Innehållsförteckning för October 14, 2021 från Cycling Weekly

You know that sinking feeling when you realise you’ve bitten off more than you can chew? That crept up on me on a ride last week. I’d recently made plans to ride the North Downs Way in two days. That’s Farnham, in Surrey, to Dover, Kent. Around 130 miles, and the majority of that off-road. I live around one third of the way along the route and know the local parts well. This is what inspired me to ride it for an upcoming gravel-focused special issue next month. I’d discovered the route on the Cycling UK site and on Friday morning made my way to the start: just outside a pub at the entrance to an underpass on the edge of Farnham. Glamorous it was not. Regardless, I was full…

For only the second time in its seven editions there were three home riders in the Women’s Tour final top 10. Alice Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) finished seventh, one place ahead of Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM), and Joss Lowden (Drops-Le Col) 10th, and with young riders Anna Shackley (SD Worx) and Abi Smith (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) in the top 20, it was an excellent week for the Brits. Despite their best efforts, though, a stage win eluded them. British Continental teams made up the stage-five breakaway, AWOL O’Shea’s Connie Hayes chasing CAMS-Basso’s Hayley Simmonds, the latter’s efforts earning her the overall combativity award. But they were unable to survive to the finish. Drops-Le Col, though, led the way with Dutch sprinter Marjolein van’t Geloof bagging three sprint stage top 10s, including third in…

TIME TRIALS Thursday 14 October Men, 44.7km Start time: 12:00 Reigning champion: Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation) Women, U23 Women and U23 Men, 29.4km Start times: 9:00 (U23 Men) /10:30 (U23 Women) /15:30 (Women) Reigning champions: Women: Alice Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) U23 Men: Charlie Quarterman (Trek-Segafredo) U23 Women: Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma) CIRCUIT RACES Friday 15 October Men, 1hr plus five laps Start time: 19:30 Reigning champion: Joey Walker (Crimson Orientation Marketing) Women, 1hr plus five laps Start time: 17:30 Reigning champion: Rebecca Durrell (CAMS-Tifosi)…

Products (like articles) need a snappy headline – but marketing claims do need to stand up to scrutiny. ‘It does what it says on the tin’ worked for Ronseal, but if you’re not selling woodstain, a little extra creativity goes a long way. ‘Rotates to aid forward propulsion’ won’t sell many wheels, and ‘forms hanger for components’ isn’t a strapline likely to see frames marching out the door. Marketing is essential if a brand intends to differentiate itself from its competitors, but where there’s a claim there should be evidence to support it. “I can totally see why technical teams and marketing teams have arguments – ‘this wheel is probably as fast as anything else out there’ isn’t going to grab headlines,” says the refreshingly honest Dov Tate. Tate, an…

ONE UP Vitus Energie EVO CRS eTap AXS cyclo-cross bike £3,499.99 OK, it’s not strictly one up – the Substance CRS-2 is the top of the Substance range – but if it’s fast, nimble and technical riding you’re after, this is Vitus’s World Cup-level race bike that comes in at 7.7kg. ONE DOWN Vitus Substance CRX 1 £2,199.99 The CRX 1 gets the same frame and wheels as the CRS-2 but instead of the SRAM Rival eTap AXS electronic groupset you get SRAM Force 1 mechanical. This does actually save a bit of weight, with Vitus quoting 9.1kg.…

Even cycling legend Bernaud Hinault eventually realised he was missing a trick by not building the athlete first. It’s beyond question that Hinault is one of the all-time greats, having won the Tour de France five times, the Giro d’Italia three times, including the Giro-Tour double twice, plus two Vuelta victories… the list goes on. But could it have been even better? His run of Tour victories was interrupted twice by tendinitis, which forced him out of the 1980 race and prevented him riding in 1983. When he returned in 1984, Hinault had undergone a complete change of training philosophy. He adopted the principle of ‘general physical preparedness’ to underpin his specific training. This is what he told me about it when I spoke to him a few years ago:…

