Innehållsförteckning för December 7, 2023 från Cycling Weekly

It’s the first week of December, which means it’s time to get both the Christmas decorations and the deep winter kit out of storage and deal with the dual frustrations of detangling the fairy lights and getting our kit choices right before each ride. It also means the shortest day of the year is almost upon us (rejoice!) and that I’ll have already eaten my first mince pie of the season. But most importantly it means we announce the winners of the CW awards. 2023 won’t be going down as a stellar year for the sport in this country – from the industry going through a major reset, to British riders no longer being the leading force in Grand Tours. However, there were still some exceptional performances, and excitingly, many…

It’s always nice when the December camp comes around. Now in the UK the weather’s got a bit too cold even for me to venture out. I’ve had a couple days too many on Zwift so it’s about time to head off to Spain. We’ve been going to the same hotel for training camps since I joined the team back in 2020 so it’s a very familiar environment, a bit like going to a second home. December camp has a bit more of a relaxed vibe compared to January. The training isn’t quite so severe, but the getting together and meeting everyone part is just as important really. There’s a few new faces but lots of familiar ones; plenty of staff have been at the team since I started or…

In the minutes before Emma Finucane became sprint world champion, she stood inside the toilets of Glasgow Velodrome, crying. The situation was overwhelming. One more race, one more win, and the gold medal would be hers. “I’d never been in that position before,” she tells Cycling Weekly. “I was so nervous, but I wanted it so bad. It was such a weird emotion. I felt all week, actually, that I had something weird in me.” She took a deep breath and staggered back through the pens in the track centre. There, she sat on a chair and waited for her race, an arm’s length from her opponent, Germany’s Lea Sophie Friedrich, the eight-time world champion, who was trailing the Brit 1-0 in a best of three. “I remember sitting there,…

To interview Cat Ferguson, you have to wait until 4pm, once she has returned home from her day at school. The 17-year-old is in her final year of A-levels, studying business, sports science and psychology, just like any other student might. Except Ferguson is not like other students her age. Next year, she will finish her exams and join Spanish squad Movistar, one of the top-performing women’s WorldTour teams, becoming one of the youngest riders ever to compete at cycling’s highest level. “I got a little card today from our head of year saying well done,” she tells Cycling Weekly. But among the other pupils, Ferguson likes to keep her life as a cyclist on the down-low. “They like to talk about it, but I don’t like to talk about…

Young brand Pas Normal Studios has already made a name in the premium kit market. Its latest rain jacket is aimed at performance riders, with a lightweight design and race cut to try and minimise flapping in the wind. The Mechanism Pertex Rain Jacket features a three-layer construction and Pertex Shield Air fabric, which allows the jacket to be both fully waterproof and breathable. It also features internally taped seams, and a two-way waterproofed zipper which is great for accessing pockets while riding. “I AM A BIG FAN OF THE MINI RIPSTOP FABRIC DESIGN” The Mechanism jacket is part of our wider rain jacket group test, and so far it has been one of the most impressive. I am a fan of the mini ripstop fabric design and so far…

Hearing difficulties aren’t confined to the older population: Lucy Harris, a 30-year-old rider for Loughborough Lightning, was born with severe sensorineural hearing loss, a condition affecting the nerves inside the ears. Diagnosed at the age of four, when her parents took her for speech therapy, Harris has worn hearing aids since she was six. While growing up in Oxford, she had regular follow-up tests and, though her hearing stabilised at the age of 13, it will deteriorate as she gets older. Harris can hear low-frequency noises such as the human voice, but not higher-pitch noises or fainter sounds such as wind, rain and rustling paper. “Most of the time, it doesn’t affect me,” she says, “but I can’t watch TV without subtitles and I find busy social gatherings overwhelming. I…

