Innehållsförteckning för November 8, 2018 från Cycling Weekly

During my time working for Cycling Weekly I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and work with some exceptional people. One such person was our associate web editor Nigel Wynn, who sadly passed away last week from a cancer-related illness. I still remember the first day I met him. In fact, I remember the very moment as no sooner had I been introduced than I spilt his fresh cup of coffee all over the floor. Typical of Nigel, he said it was a stupid place to leave a hot drink and refused to let me buy him another. Nigel started working on the magazine in 2003 as deputy editor before moving into his role on our website, on which he continued to work until his health deteriorated. A good editor and…

Rising British star Tom Pidcock has said it was a “chopper mistake” that cost him in the early part of the cyclo-cross season as he celebrated a return to winning ways at the European Championships at the weekend. Pidcock had yet to win a race this season at the beginning of the weekend but he put together a near flawless race to take the title with reigning under-23 world champion Eli Iserbyt in second. “I had a brilliant start, I don’t normally start very well, but after a lap I was second then I was out on my own,” Pidcock told CW. The Leeds-born rider said that he had also felt he was returning to form at the third round of the Superprestige the previous weekend but that a bad…

New Trek kit unveiled Trek-Segafredo are the first team to unveil their new kit for 2019, with dramatically different looks for men’s and women’s teams. The men retain a red theme, this time with a blocky design with a slightly retro nod. The women’s mid-blue kit, on the other hand, is overtly modern and is a brand new design. The team will also be given fluoro training kit, with safety in mind. 50% of Evans shops to close Bike mega-chain Evans Cycles is set to lose half of its 62 shops, with hundreds losing their jobs, after it was placed in administration and bought by Sports Direct International. “In order to save the business, we only believe we will be able to keep 50 per cent of stores open in…

Further to Dave Hornsey’s letter regarding what he sees as over-coverage of e-bikes (CW, Oct 25), while I do have some sympathy for his view, I must on balance agree with the editor’s comments. If we go back in time some 60 years, we would see that the title of this magazine was Cycling and Mopeds! The editor of the day tried to convince us readers that there was some connection between these small motorbikes, which had pedals just for starting, and our sport. I am sure that had Dave been a reader at the time he would have, like me, joined the boycott of the mag. In the case of the e-bike however, the motor is not the prime source of propulsion, but only to ‘assist’ and let’s face…

WILLIAM WATT PR specialist road, Specialized UK The UCI obviously only caters for a very small population of riders; they are the ruling body, and whether they are regressively prescriptive and restrictive on design or not, we would not wish to politicise their important role in professional cycling. For those riders who need to be fully compliant with the UCI regulations we have the Shiv TT. There are many other riders who want to be able to ride fast on a road bike, and aerodynamic drag is the biggest force acting against them in achieving this goal. Different disciplines demand different functionality in design integrated with aerodynamics. Long-course triathlon, for example, demands integration of hydration and nutrition storage. The evolution in the fit of the bike, and the adjustability to…

Arriving in Berlin on October 18, Jenny Graham had ridden 18,000 miles across 16 countries in just 124 days. In doing so, she had smashed the previous female round-the-world record — 144 days, by Italian Paola Gianotti — by almost three weeks. Riding unsupported and carrying all her own kit while averaging 13mph, the 38-year-old Scotswoman clicked off 156 miles per day, setting a stunning new benchmark in circumnavigation. “Over the last few years, things started falling into place for me,” says Graham, who lives in Inverness. “I had been training, building up my endurance and taking part in mountain bike events. On an Adventure Syndicate [collective of female endurance cyclists] training camp, I met a coach, John Hampshire.” An offer of free coaching from Hampshire coincided with a sabbatical…

1 Charlecote Park The route skirts around the edge of the estate with views over the parkland and to the house. On a good day the deer will be grazing by the fence, but sadly not today. 2 Wellesbourne A popular local climb and the biggest on the route today, it features on almost every sportive that runs through the area due to a steady gradient and sweeping views out on all sides. 3 Chesterton Windmill Chesterton Windmill is one of Warwickshire’s most famous landmarks. It has stood on a hilltop overlooking the village of Chesterton for nearly 350 years and our route takes a steady roll up to the top. Favourite cafes Dough & Brew/Thirteen Bakers Sunday rides reconvene afterwards at Dough & Brew in the town centre. Owner…

Tour of Hainan (October 23-31) Italian riders dominated this nine-stage Chinese race, which we reported the beginning of last week, Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) winning the penultimate stage to take the overall win and his countrymen winning five other stages. Koppenbergcross (November 1) Toon Aerts took his third big win of the season on the iconic cobbles in Flanders. The Telenet-Fidea Lions rider attacked Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux-Bingoal) and Wout van Aert (Cibel-Cebon) on the final climb, triumphing by 11 seconds. Pan-American Cross Champs (Nov 3-4) American rider Curtis White beat Canadian Michael van den Ham in a dramatic two-up sprint. In muddy conditions in Ontario, Canada, home rider Maghalie Rochette took advantage of Katie Compton’s decision not to defend her title, winning by 14 seconds from Ellen Noble.…

