Innehållsförteckning för August 22, 2024 från Cycling Weekly

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) went deep at the Tour de France avec Zwift. Really deep. Stages six and seven saw her give a masterclass in suffering and grit as she pursued the green points jersey. The camera showed a rare sight of the 37-year-old at the edge of her limit – teeth clenched, shoulders sagging. “[The green jersey] is not the first ambition,” Vos had told CW at the beginning of the week, seeking stage wins instead. But when the green jersey came within reach, the Dutch veteran went all in, leaving everything on the road. Despite not winning a stage, with Vos missing out on opportunities on stages one, two, five and six, the puncheur put the effort in to secure the points jersey, wrenching it from the…

First-up, a quick explainer. Para-cycling is Olympic cycling but extra. Some competitors make use of more or fewer legs: four in the case of tandems (classification B), and one-and-a-half in Jody Cundy’s case (classification C4 out of five available, C1-5). It’s similar for wheels: three instead of two on the road for trike racers (classifications T1-2) and handcyclists (classifications H1-5). Watch out, the latter will inspire severe bicep envy, and the former crashes more than any other Paralympic sport except wheelchair rugby, AKA ‘murderball’. Athletes with coordination impairments but all limbs present may wobble at lower speeds but achieve stability as the centrifugal force increases. Riders with prosthetics are made part of their bike – more carbon than you could dream of. Athletes are grouped by impairment classification, which are…

• CONTENDERS Kadeena Cox takes to the track in the C4-5 500m TT. Cox holds the WR/PR from Tokyo and was the fastest qualifier and winner at this year’s Worlds. Her main rival is Australian WR breaker and Paralympic champ Emily Petricola. This factored event also includes C5s, but factoring will favour Cox. The women’s C1-3 IP has a factoring challenge, but first-time GB Paralympian C2 Daphne Schrager says this is her favourite event – and she broke the WR in Glasgow in 2023. In Paris, Schrager will have to beat times from strong C3 and C1 women – including C1 Brit Fran Brown, who transferred from triathlon – to make the podium. Favourites for the 500m TT include Australian C2 Amanda Reid and Japanese C3 Sugiura Keiko. If they…

1 A full cable clean-up The Croix de Fer has received a design update for the first time in around four years, refreshing Genesis’s ‘adventure’ bike with a number of subtle changes. First and perhaps most eye-catching, is that the cables are now routed internally through the down tube – but fear not, Genesis has been kind to the home mechanic. Rather than opt for totally internal cable routing with complicated bottom bracket junctions and tortuous headsets, the British brand has kept things simple with a full outer cable utilised from shifter to rear derailleur. 2 Increased tyre clearance As bike design continues to evolve, tyre sizes are growing too, a trend that Genesis is fully on board with. The new Croix de Fer now features 47mm tyre clearances, up from 45mm…

Two Wattbike Atoms, two iPhones, three pairs of boneconducting headphones, a pair of Nissan Qashqai keys and about £50 in cash. No, I haven’t just had a happy half hour in Cash Converters; these are in fact wo Wattbike Atoms, two iPhones, three pairs of boneconducting headphones, a pair of Nissan Qashqai keys and about £50 in cash. No, I haven’t just had a happy half hour a list of things I have, over the course of the past two years, sweated into oblivion. Yes, perspiration positively gushes from my brow in huge roiling tides. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked, “Oh, is it raining outside?” when, no, I’ve merely been for a 30-minute bike ride on an 18ºC day. And as for turbo sessions,…

This Road Racer (RR) model is from the early 1930s and represents Wolver-hamptonbased Sunbeam’s move into lightweight bikes. Before then it was renowned for building good-quality utility bikes, often with an excellent oil bath chainguard to keep the drivetrain running smoothly. ‘The Sporting Sunbeam’, as it was advertised, was in production between 1928-34, and often featured Sturmey-Archer Quadrant 3-speed gears. The Resilion Cantilever brake was available from 1929 and represented a step forward in braking effectiveness, especially when compared to rod brakes or jamming one’s feet against the front or rear wheel. Sunbeam was rightly proud of the finish of its bikes. The owner, John Marston, was a perfectionist, and this was reflected in the quality of his bikes. He had served an apprenticeship in the paint and lacquering industry…

