Innehållsförteckning för August 31, 2017 från Cycling Weekly

Skinsuits are without doubt the single most important item of kit when it comes to aerodynamics. More important even than your bike or wheels. I was once told by someone in the know that Great Britain’s winning margin in the 2008 Olympic Team Sprint easily equated to the time saved by their ‘special’ skinsuits. Plasticised fabric was later banned and the clued-up teams now know fit (along with optimum fabrics) is the most important factor. Some riders use skinsuits so thin and delicate that they’re more or less disposable. They could set someone back over £1,000 (if they were even sold on the high street) and wouldn’t last much longer than two or three races. The skinsuits we’ve tested this week are much more affordable, but will still make a…

British champion Lizzie Deignan proved she is on track to reclaim the rainbow bands by winning the GP Plouay last weekend. The 28 year old took a convincing win in Brittany, putting two seconds into home favourite Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Canyon-SRAM) in the sprint after the pair escaped with four kilometres to go. The Boels-Dolmans rider told CW as long ago as January of her ambition to reclaim the world champion title in Bergen next month, but other than second places in the Ardennes in April and La Course last month, she has lacked the success of her rainbow-winning year. The Nationals and the Tour de Yorkshire were her only victories before Saturday’s success. Her only previous win at Plouay was in 2015, four weeks before winning the World Championships. “I…

Max Spedding, 20 Asfra RT, Oudenaarde, Belgium How’s Belgium? Oudenaarde is really good. Good training roads, good food and bike shops and the team shop is just a three-minute ride away. On a weekend there are barely any cars; it’s just cyclists. Myself, a Londoner and a Latvian have rented a house which is nice, too. How’s the season been? Frustrating. I was racing in France at the beginning of the season but then I got ill with glandular fever and I missed four months of the season. Why the move to Belgium then? My team in France started to fall apart. I wanted to come to Belgium to see what it was like because I’d heard it was very good. I have been here since the beginning of the…

Forget fancy sports fuel, rice pudding and baby food will be the secret ingredients to what London-based Jasmijn Muller hopes will be a successful End-to-End record attempt next month. The Netherlands-born 38-year-old management consultant is the current women’s national 24-hour champion, and set a new Zwift distance record earlier in the year. She now hopes to beat Lynn Biddulph’s 2002 Land’s End to John o’ Groats record of 52hr 45min before going on to set a new women’s 1,000-mile mark, also held by Biddulph (nee Taylor). Blended rice pud, she says, is just the ticket: “It’s not something I grew up with. The first time I was introduced to it was in a 12-hour time trial in 2013. I was like, ‘Wow, this is magic!’ Now I need to have…

STAR LETTER Mixed doubles Why not promote the ability of women cyclists by taking a leaf out of tennis mixed doubles and running a mixed pairs time trial? Riders such as Alex Dowsett, Geraint Thomas and Steve Cummings paired with Katie Archibald, Hayley Simmonds and Hannah Barnes. Then make it international. It would become a classic. Oh, and congratulations to Luke Rowe on reaching for the lanterne rouge with the panache of Wim Vansevenant. Richard Payne, email An all-inclusive sport Good to see that ITV4 could make Philippa York comfortable enough to join them at the Tour de France — it’s difficult to see that happening in a football environment. It was also good to see that Steve Cummings marked the anniversary of Tommy Simpson. Corporate morality is never going…

Santini QOM jersey This lightweight women’s jersey is designed with climbing speed in mind — as its name suggests. At 116g for the size medium, it won’t hold you back when you hit the steepest slopes. £84.99 www.zyrofisher.co.uk Review: September Specialized Diverge Comp Specialized has launched an update to the popular Diverge platform which now includes Future Shock technology, dropper post, 650b wheels along with geometries to suit male and female riders. £2,600 www.specialized.com Review: October Gore Equipe Light Cap Not only is the casquette a bona fide icon of cycling, it’s also useful worn under the helmet for sun protection or extra insulation depending on conditions. Gore’s looks like a good one. £24.99 www.goreapparel.co.uk Review: October…

For some cyclists, ease of breathing is affected by certain weather conditions. “In tough conditions, your body posture tends to change a little bit,” says Dickinson, “especially if the wind is blowing directly into your face — it’s a natural response to close up to try and conserve warmth. So check your posture when you are in those environments; try not to tense up through your shoulders — keep them relaxed, even if it feels unnatural to begin with.” Asthma and allergies can also be exacerbated by cold and dry environments. “Using a scarf or facemask helps humidify the air. This extra warmth and moisture in cold environments can help relax you a little too.”…

