Innehållsförteckning för April 15, 2021 från Cycling Weekly

There are now tough new restrictions on where riders can get rid of empty bottles and litter – in designated areas with penalties ranging all the way up to disqualification from the race – a penalty that was enforced in the one-day races in Belgium. Riders in the Basque tour were enraged by the change and claimed that there were insufficient places where they could dispose of their bottles and litter, and designated waste zones were both too small and inadequately located, such as during the steepest parts of climbs. There were also complaints that with more soigneurs having to meet riders at the side of the road to collect used bottles, bottlenecks were increasing the risk of crashes. Groupama-FDJ’s Miles Scotson said: “It’s like everyone’s forgotten about the super-tuck…

One of three members of Clifton Cycling Club to represent Great Britain in the four-man 100km team time trial at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, Peter Smith died last month from injuries he received in an incident while riding his bike. Team-mate and lifelong friend John Watson, who also rode in the Mexico Olympics along with Smith and the late Roy Cromack, said: “I am utterly devastated. Pete, who was still riding his bike three times a week, was my best friend, the one I always looked up to and wanted to emulate. I owe him so much. “He was three years older than me, and when I started cycling at 18 he immediately took me under his wing. We became inseparable. “Although we would train in a group, if the…

■ My favourite hasn’t closed but open only for takeaway. It will be good when we can sit around a table with a coffee and cake post ride. Mick Chambers ■ Coffee and cake!! Obvs. Though egg and chips, and a mug of tea at Ingleton goes down well! Iain Povey ■ One of everything to make up for lost time! Graham Ellicott ■ Well I would order a nice big piece of cake from the cafe in the picture, but it’s been knocked down for housing. Ian Penrose ■ If anyone ever gets back to the Isle of Wight, Chessell Pottery Cafe is the only place for coffee and cake. Mark Giddens ■ First a coffee and a sausage sandwich. I’ll make that last at least 45 minute before…

Ilusted over the Cannondale SuperSix for several years before I got my hands on one. It was a proper racy bike, everyone I knew who had one raved about it and taking it for a spin had confirmed that it had the whipsmart handling and intuitive ride that I was looking for. In early 2013, not long after the EVO had been released, this bike was heavily discounted and came with a bottom-of-the-range spec, bringing it within my grasp. I’d just completed a big chunk of freelance work on top of my nine-to-five and splashed it on the one you see here. I say I bought this bike but almost none of it is original — I never even rode it in its original spec. Instant upgrade Always with an…

Prime Primavera Aero Carbon Handlebar £149.99 Weight 217g Size 38cm Prime’s updated Primavera Aero Carbon Handlebar offers a cockpit upgrade at a much lower price than the competition as well as being packed full of thoughtful touches which make these bars easy to live with and a pleasure to ride. According to Prime, stiffness has been increased in both the vertical and horizontal planes, as well as rotationally. On average, this Primavera is said to be 20.6% stiffer than the original. And sure enough, putting in some hard efforts, I couldn’t discern flex in them. But this hasn’t come at the cost of the ride quality. Even when paired with 25c tyres, the bars never felt unduly harsh or rattly. In fact, with the drops featuring an angled profile designed…

Bernard Hinault seems to be enjoying himself as he recce’s the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix with team-mates in 1981. There looks to be a playfulness in his expression as he deftly avoids the badly broken section in the middle and the puddle on his left. His pristine world champion’s jersey and gloves seemingly untouched by the dirt and dust of these farm tracks; his Renault-Elf-Gitane cap perfectly perched on top of his head. Peak up. Come the race a few days later and Hinault was in complete control. He crashed while exiting the final section of pavé, hitting a dog that had wandered onto the road, but calmly picked himself up and set off in pursuit of the lead group, pushing a huge gear to slowly ride back to them. He…

Back at the head of the pack It had been 1,159 days since Mark Cavendish last crossed a finish line with his trademark fist pump of celebration. The Deceuninck-Quick Step rider took stage two of the Presidential Tour of Turkey in vintage style, timing his sprint to perfection and besting the winner of the previous week’s sprinters’ Classic Scheldeprijs, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix), in the process. It marked the fourth time he’s visited the podium this season – this time the top step.…

With Paralympic gold in his sights later this year, Adam Duggleby used the resumption of open competition to show that an intense period of training during lockdown is paying dividends following time trial victories last weekend. The 36-year-old tandem pilot won two golds and a bronze in Rio five years ago alongside visually impaired rider Stephen Bate. The pair are set to ride the road race, time trial and individual pursuit again in Tokyo. With the time trial scene returning to action this month Duggleby (Chapeau! Vive Le Velo) showed his form by taking victory in the Bramley Wheelers 10 last Saturday as well as his club’s 10 on Sunday. Duggleby finished 18 seconds clear of his rivals in the Bramley Wheelers event, clocking a time of 20 minutes and…

BOB VARNEY How to refocus after the Roubaix that never was Paris-Roubaix Femmes. The race that never was. Twice. We have been left hoping it’s third time lucky after Covid has once again thwarted our best laid plans. I wonder what the weather holds for 2 October? There has been much speculation and discussion on a wet Roubaix, but we are all going to have to wait a little longer to find out. We were all gutted to receive the news of the third postponement of this much awaited race having prepared extremely thoroughly these past weeks. One of our primary partners, iconic French brand Mavic, had advised on reconnaissance and equipment choices along with our tyre partner, Continental. We had truly enjoyed the backing of decades of experience to…

