit combined with ease over the instep that you need for best comfort, and that can be hard to achieve with a single Boa. The downside of laces, beside the chance…

With the original Áspero and the new Áspero-5 Cervélo has concentrated on making a decidedly race-orientated bike. Does Cervélo see gravel as a fast sport and different from the adventure, touring and bike-packing scene? “We specifically targeted events that have a competitive nature to them, the most notorious being Unbound Gravel (formerly known as Dirty Kanza). At the time that we came up with the idea of Áspero, that race was still being won on cyclocross (CX) bikes. It seems that there was, and still is, a big appetite for gravel bikes that make riding over rough terrain ‘easier’ and had the ability to carry things on the bike, rather than in your jersey pocket. However, this typically results in a bike that handles slower due to slacker HTAs [head-tube…

HOW WAS LIFE BEFORE THE BIKE? “I was a racing cyclist in the 1980s and was very active before contracting a rare neurological condition called transverse myelitis (TM) in October 2018. TM causes inflammation and compressive lesions on the spinal cord. It effectively caused a shutdown in everything below that level.” HOW DID YOUR CONDITION AFFECT YOU? “I was paralysed from the neck down within two weeks of my last ride. I underwent an essential and painstaking daily physiotherapy routine to rebuild strength, conditioning and mobility.” HOW HAS CYCLING HELPED REBUILD YOUR LIFE? “Two and a half years after diagnosis I still have limited sensation from the chest down, as well as balance and co-ordination problems. I live with constant and intense pain in any muscle group that I use.…

To butcher Mark Twain’s famous quote about his own demise, reports of the death of the Tour de France individual time trial, it turns out, have been grossly exaggerated. With 58km against the clock across two key stages, the 2021 route represents something of a renaissance for the discipline after years of swingeing cuts. Many will bemoan the presence of the most TT kilometres in eight years, but 2020’s final competitive stage to La Planche des Belles Filles was proof that these individual efforts can produce spectacular racing and be key to an exciting battle for yellow. So why did they almost disappear? Is this really the beginning of the fight back? And, if it is, should we embrace it? First, a potted history. After introducing a time trial into…

Launched off the back of hard-fought campaigning by some of the biggest names in women’s cycling, La Course seemed to herald a new era for the sport. The women would be racing along the hallowed avenue of the Champs Élysées before the iconic final stage of the men’s Tour de France – a huge opportunity. Having been presented with that platform, the women’s peloton did what they always do and made the race a thrilling spectacle. In the second edition, in 2015, what should have been a predictable, open goal for the sprinters was thwarted when Anna van der Breggen time trailed her way to a solo victory. This period was one of regrowth for women’s cycling following a decade of contraction from the relative boom of the 1980s and…

£5475 as tested Condor’s steel pro-bike hits the high street Originally designed as a rim-brake bike (still available) for the Rapha Condor pro team back in 2012, the Super Acciaio Disc is the brand’s flagship, steel, disc-brake bike. A fully-custom stainless steel version is also available. Fancy that… The Super Acciaio looks absolutely fabulous in the flesh. The paint is refreshingly jazzy, matching a rich azure with gold highlights. A black version of the bike is also available but you’d be doing yourself a disservice. I count myself among the many who have fallen for the clean lines of any classic double steel frameset and the Super Acciaio is no exception. The Columbus Spirit HSS tubeset is custom-formed to Condor’s specifications. This includes the ovalised top tube and square-profiled down…

The pursuit of speed is undoubtedly part of what makes cycling so exhilarating. And when it comes to going fast, aerodynamics is king. Representing the leading edge of road-bike technology, aero road bikes challenge traditional notions of what makes a fast race bike. Think an 8kg road bike can’t be fast? Think again. Of course, an aero road bike still needs to be easy to live with, for those of us who aren’t blessed to be WorldTour pros. Do the deep-section wheels make it a handful on windy days? How does it perform on our broken back roads? And do you need an engineering degree to maintain it? We’ve brought together four of the latest aero race bikes. They arrive at a range of price points (although admittedly none of…

For a long time, the SuperSix defined Cannondale’s road bikes. That changed in 2018 when it launched the SystemSix, a bike it claimed was “the fastest road bike in the world”. A bold statement but it was backed up by detailed data from tests. The industry hasn’t stood still, though, with competitors releasing new models and some brands killing off their aero bikes. So, how does the SystemSix stack up? This Halo-spec model gets SRAM’s flagship Red eTap AXS wireless groupset and Cannondale’s 64 SL KNØT carbon wheels. The Hi-Mod frameset uses Cannondale’s stiffest, lightest carbon fibre and while Cannondale’s KNØT handlebar mimics the look and performance of an integrated setup, its two-piece design doesn’t limit adjustability. The KNØT stem also allows the angle of the bar to be adjusted…

Testing these aero bikes back to back, you get a real sense for how much speed you’re missing out on when you return to ride a normal road bike. Of course, not everybody races and there will be those who believe that aero doesn’t matter if you’re not racing. And that may be true, but anyone who rides with friends will know how quickly an easy Sunday ride can turn into a race. Even if you’re only riding on your own, going fast can be fantastic fun. That thrill is one of the reasons many of us got into riding in the first place – and aero bikes lean into that. It’s 2021 and there are few bad bikes on the market. That’s especially the case in this test, where…

£360 A wide and lightweight carbon bar Enve is not only a big deal in road cycling – it’s also a well-respected brand in the mountain bike world. So, it’s no surprise it’s now applying its expertise to creating carbon kit for gravel riding. Enve’s new gravel bar is part of its G Series of carbon components for off-road riding, but the bar itself works well over all surfaces. Enve says that it designed the G Series bar using uni-directional carbon fibre layers orientated to maximise shock absorption over rough surfaces while still maintaining enough stiffness when you’re sprinting or honking on an out-of-saddle climb. Thankfully, Enve’s claims on the bar’s vibration-damping were borne out by my testing. The bar feels compliant over rocky tracks, and leaves even the worst…

