Indholdsfortegnelse for September 26, 2024 i Cycling Weekly

One news story that caught my eye last week was that of former MTB champ Kerry MacPhee setting up a Parkride event in Scotland. In her words, she “basically ripped off Parkrun”. For those not familiar with the Saturday morning running event, Parkrun is a free 5km running and walking event where you can just turn up and do it. All you have to do is register and take along the barcode that is assigned to you and off you go. Tens of thousands of people do it up and down the UK, and further afield, every Saturday at 9am. A few serious club runners can be spotted at the front of many Parkruns, but the vast majority of participants are people just out to do some exercise. So many…

“Not good, mate,” was Josh Tarling’s assessment of his effort in the time trial at the World Championships last Sunday. A bronze medallist last year, the Brit finished 23 seconds short of the podium in Zurich. Tarling got off to a fast start on the 46.1km course, placing third at the first of three time checks, just 12 seconds behind the leader, Remco Evenepoel. He then lost time on the climb to the second check, which he was unable to pull back on the flat drag along Lake Zurich. His finishing time of 54.18 left him 1.17 adrift of gold. As he walked through the media zone afterwards, the 20-year-old cut a downbeat figure. “I never got going,” he said. “I conserved and then never emptied, and then I was…

British junior Seb Grindley’s victory at the Junior Tour of Wales last month might have looked comfortable on the result sheet but it was anything but for his sports director. In torrential rain on stage four Grindley had been building a steady lead on his GC rivals as part of a four rider break alongside his Fensham Howes MAS Design teammate Elliot Rowe when he appeared alone out of the squall with 20km still left to race. “I put my hands up and said, ‘What are you doing?’” recalled guest sports director and former pro Alex Dowsett. “On the second lap I passed and said: ‘Well, you better make this work now.’” After a sprint for bonus seconds Grindley had pushed on hard in the wind. “I looked behind at…

I passed 5,000 miles for the Big Ride Challenge on Friday 13 September. This is the earliest in the year that I’ve reached the milestone. The main reason for this is, along with fellow Cycling Weekly subscriber Stephen Rosser, I completed the MIZMAL ride in Ireland last week. We did it in six days, traveling a total of 529 miles. It was a fantastic trip and highly recommended. There were loads of highlights but the best two were riding through the Black Valley and along the Sky Road, a must for every cyclist’s bucket list. Cheers, Andy Hopper Ed - congratulations Andy! The MIZMAL route looks like a great ride. For those that don’t know it, it takes in the length of Ireland, with the route running down the stunning…

Sometimes the WorldTour throws up a surprise – and other times it throws a mind-bending curveball. In a twist that would have been unimaginable 15 years ago, top-flight pro team EF Education expanded its horizons to the point where it now pays Aussie rider Lachlan Morton to ride UK bikepacking events. The team’s willingness to help its riders create interesting stories in the gravel realm away from pro road riding speaks volumes about how inspirational this new genre can look. Morton, 32, has ridden two Grand Tours, but it’s his winning ride in the 2019 GBduro – Land’s End to John o’ Groats in less than five days – that he refers to as “the most incredible experience of my life”. Morton last rode in the WorldTour in 2021, and…

It’s no secret that, post Covid-19, bike market inflation has been widely felt across the bicycle industry, and the gravel bike market isn’t immune. Our award for Best Value Gravel Bike, then, is more important than ever. But great value can come from more than just a wallet-friendly price tag - if a bike can be used for more applications, then its versatility can add value too. Thankfully, the Cotic Cascade does a little bit of both. Its slack, fun handling and brilliant control means it can tackle just about any terrain you put in front of it. Then there’s the spec you get for the money. The quality frameset, 1x11 SRAM Apex groupset and the solid finishing kit make the Cascade a great bike for its £1,999 price tag.…

Australian Chris Harper didn’t reach the WorldTour until he was 25, but since then he has developed into a reliable mountain domestique who can stick with the best climbers in smaller stage races. His second season with Jayco-Alula, after three years with Jumbo-Visma, has been an unlucky one. The 29-year-old abandoned the Tour de France in the second week with Covid, and then withdrew from the Vuelta a España on stage 11 after featuring in several breaks. Profile Age: 29 Raised: Melbourne, Australia Lives: Andorra Height: 6ft 1in Rides for: Team Jayco-Alula Best results: 1st, GC – Tour of Japan (2019); 4th, GC – UAE Tour (2021); 6th, GC – Volta a Catalunya (2024) So it seems Covid is still a problem in the WorldTour? For sure. It affected me…

