Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i Cyclist

£199.99, trekbikes.com In Bontrager-speak, Ballista means really damn quick. It is its product line for kit that’s designed primarily to cheat wind. There’s a second-skin-like Ballista jersey and bibshorts, a Ballista helmet that Jens Voigt deemed slippery enough to wear during his Hour record attempt, and now there are these shoes. The most obvious concession to aerodynamic efficiency is the unique repositioning of the Boa dial. To the best of our knowledge the Ballista shoes are the first to have it mounted on the heel. The heel cup provides a stable platform for it, and Bontrager says the path the cable takes from that location naturally secures the foot down and back into the shoe as it’s tightened. Bontrager’s ‘no-sew’ fused upper makes sure the shoes are as smooth and…

Most framebuilders weren’t born that way. Ask around and you’ll hear tales of jacking in careers in advertising, former lives spent welding sheet metal, art colleges, silversmithing, professional catering… the list goes on. Yet there are few if any who can list neuroscientist on their curriculum vitae. ‘I used to work in the neuroscience research field concerned with neural and molecular reasons for sex-specific behaviours,’ says Métier Vélo founder Jamie White. ‘We’d do experiments like genetically reprogramming brain cells in a male to be female, and the other way round, and look to see whether the transgendered animals had male or female behaviours. The interesting point was that behaviour emerges because the brain processes information in a sex-specific way, not that males and females have anatomically different brains. They sense…

I had just started work as a reporter on the Bournemouth Evening Echo when I caught the attention of the local government correspondent. He spent every morning in a corner of the office hunched over his typewriter with his back to the rest of us, and every afternoon attending assorted obscure council committee meetings. He was significantly older than the rest of us and wore tweed jackets and industrial-strength bi-focal spectacles. Only his furled trouser bottoms and steel bicycle clips gave a clue to the maverick persona that lurked behind his conventional façade. One day he shuffled up to me and introduced himself in a low whisper. He said there was something happening in the New Forest just off the Ringwood bypass that night that might interest me, but that…

Geoff Sharpe has been a collector of all things Mapei since falling in love with the bright team colours during the early 1990s. For his 60th birthday he treated himself to this replica Colnago Dream Mapei purely as a display piece, but when he suffered a heart attack a short time after, he decided to start riding it. He began with a steady 12km ride and now regularly takes his Dream on 200km outings. ‘It was called the Dream, and it was always a dream for me,’ Sharpe says. ‘I couldn’t afford it back then… now it’s my special bike.’…

The C40 was the first of Colnago’s ‘C’ family of lugged carbon bikes with the same crimped tubes as on the classic steel Master frames. This limited-edition Gold bike, owned by Tony Lamoury, marked the final production run before the C40 morphed into the C50. Only 400 were made and the frame is resplendent with Campagnolo Record groupset, Colnago Carbon Edition Spéciale wheels, gold leaf decals and solid gold head badge (it even came with a commemorative gold watch). Lamoury says he purchased it new in 1999 and still rides it on special occasions. ‘It’s such an iconic bike,’ he tells us. ‘It’s a wonder they stopped making it.’…

‘This wouldn’t have even been a conversation ten years ago,’ says Dr Barney Wainwright. ‘No one was interested. They’d say, “Cycling is cycling and there’s only one way of doing it.” But our research and experience has since shown that just isn’t the case. Teaching more effective pedalling technique can lead to significant increases in rider power.’ Wainwright is an applied sports scientist, and holds roles ranging from supervising research programmes in cycling biomechanics at Leeds Beckett University to directing staff at the new Boardman Performance Centre in Worcestershire. He’s also a key collaborator on the new Wattbike Atom, the latest training tool from Wattbike, which has been designed to unlock those extra watts. According to the latest sports science research, those watts are in you already, and you just…

