Innehållsförteckning för September 2020 från Cycling Plus

What a race! Sorry, force of habit – I’m writing this the day after the 2020 Tour de France was supposed to have hit Paris with the latest owner of the winner’s yellow jersey. I don’t know about you but a July that was already strange, felt stranger still without the world’s biggest bike race. (Something that Ned Boulting felt acutely, too - p130.) Luckily, as we go to press the rescheduled Tour is still readying to roll out from Nice on 29 August. Check out our preview magazine and keep everything crossed for a classic comeback edition. SUBSCRIBE TODAY FOR ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE OFFERS & COMPETITIONS AS PART OF OUR SUBSCRIBER CLUB! SUBSCRIBE! NEW SUBSCRIBERS TO CYCLING PLUS CAN GET A FREE LEZYNE CADDY SPORT SADDLE BAG ALREADY A…

Giant TCR Advanced SL0 Disc £9499 Future superbike The 2021 Giant TCR is the ninth iteration of the compact-framed race machine that debuted two decades ago, back in 1997. There is, however, nothing ‘nineties’ about this superbike. At the heart of all the Advanced SL models is a new way of manufacturing carbon-fibre frames (as outlined in issue 368, One Giant Leap), which in summary involves Giant weaving its own carbon-fibre sheets in-house to exacting specifications, and cutting each piece used in the frame with highly accurate, laser-cutting tools. That means over 500 precisely cut pieces make up the frame (compared to the previous model’s 380). There is also a new method used to bind it all together in the form of a carbon-nanotube infused resin that greatly strengthens the…

…BUT SCIENCE IS NOW UNLOCKING THE BEST MENTAL TOOLS AND TRICKS TO HELP YOU FIGHT TO THE FINISH At the Tour de France each year, panoramic helicopter footage captures the towering Alpine climbs and on-bike cameras record the explosive attacks, but the most important feature of the race remains invisible to all: the epic battles raging within the minds of the suffering riders. Cycling is all about the mind,” says 30-time Tour stage winner Mark Cavendish. “You have to train your brain as well as your legs.” And this is true for pro and amateur riders alike. When pain courses through your legs like snake venom, will you suppress it or succumb? When the slithering tentacles of self-doubt creep across your mind, will you banish them or sink into despair?…

FROM THE EDITOR… As if the chance to save 35 per cent and having every issue of Cycling Plus delivered direct to your door wasn’t enough of an incentive, we’re also giving new subscribers a Lezyne Caddy Sport Kit Saddle Bag worth £49.99. Waving helplessly at kindly fellow cyclists to see if they have a spare puncture repair kit is not an experience we want to repeat and this super-handy kit from Lezyne will arm you with all you need to get patched and pumped up and on your way! Paul Robson, Editor PLUS ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE OFFERS & COMPETITIONS AS PART OF OUR SUBSCRIBER CLUB! FEATURES RAP 6 multi-tool • Lezyne Sport Drive Hand Pump • Smart Kit for tyre repair • Matrix tyre levers GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE…

Cyclists don’t need Greta Thunberg to tell them that the world is getting hotter. The British summer of 2018 was the joint hottest since records began in 1929. In July 2019 Cambridge recorded the UK’s highest ever temperature of 38.7°C. Spring 2020 saw a record 626.2 hours of sunshine (following the wettest February on record). The length of warm spells has more than doubled in recent decades, from 5.3 to 13 days. And climate change is making Britain’s recent heatwaves 30 times more likely. Ignoring that this might presage the imminent end of the world, most cyclists have been quietly enjoying these strangely un-British, sun-soaked summers. But because UK riders are unaccustomed to such heat, isn’t it time we took hot-weather preparation seriously? “Hot weather increases physiological strain so exercise…

JEZ LOFTUS, MANAGER AT TREK BIKES ELECTRABIKE.COM “If you already have a bike in good working order, just pump up the tyres, oil the chain, check the brakes work, and you’re ready to roll. If it’s not seen daylight for a while, take it for a service. Some good-to-have accessories include USB-rechargeable front and rear lights, a good-quality D-Lock with cable, pannier bags, racks and mudguards plus a cycle helmet. It’s also wise to carry a few maintenance essentials in case you get stuck, including a spare inner tube, puncture repair kit and tyre levers, a mini pump, a multi-tool and charged spare lights. Remember that the best route by car isn’t always the best way by bike. To make your commute a more enjoyable experience try to reduce the…

The rear sprockets are the final port of call on this bicycle maintenance tour. They’re full of technology to help faster gear shifts, but also full of grease, mud and grass. Pick the worst lumps out with an old spoke or the blade of a thin, flat screwdriver. You’ll be surprised what hides in those tight spaces, even on expensive open cassettes. SCRUB REAR SPROCKETS Use hot soapy water and get scrubbing. Really stubborn grime can be shifted with a dose of degreaser and another hit with the scrubbing brush. Getting to the backs of the sprockets can be tricky, but it’s worth persevering as the cleaner you make it, the harder it is for new mud to stick. WIPE REAR SPROCKETS Give the sprockets a floss with a strip…

