Indholdsfortegnelse for October 24, 2024 i Cycling Weekly

Sir Chris Hoy has been told he has terminal cancer and may only have four more years to live, he revealed last week. In an interview with The Sunday Times, the 48-year-old British track sprinter gave an update on his diagnosis – which he first announced in February – saying it is incurable. “As unnatural as it feels, this is nature,” Hoy said. “You know, we were all born and we all die, and this is just part of the process. “Hand on heart, I’m pretty positive most of the time and I have genuine happiness. This is bigger than the Olympics. It’s bigger than anything. This is about appreciating life and finding joy.” Hoy first found out about his cancer diagnosis last September, when a scan to investigate pain…

1 Shout to the top If you know a friend or a club-mate who is competing, it could be worth your while turning out to support them in force with vocal cords well primed – event organiser Muckle CC is putting £100 behind the bar at the event HQ for the club who manages to make the most noise in support of the riders. “We’re encouraging as much noise as possible so bring a cow bell and get ready to cheer a lot!” says the club. 2 Straight talking The event is set to be held on Dipton Mill Road in Hexham, Northumberland. The climb is 1.2km (0.75 miles) long and leads straight up southwards out of the town. Being hill-climb championship quality, it’s a tough proposition, averaging 9.8% over…

Seems to have become too big-headed recently. Thinks everything revolves around him and that’s not how a team works. David Shipley He should stop moaning and either decide that road racing isn’t for him or concentrate on his MTB. He has not progressed since he joined Ineos and Ineos are no longer a top team, they have gone backwards. Owen Malkin It doesn’t look like Ineos has been aiming to win anything since Bernal’s yellow jersey. If it weren’t for Thomas, and Ganna in the TTs, Ineos would just be another team you see in the peloton. Peter Revlla The Netflix stuff could come to haunt him. He came across as a bit of a brat, and not a team player. Nigel Lewin He obviously doesn’t fit in with the…

• Scotland | 42 miles | Ridden by Trevor Ward The Scottish seaside town of Arbroath is currently undergoing a remarkable transformation that will see its ugly dual carriageway turned into a landscaped corridor of cycle lanes and footpaths. The work won’t be completed until next year, but until then there are more historic sights to enjoy, including its harbour and the ruins of its 12th-century abbey from where the original call for Scottish independence – the ‘Declaration of Arbroath’ – rang out 700 years ago. From here, our route threads past the clifftop village of Auchmithie and Lunan Bay’s twomile crescent of sand. A short detour takes you to the coastal arch known as Elephant Rock and a small cemetery containing the grave of a real life ‘Benjamin Button’,…

If you are an airport baggage handler, you are one of the dark and sinister bogeyman figures that exist on the fringes of the cycling world. Rather like a race commissaire, you have untold power to ruin someone’s week, yet you remain anonymous and accountable to no one. If you have the good fortune to be one of these people, make sure you take full advantage. There are a few rules if you have bicycles to deal with. The most important is to find out what side of the aircraft the owners of the bicycles are sitting. There’s no point in being a baggage handler if no one can see you handling their bags. If you have a lot of bikes on the flight, remember that bike bags and boxes…

His shop at James St. Docks in Cardiff is no more, but thankfully CW Alexander’s beautiful framesets live on. The majority are a testament to the skill of Cliff Smith, who welded the frames in the shop’s basement, fuelled largely by mugs of builder’s tea and plenty of Capstan Full Strength cigarettes, according to Roger Pratt in an article on the Classic Lightweights website. Pratt adds that Smith “could build you a frame that would last you a lifetime. Responsive in racing, and yet as comfortable as an armchair.” Alexander’s shop operated from the 1940s into the ’80s, producing framesets for local riders as well as pros. The frames were typically built using Reynolds 531 or 501 tubing, as is the case here. A respray sees this elegant 62.5cm frame…

Green City The peloton rides through a leafy tunnel in Nanning, China, during stage six of the Tour of Guangxi last week. The capital of Guangxi is known as the ‘Green City’ thanks to its many subtropical plants. Record extender Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands grins with his gold medal after clinching victory in the men’s sprint at the Track World Championships in Denmark. The Dutchman now has 16 world titles. One last ride Dan Bigham rides to bronze in the individual pursuit at the Track Worlds. It was the British rider’s last time on the track as an elite athlete, after a career which incuded the Hour Record. Swanning about Japan’s Mina Sato poses with a toy swan and a gold medal after winning the women’s keirin. It was…

In the land of Hans Christian Andersen, it was a fairy-tale end to the season for Emma Finucane, who left the UCI Track World Championships with two new gold medals. The 21-year-old raced over all five days inside Denmark’s Ballerup Super Arena, retaining her individual sprint title and winning the team sprint alongside Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell – the same trio that won Olympic gold this summer. After her final race, placing fourth in the keirin, Finucane collapsed into a chair, holding her legs in agony. “I’m done,” she said, gasping for air. “You don’t see many people winning at the Games, winning medals, and then coming back and becoming world champion. I’m really proud to be part of that small group.” It was at the Paris Olympics, where…

The season has ended and that means us pro cyclists can finally enjoy a month off, when we can go on holiday and try to live slightly more regular lives. My off-seasons the past few years have all had a similar structure. Me and my girlfriend have been on a two-week holiday and the other two weeks I’ve spent doing normal things, like going to the pub and catching up with mates. This year, however, it has been completely different and rather full-on. We made the decision earlier in the year to make the move over to Andorra, following in the footsteps of what seems to be every other pro cyclist at the moment. I can’t blame them, it is pretty nice. Moving your whole life from one country to…

