Indholdsfortegnelse for January 24, 2019 i Cycling Weekly

The adventures of Conor Dunne and Larry Warbasse (pages 28-31) was one of the most uplifting stories of 2018. Their #nogotour was a hit on social media and reminded me of how I used to feel when riding my bike as a kid. We probably all think that the pros are having a great time riding their bikes — who doesn’t want to get paid for riding their bike every day?! But things change once you do something full time, for a wage, with the pressure to perform. Reading of their joy rediscovered through the freedom of riding their bikes wherever they wanted, reminded me of that feeling of getting to the end of my road. Left or right was the rest of the world and the next town a…

Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (January 26-27) Chloe Hosking (Alé-Cipollini) goes in search of a second successive victory in the race that starts and finishes in Geelong, Australia. Defending men’s winner is Jay McCarthy of Bora-Hansgrohe. Cyclo-Cross World Cup Hoogerheide (January 27) The final round of this season’s competition, just three points separate Wout van Aert and Toon Aerts at the summit of the men’s rankings. Mathieu van der Poel has triumphed on the same course three times. Marianne Vos has already won the women’s classification. Vuelta a San Juan (January 27-February 3) South America’s biggest race is held in western Argentina and six WorldTour teams are participating, including Dimension Data being led by Mark Cavendish. The Manxman could win two stages, while the GC riders have a 12km…

All hail retiring Hayman Retiring veteran rider, Aussie Mat Hayman, has declared himself “blown away” by the reception he enjoyed at his home race, the Tour Down Under, which was his last outing as a pro. The 40-year-old plans to move into an advisory role with his current team, Mitchelton-Scott, where his Classics knowledge could prove invaluable to riders such as Luke Durbridge and Matteo Trentin. Pozzato on a roll It’s only a month since Filippo Pozzato retired from the pro peloton, but the veteran Italian has wasted no time in setting his sights on new goals. Last weekend he began a new career in roller hockey with northern Italian division two club Hockey Bassano. It’s a sport in which the 37-year-old has a long history, having left it behind…

The Peugeot PX10 (Icons, CW Jan 10) was undoubtedly the iconic workhorse you describe, but a question that remains unanswered is: was that the bike ridden by Tom Simpson in the 1965 Worlds? The word on the street back in the day was that Tom was in fact riding a Peugeot-badged frame built by Harry Hall. Fact or urban myth? Chris McGrath, Maidenhead While Harry was Simpson’s trusted mechanic at various points in his career, his bikes were actually made by the Italian frame builder Faliero Masi, who was based underneath the iconic Vigorelli velodrome in Milan — Ed WIN Letter of the week wins a Lazer O2 helmet worth £99.99…

Prize funds in virtual cycling are already exceeding some of those handed out on the road. The most recent round of the CRV World Cup in Vancouver, Canada, had a total prize fund of $100,000 with the winner taking $10,000 (€8,759). The CVR winner’s prize is double the UCI mandatory prize for winning a stage of the Tour Down Under (€4,000), and nearly as much as the prize for second place at Paris-Roubaix (€10,000) or what ASO pays a stage winner of the Tour de France (€11,000).…

STAGE ONE Nice, France > Saluzzo, Italy 117km, 7hr, 20min, 3,400m of climbing Climbs: Col de Tende STAGE TWO Saluzzo, Italy > Lanslevillard, France 136km, 6hr, 22min, 3,550m of climbing Climbs: Colle delle Finestre and Col du Mont Cenis STAGE THREE Lanslevillard, France > Cormet de Roselend, France 106km, 4hr, 46min, 2,600m of climbing Climbs: Col de l’Iseran STAGE FOUR Cormet de Roselend, France > Lake Annecy, France 124km, 5hr, 13min, 2,750m of climbing Climbs: Col de Saisies and Col des Glières STAGE FIVE Lake Annecy, France > Clavans-le-Bas, France 171km, 7hr, 31min, 4,215m of climbing Climbs: Alpe d’Huez and Col du Glandon STAGE SIX Clavans-le-Bas, France > Chinale, Italy 126.5km, 5hr, 43min, 3,575m of climbing Climbs: Col du Lautaret, Col d’Izoard, Col Agnel STAGE SEVEN Chinale, Italy > Pontebernado,…