BAR 01 The Easton EA70 AX bar is flared, allowing for different hand positions. SADDLE 02 Fabric ALM saddle, my default seat of choice for high mileage. WHEELS 03 Hunt 30 Carbon Gravel Disc wheelset: smooth on the road and not skittish on mud. This bike has a shade over 1000km under the wheels and even though it’s as top-of-the-range as they come and out of the box and there was nothing obvious that needed changing, that kind of distance can nevertheless throw up a few custom tweaks that could improve what is already a great ride. usually cover around 80km in an outing, so setting up for the most comfortable riding position has become a priority. I found myself always looking to push further back on the saddle and…

£3699 British-designed, futuristic, folding ebike Gocycle’s latest ebike, the GXi, is the latest iteration of the clever, single-sided design that was first seen a decade ago when the company formed and launched its ebike range with the G3 model. Aimed primarily at commuters looking for a fast-folding ebike this iteration of the company’s notoriously stylish range adds a more integrated design and clever connectivity over the GX. The single-sided design is a great idea that works particularly well for commuters because the stub-axles that hold the wheels in place mean that punctures can be repaired without the need to remove the wheel at all. The sealed drivetrain is trouser-friendly and inside is housed a Shimano Nexus 3-speed hub gear that’s electronically controlled. It gives a gear range of a 39.1-inch…

IS THE SPECIALIZED ROUBAIX THE MOST IN FLUENTIAL ROAD BIKE EVER? WE LOOK AT HOW IT BROKE THE MOULD. John Cordoba, Head of Road and Gravel Product Management at Specialized, makes a bold claim when he says, “We believe the Roubaix is the most influential bike in the road endurance space.” Of course, this is the kind of thing you’d expect a brand insider to make, especially when a new model of bike is released. But is Cordoba right? When the Specialized Roubaix was launched in 2004 it could certainly be argued that it ushered in a new era of road-bike design. It was the first performance bike to really bring comfort to the fore – until the advent of the original carbon, bikes were either race or recreation, never…

Here at Cycling Plus we test a huge amount of kit and components, with over 400 individual items ridden and rated over the last year alone. our experience the best upgrades for your bike needn’t be the most exclusive or expensive or, in fact, the ones that come with professional rider endorsements. We think the best ones offer a tangible benefit to your ride experience but don’t have to cost the earth. In our experience the best upgrades for your bike needn’t be the most exclusive or expensive Rather, we like to recommend kit that we know works and will stay the distance, irrespective of price. Your bike is only at its best when it’s being ridden, rather than serviced and repaired. You won’t find the most rarefied ultra-light carbon…

For athletes who get such a thrill from forward propulsion, cyclists spend a surprising amount of time looking back. Nostalgia is woven into the fabric of the cycling world. It is stored in those golden memories of your first bike or Alpine climb, and in the jerseys and souvenirs gathered along the way. It fuels our lust for retro kit and vintage bikes. And it is the myths and legends of the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix that entice us to tune in each year, or make pilgrimages to ride the mountains and cobbles ourselves. From the wool jerseys and steel frames of the L’Eroica sportive, to our secret sock drawer shrines full of medals and race numbers, nostalgia is pivotal to the cycling experience. Nostalgia develops organically – we…

Many of us wouldn’t dream of going out on a ride without charging the Garmin, smartwatch, fitness tracker, cadence sensor, heart-rate monitor and intelligent lights these days. Tech is everywhere in the cycling world – to the point where it’s a challenge to work out what’s a must-have gadget and what’s an extraneous addition to the weight side of your ratio. “When I first started riding an OS map and a wired CatEye cycle computer were as high-tech as it got,” says Liam Holohan. Since then, technology in cycling has evolved at an exponential rate. “It’s something that has really been embraced by the professional peloton, looking to get the edge over their competition.” Take a lead from the elite when it comes to choosing what technology you need to…

The only predictable thing about this year’s race will be its unpredictability. We dissect the talking points of a highly unusual Tour de France Froome, Thomas, Bernal? One of the biggest winners from the Tour de France being pushed back is Chris Froome. His horrendous crash at the Dauphine last June had the air of the career-ender about it, and his desire at the start of the year to return to the Tour in 2020 and win it for a fifth time seemed an uphill task, given how quickly sport moves on. The pandemic layoff, however, has not only given him more time to recover but held back his rivals who’d gone into the season in a better place. So it’s all to play for, not just with the wider…

1919 Out of the Ashes The 1919 Tour de France not only had a flu pandemic to deal with, but also the aftermath of World War One… In the spring of 1919 Henri Desgrange, editor of L’Auto newspaper and the man who ruled the Tour de France with an iron fist, faced a dilemma with his beloved race. Two of the worst catastrophes ever to befall Europe, World War One and the (misnamed) Spanish flu pandemic, had killed 1.7 million of his countrymen, and the chances of sport resuming anytime soon was remote. France had suffered an appalling four years of war, losing 1.4 million soldiers, and more than 60 professional cyclists had been killed in action, including Tour winners Octave Lapize, Lucien Petit-Breton and François Faber. On top of…

