Innehållsförteckning för January 21, 2021 från Cycling Weekly

Boris Johnson’s seven-mile ride and the ensuing furore highlighted how the rules on staying local for exercise are not workable for cyclists. A minister and the head of the Met Police have already said if “you can get there under your own steam” and “if you start and finish at your front door,” then it’s probably OK. That’s good enough for me, but we’ll never all agree. One reader got in touch to say how disappointed he was with last week’s editorial encouraging people to ride, thus putting strain on the NHS. But exercise is allowed, and if everyone suddenly stopped the long-term consequences would be severe. Cycling is also a cheap, accessible mode of transport for thousands. Then, after I’d invited CW5000 riders to a meet up on Zwift…

The first iteration of the Paule Ka team came in 2005 with Team Bigla. They started with a bang, Nicole Brändle winning three stages and the Giro Rosa GC. Though successful, the team lasted only until 2009. They re-emerged in 2013, since when their bluewhite jerseys have been graced by the likes of Annemiek van Vleuten, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Brits Sharon Laws and Emma Pooley Though never obviously one of the top outfits, and not one of the new WorldTour teams, they have finished in the top six of the WorldTeam ranking in four of the last five years, winning two bronze medals in the Team Time Trial World Championship. In 2016, the squad became Cervélo-Bigla for three years, before Katusha joined for 2020, when despite the…

With the Beast from the East only paying us a couple of short, sharp visits a year these days, British winters are milder than they used to be. Often keeping warm in wet weather is more of a priority, and that’s why a winter jacket that offers a good level of protection against the wind and rain as well as the cold is possibly more useful than one that you can wear in sub-zero temperatures. The traditional winter jacket was made of a basic polyester mix known as ‘softshell’, but manufacturers are now using more technical third-party fabrics from Gore and Polartec, to increase water resistance and windproofing, and durable water repellent (DWR) coatings are common, even if a jacket doesn’t have taped seams and other foul-weather features The use…

Last year, we asked sports nutritionist Anita Bean to identify the supplements supported by the biggest evidence base, i.e. the ones that really work. These are the ones she picked out. Vitamin D: many of us are deficient in it, and adequate levels have been shown to improve COVID-19 survival rates. Caffeine: the cyclist’s favourite boosts alertness and reduces fatigue. Nitrate (e.g. beetroot juice): studies frequently show that nitrate can improve blood flow and, in turn, endurance performance. Iron: vital for oxygen-carrying capacity, but only needed in supplement form if you’re deficient. Beta-alanine: may enhance sprint performance. Vitamin B12: important if deficient in your diet; vegans take note. Creatine: may help boost recovery from maximal sprint efforts.…

Pidcock eyes Vuelta for 2021 Tom Pidcock says he wants to ride a Grand Tour in his debut season at WorldTour level, with his eyes on the Vuelta a España. The Yorkshireman’s move to Ineos Grenadiers has also been brought forward to February, following the CX Worlds on 31 January, he told the Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast. “I’m not having much of a break, I’m going straight onto the road,” he said. Ketones in or out? The UCI is soon to rule on the use of ketones in the pro peloton, following a submission by the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC) to WADA asking it to investigate them. Ketones are said to boost recovery, offering a potential performance gain of 15 per cent. Jumbo-Visma boss Richard Plugge, whose team reportedly…

I have been trying to find out what the current restrictions mean for cyclists. I contacted the police, who either didn’t know or wouldn’t commit. They referred me to the Home Office guidelines which say “stay local”. What does that mean? Cycling friends say any distance is OK, as long as you start and end at home, others say within five miles from home and yet others say keep to your village or town. Given the police are becoming more pro-active, it would be great if Cycling Weekly could publish some guidelines to help us all from getting fined. Barry Culpin Ed – As recent developments have highlighted, there is no single guidance for all riders and on what does and doesn’t constitute staying local. The advice ‘your village, town…

How long would it take you to eat half a cow? No, we don’t know either. But if you wanted to get a 20g dose of creatine from a natural food source, that’s what you would need to do. “We ordinarily get 2g of creatine a day,” explains Luc van Loon, a professor of physiology and nutrition at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, “a gram through a normal diet and a gram that we produce naturally. But with creatine supplements, you’re loading 20g a day. To get that in a normal diet, you’d have to eat half a cow. We can’t sustain that in a normal, nutritious diet.” Creatine is one of the most popular sports supplements worldwide – a market worth more than £40bn and which continues to grow.…

