Indholdsfortegnelse for March 14, 2019 i Cycling Weekly

Were you out in the strong winds this weekend? Lots of people were, and a few of them have the cuts and bruises to prove it. We’ve all ridden when we probably shouldn’t, and years ago I would have been out, probably laughing at the stupidness of it all. Nowadays I’ll stay indoors. I had club-mates riding the East Surrey Hardriders time trial, a classic season opener in Surrey. One changed out his deep-section wheels for something less fast but more suitable, the other hit the deck. Luckily he was blown onto the grass verge rather than the tarmac. Another rider in the same event had to climb over a fallen tree — impressive in cycling shoes and a skinsuit — before the event was abandoned on safety grounds. Apparently…

Drentse Acht van westerveld (March 15) Viewed by competing riders as a warm-up race before the more prestigious Ronde van Drenthe, the 143km parcours, starting and finishing in Dwingeloo, is tailored towards a bunch sprint. American Alexis Ryan (Canyon-SRAM) is defending champion, while Chloe Hosking (Alé-Cipollini) has won twice before. Ronde van Drenthe (March 17) A leading race in the Women’s WorldTour spring calendar, the peloton will race a number of cobbled sectors, up the stinging climb of the Vanberg and possibly in windy conditions. Amy Pieters is aiming for two successive wins for Boels-Dolmans. Czech František Sisr won the men’s race 12 months ago. Paris-Troyes (March 17) Eight laps of a hilly circuit that includes two short but steep climbs, the race entices attacks from the break. They rarely,…

On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your last race? It was the Tour of Valencia and I would say it was three. I didn’t care about the results, I went there to fine-tune. Your brother Lawrence rides for Lotto-Soudal; how is it competing against him? He started as a final year U23 and three years later was a pro. It’s really nice racing with him, but he had such bad luck last year with mononucleosis, and was out from April to September. He is strong but he still has to find confidence, and show his true potential. He is quite special. What is the plan for the 2019 season? I make up my season in three blocks. First you have the Classics and that is all that…

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Movistar, Lotto-Soudal and UAE have been running it all this season and although we’ve been able to photograph it, Campagnolo has kept all the details secret. Today (March 14) Campagnolo finally launched the electronic version of its 12-speed flagship groupset to the public. Never one to hedge its bets, the legendary Italian company says that Super Record EPS was “made with the WorldTour athlete in mind… the newest groupset from Campagnolo is a pure thoroughbred drivetrain that feels most at home underneath athletes with numbers pinned on their jersey pockets.” If you want to ride what the pros are using, it’ll set you back £3,809.99 for the disc brake version and £4,099.99 for the rim brake. As you’d expect, aesthetically it is very similar to 12-speed mechanical Super Record, introduced…

What Our first bike grouptest of 2019 looks at four bikes costing around £2,000. It’s a price point at which you’ll find machines with quality specs that won’t break the bank. They’re also likely to be ripe for upgrade, with the addition of a better wheelset or a smarter saddle if you want to up your game. The bikes tested are all carbon framed. They are a mix of full-on aero models and endurance bikes, a category which increasingly comes with aero features. We’ve chosen bikes from British brands Boardman, Ribble and Tifosi, all of which have built reputations for supplying high-quality, well specced bikes for low prices, plus the Propel Advanced from Giant, a global brand able to use not only its enormous buying power but also its WorldTour…

“I wasn’t eating enough,” says Phil Pearce. “I’d come in after a training ride and wouldn’t really think about food.” The 34-year-old used to compete in motorcycle trials but four years ago his van blew up so he switched to riding a mountain bike to keep fit. “I ended up attacking Strava segments around my area,” recalls Pearce. He made very quick progress, and his local bike shop suggested he enter a cross-country mtb race. So he did, and won it. “That was in October 2013, and from there it snowballed. The shop ended up sponsoring me and [in 2014] I won every round in the expert class in the national series, even though I’d had no expectations and no knowledge of the sport.” The following year, he moved up…

