Innehållsförteckning för September 14, 2023 från Cycling Weekly

Can Sepp Kuss hang on to claim his first ever Grand Tour win in Madrid this weekend? That was the question fans of the Vuelta a España were asking going into a tough third week of the Spanish stage race. Sunday’s stage was Kuss’s eighth consecutive day in the red leader’s jersey and with his two closest ‘rivals’ being his own Jumbo-Visma team-mates, the chances of him keeping it all the way to the capital were looking ever greater come Monday’s rest day. The Vuelta a España underwent a turnaround that few were predicting in the second week, with Remco Evenepoel cracking in the mountains and appearing to lose any hope in the race for the overall victory. The Belgian sank from third on GC after his impressive second place…

Managing his weight has been a key factor in Ross Howcroft-Jones starting his hill-climb campaign on top form with a win on Bunsall Cob. The 33-year-old went 11 seconds faster than last year when he won the Buxton CC-Sett Valley Cycles event. However, after that win in 2022, the High North Performance rider failed to hit form again and blamed rapid weight loss for his dropoff in performances, something he plans to avoid this year. “I learnt a hell of a lot last year,” said the Conwy-based rider. “My natural weight is about 55 kilograms. Everybody goes on this hill-climb diet, but I went too low and too quick. I started [the season] quite strongly, but by the end of September, I melted. I was hardly holding threshold by the…

I only ride mechanical and it’s here to stay for me. Keep it original. Christian Howard Hvidt Like disc brakes (on road bikes) electronic shifting is only a solution to a shrinking market for bike manufacturers. Mechanical gearing is robust, cheap and easy to maintain and functions fantastically well. Component manufacturers make little money that way so they need to make a £1.5k+ groupset and justify it with the tag ‘new technology’. Twelve-speed is even less durable. Gareth Joseph There won’t be any finding an old bike in Granddad’s garage with electronic gearing and expect it to still work. I have the distinct feeling everyone that’s happy with their new electronic bike might have a different opinion if they keep their bike for more than 10 years. Keith Wehmeyer Didn’t…

The holy grail for most smart trainers is the delivery of a ride feel that truly matches the real-world cycling experience. While the very nature of indoor training may always make this unattainable, the adding of movement to machines that were once static is a recurring theme as brands vie for the title of ‘most realistic’. Wahoo is the latest to try this approach, with its aptly named Kickr MOVE smart trainer. The Kickr MOVE’s USP is the addition of eight inches of fore-aft movement to the trainer body. This built-in dual-axis movement combines with the existing flywheel technology that made the original Kickr so popular to create what the US brand says is “a sensation remarkably similar to that of cycling outdoors”. By adding this degree of movement, Wahoo…

Trinity Racing’s riders have been easy to spot at this year’s Tour of Britain. The team, headed by sports director Peter Kennaugh, took to the UK streets on a line-up of freshly minted Tarmac SL8s finished in a paint scheme that’s either strikingly artistic or overly garish, depending on your sensibilities. Underneath the bold brush strokes is Specialized’s remodelled race bike built using its highest-grade 12r FACT carbon. It’s a silhouette we’ll be seeing plenty of, given its prevalence in the professional peloton. Luke Lamperti’s SL8 is equipped with SR AM’s recently updated wireless groupset, Force AXS. Here, the 20-year-old American opts for a 54/41 chainset paired with a 10-33t cassette. Unlike Tom Pidcock and his penchant for ‘old tech’, Lamperti’s use of a second-tier groupset (Force sits behind Red…

HILL CLIMBS SUN, 10 SEPT North Tyneside Riders (Winter’s Gibbet, Northumberland, 2.2 miles): Men: 1. Adam Pinder (Muckle CC) 7:16.3 2. A. Storey (GS Metro) 7:22.1 3. J. Bowman (Muckle CC) 7:26.9 4. C. Atkinson (Muckle CC) 7:41.6 5. A. Armstrong (Muckle CC) 7:42.3 6. T. Harcourt (Team Bikestop Tyrekey) 8:12.5 Women: 1. Hannah Farran (Team Boompods) 9:03.3 2. S. Wilkinson (Blaydon CC) 9:15.6 3. L. Burnie (Blaydon CC) 10.19.8 4. S. Wann (EMC Cycling) 10.29 5. E. Shaw (Tyneside Vagabonds CC) 12:34.4 CC Basingstoke (Watership Down, Hampshire, 720 metres): Men: 1. Ewan Tuohy (Dartford RC) 1:54.2 2. M. Ferguson (Redhill CC) 1:55.1 3. T. Willan (Elevate RT) 2:01.2 4. J. Allen (Cowley Road Condors) 2:01.7 5. D. Lake (360VRT) 2:04.7 6. M. Sleeman (Gillingham & Dist Wh) 2:05.2 Women:…

This slightly plain 1980s racer bears little resemblance to the iconic PX10 of the Tom Simpson era with its white tubes, curling black lugs and chromed fork and stays – but it still has its legitimate place in Peugeot’s pantheon. After Frenchman Bernard Thévenet won the Tour de France twice for the team in the Seventies, the Eighties saw the second coming of the Englishspeaking stars on Peugeots. Robert Millar, Stephen Roche and Sean Yates all made their pro debuts in the chequered jersey, as did Australians Allan Peiper and Phil Anderson. Millar, wearing his familiar headband with arms aloft, featured in a Peugeot advert for a new lugless, double-butted frame made from Reynolds 501. It was titled “Unique. Magnifique,” certainly a slogan more applicable to Millar than to the…

