Innehållsförteckning för March 7, 2019 från Cycling Weekly

There’s nothing quite like discovering a beautiful new road when out on your bike. And this week we’ve got three that I hope will be new to many of you. Tucked away in North Wales, they’re dead-end roads with no traffic and stunning views that take you to lakes high up in the mountains of Snowdonia. One of them isn’t new for me. The climb of Marchlyn Mawr is one that I used to ride when I was at university in North Wales. Living up there during academic terms meant that for 90 per cent of the time the weather was too miserable to be able to ride it, but when the sun shone it was pure joy. We’d ride to Deiniolin, near Llanberis, climb a gate and start climbing.…

Geraint Thomas Strade Bianche (March 9) The Welshman will pay homage to his Classics pedigree in Tuscany before starting his Grand Tour build-up at Tirreno. As well as Adam Yates (see below), GC rivals include Tom Dumoulin, Vincenzo Nibali and Primož Roglič. Adam Yates Tirreno-Adriatico (March 13-19) At Tirreno, Yates will want to underline a strong performance at the Vuelta a Andalucia last month — where he finished fifth on GC and recorded top-fives in two stages. Mark Cavendish Paris-Nice (March 10-17) The French race will be another rung on the ladder back to full fitness for the Manxman after a protracted battle with the Epstein-Barr virus. Simon Yates Paris-Nice (March 10-17) Like his twin brother, Simon Yates has a solid ride in Andalucia to consolidate. Provisional GC opponents for…

3,706 METRES ASCENT 1. Llyn Stwlan Length: 2.8km Height gain: 269m Average gradient: 10% 2. Cowlyd Length: 3km Heign gain: 413m Average gradient: 14% 3. Marchlyn Mawr Length: 2.8km Heing gain: 268m Average gradient: 10% TRAVEL GUIDE Where to stay We stayed at the Meifod Country House just outside Caernarfon, which was very comfortable and provided an excellent breakfast. There are many hotels in and around this popular tourist town. Where to shop There are shops and cafes in Beddgelert, Nantmor, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Treffriw and Conwy. At no point are you far from civilisation or food and water so there’s no need to cram provisions in pockets. Where to eat The Black Boy Inn in Caernarfon is fantastic. Great menu with all the favourites to fuel you up the night…

Last week was the Track Cycling World Championships. I raced two events: the team pursuit and the omnium. In the team pursuit we (me, Laura Kenny, Elinor Barker and Eleanor Dickinson) were second to Australia. A silver medal, a wonderful thing! Just two tenths away from gold! Unfortunately, though, we were two seconds away from the ‘dress rehearsal’ efforts we’d done in training the week before (in worse conditions). What happened next was Laura withdrew from the omnium (with illness) and I was subbed in as the reserve. For some reason, I was not at all nervous. Which isn’t like me. On race day I usually start physically shaking at breakfast time, am ready to vomit that breakfast on entering the velodrome and feel so hot with nerves I want…

Bennett opens WorldTour account in Dubai Sam Bennett rounded out the inaugural UAE Tour with his first WorldTour win of 2019, as Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Vizma) secured overall victory. On a flat stage around Dubai, the break was caught with 3km to race and the sprinters’ teams delivered their charges. Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) emerged victorious ahead of Fernando Gaviria (UAE-Team Emirates) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal). 27 …riders fined after stage three of the UAE Tour for being late to the pre-stage ceremony, with Peter Kennaugh (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Alex Dowsett (Katusha-Alpecin) criticising the UCI for heavy-handedness. Riders from Katusha-Alpecin, UAE-Team Emirates, Groupama-FDJ and Astana were fined 500 Swiss francs and docked 20 UCI points each. Dowsett said it was “penalising the way we race”, while Kennaugh called it “out of control… do they…

