Innehållsförteckning för May 11, 2023 från Cycling Weekly

My second favourite day of the riding year arrived last week (the top spot goes to the day after the clocks go forward) so I decided to ignore this annoyingly persistent spring cold I’ve been suffering from and get out for a ride. My first one in over a week. My legs felt absolutely rubbish, but still I wasn’t disappointed. Out in the lanes near me everything is now a brilliant shade of green, from the weeds and wildflowers at the side of the road right up to the leaves at the top of the tree canopy. The way everything bursts back into life at this time of year always puts a smile on my face, and there is no better way to appreciate it than on two wheels. In…

Huub-WattShop team-mates John Archibald and Jennifer George strengthened their overall title ambitions with victory at round four of the Merlin Cycles Classic Series, the Tour of the Meldons in Scotland. It was Archibald’s third consecutive victory in the series, and with plans to ride the next round in the Lake District later this month, he is looking good to win the series. George is now the only woman to have ridden two rounds, and she too is aiming to wrap up the title with a ride at the final round in Devon next month. On a course shortened to 22.2 miles due to temporary traffic lights, Archibald covered the scenic course in 46.39 to comfortably win by over five minutes from Richard Sanderson (Kinross CC). And George’s time of 55.13…

18hr 28min F1’s Alfa Romeo races onto the gravel scene Merging business with pleasure, Formula 1 driver Valteri Bottas and his Alfa Romeo F1 Team KICK have announced they will partner in organising and funding the inaugural FNLD GRVL event. Bottas, a keen cyclist, is partnering with the organisers of SBT GRVL to host the much-anticipated (and equally vowel-less) event in his home region, the Finnish sports haven of Laht, on 10 June, 2023. The partnership aims to introduce F1 fans to the world of gravel racing and to bring added exposure to the sport. UCI ‘reopens consultation’ on transgender riders The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), cycling’s governing body, has decided to reopen consultation on the participation of transgender athletes in its cycling events. Its decision came just days after…

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THE GRALLOCH (113KM) When: 20 May Where: Galloway Forest Park, Scotland A Trek UCI Gravel World Series race, the top 25% in each age group qualify to take part in October’s Gravel World Championship. Nevertheless, it’s open to all. grallochGravel.com LAUF GRITFEST (5KM, 65KM, 53KM) When: 16-18 June Where: Cambrian Mountains, Mid-Wales Three days of riding featuring timed sections and a ‘prologue’ on the Friday. Distances aren’t huge but there is a lot of climbing involved. gritfest.co.uk SALSA FRONTIER 300 (300KM) When: 17 June Where: Dumfries & Galloway/Northumberland The longest event on our list takes riders from the Irish Sea in southern Scotland to England’s east coast – and there’s 4,200m of climbing. frontier300.cc SOUTH DOWNS CENTURY (100 MILES) When: 1 July Where: South Downs National Park, Sussex A place-to-place ride…

Weight 184g Rapha’s Core bibshorts are the more affordable option in its range and are designed to sit in the middle ground in terms of cut and feel. Not too high, not too low, nothing fancy and nothing overly clever. The chamois is dual-foam and quite dense, a style that we favour. It’s well contoured in the shorts so sits evenly. The result was plenty of comfort even on rides of over four hours. The dense-knit material of the shorts is relatively heavy and robust but they have a nice feel and are well contoured without any rucking or interference from the seams. In terms of coverage, the leg is fairly long in length, finishing only an inch or two above the knee. The silicone gripper on the leg band did…

Weight 158g As its name suggests improved aerodynamics is the focus with these bibshorts, with a new fabric to keep seam lines to a minimum. The stretchy front and back panels are separated by a side panel that looks more like mesh, permitting breathability. The chamois features the Hybrid Cell System which, dhb claims, allows the rider to get in a more aggressive racing position. They also claim the non-gel pad permits greater breathability and resistance to wear and tear. Finally, the printed leg gripper is backed by silicone dots to ensure they don’t crawl up the leg. When riding the grippers stay in place, and the mesh-like side panels look stylish and are appropriate for hot summer riding. We didn’t test in anything over 25 degrees, but didn’t stick…

