Indholdsfortegnelse for April 4, 2019 i Cycling Weekly

This weekend saw British Cycling crown its first ever eRacing national champions. Cameron Jeffers and Rosamund Bradbury pulled on the red, white and blue stripes at the end of the event held in London. Broadcast live on BT Sport and YouTube, the three-round race saw the pair beat British pros on the Zwift platform to take the titles. It’s probably no surprise that the eRacing scene has divided opinion in cycling. It’s grown rapidly in the last couple of years and there are people who view it as an abomination. But there are others who love it. One former national record holder wrote to tell me how after suffering a stroke her only way to remain competitive was on Zwift. Like it or not, it’s a cycling discipline, so kudos…

Despite winning the inaugural British Cycling eRacing National Championships last week, Cameron Jeffers thinks it might be a little soon to expect him to produce the same level of results on the road. Jeffers was victorious over a field that included four pro riders from Continental-level team Madison-Genesis last week to become the first ever British men’s eRacing national champion. “It feels like you’re part of history,” said Jeffers the morning after the race. “People ask the question how hard is it and I was looking at my power stats this morning and for every race it was over 400 watts. Tactics are involved slightly, you can learn to play the game, when to put the power down and back off and the use of power-ups; but strip all this…

Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux (April 5-7) A race that is popular among development teams and often sees emerging talents showcase their strengths, sprinter Jasper Philipsen — now with UAE-Team Emirates — has won the last two editions. Volta Limburg Classic (April 6) Madison-Genesis and Canyon-dhb-Bloor Homes are among the Continental teams racing the punchy Dutch event which tends to be won by a solo attacker. GP Miguel Indurain (April 6) A relentless day in the saddle awaits the climbers in this punishingly tough race in the Basque Country. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) powered to victory a year ago, emulating Simon Yates’s feat from 2017. The latter’s twin, Adam, heads Mitchelton-Scott’s charge this time around. Tour of the Basque Country (April 8-13) Geraint Thomas leads Team Sky in the mountains…

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Number of riders: 19 Riders U23: 10 What’s success? Team boss Tim Elverson says: “I want to win .1s, I want to be more competitive than last year at the same races we’re at and bigger races. We won those by racing and going out in the race and not just racing the back end.” He adds he’d “like to do well in GC” in either the Tour de Yorkshire or the Tour of Britain. Riders to watch for? Elverson points to sprinter Rob McCarthy, GC hopeful Dan Pearson and promising 22-year-old climber Max Stedman as riders that will “be given responsibility”. He adds: “I do expect Tom Stewart to get some fantastic results. He had some good individual results in the past but he might not have been as…

Number of riders: 14 Riders U23: 4 What’s success? “Being competitive in every race,” says team manager Cherie Pridham succinctly. Riders to watch for? Pridham points to Ali Slater, one of her signings from JLT-Condor, as likely to do well. “They say a change is as good as a rest and I think some of these guys have been on one team for so long it’s a breath of fresh air,” she says. “I want to give him more of an opportunity to take advantage of chances to win so he can adapt to that leadership role. He’s the dark horse on my team.” Ex-Dimension Data rider Scott Thwaites is another pick. Pridham says: “I think you have to remember with Scott he knows the British scene very well —…

Number of riders: 15 Riders U23: 3 The sponsor Over 100 years old, Ribble was well known to CW readers as a prominent mail order retailer. The company has recently been through a major change to become a bike brand. What is success? As for most domestic UK teams, qualifying for the Tour of Britain is paramount, and all the more of an achievement as a team on a lower budget. USP Ribble is keen to emphasise its development of younger riders, while having the Huub-Wattbike contingent on board raises the team’s profile even further, as well as adding considerable expertise.…

1 Watch the 2019 Giro d’Italia Stage 12 of this year’s race is a medium mountain affair from Cuneo to Pinerolo. Ride up to the mountaintop village of Montoso for the key climb of the day and the best of the action. May 23, 2019 www.giroditalia.it 2 Tackle La Fausto Coppi The famous sportive celebrates Coppi’s daring exploits in the high Alps with a 177km gran fondo route that climbs 4,125m. There’s also a 111km medio fondo taking in the same climb of the Colle Fauniera. June 30, 2019 www.faustocoppi.net 3 Go Slow Part of the ‘Slow Tourism’ weekend in the region that gave birth to the Slow movement, the Bike Festival della Nocciola features the Cronoscalata Albaretto-Torre hill-climb and the Granfondo San Maurizio. You are allowed to ride fast.…

