Innehållsförteckning för February 2021 från Cycling Plus

I don’t think I’m old enough – and I’m certainly not young enough – for my bathroom habits to be the main focus of conversation but, for one welcome letter only, here goes… After reading The Science of Healthy Habits on p70 I’ve made some changes to my routine. Don’t worry, I’ve always washed my hands – no, I now do press ups, or squats, or have a little stretch after every trip. You’ll have to read the feature to make sense of this, but I bet a few of you will be joining me in doing things a little differently from here on in! SUBSCRIBE TODAY FOR ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE OFFERS & COMPETITIONS AS PART OF OUR SUBSCRIBER CLUB! HIGHLIGHTS… POWER STRUGGLE Machines such as the Scott Addict eRIDE…

£5459 Aero gravel bike with a unique drivetrain SPECIFICATIONS Weight 8.92kg (L) Frame 30T HM Carbon Fork Full carbon Gears Shimano GRX Di2 (48, 11-34) Brakes Shimano GRX BR-RX810 hydraulic disc Wheels Forza Vardar DB carbon 622x17c – rear wheel with Classified hub Finishing kit Ridley Aero C1 (one piece) (42cm) with out-front Garmin mount, WTB Venture TCS 700x40c tyres, Ridley Kanzo aero carbon post, Selle Italia XL-R saddle with alloy rails Belgian brand Ridley knows a thing or two about riding off-road because it’s been at the forefront of cyclocross for decades. As expected with its heritage in off-road racing, and the growth of gravel, Ridley has put together a bike with speed on its side. In fact, at first glance it looks like an iteration of the brand’s…

When it comes to performance road bikes, it’s very easy to be blinded into thinking you need to buy a pro peloton bike with glamorous cutting-edge design and top-of-the-line components. For most of us, bikes like that are simply out of reach and, in reality, you really don’t need to spend huge amounts to get a great performing bike straight out of the box – one that you’ll cherish and even want to upgrade further down the line. So, for this test, I have selected four bikes costing between £1999 and £2600, a far more achievable budget for many of us. Starting with a bike from the highly regarded Dutch brand Sensa, which is exclusive to online giant Merlin. The Giulia G3 shows that rim-braked bikes are still alive and…

£2200 Upgraded frame, downgraded price SPECIFICATIONS Weight 8.01kg(L) Frame C10 carbon Fork C10 carbon Gears Shimano Ultegra (50/34, 11-30) Brakes Shimano Ultegra Wheels Alex RXD3 Finishing kit Vittoria Rubino Pro Graphene 2.0 28c tyres, Boardman saddle, seatpost, alloy stem and bar Boardman Bikes launched in 2007 with co-founder, Olympic champion and world hour record breaker Chris Boardman aiming to bring his wealth of pro riding and aerodynamic experience to a new range of British-designed bikes. In its short history it’s piloted Olympic champions (Nicole Cooke, Beijing) and multiple champions in triathlon, mountain biking and road. Not bad for a bike you can buy in Halfords. The SLR chassis is split into two camps. This top-end 9-series bike uses the C10 carbon frame and fork, which at 900g (frame) and 350g…

£1850 Cutting-edge tech at a decent price Who’d have thought a set of wheels for £1850 wouldn’t raise a fiscal eyebrow? But compared to Enve’s SES range that peaks at over three grand, these are more affordable than its other USA-made models. Unlike the SES fare, which exhibits the contemporary idea of different rim shapes and depths front and rear, both of the Foundation’s 65mm rims are identical. Their design is still modern with a 21mm internal width and 28mm external width optimised for 25-28mm tyres, while the rim itself is tubeless-ready and comes with a hookless design for easy setup. Just ensure the tyre beads are sitting outside the central channel or the tyre won’t spread and seal, and lubricate the beads beforehand. The included tubeless valves create a…