June Raw, better known as June Pitchford during her career heyday, was one of Britain’s foremost women time triallists during the 1960s and 1970s. Riding for Birmingham club Beacon Roads CC, she amassed a host of plaudits including six National 100-mile Championship wins, and two National 50-mile Championships. She also set new competition records at 10 and 15 miles, as well as leading Beacon Roads to a total of 12 team championships and five competition records. In 1973 she even set a 30-mile women’s tandem record with stoker Chris Goodfellow. “I was so lucky: I had the right parents,” she told Beacon RCC president George Barker, when he was compiling a 75th anniversary history of the club in 2021. “I just had to ride my bike and try hard in…

A young rider shops his uncle, who made a return to racing after a 30-year layoff. He hired a coach, who put him in touch with a nutritionist. “It’s important to get the basics right,” she told him. “Even at the level of fruit and veg. Five pieces a day is really a bare minimum – you could easily aim for eight or nine.” Which is why, when our young snitch visited his uncle’s house, he found that his fruit and vegetable intake still consisted of a single apple after lunch, but that now he carefully cut it into eight pieces first.…

Controversial Uzbek Team disbands The Tashkent City Women team, who were surprise qualifiers for this year’s Tour de France Femmes, has folded. The team caused controversy at the TDFF, earning its place through shrewd targeting of UCI points but struggling once it got there, with four riders abandoning on the first day. Geraint Thomas on X Geraint Thomas got a free lunch but he had to work for it, after bumping into Tadej Pogačar and Michael Matthews Giant buys Stages for $20m The world’s biggest bike company, Giant Bicycles, has completed the acquisition of smart tech brand Stages Cycling for a reported $20.1 million. Halfords eyes up the premium market Halfords is set to more than double its offering of premium bikes in an attempt to take advantage of the…

It took a while for gravel and speed to become happy bedfellows, with early gravel adopters focused more on getting away from the hustle and bustle of their road-faring brethren. On the back of the ever-growing gravel race scene, a rapid pace now ranks as a much higher priority for some, with the Specialized Crux hitting the design brief spot on. However, ideally a gravel bike shouldn’t sacrifice all sense of adventure just for the sake of speed. Which is why this year’s best-in-class award goes to the Specialized Cruz DWS Comp. We couldn’t fault the bike’s perfect blend of agility and nimbleness while still being just as happy to be moderately loaded up for a bikepacking adventure. It allows you to get off the beaten track, but this time…

If gravel means different things to different people, so too does the term ‘adventure’. For some, it could describe a multi-day bikepacking trip in the middle of nowhere, while for others it might involve simply turning left up that intriguing-looking bridleway when you normally continue straight ahead. That’s why we gave this award to the Sonder Camino Ti. Here’s a bike that understands the nuances of both ‘gravel’ and ‘adventure’ and is equipped to handle most interpretations. How so? There’s the durability of the frame material itself, ensuring a long lifespan. Then there’s the array of mounts, allowing you to cover it with bags, while its geometry promotes a stable ride under load. But, freed of the additional weight, that longer wheelbase and slacker head tube angle lends itself to…

• Monday Endurance ride A basic endurance ride aiming for a heart rate between 125 and 145bpm, and power under 300 watts. For these days, I always bring two one-litre bottles of liquid with me, and stop after 2.5 hours for a Powerade, a sugary drink and a Calippo – always a Calippo in summer. Total riding: 5hr • Tuesday Rest day Today was a day of life admin, but also on days like this it’s good to refuel going into the next block of training. You can’t be crazily restrictive in your eating just because you’re not exercising, as if you underfuel for the next day, you won’t get the most out of training. Total riding: 0hr • Wednesday High/low cadence intervals A super-hot day on the TT bike…

To honour hill-climb season, Cycling Weekly is hosting four challenges featuring four of Zwift’s most revered ascents. With prizes of Zwift Play Controllers for the fastest man and woman to the top of each climb, be sure to join us on Mondays at 7.15pm for an evening of type 2 fun (and type 2 muscle fibres). • Hill-climb 1: 30/09/24 Oh Hill no! 1.5km • Hill-climb 2: 7/10/24 Mountain Mash 6km • Hill-climb 3: 14/10/24 Bologna TT 8km • Hill-climb 4: 21/10/24 Road to the Sky 17.3km…

If you want to know how increasing bike prices have affected cyclists, consider this. It is not so long ago that a group of cyclists with nothing better to do would discuss their ‘dream garage’ – the bikes they’d like to own. This was usually several bikes. A university friend wanted 14, to include two identical time trial bikes which he planned to use alternately so that they’d wear out more slowly. He was going to have them in different colours so he could tell the difference, and when we suggested he get one and paint it a different colour on each side, he got very cross and stormed out of the pub. No one now can afford to dream quite that big. The same discussion in a pub or…