The Gan is the entry-level Dogma-shaped carbon Pinarello but it’s more than just a cheap copy of the multiple Tour-winning bike Froome Dog, G and the rest of the dudes ride. In fact, Pinarello is virtually promising a religious experience. The name Gan comes from Gan Eden, Aramaic for Garden of Eden because, according to Pinarello, it provides “maximum pleasure for cyclists”. Pinarello says the Gan frames derive directly from the original Dogma F8, but they are less “extreme” and aimed at everyday riders. Dogma and Gan share the familiar and iconic shape: the wavy Onda fork, the gently arcing top tube, the swan neck-shaped seatpost and the elegant curve of the rear stays. The Gan is also built around very similar geometry to the Dogma F8, which handled famously…

Location: Avoid locations popular for tourism, where everything comes at a premium. Consider less travelled areas such as the Sierra Nevada, the Vosges mountains, or the Pyrenees. When: Needless to say, you need to avoid peak times and school holidays — although choosing the correct location should mitigate seasonal price hikes. Accommodation: To make a massive saving, stay away from the hotels and find yourself a place on Airbnb with good kitchen facilities. Sharing a house with a few training partners, and cooking for yourselves, means you can avoid pricy restaurants and bars, and keep your nutrition on track. Travel: If you’re looking to keep costs really low, choose a destination that’s not too deep into Europe, and load up your car with your bikes and your buddies. Share the…

E3-Binckbank Classic (March 29) Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick Step) sprinted to victory from a small group at E3, beating Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) to second and third. Stybar was helped by team-mate Bob Jungels, who attacked solo and allowed Stybar to conserve energy in the break. Classic Loire Atlantique (March 30) Rory Townsend of Canyon-dhb p/b Bloor Homes sprinted to third place in the French one-day race, a career-best UCI result. Townsend was beaten to the win by Israel Cycling Academy’s Rudy Barbier. The race was the third in this season’s Coupe de France. Tour de Normandie (March 25-31) Ole Forfang (Joker Fuel of Norway) won the seven-stage race, largely thanks to his success on stage four. British champion Connor Swift (Madison-Genesis) finished ninth on GC,…

How was last season? It was a big learning curve, a jump up from junior level. I rode better than expected, with some decent performances, but I came home in July due to a health problem that is now sorted. How are you now? I’ve had a great winter, including an excellent month’s training in Spain which made a huge difference, and I feel like I’ve now got really good legs which has given me confidence. You’re with the same team? They supported me really well last year and are letting me develop without too much stress. They race all the interclubs and kermesses, and also a few UCI races. How do you be successful in belgium? It’s all about race craft. You have to know how to ride the…

Adam Yates had a second close brush with GC victory in a fortnight at the Volta a Catalunya on Sunday before ultimately coming up short. The Mitchelton-Scott rider was second on general classification, and already had a stage win from stage three’s summit finish, when he and brother Simon went on the attack with around 25km to race, putting him in the virtual leader’s jersey for a while. But the move was ultimately thwarted and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) went on to win the GC by 14 seconds. Yates said: “We wanted to be aggressive in the final and today was the last chance to take some time. “I think it was three laps to go when Simon attacked again and that was the moment, so I went across to…

Every cyclist has fallen off their bike. From high-speed tumbles to stationary fumbles with a resistant clipless pedal, we’ve all had them. Often there is a moment between the fall being inevitable and hitting the ground when you have time to contemplate how hard this particular impact will be — will you break a collarbone or merely scratch your shifter and get back up? For the British Continental cycling scene that moment, from the crash to the consequences, stretched on from late August into October last year. First, One Pro Cycling announced it would switch to being a women’s team (it never did) and finally, most shockingly, JLT-Condor — the scene’s longest running squad — folded. Conti-level cycling in the UK was tumbling, but would it get away with scratches…

The British Cycling GB Team has been known to arrive at domestic road races and notch up a result or two, usually using its young academy riders. But that’s unlikely to be the case this year as the academy isn’t set to ride any of the BC Road Series races. They will, however, be at the Tour de Yorkshire and possibly the Tour of Britain. There it’s wise to keep an eye out for handy road riders like Fred Wright and Matt Walls. Walls won the Otley Town races last year and Wright was fifth in the National road race.…

