Innehållsförteckning för June 25, 2020 från Cycling Weekly

This week’s issue should have been the Tour de France preview; in its absence we’re instead celebrating all things French cycling. Among our features doing just that is one about young Brits heading abroad to race – a rite of passage for a young, ambitious cyclist. I did it myself in 2000, albeit to Ghent, Belgium, racing for a few months in an international team in races big and small. While for the likes of Dan Martin and Robert Millar, these transformational seasons were a stepping stone to a pro career, for the likes of me, it was more akin to a gap year. Although I dreamt big, my ability was not able to match it. I lived, raced and trained with other Brits, Kiwis, Australians, Slovenians and Canadians. All…

1 The Spring Classics in 1990 saw the first – and so far, last – Canadian podium placing in Paris-Roubaix when which rider came second to Eddy Planckaert in a two-up photo-finish sprint? 2 Spain’s Miguel Indurain won the Tour de France five times in the first half of the Nineties — how many times did he win the Giro d’Italia? 3 A certain Texan won a very wet World Championship road race in 1993. In which European city was it based? 4 In 1992 Chris Boardman won Britain’s first cycling Olympic gold in a very long time; what year had the previous one been won? 5 The modern Jumbo-Visma team can trace its origins back to 1990, when it began under which main sponsor? 6 The Hour record enjoyed…

THE RACE NTT PRO CYCLING RACE Join the pros from Team NTT Pro Cycling for a ‘fun race’ with groups for all levels. The course is up to 29.5km long, with 255m of climbing. Fri 26 June, 9:00 THE WORKOUT NINO SCHURTER GROUP WORKOUT This comes as part of a plethora of events from bike brand Scott. While this is an mtb-focused workout, with plenty of time over threshold, it’s sure to do you some good on the road, too. Fri 26 June, 12:30 THE CAFE RIDE PRIDE RIDE A fun, casual-paced (1-2W/kg) ride in celebration of LGBTQI+ Pride month on Zwift. Join in and hand out a few ‘pride ons’ to your fellow riders. Sat 27 June, 8:00…

While it was topical and appropriate for you to include an article on racism in cycling in last week’s CW (June 11), I found the words used by Dr Marlon Moncrieffe to be offensive and was disappointed that a balance to his claims were not edited into the article. To declare that Sir Bradley Wiggins’ and Victoria Pendleton’s successes and subsequent promotions by the media were “symbolically violent representations of whiteness” is so wide of the mark that they deserve no place in a mainstream sports journal. I have no doubt that if one of our Olympic stars had been a person of colour, then they would also have been heralded by the media. Racism in sport should be called and out dealt with, but this kind of inflammatory article…

JACQUES ANQUETIL High five Born: 8 January, 1934 Died: 18 November, 1987 Nickname: Maître Jacques Stand-out victories: Five Tours de France (1957, 61-64); two editions of the Giro d’Italia (1960, 64), one Vuelta a España (1963) Normandy son Jacques Anquetil has a list of attributes lined up under his name, the chief of which is surely that of founding member of the Club Cinq — the roll call of five-time Tour de France winners. Following close behind are perhaps his physical features. A sort of French equivalent to Fausto Coppi, Anquetil was chiselled, blond and impassive; his riding style was a mirror image of this aloof personality – metronomic rather than swashbuckling. He was also very good at portraying the poker face of the modern rider, never allowing rivals, or…

US brand Trek has launched the latest version of its lightweight Emonda marque, improving its climbing credentials by focusing on aerodynamics rather than weight. Using the gradients of Alpe d’Huez as a benchmark, its subtle aero features aim to save watts at lower speeds. The Emonda was launched in 2014; the top-level SLR 10 tipped the scales at a paltry 4.6kg, with a size 56 frame weighing 690g. A further update in 2018 saw the Emonda incorporate disc brakes yet manage to drop the frame weight to 665g. For the third edition, Trek went back to the drawing board. Being the lightest doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be the fastest to the top of the climb. Reducing drag became a major factor. Aero shapes The new Emonda features a…