For Cyclist’s vertiginous route around the Tirol region I knew straight away that a light bike was going to be the order of the day. Having spent some time aboard Sarto’s Asola Disc previously I was confident its versatility would make it the perfect partner, and it didn’t disappoint. Ascending the prolonged climb up to the Kühtai ski resort and the shorter but more brutal grind up the Höll climb, the bike’s 6.91kg weight, paired with its stout bottom bracket and head tube junctions, meant minimal lateral flex. This translated into a solid and highly efficient feel in its delivery of my pedalling efforts, particularly noticeable as I wrenched the bike from side to side up the 28% slope. On the often technical descents, Campagnolo’s Super Record H11 disc brakes…

‘Is that a spider burrow? I think there could be baboon spiders in there,’ Nik warns me with a tinge of concern. Normally I’m very afraid of spiders, but right now I don’t care. My head feels like it’s about to explode, and in desperate need of shade I nestle closer under the shrubbery and more intimately into possible poisonous spider habitat. We’ve just finished the unnamed climb and descent of the R322 road, a wide and exposed gravel track so steep that a single missed pedal stroke could result in a long and difficult walk. It could stake a strong claim for being the Alpe d’Huez of South Africa, except ridden beneath a cloudless sky in 36°C heat. As a result, no force on Earth could persuade me out…

Alot has changed in the seven years since Specialized’s Venge first arrived on the scene. What hasn’t changed, though, is the manufacturer’s commitment to making faster and faster road bikes. With this, its third generation of the Venge, it claims to have created its fastest bike yet. How much faster? Eight seconds quicker over 40km compared to its predecessor, the Venge ViAS, according to Specialized’s director of integrated technologies, Chris Yu. Eight seconds over 40km is not huge – it basically means that after an hour or so of racing on the new Venge, you’ll have barely crossed the finish line before you’d be taking the chequered flag on the old Venge ViAS. That said, the ViAS was a seriously fast bike to supersede, and in doing so, Yu suggests,…

‘We started by studying the reaction of the frame under that [braking] force to understand where and how it would make more sense to reinforce the structure’ Ride quality and weight are often understudies to aerodynamic efficiency in aero bikes, so disc brakes have to a certain extent been easier to incorporate on that type of frame. A crude oversimplification that may be, but tweak the tube profiles to account for the new system et voila, the result is as fast as (or even faster than) its rim brake predecessor. When it comes to lightweight race bikes, however, disc brake integration has been a trickier proposition. The heavier weight of the system and different braking forces it produces initially meant that frames were often overbuilt, meaning they were unable to…

‘The calliper has a lot of new features, with a lot of emphasis on delivering the braking force the way we wanted it. You don’t want a brake that hits you all at once’ Sram pioneered disc brakes for the road, developing a disc version of its top-tier Red groupset back when its rivals were still hesitating over accepting the technology. And the introduction of its wireless-shifting Red eTap groupset has given the company another opportunity to innovate. Visually, removing the mechanical internals allowed the eTap lever hoods to be much smaller. Less obvious, though, are all the improvements the eye cannot see. ‘Red eTap HRD [Hydraulic Road Disc] was a ground-up new design,’ says James Alberts, Sram’s road brake product manager. ‘The calliper has a lot of new features,…

‘Put 28mm slicks on this frame and you’ve got a pretty handy road bike. Replace those with 40mm knobbly tyres and it’s ready to go fully off-road’ Across the pond, a new style of riding has been coming to the fore for some time now. American cyclists are ditching tarmac for gravel paths and with that they are riding bikes specifically designed for that terrain. Riders are following this trend in Europe too, of course, even if they’re not quite ready to give up their road machines entirely at this point. This has bred a new style of bike: the all-road bike, a bike that’s at home on both surfaces, and the Ribble CGR Ti is one such bike. ‘What happened in the US with gravel hasn’t quite happened here…

