Innehållsförteckning för December 3, 2020 från Cycling Weekly

If there’s one thing we’re all guilty of it’s repeatedly riding the same routes. I’m as guilty as the next person. When I know I’ve got two hours to ride I head out on a route that I know will take me roughly that time. But without doubt one of the joys of riding is finding new routes, and it’s something I’d encourage you all to try this winter. I discovered several earlier this year when testing a gravel bike and went out on the bridleways and paths that criss-cross my usual road routes. All of these were within a 10-mile radius of home, but I never even knew they were there. Exploring them and finding ways to link them up was a huge motivator. I can’t remember the last…

Elite men 1. Michael Vanthourenhout (Bel) Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal, 1:02.43 2. Eli Iserbyt (Bel) Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal, at +0.05 3. Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma, at +0.12 Elite women 1. Lucinda Brand (Ned) Telenet Baloise Lions, 53.43 2. Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix, at +0.24 3. Denise Betsema (Ned) Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal, at +0.32 U23 men 1. Thomas Mein (GBr), 49.19 2. Ben Turner (GBr) at +0.31 3. Ivan Feijoo Alberte (Spa) at s.t. Junior men 1. Matěj Stránský (Cze) 41.22 2. Lorenzo Masciarelli (Ita) at +0.07 3. Matyáš Fiala (Cze) at +0.13 Junior women 1. Zoë Bäckstedt (GBr) 38.18 2. Marie Schreiber (Lux) at +0.11 3. Lucia Bramati (Ita) at +1.05…

Sixty thrilling stages of three Grand Tours were packed into just 71 days this autumn, with a record seven Britons making their debuts in racing’s most prestigious and longest undertakings. Since the turn of the new millennium, 37 Brits have made their Grand Tour debuts. Until 2020 the highest in one year was in 2009, when the Giro d’Italia startlist featured Ben Swift, Ian Stannard and Dan Lloyd. At that year’s Vuelta a España, veteran Roger Hammond made his bow. More than a decade later a new peak was reached with seven British riders riding their first Grand Tour. Arkéa Samsic’s Connor Swift made his Tour de France debut and chronicled his journey in CW, and he was followed by Lotto-Soudal duo Matt Holmes and Jon Dibben at the Giro…

The Centric looks like a traditional road helmet, but actually Scott developed it both for its sponsored road and mountain bike racers, such is the protection it provides. While it’s fairly impossible for us to confirm without building our own Cycling Weekly windtunnel (which might be a tough one to get through the expenses system), Scott says that it has leveraged its ‘extensive aerodynamic expertise’ to optimise this lid to help its wearer save watts. It certainly looks sleek, though that’s not to say it’ll turn you into a hot head, thanks to the 14 vents on offer. As well as the use of in-mold tech – where the outer shell of polycarbonate material is fused with the helmet’s impact absorbent foam liner – there is a MIPS layer to…

ONE UP Cervélo Caledonia-5 SRAM Force eTap AXS £6,399 Look further up the chain, and you could pick up this AXS model, which comes with a power meter fitted as standard. The gearing is SRAM’s X-Range gearing, with a 48/35 chainset and 10-36 cassette. The brakes are, of course, SRAM’s Force HRD, with 160mm rotors, while the wheels and tyres remain as per the Ultegra Di2 model we reviewed. ONE DOWN Cervélo Caledonia-5 Ultegra £5,299 While Cervélo is unlikely to ever be the ‘value’ choice, if you do want to keep some pennies back, then there’s the mechanical Ultegra option. This forgoes the electronic shifting, and also sees a downgrade on the wheels to a pair of DT Swiss 1800 Spline hoops with aluminium rims. The same carbon seatpost, carbon…

Famously strong as an attacking rider, Cummings had to learn how to become equally tough mentally – with help from psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters. “I did a lot with Dr Steve Peters that was really helpful. I was physically strong, but mentally I was a bit of a loose cannon. When I met Steve, I had a massive fear of failure, so I wouldn’t really commit. One day on the track I’d be the best man in the team, and then the next day, I’d be the worst. He helped me to become consistently motivated. “It sounds crazy now, but I’d almost try intermittently – I’d do just enough all the time, and it wasn’t enough, because if you’re in a team like the team pursuit squad, you need to…

There had, of course, been long socks before – stockings were what a touring man wore with his tweed plus-twos for quite a lot of the 20th century. But the long sock we’re shuddering over here is the aerodynamic long sock. And it was invented in 2009 by, um, me. Or at least I helped. And I’m pretty sure I was the first person to wear them in public, to a reception that was not so much ridicule as stunned disbelief. I probably had it within my power to stop the long sock in its tracks and thus prevent what has been the greatest aesthetic disaster to strike cycling since the Castorama team’s dungarees of the 1990s. The problem is that they work. At cycling speeds, you can make anything…

