Innehållsförteckning för September 7, 2017 från Cycling Weekly

As most of you will already know, last week’s issue of Cycling Weekly contained an indefensible caption in our Ride With feature on the Hinckley CRC. We issued an apology online last week, but as my chance to speak directly to you I’m going to restate it here. The idiotic caption should never have been written on the page in the first place. It was added by a sub-editor who was already due to the leave the company, and only he knows why he did it. But unfortunately it was missed by other members of the team, including myself, in the rush to finish the magazine on press day. We apologise unreservedly to the rider in the photograph, the Hinckley CRC and all our readers. We are passionate about all…

Sky rider Ian Standard believes his stint shepherding team leader Chris Froome through the Vuelta a España will help him achieve Classics glory in 2018. Stannard, who recently inked a new three-year deal with Sky, is riding the Vuelta for the first time since 2012. The Essex rider struggled in the Classics this year and wasn’t able to repeat his 2016 form when he was third in Paris-Roubaix. Fourteenth in Kuurne- Brussels-Kuurne was his best result. “You get a lot of fitness from this, whereas if I did the Tour, normally I wouldn’t do much afterwards and I would start the winter quite unfit and have a lot of work to do,” he told CW. “Hopefully, next year should be a bit easier in that respect.” Sky overlooked Stannard in…

Chris Lawless is optimistic that he will be given opportunities to win races for Team Sky in 2018, after signing a three-year contract with the British outfit. The sprinter, 21, penned his first WorldTour contract last week, with Sky seeing off rival teams to secure the Wigan man’s signature. Highly-rated since a young age and victor in nine races in 2016 riding for JLT-Condor, this year has seen him develop even further with US squad Axeon-Hagens Berman. His stand-out results have been winning the ZLM Tour, finishing second at the National Championships to become the U23 national champion, and most recently winning stage four of the Tour de L’Avenir. This week he is riding the Tour of Britain with the Great Britain team. Arriving at Sky with a winning pedigree,…

1970: Milan-San Remo — Michele Dancelli 1972: Hour record — Eddy Merckx 1981: World Championship road race — Freddy Maertens 1982: World Championship road race — Giuseppe Saronni 1994: Vuelta a España — Tony Rominger 1995: Hour record — Tony Rominger 1995: World Championship road race — Abraham Olano 1996: Paris-Roubaix — Johan Museeuw 1996: Giro d’Italia — Pavel Tonkov 1998: Paris-Roubaix — Franco Ballerini 2013: World Championship cyclo-cross — Sven Nys 2015: Tour of Flanders (women) — Elisa Longo Borghini…

Scott has completely committed itself to disc braking by adding the Scott Foil aero bike to its already established Addict RC disc race bike and Addict range — including the women’s Contessa ranges. Scott says since other types of racing use disc brakes to enhance performance or ensure lap-by-lap predictability, power and control, why not bicycles too? Scott believes discs are the future and will now offer them on all of its bikes. The new Scott Foil is a complete race bike that is not all about aerodynamics. It strikes a balance between aero, lightweight, power, control and comfort. For the Foil, control is the most important of these attributes, which is why it has been given disc brakes. Frame rework The first Scott Foil had a special patented profile…

What Arm-warmers are one — OK, two — of the most useful items of bikewear. They’ll keep out the chill of an early-morning start or serve as an extra layer of insulation under a rain jacket. When they’ve done their job they’ll roll up into a compact little cylinder that fits perfectly into a jersey pocket. Choosing a pair is not entirely straightforward, however: there are woollen ones, waterproof and windproof ones, anatomically shaped ones, hi-vis ones and even a pair embedded with thousands of tiny beads of glass to turn you into a human beacon when you’re riding at night. Why A quick survey of the Tech team revealed that most of us rely on a single pair of arm-warmers for all conditions rather than picking waterproof ones for…