‘We knew disc brakes would add 400g of weight to the full bike but this is next step in braking performance. Braking on carbon rims just isn’t state of the art anymore’ The Canyon Ultimate is a thoroughbred mountain climber. On board this super-light frame, Movistar’s Nairo Quintana has won a summit finish on Alpe d’Huez in the Tour de France and a Vuelta stage atop Lagos de Covadonga. Now the German brand has revamped the Ultimate, firstly with more aerodynamic tube profiling and secondly with the addition of disc brakes. The latter comes with its obvious weight penalty but Canyon believes it necessary to stay ahead of the curve. ‘We knew the addition of disc brakes would add 400g of weight to the full bike but we feel that…

£42 each, veloflex.it Sometimes a pro rider wants one thing but team sponsors want another, and so the mechanic brings out a black Sharpie and scribbles over the word ‘Veloflex’ on a tyre sidewall. If you fancy investing in some race-winning pedigree (Wiggo rode Veloflex for his 2012 Tour de France win), these ‘open tubular’ Masters are a top pick, made using the same 320tpi casing and natural rubber tread as Veloflex’s tubs. They’re available in 23mm, 25mm and 28mm widths, and also come in black.…

£260, adidassporteyewear.com No, these aren’t fancy specs for an immersive cinematic experience. The ‘3D’ bit denotes that the Aspyrs have been 3D-printed, essentially melted together by lasers from millions of plastic particles. It sounds exciting, but what’s the point? ‘3D printing allows for much more creativity in design,’ says Perry Moore from Adidas’s manufacturing partner, Silhouette. ‘Here we have created the “Diamond Grid” lattice, which means the frames can be extremely lightweight. It also allows for air circulation through the frames for fog-free lenses and clearer vision during sport.’ The frames comprise an intricate latticework, which would be impossible to create via the usual process of injection moulding. We’re not entirely convinced by the ‘fog-free’ claims, but in 3D printing terms the Aspyrs are impressive.…

Cormac Nisbet may be just 13 years old, but that doesn’t stop him from keeping pace with the fastest riders at the Colnago ride-out. In fact, he held Bradley Wiggins’ wheel up until the final two miles. Before that point, he spent time with Wiggins comparing personal bests on their favourite climbs. Apparently Wiggins’ best time on Mallorca’s Sa Colobra is around 22 minutes. Nisbet claims he has done it in 33 minutes on his C60. He says of Colnago, ‘I like their class and the way they build their bikes with iconic lugs.’…

1 WOLF TOOTH DROPS TOP CHAINRING £80, sigmasport.co.uk If this were a clickbait web story, the headline would read What Shimano doesn’t want you to know about its cranksets, because the big S has yet to fully endorse 1x setups. However, Wolf Tooth has, with this Shimano crank-compatible chainring featuring its ‘Drop-Stop’ teeth, shaped to guard against dropped chains and excess wear thanks to their specially shaped machined profiles. 2 KITNETIK SPORTS KIT DRYER £39.99, kitnetik.com Life is full of great partnerships: Anthony and Cleopatra, Lennon and McCartney, Dalziel and Pascoe… and cycling and coat hangers. Tulio Campagnolo patented a sprung design in 1975; Lightweight makes old rims into Kleiderbuegel; and now there is the Kitnetik, on which you can hang, dry and store your full kit including gloves and…

The road race’s prolonged final section at a crank stalling 28% up Höll is already being nervously whispered about in the pro ranks As I see it, the famous and distinctive roads cyclists ride exist on a spectrum. At one end there are the roads we love, ones that are easily rewarding or thrilling – the open and sinuous descents off Alpine passes, for example. Moving along the scale we have roads that are harder to ride but that we revere for their majesty, such as Switzerland’s Gotthard Pass. Then there are roads we begrudgingly respect for their stern challenge, like Spain’s Alto de l’Angliru, followed by roads we find stressful, such as France’s Trouee d’Arenberg. Finally, there are roads we downright fear. Innsbruck’s Höll, or the Hell climb as…

