Innehållsförteckning för February 6, 2020 från Cycling Weekly

From track to BMX and of course on the road, British cyclists have enjoyed consistent World Championship success in the last decade. With a silver medal for Tom Pidcock last weekend it feels like that success has now fully encompassed cyclo-cross. British riders have enjoyed men’s and women’s junior and under-23 success in the last five years (not forgetting Roger Hammond’s gold in Leeds, 1992), but have struggled to assert themselves in the senior ranks. Helen Wyman was flying the flag for many a year — winning bronze in 2014 — but take her (self-funded, hard-fought) consistency out of it and it felt like the senior squad was struggling to assert itself in a world dominated by the Belgians. Tom Pidcock may have just changed all of that. Silver medal…

Tributes have been paid to racing cyclist and “inspiration” Josephine Gilbert after her death earlier this month. The 25-year-old, who raced in the UK and at international level, died after being in a collision with a lorry while riding near Derby. The incident occurred just after 2pm on Tuesday, January 21 and Josephine died at the scene. The driver of the lorry was treated by paramedics and taken to hospital as a precaution. James Smith from Primal cycling clothing, which used to sponsor Josephine’s team, said: “Incredibly shocked and saddened. Josie rode for our Starley-Primal team back in 2015. I remember how strong she was on our Spanish training camp.” Friend Jill Lomax said: “I had the pleasure of knowing and riding with Josie when she first started. She was…

Golds Sarah Storey – C5 Individual pursuit; scratch; omnium Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott – tandem kilo; tandem sprint Neil Fachie and Matt Rotherham – tandem kilo James Ball and Lewis Stewart – tandem sprint Jaco van Gass – C3 kilo; scratch; omnium Jody Cundy – C4 kilo Silver Steve Bate and Adam Duggleby – tandem pursuit Kadeena Cox, Jody Cundy, Jaco van Gass, Louis Rolfe, Jon-Allan Butterworth – team sprint Kadeena Cox – C4 500m TT Jaco van Gass – C3 individual pursuit Crystal Lane-Wright – C5 individual pursuit; scratch James Ball and Lewis Stewart – tandem kilo Neil Fachie and Matt Rotherham – tandem sprint Bronze Jon Gildea – C5 individual pursuit Sarah Story – C5 500m…

Giant’s sister brand Liv is one of the last firms to make a women-specific range of bikes; understandable given how well established the brand is in the women’s cycling world. The team will mostly ride the Lagma Advanced SL, and while it takes some design cues from the Giant TCR, it’s a different bike with different proportions designed for women’s body shapes. The differences don’t stop there either. The women’s team will be on SRAM Red eTap AXS while the men’s bikes are specced with Shimano Dura-Ace. They both use in-house wheels but the men’s bikes use hoops from Giant’s new Cadex offshoot.…

An aerodynamic wheel is only as fast as its rider’s ability to control it allows: a wind-cheatingly deep rim won’t save you time if you end up riding further due to wavering on the straights or squaring off the corners. With this in mind, when British brand Parcours created its new Strade mid-section wheel, it prioritised stability in crosswinds as well as a rim optimised for 28mm tubeless tyres. Stability Working with the Sports Engineering department at Nottingham Trent University, the team sent testers out with wind-measuring instruments fitted to their wheels. Over the course of several months, as well as many strange looks directed at the spaceship-like contraptions, they collected data, which showed how the wind was typically hitting each wheel. The results confirmed their suspicions: the front wheel…

Club know-it-all They will have an answer for everything and make you question all your knowledge. Take a deep breath, count to 10 and then seek out those riders whose expertise and opinions you actually respect. Data obsessive They will know your TSS, your FTP and your watts per kilo quicker than you can recall them. Two choices here: use them to get some free data analysis or restrict what you put online and act all mysterious to annoy them when you get asked directly. The oversized ego Every club has the ego-driven member, the one who has ridden every hill or race or sportive you have, but always a bit faster. If you find this bothers you, then set mastery instead of outcome goals for key areas. We take…