I’ve always wanted to write a book called Somebody Stop Me! An Arresting History of Bicycle Brakes. So far, no publisher has been interested, so here is some preliminary research that I thought I might as well use for something. The first brakes were ‘spoon’ brakes — just a bit of wood or rubber that rubbed against the outside of the tyre. On very early bikes with steel tyres, this was more use as an audible warning of impending disaster than it was for anything else. It was worked by a lever, or in one or two cases, by a cord wrapped round a rotating handlebar grip, so that braking was as simple as twisting the bar through 15 or 16 revolutions. Penny farthings had a similar ‘plunger’ brake, which…

At the very beginning of the last century, just as the Boer War was winding down to its bitter end and Britain and the Empire were still mourning the death of Queen Victoria, an engineer from Hulme in Manchester and a cycling journalist from Coventry were applying for patents for a revolutionary new device — an enclosed three-speed gear system built into a rear bicycle hub. First produced in 1902, the original hub gear gave a variation of minus 20 per cent (first gear) and plus 25 per cent (third gear) to your original gearing. The Nottingham company that was formed to make and sell the new device was formally called The Three-Speed Gear Syndicate, Ltd., but it was to become known worldwide by a shorter, snappier title as the…

Sometimes when I’m listening to a podcast I think wow, this is fantastic, I wish I ran a podcast. Sometimes when I’m listening to race commentary I think wow, this is terrible, I wish I was the one doing commentary. And then sometimes I’m asked a simple question and my arrogant desire to have the world hear me speak, arrogance that looked like a tiger when I saw its reflected shadow but is revealed as a sloth on all fours when it steps into the light, collapses into “um”s and “ehm”s and “well”s. I had such an experience at the Sunday Times Sportswomen Of The Year awards last weekend. I may have set myself up to fail by panicking so much beforehand, but I’m struck with panic before every bike…

Norman Sheil was a star pursuiter and time triallist of the 1950s, most famous for his two Commonwealth Games 4,000m pursuit wins in 1954 and 1958, and for becoming the first man to go under 56 minutes for 25 miles, in 1957. He also won two world pursuit titles, and was part of the British Tour de France team in 1960 alongside Tom Simpson. After hanging up his wheels he went on to coach the Great Britain team for eight years and, after moving to Canada, spent time coaching the Canadian squad. Former British pro Ian Hallam, who was also a multiple Olympic medallist, was one of the riders Sheil took under his wing while coaching the British team. “So sad to hear that Norman Sheil passed away,” Hallam wrote…

If the feature on page 22 has inspired you to find out more about Alf ‘The King’ Engers, a new biography of the first man to break the 30mph barrier has just been published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the famous ride. With his badboy image and rockstar looks, Engers was both hero and villain of British cycling. With his pathological dislike of authority — the ‘blazers’ of the RTTC whom he took a morbid delight in upsetting — and his flamboyant style on and off the bike, he dominated the domestic scene from the 1950s through to the late 1970s. “ENGERS WAS BOTH HERO AND VILLAIN OF BRITISH CYCLING” Arranged into ‘14 Lessons from the Life of Alf Engers’ from detailed interviews with Engers himself, Jones goes…

GET A BIKE-FIT Your riding position is your first port of call to improve your pedal stroke. Correct saddle height and layback will have more influence on your ability to produce power at the pedals than will finessing your technique. GO MOUNTAIN BIKING Riding off road will give you very direct feedback about your pedal stroke. If you push down on the pedals as though they’re pistons, there will be very brief moments when no power is being applied to your rear wheel. In the mud, or if trying to tackle a steep bank, you will lose traction at the rear wheel, resulting in sliding out or falling off. ASSESS YOUR STROKE ON A WATTBIKE Using Wattbike’s Polar View and the new Pedalling Effectiveness Score, you can instantly see —…

OWEN ROGERS CW news writer The prospect of there being no British teams competing in the women’s international peloton is one which should worry us all. While much of the country’s recent success in the women’s sport has come from riders competing on foreign teams, squads like Drops have provided both development opportunities and riders to the national team. Alice Barnes is a Drops graduate, even winning international races with the team. This year she has continued that success and, with her sister Hannah was part of the Canyon-SRAM squad which won the team time trial World Championships in September. Though the country’s top ranked team, Wiggle-High5 have not always been the best for Brits. None of their international victories have come from British riders, and it took Dani Rowe…