The new normal bears rather more resemblance to the old normal than I’d entirely hoped. At least in some respects. The main example currently weighing on my mind comes from a few days ago, when I was riding through a local village. Down a slight hill with a tailwind, I was doing a very contented 27-28mph. A 4x4 overtook me, doing at least 50-60mph through the 30-limit. There was a little NHS rainbow sticker in the back window. I’ll be honest, that was the thing that really got me. I imagine we can all agree that if you’ve just been close-passed, abused or overtaken at a speed wildly in excess of the limit, there aren’t any rear-window stickers that make it feel better. I find something especially grating about ‘A…

Vuelta a España champion Primož Roglič beat Tadej Pogačar to become the new Slovenian national road race champion on Sunday. Slovenia was the only European country to hold its national championships on its original date as the coronavirus pandemic has been relatively mild, with 109 deaths to date. The government called an official end to the crisis in May. The 30-year-old Roglič showed that the break from racing caused by the coronavirus pandemic had not blunted his legs as he took the national title for the first time in his career. The climber was a heavy favourite pre-race on a course that finished with a final climb of 8.3km, its average gradient 7.8 per cent. As the race entered its final stages Bahrain-McLaren’s Jan Tratnik was the last remaining member…

TREVOR LIDDLE, TEAM RIPCOR “A hard session on the bike helps clear away any mental clutter” How are you doing? Not bad, the same ups and downs as most people, I suspect – adapting to the new normal. How are you keeping yourself motivated to ride right now? Riding is my yoga so it’s about my head as much as body. Experience has taught me what a panacea getting out on the bike is, or even an hour breaking sweat on the turbo trainer. How did you get into riding? I started mountain biking 20 years ago as I live on the doorstep of Swinley Forest, which has amazing trails, and then converted to road about five years ago when I realised I didn’t bounce so much anymore when I…

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It seems almost unthinkable that Jeannie Longo, doyenne of women’s racing with a career spanning five decades and winner of, well, just about everything, was once labelled the new Poulidor – “the Eternal Second” – in this magazine. The Frenchwoman, who grew up at the foot of Mont Blanc in the Alps, rode her last National Championship in 2016, coming just outside the top 10 in the time trial. This year, she’ll turn 62. You do need to go a long way back in the archives to find that unflattering comparison. This was September 1985, at the Track World Championships. “Jeannie Longo of France threatens to become something of a Poulidor – an ‘Eternal Second’ of women’s racing,” wrote Cycling, after she missed out to Rebecca Twigg of the USA…

Trek is releasing 10 complete Emonda models plus two frameset options split into two ranges, SL and SLR. The SLR range features the lightest OCLV 800 frame weighing sub-700 grams, while the SL features the same frame design but utilises a more economical (and heavier) OCLV 500 frame material. Prices start at £2,275 for the Shimano 105 equipped SL 5 and top out at £9,700 for the two SLR 9 options equipped with Shimano Dura Ace Di2 or SRAM Red eTap AXS. The SL 6 Pro (pictured) retails at £3,350, weighs 8.02kg in a size 56, and comes with Shimano Ultegra and Bontrager Aeolus 35 Elite carbon wheels.…

YOU WILL NEED… Mental fortitude: Just being able to really suffer indoors, that’s crucial. Strength endurance: You need to be able to push a lot of watts for 40-50 minutes without rest, and then still have a strong finish. Relentless power: Whereas a road racer needs to make intermittent efforts to close gaps, with long, easier sections in between, Zwift racing is more like a time trial with surges. You need to be aerobically super-strong. Power to weight: Many climbers do well on Zwift, even in the sprints, because it’s all about watts per kilo and timing your effort. A heavier rider who’s able to produce massive peak power won’t win. Timing: On Zwift you have to time your effort right, knowing when to put in your maximum power –…

It has emerged that, with no racing on, British Cycling has furloughed Erick Rowsell, its elite road racing manager, who only started in the role in January. Rowsell was furloughed around two weeks ago and is not expected to return until August at the earliest. BC expects local and regional racing to resume more quickly than national-level events, in large part because of the greater complexity involved in organising bigger races. Around half of the staff at British Cycling are currently on furlough as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Some team managers told Cycling Weekly they had been irritated by the ability of GB riders to now train in small groups while their riders still have to abide by the current restrictions. However, according to BC, this decision is…