ROAD RACING SUNDAY, MARCH 10 Cull Cup and Duncan Sparrow Road Races (Rainford, Merseyside): E, 1, 2, 3: 1. Matt Holmes (Madison-Genesis); 2. S. Wilson (Ribble Pro Cycling); 3. J. Smith (Team Chronomaster); 4. M. Nowell (St Piran); 5. D. Byrne (Bella in Sella Racing); 6. G. Lewis (Ribble Pro Cycling); 7. E. Hopper (Ribble Pro Cycling); 8. N. Cooper (ActiveEdge RT); 9. C. Jeffers (St Piran); 10. T. Cullen (Otley CC). 3, 4: 1. Matthews Finegan (Team SB Hub); 2. D. Kucerjavijs (Team JRC); 3. P. Lindfield (Team Chronomaster); 4. A. Greenhalgh (Team Chronomaster); 5. E. Shone (Team Bikestop Tyrekey); 6. H. English (Manchester BC). SATURDAY, MARCH 9 58th Eddie Soens Memorial (Aintree, Merseyside): E, 1, 2, 3, 4: 1. Matt Bottrill (Team Bottrill-Vanguard) 50 miles in 1:49.32; 2.…

I would not go so far as to say that it’s my friend Bernard’s favourite time of the year. There is not really any such thing — he hates all times of the year equally. But he does like what he sees when he turns on his television right now. He is a firm convert to the spring pro racing programme. “Proper races,” he declared when we were riding together last week. “Paris-Nice — now that’s a real race. Not like those glorified training camps they have in the deserts.” “Wasn’t always a real race,” I said. “They ran the first edition when someone noticed that there was a week between the end of the track season in Paris and the start of traditional pre road-season training on the Côte…

Julian Alaphilippe played with his rivals as he rode to Strade Bianche victory on Saturday and kept his Deceuninck-Quick Step team’s perfect record in this year’s Classics. The team has now won four Classics with four different riders. Zdenek Stybar won at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad; Bob Jungels won Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and young French prospect Florian Sénéchal won Le Samyn prior to the weekend. Even by the Classics powerhouse’s standards it’s been a particularly strong start. The closest the team has come in the last decade was in 2015 when it racked up victories at Kuurne and Strade Bianche and two second places at Le Samyn and Omloop. Frenchman Alaphilippe said the strength in depth of the squad, which entered the race’s decisive stages with Yves Lampaert and 2015 winner Zdenek Stybar…

Three-time team pursuit world champion and Olympic silver medallist Kelly Catlin has died aged 23, USA Cycling has confirmed. Catlin died on Friday at her California home. Mark, Catlin’s father, said in a letter to US magazine Velonews, that she had taken her own life. The American competed for Rally UHC Cycling on the road but was also studying for a graduate degree at Stanford University. Kelly’s father told the Washington Post that he felt a concussion sustained in a crash in December had contributed to Catlin’s death. He told the US paper: “After her concussion, she started embracing nihilism. Life was meaningless. There was no purpose. This was a person with depression.” He revealed she attempted suicide for the first time in January. The paper reported Catlin suffered from…

The previous rim-braking Super Record EPS groupset weighed 2,078g and was lighter than the new 12-speed version but as with the mechanical groupsets, 11-speed was lighter, with the biggest difference being in the cassette, which now uses more steel and less aluminium and titanium to increase durability. Naturally we’re expecting 12-speed Record to also go electronic in the near future and we’re hoping the industry standard trickle-down effect will bring 12 gears to the lower groupsets sooner rather than later. Super Record EPS Disc Rear derailleur 234g Ergopower shifters 381g Front derailleur 132g Battery 135g EPS external interface 33g EPS internal interface 11g Crankset 618g Threaded BB cups 43g Press-fit BB cups 40g Cassette 266 Chain 228g Caliper x 1 118g Rotor x 1 99g Total 2,505g Super Record EPS…

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, who finished on the podium at the Giro Rosa and La Course in 2018, uses Girona’s notorious Rocacorba climb to test her form. “I don’t like doing intervals on an indoor trainer, it feels very unnatural,” says the South African road race champion. “I’m a huge fan of doing intervals on similar terrain in the same area, rather than just choosing a random place within a random ride. You can measure your progress on a climb and use that as an extra tool to gauge your fitness.”…