DVV Verzekeringen trofee - Jaarmarktcross (November 10) British rider Nikki Brammeier won the women’s race last year, with Toon Aerts taking the men’s title for the second successive year. Aerts is in excellent form and will be targeting a hat-trick. Held in Niel, Belgium, it’s the second round of the eight-race series, with the first being Koppenbergcross last week (which Aerts also won). It is the 28th year the series has been running; Sven Nys has won the most titles, with a total of nine. Telenet Superprestige Gavere (November 11) Sanne Cant is aiming to make it four wins in as many rounds in the series; the Corendon-Circus rider looking to get back to winning ways after finishing fourth at the European Championships. Wout van Aert has won two of…

Tom Dumoulin’s Sunweb team are looking at another shot at the Giro d’Italia title after the 2019 route, which includes seven summit finishes and three individual time trials, was unveiled last week. Kicking off with an ITT in Bologna for the Grande Partenza on May 11, the three-week race climaxes with a 15km solo test in Verona. Although there are 58.5km against the clock, more than twice the time trial allocation of the 2019 Tour de France, they include two with significant uphill finis1hes. Much of the climbing in the route has been backloaded into the final week and the highest mountain featured will be the Gavia Pass at 2,619m, with the Mortirolo also included on the same day, stage 16. Dutchman Dumoulin was expected to target the Tour de…

Many riders are turning to bike technology to find a pedalling advantage. Gearing, crank lengths and oval chainrings are frequently experimented with. Oval and elliptical chainrings aim to decrease the time you spend in the ‘dead spot’ where you are not producing power. Champion time triallist, CW’s Michael Hutchinson, paid close attention to such innovations throughout his racing career: “I used Osymetric rings for 13 years. I liked how they felt.” Osymetric rings are not simply a different shape, as importer TrainSharp stresses: “The Osymetric chainring is not an oval or an ellipse chainring — it is a unique patented twin-cam [two curves symmetrical about a single point] chainring designed to eliminate the dead-spot that is part of every cyclist’s pedal stroke when using standard chainrings.” For Hutchinson, the improved…

Cycling Weekly: Tell us about your cycling background. RP: I’ve always had a bike since I was young so have ridden on and off doing various things, but I really got into regular road cycling in 2012 on the back of Wiggo’s TDF victory and the Olympics. Since then I have completed various events including RideLondon, local sportives, sprint triathlons and I have signed up for the Coast-2-Coast in a day in 2019. CW: As the founder of the club, how have you seen it grow? RP: The club started off with around 25 official members in 2016 when we affiliated with British Cycling and we built the club around a socially inclusive and community ethos, on and off the bike. Last Christmas we got excited that we had hit…

CYCLO-CROSS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3 Eastern League round nine (West Stow Country Park, Bury St Edmunds): Seniors: 1. James Madgwick (Bloodwise QSW) 55.41; 2. S. Gerrod (Strada Sport) +0.44; 3. J. Parrish (Team Vision Innovative Leisure) +0.45; 4. M. Bolton (Lee Valley YCC) +1.29; 5. C. Hurst (XRT-Elmy Cycles) +1.52; 6. K. Jarvis (Cycle Team OnForm) +2.53; 7. C. Riley (Newdales Cycles RT) +3.05; 8. D. Preece (Army CU) +3.15; 9. R. Tricker (Vicious Velo) +3.36; 10. A. Toms (Iceni Velo) +3.52. Women: 1. Lauren Higham (Liv AWOL) 49.17; 2. G. Melton (Pedal Power Cycles Ipswich) +1.27; 3. A. Hogg (Push Sport) +2.19. Veterans: 1. Matt Webber (Forest Side Riders) 42.21; 2. B. Lewis (Forest Side Riders) +0.48; 3. R. Maidment (Forest Side Riders) +1.01. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4 Yorkshire Points Series…

The Urban Cycling World Championships is currently happening in China. The main events are freestyle BMX, trials, cross-country eliminator, and a subsidiary event is making all of us who have no idea what any of those things are feel old. I’ll level with you; when the Urban Champs press release arrived, my first thought was commuting. And that was when I had my great revelation. Commuting would make at least as good a competitive sport as anything going on right now at the Urban Worlds. Commuting by bike is properly difficult. If you think it’s tricky to position yourself in a road race bunch so that you’re not in the wrong place when the race turns 90 degrees and suddenly that tailwind is a peloton-shredding 20-knot crosswind, it’s peanuts compared…

An informant came to me with a story of young love. Two star cyclo-crossed lovers took their first tentative steps by going to bike races together. On the second of these occasions, his carbon bike flew off her roof rack at high speed and was destroyed by a following lorry. It was clearly her fault, since she’d left a critical clamp in the boot. “Never mind,” he said. “It doesn’t matter.” When he told my informant of this, my informant said, “I take it you only said that because you didn’t want to have a row and ruin the relationship by demanding that she pay for it?” “Yes.” “So you’re basically paying for sex?” “I suppose so, yes.” Puts a new light on the phrase ‘pimp my ride’.…