Matt Rowe Selected for the British Cycling Olympic Development Programme (ODP) aged 16, Matt became a junior European champion. He is now a coach at Rowe & King www.roweandking.com HIS COMMENT John has a lot of miles in his legs from 12 years of cycling, which helps explain his excellent level of success in only his first year of racing, already gaining a second-cat licence. The bad news is, it gets harder from here. Looking at John’s desire to increase his FTP, he should appreciate that, while FTP is important for performing and especially winning at National B level, there are other important attributes to develop — principally, explosive power. John needs to be able to make those big surges in effort for a few minutes, to be able to…

I’m building up an appetite” Hinckley CRC club member Barry Hodgkinson tells me as he pulls an extra long turn on the front of our ride through the quiet lanes of south Leicestershire. The reason for his extra effort is that today marks the beginning of the club’s 70th anniversary celebrations with a hog roast in a local pub later this afternoon. “I’ll have to add a bit on tomorrow’s ride to burn it off too,” he laughs. “I usually try to clock up 100 miles per week, although I don’t race these days, I stopped when I got to 80,” he continues. “It’s because of you the first half of the ride was up to a 16mph average, Barry!” shouts today’s run leader Steve Noel from behind, “we normally…

doctorhutch_cycling@timeinc.com In all the excitement running into the Vuelta, you may have missed some charmingly old-school news. A dope-control sample provided by Spanish veteran and 2008 Olympic road race champion Samuel Sánchez disclosed the presence of an illegal human growth hormone. He’s denied any wrongdoing, and requested the testing of the B-sample. This used to be what cycling was about. Dope tests, B-samples, and Googling pharmaceutical websites to check impossible spellings. A typical reporter at the Tour de France used to spend the race’s rest days like a coiled spring, waiting to pile into a car and race to the site of the latest denial of wrongdoing. It was a simple time. Cycling was clean, except when it wasn’t. You could tell when it wasn’t by trusting to the infallibility…

There are many, many variables in play here. Buying a bike is a doddle compared to buying a jersey. How warm, for instance? A winter-weight jersey will keep you warm, but mainly because it will ensure the weather is scorching hot for many weeks after purchase. There is a theory that global warming has actually been caused by Rapha. Tight or loose? There will be a school of thought, perhaps most vocally expressed by your non-cycling family, that looser is more flattering. But tighter is more aerodynamic and usually more comfortable, so sod ’em. Only buy a loose jersey if you plan to combine your cycling with a bit of recreational shoplifting, or you’re in the early stages of pregnancy, or both. Style. Some say you shouldn’t wear pro-team replica…

“I hope whatever job I end up in after cycling allows for naps. I’m accustomed to turning my brain off and letting my legs do the work” There’s a baby sleeping on the floor of this train. What a dream, being able to curl up into the fetal position whenever and wherever. She can even cry a little bit if she wants. The last time I did that I got into a lot of trouble with Shane Sutton; isn’t being a grown up very cruel. I’m a fan of babies sleeping in weird places. My first coach kept his baby in a wheel bag. My dad kept his on a stack of mattresses. My family runs a chain of bed shops which means keeping your firstborn son in the warehouse…

"It is better to focus limited available energy and resources on enforcing existing laws" The legal oddities of Charlie Alliston’s extraordinary case, where he ran into a pedestrian on his fixie and she died, have given rise to calls for reform of the law as it applies to cyclists from people including Mrs Briggs’s widower. He has stated that he wishes to see the laws in the Road Traffic Act 1988 relating to causing death by dangerous/careless driving be the same for cyclists as they are for motorists. He may though be wrong in believing that would have helped the prosecution of Alliston. The acquittal for manslaughter logically implies an acquittal for any proposed offence of causing death by dangerous cycling based either on the manner of riding or the…

Reassess your training zones It may have been a while since you last set your training zones, hopefully based on an FTP or lab test. With summer coming to an end, now is a good time to ensure that your training zones are suitably in line with your fitness levels. Given the extra training and racing load over summer, you may be pleasantly surprised. Whether you set your zones according to heart rate or power, keeping them accurate throughout the year is crucial to developing your performance. SiS Whey20 protein gel Following the success of its original lemon and strawberry flavoured Whey20 protein gels, SiS has added two new offerings to its collection, in the form of caramel and chocolate orange flavours. Each contains 20 grams of protein, just like…

