Innehållsförteckning för November 19, 2020 från Cycling Weekly

It’s been a long time since I learnt to ride my bike. But I can still remember when my stabilisers came off. I rolled down the pavement outside our house, got a wobble on, jumped off and watched as the bike rolled into the gutter and toppled over in front of a parked car. Shocked, I ran back to my mum and refused to get back on. My cycling friends will probably tell you that my riding abilities haven’t improved all that much since then. While I won’t rise to such taunts, the fear, excitement, joy and satisfaction of learning to ride came flooding back recently as I helped my daughter transition from balance bike to one with pedals. She flies along on the balance bike, so I thought she…

Team bosses have reacted cautiously to news of British Cycling’s new Elite Development Team initiative, which will be introduced next season to help domestic riders bridge the gap to Continental level and on towards “success on the world stage”. BC elite road racing manager Erick Rowsell called it “an aspirational new step in the pathway to bridge the gap and ensure that riders are provided with the support they need as they find their feet in elite racing.” Both men’s and women’s teams can apply for EDT status, which will give riders access to enhanced support and the most comprehensive race programme possible. However, in order to qualify, teams will need to support riders’ expenses for both national and international races, provide both equipment and support, and attend national road…

YORK-LEEDS-YORK (JAMES BALDOCK) Start / finish: York Distance: 92km (57 miles) Climbing: 670m (2,198ft) Departing the outskirts of York, James’s ride sets out across the flatlands of North Yorkshire, heading due west for Leeds in West Yorkshire, where things start to get decidedly hilly. A quick detour at the far end of the ride will take you into the Harewood Estate, where there’s a cafe. “Riding through Harewood House estate was a definite highlight,” James says – but look out for the tough climb of Rigton Bank, which comes early on the return leg. Download the route: tinyurl.com/YorkLeedsYork WEMYSS BAY AND RETURN (MICHELE LINTON-SINCLAIR) Start / finish: Ardrossan Castle Distance: 64km (40 miles) Climbing: 350m (1,149ft) This coastal scoot may be, on the face of it, a flat there-and-back, but…

Coach Stephen Gallagher (digdeepcoaching.com) worked with Alicia for the duration of this year’s Fitness Project Alicia started her training journey with me only two months after the birth of her child. Her determination to get back to pre-pregnancy fitness and develop was obvious, which was a testament to her strength of character. In the initial phases, the focus was to build frequency of training at a low-to-moderate intensity, totalling six to eight hours a week. Finding a balance of rest/sleep and training stimulus was paramount to maintain consistency. This was followed by a block of muscular endurance work, to help develop the larger muscle groups and motor units. These two training blocks were not directly focused on increasing FTP, but did have a positive effect – at a given power, Alicia’s heart…

A while back, frustrated at the level of aggression on the roads, I got a mountain bike. “Ah, yes,” I thought. “The mountain air. The rocky trails. The sudden stunning vistas, only ever seen by those who toiled to get to them.” When you think about it, riding on roads is actually pretty stupid. Why would you want to ride a bike in the one place that everyone hates you and is in a position to kill you? It was not as I had hoped. I should have foreseen that Cambridgeshire would not be all that big on the mountain vistas. I can get mountain air, but only because I have an altitude simulation system in my spare room. When I told a friend of mine I’d got a mountain…

A senior British Cycling coach has been sacked by the national governing body for “inappropriate relationships” with riders. Kevin Stewart, the head coach for the men’s sprint squad, was let go after receiving repeated warnings over his behaviour. Stewart, a former sprinter who represented Scotland at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, was sacked after showing a “long-term pattern of inappropriate behaviour”. He has apologised and admitted his actions were “not acceptable.” British Cycling performance director Stephen Park said: “While this has been uncomfortable for everybody concerned, it demonstrates the robustness of the processes we have in place when concerns are raised.” Park added that the GB Cycling Team has clear values and that anyone not meeting those standards will be held to account. Stewart was also found to have made inappropriate…

50 percent – the chances current Hour record holder Victor Campanaerts is giving Alex Dowsett of breaking his record in Manchester on 12 December Campanaerts (NTT Pro Cycling), who broke Sir Bradley Wiggins’s record to set a mark of 55.089km in Aguascalientes, Mexico, last year, is not sure Manchester is the right place for the attempt. “In Belgium or the United Kingdom, the temperature fluctuates day after day. If there is high air pressure, I fear it will be an impossible attempt,” Campanaerts says. “I think he has a 50 per cent chance of breaking the record. I’m glad someone finally dares to do it.” Dygert apologises for social media conduct US rider Chloé Dygert has issued an apology for her conduct on social media, mere days after signing to…