Ex-pro Harry Lodge’s Grand Tour debut at the 1992 Giro d’Italia was quite different to today. The ’92 peloton didn’t have rest days and rode 500km more than the 2020 equivalent, but “the Italians wouldn’t race until the TV cameras arrived at 100km to go”. When the race finished, the home riders “would insist on having ice-cream afterwards – they couldn’t go without it”, he recalls. While in the Dolomites, “we got to choose the fish we wanted to eat direct from the lake”. If it sounds more like a holiday, then stage 10 of that edition was not. Lodge’s Tulip Computers-Koga team-mate, Allan Peiper, was in a solo breakaway for most of the 196km stage to Monte Terminillo, but when he and Lodge tried to find the team’s transport…

Just because it looks like a road on Strava, and someone has recorded what you presume is a ride on said road, it doesn’t mean it is one. When I headed out to ride the Corkscrew, the 28 per cent cobbled climb in the hills east of Bollington, and not wanting to just ride up and down, I plotted my route to loop back to the main road on what the map called Bank Lane. Bank Lane, however, proved to be nothing but a ditch full of rocks, mud and flowing water. Naturally, I was too stubborn to turn back, so with my bike on my shoulder, and in cleats which were duly ruined, I pushed on and came out the other side caked from the knees down in mud.…

The Cervélo Caledonia-5 is a new range from the Canadian brand that is seeking to find a blend between performance and endurance. My Ultegra Di2 option sits fourth in a range of five models. The bike’s heritage lies in Cervélo’s C-Series, an out-and-out endurance bike that was born at a burgeoning time for all-road as a discipline. Cut to 2020 and the C-Series has faded away, but the Caledonia range takes its place, albeit with a greater focus on performance. Both professionally – Team Sunweb raced this bike across the Classics (those that happened, anyway) – but also at an amateur level. Cervélo wants this to be a bike for all-day rides and mad adventures. Frame and geometry The frame is suitably Cervélo and bears the hallmarks of a brand…

NoPinz SubZero shorts with gel packs and cool bag £139.99 Weight 165g The SubZero shorts – available in men’s and women’s variants – are designed to combat overheating when training indoors. They come with ‘FreezePockets’ at the shoulder blades and lower back to house freezable gel packs, which stay cold for 40 to 60 minutes. The shorts themselves are made of a lightweight honeycomb mesh, while the chamois offers ample padding and moisture management. The shorts did help to keep me cool on the turbo trainer, but only with some prior planning. This involved taking the freeze packs into my turbo den in the cool pack provided, then administering them after my warm-up. Otherwise, they’d feel too cold in the opening minutes and be melted by the time my efforts…

1981 Born in Clatterbridge, Merseyside 1999 Wins the Eddie Soens Memorial Road Race, aged 17 – the only junior ever to do so. He also wins the junior British National Road Race Championships 2004 Wins Olympic silver medal in the team pursuit 2005 Becomes world and national champion in the team pursuit. Turns pro with Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 2006 Wins Commonwealth Games gold, and silver in the Worlds in the team pursuit 2008 Signs for Barloworld. Takes first pro win, aged 27: stage 2 of the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria 2010 Moves to Team Sky 2012 Signs for BMC. Claims first Grand Tour win: stage 13 of the Vuelta 2015 Signs for MTN-Qhubeka. Wins stage 14 of the Tour de France 2016 Signs for Dimension Data. Wins his second Tour…

Some years ago, a junior rider headed out one summer Saturday for some motor-paced training behind a scooter ridden by his dad. About an hour in, and 10 miles from home, his chain broke. His dad said he’d ride home and get a chain tool. After an hour sitting on the verge, there was no sign of his dad. He started pushing himself home. When he got there, more than another hour later, he found his dad asleep on the sofa. He woke him up. “Well, I got here, and the FA Cup final was just starting, so I thought I’d watch that,” he said. “Then after that I figured you’d nearly have walked back by now, so I decided to have a sleep. The chain tool is on the…

Tao just getting started with Grand Tours Following his Giro d’Italia victory in October, Tao Geoghegan Hart has said he wants to fight for Grand Tours every year. The dream is to also win the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, to complete the full set of Grand Tours, he told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport. “That’s the objective,” said the Ineos Grenadiers rider. “I hope that I’m going to have another 10 years or more of my career and the plan is to fight every year for those races, and also for the Giro of course.” Gibson goes to Ribble-Weldtite Cheshire rider Matt Gibson will make a return to the British racing scene with Ribble-Weldtite in 2021. The 24-year-old had been at Spanish ProTeam Burgos BH.…