For the past year, we’ve been helping to overhaul the training schedules of readers from all across the UK. From new mums and shiftworkers, to comeback kings and aspiring elites, a diverse mix of candidates have come to CW for assistance with realising their riding dreams. On hand with expert input has been our resident coach, Matt Rowe ( www.roweandking.com), who has 20 years of experience, having raced bikes since he was nine — including a stint at elite level. Matt took apart and reassembled the schedules of the five CW readers featured below — each one was originally featured as a ‘Training Makeover’ in these pages. We’ve since crossed our fingers in the hope that Matt’s advice — aiming to improve the time-efficiency and specificity of each rider’s training…

When he was diagnosed with the liver condition primary sclerosing cholangitis aged just 17, Justin Grace was told that within the next 15 years he’d need to have a liver transplant. The disease left him feeling fatigued, sick with stabbing pains and often unable to enjoy a normal teenage life. “The fatigue was one of the worst things,” Grace recalls. “I would have short periods where I felt really unwell, like my body was poisoned and I’d want to curl up in a ball. At times it was like I had a knife stuck in the back of my ribs.” In striving to become a pro cyclist, Grace’s choice of disciplines was limited. “I think my illness steered me towards becoming a sprinter. It really affected my ability to be…

1 Druidale A five-mile climb with a series of severe gradients. There is a dip and a plateau midway, allowing you some respite, so you don’t have to hold back on the steep opening two miles. 2 Archallagan They don’t warn you about this stinger. Coming just after a descent and before the village of St Johns, it is a nasty ascent that rears up to 20 per cent gradients and barely dips beneath 10. 3 Round Table If you haven’t exerted yourself too much by now, this is a climb that you can pace yourself on, gradually working your way up the plantations. The toughest sections are near the top. NAIL IT 4 Injebreck The big one. Snaefell Mountain may steal all the publicity, but for those with knowledge…

As everyone who has followed his career over the past decade would have expected, Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) is bowing out of the pro peloton in style. Throughout the second week of the Vuelta a España, he produced an exhibition of attacking racing — sometimes successful, sometimes unsuccessful, but always thrilling to watch. It is, however, also clear why the 34-year old has chosen to make this race his last before retiring. He remains as eager as ever to put on a show, and retains the ability to shake up a race — on stage 12, for instance, the pressure he caused by attacking on a second-category climb just over 20km from the finish indirectly contributed to overall leader Chris Froome (Sky) crashing twice on the following descent. But Contador these…

doctorhutch_cycling@timeinc.com When I was a student I noticed, in the classified ads of this very magazine, a Lotus 110 monocoque carbon frame. This was the road-going version of the bike Chris Boardman rode in the 1992 Olympics — the carbon-fibre bike that looked as if it had been beamed back directly from 2030. It was my dream bike. It was £150, which even in the 1990s was the bargain of the century. I had to overcome some scruples about paying that little for it from someone who didn’t really know what it was worth — he was a non-cycling Lotus employee who’d bought it when the company stopped making bikes and wanted rid of excess stock — but overcome them I did. Because I was saving up for the rest…

Sky leader Chris Froome looked on course to rack up his longest stint in a Grand Tour leader’s jersey after amassing 12 days in red at the Vuelta a España come the race’s second rest day. If he is able to hold it all the way to the race’s finish in Madrid to win the Vuelta he will have spent 18 days in the jersey, topping his total of 14 days in the lead from the Tour de France in 2015. Not even two crashes on the same descent on the Vuelta’s 12th stage could loosen Froome’s grip on the GC contest. So deep are Sky’s reserves at the Vuelta that mountain domestique Mikel Nieve was allowed the freedom to make a bid for the stage win on the brutally…

“It’s great to have this level of racing in the UK, and the amount of support it gets now” Last weekend the Tour of Britain started and, while I’m not there this year, I think for me especially and for most of the British guys it’s great to have that level of racing in the UK and the amount of support it gets now. Even the Polish guys that we have on the team at One Pro Cycling, they don’t show much of an emotional side usually but they are excited for it. Probably my earliest memory of the Tour of Britain is one of the stages in London, I can’t remember what year it was but it started off like a crit. I remember being ridiculed before the race…