When it comes to the moral debate over supplements, the supplement it’s impossible to ignore is ketones. In natural form, ketones are made by the liver when the body is running low on carbohydrate; they’re an alternative source of energy. High levels of ketones, however, are associated with serious health problems. In recent years, the popularity of ketone products has exploded, with some brands claiming that they increase physical endurance by 15 per cent, while also increasing fat-burning, weight loss and improving sleep. WorldTour team nutritionist Laura Martinelli says: “Ketones are very fascinating, and we are going to see something really interesting in the future linking ketones and performances and training. They can have all kinds of performance and recovery benefits.” It is reported that several WorldTour teams use ketones,…

No fewer than 162 riders finished last week’s Club 10 (13 January) on Zwift’s almost pan-flat Tempus Fugit course. With just 26m of elevation, this is chance for the TT specialists to shine – but it was a lightweight climbing supremo who took the spoils in the men’s race. Double trouble for Dr Hutch CW’s Michael Hutchinson set a Zwift power PB of 396w, but brute wattage was never going to be enough against flyweight Conti racer Paul Double (Sangemini Trevigiani MG.K vis VPM), who averaged an eyepopping 6.3w/kg to clock 20.22. “Zwift cynic to Zwift addict in a week,” Double joked on Twitter afterwards. “Still can’t wait to get back to Italy.” Kelvin Hatch was third in 20.44. In the women’s race, Cassy Smith took the win in 22.17,…

Dutch climber Wilko Kelderman was one of two riders to sustain broken bones when a car collided with a group of Bora-Hansgrohe riders while on a training ride in Italy. Three of the riders were taken to hospital while others have sustained minor injuries. Kelderman was left with concussion and a fractured vertebra, while Andreas Schillinger sustained broken vertebrae in the cervical and thoracic spine. In a statement Bora-Hansgrohe said: “Today during training, several of our riders were involved in an accident with a car, which crossed the road and rode into our training group.” On Kelderman and Schillinger the team said: “For both riders, we’re aiming for conservative treatment.” Team-mate Rüdiger Selig was also treated for concussion but came away with no fractures. At the time Dutch rider Ide…

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20 February - Emma Norsgaard wins stage one of Setmana Ciclista Valenciana 23 February - Leah Thomas wins stage four of Setmana Ciclista Valenciana 29 February - Lizzy Banks places sixth at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 24 April - Both Bigla and Katusha pull their sponsorship 16 June - Equipe Paule Ka is created after Matthias Thoma buys the fashion company 23 July - Paule Ka make the first and only payment of the sponsorship deal 1 August - Leah Thomas finishes third at Strade Bianche 25 August - Lizzy Banks finishes second at GP Plouay 14 September - Lizzy Banks wins stage four at the Giro Rosa 24 September - Marlen Reusser finishes second at the World Championship time trial 6 October - Team announces they have called on the…

We contacted a number of current and retired WorldTour and domestic pros to ask why so many of them take supplements, but none of them responded. So we instead asked Asker Jeukendrup, a renowned sports nutrition scientist who has worked with WorldTour cyclists. “The biggest reason elite athletes take supplements is that they don’t want to miss out on anything,” said Jeukendrup. “When a new supplement comes onto the market and an athlete using it performs well, other athletes think ‘maybe I should also take it?’ They begin to doubt themselves and take it just in case. “Another reason is that elite athletes have a strong belief that they need more [nutrients]. Very often it’s not true, but they take supplements as an insurance policy. Perhaps their diet isn’t perfect,…

You had a breakthrough 2020 despite all the disruption – how? The start of the year was frustrating – I’d been due to go racing in Belgium, so I did take a bit of a knock. But I had it in my head that a few people might take this time to rest, whereas I would crack on with training and get another good block in. That way, whenever racing started again, I knew I’d be the best I could be. You don’t have to be so specific for under-23 racing, you just have to be the strongest rider. Is that what led to your winning the Irish National Road Race title? Yeah, that was one of my goals for the year. I decided to have a crack at going…

There was a dreary inevitability about the moment last week that Boris Johnson set out for a lockdown bike ride a full and horrifying seven miles from Downing Street. Of course the press gleefully hitched our trailer to Johnson’s anvil to score what’s known as a twofer. There was a point when senior politicians riding bikes was good for cycling. Well, not any more. We could have done without the attention. Outdoor transmission of Covid might be rare, transmission from fleeting, fast-moving and distant individuals even more so, but it was only a matter of time before someone worked out a way to blame cyclists for all of this. It’s not like the first lockdown, in what feels now like a hazy summer memory from last April and May. Back…