Trek calls its new bike “lightweight aluminium perfection” and it is hard to disagree with that, especially as the disc brake-ready frameset weighs a claimed 1,131g for a 56cm, and the 52cm build weighs 7.8kg — possibly bagging the title for the lightest aluminium bike on the market. “The long and slender stays help with compliance” Part of this is down to what Trek claims is its most optimised structure ever: via hydro-forming, Trek’s engineers have manipulated, stretched and designed shapes from the 300 series Alpha aluminium. It’s also said to offer great ride quality as well as a strong structure and a carbon-like aesthetic. Trek’s Invisible Weld Technology is what makes the alu frame look so much like carbon, even up close. On our industry ride-out from the office…

Lactic acid — more correctly known as lactate — is a chemical by-product of exercise that accumulates in the blood at higher intensity levels. Many riders blame lactate for the pain and fatigue felt during a hard workout, but they may be misguided. Science has shown that lactate actually serves as a fuel and is recycled as we continue exercising — it is a marker, rather than the prime cause, of fatigue. The discomfort we experience is more likely caused by a combination of physiological and mental processes working in tandem; to single out lactate is pointless scapegoating.…

Training in a particular zone is not guaranteed to have the intended effect. “Zone 5 effort, for instance, may not directly boost your VO2max,” says Dr Jamie Pringle. “It isn't that simple. Indeed, some studies have shown that a few minutes of maximal, Zone 6 sprint training can be more effective at increasing a muscle’s aerobic capabilities than many hours of endurance training.” Choosing the right balance of intensities is a complicated business, in part determined by individual physiological differences, calling for experimentation and — if possible — expert coaching input. However, guidelines are important. “At the fundamental physiological level, there are two distinct thresholds — neither debatable nor changeable,” says Pringle. “These are the lactate threshold and critical power. There are markedly different physiological responses to exercise below or…

CYCLO-CROSS SATURDAY, JANUARY 19 Notts and Derby League round 10 (Broxtowe Country Park, Nottingham): Senior men: 1. George Thompson (Sleaford Wheelers CC) 48.57; 2. D. Earth (Steve Pool Plant Hire) +1.38; 3. C. Metcalfe (Fabric Cycling) +2.07; 4. K. Brown (8point8 Group) +2.37; 5. J. Brain (unattached) +3.14; 6. J. Swadling (Nottingham Clarion CC) +3.37; 7. D. Preece (Army Cycling Union) +4.25; 8. S. Partridge (unattached) +5.23; 9. J. Jones (ZeroBC) +6.22; 10. A. Duncan (unattached) +6.43. Women: 1. Xan Crees (Team Empella) 50.34; 2. H. Dussek (Nottingham Clarion CC) +1 lap; 3. A. Farquhar (Army Cycling Union) +1 lap. Veterans: 1. James Moore (Welland Valley CC) 51.00; 2. A. Betts (Zepnat.com RT Lazer Helmets) +0.15; 3. J. Thompson (Magspeed Racing) +0.53. SUNDAY, JANUARY 20 Eastern League round 15 (World…

The long winter ride became training orthodoxy in the early 20th century — before that the combination of terrible roads and worse bikes meant that most riders spent their winters playing billiards. One made sure not to ride too hard; it was supposed to be a modest but consistent effort, maintained for several hours. The physiological logic was that this would form a foundation of fitness for the faster work to come. The psychological logic was also that something that plodding and miserable must be good for you. To make a winter ride even less interesting, for most of the 20th century riders did it on a single fixed-gear. You could, of course, do your long miles in the club run, but it was better (because it was worse) to…

VERN PITT News editor There will have been a sigh of relief in the offices of British Cycling and UK Sport when Judge Ross’s decision was handed down last week. Varnish’s claim, that she was effectively an employee, had seismic potential to shake up how the funding of elite athletes works. Many in those administrations believed it’d lead to fewer athletes getting funded and at the very least it was going to create a lot of paperwork. Privately, BC’s leadership had been confident in its case, but the potential for it go the other way remained. But Ross’s decision came down squarely for BC and UK sport. Over 43 pages — over multiple issues — Ross found the relationship between Varnish and British Cycling and UK Sport did not have…

Does a bike race, even one made up of pixels, matter if no one sees it? It’s just as well viewership for virtual racing is also growing rapidly. One high-profile Zwift race in January racked up 22,000 viewers during the event, which doubled to 44,000 when the video had been up for 24 hours. That’s still some way short of viewing seven-day figures for the highlights of a day’s racing at the Tour of Britain, which reported a peak of 365,900 last September, and was recording around 300,000 a day on average. However, there is still significant room for growth. Journalist and broadcaster Rebecca Charlton has hosted live races on Zwift in the past and can see the appeal. “When I hosted the Kiss Crit Series in London last year…