Calm sands The Vuelta passes along Guincho beach, west of Lisbon, on stage two. The beach was featured in the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but it’s unknown if there are any spies in the bunch. Shoulder to shoulder Stage seven of the Tour of Poland was decided by a bike throw at the line, with Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) in yellow, coming off better than Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quick Step) in blue. Ryedale punch Matt Holmes seeks to open up the Ryedale Grand Prix on the lefth-and side of the shot. He would go on to finish second at the race in North Yorkshire; read more on page 14. Alpine dreaming The Tour de France Femmes got its first taste of the Alps in this, its…

Wiebes can be beaten Lorena Wiebes goes into every sprint as the overwhelming favourite, for good reason. The Dutchwoman has won 18 races this year in 39 race days, and does things like win all the stages and the overall at some events. However, the 25-year-old did not win a stage at her third Tour de France Femmes, which came as quite a shock. Stage one saw Wiebes unable to change gears at the crucial point in the sprint, leaving her to watch as Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) took the win that could have been hers. Stage two, however, was a straight fight between Kool and Wiebes, and the former came out on top. Perhaps buoyed by her victory, Kool had the power to outsprint her big rival, something that has…

Lucy Lee secured her first National Road Series win at the Ryedale Grand Prix in North Yorkshire on Sunday, powering to victory in a ferocious sprint finish. Led into the final metres by her DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK team-mates, Lee pipped Lauren Dickson (Alba Development Road Team) to the finish line in a time of 2:55.33, while Frankie Hall (DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK) continued her fine form to complete the top three. Eilidh Shaw’s (Alba Road Development Team) fifth-place finish ensures she moves into the National Road Series lead on 172 points, 16 points clear of Lucy Harris (Pro-Noctis), with only September’s Curlew Cup left to ride. “It feels great! It hasn’t quite sunk in yet but I’m over the moon,” said Lee. “Over the past few years the race has stayed together in…

Explains why I’m so slow at the moment, I thought it was my brakes rubbing, but now I know my gears have been hacked. Hugh Moore Great news! Now I have a reason why I got dropped, blew up mid-climb and showed up to the coffee shop 15 minutes after everyone else. Joe Rivas I knew there was an external ‘force’ slowing me down. Thanks to the researchers for uncovering the culprit. Tim Garvin-Leighton I work in information security, and I’m surprised it’s taken this long to exploit. Fixes aside, I’ll be surprised if Shimano keep up with developments in cybersecurity. Quantum-resistant encryption in your shifters, anyone? Dan Flower I still stop at the roadside to flip my back wheel over to use the sprocket on the other side, ain’t…

The track para-cycling will take place on the 250m Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, the same track used in the Olympics. A key difference, however, will be factoring. Usually, at para-cycling events, factoring is not in play, and riders compete against those with similar impairments. At the Paralympics, though, the medal events available are much reduced. To offer some of the same diversity of events, the UCI implements factoring for classifications with fewer participants. Factoring means athletes of different classifications compete for one set of medals – more competitors, fewer medals. Factors are put in place to make the competition fairer. Think of it like this: the level of impairment is factored into the overall time, so the least impaired athlete’s time is 100% (C5 men = 100%) whereas a C4…

• CONTENDERS The road para-cycling Worlds won’t take place until after the Games, so the most recent road World Cup in May in Italy gives the best indication of form going into Paris. In the C2 TT, it’s going to be French superstar Alexandre Léauté who might have the home edge against World Cup gold medallist, Belgium’s Ewoud Vromant. At the last Games, it was Australia’s Darren Hicks who took gold. At his debut Games, Matthew Robertson also has podium potential. GB’s Ben Watson is reigning double Paralympic men’s C3 champion in the TT and road race, but Fin Graham won the gold in Italy, where he also won gold in the C3 road race. Four Brits ride the C1-3 road race. Atkinson clinched silver in the C4 TT in Italy,…

Jake Sargent (Team Bottrill) and Naomi De Pennington (Drag2zero) were victorious at the National 12-Hour Championship in Norfolk on Sunday. Bristol-based Sargent covered a provisional 316 miles in the half-day event near Mundford, taking the win from Alex Royle (Manchester BC) with 300 miles. And in the women’s event De Pennington, from Banbury, racked up 285 miles to win by around 11 miles from Army Cycling’s Chris Murray. Elsewhere, there was a three-way tie for victory at the Manchester Bicycle Club’s 10-mile event in Cheshire on Saturday. The unusual result saw Ste Bolton (Giant Kendal Sidas UK), Alastair Ribbands (Congleton CC) and Alistair Rutherford (Manchester BC) all clock 21-26 in the event near Monks Heath, while fastest female was Jasmine Holmes (Total Tri Training) in 25-08. In North Yorkshire Ben…