£79.95 Safe headphones for riding These wireless, bone-conduction headphones allow you to listen to music or conduct a phone call while still being able to hear the world around you, specifically traffic. That’s because the speakers sit against your cheekbones and work through vibration, leaving your ears uncovered. The Openmove headphones boast an impressive specification: they’re Bluetooth 5.0, which connected rapidly to our smartphone, tablet, MP3 player and laptop, and they give voice notifications to tell you when they’re paired. They will even connect to two sources at once; if one is your phone they’ll automatically cut this in when you receive a call. Battery life is good: we got close to six hours of podcast playback. Sound quality is remarkably clear and a major improvement on earlier models (Aftershokz…

When Dr BJ Fogg, director of the behaviour design lab at Stanford University, decided to improve his strength, he started by doing two press-ups after each trip to his bathroom at home. Over time he added more press-ups, ending with a celebratory fist pump each time. Sometimes he did three press-ups. On other days he did 10. But the volume was irrelevant, what mattered was that he was nurturing one of our most potent neurological weapons: a habit. Today, without thinking about it, Dr Fogg performs over 80 press-ups every day. To develop his habit-building formula, Dr Fogg distilled cutting-edge research in psychology, neuroscience, behaviour change and persuasive technology into a system he calls ‘Tiny Habits’. It involves starting with small, achievable changes (two press-ups), anchoring a new habit to…

In new film The Racer, Belgian actor Louis Talpe stars as a fictional rider trying to salvage his career at the 1998 Tour de France, amid blood doping and backstabbing. He speaks to Cycling Plus about being in the shape of his life and the help he got from cycling royalty Striving for authenticity, actors are renowned for immersing themselves into their roles. Take Robert De Niro, who obtained a taxi driver’s licence prior to starring as the psychotic Travis Bickle in Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver. De Niro reportedly would work long shifts ferrying people around New York City. For Louis Talpe, the Belgian star of new cycling film The Racer, which depicts an ageing domestique – a team’s support rider for its leader - fighting for his career at the 1998 Tour de…

THEN 15st (Blood cholesterol score: 10) NOW 11st 6lbs (Blood cholesterol score: 4) HOW WAS LIFE BEFORE THE BIKE? “I cycled a lot as a kid, but work and part-time DJing took its toll. I had several heart attacks and, eventually, a bypass operation. I’ve a genetic condition called familial hypercholesterolaemia that keeps my cholesterol levels very high and leads to clogged arteries if not kept in check.” HOW HAS CYCLING CHANGED YOUR LIFE? “After the operation, I was prescribed exercise – along with meds and a change in diet – which became a life-changing challenge. The combination of the passion I’ve developed for cycling coupled with an interest in nutrition and fitness has helped me overcome and control my health issues.” HOW OFTEN DO YOU RIDE? “At least three…

Eddy Rhead finds beauty and purity in unlikely places, usually while riding his bike. Where others see just concrete pillars holding up a motorway flyover, Eddy sees an “epic piece of architecture designed to improve people’s lives”. As the editor of The Modernist magazine, he has been extolling the merits of post-war buildings and infrastructure – ranging from power stations and office blocks to bridges and churches – that most of us, at best, take for granted or, at worst, find ugly and intrusive. Today’s ride starts ominously in an industrial estate on the edge of Manchester but will, Eddy assures me, take us past some stunning examples of Modernism, as well as through some beautiful countryside. “This would be considered a decent route from a purely cycling point of…

In a traumatic 2020, we’ve all missed out on the things we love to do. For Cycling Plus, high up on that list is our annual pilgrimages to the mountains of Europe. We nominally call these trips ‘work’ but really it can only ever be a pleasure to call the asphalt of Alpe d’Huez and its ilk our office for the day. It’s hard to remember a summer that’s passed by without at least one day of fun in an Alpine or Pyrenean playground. Photographer Michael Blann knows how we feel. As we spoke over Zoom in October, he was due to be at the Giro d’Italia, working on a shot of the Stelvio Pass as the race went by that he’d had his eye on for a while. Given…

BIKE-BUYING ADVICE YOU CAN TRUST… We take our testing very seriously at Cycling Plus. For more than 25 years – back to 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. Warren Rossiter, our senior technical editor 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. And if it gets our seal of approval, you can be sure that you’ll be bagging a great buy! CYCLING PLUS’S SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR PREVIEWS HIS ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS… WARREN ROSSITER SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR This month is a heady mix of cutting-edge…