Ribble Pro Cycling and SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling might be new to the whole Continental wheeze, but don’t mistake these guys for being wet behind the ears. Ribble has been knocking out some solid results for a couple of years now at elite level, while SwiftCarbon boss Paul Lamb has ample experience too, having grown his team for the past two years under the guise of Team KTM UK. Despite the comparative instability across the UK domestic scene, these are two teams that feel they’re ready to step up to the Continental ranks and try racing at a higher level. And for these new kids on the Continental block, the things that keep them up at night are the same as for the managers of the teams who have been doing…

NIKKI JUNIPER (Mexx-Watersley International) One of the stalwarts of the British scene for some years, Nikki Juniper will ride for the Dutch club team, Mexx-Watersley this year. While much of her racing will be in Europe, we have not seen the last of Juniper on British roads. “Definitely. I’ve always been an advocate of the British scene, so I will be coming back,” Juniper explains. “I’m hoping the Tour Series will allow me to ride as an individual and some of the National Series races are really tough, so I’d like to do them.” Having begun racing in 2008, Juniper has had a huge impact on the domestic sport, with victories at the Tour Series, the Curlew Cup and the Tour of the Reservoir among many achievements. During that time she…

April 14 - East Cleveland Klondike Ladies’ Grand Prix 28 - CiCLE Classic (Men) May 2-5 – Tour de Yorkshire 9 – Tour Series Redditch 12 - Lincoln Grand Prix 14 – Tour Series Motherwell 16 – Tour Series Aberdeen 21 – Tour Series Birkenhead June 9 - CiCLE Classic (Women) 9 - Lancaster Grand Prix 9 – National Circuit Championship 10-15 – OVO Energy Women’s Tour 16 - Bristol Grand Prix 16 – TTT National Championship 22-23 - Tour of the Reservoir 27-30 - Road Race National Championships 30-50-mile National Championship July 3 – Otley Grand Prix 5 – Wales Open Criterium 7-Curlew Cup and Beaumont Trophy 7 – 100-mile National Championship 10 – National Circuit Series — Newcastle 14 - Stockton Grand Prix 15 – Colne Grand Prix…

The waistcoat might have enjoyed an unexpected moment in the sun last summer with Gareth Southgate but our cycling equivalent, the gilet, is an essential, workaday garment that we don year in, year out — without being hailed as style icons. The gilet is designed to help keep the torso warm and to keep out wind and rain while also allowing excess heat to escape. So technical breathable fabrics are generally used for wind-facing panels while the back is often made of a stretchier mesh. Ideally the gilet will also be packable so it can be stuffed into a jersey pocket if it warms up. A gilet must be close-fitting enough to avoid wind flap and prevent cold draughts entering via the armholes, collar and waist, but it must not…

TO CONQUER GRAND FONDOS Day 1 4–5hr. Hilly terrain, if available. Steady riding in Zone 2 (56-75% FTP/69-83% Threshold HR) Include 3x 10-15min tempo (76-90% FTP/84-94% Threshold HR) blocks spread through the ride. Day 2 4-5hr. Flatter terrain. Steady riding in Zone 2 throughout. Day 3 2-3hr. Steady Zone 1-2 riding. Today is an easier day to ensure you can make the most of a big final day. Day 4 As per day one. TO BOOST YOUR FTP Gallagher advises: “Increasing your FTP requires different types of training for different athletes. Each reacts differently to different stimuli. If improving FTP is your sole aim, you do not need a high-volume block.” Day 1 3hr inc. 2x20min at sweetspot in first half of ride. In the last hour (when slightly fatigued)…

1 What’s more important for raising fitness, overall training stress scores (TSS), or what that TSS comprises, i.e. the balance of intensities? The components of the workout are the most important to increase your fitness. You could easily just ride for six hours and create 300TSS [high stress] but not improve your FTP, as you spent most of the ride in your endurance zone. Focus on the energy system you want to improve. 2 What are the most common mistakes riders make when it comes to training with power? 1. Going too hard on recovery rides. Use your power meter as a ‘governor’ to limit your power output on the easy days to less than 56 per cent of your FTP. 2. Forgetting to calibrate or ‘zero’ their power meter daily. Don’t…

I went for a long ride last week. But you knew that already. How? Well, I’m a cyclist of serious intent, so I do a long ride. If you don’t do a long ride, you don’t get to call yourself a cyclist. I’ll let you off if you don’t do it, as long as you have the grace to at least feel guilty about your shortcoming. Let’s call it an observance, and accept the religious overtones. The long ride is the peg you hang the rest of the week from. When I started out, my long ride lasted for all of an hour and a half. My ‘normal’ ride was actually an hour and a quarter. But I knew that with no long ride, my week would have no shape,…