When the adventurous duo left their Nice homes on September 2, they did so carrying 20kg of bags. Their basic panniers, bought from Decathlon, were strapped to their team-issued 3T Strada bikes. The initial response to riding with extra weight was met with disgruntlement. “That first day was hard,” Dunne reveals. “Hard to get used to the bikes, hard to get used to the bags and often worrying if they would all fall off. We both knew the packs were there as it felt so much different to how we usually rode. On the climbs we would notice that we were going a lot slower.” But it didn’t take long to adjust and, for a temporary period at least, transform their riding styles. “Sometimes, we really forgot the bags were…

MALCOLM BORG The Cycle Clinic Why tubeless? If like me you ride over 200 miles a week you’ll go through a fair few inner tubes, especially if you like to ride nice, race-level tyres. With tubeless you actually can ride race-like tyres all the time, which give you decent reliability and where punctures most of the time fix themselves. If you do puncture and it doesn’t seal there are easy fixes, although I didn’t know that when I first started using tubeless tyres. The other reason to ride tubeless is if you want to improve comfort. You can run lower pressures when there’s no inner tube in there. They aren’t necessarily faster, I’m not going to claim that, but there’s the comfort advantage, better grip and the ability to solve…

Rate of perceived exertion — that is, how hard the effort feels — is arguably the most important training tool you have. Come race day, it’s your brain that will ultimately dictate your pace. So use zones in training, but don’t over-rely on them. Mike Woods puts it succinctly: “Being a slave to the power meter can prevent you from going deeper than you thought you could.” The Canadian advocates doing some sessions by feel, free from data-guidance. “The best computer that you have is your body — it’s giving you feedback as to what you should be doing all the time. The more you can understand how your body’s reacting to a certain pace or zone, the better you’re going to be as a rider.” This is particularly important…

CW: How long have you been with the club? Colin Ashcroft: I joined when I was 13, in 1975, and rode until I was about 25, then I had my sons and gave up. I rejoined the club about 10 years ago — my bikes were hanging up in the garage all that time, maintained but never ridden. CW: What time trials does the club organise? CA: We organise two. There’s an early season ‘10’, and then a ‘25’ later in the season, which is the Peter and Gill Stone Memorial. CW: Has the club changed a lot since you rejoined? CA: Well, the club night sh ove ha’penny has gone! When I joined in 1975, we’d regularly get close to 20 people entering open TTs, and people road racing…

Track World Cup New Zealand (Jan 18-20) New Zealand’s team pursuit quartet set the second-ever fastest time, posting 3:50.159. Their women also won TP gold, too. The home nation recorded emphatic victories across the weekend, benefiting from Great Britain’s absence. Gravel and Tar Classic (Jan 19) Canyon-dhb-Bloor Homes’s Ryan Christensen finished second in the UCI 1.2 race in New Zealand, the Kiwi finishing just one second behind winner Luke Mudgway. Brodie Chapman, who will defend her Herald Sun Tour next week, won the women’s race. Cyclo-Cross World Cup Pont-Château Tom Pidcock scored his fourth victory in this season’s U23 World Cup, beating Antoine Benoist by nine seconds. Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) won the women’s race. Wout van Aert was the men’s race victor, overtaking Toon Aerts (Telenet-Fidea Lions) as the overall…

Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) It’s difficult to mark down a rider who has become the first ever to defend the title of Tour Down Under winner. The South African rode superbly from his win on stage four to his staunch defence on the final climb of Willunga Hill to ensure Richie Porte finished second for the fourth time in five years. ★★★★★ Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick Step) He fumbled a chance on stage five, sprinting too early into a headwind finish. Viviani was disappointed, especially given he’d anticipated similar conditions to take a commanding victory on day one. “We win smart the first stage, we lose like stupid today,” he said. “We did a perfect lead-out but not in that finish.” ★★★★ Wout Poels (Team Sky) Poels showed he was one of…

I think I might be in love with myself. Not in the inspiring way, like that poster that reads: “In a society that profits from your self-doubt, liking yourself is an act of rebellion.” More in a Kanye West kind of way. (Please listen to ‘I Thought About Killing You’ if you’d like further enlightenment on Kanye’s style of self-love.) I realised I was Kanye after I went on a date last night and had a wonderful time. The person I was with was alright, but I really felt like it was me that was wonderful. I listened; gave witty retorts; asked non-probing yet relevant questions. I was the perfect date, and it made me very happy. Until just now when I realised how much I love myself and wondered…