£999.99 The classic all-rounder goes flat SPECIFICATIONS Weight 12.2kg (medium) Frame Mjölnir steel Fork Chromoly Gears Shimano Sora (46/30, 11-34) Wheels Jalco XCD23 rims on KT-K68 hubs Brakes Shimano BR-MT200 disc Finishing kit Maxxis Overdrive Excel 35c tyres (production bike gets WTB Nano 40c tyres), Genesis alloy 660mm bar, Genesis saddle, Genesis alloy stem, Genesis alloy seatpost, Genesis grips, cage pedals The Croix de Fer (CDF) was influential as a bike that helped start the trend for road bikes that could go beyond tarmac. It had bigger tyres and clearance, more relaxed geometry than a racer but not as sedate as a tourer, and it had all the fixtures and fittings you’d need for globe-trotting adventures. So it’s no surprise the Croix de Fer ended up being a hugely popular…

£1999 A taste of Italy via Bedfordshire SPECIFICATIONS Weight 9.61kg (L) Frame Toray T500, T700 carbon Fork Carbon Gears Shimano 105 (50/34, 11-32) Brakes Shimano 105 Wheels Vision Team 30 Disc Finishing kit Impac RacePac 25c tyres, Tifosi alloy bar, stem and seatpost, Selle Italia X-Base saddle The Scalare is Tifosi’s entry-level carbon platform. There are two models available, this being the most expensive, with a cheaper Shimano Tiagra-equipped model at £1499.99. You can also buy the Scalare as a frameset for your own build at a cost of £949. This bike looks striking with its soft, matte finish and slick graduated paint. The frame follows a traditional diamond shape – no fashionable dropped stays here – but it certainly isn’t dated, and with its neat, flat-mount disc fittings, thru-axle…

£2599.99 A real Sheffield steal SPECIFICATIONS Weight 8.37kg (XL) Frame Toray T700 carbon Fork Carbon Gears Shimano Ultegra (50/34, 11-32) Brakes Shimano Ultegra Wheels Fulcrum Airbeat 400 Finishing kit Jack Brown Mile Muncher 30c tyres, Selle Italia Flite saddle, Selcof Zeta V2 post At the heart of the Pro Carbon is a new frameset that’s built using Toray carbon, like the Scalare. With a claimed weight of 1100g for a medium frame and 400g for the fork, it’s a reasonably light chassis, particularly at this price. The smooth-profiled head tube flows into a bow-legged, aero-bladed fork (1) that’s reminiscent of Pinarello’s forks. The idea behind this wide stance is that air passes more smoothly between spinning wheel and fork leg, reducing drag. The sturdy down tube morphs from wide and…

WAHOO KICKR 2O2O £999.99 Livability The Kickr comes almost completely assembled, with an 11-speed SunRace cassette (Shimano/SRAM compatible) pre-installed, so setup is fussfree. Axle adaptors are included and work with most types of bikes. The height of the flywheel can also be adjusted to suit bikes of differing wheel size too. The integrated handle makes lifting it easy to do and the support legs have quick-release buttons, so stowing the unit away after your session is a quick and simple job. Top performing? Connecting to apps, such as Zwift, via Bluetooth was quick and easy, and the 7.25kg flywheel contributes to an excellent ride feel with plenty of inertia. The Kickr also reacts very quickly to changes in gradients in simulation mode, and to ERG mode power shifts during interval…

£104.99 Ebike-approved pew Prologo’s Proxim saddle design is the result of research undertaken by the Polytechnic University of Milan, which used feedback from a broad spectrum of riders. While it’s being marketed as an ebike-specific saddle, we think that Prologo has produced a slick-looking seat with a superbly comfortable design that’ll work on any bike. The Proxim W400 is underpinned by a carbon-infused hull and T2.0 titanium-alloy rails. This ‘performance’ model is 153mm wide and 255mm long (a trekking version at 163mm wide is also available). The hull itself is split into three ‘zones’ (the padding mirrors this design), with each section offering different levels of flexibility. The tip of the nose can flex more than the slender mid-section, with the heel of the saddle offering lateral flex too. The…