The final stage of the 2024 Tour de France avec Zwift was a game of maths. After seven days of racing covering 950 kilometres and 13,566m of elevation, the third edition of the women’s Tour came down to just four measly seconds – the smallest margin of victory in Tour de France history. Victorious, after eight stages, was Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), the third winner in the race’s three-year history, who clung on to the yellow jersey on Alpe d’Huez by her fingertips. Defeated, but only just, was defending champion Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), who would have won the race if it wasn’t for an impactful crash on stage five. Niewiadoma took the race lead then, and did not lose it over the remaining three days. Vollering won the final stage,…

Radios in professional cycling have sparked debate for years. Proponents argue that radios enhance rider safety by allowing communication between cyclists and their teams, enabling warnings about crashes or dangerous road conditions. However, the reality is that radios primarily serve as tactical tools, and having 160 riders given an identical instruction of ‘move up’ for a narrow section increases the risk of danger if anything. Team directors now have the ability to micro-manage races, directing riders when to attack, allow certain moves, or chase down competitors, often at the expense of the race’s natural flow and spontaneity. While radios might help warn of immediate hazards, the technology is actually pretty poor. It was common that they would not work, signals could be poor; I even once had one give me…

• CONTENDERS Kicking off the C1 IP will be China’s Zhangyu Li going for gold, up against Weicong Liang. These athletes are legends of this event. Li could win the C1-3 kilo and double up as he did at the last Games, but in that race he will be up against new factoring and all-star French C2 Alexandre Léauté. The men’s B IP will see the Netherlands’ Tristan Bangma, piloted by Patrick Bos, go for gold, though the duo will be challenged by Britain’s Steve Bate and new pilot Chris Latham, who won silver at the Worlds. The C4-5 kilo will be won by fractions of a second. Moustachioed Brit C5 Blaine Hunt is competing at his first Games, having beaten Paralympic champ Spain’s Cabello Llamas at the Worlds (factoring…

The Van Rysel RCR Pro is one of the most talked about bikes in 2024, and for good reason. The Decathlon sub-brand has only been around in its current form since 2019 but in that short time has built a reputation, like the company behind it, for valuedriven products – rather than creating top-end ‘halo’ bikes and selling down from there. In the last 12 months, however, all that has changed. Last year, Van Rysel unveiled the RCR Pro, promising top-end race bike performance at a price well below much of the competition. This was followed by the announcement of a €26 million stake in Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, who have been riding the bikes all season, and with great success. WorldTour victories aside – has Van Rysel really made a…

1 How does the heat affect performance? When cycling, only 20-25% of the energy from the muscles powers the bike, with 75-80% generating heat. Hot weather makes it harder to lose this excess heat, due to a smaller temperature difference between the body and the air. This leads to increased sweating to cool the body. There are limits to how much heat can be removed through sweat evaporation, though, especially as your exercise intensity, the environmental temperature and humidity rise. The body and brain pre-emptively reduce your power output in hot conditions to manage heat – even before your core temperature rises significantly. 2 How does this vary between riders? Each cyclist experiences heat differently. Higher power outputs generate more body heat, so larger and more powerful riders are more greatly…

Location: Kibworth, Leics Instagram: @ kibworthveloclub The story of the jersey The club’s first jersey was designed around eight years ago after the club was formed, using an online jersey design package. “It was a rather colourful affair,” says the club’s Fraser Law. “After living with it for around a year we decided it had to change.” The black edition KVC jersey was born, along with a new black, red and silver logo. Le Col was chosen to produce it. Later on a red and a white edition was introduced, for hot summer rides and climbs. The story of the club Formed in 2016, Kibworth VC “exists as a club to share our love of road cycling”, says Law. It has around 50 regular members, with up to 25 taking…

Did you hear the one about the dog, the cyclist, and the policeman? You’d be forgiven for thinking that a punchline comes next, but while it looks like fun, it’s not a joke. This photo, from the 1967 Giro d’Italia, shows an unlikely three-up drag race as a rider from the Spanish Kas-Kaskol team goes up against the excited hound and a police officer, who frankly appears to be fighting a losing battle. It was taken during stage seven from Catania to Etna, with the latter remaining a popular climb in the modern race. Though it’s hard to say for sure, the rider in the shot looks as though it could be Aurelio González, who was second that day behind Franco Bitossi and went on to take the mountains jersey.…