Winter didn’t start in 1965. But when cycling began more than 100 years earlier, we just pretended it wasn’t happening. Most riders simply stopped for the winter, partly because the roads of Victorian Britain (or anywhere else) were too muddy, churned up, flooded and generally impassable. The clubmen retired to their clubrooms and played billiards and drank port till Easter. A very small handful of enthusiasts tried indoor riding, generally round a gym. In Paris, some enterprising soul built a grand cycling palais, where you could ride up a long spiral ramp round the inside of a circular building. These options were more about the excuse to have a drink and see your friends. We quickly abandoned them. For most of the 20th century, riders paid closer attention to the…

Brothers Lewis and Ben Askey secured a one-two at the West Midlands Cyclocross Championships in Wolverhampton on Sunday, the Groupama-FDJ teammates leaving the rest of the field to scrap for the minor placings. Twenty-two year-old Lewis took the win by just over two minutes from his 19-year-old brother, while in the women’s race at the Aldersley Leisure Village victory went to junior Rebecca Woodvine (RR23) from fellow under-18 talent Zoe Parker of Solihull CC. Ribble-Verge Sport team-mates Jenson Young and Oliver Akers also took a one-two at the North of England Championships at Betley Court Farm in Cheshire, with Young taking the win by 1-45 from Akers. Madeline Moorhouse Smith (Hope Factory Racing) edged to victory by a matter of inches in the women’s race from Victoria Peel (Hope Factory Racing),…

I immediately identified with Simon Warren’s article, ‘Original Gravel’ (CW, 16 November), especially his steel Condor bike. My winter hack is a 45-year-old Geoffrey Butler with all the mixed components you could imagine. On further reading I realised that my son and I had ridden this beautiful route, albeit on hardtail mountain bikes. I can’t imagine riding it on a fixed. Unfortunately for me, when I rode it I came off at mile one, breaking my left wrist. Fortunately it wasn’t my left knee, which had been replaced two years earlier (aged 72). The consultant’s words rung in my ear: “No bungee jumping or mountain biking for you.” We finished the 25-mile loop without too much hardship. The 250-mile drive home was a different matter, however. I couldn’t change gear…

Given recent news about the uncertainty surrounding the Tour of Britain, it’s timely to hear how the country’s marquee race can always attract new and passionate fans into the sport. Back in 2015, little more than two years after taking early retirement following 30 years in the fire service, Sharon Dyson began to accompany her late father, Jack, to the weekly time trial run by their local club, Barnesbury CC. A keen bird photographer, he’d heard that the 2015 Tour of Britain featured a stage finishing in Blyth, just north of Newcastle, and bought a new camera for the occasion. “He wanted to have a bit of practice with cyclists so he went down to the local time trial on a Wednesday night to take some photographs,” recalls Dyson. “I…

f you remember the Eighties, you’ll remember Malcolm Elliott. One of Britain’s brightest hopes on the Continent, the Yorkshire rider could, on his day, take on anyone in the world in a bunch sprint and win. Beach-blond hair and his trademark sleeveless jerseys made him a bit of a poster boy too. Elliott famously rode for ANC-Half-ords, the first British trade team to ride the Tour de France, in 1987. He was one of four of the team’s riders to finish the race too, kicking off a Grand Tour career that peaked two years later with two stage wins and the points jersey at the Vuelta a España. Even at that point Elliott was just getting started with a professional career that lasted initially until 1996, before he revved up…

CYCLO-CROSS SUNDAY, 3 DECEMBER South West Championships (Escot Park, Ottery St Mary, Devon): Men: 1. Leo White (Reflex Racing) 1:02.03; 2. L. Adams (Tavistock Wheelers CC) +1.30; 3. T. Bramley (Team Spectra-Cannondale) +1.44; 4. T. Bowdon (Reflex Racing) +2.32; 5. P. Collings (unattached) +3.12; 6. C. Bale (BGE) +3.41; 7. O. Yates (Southfork Racing) +3.52; 8. B. Causon (Plymouth Corinthian CC) +1 lap; 9. W. Kelly (Mid-Devon CC); 10. G. Whitlock (1st Chard Wh). Women: 1. Tracey Corcoran (Plymouth Corinthian CC) 46.56; 2. H. Gould (ASSOS UK Race Team) +0.36; 3. C. Kilburn (Mid-Devon CC) +0.40; 4. G. Whitehouse (WarVena Racing Team) +1.07; 5. K. Eilertsen (unattached) +3.02; 6. R. Day (Dartmoor Velo) +3.56; 7. C. Sharp (The Widger Spoke Easies) +4.03; 8. V. Percival (unattached) +4.10; 9. L. Parsons (Saint…