STAR LETTER Goodbye George This concerns my old cycling pal, George Blackadder, from Pathhead, Midlothian. George was a keen racing cyclist, both at time trials and grass track racing and we were both regulars at the Meadowbank Track League. He was often seen in the Scottish Borders, competing in time trials on his 81in fixed and in later years, he and his wife Erica would travel to France to watch Le Tour where they would often camp out overnight in the mountains to gain good views of the cyclists. In his early years, George worked as a plumber and gas fitter and like many of his generation he worked in the presence of asbestos. When he reached 70, he started to have treatment for his lung condition. This was kept…

On September 5, 1982 Italy’s Giuseppe Saronni rode a Colnago Nuovo Mexico to victory in the World Championship road race at Goodwood, Sussex. So taken was Colnago with the victory that he decided to create a ‘Saronni’ sub-brand, with the victor’s name on the seat and down tubes. Not to mention the seatstays and fork crown, and his face on the head tube. It was quite a tribute. Every frame was finished in the same deep red — a colour that quickly became known as Saronni red.…

Knog Blinder Road 400 light Knog is all about lights being simple, bright and robust. We can’t wait to start testing its latest range now that the nights are drawing in. In fact, we can’t wait for winter, honest… Price: £82.99 Test report: October Contact: www.knog.com Wahoo Elemnt Mini Wahoo is livening up the cycle computer market with products that rival market leader Garmin. Its new Mini comes in under £80 and weighs a featherweight 32g. It’ll connect via Bluetooth and ANT + to external devices and offers customisable pages. Price: £79.99 Test report: September Contact: uk.wahoofitness.com Sportful Fiandre NoRain leg-warmers NoRain nanotechnology keeps out the rain for longer and Sportful says it has added that protection without compromising comfort or breathability. Anything that makes riding in the rain more bearable…

Don’t: limit yourself with your language. Before you’ve achieved your goal, remember that phrases such as ‘I can’t’ are far more limiting than ‘I haven’t yet.’ Even if you fail to complete your first adversity session, there are many more in which you can succeed in the future. Do: find someone else who is also looking to stretch their comfort zone, and plan your adversity training together. Working on a project with someone else increases your likelihood of success and you will spur each other on to ensure neither quits. Do: regard each ‘stretch’ of your comfort zone as a challenge, not a threat. Allow yourself to feel excited about what you are doing. If you are not excited and passionate about it, you have picked the wrong goal. Do:…

In March, self-confessed ‘cake-rider’ Maz Kaczmarczyk wanted to become stronger and improve his performance in the disciplines of cyclo-cross and road circuit racing. Coach Matt Rowe was keen to retain the social aspect of Maz’s riding but introduce some discipline and specificity to sessions. Maz says… I’ve pretty much shaped my training around Matt’s plan, making sure I kept the cafe and cake rides — even if they included a side order of ice cream at 10am. I’m definitely feeling fresher at the end of the week, but at the same time my Training Peaks account is telling me I’m improving. As well as the on-the-bike training improvements Matt suggested, I have found that rest and recovery is key. I’ve made gains with power, which is noticeable when riding in…

Andrew Langford, British Liver Trust chief executive “The liver is similar to the heart and lungs in that if it isn’t functioning, you die. Medically, it’s an essential organ. Consequently, when people have liver disease — no matter what the cause — the only successful treatment is a transplant. There are many different causes: it can be genetic, as in Justin’s case, or an auto-immune response, or lifestyle factors such as alcohol or obesity. “The liver doesn’t really show symptoms until it’s badly damaged. Things to look out for include unusual tiredness; memory problems; jaundice; darker urine (if not due to dehydration); and fatty, floating faeces. If you are concerned, speak to your GP. One in five people is at risk of liver damage; you can complete the British Liver…

