Indholdsfortegnelse for February 14, 2019 i Cycling Weekly

Unsurprisingly, last week’s feature on the 40 most important cyclists of all time drew quite a reaction. That is, after all, part of the fun of these things. As I said last week, we struggled to agree in the CW office, so didn’t expect anyone to say we got the whole list spot on. Here’s a couple of responses. Nigel Thurling wrote: “Eddy Merckx only 20th?! Really? Great magazine (usually!)” I’ll take that last bit as a tongue-in-cheek comment. David Ludgate said: “As I turned the pages towards the last few I was pleased that Miguel Indurain was going to be where he deserved: in the top three. But not to be included in the top 40! How can that be right under any rules?” Indurain was a hero to…

First place first time out Tom Pidcock gave his new rainbow bands a first competitive airing at the weekend, doing more than justice to them by first winning the DVV Trofee Lille U23 race on Saturday, before following it up the following day with fifth in the seniors at the Telenet Superprestige Hoogstraten. After Sunday’s race he tweeted: “Too many stupid crashes today, without them a podium was on the cards for sure”. Paul Sherwen Memorial More than 200 of cycling’s great and good joined family and friends of Paul Sherwen last Wednesday for a memorial service to the late commentator and pro racer at Manchester Cathedral. From as far afield as the USA and Australia came people like Bob Roll, Christian Vande Velde and Christian Prudhomme. Some, including his…

Regarding your article on ramping up your winter training in the Jan 31 edition: what about riding a proper winter bike? Nearly all the winter cycling articles featured in the cycling media show images of pristine carbon summer bikes, usually with deep-rim carbon wheels, being ridden on clean, smooth roads. This is an unreal picture of how winter riding is. At the Cleveland Wheelers we have a mudguard rule between October and March. Riders turning up without mudguards are frowned upon and encouraged to ride at the back. As for ramping up the training, riding a heavier mudguard-laden bike helps add resistance so when riders switch to their summer bikes there are gains to be had. So in future maybe try throwing some mud at your test riders to make…

Though she stopped serious training the moment she discovered she was pregnant, Deignan continued riding throughout pregnancy and was even on her Wattbike three days before giving birth. However, throughout she tailored her rides to how she felt. “There are women that continue to do intervals and have a normal and healthy pregnancy. Some people probably think riding on the road was a risk, but in terms of physiology I wasn’t going to risk going too hard,” she explains. 1. Don’t “There would be some days when I would do two or three hours, I would ride the Col de la Madone just because I like being outside, I needed that for my mental health, I needed the outdoor space, the idea of locking myself away was too much. “There…

Spy shots of SRAM-equipped bikes with an extra sprocket have been popping up on social media since the end of last season, so it comes as no surprise that the US brand is now officially launching its new 12-speed groupset — but what is surprising is that there’s so much more to it than just an extra gear. SRAM says it has completely rethought gear ratios and has based its new approach around the use of a 10-tooth sprocket. There are two obvious advantages. A 10-26t 12-speed cassette paired with smaller chainrings — a 50/37 chainset is what SRAM’s race teams will be using — supplies a smaller and bigger gear at either end of the scale; a 50×10 is bigger than 53×11 and 37×26 is smaller than a 39×25.…

WHAT A good pair of training wheels should fulfil three criteria. First, they’ve got to be robust enough to withstand the kind of beating that unrepaired UK roads can inflict on them over the course of the year. Second, they can’t be so heavy and unresponsive that they compromise your speed too seriously. Lastly, they need to be relatively cheap so that if you do destroy one on the edge of a flooded pothole you can replace it without too much heartache. Meeting all three conditions is a tough balancing act but most manufacturers have a tried-and-tested formula: What all the rims in this test have in common is an aluminium construction, with a modern width, which strikes a good balance between strength, durability and low weight. WHY Carbon-fibre wheels…

Health and Safety manager Pip, 39, met her now husband, 42-year-old building control surveyor Graham, six years ago — it was love at first coffee-and-cake ride. Here’s their advice on harmonious cycling as a couple Graham: Keep the gaps tight for safety, and if your partner is constantly dropping off your wheel, rather than keep looking back, pop the weaker rider in front and allow them to dictate the pace for a bit. Pip: That’s not why you do it — you enjoy the view! He races and I don’t, so he uses me for his recovery ride; I’m struggling and he’s pottering, it works well. Graham: Know your partner’s pace, encourage them to push on but within their limits, and watch for when they’re tiring. Pip: He always reminds…

Specifically, how to get to sleep the night before a big event, when your heart pounds with nerves and you lie awake, adrenaline coursing through your veins. One approach is to stupefy yourself with alcohol. This column is aware of a British time trial record set by a rider who employed this technique. However, this technique is not generally recommended. More useful are psychological interventions. The standard approach is to calmly imagine the event, and how you’re going to approach it. Think of all the permutations of the day. Relax, reassure yourself that you will be able to cope with anything the morning might bring. Breathe deeply, and drift off to sleep. Alternatively, for those of a more pessimistic disposition, work your way through everything that can go wrong. Assume…