While £100 is still a considerable sum to pay for any cycling kit, it’s at least half the cost of most premium bibshorts. This left us believing that our six pairs would have to make some compromises along the way. However, by and large, they impressed, with less to differentiate them from their more expensive counterparts than you might imagine. All three women’s bibs were comfortable to wear and performed well on rides for up to four hours. While the Velocio shorts were the only ones to use an easy-pee design and gained bonus marks for the extensive use of recycled materials, they were just edged out by the Sportful Classics and Rapha Core bibs for the overall blend of comfort, fit and pad quality. And it’s the Sportful shorts that get…

Elite rider Christina Wiejak, who races for Saint Piran, is also a sports nutritionist. We asked for her view on the risks of close nutrition-monitoring DO NUTRITION APPS INCREASE THE RISK OF DISORDERED EATING? If a rider is very conscious of their nutritional intake, they may be more inclined to become unhealthily focused on recording using an app. The app facilitates it. Contrastingly, many cyclists may not be fuelling sufficiently due to an inadvertent failure to meet the energy demands of their training/racing. The right app could increase their awareness of their nutritional intake, and therefore encourage them to increase, not decrease, their intake. HAVE YOU OR ANY TEAM-MATES BEEN PRESSURED INTO LOSING WEIGHT? I know of many, usually in teams that don’t have anyone with nutritional qualifications. However, I…

TIME TRIALS SUNDAY, MAY 7 Merlin Cycles Classic Series round four 22.2 (Tour of the Meldons, Peebles, Scotland): Men: 1. John Archibald (HUUB-WattShop) 46.39 2. R. Sanderson (Kinross CC) 52.29 3. D. MacLeod (Scottish Borders RT) 53.26 4. P. Davis (Musselburgh RCC) 54.00 =5. G. Hollinger (Torvelo Racing) 54.26 =5. A. Dean (Edinburgh RC) 54.26 Women: 1. Jennifer George (HUUB-WattShop) 55.13 2. A. Fairweather (RT23) 1:02.52 3. S. Emslie (Edinburgh RC) 1:11.50 4. N. Tomlin (West Lothian Clarion) 1:13.48 5. M. Highfield (Berwick Wheelers) 1:15.46 6. L. Ball (Valley Striders) 1:28.57 Road Bikes: Men: Chris Booth (Giant Kendal Sidas) 53.08 Women: Sharon Bird (Peebles CC) 1:00.03 Veterans: Chris Smart (GTR Return to Life) 50.09 Juniors: Jacob Bradbury (Manchester Wheelers) 1:03.19 Paracyclists: David Murphy (Liverpool Mercury CC) 54.31 Derwentside CC 40 (Allendale, Northumberland):…

For the early years of cycling, tyres were solid – made first of iron, then of rubber. Tyre pressure only became an issue with the first pneumatic tyres. Even then, for many decades, the recommended pressure was ‘some’. Things changed little for most of the latter 20th century. The optimum pressure for racing was as much as your pump could manage. As pumps improved, pressures went up, till by the 1990s a typical time trial rider would set out to ride the UK’s famously bowling-alley smooth trunk roads with anything up to 200psi/14 bar in their tyres. The sheer amount of air being put into tyres at a UK race often meant passers-by fainted from the lack of oxygen. Countless lives were saved by the fact that most racers only…

Well, as you may or may not have seen, Paris-Roubaix ended rather spectacularly for me. Unfortunately it’ll have to be another year of waiting to give it another go and actually, maybe, possibly, get past the Arenberg forest in the front. Having re-watched the fan footage of the crash probably too many times, I feel very lucky that it was just a concussion. Having said that, it did take a while to feel normal again. Nowadays concussion is taken a lot more seriously than before and so the following week involved doing very little. Limited screen time meant my forced week off the bike was rather boring, the only interesting part being the regular concussion screenings I had with the team doctor. At the December camp the doctors conducted a…

Weight 180g These bibshorts from Sportful are designed just to do the simple things – like fit and comfort – without any additional features like cargo pockets or easy-pee systems. We were quickly won over by the feel of the shorts. They’re lightweight, fit brilliantly, and don’t have any bulky seams. There’s even a gentle compression from the Lycra, which delivers a nice soft and supportive feel. The Classics have quite a long leg, which again we like, both aesthetically and for its feel; it gives the lower thigh a gentle hug of reassurance and reduces fleshy mid-thigh bulges. The hem-less leg openings and silicone grips also impressed. In fact Sportful’s fabric is simultaneously one of the best for comfort, grip and minimal restriction that we’ve tested. Equally the BodyFit Pro…