Sports endocrinologist Dr Nicky Keay is full of praise for the way in which Pearce has overhauled his fuelling — and his bone health. “The lumbar spine is the skeletal site most impacted by low energy availability, and in cyclists it’s an area that is lacking in osteogenic stimulus [bone-strengthening weight-bearing]. “At the start of the study, Phil’s lumbar spine scored minus two, which was very low for his age. The good news is that by addressing energy availability and improving his diet he increased it by 3.3 per cent, so his Z-score is now -1.1. Also, his body fat is up from a too-low nine per cent to a healthy 12 per cent. “Full credit to Phil for implementing change to ensure he’s no longer in energy deficit, resulting…

Annemiek van Vleuten sent a warning to her Classics rivals last Saturday with a dominant solo win at Strade Bianche, the opening race of the Women’s WorldTour. The 36-year-old Mitchelton-Scott rider attacked what remained of the peloton on the final of eight gravel sectors, riding the closing 12km alone. Competing in her second race since breaking her knee at September’s Worlds road race, she even managed to hold off Dutch compatriot Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans), who won the Innsbruck race. Van Vleuten won last year’s WorldTour individual classification off the back of a solid spring and a stellar summer, stages and the Giro Rosa overall, La Course, Boels Ladies Tour and a second consecutive time trial world title. Returning to the top of the sport after a series of…

A lot of the time I want to sit still and stare at the wall. Not any one particular wall; I don’t have a series of black market fine art pieces hung in my basement, or the script to an episode of The Simpsons written in its entirety across my dining room. It doesn’t have to be a wall either — I’ll sit in the car and stare at my steering wheel or sit in the garage and stare at my bike. Really I’ll stare at any inanimate object. It doesn’t know I’m staring and even if it does, according to Toy Story rules, it can’t do anything about it. This is an unproductive hobby. Of course I get my heaviest craving for wall-staring when the demand for productivity is…

Denderhouten, Belgium, Biehler Pro CT Who’s your team? They’re the development side of the Swabo team who now have a youth, junior, national and a UCI team. Biehler is the feeder team for the UCI squad and it’s the only kind in women’s cycling. That’s pretty important as there aren’t many development teams. You raced a lot in spain in 2018. For Bizkaia Durango-Euskadi Murias and I liked it. I raced some big Spanish and UCI races, including the Giro. What did you learn last year? How to race in the hills; it’s a different style to racing in crosswinds. The main thing was how tactically aware you need to be in top-end racing, especially at the end when it can be quite brutal. How are WorldTour races? Everyone can…

Freewheel New Forest Spring sportives better than ever This year’s New Forest Spring sportives, held on Saturday and Sunday April 13-14, promise to be bigger and better than ever with new sponsor online shop Freewheel in the saddle. Each day sees 81m Epic, 67m Standard and 30m Short events, plus free goodies from Freewheel and SiS, plus live music and great food and drink — all from beautiful Somerley House. There are still a few entries left: www.ukcyclingevents.co.uk. 157.6 km The length of stage one of this year’s Women’s Tour, details of which were announced on International Women’s Day. It was also confirmed that for the second year running the prize fund would match that of the men’s Tour of Britain. The stage starts in Beccles and finishes in Stowmarket,…

Thank you for the fabulous article about the 1982 World Championships at Goodwood (CW, Feb 28). I was on the hill when Giuseppe Saronni made that late burst. From that time on I fell I love with Colnago bicycles. How fitting therefore that only in the past few weeks via your classified pages I have been able to fulfil my dream of owning one. It is hidden in my office so my wife doesn’t know I own yet another dream bike! Brian Robertson, email Glad to hear you finally got the bike of your dreams, Brian. Saronni’s win that day is one of Ernesto Colnago’s two favourite wins for Colnago, the other being Franco Ballerini at Paris-Roubaix. Enjoy riding that beautiful bike! — Ed WIN Letter of the week wins…