• Devon | 60 miles | Ridden by Emily Chappell The north Devon coastline is mercilessly hilly, but on a fine day its rugged scenery can’t be bettered. It’s worth setting off from Bridgwater, to enjoy the moment when you crest Dunkery Beacon, and finally set eyes on the glistening Bristol Channel. After a white-knuckle descent into Porlock, a peaceful toll road zig-zags you up through the trees – stop at the bench halfway up to admire the golden sands of Bossington Beach, and take a pound coin for the toll at the top. From here a quiet lane takes you across Exmoor, via your second 25% descent of the day and the historical Robbers’ Bridge, towards Lynmouth, which would be a good place to spend the night. This Victorian…

1 One fits almost all With the release of the new Xelius DRS, Lapierre has slimmed down its performance road bike line-up to a single model. Why? In common with many other brands, Lapierre believes its aeroenhanced, do-it-all Xelius DRS is more rapid in most scenarios than the outgoing dedicated aero Aircode. The Xelius DRS is both faster and much lighter than the Aircode, but on the steepest ascents, it still doesn’t quite match the older Xelius SL3 climbing bike. 2 More aero than the Aircode Lapierre has invested a huge amount of time and effort into the aerodynamics of the Xelius DRS. Starting out with complex computational fluid design modelling, it was iterated through several different frame shapes, before full-sized prototypes were wind-tunnel tested. The result is a bike…

With just a few days until the National Hill-Climb Championships, some of the top riders were honing their preparations with winning rides in events up and down the country – while others chose not to ride a competitive event. Former champion Ed Laverack (Backpedal) and reigning women’s champion Illi Gardner (Cardiff Ajax CC) were among those who didn’t compete, while reigning open champion Andrew Feather (Hunt Bike Wheels.com) powered to victory in the 360cycling event on Birdy Brow in Lancashire, where he was around five seconds ahead of Andy Cunningham (Ilkley CC). Kieran Wynne-Cattanach (Team Lifting Gear Products) and Abi Plowman (Alba Development RT) both rode to victory at the North Lancashire Road Club climb of Nick ‘O’ Pendle in Lancashire on Sunday. Harry MacFarlane (TAAP Kalas) rode three times…

With the pressure of an Olympic Games lifted, Great Britain’s squad raced with seeming weightlessness at last week’s Track World Championships, where they matched the nation’s best ever medal count. Thirteen honours were split between the riders inside Denmark’s Ballerup Super Arena, four of which were gold, won in the women’s team sprint, individual sprint, team pursuit and individual pursuit. Standout riders included Olympic gold medallist Emma Finucane (see 10-11) and Anna Morris, a former junior doctor, both of whom earned two world titles apiece. Morris’s scalp in the individual pursuit was perhaps the most surprising of all. Up against the USA’s Chloé Dygert, who broke her own world record by more than a second in qualifying, the 29-year-old trailed for more than two thirds of the final. Suddenly, with…

A stalwart of the Great Britain team paddock, lead race mechanic Ernie Feargrieve ticked off his 50th World Championships with the national squad last week. The 59-year-old began working with British Cycling in 1988, and has since been a friendly face to hundreds of riders, spanning all disciplines, including track, road and cyclo-cross. “I’d always had an engineering background,” he said. “When I raced, I wanted more wheels. We couldn’t afford them, so my dad said, ‘Well, build them’. I didn’t know how to build wheels, so my dad taught me how.” Since then, the list of riders Feargrieve has assembled race bikes for includes the likes of Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Dame Laura Kenny. He has also worked at the last seven Olympic Games. “The way…

Well, this wasn’t in the brochure. It was day two of my cycle tour of the Pembrokeshire coastline and I’d erred somewhat from the itinerary. I was standing in a Nisa Local in St Clears, a small town in Carmarthen, South Wales. Outside, a howling wind tore rampantly through the high street while rain thrashed out a ferocious pattern on the shop window. Inside, I had become the focal point of much intrigue. Drenched and dirty, I looked like I’d just been dredged up from the bottom of the Bristol Channel. And I was as hungry as a half-starved Bull Mastiff. Having negotiated some 100 miles in monsoon conditions, I’d all but cleared out my glycogen stores, and my energy levels had ebbed, flowed and ebbed again. I was weak,…

• Kent | 94 miles | Ridden by Vern Pitt Kent boasts a coastline of approximately 350 miles that includes white cliffs, sandy beaches, shingle bays and coastal towns. A big chunk of it is rideable. In 2022 we rode Cycling UK’s Cantii Way, more than 50% of which is along, or at least very near to, the Kent coast. Apart from a few inland diversions, the majority of this ride from Whitestable to Winchelsea ride hugs the coast. Much of this is on bike paths or quiet country lanes with a few gravel sections. Climbing is limited, and the only unpleasant section is a stretch alongside an A-road north of Sandwich. You could break this ride up by aiming for the larger towns with train stations, including Folkestone, Dover,…

The Forty Hall Scramble lives up to its name as riders shoulder their machines and clamber over a muddy bank. This was the second edition of the race, which was held most years from 1968 to 1978 in the grounds of the large estate house in Enfield, north London, that gave the race its name. While the race is no longer run, you can visit the course venue if you like, as Forty Hall is open to the public. The 1969 edition of the race shown in the picture was won by John Atkins, a prolific CX racer who won the National Championship 12 times and the 3 Peaks Cyclo-Cross twice, and is considered one of Britain’s best ever proponents of the sport.…