Back in April during the initial lockdown, Portishead Cycling Club completed a 24hr virtual riding challenge up Alpe du Zwift for the Clevedon and District Food Bank. For this current lockdown we have been at it again, aiming to ride around the world – a target of 24,900 miles between the lockdown dates. Miles for each challenger have been recorded on Strava for any rides completed out on the road or at home on indoor trainers. And we split the challengers into two equal teams – Team Jules Verne and Team Phileas Fogg – to get some healthy competition going. Members entering the challenge made a ‘donation’ which will be going to Gympanzees, which provides pop-up play and movement therapies within our area to disabled and isolated children who cannot…

2020: Connor Swift (Tour), Matt Holmes (Giro), Jon Dibben (Giro), Fred Wright (Vuelta), Stevie Williams (Vuelta), Mark Donovan (Vuelta), Harry Tanfield (Vuelta) 2019: Scott Davies (Giro), James Knox (Giro), Owain Doull (Vuelta) 2018: Tao Geoghegan Hart (Vuelta) 2017: Mark Christian (Vuelta) 2016: Dan McLay (Tour), Scott Thwaites (Vuelta), Hugh Carthy (Vuelta) 2014: Simon Yates (Tour), Adam Yates (Vuelta) 2013: Luke Rowe (Vuelta), Alex Dowsett (Giro), Andy Fenn (Vuelta) 2011: Russ Downing (Giro) 2010: Peter Kennaugh (Vuelta), Adam Blythe (Giro) 2009: Dan Lloyd (Giro), Ben Swift (Giro), Ian Stannard (Giro), Roger Hammond (Vuelta) 2008: Chris Froome (Tour) 2007: Geraint Thomas (Tour), Mark Cavendish (Tour), Steve Cummings (Giro) 2003: Bradley Wiggins (Giro), Julian Winn (Giro) 2002: Charly Wegelius (Vuelta), Jeremy Hunt (Vuelta) 2000: Matt Stephens (Giro), David Millar (Tour)…

I rode the Caledonia-5 a lot through the summer months, a time of year when I’d usually spend most of my time aboard my Specialized S-Works Tarmac. You see, I’d usually consider the summer the time for my ‘best’ bike; my most aggressive, performance-orientated ride. But this summer I didn’t, and I didn’t miss it, either. I was simply getting everything I needed from the Caledonia-5. I’d happily choose the Caledonia-5 for anything from a speedy midweek jaunt to an all-day bikepacking trip, and it’s that versatility that won me over.…

As a junior rider with Birkenhead North End Cycling Club in the Nineties, Steve Cummings was winning gold medals from an early age. By 2004, he was standing upon the second step of the Olympic podium in Athens – at a pivotal time for British Cycling – as a key part of the success story that saw Britain rise to the top of the global rankings. After becoming world champion on the track, Cummings went on to become a three-time Grand Tour stage winner on the road, with Barloworld, Team Sky, BMC and latterly Dimension Data. He entered the history books alongside David Millar when he clinched road race and TT double victory in the 2017 national championships. Known as a gritty rider, Cummings was loved by fans for his…

The week: 19-25 October 2020 Location: Somerset Training for: British National Hill-Climb Champs Elite road racer turned hill-climb specialist Andrew Feather has, for the past couple of years, proved practically unbeatable on climbs of two to five minutes. After losing the national title last year on the untypically long (5km) Haytor Vale course, the 35-year-old was fully committed to reclaiming it this year, on a more traditional half-mile course near Reading. Here, he tells us how he put the final touches to his preparation during the week leading up to the race. What’s your sporting background? I’ve always cycled, all my life, for general fitness. I got into competitive road racing in my late 20s and held an elite licence for three years. In 2018, I decided to focus on…

I am a practitioner of evidence-based cycling. I follow the facts, even when I don’t like them. And here is a fact I do not like: I always produce exactly the same ride on the Cycling Weekly 10-mile Zwift time trials. I’ve been doing these since they started in July, mainly because it’s something that makes the current situation a bit less monotonous. They’re an interesting insight into your condition, because they’re so consistent in their demands. It’s all about horsepower. And while the race varies a bit from course to course, if you factor that out of it, my average wattage each week is the same to within three or four watts. I frequently repeat the same times, down to the second. This despite my training having changed, to…