Club secretary Sandy Lindsay MBE’s instructions are unequivocal as we split into ‘faster’ and ‘slower’ groups at the start of Deeside Thistle’s Sunday morning club run. “I know there are some Ferraris in this group,” he says to us after the ‘slower’ group has already set off. “But the other group has some Morris Minors. When you regroup at Potarch, I want you to stay together — don’t drop them.” As we clip in, ride captain Neil Howarth, a club member for 47 years, reiterates the point to me: “The last thing you want is the fast guys thumping along at the front when there’s newbies or slower riders in the group. They don’t get the chance to settle in.” So Howarth expertly keeps our pace reined in at a…

Hayley Simmonds (Team WNT Pro Cycling) and Dan Bigham (Brother NRG-Wattshop) justified their status as pre-race favourites, battling the elements to take the national 10-mile titles on Sunday. The conditions certainly made for a challenging day on the L1021 course near Cockermouth, with blustery winds causing problems for many, but Simmonds and Bigham blew away the field with their respective victories. For Simmonds, 29 and from Cambridgeshire, it was a fourth national 10-mile title in a row, while Bigham’s win gave him an eighth national crown of 2017. “It was really windy out there,” said Simmonds. “I rode the course yesterday and it was sunny and warm, but the strong crosswinds blew me towards the centre of the road and it was difficult to keep the bike under control.” Despite…

The Tour of Britain attracts many new spectators to the sport, so it seemed this might be the moment for a guide to watching. If you travel to the event by car, allow time for extra traffic. There’s some bloody bicycle race on. Pick a good spot. Preferably uphill, and the closer you can be to a pub, the better. Most pubs on the route will have the race on TV. Note that ‘watching the TV’ does not make you a customer, and if you want to use the toilets, it would be polite to buy something. If you have access to large numbers of children, remember that the traditional use for them is to put them in a field several hundred yards from the race and make them march…

Gianni Moscon, just 23 years old and completing his first Grand Tour in Spain, is paving the way to become one of Chris Froome’s elite Tour de France helpers. The Italian created a buzz when, still 22, he led Team Sky to fifth place in Paris-Roubaix. Insiders predicted future Classics success, and maybe Sky’s first cobbled Monument winner, but no one was talking about Grand Tours. That has changed over the first two weeks at the Vuelta a España. Moscon has been a key protector of Froome on the most demanding mountain stages. On the Calar Alto summit finish, he worked on the front until the final seven kilometres, when only established elite helper Mikel Nieve and Froome remained. “He’s young and this is his first Grand Tour,” team boss…

“We’re driving to the airport after a successful racing trip. Morale is high, even if legs are heavy and bums are sore” I’m in a people carrier filled with people. All of them cyclists, who are, in fact, people too. The majority are sleeping. Apart from the driver, for which I am grateful. We’re driving to the airport after a successful racing trip; morale is high in a contented sort of way, even if legs are heavy and bums are sore. Which is the polite way of expressing it, because nobody actually sits on their bum while cycling, do they? Have you seen how wide my bum is? Have you seen how narrow my saddle is? The race was the Dudenhofen GP. We’ve enjoyed two days of outdoor track racing…

Lucy Shaw, 20 Drops, Girona, Spain How’s Girona? There are so many English-speaking cyclists here that you never feel too lonely or feel like you are in a different country away from home. I have a good base and I am settled. I know my way around having been here all year and it feels like home. Why Girona? It’s mainly the warmer climate and the training roads are great. But it’s also nice to have a break from Belgium as so much of the racing is there. It’s nice to be able to get away from that. What type of rider are you? Tough one-day races, like the Classics, suit me. I am more of a sprinter but I am still trying to figure out what I am exactly.…

The Colnago brand dates from a time when as much thought and imagination were put into head badges as the bicycles themselves. While modern incarnations are almost invariably simplistic and sometimes look like little more than afterthoughts, the intricate designs of Colnago’s time were often creations to be proud of; telling a story, presenting a scene, and in some cases even featuring the company address. The Ace of Clubs that has become so synonymous with the Colnago brand is relatively no-frills for the time, but no less emblematic for it. It was conceived in 1970 after Italian all-rounder Michele Dancelli, riding for Molteni, scored the first Milan-San Remo win for the home nation in 17 years — on board a Colnagobuilt bike. Journalist Bruno Raschi wrote in Gazzetta dello Sport…