I read with interest the recent editor’s note on e-bikes. I agree with the conclusion that e-bikes could get more people out on bikes, but I want to highlight a safety issue which could jeopardise people’s views on them. I have recently been overtaken by e-bikes on dedicated cycle paths, which have clearly been illegally modified. I typically cruise while commuting by bike at above 26kph. At this speed an e-bike’s electric motor should not give any assistance. In several cases, I have been close-passed silently by e-bikes which I estimate were going well in excess of 50kph, which was a shock! These e-bikes are comparatively heavy and are effectively silent motorbikes using dedicated cycle/pedestrian paths. This is illegal and dangerous to us all! Stephen Davies, email WIN Letter of…

One baking hot July afternoon last summer, 22-year-old Madison-Genesis rider Connor Swift found himself staring National Road Championship victory in the face, having launched an audacious solo attack with 12 kilometres to race. The gap was never comfortable. As the effort began to bite, the young Yorkshireman called upon the advice of former winner Roger Hammond. “Don’t look around. If you look behind you, you’ve lost the race,” Swift recalled then Dimension Data DS Hammond telling Serge Pauwels as the Belgian struck for home on the final stage of the 2017 Tour de Yorkshire. Swift had been hoping to impress Hammond with a top-10 finish to bolster his chances of a WorldTour internship. Now he was in a position to actually win, he was going to damn well do what…

Nine years since its last shoe Time has launched the Osmos, a range of three high-end shoes developed at its new owner Rossignol’s R&D facility at Montebelluna, Italy, the global capital of sports footwear. Time, whose shoes Greg LeMond was famously wearing when he won the 1989 Tour de France, is aiming to get back on an equal footing with the global brands who have come to dominate the world of cycling footwear in its absence. Rossignol bought Time in 2016 following the death of founder Roland Cattin in 2014. Global brand manager Ryan Green said: “The company was leaderless, the brakes were on, Rossignol was looking for a bike brand and it was a good fit from a philosophy standpoint.” Rossignol, originally a winter sports brand but which has…

The Bianchi Aria aims to bring the wind-cheating attributes of its top-end Oltre bikes to a market that isn’t quite ready to part with the £3K+ price tag attached. The frame and fork lock together to reduce drag, and both the fork and seatstays have been inspired by wind-tunnel testing for the Aquila TT bike. Geometry is almost identical to that of the Bianchi Oltre XR4. Riding semi-slammed, I was more than low enough to call this a race position — indeed, I was almost kneeing myself in the chest when on the drops. My first ride out on the Aria was a two-hour Zone 2 chill ride amongst my local hills and I wasn’t entirely enamoured. On the rumbly roads around Kent, I found the position was stretched in…

Let’s be honest, the repetitiveness of training can become boring, even for the most motivated riders. Touring is a great way to reinvigorate your passion for cycling — as our pros attest. “Touring is so far removed from what we do on a day-to-day basis,” says Rachel James. “When I’m training at home, I don’t think about the next day, but when I was on my trip I started to look forward to races and specific training. It made me excited to compete again. Touring gave me a love back for the sport and I found what cycling really gives me: physical but predominately mental benefits.” For Conor Dunne, touring provided hope just days after being informed he was soon to be unemployed after the demise of Aqua Blue Sport.…

The week: January 21-27, 2019 Training for: Tour du Haut Var (February 22-24) Location: Andalusia, Spain Riding for JLT-Condor last year, Matt Gibson topped British Cycling’s road and track rankings — quite an achievement given he was still coming back from a long-term illness. Notable successes included the national criterium title and points classification wins in the Tour Series and at the Tour de Normandie. “I’m feeling good — it should be a good season” The strong run of form led to Gibson being signed by Spanish Pro Conti outfit Burgos-BH for 2019. He will be living mostly in the UK and flying out to the Continent for races. The week featured here was part of a three-week training camp as the team prepared to resume racing following a 21-day…