British riders excelled in Sunday’s Ghent-Wevelgem age category races, with both Elynor and Zoë Backstedt winning their respective events. Competing in the under-19 women’s race, 17-year-old Elynor attacked late, holding on to win by 16 seconds, while 14-year-old Zoë won her under-17 race solo, riding alone for 40km. “I attacked on the first lap, I looked back and no one was there so I thought I’m not going to wait and I had enough energy to keep going,” the younger Backstedt told CW while waiting for the joint podium with winners from the day’s seven races. Both are already accomplished riders. Last year Elynor won bronze in the junior women’s World Championship time trial, while Zoë has been a prolific winner in UK races, but the weekend’s result was special…

My dad tells a funny story about the day he was on a bike ride, stopped at a junction, and a car rolled its window down and asked him: “Are you with the girl a mile back who’s come off her bike?” He was. I was about 14 or 15 years old and I’d been dropped. This happens all the time when you’re 14 or 15 years old. Bike riding is hard. I wasn’t, however, in the habit of crashing every time I got dropped. On rides with my dad I’d been known to pull over and climb off in protest at the planned distance not matching up with the actual distance (regular feature), but never had I actually thrown myself to the ground mid pedal rev. My dad turned…

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) He’s the favourite for a reason and has been consistently strong this spring, but has come unstuck with mechanicals (E3) and tactical errors (Milan-San Remo). If he can put it all together though, he’ll be very hard to stop. CW rating ★★★★★ Oliver Naesen (Ag2r) Despite having never won a pro race in the first half of the year, Naesen has been knocking on the door for a couple of seasons now. His second place at Milan-San Remo showed he can go the distance. CW rating ★★★★ Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick Step) He won E3 BinckBank last week, but he also won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad at the beginning of March. Can he escape the curse of the latter race and still be good on Sunday? CW rating ★★★…

Summit finish for Women’s Tour The OVO Women’s Tour will feature a hilltop finish for the first time in its history this year, as it pays a visit to Burton Dassett Country Park in Warwickshire for stage four, on Thursday June 13. Starting in Royal Leamington Spa, the stage loops around through Shakespeare Country and will feel not unlike a Belgian one-day Classic, says Sweetspot. The day finishes with three laps of a 12.6km circuit that starts in Warwick city centre and will finish at Burton Dassett Hills, in the park. New chapter for Storey Following in the footsteps of Chris Boardman in Manchester, Dame Sarah Storey has been appointed active travel commissioner for Sheffield City Region. Storey will help promote walking, cycling and the use of public transport. “I’m…

Cyclists are face to face with ecology. Even on our commutes we are buffeted by the weather and subjected to poor air quality as we ride between dirty vehicles. In discussions with others we are often put on the back foot by motorists as they criticise cyclists as a group. In those circumstances I often cite the green credentials of pedal power. We love the countryside and flock to the quiet lanes to find the hills. But if we are to take the moral high ground we must ourselves be ecological. So it hurts me to see gel wrappers and CO2 cartridges amongst the detritus that is literally lining our roadsides and hedgerows. Another issue is that our modern bikes and gear do have a carbon footprint in manufacture and…

Number of riders: 15 Riders U23: 12 What’s success? Manager Simon Cope says: “Qualifying for the Tour of Britain would be success definitely. Winning some prems would be one, winning a national title and hopefully moving a couple of the lads onto WorldTour.” Riders to watch for? Cope singles out rising cyclo-cross ace Tom Pidcock alongside Kiwi James Fouche as his prime picks for U23 Paris-Roubaix success. He adds that Penrith climber Mark Donovan is likely to have opportunities at the Baby Giro and U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Who’s the surprise package? Cope says he can see promise in 18-year-old Irishman Ben Healy but that he hasn’t seen enough to judge whether he can rise to prominence this year. He adds his fellow countryman Michael O’Loughlin — a top-10 finisher at the…

Number of riders: 13 Riders U23: 2 What’s success? Roger Hammond says he’s more concerned with performance than results. “It’s difficult to say we want to win X, Y and Z. For instance, take the CiCLE Classic where they all punctured on the last sector of the course but they rode well, it was just unfortunate.” Riders to watch for? National champion Connor Swift and reliable performer Ian Bibby are the two obvious picks, but Hammond points out there is a lot of depth to his squad: “I think that’s the beauty of the team; when I look down the names on the team sheet and ask myself whether I can see him winning, I think ‘yep, yep, yep,’ he says, ticking them off. Who’s the surprise package? Hammond says:…