You launched the original Red eTAP back in 2015, and then Red AXS in 2019. You seem to be pushing on quicker than ever down this electronic shifting route. Was that a conscious decision? Paul “As a lot of people know, we were late to the electronic party. Then we converted to being all in. I don’t know if we’ve abandoned mechanical, but we’ve seen that the benefits of electronic shifting serves the middle of the market better than they do the pros. Those motors and all the tech that’s in the system just makes it shift the same every single time with less maintenance. We were the last to embrace electronic, and now we are the first to bring it to the middle of the market. We’re proud of…

At the end of June, the 108th Tour de France will roll out from Brittany. Once again, for the 21 stages of action in the men’s race, the women’s nearest equivalent, La Course, will be a single stage run over a solitary day – a 107km footnote. Next year promises more, with the six-day Battle of the North in Scandinavia set to land on the 2022 WorldTour schedule, and it could also be the year when ASO, the Tour de France’s organiser, finally delivers on its mooted women’s version of the race – an idea that has been tantalisingly touted for some time now. Even if those races come to fruition, there will remain some way to go still until women’s road racing matches the men’s for opportunities, exposure and…

The Big Ride Guide is brought to you by Britain’s best-selling road cycling magazine, Cycling Plus. Inside you’ll find… • 44 routes from England, Scotland and Wales• Downloadable GPX files • Nearby coffee stops, pubs and accommodation WWW.BUYSUBSCRIPTIONS.COM/RIDEGUIDE21 OR CALL 03330 162 138 AND QUOTE ‘RIDE GUIDE 2021 PRINT 1’ Lines are open 9am-5pm weekdays. Overseas please call +44 (0) 1604 973 746 *Price stated applies to UK orders only. UK residents receive FREE UK delivery. EUR price £12.49, RoW price £13.49. All orders are subject to availability. Please allow up to 28 days for delivery. Calls from landlines will cost up to 9p per minute. Call charges from mobile phones will cost between 3p and 55p per minute but are included in free call packages. All orders are subject…

This fajita recipe contains a high-protein mix of sirloin steak, long-stemmed broccoli and roasted red peppers, and also avocado, an ingredient that’s often spoke about as being a superfood. It’s worthwhile diving into the avocado benefits a little deeper. First off, here are some of the most abundant nutrients in a 100-gram serving of avocado (an average whole avocado from the supermarket is around 125g). • Vitamin K:_26% of the daily value (DV)• Folate:_20% of the DV• Vitamin C:_17% of the DV• Potassium:_14% of the DV• Vitamin B5:_14% of the DV• Vitamin B6:_13% of the DV• Vitamin E:_10% of the DV Health is often at the forefront of our mind, and heart health is spoken about a lot; this includes cholesterol, triglycerides, inflammatory markers, blood pressure and various others. Some…

OLIVER BRIDGEWOOD – PRESENTER, GCN “Bikes for men and women can differ in a number of ways to accommodate physical differences between the sexes. Some brands, such as Liv, offer women-specific frames with geometry more suited to the female ergonomic data. Other brands simply change the contact points, fitting a differently shaped saddle and narrower bars to accommodate less wide shoulders. They may also have a shorter stem to facilitate the (on average) statistically shorter reach of women. In days gone by these bikes were often given a big pink paint job, thankfully not so much now. “From a commercial perspective, unisex frames are advantageous and more cost-effective. Producing fewer models and sizes of frame streamlines production and reduces overheads. A good example of this is Specialized consolidating the Venge…

After years of tinkering with novelties - ultra-short mountain stages and a paucity of time trial kilometres - the route for the 2021 Tour de France returns to something close to classical. That’s particularly true when it comes to the volume (58) of flat time trial kilometres, split over two stages (5 and 20) and the most since 2013. Evidence of race director Christian Prudhomme’s characteristic innovation continues, however. At its most subtle are his favoured mountain stage finishes in the valleys, rather than summits; at its most obvious, with the first ever double ascent of arguably the race’s best-loved mountain, Mont Ventoux (see p30). 01 Saturday 26 June BREST – LANDERNEAU Distance 197.8km | Terrain Hilly Brest, in Brittany - the most westerly city in France and the midpoint of the Paris-Brest-Paris Audax…

Every cyclist’s bucket list and every cycling guide worth its salt lists Mont Ventoux, the Giant of Provence, either at the top, or very close to the top, of the world’s most feared and revered climbs. The huge peak rises up out of the plains of Provence, from the olive groves and vineyards, like a whale breaking the surface of the ocean. The Ventoux summit, used as a reference point by pilots flying down to the French Riviera, nudges 2000m and, on first sight, always puts the fear of God into most cyclists. Unlike the majority of the most notorious mountain climbs, the road to the Ventoux summit is not a pass strung between peaks. The long climb, both from the north side and the more famous south side, snakes…

1 1951 The year of the Tour’s first visit to Ventoux. The stage finished in Avignon, not the summit, and was won by Louison Bobet. 2 1955 Bobet won another stage that crossed Ventoux, but it’s Jean Malléjac’s collapse on the way up that’s remembered. 3 1967 How people think of Mont Ventoux is indelibly linked to the tragic death of British star Tom Simpson on stage 13 in 1967. 4 1970 Eddy Merckx took his only victory on Ventoux at the Tour de France on his way to the second of five yellow jerseys. 5 1994 At 6ft 4in and 85 kilos, Eros Poli was one of the bigger riders in Tour history, which made his 1994 ride all the more remarkable. 6 2000 Marco Pantani’s victory on Ventoux…