Ronde de Montauroux (March 3) Eighteen-year-old British climber Harrison Wood raced to a third-placed finish in the 26th edition of the 76.7km race in southern France. Wood is riding for AVC Aix-en-Provence alongside compatriot Alex Braybrooke. Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Juniors (March 3) Four Britons finished in the top 10 of the Belgian race, but it was Dutchman Casper van Uden who was the fastest in the 11-man finishing sprint. Leo Hayter was fourth, followed immediately by Oliver Rees and Lewis Askey. Thomas Gloag was eighth. La Drôme Classic (March 3) Alexis Vuillermoz maintained his strong start to the season winning the hilly one-day race, Ag2r La Mondiale’s maiden success of 2019. Vuillermoz attacked on the last climb, finishing three seconds ahead of Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ).…

The formula for a Classic is simple. Pick two towns about 250km apart. Make sure they are medium-sized towns with nothing interesting about them, preferably in a region that has nothing interesting about it. Assess your chosen towns from a helicopter to ensure that the aerial coverage of your race will have the essential air of post-industrial decay and human despair that the viewers demand. Ask lots of riders who live between the two towns which roads they most hate riding on. This information will be the basis for your first draft of the route. Include short nasty hills, cobbles, tramlines, level crossings, turnip fields, dirt roads and repeated passes of foul-smelling mayonnaise factories. Make sure your course covers plenty of industrial estate access roads. Without industrial estate access roads,…

“The delle Finestre [Cima Coppi] has a steady 9.2 per cent gradient throughout… The first 9km is on tarmac while the last 9km is a gravel road, all the way to the summit. Twenty-nine hairpins are tucked in less than 4km over the first part of the climb (45 hairpins overall until the summit). The descent is very technical as the road is narrow and initially unprotected…” That was how the 2018 Giro d’Italia roadbook, known as il Garibaldi, described the route of what would turn out to be one of the more diverting racing days of the 2018 season — when Chris Froome used those narrow and unprotected roads to escape to Giro glory. The race roadbook is that bound bundle of paper, often dog-eared and coffee-stained, that is…

Elinor Barker was Britain’s only gold medallist in Poland, winning the women’s scratch race with a perfectly timed effort in the final two laps. The effort saw her overhaul the Netherland’s Kirsten Wild, who has dominated women’s bunch events in the last two championships. A tearful Barker admitted she had all but quit the sport six months ago. “I’d kind of fallen out of love with it so just to get here felt like such an achievement. “I fell out of love with it for a number of factors, but I’ve got it back now. I owe a huge amount to our new psychologist. He managed to keep me going and feeling at my best again.” Part of the team pursuit quartet that took silver behind Australia, Barker then came…

Tour of Rhodes (March 8-10) U23 development team Holdsworth-Zappi race the three stages in Greece, looking for experience alongside esteemed professionals. Bradley Wiggins finished third in 2001 when Fabian Cancellara took the victory. Dorpenomloop Rucphen (March 10) Canyon dhb-Bloor Homes are racing the flat one-day Dutch race. Despite its parcours, though, sprinters don’t always prove victorious: in 2018 Danish rider Mikkel Bjerg won via a breakaway. Dan McLay has twice finished second. Omloop van de Westhoek (March 10) Just the second running of the race, Dutchwoman Floortje Mackaij (Team Sunweb) finished 10 seconds ahead of the chasing peloton last year. Starting from the coast, the race completes six laps in Ichtegem, including a cobbled section. GP Industria & Artigianato (March 10) The Tuscan race always promises entertainment as a selection…

WSC Hand-in-Hand Baal, Tielt-Winge, Belgium How was last season? It was hard; a big step up. It was only in the last month when I finally got the hang of Belgian racing. For most of the season I was just trying to get to the finish. I finished in the top 20 a few times, with ninth being my best result. What have you learned? Once you race in Belgium for a certain amount of time, you develop a sixth sense. A lot of the racing is about making the break and you develop an instinct of which move to follow and whether or not it will stick. How has your winter been? I’ve done a lot of gym work as I think in Belgium you need a lot of…