2015 August 8 Competes in his first race, a cat 3/4 criterium. He finishes second in the Full Gas Cycling Summer Rumble. August 23 In just his fourth race, triumphs in the cat 3/4 Peterborough CC/Alston Country Homes Road Race. It’s his first cycling win. 2016 July 10 Eleven months after first racing, becomes an elite rider. By now, the Londoner is riding for Excel-Pedal Heaven Academy. August 14 Races the Leicester Castle Classic, part of the Motorpoint GP series. His biggest race yet, he finishes 14th as Chris Lawless wins for JLT-Condor. November 30 Announced as having earned a place on the team roster for new UCI Continental team Bike Channel-Canyon for 2017. May 6 Competes in the one-day Ronde van Overijssel 1.2 race in the Netherlands, his first…

50 MILES 1 Saddington Reservoir to Gumley Compose yourself as you pass the reservoir at the bottom, before the road suddenly snakes sharply upwards for a lung-busting climb, known as Heart Attack Hill. 2 Foxton Locks It’s easy to just whizz over the Grand Union Canal on the downhill run, but pulling over you’ll see the 200-year-old Grade II listed locks. 3 Tur Langton The Anglo-Saxon village is pure chocolate box Blighty, with thatched roofs and The Manor House that dates back to the 1600s, and also home to the excellent Mint and Ginger Coffee House. Favourite cafe Mint and Ginger Coffee House Situated in the idyllic courtyard of The Manor House, in the village of Tur Langton. The menu boasts everything from healthy salads to sausage sandwiches, to doorstep-…

Best for aero testing: wind tunnel or velodrome? “In an ideal world you would have a wind tunnel sitting right next a velodrome and you could do both. The good thing about a velodrome is that you are actually riding a bike in the position you’ve been put in. In a wind tunnel to all intents and purposes you’re on a glorified turbo trainer. So whether you can sustain or ride in a certain position on a turbo trainer is a completely different thing, but you get much better resolution with much better sensors in a wind tunnel and you can look at smaller details — possibly starting to look at yaw angles, velocity sweeps, etc. “Wind tunnels are quite expensive to build, run, maintain and there’s a lot of…

When you’re busting a gut up a climb or in a time trial, most of your pacing attention is directed towards your power output and heart rate. But there is another controllable factor that might be affecting your performance: your breathing. Though it seems entirely automatic, breathing is something you can get wrong. The good news is, most mistakes can be corrected. Getting your breathing wrong, in terms of rate or technique, can be extremely detrimental to your performance, according to Dr John Dickinson, a respiratory specialist at the University of Kent. “If you think about riding at your max up a steep incline or for a sustained period of time, your respiratory system and the action of breathing accounts for 10-15 per cent of your overall energy consumption.” Just…

Alex Richardson was growing discontent with his life. He was working long, excruciating hours in the financial heart of London as a shipbroker. For most of his colleagues, time away from work was limited to commuting, sleep and the occasional social outing. As a former national-level tennis player, Richardson was determined to keep up an exercise habit, making sure he did at least an hour a day, mainly focusing on muscle-building in the gym. Lean and well-built, he topped the scales at 84kg, and the gym provided a welcome release away from work. But he wasn’t happy. “I grew sick of being like everyone else. I wanted to break the mould,” he says. “I didn’t like not being who I thought I was anymore. I have always perceived myself as…

Elite lightweight rower and design engineer John Hale turned his attention to road racing this year, progressing quickly from fourth to second-cat. For 12 years he had cycled as a means of cross-training and commuting, but it wasn’t until 2017 that he began to delve into the competitive side of the sport. “Compared with rowing, cycling has far reduced the level of ‘faff’ in my daily routine, allowing me more flexibility for a life outside of sport and work,” he says. MAIN GOALS 1. To progress to first-cat (at least) 2. To start competing for a team in top UK races 3.To win a National B race within the next year CW: What motivates you to compete? I have been immensely competitive for a long time, and cycling is my…

1 Egmere Road The best climb of the ride. In the big ring and out of the saddle you climb out of Little Walsingham, between beautiful cottages before dragging up further through open countryside. 2 North Creake Beginning with a steep-for-Norfolk section of five per cent, this drags on for about five miles. Poor road surfaces and wind whipping inland from the sea conspire to make this tough. 3 Anmer Road Rounding a bend this looks like a proper hill, though it is easier to ride than it looks. Coming late in the ride you can either stamp up in the big ring or spin up. NAIL IT 4 Small lanes, big efforts With the Sandringham Estate well behind you, a short spell on the A148 is the last you…