Runner-up last year after going off course, Felix Barker made no such mistake this time as he powered to victory in the Ely and District CC hardriders’ 25.2-mile time trial in Cambridgeshire on Sunday. The 24-year-old was fastest by three seconds with his time of 56.25, impressive given the cold and wet conditions which greeted the riders in Little Downham. “It’s a local event for me and has a legendary status” “It’s good to get the win again,” said Cambridge-based Barker, who was a member of last year’s winning trio at the National Team Time Trial Championship. “I took a wrong turn at a roundabout after about 10 miles last year, but thankfully I didn’t make the same mistake this time and had a trouble-free ride.” “It’s a very challenging…

I went to bed at 6pm last night. This was a bad idea. It’s now 7am the following day, I have been up for four hours and I feel sick. It was fun at first, being startled awake at 3am by guilt that struck through me like a defibrillator. I jumped out of bed, turned my upstairs and downstairs radios on to make it feel like daytime, and began running around the house being desperately productive. I’ve done the obvious things: stripped my sheets, vacuumed, done a pile of dishes I was putting off. But I’ve also framed a series of prints and photographed some shoes I’ve been meaning to sell. The list of errands I’ve been avoiding doing for the past half decade is far longer than this —…

Lizzie Deignan is riding to meet Cycling Weekly’s photographer just over the French border from her Monaco home. The gradient would have most amateurs wheezing over their handlebars, but she is spinning effortlessly, as if using no effort, each pedal stroke smooth and fluid. The personification of souplesse. It’s as though she has never been away. But despite her stylish pedalling, Deignan last turned a wheel in anger over a year ago at the 2017 World Championships. There, barely recovered from an emergency appendectomy less than a month before, she finished 42nd. In that time a lot has changed. The 2015 world champion spent 2018 away from racing while pregnant, giving birth to baby Orla in September, and she is preparing to return to competition with a brand new team,…

When Eeva Sarlin moved to London she had never turned a pedal in anger. A bike loan and a lot of persuasion later and she was on the race circuit come 2017. By the end of 2018 she’d collected two National Championship titles in her home country, gaining a place in both the national and Olympic development teams. The now 28-year-old also holds Finnish titles in the omnium and crit race. Since joining London women’s club Velociposse in 2017, Sarlin’s goals have undergone a seismic shift, but the former track and field athlete doesn’t think she’d have got off the start line without the support she found in the city. “I had a singlespeed which I used to commute to work. One man chased me in traffic and said, ‘You’re…

A major part of the new groupset is personalisation and simplification. To this end, SRAM links all the wireless components via the new AXS app. This allows you to have full control of all the buttons, special enhanced functions and to log a number of bikes to the app so you can apply your settings to each bike you own, or download your settings to a hire bike you’re riding for a training camp or holiday for example. With the app you can change what each button does. You can also change how many gears a continuous press of the button changes: two, three or the whole block. The ‘compensation’ mode is great and can be personalised to one or two cog jumps at the rear. Shift the front up…

Being able to pay attention, to focus hard, to precisely control efforts and stay alert at all times: all these mental skills are crucial for a racing cyclist. They’re also traits that people with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) struggle to develop. Around one in 20 children is diagnosed with the condition, but the underlying cause is not yet fully understood. Those affected exhibit hyperactivity, impulsiveness and wandering attention — serious problems for a bike racer. Kieran Blay, now 27, was diagnosed aged five, and has had much to overcome en route to becoming an accomplished racing cyclist. “I was a problematic child,” says the Londoner. “I didn’t fit in with the other kids. I was bouncing off the walls. School was difficult and the medication made me worse —…

Etoile de Bessèges (Feb 7-10) Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) was in dominant form, winning stages two and four and topping the general and points classifications. The sprinter also came second on stage three, won by Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FDJ). Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept-B&B Hotels) won stage one. DVV Verzekeringen Trofee Krawatencross Lille (Feb 9) The three recently crowned world champions Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus), Sanne Cant (Corendon-Circus) and Tom Pidcock (TP Racing) won the the men’s, women’s and U23 races respectively, and all by very narrow margins. Telenet Superprestige Hoogstraten (Feb 10) Mathieu van der Poel took win number 30 of the season in Flanders, beating Toon Aerts by 37 seconds. Sanne Cant was 10 seconds quicker than Annemarie Worst, continuing her prolific form this season.…