Mitchelton-Scott sponsorship deal called off Mitchelton-Scott’s deal to change their name mid-season has fallen apart after a dispute between owner Gerry Ryan and the incoming sponsors. Manuela Fundación had agreed to take over the title sponsorship, but after the charity’s sports department told Cycling News the team would take on a new Spanish identity, Ryan insisted to Australian publication Ride he still owned the team. The deal fell through days later. UK club creates first BAME racing team The UK is set to get its first black, Asian and minority ethnic race team, as a collection of amateur racers have come together to address one of the biggest issues facing cycling. London-based cycling club BCN, the Black Cyclists Network, has launched its own race team in the hope of inspiring…

Jeannie Longo is a heroine to many in France, of that there is no doubt – a 20-times national road champion, who could also be said to be the most recent French winner of the country’s national tour. But she wasn’t to everybody’s taste. Celebrated cycling journalist Sam Abt interviewed Longo for the New York Times in 1992, calling her a ‘monstre sacré’ (sacred monster) — a French term for a dominant force not always guided by niceties. “If I had to describe myself I would say ‘world champion’,” Longo countered. At the 1989 Worlds, Abt reveals, “typically, she refused to join her compatriots in the team time trial”. Longo also stayed at a separate hotel to the other French women, who Abt says “fined themselves a small sum each…

It no surprise that when we ask Charly Wegelius what his advice would be to a young 17-year-old thinking about taking the same path that starts in a team apartment in France, he rattles it off in a manner that makes it clear it’s far from the first time he’s thought about it. He says: “Have a really honest conversation with yourself, or with somebody who you feel can give you a straight answer, about how much you really want to do this before you start. Saying you want to do it is a dead easy answer to give when you’re at home or when the sun is shining, but put on a piece of paper what the actual potential costs of this are because they’re the things that you’ll…

Assos launched its men’s Equipe S9 shorts last summer, and has now brought the same A-Lock Engineering system to the women’s range with the Dyora RS Summer Bib Short S9. This system uses a suspender-style design which works to brace the main body of the short. This keeps the proprietary Type.441 fabric in place and ensures zero unwanted movement. The externally stitched rollBar bib strap works in conjunction with this framework to keep the new Dyora RS insert completely in place and no matter how you ride – in or out of the saddle – your sit bones remain fully supported. Assos has done away with the magnetic closure system used in the previous Laalalai range to increase comfort break practicality. Instead, the standard style bib straps are positioned further…

“It’s easier to drop world-class riders in a TDF stage than to win a Zwift race. That says it all,” Thomas De Gendt tweeted recently. But there are a few pros who are winning prolifically on Zwift, so the Belgian’s struggle doesn’t, in fact, say it all. We spoke to the top-ranked pro rider on the plat-form, 26-year-old Irishman Chris McGlinchey of Vitus Pro Cycling. “Our team was invited to race the pro-am series last year, and we got a bit of a kicking. From that point, I took it upon myself to try to really get to grips with racing on Zwift. “A lot of it was just getting used to the drafting and how to position myself – almost like learning to ride a bike all over again.…

Not really an act of stupidity at all. More like the exact opposite. Riding down a hill in the lanes of the Hertfordshire-Cambridgeshire borders last week, I saw an unusual sight. I caught and passed a man riding a Giant time trial bike, with aero wheels, tucked in on the tribars. The reason I could catch him at all was that he was towing a child trailer, containing a child. At about 35mph. The trailer was weaving about and bouncing from wheel to wheel. And the child was delightedly clapping its hands and shouting, “Faster! Faster!” I only hope that my overtaking them didn’t spoil their day too much. Seeing them certainly brightened up mine. “One day,” I thought to myself, “that kid will be a real pig of a…

Editor Alan Gayfer was getting somewhat carried away by the abilities of new time trialling star Dave Dungworth. The 22-year-old painter and decorator from Ecclesfield, Sheffield had just won the National 50-mile Championship by almost two minutes, having taken the ‘25’ a few weeks earlier, and Gayfer drew comparisons with Jacques Anquetil early in his editorial. The overestimation of the ability of British testers of the time was perhaps partly fuelled by Tom Simpson becoming a major force in international racing. This issue briefly covered the first few stages of the Tour de France in which, resplendent in the world champion’s bands, Simpson was said to be hiding his form. That said, he was in the breaks on both stages four and five – not something a Tour contender would…