Indholdsfortegnelse for June 6, 2019 i Cycling Weekly

I still remember my first pair of aero wheels. It was a set of Spinergy Rev-Xs — the wheels to have in the mid Nineties. Along with Spinaci bars they looked like they’d kicked bike tech into the next century overnight. They were soon banned, as were the Spinaci bars, on grounds of safety. Those wheels were incredibly fast. All carbon with eight ‘spokes’ (it looked like four from the side), they were uncompromisingly stiff and probably the first such wheels to be used in road racing. We’d seen similar tech on the track and in TTs but not in a bunch. I put them in my bright blue, aluminium Geoffrey Butler frame and quite frankly, it looked amazing. I wish I still had that bike. Campag Chorus groupset and…

Chris Froome (Team Ineos) Very few riders time their form to perfection like Froome does, and word within Ineos is that his sub-par performances this season have been part of the plan to taper, first for the Dauphiné and then the Tour. A fourth win beckons. CW rating ★★★★★ Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) One of the stars of the spring, winning and podiuming in stage races and the Classics, the Dane will be hoping he hasn’t lost that form as he seeks to repeat his 2017 victory. CW rating ★★★★ Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) Runner-up 12 months ago, the Brit had an excellent March, finishing second at both Tirreno-Adriatico and Volta a Catalunya. The 26-year-old’s consistency rivals that of Grand Tour winners, and he will fancy his chances. CW rating ★★★★ Romain…

SRM power meters have always been seen as the gold standard in power measurement: any images of a group of pros at work will almost inevitably include SRM’s distinctive low-profile head units on their bars. So it was big news last year when Look and SRM announced the Exakt pedal-based power meter, as all SRM’s previous meters had needed a swap-out of the bike’s chainset. Exakt promises dual sided measurement with the same level of accuracy as SRM’s crank-based meters, but in a package that’s (a bit) cheaper, a lot easier to install and can be moved between bikes. Exactly a year after launch, we’ve got the Exakt power meter system — complete with pro-looking SRM PC8 head unit — in for test. It comes in a suitably impressive black…

1 THE PRIME YEARS All of our subjects gave similar (hypothetical) advice to their younger selves — look after your body, rest more and eat well, respect injuries and do rehabilitative activities. Unburden yourself of unnecessary baggage, which can consume energy and drain morale. Cultivate what psychologists call a ‘harmonious passion’ with your sport, as opposed to an ‘obsessive passion’. Keep contact with your community and cycling roots 2 THE ONSET OF AGEING Many struggle when performance begins to drop off because of ageing. Retirement can feel like a loss of identity and, according to sports psychologist Dr Emma Vickers, may affect self-esteem. Do not try to maintain the same routines when age begins to bite. Respect the inevitable and make adjustments to stay competitive — train smarter with more recovery, pick…

ROAD RACING SUNDAY, JUNE 2 West Midlands Regional Championships (Swynnerton, Staffs): E, 1, 2, 3: 1. James Chapman (Team PB Performance) 94 miles in 3:47.36; 2. B. Lloyd (Pro Vision RT) +0.01; 3. O. Hayward (Holohan Coaching) +0.08; 4. G. Moore (RST Cycle Division) +0.42; 5. M. Garthwaite (Holohan Coaching); 6. C. Biddle (Morvelo Basso); 7. J. Ireson (Morvelo Basso); 8. J. Hill (Velo Runner); 9. J. Bourne (Pro Vision RT); 10. W. Lewis (CC Bridgnorth) all same time. Eastern Regional Championships (Layer de la Haye, Essex): E, 1, 2, 3: 1. Lewis Bulley (Richardsons-Trek) 135km in 3:08.32; 2. J. Jenkins (Richardsons-Trek) +0.03; 3. C. Davies (GPN Builders) +0.10; 4. J. Moss (Nuun-Sigma Sport) +0.40; 5. M. Bacon (DAP CC) +0.41; 6. M. Clements (Richardsons-Trek); 7. T. Elwood (Team LDN)…

