Innehållsförteckning för June 20, 2019 från Cycling Weekly

As a cyclist and someone who works in cycling I’ve inadvertently become somewhat immune to news of riders crashing. It happens, right? We’ve all left a bit of skin on the road, while news of a broken collarbone is brushed off as a standard outcome for a cyclist hitting the deck. Almost a badge of honour. Only if you’re really unlucky do you suffer more serious injuries. Then you hear news of a crash like the one suffered by Chris Froome at the Dauphiné last week and you’re shocked out of that blasé attitude. When news of his injuries started filtering through it put a knot in my stomach. Not only did the list of injuries sound horrific, but the way in which the various emails and reports were worded…

La Route d’Occitanie (June 20-23) The final four race days ahead of the Tour de France for a few, Movistar boast two former winners in their line-up: 2018 victor Alejandro Valverde and two-time champion Nairo Quintana. Rigoberto Urán leads EF-Education First, and Pavel Sivakov heads Team Ineos’s charge. Le Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc (June 20-23) Taking place in the shadow of Europe’s highest mountain, the five-stage race in the Alps is a chance for emerging and lesser-known climbers to show their worth with three days climaxing with a summit finish. Egan Bernal won in 2017. Dwars door het Hageland (June 21) A tough Belgian race in which the sprinters are confident of success before the rouleurs and puncheurs form breaks that typically go the distance, Mathieu van der Poel…

Geraint Thomas (Ineos) At the time of going to press, Thomas’s participation at the National Championships was still up in the air pending his performance at the Tour de Suisse. Last year’s win in the time trial was an important step on the way to his Tour de France victory, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see him rekindle that. CW rating ★★★★ Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) As one of cycling’s best ever sprinters, Cavendish, still on the comeback trail from illness, has to be one of the favourites for what is likely to be a sprint finish. He hasn’t worn the British champion’s jersey since 2013 and would love to take it to the Tour. CW rating ★★★★ Adam Blythe (Lotto-Soudal) Last time Blythe won the Nationals, it was…

WHAT An aero jersey will often have been wind tunnel tested and come with various drag-related claims. It will be made of fabrics designed to keep the airflow attached to your body as long as possible. The jersey will also be close fitting like a skinsuit, often with a low collar to eliminate windflap and bunching behind the neck. The arms are longer than normal, since fabric is more aerodynamic than skin. One of the draggiest parts of any jersey is the pockets, which is why skinsuits don’t have them. The more they are hidden around the back of the jersey, and the narrower they are, the less they will disrupt the airflow. Some manufacturers spec a flap over the top of the pockets to smooth airflow and to stop…

Eddy Merckx was said to be such a perfectionist he’d get up in the middle of the night to check his saddle height. Greg LeMond was so obsessed with having the right fit on his bike that he had a clause in his contract stating he was allowed to have his own bike deal. Chris Boardman and his coach Peter Keen took training to the next level, first with heart rate, then power. If Boardman hadn’t hit his numbers in training, he would ride the final miles with his brakes on to force up his power. A self-confessed perfectionist, Mark Cavendish was known for the number of bikes he got through. Before one race in 2012, his bike was blown over by the wind. He refused to ride it in…

GARETH MASON Former rugby pro Gareth, 40, wants to shed weight to climb fast THIS MONTH’S GOAL ■ Lose weight Progress report: “With my summer target being a sub-six-minute climb of Box Hill, I’ve been focusing on weight loss first, with a view to moving on to power improvements later. I’m now down to 100kg (from 105kg on April 30). I’m very, very pleased with that, and it doesn’t seem to have cost me any power.” UPCOMING GOALS ■ Climb Box Hill in under 6min ■ Lose a further 10kg MICHELLE ARTHURS-BRENNAN CW’s Michelle, 30, has had an up-and-down month of racing THIS MONTH’S GOAL ■ Regional Championships Progress report: “It’s been a rollercoaster month! Things started well, with a win at Goodwood and a road race podium. I targeted…

I was at a friend’s birthday party recently. I met her when I was researching a book about sailing that I wrote around 10 years ago. After a few beers, and despite my attempts to derail her, she insisted on reminiscing about a sailing trip we went on together. “My God,” she said, “you were weird. Just so weird. You never ate anything — for an entire week you existed on energy gels. You were like a man from a Dystopian future where humans had learned to exist on orange-flavoured wallpaper paste.” This was not true. Living on energy gels would be ridiculous. I lived on energy bars. And frankly my shipmates should have been grateful. Years of chasing marginal nutritional gains had made me almost impossible to please with…