SPECIFICATIONS Weight 6.91kg (58cm) Frame Carbon Fork Carbon Gears SRAM Red AXS with power meter (48/35, 10-33) Wheels Zipp 303 NSW Tubeless disc Brakes SRAM Red hydraulic disc Finishing kit Zipp SL speed carbon stem, Zipp SL 70 Ergo carbon bars, Zipp SL Speed 20mm offset carbon seatpost, Prologo Scratch M5 Nack saddle, Schwalbe Pro One Evo 25mm tyres £9799 Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso join forces With nine Grand Tour wins and 31 years racing between them El Pistolero (Alberto) and Ivan the Terrible (Basso) know bikes, and all of that knowledge has been applied to the Aurum Magma – a premium race machine they’ve designed to be the fastest all-round road bike “born from experience”. The Magma is two years in the making with both Contador and Basso…

Gerard Vroomen, designer at Italian bike company 3T, has never been a man to conform. His first forays into cycling as one of the founders of Cervélo kickstarted the aero-road bike revolution, while his company Open Cycles also pushes boundaries. 3T’s pioneering status was forged in components: its bars, stems and seatposts were the pros’ choice in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. More recently, it’s broadened out into bikes. Vroomen’s partnership led to the radical 1x Strada road (2017) and the original Exploro back in 2016, which is widely regarded as the first aero gravel bike. In short, Vroomen’s an innovator. So does this disruptive DNA express itself in 3T’s RaceMax? Yes, albeit in a subtler form, highlighting the importance of versatility and furthering aero credentials. The RaceMax is available…

ANDY CREMIN, CYCLING DEVELOPMENT PROJECT MANAGER BIKEABILITY.ORG.UK “Cycling is not as rough in the autumn and winter as some would have you believe. Admittedly, it is a bit wetter and undoubtedly colder, but by following a few key pointers, anyone can keep the good cycling habits they’ve built up during the summer of lockdown. Obviously, there are the usual kit essentials that you should stock up on (waterproofs, warm layers etc), but the main thing is to ensure you have a decent set of lights for those gloomy days, as well as in the evenings. Another way to ensure that you are visible to vehicles on the road is by paying extra attention to road positioning. Staying out of the gutter and in the primary or secondary position when riding…

Greg Henderson knows a thing or two about going downhill fast. A professional cyclist of 16 years until 2017 – 10 of those spent at the top WorldTour level – this Kiwi rode 10 Grand Tours as a sprinter and lead-out man. Six foot tall and 71 kilos, on the days in between leading out the likes of pro André Greipel for sprint victories, he was a paid-up member of the grupetto – the group of riders that forms at the rear end of Grand Tour stages such as the Tour de France, particularly during the mountain stages. Its composition is a mixture of riders who’ve done their work and dropped back, stage hunters taking a break for the day, general classification riders who’ve catastrophically blown up or those who’ve…

Despite their colossal, magisterial form, getting around the mountains is, generally, a relatively straightforward proposition; typically, you go up one road and down another and there’s little chance of getting lost. Yet in terms of the resources available to us to expand our knowledge of the mountains, inspire us to visit them and guide our passage through them, in print and an online, it’s busting at the seams. Here are some of our favourites… Climbbybike.com A reliably excellent site for our route planning, this website has a mountain habit, which it’s no interest in curbing. Where there’s a categorised climb, this website is here to share every last detail, including detailed profiles, images, videos, descriptions and rider reviews. Its USP is that it ranks climbs on a world, country and…