Listen to your body: never has my body done me more favours than during cancer. I can now tell when something is wrong without needing blood tests or scans. We all have these instincts – don’t ignore what your body is telling you. Stay positive: I know everyone says it, but this is crucial. Every time I thought the game was up, something always came along to give me hope. Have fun. Fun is everything. Spend quality time with your friends and family – these are the people who will get you through. Always try to include them in how you’re feeling. Today is the day. No matter what you’re suffering, the only moment that exists is right now – the very second you’re reading this article, right now, is…

One of the things that was a little odd and, depending on your perspective, a bit annoying about my bike racing career was that I was pretty good from the beginning. I was, I think, second or third in my first open race – and beat a lot of seasoned riders, some of whom took it better than others. One of the kinder ones, after he’d finished a character analysis that used the word “scum” 14 times, explained that I was only any good because until very recently I’d been a rower. “But that makes no sense,” I said. “Because you train by cycling, and I beat you, which would mean that rowing is a better form of training for cycling than cycling.” His sympathy abruptly evaporated. I’ve always been…

So Joss Lowden is the “first British woman to hold the record?” Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Perhaps you mean the post-2014 UCI unified Hour record? If so, you really should have said. After all, Yvonne McGregor set a new record distance of 47.411km on 17 June, 1995. CW might conceivably have published an article about it at the time. Perhaps. Expect grovelling apology in next week’s edition. Mike Healey, email Ed – You’re quite right Mike, Yvonne McGregor did set the Hour record back in 1990s, but thanks to a change in the UCI’s rules, her Hour record is no longer recognised as such. While she used a conventional position, she rode a monocoque Hotta frame which means her time was wiped off the list when the UCI…

Ever get the feeling that an adjective is pretending to be more impactful than it really is? ‘Aerospace grade’ and ‘military grade’ are excellent examples. Firstly, these phrases can mean anything from ‘formed the chassis for Apollo 13’ or ‘was used for a dinner plate on a flight from Gatwick to Majorca’. Secondly, as Tate notes, “Just because it’s on a space shuttle, doesn’t mean you should have it on your bike. It may be perfect for your bike, there is no way of telling – it literally is just an interesting fact for people.” Precision engineered is another good one. “Well, I didn’t want it wonkily engineered,” Tate notes.…

Zoe Bäckstedt is the brightest rising star of British cycling. She won gold in last month’s junior women’s road race at the World Championships in Flanders, as well as silver in the time trial. Before that, in August 2021, the teenager set an unofficial world record for the 2,000-metre pursuit – two minutes 16.9 seconds – at the junior nationals in Glasgow. As if that were not enough, in the first week of October, Bäckstedt was in the Netherlands winning the junior Superprestige cyclo-cross in Gieten. All of this and she has only just turned 17. Road, track, cyclo-cross, there’s nothing Zoe Bäckstedt can’t do. Comments made by her father, Swedish former pro and 2004 Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus Bäckstedt, relating to his daughter’s extraordinary athletic versatility prompted me to wonder…

MY FITNESS CHALLENGE The last time I’d spoken to Chris Riley it was January 2020. We chatted about how his fitness had progressed since he took part in CW’s Training Makeover series the previous spring. The changes to the 28-year-old’s schedule were proving beneficial, he told me; he was feeling much fitter and even more motivated. It came as a sickening gutpunch, therefore, when just seven months later I received an email from Riley’s sister-in-law informing me that he had been diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer and given only months to live. The fact I am video-chatting with him now, more than a year after that diagnosis, tells you that Riley has defied the prognosis – but it’s even better than that: he’s back on his bike and the cancer…

In association with HILL-CLIMBS SUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER Catford CC (Yorks Hill, Goathurst Common, 707 yards): Men: 1. Harvey Weinberger (AS Test Team) 1:55.04 2. C. Brown (Lifting Gear Products) 1:56.01 3. I. Mundy (Richardsons-Trek) 1:57.07 4. K. Wynne-Cattanach (Lifting Gear Products) 2:03.02 5. B. Neal (Southborough & Dist Wh) 2:07.00 6. C. Stewart (East London Velo) 2:09.02 Women: 1. Madeleine Heywood (Team Watto) 2:39.09 2. S. Zaman (Bigfoot CC) 2:56.08 3. J. Meth (Rapha CC) 2:59.07 4. L. Moriarty (Look Mum no Hands!) 3:03.03 5. V. Filsell (Bella Velo CC) 3:18.00 6. R. Dumbrell (CC London) 3:18.07 City Cycle Couriers (Jennycliff, Plymouth, 0.7 miles): Men: 1. Matt Tupman (Okehampton CC) 2:21.6 2. F. Whetter (St Austell Wh) 2:24.2 3. A. McCormack (Cleveland Wheelers) 2:24.9 4. J. Stevenson (City Cycle Couriers)…

Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quick Step) This year’s comeback man will be vying to pull on the road champion’s jersey that he won back in 2013 – the only time he has won the road race. He can sprint uphill too, but the Michaelgate finish will be a test even for him. Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) It’s been a stellar season for Hayter. Can Matt Walls’s friend and housemate round off his year with yet another win? He’s riding the circuit and road races and has to be a favourite in both. Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation) Once GB’s hottest time trial property, Dowsett has had a lower profile in 2021. He’s still the reigning champion against the clock, though, and is building up to an Hour record attempt. Alice Barnes (Canyon-SRAM)…

Elinor Barker announces pregnancy British cyclist Elinor Barker has revealed that she won silver in the team pursuit at the Tokyo Olympics in August while pregnant. Barker, who hails from Cardiff, was part of the Great Britain team that finished second to Germany at the Izu Velodrome in the team pursuit. She announced on social media last Tuesday that she is expecting her first child. “Casper and I are excited to announce that we are expecting our first child,” Barker exclaimed. “We can’t believe how lucky we are and are so excited to start the next part of our lives together.” Vernon signs with Deceuninck-Quick Step Britain’s Ethan Vernon has signed with Patrick Lefevere’s Decueninck-Quick Step team for 2022 and beyond. The Briton, who made the team pursuit squad for…

The powerful healing effect that cycling can have on the mind and body is well documented, and Josh Quigley is a living embodiment of that. But five years ago, before he found cycling, living had simply become too much for the Scot. “Depression had a grip on my soul,” he wrote in a finely crafted piece in the Scotsman in 2016. He had visited his GP, only to be put on a seven-month waiting list. It was too much. “I wanted to be dead,” he wrote. “I took what I thought was my only option… suicide.” Quigley drove his car into a concrete wall at 80mph. Incredibly, not only did he survive, he woke up in hospital to discover he had barely been scratched. “That night I walked along to…

EF Education-Nippo pro and adventure rider Lachlan Morton has kept in touch with Riley throughout his illness I met Chris at the Three Peaks cyclo-cross race in 2019 before his diagnosis. What felt like very shortly after, a friend of his reached out to see if I could push his crowdfunding campaign raising money for treatment. The situation was so unfortunate: not just that Chris could no longer be outside enjoying his bike but that he was now in a fight for his life. I tried to keep in touch and offer some support, but honestly I think I drew more motivation from him than vice versa. The idea of staying positive in seemingly impossible situations is a nice idea but incredibly difficult to put into practice. I’ve seen nothing…

Cyclo-cross Spooktacular Date: Sat 30 Oct An ideal way to get the little ones into cyclo-cross. North Cheshire Clarion invite them to race in their scariest halloween costume. Held at the Farm Club in Pickmere. Closing date: First come first served basis Saint Piran hill-climb Date: Sun 7 Nov If you think you’ll be suffering from withdrawal symptoms after the National Championships the weekend before this then you need to sign up to ride Long Hill in Cornwall, just outside Truro. Closing date: Tues 26 Oct DTCC Knockburn Loch CX Date: Sun 7 Nov This event is billed as being similar to the Scottish Championships the following weekend so is a good warm-up. Closing date: First come first served basis…

A former team-mate recently told me about his training diary. It used to be a normal training diary – times, intensities, interval sessions, relevant sensations. “But when I copied it into a spreadsheet and generated a few graphs, I realised the best predictor of performance was the score for ‘happiness’,” he said. “So I started including more metrics for sensations. Then I started including sightings of trees, birds, or deer. Eventually I dropped all the stuff about power and HR completely.” This man can draw you a graph of how many deer he’s seen this year and how many people have said “Hello!” I think the stupidity belongs to all of us who’ve been doing it wrong all these years.…