Innehållsförteckning för January 11, 2024 från Cycling Weekly

The fight for Olympic places continues this week at the European Track Championships, the first major qualifying event of the year. GB has picked an almost full-strength squad for the competition in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, which began on Wednesday and runs until Sunday 14 January. For the riders, the event marks the first opportunity of the year to stake their claim for an Olympic spot in the summer. “There’s always selection pressure,” sprinter Sophie Capewell, a Worlds silver medallist, told Cycling Weekly. “It’s 2024, the Olympics is around the corner, and everyone’s very aware they need to be performing if they want to be on the plane. “Now, it’s just about turning up on the day, when you’ve got that opportunity, to prove what you can do.” “It’s a weird…

hen Strava released its ‘Year in Sport’ report for 2023 one statistic caught our eye: 53%. That was the number of athletes (not just cyclists) for whom motivation came from setting themselves a new goal. Regular readers probably won’t be too surprised at that, and just last week we published a list of 36 events, rides and targets that you could use as goals to motivate you in 2024. But while goals come in many different forms, for a rider there has always been one overriding goal. Mileage. Annual mileage has always been a ‘thing’ for a rider – after all, we’ve been printing mileage charts in the magazine since the early 1900s – but it breaks down further still. How many miles will you ride this month? This week?…

CYCLO-CROSS SAT-SUN, JAN 6-7 National Trophy Series round six (Parkwood Outdoor Centre, Tong, West Yorkshire): Elite Men: 1. Thomas Mein (Hope Factory Racing) 55.06; 2. T. Barnes (Ribble-Verge Sport) +0.31; 3. D. Barnes (Team Spectra-Cannondale) +1.47; 4. L. Martin (Studio Velo) +2.29; 5. J. Young (Ribble-Verge Sport) +3.15; 6. G. Drake (Wheelbase-CabTech) +3.21; 7. S. Wyllie (Team Spectra-Cannondale) +4.08; 8. J. Beckingsale (Montezuma’s Race Team) +4.18; 9. S. Fisher (Hope Tech Factory Racing) +4.31; 10. B. Bright (Wales Racing Academy) +4.49. Elite Women: 1. Ella Maclean-Howell (Hope Tech Factory Racing) 56.48; 2. N. Brammeier (unattached) +1.46; 3. E. Day (Team Spectra-Cannondale) +2.21; 4. A. Baker (Team Empella) +3.16; 5. H. Inglis (Brother UK-Orientation Marketing) +3.37; 6. R. James (Hope Factory Racing) +3.44; 7. E. McKinnon (Montezuma’s Race Team) +4.39; 8.…

The heritage, the handcrafted frames, the racing history… Mercian has it all. There was even the collaboration with Sir Paul Smith to elevate the Derby brand from the tarmac to the catwalk. The Paul Smith + Mercian Pro Lugless, which is made to order, costs £15,000 – more expensive than the glitzier and more recent Paul Smith Edition Factor. However, Mercian’s beginnings were humble. Tom Crowther and Lou Barker opened a shop in London Road, Derby in 1946, with frames built in a workshop round the corner. There’s a detailed history of the early days on the company’s website with photos, one of which shows the Derby Mercury meeting outside the shop for a ‘Tramps Run’ wearing fake beards and smoking clay pipes. But soon Mercian was looking decidedly more…

Storming to success Zoe Bäckstedt charges up one of the many sandbanks at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Limburg. The British champion would go on to finish third in the elite race on Sunday, equalling her best World Cup result this year, but first in the under-23 category. It came the day after the European under-23 champion won the Hexia Cyclocross in Gullegem, her first elite victory in Europe this season. She’s looking good ahead of the National and World Championships.…

Adelaide and South Australia will once again host the opening of the men’s and women’s WorldTours over the next fortnight, with some of the biggest names in pro cycling taking a trip to the other side of the world to start their 2024 seasons. Both the men and women will tackle the famous Willunga Hill, which might well decide the direction of the ochre jersey for this year. It will be the first time the women’s Tour Down Under event proper has used the climb, although it was used in the 2021 Santos Festival of Cycling. Unlike previous years, there is a break between the women’s and men’s races, with the two races taking place over a 10-day period; three stages for the women, and six for the men. The…

Cyclists have to play the hand they’re dealt. The French have the Alps and Mediterranean coastline; the Spanish have the year-round heat of the Balearics; and the Italians have the rolling Tuscan countryside and five-course meals. But what about we Brits? Well, at present we have rain. Lots of rain. We also have wind, grey skies and an abiding sense of will this ever end? What we need right now is a reminder of how things were back in the sweltering autumn of 2023 – and how they will be again in just a few months’ time. Living in Surrey, I’m not spoilt for choice when it comes to quiet cycling roads. Thankfully, though, the county has an excellent network of gravel routes, which I spent much of last year…