Word reaches us here at AoCS of a pro rider. As is not unknown these days, he received a directive from the team management. It suggested that since one of the team’s equipment sponsors was launching a new product, it might be a sweet idea if he could see his way clear to sticking a picture of his new team bike on his Twitter account. He did so. Except that in his enthusiasm to help a sponsor out, he picked the wrong thumbnail from his photos file. The pic he tweeted was of last year’s bike, from a totally different (and competing) manufacturer, with different equipment, and covered in a mud from a winter ride. #bestbikeever, he added thoughtfully. Sadly it has been, of course, deleted.…

Team Sky recruit Ben Swift will turn his attention to Milan-San Remo, following a promising performance at his first race of the season, Spain’s Tour of Valencia. The 31-year-old Yorkshireman said rejoining the British team at which he spent seven seasons from its inception to 2016 had given him a new lease of life. “I’ve got a lot of morale and motivation back again,” Swift said, following his third and seventh sprint finish placings on stage two and three respectively. “Yesterday I didn’t even have to look away from some of my team-mates — I just looked at their back wheel, and that’s all you have to do, you just have so much confidence in the guys around you.” He was feeling good after a solid winter of training and…

Glasgow will host the first ever combined cycling World Championships in 2023, the UCI has announced. Held every four years, the UCI Cycling World Championships will bring together road, track, mountain biking, downhill, trials, indoor cycling, Gran Fondo and para-cycling titles in one two-week event in August. UCI president David Lappartient said: “The creation and the implementation of this event was one of the commitments I made during my campaign for UCI presidency and I am proud to have fulfilled it. “Glasgow and Scotland have a great deal of experience in the organisation of major sporting events, notably multi-sports, such as the first edition of the European Sports Championships that it organised in 2018.” Glasgow and Scotland host annual rounds of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and have held…

Telenet Superprestige Noordzeecross Middelkerke (Feb 16) The final round of the competition that began in October, Sanne Cant leads Annemarie Worst by two points in the overall standings, meaning the battle for supremacy comes down to the final day. Mathieu van der Poel is on the cusp of winning the men’s classification from second-placed Toon Aerts. Tom Pidcock has already secured the U23 men’s crown. Tour de la Provence (Feb 14-17) Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) begins his 2019 season in the south of France, although it is unlikely to be a week for him, for the terrain is more likely to suit riders like Jan Bakelants (Team Sunweb) and Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo). Chris Lawless (Team Sky) will be hoping at least one of the four stages ends in a sprint. Tour…

The idea behind the Trek-Segafredo women’s team came direct from the American bike manufacturer, and when the team was announced Deignan was front and centre. She was present at the launch during last year’s Tour de France and is not only a leader on the road, but a totem for the concept behind the squad. “Lizzie was perfect to hire, first because she has proved she has plenty of top qualities, but clearly the fact that she was not able to ride anymore because she was pregnant was a story that could be picked up to create this team,” explained Trek-Segafredo manager Luca Guercilena. “The idea is to give exactly the same opportunities to women, always considering they are women so pregnancy could be part of their life. So that…

MC’s graceful and sparse-looking bikes stand out whether in the pro peloton or the Sunday club run. That’s as true of the endurance Roadmachine as the Teammachine raced by the pros, the two bikes bearing a strong familial resemblance. Both have the same top tube with triangular end sections, dropped seatstays and include aerodynamic features to give you a ride that’s fast as well as comfortable. “It’s rigid but not harsh with efficient power transfer” In the case of the Roadmachine, there’s more of a slope to the top tube and the rear triangle is tighter, with lower seatstays and a kink in them to add extra compliance. The Roadmachine series is comprised of the 01 frameset, which uses higher-modulus carbon-fibre; the Roadmachine 02 uses a slightly lower carbon grade,…

Sam Bussey, 52, and her wife Charlotte, 39, have been cycling together since they got together four years ago. Former Commonwealth Games rower Charlotte and former personal trainer Sam caught the cycling bug while training for their first RideLondon. Here’s their advice for pedalling partners… Sam: Have patience. There’s always one person stronger than the other in one way or another, so play to each other’s strengths. I draft a lot on the flats. Charlotte: Technology has been a saving grace for us. We did a trip in France and all the routes were on our Garmin, so that eliminated the arguing about which way to go! Sam: NLP (neuro-linguistic-programming) was life-changing, just to get a different perspective ahead of the Maratona. Charlotte: You spend a lot of time shouting…

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Acording to no less a source than a random science documentary I saw by accident on BBC 4, cycling will increase your lifespan. “Aha!” I muttered to myself. “Excellent news. I mean, it’s not as comforting an idea as a meteorite strike wiping out all life on the planet, but it’s something to be getting on with.” There is a surprising (not to say suspicious) symmetry to the analysis: the extra time for which you will be able to hold death at bay will tally exactly with the amount of time you spent cycling. In other words, every extra hour you spend on a bike buys you a neatly corresponding extra hour of life. It meant that the following morning, as I headed out on my bicycle and Mrs Doc…