Weight 180g For sensibly priced, high-quality and British-made cycling garments, you can’t really go too wrong with Lusso. Typically, they deliver and the Perform Carbon v3 bibshorts continue that tradition. After two months on test, these stylish shorts have become our tester’s first choice. Step into these bibshorts and it is striking how light they are and just how much they can stretch. While that is generally a good thing, some fibres tend to wear over time and the stretchiness begins to sag; after two months on test and having used these bibshorts a lot, this certainly isn’t the case here. The bibshorts, which are available in black, navy and slate grey, feel great against the skin and do a good job of wicking away moist air. The leg gripper stays…

Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) was unable to compete for victory on stage two of the Giro d’Italia after being brought down in a crash inside the final five kilometres, the stage being won by Jonathan Milan of Bahrain-Victorious. Cavendish was one of the favourites to win the second stage but he was caught out when Movistar’s Max Kanter and DSM’s Martijn Tusveld collided. Also affected was Trek-Segafredo’s Mads Pedersen, meaning that the bunch sprint was devoid of arguably its two biggest fastmen. Alpecin-Deceuninck had worked tirelessly on the front of the peloton all day in an attempt to lead Kaden Groves to victory, but the Australian was outfoxed at the finish by Milan, who at just 22 scored the biggest victory of his career. The main news of the stage, though,…

Young British woman Cat Ferguson (Shibden Hopetech Apex) proved she is a talent to watch out for with victory on stage two of the Tour du Gévaudan Occitanie Nations Cup race on Sunday. It wasn’t quite enough for overall victory though, having lost just over 30 seconds to Italian Federica Venturelli on the previous day’s uphill finish. She did do enough to win the young rider’s classification, however. For more on how Ferguson and her team-mates are setting the standard in junior women’s racing, see p30. Britain’s junior men were also toasting success with Jed Smithson of the Fensham Howes-MAS Design team placing second at the GP Bob Jungels in the Netherlands on Sunday. The race was won by Karst Hayma (Gepla-Watersley) but there were also three other British juniors…

Thank you for making an 87-year-old man very happy. Upon opening my Cycling Weekly magazine every week I go straight to the last three pages. This week I gave a huge whoop of delight when I saw the photo of the 1950 cycle speedway event at Bermondsey. After the Second World War motorbike speedway was almost as big as football – most cities and towns had teams which attracted huge crowds. As an offshoot of the motorised speedway, the sport of cycle speedway evolved. Where I lived there were two motorbike teams, a first division team in Bradford, and a second division team in Halifax. Aged 14 I became a cycle speedway rider; my team was the Norton Tower Hurricanes. Of course we had many crashes, and after breaking my…

HOW TO GET THERE Kielder is around 30 miles from the nearest railway station, so driving is the order of the day, unless you’re hardcore enough to add 60 miles’ riding to your trip (chapeau!). From either the north or south, a motorway will get you to either Carlisle or Newcastle, from where it’s a 40-50 mile drive on A and B-roads. WH ERE TO STAY The event features camping or space for camper vans. Kielder itself is very small, with little accommodation, but there is plenty in the wider area. We stayed in the town of Hexham, around a 45-minute drive south of the event HQ. BIKE SHOPS There are three bike shops at Hexham, but that’s 30 miles from the event. With plenty of brands showcasing their kit,…

Having graduated from the junior academy last year, Zoe Bäckstedt has laid a path for the current prospects to follow. Likewise, coach Emma Trott highlights, they have plenty of role models across the women’s WorldTour. “I think now the generation’s younger, as in they’re closer [in age] to them, it feels more possible with the likes of Anna Henderson [Jumbo-Visma], Pfeiffer Georgi [Team DSM], Elynor Bäckstedt [Trek-Segafredo] and Anna Shackley [SD Worx]. “That’s really inspiring for them,” she adds. “We don’t have a, well, I suppose an Ineos [Grenadiers]. The junior lads have got something really cool to look up to, they really want to go and ride for Ineos, you hear it all the time. We don’t have that. But to see the girls go into other teams and…