If you’ve ever been after a great racing bike with the kudos of a historic British brand name on the down tube at any point over the last 60 years then Condor would have been high on your list. The Potenza comes in as the cheapest full carbon offering by the British marque. Frame The current Potenza design has been in production for two years now but the bike actually started life as a Scandium aluminium model in the early 2000s and was dropped when Condor stepped up its move into carbon-fibre. The current version has benefited from some trickle-down from its more exotic sister bike the Leggero. The rear triangle is borrowed from an older version of the Leggero, the fork is an adaptation of the Leggero’s and the…

INGREDIENTS: ▪ 1 tbsp light olive oil ▪ 1 small onion, finely chopped ▪ 1 celery stalk, finely chopped ▪ 1 garlic clove, crushed ▪ 1/4 aubergine, finely chopped ▪ 175g (6oz) walnuts ▪ 75g (3oz) wholemeal bread ▪ A few sprigs of fresh rosemary ▪ 1 tsp yeast extract (e.g. Marmite) dissolved in 2 tbsp boiling water (or to taste) ▪ Salt and black pepper ▪ 2 eggs METHOD: 1) Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/Gas mark 5. 2) Heat the oil in a heavybased pan and fry the onions for 2-3min. Add the celery, garlic and aubergine and cook for 5min until soft. 3) Place the nuts in a food processor and whiz until they are finely ground. Add the bread and process for a few seconds until…

Third-cat racer Chris Cook, 39, was squeezing in training around his shift work in retail. He got in touch with CW telling us he wanted to replicate some of the success he’d had “as a fit, skinny teenager to show that the interim years of partying haven’t completely ruined me.” More specifically, he wanted to win a circuit race and move up to second-cat. In response, Matt Rowe prescribed more explosive power work, racing once a week and an additional “quality” turbo session per week. Chris says… The biggest change I have made is doing his Matt’s prescribed turbo sessions regularly, which I think has helped improve my leg speed and power. Training rides definitely feel quicker and have improved from a few months ago. I’ve also taken Matt’s advice…

50 MILES 1 Ballogie climb It’s a relief to cross to the south side of the River Dee as the A93 on the north side can be busy, especially with tourists during August. This modest climb is at least on a quiet, shady road. 2 Pannanich descent A fast descent that signals the arrival into Ballater. It’s long and gradual, offering great views between the trees to the River Dee and the stone buildings of one of Queen Victoria’s favourite villages. 3 Shooting Greens climb Over a mile long at an average gradient of six per cent — though the first and last sections are steeper — this is a good excuse to stretch the legs and go for the KoM on the route’s main appointment. Favourite cafe The Thistle’s…

Wednesday, August 30 Owen James, a British rider racing in France for Côtes d’Armor-Marie Morin, finished second in the Cancale La Cancaven nocturne. James’s team-mate took the victory. The Brit has enjoyed a successful year in Brittany with nine top-10 results so far. Saturday, September 2 Twenty-year-old British rider Olly Moors scored one podium result and finished fifth overall at the Kortrijk Derny Criterium in Belgium. Moors is a two-time British champion in the discipline. Saturday, September 2 French national champion Arnaud Démare won the Brussels Cycling Classic, his first victory since he won stage four of this year’s Tour de France. Démare was joined on the podium by Marko Jump (UAE-Team Emirates) and Lotto-Soudal’s André Greipel. Sunday, September 3 Dutch riders dominated the Boels Rental Ladies Tour race in…

Racing cyclists have always sought a competitive edge, and if you can’t buy power, you can always try to buy or make ways to get more out of the power you have. Sky didn’t invent marginal gains, they just gave it a name. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, that desire for a tiny advantage led to a craze for drilling and milling away all excess material from as many components as possible. It even had a jokey nickname — Drillium. It sounds obvious — cycling’s all about power to weight, so you want your bike to be as light as possible, so the more unwanted material you can remove, the lighter it is and the faster you can go. Time triallists in particular embraced the trend — road…