Former double national hill-climb champion Dan retired from pro cycling in 2011 and is now a full-time coach. digdeepcoaching.com My initial thought when looking at enhancing Mark’s training and helping him use the time he has available to maximum benefit was to break down his training into three parts: 1. Enhance base fitness and endurance by building longer durations at a moderate intensity each week. This is focused on a Wednesday commute ride along with a Saturday and Sunday endurance ride. Reduce intensity but increase the frequency of endurance rides. 2. Develop your resistance to fatigue through cadence workouts and high-intensity sessions. Indoor workouts (ideally on a turbo) will help Mark to handle pace changes while building a better aerobic capacity. Research shows that, while longer, lower-intensity exercise increases the…

Like any elite sportsman, I planned my training for the early phase of the year very carefully. To avoid burnout, the grand Excel sheet noted that the first five weeks were to be spent doing “General conditioning — distance and pace to be self-selected.” This is a grand way of describing the casual noodling part of the year. Just go out and bumble about a bit, wherever I wanted, however fast (or, let us not deny it, slow) I felt like. It’s been a disaster. I’m too uptight to bumble. I want data. I want progress. I want the data to measure that progress. It’s worse than “if it ain’t on Strava it didn’t happen”; it’s “if it’s not accounted to three significant figures, entered on a spreadsheet, put on…

After proving his talent once again at the World Cyclo-Cross Championships, Tom Pidcock has set his sights on winning rainbow jerseys in three different disciplines soon. The 20-year-old from Leeds was only beaten by Mathieu van der Poel in Switzerland on Sunday as he saw off Belgium’s best cyclo-cross talents to clinch silver in his first elite Worlds outing. Pidcock only moved up to the elite cyclo-cross ranks this season after winning last year’s under-23 world crown, and he is hoping to clinch three titles in his age category in the coming years. “I’m going to do mountain biking mainly until the end of June and finish at the Worlds,” he said. “I think I’m going to try and win the under-23 mtb Worlds. My goal is to win four…

Jakob Fuglsang has been accused of training with banned doping doctor Michele Ferrari, according to an anti-doping report leaked to Danish journalists. The report, written by the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF), is 24 pages long and details intelligence linking the Danish rider to the doctor who helped Lance Armstrong to several of his now-scrubbed Tour de France victories. The evidence, presented to CADF and subsequently obtained by Danish newspaper Politiken, indicates Ferrari was at the 2019 Vuelta a Catalunya with Fuglsang’s Astana team and also that his team-mate Alexey Lutsenko was present at a meeting between Fuglsang and Ferrari in Monaco, where Fuglsang lives. However, there is no evidence to suggest Lutsenko was working with the doctor. Ferrari has been banned from working in any sport since 2012 after he…

The Neo 2T works without power. Its internal battery does everything needed to allow the trainer to work without a power source. When using Zwift, or the Tacx app, the magnets in the drive mechanism can mimic riding on both cobbles and gravel. Pedal stroke analysis is done by left/right pedal sensors that constantly measure your leg position. The drive’s resistance can simulate sprints up to 2,200 watts. With reduced internal air displacement, it’s one of the quietest trainers on the market.…

Mario Cipollini: Zebra Specialized S-Works 2002 One of the more arresting sights in pro cycling history is that of Mario Cipollini and his Acqua e Sapone team-mates training for the 2002 Worlds in Belgium in full zebra longs. They looked more likely to stampede across the Serengeti than win a race, but there’s no denying the bike they rode looked pretty cool. The stripy Specialized S-Works E5 was even released on general sale, featuring zebra-striped bar tape and adorned with 18-speed Shimano Dura-Ace. It was perhaps more of a team bike than a one-off paintjob for an individual rider, but it was one of the first of its kind — a sort of ‘gateway’ edition to future, wilder colourways. Mark Cavendish: green and chrome Cervélo S5 2017 Cervélo described the…

Cycling Weekly sat down with John Vargus, founder and president of tubeless sealant producer Orange Seal, to find out his top tips for maximising sealant efficiency: ■ Before you start it’s important that you shake the bottle of sealant enough to distribute the particulate evenly and ensure there is enough of it in the solution you will put into the tyre. ■ Don’t just guess the amount of sealant to put in. Start by putting in the amount of sealant the manufacturer recommends. For Orange Seal it would be 2oz (57ml) of sealant for a typical 700x25c tyre. It should be enough to coat the inside surface of the tyre without adding excess weight. ■ Inflate the tyre to below your normal tyre pressure, around 70-80psi, and ride the bike…