In the Para-cycling World Championships, history will have been made on Tuesday when Alaa al-Dali became the first Palestinian cyclist ever to represent his country at a major UCI event. His journey to the start line was built on proportions no less historic. Cycling Weekly readers may recall a My Fitness Challenge feature in 2020, recounting Al-Dali’s journey back to fitness after he was shot in the leg at a protest in 2018. Already a top cyclist in his age group at the time, surgeons asked Al-Dali to choose between the loss of his leg or his life. Considering depression, diminished fitness and adjustment to the loss of his leg, it is incredible to believe Al-Dali now takes to the start line in Zurich. “It means a lot to me…

Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) scored a big result at the weekend, winning the Tour de Luxembourg overall. He also won the youth classification. Consistent finishing – he was in the top 10 every day – won Tiberi the UCI 2.Pro event, where he lifted the leader’s jersey from the shoulders of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) on the final day after joining a late breakaway. Van der Poel won one stage, with others going the way of Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-Quick Step), Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), all seeking some form ahead of the World Championships road race this weekend. The men weren’t the only ones to race big this month, with the women taking on the UCI 1.1 Tour de Gatineau in Quebec on…

Not everyone is convinced by the new trend towards gravel riding. Amateur rider Ian Brookes, 40, originally from the Midlands but now living in the USA, tried gravel riding but wasn’t convinced. “It’s got big worldwide, but the UK isn’t really good for gravel riding,” he says. “The UK is great for mountain biking; it’s great for social family rides along the canal with the kids, that kind of stuff. And it’s great for roads – we’ve got some of the best.” For Brookes, there is only a narrow habitat in which gravel bikes excel and outperform a road bike or a mountain bike. He would rather not compromise. “There’s a very tight window before you need something other than a gravel bike,” he says, “and that frustration is what…

Tom Quaid is co-founder of Foran CT and an active racing cyclist who took bronze in the recent Irish Masters 40 Championships. Cycling Weekly asked him to assess Dom Jackson’s attributes, both on and off the bike. “Dom doesn’t stand out that much in training in the winter, but you see the odd thing where you’re just, like, ‘Whoa, that’s pretty mad’,” Quaid says. “He just has a killer instinct in him that I’ve never seen in any sport. It sets him above everyone. When he targets something, it’s incredible to watch. He gets through all these races solidly, but then when he targets something, it’s as though nothing is going to stop him. I’ve yet to see him fail at a target.” Quaid describes Jackson off the bike as…

On the surface, you might envisage that the Best British Gravel Bike award would simply be the most illustrious bike that a bike brand from the United Kingdom has to offer, but there is a little more to it than that. You see the Best British Gravel Bike also has to align its qualities with what the UK gravel scene has to offer - which is an incredibly broad range of riding. Head out for a gravel ride in the UK and you’ll be dealing with all sorts of terrain - everything from tarmac and fire roads to singletrack and bumpy paths round the edges of fields. And Genesis Croix de Fer caters for all these. It’s the pickup truck equivalent of gravel bikes, a rugged workhorse for everything from…

Nitrates are naturally cyclists is concentrated beetroot juice in shot form. “Nitrate supplementation occurring compounds formed from nitrogen and oxygen. Dietary nitrate is found in vegetables, particularly leafy green ones and beetroot. The go-to nitrate boost for many may offer several potential benefits for athletes,” says Professor Mayur Ranchordas, “including improved endurance performance, reduced oxygen consumption during exercise and enhanced blood flow.” However, there are limitations. “Most of the research shows that it’s beneficial for recreational athletes, but few studies have shown benefits in highly trained elites.” What’s in it for cyclists? Nitrate supplementation is widely used to enhance athletic performance in endurance sports. “Dietary nitrate is an important precursor to nitric oxide, which is involved in many different functions linked to performance,” says Matthew Black. “These include helping blood…

CX National Trophy Round 1 When: 5 October Where: Derby The opening round of the Lloyds Bank Cyclo-cross National Trophy Series takes place at Moorways, Derby, with bridges, planks, and ‘The Bomb Hole’ all part of the course. Entries through the BC site. West Pennine RC Hill-Climb When: 6 October Where: Lancashire This hill-climb takes place on Blackstone Edge, a 4.5km-long drag at an average of 5.4%, with steeper ramps. The course records were set eight years ago, by Andy Cunningham and Charlotte Gorman, both under three minutes. Entries via CTT.…