Innehållsförteckning för April 11, 2024 från Cycling Weekly

Believe it or not, this week’s issue has been years in the making. For most of that time it’s been stuck in the discussion phase, but still, it’s been in our plans for a good while. An issue dedicated to coffee was met with derision by some when I first suggested it, but with every conversation, it became clearer and clearer that the links between our sport and the drink run deep; from pro team sponsors to the British League of Racing Cyclists, caffeinated gels to the mid-ride cafe stop. So get the kettle on and enjoy this week’s magazine with your favourite hot drink. And if for you that’s a cup of tea, then relish the fact that you’ll be continuing a decades-long tradition of tea versus coffee. One…

Phil Hindes is one of the founders, along with fellow Team GB Olympic medallists Owain Doull and Callum Skinner, of Five Rings Coffee. Hindes found himself immersed in the world of coffee when he joined Team GB ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games, training with Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny. “The coffee scene in Australia back then was a million times ahead of the UK scene,” says the 31-year-old, recalling the Melbourne Track Worlds of 2012. “I went in all the famous coffee shops and it started there. At the London Olympics, Chris travelled with his Rocket espresso machine,” he adds, “so we had our own machine and grinder in our apartment in the Olympic Village – that was our daily routine.” Hindes, who retired from international cycling in…

It can be tricky to know how much caffeine to take to gain the optimum performance-enhancing benefits. Will Girling, head nutritionist at EF Education-EasyPost (willgirling.com) provides the following guidelines. 45-60 MINUTE SESSION “If you’ve signed up for a Zwift race or are doing a ramp or FTP test, taking caffeine can help hit your targets,” says Girling. The same applies to a short TT race. Take 3-6mg/kg body weight an hour before you start. For a session this short ‘precaffeinating’ is sufficient; there’s no need to top up midway through the session. 3 - 4 HOUR CLUB RIDE “If heading out first thing, take a high dose of caffeine after breakfast, as it will help speed up the absorption of carbohydrate,” Girling advises. The exact amount to consume depends on…

Mathieu van der Poel was lost for words as he sat down to answer questions from reporters in his race winners’ press conference at Paris-Roubaix. As he walked into the media centre, he would have no doubt seen the pictures on the walls of all the Roubaix greats – Roger de Vlaeminck, Eddy Merckx, Franceso Moser and more – whose names are now permanently etched into the legend of the hallowed velodrome. Van der Poel has now firmly earned his place alongside them, taking his second Roubaix title last weekend after launching an unanswerable attack, 60 kilometres from the finish, on the Orchies cobbled sector. Notably, the Dutchman has now become the first rider to win both the Tour of Flanders and Roubaix in the same season while wearing the…

Action is needed on crashes The death of Gino Mäder at the Tour de Suisse last June was supposed to be a wake-up call for the sport. The tragic accident, which saw one of the most popular members of the peloton lose his life, came on a high-speed descent at the Swiss race, and led to a reinvigorated safety campaign. Mäder’s crash came to mind when I saw the stage four pileup at Itzulia. The sight of riders motionless on the ground after hitting a concrete ditch had me fearing the worst. I was not alone. Bre Vine, Jay Vine’s wife, later said: “I will admit when I saw the live coverage of him just lying there not moving for such a long time, I genuinely wasn’t sure if I…

The latest development in British Cycling’s plan for both of the two Tours of Britain is refreshing. Elisa Longo Borghini, Lizzie Deignan, Lotte Kopecky, and the rest of the peloton have shown time and time again that they deserve and should be entitled to parity across bike races of all shapes and sizes. It’s also what we, as cycling fans, want to see. The Women’s Tour, the event’s previous iteration, gave rise to some exciting racing, but it sometimes felt as if the route didn’t always encourage aggressive racing. Of course, parity should mean more than just the length of a race and the prize money on offer. It should also extend to the TV coverage, the difficulty of the parcours, and the general effort and logistics of making it…

It is so good to see some real progress being made on the West Midlands velodrome campaign. For too long the West Midlands has suffered from a lack of indoor track facilities, now there is a real prospect of correcting this omission. A local velodrome will give youngsters a safe environment in which to learn essential skills, have access to competitive racing, and allow senior riders to race on the track and avoid long commutes to Newport, Derby and Manchester. It is brilliant to see how the swimming facilities in Sandwell (built for the Commonwealth Games) are now open to the public and providing a centre of excellence for all things swimming. There is now a real chance that the West Midlands can have the same chance of success with…

Coffee beans were first turned into a drink in 15th-century Ethiopia, before spreading to the Arabian Peninsula, and eventually Europe, where in the 17th century coffee houses sprung up across the Continent’s cities. The standard method of brewing back then was simply boiling in a large pot – a world away from the modern espresso machine. Depending on how you’re drinking your coffee now, you are part of a wave, or movement, in coffee history. If you’re having a cup of Nescafé instant, you’re a hangover from the first wave of coffee drinking, characterised by the widespread availability of mass-produced, preground coffee, which took hold in the early-20th century. The second wave, which really got going in the 1990s, is all about differentiation, picking out beans from different countries, leading…

Specialized Prime Alpha Jacket £150 Weight 246g I used to train and race fulltime on the Continent, meticulously fuelling my body with the right nutrition, often leaving sweet treats behind. Those days are over. I now firmly believe that almost every ride I take should include a coffee stop, complete with the consumption of a hearty slab of cake. But with the UK serving up changeable weather conditions, you have to be prepared – which is where the Specialized Prime Alpha Jacket comes in. The Prime Alpha Jacket features a breathable fabric shell coupled with insulated inner panels, which keep you incredibly warm given its lack of bulk. The breathable outer layer has a similar texture to a rain cape or soft shell jacket, and although not waterproof, the Prime Alpha…