Established in 2004 after the death of Marco Pantani, the Cima Pantani is similar to the Cima Coppi that is assigned to the highest point of the Giro d’Italia each year. However, the Cima Pantani is the prize to be the first over the climb that holds the most connection with the man in that year’s route. It has been assigned to the Mortirolo five times since its inception in 2004 — more frequently than any other climb. Cima Pantani winners on the Mortirolo 2004 Raffaele Illiano 2006 Ivan Basso 2008 Antonio Colom 2010 Michele Scarponi 2012 Thomas De Gendt…

The Ribble Endurance SL is a classy-looking bike with performance to match. Disc brakes are fast becoming a must-have, but if you choose them over rim brakes at this price point you’re looking at dropping down from Ultegra to 105 and adding about a kilo in weight. Possibly for this reason it doesn’t quite feel like a race bike despite Ribble’s claims, but for club runs, Gran Fondos or even as a posh winter bike, it absolutely nails it. The Giant Advanced Propel 1 is the fastest bike in this test, and it really is fast. But it’s a complicated bike compared to, say, the Boardman, with its non-standard mini-V brakes, cable routing that ideally requires the cables to be recut if you change the stem height, and a slightly…

You’ve got your body in tip-top shape for your main event of the season, so give your bike the same attention and treat it to a pre-event service. Fresh tyres and bar tape can also give your machine a new lease of life, but don’t make any key changes close to your target race or sportive. “If there’s anything that’s going to impact on performance, like new tyres before a mountainous sportive with technical descending, try it out well in advance,” says cycling coach, James Spragg.…

LE COL Born from one man’s ambition to make the best possible apparel, Le Col have a thorough understanding of what it takes to make premium quality custom kit. Based in the UK but making all their custom lines in their own Italian factory, they’ve produced kit not just for clubs, but entire professional teams. The process forms a dialogue — Le Col work closely with you to ensure even the smallest details are realised in your kit. www.lecol.cc/pages/custom VELOTEC Velotec has developed a fine reputation for producing very fast and competitively priced speed wear. Its entry-level PRO collection is good enough for top riders, and was worn by the Vitus Pro team last season. Velotec’s premium range is the Elite collection, which is made near Treviso in northern Italy.…

Le Samyn (March 5) Deceuninck-Quick Step’s dominance of the 2019 Classic season continued apace in Belgium, with Frenchman Florian Sénéchal, 25, winning his first professional race after powering away from a group of 10 breakaway riders. Aimé De Gendt (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) was second. International Tour of Rhodes (March 8-10) British 20-year-old Charlie Meredith (Zappi’s) finished ninth on GC in the Greek race, thanks to his sixth-place finish on stage two. Beat CC’s Martijn Budding won the race, with his British team-mate Adam Lewis in 12th. Reece Wood, also riding for Zappi’s, was seventh on stage one. Multipôle Berre (March 9-10) Harrison Wood continued a strong start to his season in France, attacking from the break to win the first stage. Wood’s French DN1 outfit AVC Aix-en-Provence then won the TTT,…

First things first — you probably want to steer well clear of getting your riders to perform a rap. Other than that, pretty much anything goes. Fans love hearing about results, and make very little distinction between a win and a slightly sheepish ‘safely in the bunch’ — so celebrate them equally. In a time trial, remember to post every time one of your riders starts and finishes. Be sure to include lots of shots of riders sitting in their captains’ chairs on the bus. Cycling fans are mad for buses. Similarly, include lots of shots of your big garage full of bikes, while remembering to call it a ‘service course’. And remember that Belgian bike mechanics are among the world’s most photogenic sights. Never shy away from asking your…

I’m writing to you about a clubmate — a pretty talented rider who’s won the club championships several times, and usually accounts for the majority of the club’s best performances in bigger races. At the end of last year, he announced his retirement. We marked this at the club dinner last November — we even gave him a lifetime achievement award to recognise his contribution to the club, and bought him drinks all night. Then, at the first local race of the year, there he was on the start list. I challenged him about this, pointing out he’d retired. “I haven’t retired from racing,” he said. “I’ve just retired from being any good at it.” And, to give him his due, he took a complete stuffing.…