Jason Kenny The Olympic champion is yet to win a solo pure sprint competition (he’s won keirins) since his return last year. The National Champs is a good place to start and he should be favourite alongside Jack Carlin, Ryan Owens, Joe Truman and Philip Hindes to take the team sprint crown. CW rating: ★★★★ John Archibald The fastest man ever at sea level in the individual pursuit, set last month, will be the man to beat in that event. He’ll also be key to his Huub-Wattbike team’s success in the TP. CW rating: ★★★★ Jack Carlin The defending sprint national champion has won precious few races so far in 2018-19, but the same was true prior to the 2018 Championships. He went on to take two silvers at the Worlds after…

BKOOL SIMULATOR It was there before Zwift with real video footage of famous routes, which you can still access but it also now has 3D simulation. There’s a much bigger variety of routes than Zwift and you can still race against others. ROAD GRAND TOU RS If you want the most realistic experience, Road Grand Tours is probably your platform. The team behind it scoured Google Earth pics of famous routes, which include the Stelvio and Mont Ventoux, to make sure even the trees featured are true to life. ROUVY Much like BKool, this platform from trainer manufacturer CycleOps uses both virtual reality and video to enhance the training experience. It also aims to compete with Strava as a place to curate all your ride data from out in the…

The final few days of last August were the nadir in Conor Dunne’s and Larry Warbasse’s careers. Their Pro-Continental team, Aqua Blue Sport, informed them, via email, that they would be folding. What’s more, they wouldn’t be riding the Tour of Britain, the pair’s main focus for the second half of the season. Without employment and no longer having an immediate race to prepare for, Dunne and Warbasse sat down to conjure up an idea of how best to deal with the situation. Their decision was to rewind the clock to their youth and ride their bikes for pleasure — a novel idea for professional cyclists. And so came about the NoGo Tour, an eight-day bike-packing adventure through the French and Italian Alps, that headed from their Nice home, over…

Mio’s cycling computers focus on its excellent colour touchscreen with the Mio Cyclo 210 bringing them to a new lower price point. Although it’s slightly smaller than Mio’s higher-end units, the 210 with its 3.5in screen is by no means tiny like the Garmin 130. But there’s a limit to how much you can reduce size while still having a usable touchscreen — other makers’ smaller units revert to multiple buttons but there’s only one physical button on the Mio Cyclo 210 to switch it on and off and return you to the previous menu. Everything else is controlled via the screen. There’s a Navigate Wizard: type in an address and it will plot you a route to get there, display the distance and profile and, on a second screen,…

If you train only with heart rate, be aware that your heart does not instantly respond to effort — there is a small time lag. So though you may be in the correct zone in terms of power, in the initial one to two minutes of an interval, your heart rate is still rising. Therefore, if you don’t have a power meter and want to train at threshold and above, you need to use a bit of intuition at the start of the effort to judge the appropriate intensity. Conversely, a heart rate monitor can sometimes be more useful than power. If your heart rate fails to rise as quickly or as high as usual, it may be suppressed by fatigue or illness — and you might need more recovery.…

To win a circuit race and place top-10 in a road race, Kouros needs to get plenty of racing in, using each one as training. So many riders get fixated on developing their FTP but sprinting and top-end capacity are just as important for road and circuit racing. I am focusing on developing Kouros’s ability to produce power towards the end of a race, so that he can sprint on tired legs. He has highlighted this as a weakness. He has good all-round fitness and a decent lactate threshold — his 300W FTP, given his 65kg weight, equates to 4.6W/kg, which is more like cat-two standard. In the revised schedule, Monday is all about developing peak power for a short sprint and helping with technique too. Along with power generation,…

I spent about four months of last year unable to ride, run or even walk very much, following an incident where the Gods of Cycling noticed I’d gone running and struck me down with a broken hip. I appreciate the concern of those of you who got in touch to tell me I deserved much worse. That four months was the longest period of inactivity I’ve endured since I learned to walk. And perhaps the most striking thing about the whole experience was this: my weight on the morning of the day I broke my hip was 73kg. My weight on the morning of the day I finally cast aside my crutches was 73kg. I was astonished. I’d always assumed that if I stopped cycling I’d balloon like an inflating…

Back in the 1980s, a mate of mine got the seatpost seized in his frame. After a day or two of tugging, he gave up and took it to a local shop, where the mechanic had the reputation of being a bit of an animal, and just the guy to fix this sort of thing. When he called to collect the bike, the mechanic handed him just the seatpost. “Where’s the bike?” he asked. “Had to cut it up to get the post out,” the mechanic said. “But I wanted the frame! I didn’t give a damn about the post.” “Well, in that case you should have asked me to get the bike off the seatpost, not the seatpost out of the bike,” said the mechanic. He still has the…