Usually this column trades in inventions that have already been made by someone else. However, this week we are proud to present our own idea for increasing the effciency of team radio communications: the automated switchboard. “Thank you for your interest in what’s going on back here in the team car. Your call may be recorded, and leaked to a cycling journalist. “To report a puncture, press one. To request a gel, press two. For a sticky bottle, press three, but make sure the commissaires don’t notice. “To ask for the services of all seven of your minions to pull on the front for the next 30km to dig you out of a tactical cock-up, press four. But don’t expect them to forget it in a hurry. “If you’re the…

On training camp last week we rode down to the supermarket one lunch to buy sneaky snacks (I bought a Kinder Surprise and some hair dye) on our road bikes and trainers. Since we were in flats I thought it was a good time to practise wheelies. I never usually try because I’m scared I’ll fall backwards clipped in and land on my bum. This is extra funny for the fact I’m nowhere close to being able to lift my front wheel off the ground, never mind actually fall all the way backwards. Elinor Barker described my attempts as making it look like I wasn’t riding a bike, but being bucked off a horse. I can’t do something that resembles enough of a wheelie in order to prefix it with…

Samuel Dumoulin retires Old pro Samuel Dumoulin has announced his retirement at 38-years-old. The Frenchman, who turned pro in 2002 and currently rides for Ag2r, has announced he will ride until the end of the season before calling time on his career. No relation to Tom, Dumoulin scored his biggest win in the 2008 Tour de France, where he won a stage to Nantes as part of a breakaway. Cycling too dangerous? A survey has shown that two-thirds of the public still regard cycling as dangerous, despite government ambitions to increase the number of people replacing short car journeys with bike rides. The 2019 National Travel Attitudes Study (NTAS) shows that 61 percent of people surveyed see cycling as being ‘too dangerous’. The number of people who believe that cycling…

I greatly enjoyed reading the ‘In search of the hardest 100km in Britain’ piece in Cycling Weekly (May 16). I grew up in the North York Moors so those climbs are very familiar. I have done the majority of that route, although not in one ride, so can attest to the ‘brutal’ nature of the short and sharp climbs it includes. However, in more recent times I have cycled the Fred Whitton Challenge. In my opinion, Hardknott Pass makes Chimney Bank seem like a walk in the park. The route I have made includes Hardknott Pass, Wrynose Pass, Blea Tarn, and the Struggle — those climbs all come in the last 40k! The first 50k from Ambleside to Barrow-in-Furness is a very tough ride in itself… The elevation may not…

Former world champion Marta Bastianelli (Virtu) has had a stellar season with multiple wins, finishing inside the top 10 of every WorldTour race she started, though she has not raced at the top level since early May. Victory at Flanders and eighth place in Amstel Gold prove she has also worked out how to deal with the hills. The Women’s Tour has been a happy hunting ground for Boels-Dolmans’s new signing Jolien d’Hoore, consistently one of the world’s top sprinters. After losing her spring to injury, expect the Belgian to be hungry to get back to her winning ways. Both those women will have to deal with the new kid on the block, Lorena Wiebes (below). The 20-year-old Park hotel Valkenburg rider bagged WorldTour podiums in the Classics before winning…

Pinarello’s Prince might not quite be heir to the Dogma’s throne — think Jorah Mormont to Jon Snow — but at less than half the price of an F10 teed-up for WorldTour duties, and boasting its own laudable set of bells and whistles, this bicycle can hold its own on the battlefield — indeed the venerable Italian marque’s pure blood traces through the Prince’s lightweight T700 series carbon-fibre frame. Comprising FlatBack Profile aerodynamic tubing, the Prince instantly recognisable as a road rig that aims to be piloted as fast as possible — and despite not being allocated the no-holds-barred budget of its all-conquering uncle, it’s more than adequately specced to meet this target. The build kit also features a bar and stem from MOst Jaguar with aerodynamic contours, while the…

The week: May 20-26, 2019 Location: Grimsby, Lincolnshire Preparing for: British Time Trial Champs (June 27) After months of squeezing in training around A-level revision, 18-year-old Joe Laverick spoke to CW about maintaining form during his first full week of exams. “This week was more about the exams than training,” said the Madison-Genesis development rider, “quite high intensity but lower volume than usual.” Laverick has been racing bikes for three years, having made the switch from football in 2016 — with his sights now set on becoming a WorldTour stage racer. We caught up with him to find out what it’s like when the demands of national level bike racing clash with the pressure and stress of academic exams. What’s the hardest part of combining A-level exams and pro-level training?…