A good pair of bibshorts are as close as you get to an essential item of cycling kit. Not only do they provide additional padding between you and your saddle, they also remove the need for a waistband, which invariably creates discomfort over longer distances. However, this means that they get plenty of use and it’s likely you’ll need a few pairs of shorts if you ride year round. Which is where this selection of bibshorts comes in. We’ve chosen six pairs, three of which are women-specific models, all priced at around £100; they’re designed to offer value for money, blending quality materials with reliable performance. While more expensive bibs may be reserved for Sunday best, these are the workhorses of your kit collection, suited to solo evening rides, weekday commutes and…

Weight 161g The Foundation bibshort is designed to be a more affordable version of Velocio’s high-end Signature bibs. However, they still deliver a five-panel compression fit design for comfort and a FlyFree easy-pee system that’s simple and effective; useful when you want it and completely unobtrusive when you don’t, it’s arguably one of the best designs we’ve tried and the only pair in this test to offer the feature. The main fabric is 78% recycled Lycra, which is quite a high proportion in comparison to other manufacturers, including those on test here. It made for a reasonable thick material, which could make them a bit warm for summer days. Despite looking a little on the small side, the Foundation shorts were really comfortable. Velocio does state the apparent small sizing is…

Weight 205g Soft and stretchy, the majority of Castelli Competizione shorts are made from a Vortex BLC textured fabric, with the inner of the leg constructed from an affinity pro Lycra providing greater stretch in areas that need it most and thanks to the flat-lock stitching chafeing is a thing of the past. It’s little details like this that are usually overlooked at this price point of shorts. Likewise the stylish raw edge finish is often used on premium offerings and here allows for a smooth, flowing transition from skin to fabric. The wide Giro4 leg grippers provide a tight fit, but one that proves functional in keeping the shorts from rolling up. With no base layer the supple mesh straps proved to be breathable and comfortable, even when tested on…

I couldn’t have achieved my goals without help from Team Bath’s Jonathan Robinson. Measuring my body composition, VO2max, blood lactate and heart rate profile gave him the baseline figures he needed to recommend a successful fitness strategy. He provided me with accurate, individualised training zone data that I could input directly into my Garmin, as well as a detailed account of which zones I needed to prioritise in order to see improvements in the right areas. The training plan I formulated with Robinson’s help needed to be straightforward so that I’d stick to it. Essentially, it comprised a one-hour Zone 1-2 ride twice a week, one 30-minute session of Zone 4, edging into Zone 5 interval training twice a week, a social ride on Saturday, a long ride on Sunday…

The week: 17-23 April, 2023 Location: Belgian Ardennes Training for: Ardennes Classics “Most people hadn’t heard of me before Liège-Bastogne-Liège,” muses Ben Healy, “and then they were probably saying, ‘where’s this guy suddenly come from?’” Truth is, EF Education-EasyPost’s star performer of this Classics season had been showing great promise for a number of years, with notable results including a stage win at the Tour de l’Avenir as long ago as 2019. Cycling is certainly aware of the 22-year-old’s talents now, given a string of breakthrough performances this spring, placing second at both De Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold, and just being pipped to a podium spot at Liège. Those results are the culmination of the steady progress Healy has been making over the past five years. Here, the Irishman –…

There is a wise suggestion in sports coaching, which is that you declare your season objectives publicly so that you’re pressured into delivering them. It is for that reason specifically that I am not announcing my season targets. I want to be able to renege on them with as little fallout as possible. However, I do have some targets, and as a consequence it is clear to me that I need to do some long rides. The ‘long ride’ is a training staple. Once a week, hit some mileage. It’s a very effective conditioning strategy that demands little in the way of analysis. You just get on with it. And it’s a relative concept. When I started out, my long ride was an hour and three-quarters. If you think that’s…

Dear Doc, on a recent ride, a driver pulled out in front of me, and then proceeded to drive along at about 19mph. I sat about 10 metres behind him, waiting for him to get out of the way. Instead, he stopped. “What are you playing at?” he demanded. “It’s bloody dangerous slipstreaming traffic, you know.” “You pulled out in front of me. I’m just waiting for you to get out of the way. You’re doing less than 20mph,” I told him. “20mph!” he shouted. “Like a cyclist can do that without a slipstream. Christopher Biggins couldn’t do that!” He stormed back to the driver’s door. “Bradley Wiggins?” I asked. He just turned and glared at me.…