News writer The Women’s Tour has always provided an interesting insight into the state of women’s professional cycling. Over its six years the race has become progressively more difficult, but always seemed one step behind a fast developing peloton, and stages continued to finish in bunch sprints. To make the race more selective this year, organiser SweetSpot took the nuclear option, upping the mileage and climbing considerably, presenting riders with a hugely challenging parcours. In so doing it succeeded in helping create the best edition so far, though of course the riders had to cooperate. On stage four, the peloton might have cruised along eight minutes behind the three-woman break, but the final 40 kilometres saw a gripping salvo of attacks and counter-attacks. “THE FINAL 40KM OF STAGE FOUR SAW…

Townsend and Lankford triumph in the Mendips There were National Series victories for Rory Townsend (Canyon-dhb p/b Bloor Homes) and Sophie Lankford (Jadan-Weldtite-Vive le Velo) in Bristol at the weekend, with Townsend leading in a fractured bunch at the hilly Circuit of the Mendips, and Lankford doing likewise in the Bristol Crit the same afternoon. “That’s definitely the hardest round of the [National Road] Series — the climbs were pretty mad… it was a really hard day, which makes it even sweeter,” Townsend told British Cycling. Correction We mistakenly included the Manx International in a list of defunct British races (‘Scaling the Peak’, CW June 13). While the historic Isle of Man race did cease to run after the 2003 edition, it returned in 2016 and now forms part of…

Thank you for your recent article on Les West, (CW May 30). I remember Les — I started racing in 1960, but in the Seventies I was newly married and cycling took a back seat. I was not fully aware therefore of his achievements. Your article sparked my interest, especially as my name is also West and I was also born in 1943, the same year as Les. It’s amazing the achievements that Les reached and with a slightly laid-back attitude. Your article showed how talented he really was; an inspiration even for today’s generation. Andrew West, Cambridge Ed — Les is well-known for his laid-back approach, and very modest attitude, and remains the same now. It’s always been down to his friends and colleagues to tell others of his…

Although Belles Filles literally translates as ‘Beautiful Girls’, the name actually derives from the local plant life, with Belles Fahys in the regional dialect meaning beautiful beech trees. A Chinese-whisper effect later saw this become Belles Filles. Meanwhile, Planche, ‘board’, comes from the nearby small town of Plancher-les-Mines. A slightly more involved explanation of the name suggests that during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), young women from Plancherles-Mines fled up the mountain in a bid to escape Swedish mercenaries, and when this failed, so scared were they of being assaulted, that they took their own lives. An epitaph for the ‘beautiful girls’ was said to be engraved by one of the soldiers.…

The author, who is the wife of Cervélo co-founder Phil White, tells the story of the brand in her award-winning book. How, as the strapline goes, “Vroomen and White disrupt the cycling industry and almost lose it all.” CW met up with Dopico and White at Look Mum No Hands! recently, ahead of her talk there as part of a UK speaking tour. Dopico said she never expected to write a book until she and White were on a bike tour taking in Mont Ventoux. When their fellow riders found out that she and White were behind Cervélo, the questions didn’t stop and she realised the brand’s story would make for a good read. “CERVELOS ENDED UP WINNING EVERY MAJOR BIKE RACE” It all begins with Vroomen and White meeting…

If you are worried about your own perfectionistic tendencies, honestly select your likeliest reactions to the circumstances below… The type of cycling goals I set myself… A. Are those that get me really excited about the challenges B. Are those that others have told me I should be able to achieve C. Are really tough, but they are the goals that I could do if I work hard enough When I achieve my cycling goal… A. I am really pleased with myself, as I wasn’t sure I could do it B. I am pleased but worry others will think I could have done more C. I can see all the ways I could have done better If I have an awful day on the bike… A. I try to remember…

ROAD RACING SUNDAY, JUNE 16 Circuit of the Mendips (National Road Series, Bristol): E, 1, 2: 1. Rory Townsend (Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes) 96 miles in 3:33.53; 2. S. Thwaites (Vitus Pro Cycling); 3. I. Bibby (Madison-Genesis); 4. J. Shaw (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling); 5. M. Holmes (Madison-Genesis); 6. D. Pearson (Canyon dhb); 7. M. Christian (Team Wiggins) all same time; 8. M. Stedman (Canyon dhb) +0.13; 9. A. Slater (Vitus Pro Cycling) +0.19; 10. T. Stewart (Canyon dhb) +0.30. Overall classification (after four rounds): 1. Ian Bibby 84pts; 2. M. Holmes 77; 3. J. Shaw 66; 4. R. Townsend 60; 5. S. Lampier (Saint Piran) 60; 6. S. Thwaites 56. Team classification: 1. Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes 221pts; 2. Madison-Genesis 196; 3. Team Wiggins 128; 4. Vitus Pro…