Tour of Norway (May 28-June 2) An all-Norwegian podium — the first since 1992 — was topped by Alexander Kristoff (UAE-Team Emirates), winner of stage five. Team Ineos’s Kristoffer Halvorsen, stage six victor, was second, and stage three winner Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) was third. Tour de la Mirabelle (May 31-June 2) Alex Richardson scored his second victory in a UCI race this season, the Canyon-dhb rider winning by 76 seconds on stage three. Internationale Lotto Thüringen (May 28-June 2) Kathrin Hammes (WNT-Rotor) won the iconic six-stage race, 11 seconds better off than Sunweb’s Pernille Mathiesen. The German led from stage two. Orlen Nations GP (June 1-2) Ethan Hayter’s form on the road continued as he finish second on stage two in Poland. The 20-year-old was eighth overall.…

A tale reaches us via a nurse at a local doctors’ surgery. A rider, after suffering a fall, came to the surgery to see about a sprained wrist. “Well, I think I’ve done all the right first-aid things,” he said. “I’ve eaten lots of rice, rested it, put an ice pack on it, applied a compression bandage…” “You’ve eaten what?” said the nurse. “Rice. Is that not right?” said the confused patient, “I thought it was rice, rest, ice, compression and elevation?” It was gently explained to him that ‘RICE’ was a mnemonic for remembering what to do and stands for: rest, ice, compression, elevation. It’s not a piece of dietary advice.…

If anybody in Ecuador didn’t know the name Richard Carapaz before last Sunday, they will do now. The Giro title ranked among the South American country’s finest athletic achievements, with Andrés Gómez’s French Open title and Jefferson Pérez’s Olympic gold for race walking. But where exactly did this talent — who few gave much GC credence to pre-Giro — spring from to win with such aplomb? The 26-year-old was born up in the Andes at 3,000 metres, near the Colombian border in El Carmelo. “His story is amazing,” said Carapaz’s Movistar sports director Max Sciandri. “He comes from a hard land, it makes everything hard just to live there, already you have the altitude. But people are warm, the people will give back a lot to him. He gave a…

Hammer Limburg (June 7-9) Team Jumbo-Visma beat Team Sunweb and Mitchelton-Scott in the opening round in Stavanger and thus are expected to be the team to beat in their home country. Greg van Avermaet leads CCC Team. Dwars door de Westhoek (June 9) Despite its relatively flat parcours, it is rare that the women’s semi-classic ends with a bunch sprint. Briton Jess Roberts was sixth last year, while Thât Thi Nguyen of Vietnam won. Course de la Paix GP Priessnitz spa (June 9) The U23 race is viewed among riders as an excellent platform to announce themselves to watching WorldTour teams, with three mountainous stages appealing to GC riders. Tadej Pogačar won last year, Tao Geoghegan Hart was second in 2016, and Toms Skujinš was the 2013 champion. Ronde van…

Exclusive competition courtesy of This Tour de France yellow jersey was personally signed by Geraint Thomas in Oxford on September 12, 2018 in a private signing session for Exclusive Memorabilia. You will also receive a certificate of authenticity, which includes the details of the signing session, a photo of ‘G’ signing one of the product line and a numbered hologram that matches an identical hologram affixed to the jersey. The 2018 Tour de France champion took the prestigious yellow jersey with a stage 11 win and extended his lead by winning stage 12 in a sprint finish atop Alpe d’Huez ahead of Tom Dumoulin and Chris Froome. He retained the lead for the remainder of the event and became the first Welshman, and the third British cyclist after Bradley Wiggins…

A few years ago I was out riding with my friend Bernard. We were cruising along beside each other, when he said, “What’s your power at the moment?” “275 watts, or so,” I said. “But I can do that,” he said, “so how come you’re so much faster than me?” I’d love to have mocked him for this, but he’d only have reminded me of the time I got to the end of a two-up TT and asked the other rider what his average speed had been, so I could compare it to mine and see which of us had ridden harder. So I had to let it go, since the best result I could hope for in the stupidity cup was a 1-1 draw. It still gave away his…