THE ONLY BIKE BUYING ADVICE YOU CAN TRUST… We take our testing very seriously at Cycling Plus. For more than 25 years – an age when disc brakes, Di2 and super-wide 1x gearing weren’t even a glint in a designer’s eye – we have been putting road cycling products through their paces. Our Senior Technical Editor Warren Rossiter, has nearly a quarter of a century of riding experience in just about every discipline. He can separate the great from the also-rans when it comes to bikes, clothing, accessories – and more. If it gets our seal of approval you can be sure that you’ll be bagging a great buy! THE TECH TEAM’S SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR PREVIEWS HIS ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS. WAR REN ROSSITER SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR This month’s testing has been…

Originally scheduled for September, the 2020 Tour of Britain was lost to the pandemic but that didn’t stop Trevor Ward from sampling some of the best roads that were set to bring the curtain down on the race. This final stage from Stonehaven to Aberdeen, rescheduled for 2021, includes the fearsome Cairn o’Mount climb, a two-mile, 10 per cent monster. Come back for next issue’s Big Ride and catch a look at Trevor’s pain face……

You’ve decided to splash out on a superbike, but what’s best for you? Do you go race? A carbon lightweight to get that edge on your riding mates. Or do you opt for a more exotic titanium bike that’s designed to tackle everything the road can throw at it, with the promise of solo pursuits and long days in the saddle? The obvious choice when looking at superbikes is to go for the biggest global players: carbon from Asia, race bikes from Italy, exotic handmade metal bikes from America. However, we thought mid-Covid crisis and the effect that’s having on the UK economy that we should be looking to support home-based brands. But does our homegrown talent match up to the rest of the world? First up it’s Lancashire’s finest,…

THE ROLE OF THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER IS OF TENOVER LOOKED SO WE SPOKE TOO NEOF THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS FOR AN INSIDE GLIMP SEIN TO HOW TO STYLE A BIKE Torgny Fjeldskaar Industrial designer/design strategist whose CV includes stints at BMC, BMW and Cannondale amongst oyhers. We first came across Torgny Fjeldskaar’s work at the world’s biggest bike show, Eurobike, back in the early 2000s at one of Cannondale’s mega-stands, which was showcasing a cutting-edge concept bike. The radical geometry-shifting machine on display was a bike that could morph from flat-out time-trail machine into a more upright comfortable one. It was space-age stuff. We set out to meet the team behind this amazing flight of fancy and through one of our Cannondale contacts were introduced to Norwegian industrial designer…

Most of us have good intentions, but when it comes to cleaning our bikes it’s tempting to just give them a quick once-over and head indoors for a shower and some food. This being the case, every month or so it’s worth carving out the time to give your drivetrain a proper deep clean. This will not only make your bike run much more smoothly and quietly, and prolong the life of expensive components, but also allows you to spot any problems early and replace worn-out parts. And, of course, you’ll have earned a sense of glowing self satisfaction as you survey your gleaming steed. In part two this issue we’re looking at how to clean your gear cables, front mech and rear cassette. You’ll probably be surprised by the…

HOW WAS LIFE BEFORE THE BIKE? “It’s hard to recall. Growing up in Galway I’d cycle two and a half miles to and from school every day. It was a steep climb there but a great descent going home.” WHAT GOT YOU BACK CYCLING? “I stopped driving altogether in 2012. I was living in London and started cycling from Chiswick to Croydon for work every day. I’d sometimes ride out to the Surrey Hills and wonder what that unusual odour was – it was clear, fresh air. I now live on the Isle of Wight.” HOW IS IT CHANGING YOUR LIFE? “I work as an operating theatre support at St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight. My commute is 12 miles each way and cycling has helped me cope…

“The team have taken over the whole hotel for altitude training; no guests are allowed. We’re also divided into bubbles and have had Covid tests. We’ve never had a season like it.” That’s Nicolas Roche of Team Sunweb, who, unless a coronavirus second wave floods Europe, will line up in Nice on 29 August for his 10th Tour de France. Since its inception in 1903, only the two world wars have caused the cancellation of the race and this year’s two-month postponement, from late June to late August, is a first. There’s been no end to the discussion of the ramifications of this unique situation. How will riders cope with the lack of competition? What measures are in place to identify and then isolate potential Covid carriers? And what will…

In July there was a hole in my life where the Tour de France should have been. And it was then that I decided to cast off my usual role of armchair fan in favour of the more handson job of Director Sportif/Road Captain in PlayStation 4’s Tour de France 2020 game. Forget Zwift – this is where I get my pixel fix. I’d be leading the charge with Team Jumbo-Visma. There was a brief flirtation with the idea of getting, at long last, a Frenchman like Thibaut Pinot onto the top spot of its home race, but I’d still be sat here in 2021 making that particular pipe dream happen. At the other end of the spectrum, Team Ineos; with its embarrassment of riches in the three-pronged attack of…