£8349 Ebike without the downsides SPECIFICATIONS Weight 10.9kg (Large), 11.7kg with xTra battery Frame Addict eRIDE Disc HMX carbon Fork Addict eRIDE HMX carbon Gears Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 (50/34, 11-30) Brakes Shimano BR-R9170, 160mm rotors Wheels Syncros Capital 1.0 40e Disc E-drive system Mahle 250W rear hub motor, 460Wh battery inc xTra Power bottle cage battery Finishing kit Schwalbe PRO ONE Microskin 700x30c tyres, Syncros Creston iC SL Carbon bar/stem, Syncros Belcarra Regular 1.0 saddle, Syncros Duncan SL Aero seatpost Scott’s new e-road range is topped by this Premium model, and all four bikes share its HMX-grade carbon frame and fork. This flagship model has components that wouldn’t look out of place on a pro-Tour bike, with its full Dura-Ace Di2 groupset and Syncros Capital carbon wheels. It’s pretty much…

THE BIG PICTURE HOT PROSPECT It’s been five years since double Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso retired from racing, but he sure does still look the part swinging around a switchback at speed. Here he is on the volcanic island of Tenerife last summer, aboard the bike that he and erstwhile rival Alberto Contador have been developing over the past couple of years: the Aurum Magma. Find out more about the bike on p66 and more about Tenerife in our Mountains supplement.…

01 TORQ EXPLORE FLAPJACK £1.65 Our favourite flapjacks have a new great flavour – banana cake. These vegan-friendly flapjacks are all about taste (which is great) and texture (which feels homemade). It’s about as far from a ‘sports food’ as it’s possible to get yet they still deliver 405kcals of energy, 5g of protein and 4.4g of fibre with just 1.5g of saturated fat and no artificial flavours or preservatives. 02 EFFETTO MARIPOSA TAPPABUCO £12 The advantage of tubeless tyres is far fewer punctures, but they are not immune to cuts and holes. If the worst happens when you’re out on the bike then this handy Tappabuco (Italian for ‘stop gap’) will get you out of a jam. Simply thread one of the included plug strips through the eye in…

The Monsal Trail – winding eight family-friendly miles through mighty Peak District tunnels, cuttings and viaducts – is a candidate for Britain’s most spectacular rail trail (although the nearby Manifold and Tissington Trails aren’t exactly bad either). Its gateway cafe is the roomy old station complex at Hassop outside Bakewell, near the trail’s eastern end. It’s a hub for all sorts of cyclists, from 100-miler chain gangs, to trail dawdlers, to balance-bike toddlers. Duncan, the owner, reckons 90 per cent of customers are there just for the trail (half bringing their own bikes, half hiring: Hassop rent out 300 a day in summer). The other 10 per cent still represent plenty of Lycra in the cake queue, though. Ebikes are an increasingly common sight on and around the trail: Duncan…

£1999 Dutch courage for less than two grand SPECIFICATIONS Weight 8.19kg (58cm) Frame G5 carbon Fork G5 carbon Gears Shimano Ultegra (52/36, 11-28) Brakes Shimano Ultegra Wheels Supra RA Pro Finishing kit Supra Speed Line bar, stem and seatpost, Schwalbe One Performance 25c tyres, Selle San Marco Shortfit saddle Dutch brand Sensa is exclusive to Merlin Cycles in the UK and it has forged a reputation over the years for aggressively priced bikes that can compete with some of the best brands around. The G3 Evo has a list price of £2249.99 but Merlin, as exclusive retailer, sells it at £1999. This is the third generation of the Giulia chassis (hence its moniker G3). I’ve tested both previous models and I’ve been impressed. The nomenclature can be confusing. The Giulia…

After a couple of years when value for money with bikes seemed to be in the doldrums thanks to weak dollars and pounds, happily it appears we have turned a corner – every bike here packs in more value than I’ve seen in the last few selling seasons. The Sensa is a classic European race bike that even sports rim brakes. It is well-appointed, good-looking and exciting to ride, though its overriding feel is one of firmness. The Tifosi combines endurance-bike smoothness with sporty handling to great effect but it doesn’t quite match the value of its rivals. To find the winner it came down to a close competition between two vanguards of value: Planet X and Boardman. The Planet X left me astounded: full Shimano Ultegra, a quality bang-up-to-date…