At a conservative estimate, a bike rider has three different saddle adjustments available, two on the bars and stem, various angles you can position the brake levers, and two dimensions of adjustment on the pedal cleats. It is, therefore, only a matter of time before most cyclists start to wonder if adjusting some of these variables might make them more comfortable, or more aerodynamic, or more powerful, or maybe all three at once. Since trying every possible variation will take several thousand years, it is as well to start fiddling right away. It doesn’t much matter what order you fiddle in. What’s important is that you have fun. Discuss frequently, and at length, the adjustments you’re trying with your friends, family and training partners, so that they can benefit from…

I think I might be statistically luckier than the average person. When I first had that thought, I decided it didn’t make mathematical sense. Luck is arbitrary by definition and so, like tossing a coin enough times should eventually result in an even number of heads and tails, I thought luck would work in such a way that life evens out. But then I thought, luck is arbitrary by definition and so… why wouldn’t it arbitrarily favour me? And I don’t mean I’m privileged. I am privileged, but I’m also separately lucky. I’m not making a show of being grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given or the circumstances I’ve been born into. Again: I am grateful, but separate to all the privilege and opportunity (saving my Oscars ‘thank you…

Lizzie Deignan’s Trek-Segafredo team was launched to much acclaim last summer but despite victory in the opening race of their campaign, their early season failed to live up to the hype, the squad taking lower-level wins, but struggling at Women’s WorldTour events despite riding aggressively throughout the year. “I think we had a good spring, but not good enough,” said legendary sprinter and current team DS Ina-Yoko Teutenberg. The team has now won the general classification of their last two WorldTour stage races. Tayler Wiles’s stage win at Emakumeen Bira preceded Elisa Longo Borghini’s, the latter winning GC with an audacious attack. Now, with Deignan’s Women’s Tour successes they finally appear to be building momentum. “I don’t know if we are on a roll now,” continued Teutenberg. “But we can…

‘Practice makes perfect’ was probably the most harmful phrase you learnt at school. Practice makes progress, but trying to reach perfection is a recipe for misery and failure. That said, perfectionism is so strong within athletes that some sport psychologists have suggested it is almost a prerequisite. How to balance a desire to succeed with a realistic assessment of your own abilities? On the face of it, there are positives to perfectionism. Perfectionists tend to be highly motivated, conscientious, process-driven, hard-working and strive to be the best in their field. They often use a ‘marginal gains’ approach, obsessing over details and focusing on each tiny element to nail every skill. Commonwealth medallist Hayley Simmonds of BTC Ljubljana feels she is a perfectionist and regards it as a positive. “It helps…

What an amazing experience! Earlier this month I was lucky enough to take part in a testing day with aerodynamics extraordinaire Xavier Disley (aero-coach.co.uk) on the outdoor track at Halesowen, West Midlands. Disley used the Garmin Track Aero System to monitor how my drag coeffcient (CdA) changed as variables — my position and kit — were altered. The aim was to reduce my frontal area (the A part) as well as the aerodynamic effciency of the shape I cut through the air (the Cd bit). We tried different stem positions (I have an adjustable Enve stem), as well as various hand positions and different kit options. The key finding was that, to get into a fully aggressive, breakaway position, I need to get lower and concentrate on keeping my head…

Belgium Tour (June 12-16) Teenage superstar Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quick Step) stormed to victory on stage two to set up his GC triumph in his home race, the 19-year-old’s first senior success. British champion Connor Swift finished ninth for his new team Arkéa-Samsic. Volta a Castelló (June 13-16) In his first stage race as an U23 rider, Briton Harrison Wood finished second on general classification after four stages in Spain. Wood, riding for AVC Aix-en-Provence, was in the opening day’s break, finishing third, and then finished second on the Queen stage. Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge (Jun 17) Romain Bardet (Ag2r) snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at this one-day race up Mont Ventoux. Having had his team set the pace for the whole climb Bardet attacked and took Jesus Herrada…

Not long ago I was out for lunch with my parents, when we met some friends of theirs whom I didn’t know. “So you’re Michael,” they said, “the cyclist.” “Oh, yes, a cyclist. We’d better be careful what we say about cyclists holding up cars around here. Ha ha.” “I’m sure Michael is the kind of obedient cyclist who always pulls over to let cars past…” And so on, for about 10 somewhat tedious minutes. Then my father said, “So tell me. Are you and your son still taking that vintage tractor to shows?” “Oh, yes,” they said. “Most Sundays there’s something on. Of course, it can take all day, since it only does 10 miles an hour and we’re sometimes having to get to somewhere 40 miles away.”…