If you are limited to just one wheelset, what is the optimum choice? Dov Tate, founder of Parcours told us: “The aero benefit you get from deeper wheels is almost always going to outweigh any weight penalty. “But if you live in the mountains, look for something shallower. The biggest jump in performance you get is from going from a box-section to a 40mm rim. Time triallists can choose a 70mm or 80mm rim and know they’re not going to suffer a big weight penalty or reduced handling.” Being able to handle a deep rim comes down to rider mass, and experience. “As soon as you come out of your aero tuck on bars or drops, you’re giving up more aerodynamically than you gain from the depth of the rim.…

Whether the rival in your mind is actually a buddy off the bike, a pro whose processes you love or a nemesis who pushes your buttons, there are five sure-fire ways to make sure their presence motivates rather than discourages you. 1 Pick as a rival only riders who are a bit better than you. We rise (or fall) to the level of the people around us, so make sure you are using this to your advantage. 2 Your focus should be on performance only: consider what it is in their training, preparation or mental game that makes them better than you. Don’t lower yourself to critiquing their eccentricities or looks. 3 Rather than seeing the bad in this rival, see the best. What do you (grudgingly) admire? Study them.…

CYCLO-CROSS SAT-SUN, 1-2 FEBRUARY World Championships (Dubendorft, Switzerland): Elite Men: 1. Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) 1:08.52; 2. T. Pidcock (Great Britain) +1.32; 3. T. Aerts (Belgium) +1.43; 4. W. Van Aert +2.00; 5. L. Sweeck (Belgium) +2.26; 6. M. Vanthourenhout (Belgium) +2.59; 7. C. Van Kessel (Netherlands) +3.42; 8. Q. Hermans (Belgium) +4.30; 9. T. Merlier (Belgium) +4.34; 10. E. Iserbyt (Belgium) +4.52. Elite Women: 1. Carmen Alvarado (Netherlands) 45.20; 2. A. Worst (Netherlands) +0.01; 3. L. Brand (Netherlands) +0.10; 4. K. Compton (USA) +1.00; 5. Y. Kastelijn (Netherlands) +1.26; 6. E. Richards (Great Britain) +1.44; 7. E. Lechner (Italy) +2.25; 8. E. Van Loy (Belgium) +2.46; 9. L. Verdonschot (Belgium) +2.52; 10. M. Petit (France) +3.06. Under-23 Men: 1. Ryan Kamp (Netherlands) 47.53; 2. K. Kuhn (Switzerland) +0.36;…

I was definitely addicted to Strava, more than other social media platforms. It became a platform where I was craving attention from my ‘followers’ for kudos and to see my best rides. When riding a bike I would lose the pleasure of simply being present with my surroundings and replace this with a strategy to ride fast appropriately to get certain segments. I think female riders are more likely to receive comments of encouragement, sympathy, critique and advice. This amount of attention was something that I was not generally used to in my real life so it felt great to get it. I decided to quit the app late last year to let go of the pressure to “ride well”, and instead focus on my goals without users seeing if…

Every month we’re setting our CW5000 riders two challenges. Forgetting the big number hanging over them for a while, these easier tasks are designed to inspire riding in the short term. Through the year these will range from distance and time-focused challenges, to climbing and route planning. All of them are designed to get you trying something different, push you a little further and help you get closer to that 5,000-mile total. Sign up for the chance to win a UKCE Gold Season Pass. 1. Find and ride a new road We’re all slaves to our regular routes, often doing the same routes and circuits several times a week and the same long weekend rides out to the hills or nearest coastline. To challenge your route planning skills and fire…

Britain’s para-cyclists set themselves on a perfect course for the Tokyo Paralympics with their most successful ever performance at the Track World Championships. The team returned home from Canada this week with 21 medals, the most it has ever brought back from the Worlds. Leading the charge were Sarah Storey and Jaco van Gass with three golds each. The pair are at opposite ends of the career spectrum: Storey celebrated her 38th career world title at the championships while van Gass won his first. He said: “It’s been so far beyond anything I ever expected. I’m a bit speechless about walking away with three jerseys — from working constantly for one, to have three in one championship is more than a dream.” Despite her years of experience, Storey was still…