Almost all countries require certain fittings to be applied to bicycles before they’re sold. Since 2010 a fully built bike sold in the UK has required front and rear reflectors, wheel reflectors, and a good old-fashioned bell. Requirements are similar in America, and in France working lights are mandatory – usually at the lowest possible cost. According to the Bicycle Association, 1.88 million bikes were sold in 2022 in the UK. Theoretically, that’s 7.52 million plastic reflectors, and 1.88 million bells provided with bikes (the law does not state they have to be fitted) in the UK alone. That’s regardless of whether or not it’s a hybrid from Decathlon or a Pinarello Dogma F. “The focus should be on avoiding waste” This begs the question: how much of this plastic…

Ergon SR Allroad Core Comp £129.99 Weight 288g Historically the general more foam equals more comfort and less foam equals more speed. Width was seen in much the same way: wider equals slower and narrower equals faster. This near-Manichean binary persisted for a long time. We now know that it’s not quite that simple: everybody is different and has different needs based on their unique anatomy. Germany’s Ergon Bikes has been at the forefront of bike industry ergonomics, and their latest saddle continues its innovative approach. The Ergon SR Allroad Core Comp Men’s saddle sandwiches a layer of closed-cell particle Infinergy foam between a top layer of orthopaedic foam and a nylon composite shell. This is then covered by a microfibre outer layer. The intent here is to reduce road…

Wout van Aert has been forced to accept that his great rival, Mathieu van der Poel, is unbeatable on the cyclo-cross field this winter as the 2024 road season draws closer. Van Aert will make his Giro d’Italia debut this May, but before then he will look to finally secure a second Monument victory at Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders. In cyclo-cross this season, he has very much been second best, but it is all part of a bigger plan. Meanwhile, van der Poel was victorious at Roubaix last April, and has also had the upper hand over his long-standing rival throughout this CX season. Most impressively, on New Year’s Day, the Dutchman beat van Aert by almost two minutes at the X20 Trofee Baal. Post race, van Aert…

I’ve done it many times and for what? Madness, never again. Paul Ochiltree I’ve done it seven times, all outdoor. It’s a great challenge for those who attempt it with the right balance and don’t put it before all other commitments at this time of year. I stopped doing it outdoors as I’ve kinda “been there done that” and don’t really get anything out of risking going down with something and adding 400% to the washing in our household. Paul Ruffy Did it once, when I was on furlough. Never again. It just became miserable and pointless when I could have been enjoying Christmas; eating, drinking, and taking a well-earned break. Anthony Walstow I think I might just make the Festive 5 at the rate I’m going. David Lowis Festive…

Have you ever wondered whether nature gifted you with the right body type for cycling? I certainly have. As a schoolboy, I was already over 6ft (183cm) by age 12, head and shoulders above my classmates – a beanpole of a boy. Teachers steered me towards throwing and jumping sports, and, of course, basketball. Based solely on my appearance, doors to some sports were opened while others were slammed shut. What if I’d aspired to be a Grand Tour winner, like my then hero, the diminutive Bernard Hinault – would my body type have ruled me out? In road cycling, riders come in a wide array of shapes and sizes. You’ll find bulky sprinters, tall TT specialists and light, ultra-lean climbers in any pro peloton. I wanted to discover what…

Or, at any rate, how to get someone back to riding their bike. As good a starting point as any is to use their own ego. Do this by reference to their physical appearance. There are two approaches, and they are not distinguished by the ex-rider’s actual appearance but by personality type. For alpha sprinter-types, try, “Mate, you look awful.” For more modest climber-types try, “Well, you still look incredibly fit.” Either way, if you get it right, their reaction will be something along the lines of, “I’ll show them.” If that’s not enough, dredge up the name of someone they used to be faster than. Explain how well this rider is going these days. “I say Lance, old chap, they say Cadel Evans is going to win the Tour…”…

The glamour – or not – of international six-day racing in the 1940s is laid bare in this image, showing Italian track star Severino Rigoni in his track centre cabin receiving a massage between stints at the Berlin Six-Day in 1949. Rigoni, who won an Olympic silver medal with the Italian team pursuit squad in 1936, lies on a grubby bed, his hairnet helmet lopsided, and drinks milk from a tin mug as he gets his legs rubbed. Note the oils lined up on the shelf, along with a portable stove. The cramped conditions were, in fact still are, de rigueur at the six-days, as another soigneur, or perhaps mechanic, is cropped out of the image on the left. Back then, six-day racing was an especially brutal sport, with racing…