DQ’ing for throwing bottles to fans is ridiculous. But there is no need and absolutely no justification for any other form of littering (particularly gel wrappers) other than a sense of entitlement and it should definitely be an immediate DQ. Lee Wood Right – so the problem is not so much the rules themselves… but where they put the litter zones. Surely that isn’t too difficult to fix. Yes, they probably take it too far in terms of gifting bottles, but introducing rules to limit littering is a good thing. Watching riders riding through the most glorious countryside, and throwing away rubbish as they do it, is not the best look. Julie Scherini They should have a litter domestique whose main job is to take the rubbish off their team-mates…

Given you are reading Cycling Weekly, it’s fair to assume a few things about you: you’re rarely happier than when riding a bike, your favourite bike-buying equation is n+1, and much of your daydreaming involves sunny days, smooth roads and coffee stops. When your motivation goes AWOL, however, you feel lost and unhappy and in desperate need of a kick up the bum to get you back on the saddle – and that’s what this feature is about: how to stay motivated or, if you do lose your mojo, how to get it back. Motivational researchers have identified, in theoretical terms, that above-cited ‘kick up the bum’: they call it developing your self-determination. The theory suggests that, to maintain self-determined motivation – the type that gets you out of the…

This week’s issue takes a closer look at the physiology of the one and only Charles Holland. Holland was an outstanding rider – winner of the BBAR, an Olympic bronze medallist in the team pursuit, and along with Bill Burl in 1937 the first Briton to ride the Tour de France. Holland made it to stage 14 in the Pyrenees without a team or manager before mechanicals conspired to end his race. In the article Dr Adolphe Abrahams assesses his physique. Six years previous the magazine’s editor had “promoted an investigation of the leading long-distance cyclists” which had since become an annual feature. The ‘investigation’ seemed to consist of photographing the rider in their pants, measuring their limbs and comparing their length in relation to their height and their musculature…

Some of the main rivals of Primoč Roglič and Tadej Pogačar insisted that the two Slovenians are beatable in the Tour de France, despite the pair finishing first and third at the Tour of the Basque Country. In their first rematch since Pogačar spectacularly snatched last September’s Tour from his compatriot, Roglič claimed the 13th GC victory of his career in Spain’s cycling-mad region after a thrilling finale. Across six suspenseful days, the Jumbo-Visma man won the opening time trial, questionably ceded leadership to Pogačar’s team-mate Brandon McNulty on the fourth stage, and then dramatically won it back on a brutal final day after attacking with 60km to go. “Today was just beautiful,” he said. “Everything went right and I had fun the whole stage.” Ineos Grenadier Adam Yates continued…

Despite two years passing since the most recent edition of the Amstel Gold Race, the day still sticks in the memory. Yes, there was Mathieu van der Poel’s breathless, jaw-dropping victory, but a couple of hours earlier Kasia Niewiadoma had set the Cauberg alight with a stunning win of her own. Having tested the water on the previous lap, Niewiadoma dropped Marianne Vos the last time up the Dutch race’s signature climb, before the most nail-biting of final kilometres. Behind the Canyon-SRAM rider, Annemiek van Vleuten was closing in, metre by agonising metre, with each revolution of a massive gear. But Niewiadoma gritted her teeth and summoned every ounce of strength. With 25m to go, she looked around for the first time, raised her arms, and won by the slimmest…

Vittoria has brought tubeless tyre inserts to the road. Reportedly tested by Alexander Kristoff, en route to his Ghent-Wevelgem win in 2019, the Air-Liner Road inserts act as an extra layer of security should the tyre becoming ripped to the point that sealant can’t fix the problem. This is more common on the road due to the higher tyre pressures at play. The liners also add extra compliance and impact protection for the rim. The inserts come in three sizes: 25mm, 28mm and 30mm – starting at 24g. They’re made from EVA foam which won’t absorb sealant, but will compress in size once air is added. Aerodynamicist and world team time trial bronze medallist, Dan Bigham, is clearly a fan, posting on Twitter: “You have (reportedly) no Crr [coefficient of…

RESULTS Cycling Weekly’s Easter Stage Race kicked off with a 10-mile TT on the Tempus Fugit course on Good Friday, where CW tech writer Stefan Abram put in a storming performance to clock 20.52, giving him a nine-second advantage over team-mate Ben Millar. Despite valiant efforts to open up a gap in Saturday’s 34km road race and Easter Sunday’s 15-lap crit, Millar never quite managed to claw back enough time to get on terms. Easter champions The women’s race was mercilessly dominated by Swedish rider Malin Kagstroem, who ended up nearly 10 minutes ahead on GC. The B-cat racing was a closer affair, with Greg Wilson coming out on top, 41 seconds ahead of Chris Hope. In the C-category, Dan Coast took an early lead in the TT, but he…

If you’re a cat lucky enough to live with a cyclist, there are a number of things you can do to help them. The first is to remember that cat hair is not known as “nature’s Teflon lubricant” for nothing. Make sure to leave a thick coating of cat hair on all moving parts of a bike, especially the chain. Don’t worry if you get unsightly black marks on your fur, you can rub them off later, preferably against a nice white surface. But a warning – do not be tempted to apply hair to a chain while your owner is riding the bike on an indoor trainer, even if the sweating and swearing suggests they need all the help they can get. Cats and indoor trainers mix very badly.…