They may have won the first five stages at a canter, but in the end Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert was made to work for the Tour of Britain’s overall title. The Belgian eventually secured the win at the end of a gruelling final stage in South Wales. Van Aert was confirmed as the overall champion with just three seconds in hand after he took the runner-up spot behind stage eight victor Carlos Rodríguez of the Ineos Grenadiers squad on Sunday afternoon. “It was a super-tough stage,” van Aert said afterwards. “With the course this year, the last weekend was really decisive, and everybody went all in for that general classification. “Today the climbs were a bit longer, which is tricky for me, especially comparing me with riders like Rodríguez and…

“The key is finding them before they appear on ProCyclingStats,” says Jamie Barlow, agent to some of cycling’s biggest stars. Barlow’s work is diligent. He spends hours talent scouting riders, signs up the best ones, and helps elevate their careers to the highest level, joining WorldTour teams and standing on World Championship podiums. On the books of his boutique agency, 258 Protégé, are the likes of Ineos Grenadiers’s Ethan Hayter, SD Worx’s Niamh Fisher Black, and his latest success story, Josh Tarling. A first-year pro with Ineos Grenadiers, Tarling is part of the latest crop of riders to step up to the WorldTour. “What Josh has already done this season so far is exceptional,” Barlow says of the 19-year-old, who became British time trial champion and a Worlds bronze medallist…

Not everyone has the luxury of owning multiple wheelsets. Enter the Paniagua. Parcours created the disc brake wheel as an affordable all-rounder, suitable for fast road rides, winter training and even some gravel riding. So how does it achieve its jack-of-alltrades profile? The rim, made using T700 carbon, features a 42.1mm depth and a 21mm internal width. This allows for a range of tyre widths to be used while at the same time delivering a lightweight symmetrical design that balances speed with durability. Bladed Pillar spokes have been chosen to aid comfort across a variety of surfaces, while still helping to improve the wheel’s aerodynamic performance, according to Parcours founder Dov Tate. “Parcours was launched to make aerodynamics accessible,” he says. “By launching the Paniagua, we’re aiming to make a…

While De Rosa is no longer present at WorldTour level (Cofidis switched to Look bikes for the 2023 season), the Italian marque is still used throughout cycling’s other professional tiers, including by ProTour Belgian outfit Bingoal WB. And Johan Meens’s Merak Disc might be one of the more interesting bikes at this year’s race. While the pursuit of improved aerodynamics has many of today’s race bikes looking awfully similar in shape, Meens’s Merak cuts a more utilitarian all-rounder profile by comparison. The Merak is designed as something of a ‘do-it-all’ machine, versatile enough to be ridden day in, day out no matter the stage profile. The result is a more ‘traditional race bike’, less of a ‘rocket ship’, and notable for its slim-by-comparison tube shapes. Meens continues the theme with…

The broken collarbone is a common injury in the cycling world. Occasionally if you land hard enough on your side, they can break. It’s the sort of crashes where you don’t slide that are the problem. Turns out that in breaking they are serving their purpose, to protect all the vital stuff in the middle. I can definitely thank my right collarbone for its service so far, but I think it’s fair to say I’ve been unlucky to have it happen three times already in my career. You’d have hoped that luck would ensure I had at least one of those three breaks on the left side but it seems I like falling on my right. It’s also now the second time I’ve broken my collarbone, with a plate in…

Afew years ago, inspired by the famous Club des Cinglés Challenge, which tasks riders to complete the three different ascents of Mont Ventoux in a day, I set about searching for similar, if slightly less arduous challenges here in the UK. So far I’ve documented three ways up the Bwlch in South Wales and the significantly tougher three ways over the Bwlch y Groes up in Snowdonia. This time I’m heading to the Lake District to one of the great British passes and a road which will be the centre of attention for the hill-climbing community come the end of October, the Kirkstone Pass. Taking its name from the giant, ‘chapel shaped’ stone that lies close to its summit, Kirkstone is the highest of all the Lakeland mountain passes. Higher…

At first glance Tom Pidcock’s race bike looks to be standard issue. However, a closer look reveals an interesting choice of groupset. While the rest of his fellow Grenadiers have long since made the switch to 12 gears, the Yorkshireman chooses to stick with 11; indeed, his 11-speed 53/39 Dura-Ace chainset even looks old, with plenty of scratches on the 170mm crank arms to prove their age. When asked why the 24-year-old opts to use ‘outdated’ equipment, the team mechanics suggested it was just Tom’s preference. While it’s safe to assume that Shimano wants its high-profile sponsored teams such as Ineos to use its latest gear, it’s an intriguing equipment choice that likely points to a healthy dose of singlemindedness being a key ingredient in Pidcock’s continued recipe for success.…

Cyclists didn’t actually invent alcohol – they were several thousand years too late. But they did invent some really doubtful uses for it. In the 19th century, most club runs featured a pub stop, where the members would drink a great deal and then, remarkably, get back on their pennyfarthings and attempt to get home. Even more remarkably, some of them made it. Racers in the 1890s were quick to see the potential of alcohol. In an age gloriously unencumbered by science, logic or even the basic gift of the ability to observe the bleeding obvious, to early bike racers it stood to reason that any psychoactive substance, any at all, must be good for your athletic ability. This remained the prevailing orthodoxy into the 1950s, when the Tour de…

Ray Booty crosses the line to win the 120-mile road race at the Empire Games in Wales, with a notable, yet charming lack of finish-line infrastructure around him. Booty is best known for being the first rider to go under four hours for 100 miles, and while he remains a legend of time trialling, he was a superb all-round rider, as he proved here. While the field was predominantly made up of riders from the home nations alongside those from Australia, Canada and New Zealand, Booty’s near three-minute win was a clear demonstration of his strength. The British Empire & Commonwealth Games, to give it its full title, is what became the Commonwealth Games and this was The Boot’s first participation. His other major road race win was the Manx…