Canyon-dhb in action Britain’s Canyon-dhb p/b Soreen Continental outfit have been getting their eye in on the Continent, lining up for the Challenge Majorca, a sequence of four one-day races on the island, running from last Thursday to Sunday. New signing Jacob Scott, who joined from SwiftCarbon, was the team’s top finisher in 18th place, in Sunday’s Trofeo Playa de Palma, with the top WorldTour teams at the head of proceedings each day. 15 seasons as a pro cyclist saw Dries Devenyns (Deceuninck-Quick Step) finally claim his first WorldTour win, at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Sunday. Proving the most cunning of a 20-man move, he slipped the group in the closing kilometres with Pavel Sivakov (Ineos), beating the Russian in a two-up sprint. Close behind, Daryl…

My husband Martin Quinn was recently in a collision with a jeep while he was out cycling and is currently in critical condition with life-changing challenges. He was one of the greats at time trialling in Northern Ireland in the 80s and held numerous records, some of which still stand today. He also went to the Commonwealth Games in 1986 doing the time trial under the Northern Ireland flag, in which the team placed third, receiving a bronze medal. He was 18 when he first started racing and competed for 10 or more years. He is now 56, and up until recently he religiously went out on his bike to do a very fast hilly hour’s training. The paramedics and police on the scene saved his life and the doctors…

A new Canyon Aeroad has already broken cover, being spotted beneath cyclo-cross ace Mathieu van der Poel on a Zwift advert. But the German direct-sales manufacturer has been tight-lipped on the details. Alex Dowsett may be celebrating, as according to the UCI’s list of registered bikes, his Israel Start-Up Nation team’s bike supplier Factor has a fresh TT bike on the way. We expect the Slick Disc to be an update of the current Slick, which was first registered in 2017. Giant has already registered a raft of different versions of its flagship road race bike, the TCR, with the UCI, so a completely revamped range seems likely this year. Given the central compact shape hasn’t changed radically since the bike was first unveiled in the 1990s, we’d expect it…

Having set out with the lofty goal of creating a tubeless tyre that can replace a tubular for its race teams, Specialized came up with the S-Works RapidAir tyre. The new tyre was designed in partnership with Deceuninck-Quick Step, and the team were adamant that the new tyres had to have the same ride quality as tubulars but be lighter and faster than other tubeless tyres available on the market. Specialized’s Gripton compound remains at the heart of the tyres, but there’s a new centre construction that, according to the brand, smooths out road imperfections and keeps rolling resistance low. With a 120tpi casing, the tyres are less supple than the traditional S-Works Turbo Cotton tyres, which feature a 320tpi casing. However, that’s par for the course with tubeless tyres,…

Scotsman Mark Bradfordpleton got into cycling a few years ago, and after a brief flirtation with triathlon resolved to focus on endurance riding. Encouraged by his friend Jim Gunn, an experienced ultra-distance rider, Templeton signed up for this June’s Trans Alba — a 1,080-mile self-supported race around Scotland which includes 75,500ft of climbing. The 48-year-old quantity surveyor contacted CW for guidance on how to prepare for day after day in the saddle — and coach Dan Fleeman was only too happy to help. What’s your cycling history? I got into cycling as a middle-aged man; the usual story — my football boots got hung up and I was looking for something else. The kids were a bit bigger, I wanted to get back into exercise, so I started doing triathlons…

Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana (January 31) Last year’s Tour de France breakout star Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) showed he was far from a one-hit wonder by winning this one-day race through the mountains of northern Mallorca. The 27-year-old German distanced a group including Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) before soloing to the finish. Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (February 1) Brits Anna Henderson and Pfeiffer Georgi (Sunweb) saw their hard work in the first WorldTour race of the year pay off when team-mate Liane Lippert soloed to victory. She broke away from the leading group on the final climb of the day and held on until the finish as the rain poured down on the Victoria roads. Colombia National Championships (February 2) EF boss Jonathan Vaughters was overjoyed to see his new…

At the Cycling Time Trials prize-giving a couple of weeks ago, I was chatting to an old rival. He mentioned the time when a mutual nemesis came unstuck at a sharp corner on a Lake District descent and ended up crashing into a hedge. (Unkind accounts of this crash have, over the years, tended to substitute “sheep” for “hedge”.) However, this time what he reminded me of was the excuse deployed. “Well, I’d just put on these new wing-section handlebars,” our enemy told us, as he pulled thorns out of his shoulders back at the HQ. “And I hadn’t realised that at speed they develop quite a lot of lift. I only crashed because I was going so fast they lifted my front wheel clear off the ground.”…