From £152.99 Rudy’s latest flagship shades arrive Rudy Project’s Cutline sunglasses stand apart from the current and ever-growing crop of retro-inspired shield lenses – a wave that first started with Peter Sagan’s 100% Speedcraft endorsement and has spread like wildfire ever since. Rather, Rudy’s new flagship model takes the one-piece shield lens and develops it into something of a multi-featured technical marvel. The Cutline comes with myriad lens options, ranging from photochromic through to transparent, and also offers RX-insert compatibility for those who need corrective lenses. We chose the Multi-laser option because its grey base tint with a mirror-finished, multi-toned orange layer makes it an excellent all-round lens for those more variable days that drift from bright sunshine to cloudy and dark. The lens does an excellent job of dialling…

£129.99 Lightweight lid from the German locksmiths The StormChaser is Abus’s latest addition to its helmet roster, sitting below the aero-optimised GameChanger (£179.99) and the range-topping AirBreaker (£229.99). It shares plenty of what makes these premium helmets among the best around. Our test helmet tipped the scales at a scant 238.4g for a size large (59-61cm). Similarly priced helmets from rival brands, such as Lazer, Giro and Bell come in at more than 310g for the same size. This reduced weight is due to Abus’s designs featuring a much lower volume of EPS foam and a smaller physical size, which makes for a good look, providing they fit your head shape. Shape-wise, the StormChaser is more oval than rounded and internally has deep channels running from the seven forward-facing vents…

The Time Triallist 1 ROHAN DENNIS Team Ineos rider Rohan Dennis is accustomed to pain and pressure. He set a leg-flaming UCI hour world record of 52.491km in 2015, and earned back-to-back world time-trial titles in 2018 and 2019. But the 30-year-old Australian has learnt to order his thoughts in difficult situations to ensure he focuses on what matters. “Never look at the big picture or it gets too much,” explains Dennis. “Imagine if in Yorkshire (at the 2019 World Champs) I was thinking, ‘Okay, first kilometre all good, but I’ve got 53km to go until I finish.’ I would never have won. So I broke it down into chunks. I go, ‘Okay, this is the flat section.’ Then I move onto the next section. You can’t stick the whole…

“WHEN IT COMES TO THE PHYSICAL SIDE, FOCUS ON AEROBIC ENDURANCE AND MUSCULAR STRENGTH” More than at any other time, you’ll be looking at making the new year an enjoyable time to be in the saddle. Making a comeback from a Covid-19-wrecked summer should give you the momentum and purpose to ensure that 2021 is your best year yet. To make it so, it’ll pay to use the winter ‘break’ as a time to build your fitness, ironing out any weaknesses and setting your sights on spring and – hopefully – a whole host of rides, events and achievements. “In any year, winter training is all about building the base,” says Liam Holohan. “But what does that mean specifically? I like to think of it as putting the foundations in…

Cyclists and runners have plenty to learn from each other. For runners, cycling can be a great way to add extra training volume without damaging the body by pounding pavements every day. For road cyclists, short jogs can boost bone density, enhance cardiovascular fitness and provide a mental break to keep bike rides fresh. Adam Hansen of Lotto Soudal, who completed 20 consecutive Grand Tours between 2011 and 2018, believes running helped him to stay injury free. “I have done ultra-trail running and it’s great for strength and durability. I did a running event a few years ago, just a week after the UCI Road World Championships, and I remember sneaking out of the hotel to go for a run. The other cyclists thought I was mad.” But cyclists who…

“It’s been a pleasure to bounce around on 42mm tyres, while not having to pay for it with extra weight”KATIE NICHOLLS PRICE £2099 UPGRADES £87.49 (LIGHTS AND PEDALS) KM RIDDEN 800 SPECIFICATION Weight 9kg (XS) Frame BallisTec carbon Fork Full carbon Gears Shimano 105 Wheels Formula RX-512 Brakes Shimano 105 hydro disc Finishing kit Cannondale 3 alloy bar, stem & post, Fabric Scoop Women’s Sport saddle, WTB Ridder TCS Light tyres This October I celebrated a year spent riding the Cannondale Topstone 105 and 12 months since I first experienced the somewhat refreshing pleasure of riding a gravel bike for the first time. I have to admit that (in terms of riding) 2020 has been fun for me. And there are not many people using that word as we scramble…