Number of riders: 14 Riders U23: 5 The sponsor SwiftCarbon is a South African bicycle manufacturer. What is success? “Obviously we want to qualify for the Tour of Britain,” says team boss Paul Lamb. “It’d be amazing for a first-year UCI team to get in, but yeah, we’ll just take it a race at a time. A lot can happen between now and September.” USP Swift is very much a Yorkshire team. Lamb is a Yorkshireman himself, and plenty of the riders are from the region too. “Obviously we’ve got a national footprint as well,” stresses Lamb.…

Brother-Tifosi’s extensive winter recruitment campaign leaves them with such a depth of experience and talent that even the distraction of European races may not prevent them dominating domestic results sheets. Anna Henderson and new recruit Rebecca Durrell are just two of those who could be winning races this year, but don’t expect the Bedfordshire-based squad to have it all their own way. Though British Cycling’s Team Breeze continue to split their priorities between road and track, they have very strong young riders who are sure to make an impact. Storey Racing have been the team to beat in recent seasons but approach 2019 more as a development squad. With the likes of Amy Monkhouse and Elynor Backstedt, both also riding for British Cycling’s Junior Academy, they could do well in…

Here’s a neat and unique solution for those who prefer to ride their bike indoors rather than clamp it to a smart trainer. And if you’re not keen on humping 20 kilos of metal and plastic around with you then you’ll certainly be interested. These smart rollers from Italian brand Elite plug into the mains and use Bluetooth Smart and ANT+ to connect with popular training software such as Zwift and TrainerRoad as well as with Elite’s own app. Just like with a smart trainer, the resistance is electronically managed to simulate gradients or to enable power-based workouts. But the beauty of these smart rollers is that they are light and fold down very small so you can easily take them to races or to the track for warming up…

Pro rider Matt Gibson, who rides for Spanish outfit Burgos-BH, prefers to spend most of his pre-season training on British soil. Despite being a full-time rider with Spanish Pro Conti team, Matt Gibson has chosen not to relocate. For him, the answer to high-quality training doesn’t lie overseas — he prefers home, that is, Cheshire. “It’s all about being in an environment where I can get the best out of myself. At home I can control my training and my diet, and have things outside of cycling to balance me out,” he explains. Training in a new country would require exploration and acclimatisation. “Going away means you have to spend time learning loops, finding where is good for efforts, where the gyms are, and where’s best to buy food. At…

ROAD RACING SUNDAY, MARCH 31 Coalville Wheelers Road Race (Griffydam, Leicestershire): E, 1, 2, 3: 1. Sam Culverwell (Team Estera) 75 miles in 3:03.00; 2. J. Tipper (Ribble Pro Cycling) +0.30; 3. M. Mottram (Vitus Pro Cycling); 4. D. Clayton (Andy Moore Autocentres); 5. S. Garry (University of Nottingham CC); 6. S. Lampier (St Piran); 7. G. Mills-Keeling (CC Bridgnorth); 8. W. Brown (Ribble Pro Cycling); 9. J. Housley (Team PB Performance); 10. S. Wilson (Ribble Pro Cycling) all same time. Capernwray Road Race (Borwick, Lancaster): E, 1, 2, 3: 1. Alex Luhrs (Ribble Pro Cycling) 70 miles in 2:41.10; 2. D. Bigham (Ribble Pro Cycling) same time; 3. M. Holmes (Madison-Genesis) +0.30; 4. J. Evans (Saint Piran) +0.45; 5. Z. Kyffin (Ribble Pro Cycling); 6. J. Stanton-Warren (Wheelbase Castelli)…

Just occasionally it will become apparent that one has over-promised, and is poised to under-deliver. “Yes, of course I’ll do Land’s End to John o’ Groats with you next summer.” “I’d be delighted to do the national team time trial championships with you.” And so on. On these occasions one needs to find a dignified way to back out, before one is humiliated by being placed in close proximity to one’s own frailty in a public setting. You’ll want to leave this desertion as late as possible, preferably the night before the ride. Do not attempt to blame your bike. The world is full of people with mechanical competence you never knew they had. Before you know what’s happened you’ll not only have a working bike and no option but…