A good friend of mine bought a new turbo trainer on Black Friday, with grand plans for a winter of online racing and general preparation for his best ever season next year. The turbo trainer arrived. It was a very solid, weighty piece of kit, as you’d expect for £1,100. He demonstrated the solidity of his new toy almost the instant it arrived when, as he attempted to remove it from the very snug box it came in, he dropped it on his foot, breaking three bones He’s not going to be back on his bike, indoors or out, till at least January.…

There is no denying that 2023 has been a tough year for British bike racing. The Women’s Tour was cancelled; the British Continental ranks counts just two teams (one less than it started the year with); amateur race entries are waning; the Tour of Britain’s future is in doubt; and the only British-registered WorldTour team, Ineos Grenadiers, ends the year in a perilous state of flux. And yet, there are also, in Cat Ferguson, Emma Finucane and Josh Tarling, three of the most exciting British talents to emerge in the last 10 years. Plus, the older generation have shown they still have life in them yet with Adam Yates celebrating his best season in years, Geraint Thomas coming close to Giro d’Italia glory and Katie Archibald still bossing the track. In addition,…

AS VOTED BY YOU! If anyone was going to do it, it had to be him. Stood atop the Glasgow World Championship podium in August, Mathieu van der Poel completed the bridge he had been building between his beloved cyclo-cross and road race worlds. He became the first man to hold both World Championships at the same time. The closest anyone else had come before him was legend Roger de Vlaeminck who, having claimed the 1975 World Championship cross title in the winter, was only narrowly beaten to road victory in the summer. There was nothing close about van der Poel’s victory in Glasgow. Having taken off with 22km to race he never looked back – even a crash and a broken shoe couldn’t stop him – and by the…

Bianchi has released its latest addition to what it is describing as a ‘splintered’ gravel bike market. The Italian brand says its new Impulso RC is the “highest form of Bianchi’s racing spirit, applied to gravel,” with its flagship model weighing a claimed 8.1kg for a full build. Pretty impressive. The new gravel race bike comes complete with aero attributes borrowed from the Bianchi Oltre RC, and an allnew carbon cockpit which itself makes some bold weight claims. Bianchi also says it has borrowed knowledge from the world of crosscountry mountain biking in order to build a more rugged-handling bike with progressive geometry. “The new race bike errs on the side of road bike geometry” Reparto Course, Bianchi’s technical research division, says the brand has taken a systematic approach to…

Dave Mellor knew he had a problem with his hearing after finding himself avoiding conversations for fear of humiliating himself. “Going out in a group, riding side by side, is all about having a bit of craic with your mates,” he tells me over the phone. “But over time, I had stopped engaging. I’d be out on social rides and forever saying, ‘Say that again’.” Struggling to hear clearly enough to chat while cycling is a common problem, but it’s one many riders are reluctant to admit. “I’d also find myself saying, ‘Yeah, yeah’,” continues Mellor, “pretending to have heard and hoping that ‘yeah’ was a suitable answer. It got a bit embarrassing and I was missing out on all the banter.” The final straw came when Mellor – owner…

I was out for a ride with my friend Bernard recently, when he suddenly said, “What’s your FTP, Michael?” Only four words, yet fully two reasons to be suspicious. He only uses my name when he’s plotting something, and he’d only conceivably ask about my FTP for exactly the same reason. I’m assuming you know what FTP is – functional threshold power. Power as in ‘watts’, threshold as in ‘the limit of what you can sustain for an hour or so’, functional as in ‘we’re to at least some extent guessing here rather than actually measuring in a lab, but at least it’s cheap’. “It’s about 5.3 watts-per-kilo,” I said. I gave him the power-to-weight ratio, because he likes to think I weigh 10kg more than I really do, and…