My son Mason Bulfin is a 12-year-old triathlete who has been doing your Club 10 on Zwift over the last few months and finally on 4 November he managed to get in the top 20. So with eager anticipation he bought this week’s copy to see his name in print. He was shocked to see he’d been erased from the race. Yes, his wattage is low but he’s only 35 kilos so his watts per kilo is high, some races over 5w/kg. Yes, he is that good! Would you mind telling us why he was removed from list? If it’s for the lack of a heart monitor – we can’t get one small enough! Dave Bulfin, email Dave Bulfin, email Ed - Hi Dave, amazing ride by Mason to get…

It’s a bit flat.” As I churned up the 10 per cent slopes of Godshill on the New Forest’s western fringes, I mulled over this statement. It kept me occupied while I tried to ignore the burn in my quads and forget about the many miles still to ride. In fairness to CW 5000 participant Steve Rowe, who had issued this declaration – and designed the route upon which my CW colleague Vern Pitt and I were basing the day’s ride – the New Forest is, indeed, a bit flat. It’s just that we had somehow managed to unearth one of the area’s most testing slopes and on top of that we were riding it completely unnecessarily, having missed a turn at the top of the hill, ridden down it,…

As I sat in the waiting room of my doctor’s surgery, dreading having my worries dismissed because I was there with a cycling injury, the sight of my GP’s bike helmet hanging on the back of the door instantly dissolved my fears. I hoped that, as a cycling medic, she would ‘get’ why cycling mattered and sympathise with my frustration at being sidelined from the sport I love, while doing her best to help me back on the bike. And she did. Doctors seem to love cycling. The Whitfield Surgery in Dundee, Scotland, has just bought its own fleet of electric bikes for home visits. Bike racks outside hospitals are rammed, and when timetrial start sheets used to include titles, a surprising number of names were prefixed “Dr”. So why…

Before the invention of the pneumatic tyre, it was impossible for a cyclist to overtrain, because no one’s backside was resilient enough to manage it. Overtraining is a constant danger to the dedicated rider. Put simply, if you have the motivation to do enough, you also have the motivation to do too much. And when you do too much, your body can’t recover from the efforts and you start getting worse instead of better. training more, and getting into a negative feedback helter-skelter that goes all the way back to fourth-cat. The plusses to overtraining are few. It’s an excuse to sit around eating cake and not riding your bike, but by definition you’re the sort of person who didn’t much like that anyway. You might, of course, enjoy explaining…

Fighter pilot and poet John Gillespie Magee famously described how he “slipped the surly bonds of earth” every time he flew his plane. Many cyclists experience a similar feeling as they ride their bikes out of the town or city they live in, wondering if they’ll ever “slip the surly bonds” of busy roads, aggressive drivers, gaping potholes and endless traffic lights. Reader Dan Grime and fellow members of VC Glasgow South faced this dilemma when they planned this ride as part of the CW5000 challenge. For a change of scenery and to increase their mileage, they decided to head east instead of south from their regular meeting place in the car park of Toryglen Asda near Hampden Park football stadium. They set out towards North Lanarkshire and West Lothian.…

BELLINGHAM: HERE COMES THE SUN (CHRIS BAIRD) Start / finish: Morpeth Distance: 106km (66miles) Climbing: 1,300m (4,265ft) This is based on a route Chris says he has been doing for 40 years. The best part, he reckons, are the quiet roads past Sweethope Lough on the way out. “There are a few steep clicks,” Chris says, including the climb out of Redesmouth – ominously named ‘Vomit Pass’ by local riders. He recommends the cafe at Bellingham “when you’re allowed”, and says there’s another good option at Capability Brown’s birthplace. Download the route: tinyurl.com/BellinghamRide DAVENTRY JAUNT (ARNIE SPILMAN) Start / finish: Daventry Distance: 108km (67 miles) Climbing: 1,030m (3,379ft) Arnie Spilman’s simply named ‘Morning Ride’ on his Strava is a Midlands meander from Daventry across towards the home of the bard,…

ALICIA THOMP SON, 38 So here it is, my final Fitness Project update, sob, sob! I signed up for CW’s 2020 Project to help motivate me as I strove to get back into pre-pregnancy shape. Just eight weeks had passed since giving birth to my baby son Oscar when I took part in fitness testing at the Porsche Human Performance Centre, at Silverstone, on Friday 13th March – perhaps I should have taken more notice of that ominous date! Three days later, the UK went into lockdown and my cycling plans for the year began to crumble. With Italy the worst affected country at that stage, my plan to ride the Stelvio sportive was the first to fall by the wayside. Still, I was determined to have a productive year…