Where and how have you been training for this year’s Classics? I have taken a different approach to previous years. With the growth of women’s cycling, we need to do more and more with every passing year. Whereas before I would usually focus on training at home, training camps with my team and then racing, this year I haven’t done many races and instead have gone to altitude camps. At the moment [in late March] I’m in Tenerife for three weeks. Last year I learnt that, without altitude training, you can be only as good as fourth or fifth place. Realising this is a very important factor in being able to fight at the end in the finale. You were fourth at Strade Bianche – had you trained specifically for gravel?…

I was sitting in a cafe not long since, sitting in a companionable silence with my friend Bernard. Old hostilities were forgotten, but not to worry, there were new hostilities about to break out. Our drinks arrived. Mine, a flat white. Bernard’s, a pot of tea. We drank. I pulled a face and complained that my coffee was badly extracted and had an unpleasant hollowness that shone through despite the milk, which had been a little overheated in the steaming. Also, the latte-art on the top of it was lopsided. “How’s your tea?” I asked Bernie. “It’s tea,” he said. “It’s fine. It’s always going to be fine because it’s, you know, tea. Look, I put a bit of milk in, I pour the tea and, hey look, a delicious…

A friend of mine recently made a shocking admission. He owned up to having bought, a couple of years ago, a pair of white winter tights. He’s none of the things that might justify such a purchase – a current world champion, appearing in Swan Lake with the National Ballet, or Mario Cipollini. “I thought they’d be OK,” he said. “They were cheap, and I figured ‘who cares’?” He has since discovered that he can’t even stand looking at his own legs in them. “It’s the way I can see my leg hairs through them,” he reports. “They’re genuinely the stupidest thing I’ve ever spent money on.” And that coming from a man who once, on holiday in Italy, bought a roll of mirror-finish bar tape.…

Lotte Kopecky overcame a minor issue with her bike before launching her Roubaix-winning sprint. The world champion was seen taking an Allen key from the SD Worx-Protime team car, before tightening her headset and adjusting her handlebars as she shadowed Marianne Vos in the closing cobbled sectors. Kopecky explained that she was concerned about her machine after hitting a hole in the pavé and didn’t want to risk a bike change in the closing kilometres. “I didn’t want to change the bike because this one I’ve been riding for a few months to get used to it,” she explained after the race. “I hit a hole and the bar was not tight enough but in the end I’m handy enough to tighten it myself. “So I got the key, arranged…

After crossing the line in the velodrome, Tom Pidcock told Cycling Weekly that his senior Paris-Roubaix debut had shown him that the Monument was a “far different beast” to the junior and under-23 equivalents that he had previously won. Pidcock took a respectable 17th, a solid result considering that just a week ago, he was unable to walk after injuring his hip in a crash just before Itzulia Basque Country. “It’s not bad, is it?” he said. “It’s a pretty epic race. I couldn’t hold my bars by the end, which was my biggest problem.” “The speed was pretty incredible,” he added. “The race was just split in bits from the first sector really. It was a big day out but there was not much I could have done. At the end…

I am writing this from an Airbnb in the small town of Cedar City, Utah. Out of my window, I can see the mountains of the Zion National Park as the sun sets behind them. It’s a beautiful summer’s evening, but a snow storm blows in tonight. I’m in the States for what I’ve dubbed my “Great American Race Trip”. Across seven weeks, I’m visiting six different states and racing six different events. From the Sea Otter Gravel Race of California, to the Speed Week crit series in Atlanta – it’s one hell of an adventure. My trip over here has been eyeopening. The Americans really know how to put bike events on. They may not have the Classics or mountain passes of the Tour de France, but they certainly…

Giro for Van Aert? The Giro d’Italia is still being considered a “serious option” for Wout van Aert, according to Belgian outlet Het Laatse Nieuws. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider is currently recovering after a major crash in the recent Dwars Door Vlaanderen, which saw him break his sternum, collarbone and several ribs. Last week he posted his first activity on Strava since the crash – a 2.5-mile walk in and out of his hometown of Herentals in Belgium. The activity was titled ‘Standing still is going backwards’. Wiggle at Evans Cycles WiggleCRC stock has been spotted turning up on the shelves of its new stablemate at Frasers Group, Evans Cycles. Rows of shoes lined the walls in Evans’s Shirebrook store in Derbyshire. All the footwear – which was displayed…

As you read this, it is not unlikely that you have a coffee in hand. Ninety-eight million cups of the black – or brown, or white – stuff are drunk in the UK every day. Tea might still hold the upper hand as Blighty’s national beverage, but coffee is on the march, and has been for 400 years. Your morning cafetiere or coffee-stop flat white might seem routine, but every time you add hot water to grounds and brew, you’re joining in a history that stretches back a very long way. In cycling, coffee is associated not just with taste but image too. As far back as the 1950s, during the long-drawn-out war between cycling’s governing body in the UK, the National Cycling Union (NCU) and the upstart British League…

“The optimal dose for performance is 3-6mg per kilo of body weight” “Coffee culture is huge in cycling,” says Will Girling, head of nutrition at EF Education EasyPost. “Many of the team have their own Aeropress, and Rigoberto Urán even owns a coffee farm in Colombia and sometimes brings his own coffee along.” As professional athletes, every rider in the team hones the dose and timing of their caffeine hit to optimise its performance benefits by testing double espressos, gels and gum, with nutritionist Girling on hand for advice. But what about the rest of us? With the caffeine content of supermarket-sold beans and cafe-bought flat whites varying enormously, and caffeine metabolism being different in each individual, it can be hard to know how to squeeze the best performance hit…