Getting his first WorldTour experience at Dimension Data “was pretty cool”, says Connor Swift, who was even treated to his own champion’s togs: “I thought it was just going to be Steve Cummings’s old kit or something, but they’d actually made me my own Nationals kit. That’s pretty rare.” There was also the opportunity to learn from bunch patrons like his team-mate Bernie Eisel, not to mention experiencing first-hand the difference between old-hand and newcomer: “Just seeing what Eisel was like in the bunch and how much respect people give him. When everyone’s lined out he can just ride to the front, say, ‘I want to go there,’ and get let in. I tried it myself [laughs]. No one was letting me in.” A permanent contract never did materialise, but…

Time created the first truly modern cycling shoe in 1988 and Pedro Delgado wore the now-iconic Equipe, white with two red straps, when he won the Tour that same year, as did Greg LeMond in 1989. In 1986 Time had launched its first clipless pedal to improve on fellow French company Look’s system — Time’s pedal had float whereas Look’s was fixed. The pro peloton loved Time. As its marketing proudly proclaimed: “The Time pedal system has been selected by Système U, Fagor, PDM, Reynolds and Weinmann La Suisse.” By 2000 there were 100 top pros on its pedals and shoes. Time has also made carbon-fibre frames since 1993, using its own unique tube construction.…

How long do I go for? A weekend ride with an overnight stop can be as mentally refreshing as a week-long tour. That said, a longer tour will likely give you your best ever endurance fitness. Should I take my own bike? If flying to a destination to begin your tour, most airports will allow you to leave your bike bag for a fee (check with the airport). Another option is to fly your bike in a cardboard box which you can dispose of on arrival. Alternatively, rent a bike once you get there — more expensive, but can be very convenient. Where do I ride? A ride spanning a few days could be simply to the coast or to a village you’ve never visited before. If you have at…

ROAD RACING SUNDAY, MARCH 3 Severn Bridge Road Race (St Bede’s College, Bristol): E, 1, 2, 3: 1. Alexandar Richardson (Canyon-dhb) 78 miles in 2:53.43; 2. J. Vaughan (Canyon-dhb) +1.43; 3. S. Culverwell (Team Estera) +1.48; 4. J. Alderman (Saint Piran); 5. K. Savage (Cycling Sheffeld-Giant); 6. M. Bacon (DAP CC); 7. C. Walker (Spirit Tifosi RT); 8. P. Kibble (Wales Racing Academy); 9. J. Gales (Kibosh); 10. M. Stedman (Canyon dhb). SATURDAY, MARCH 2 Northants CRA Spring handicaps round one (Naseby, Northants): 2, 3, 4: 1. Louis Cooper (unattached); 2. D. Heynderickx (Warwick Univ CC); 3. J. Hopkins (Keep the Beat Cycling); 4. J. Wimbourne (Cycle Team OnForm); 5. A. Sheret (OVB); 6. E. Grandidge (Megabike); 7. T. Fougo (Strada Sport); 8. M. Clegg (Beacon Roads CC); 9. G.…

There was an interview with Mark Cavendish on the Cycling Podcast a couple of weeks ago. Dan Friebe asked him if he’d done the Sa Calobra ride while training in Majorca — a hard climb which you can only access by riding down a road from the mountains to the shoreline, turning round, and climbing back up. “No. I don’t like rides where you have to turn back on yourself,” said Cav. “I like to ride proper loops.” If nothing else, this explains why he became the world’s best bunch sprinter — he could never have hacked it in the out-and-back world of British time trialling. Cav also revealed that Steve Cummings has a ride for each day of the week and just repeats them in a seven-day cycle. I…

I recently ran into the brother of a rider with whom I’d shared a room at a race a few years ago. As a room-mate he’d been a non-snoring, non-farting delight, and (less importantly, you understand) as a rider he’d been very talented. He retired a few years ago, and I was sad to see him leave the sport sooner than I’d have hoped. “Hey, how’s your brother?” I asked. “What’s he up to these days?” “He’s good,” I was told. “He’s working for Sky.” “Wow,” I said, “That’s great. Is he on the coaching staff or what?” “No. I mean that if your broadband doesn’t work and you call to complain, he answers the phone.”…