The office space at Giro’s Californian headquarters is so bright and colourful it’s like being trapped in a bag of Skittles. Vibrant art and swathes of cloth Pantone charts adorn the walls, clothing samples fill hanging rails, shoe samples are piled on desks and mocked-up shop displays are loaded with Giro’s complete 2019 helmet range. An eclectic mix of road, gravel and mountain bikes lean against partitions and desks, and a good number of employees are still in their riding gear from this morning’s commute as they sip coffee and awaken computer monitors from their slumber. Cyclist is met by Dain Zaffke, Giro’s director of marketing, who immediately explains how style and design are ingrained in Giro’s DNA. ‘We still live today by a code of design that was the…

We are on the first of the three classified climbs. These, it turns out, will be the least of my worries They suffered unimaginable hardship, regularly ran out of food, endured catastrophic weather and often arrived home hollow-cheeked and wide-eyed. And none of them was a cyclist. The heroes of Portugal’s golden age of discovery are celebrated with monuments, statues and sarcophagi in Belem, a dockside district of Lisbon where electric trams glide past 600-year-old churches and monasteries. If suffering is a USP of cycling, it’s heartening to see so many riders at the start of the inaugural Gran Fondo Lisboa paying their silent respects to those who experienced real hardship. There’s time for photographs in front of the giant Monument to the Discoveries – even if it does mean…

Here at Cyclist we are always looking at ways to improve our products, which is why we want to hear from you – to find out what you really want. But we don’t expect your time for nothing. In return for filling out our reader survey, we’ll put your name into the Cyclist hat to win an amazing Wattbike Atom. It is arguably the most advanced home trainer in the world. It offers unparalleled accuracy, it will connect seamlessly with training platforms, and it will provide intelligent analytics that will help you train smarter, pedal smoother and ride faster. It also happens to look like a work of art. For your chance to own one, head over to cyclist.co.uk/survey2018  now.…

Dn many respects cricket and cycling are basically the same thing. The players wear strange uniforms, the fans get progressively drunk and the whole thing takes ages. Yet, in many ways they are so very different. It’s always clear who the winner is in cycling. Also, bibshorts and helmets are fit for purpose, whereas white trousers on grass and floppy hats for running are less so. And it takes an Arctic storm to halt a bike race. Australians are always being told to calm it down a bit in cricket too, whereas no one ever discouraged Robbie McEwan from throwing elbows and calling people c***s. In fact, hardness and aggression are highly prized attributes in cycling – if ones that need to be carefully controlled. And the same can be…

‘Doing away with the rim calliper brake bridge, which adds rigidity, means the seatstays can focus on comfort. In total discs mean a frameset weighs just 120g more’ From CFD number-crunching to innovative methods involving smothering bikes in paint then sticking them in a wind-tunnel (to create real-world visualisations of airflow), legendary Italian brand Bianchi has left no stone unturned in the pursuit developing its fastest family of bikes, the Oltre. And here is one of the latest editions, the XR3 Disc. ‘This is an evolution of previous Oltre platforms, although everything except the down tube was changed, using lessons learned from developing the XR4,’ says Bianchi sales manger Pasq Bianchi. That means a fast bike gets disc brakes but, thanks to technology carried over from the last-generation Oltres, the…

The way the V2-r is built allows Colnago more flexibility in tube design and the way the tubes interact, which means certain attributes can be tuned up or down easily Colnago is best known for its venerable C-series bikes, which are constructed using the tube-and-lug method. While that technique still has the ability to produce performance attributes that rival the best on the market, about five years ago the brand decided to further explore the potential of a populist monocoque construction method. And so was born the V-series, which superseded the earlier M10 design. The latest addition to the family, the V2-r Disc, sits alongside the C64 Disc as a flagship race bike option. The way the V2-r is built allows Colnago more flexibility in tube design and the way…

‘We wanted to smooth airflow around the disc calliper, but obviously we didn’t want to add weight. So we added fairings on the ends of the fork tips to improve aerodynamics’ The beginnings of aero road bikes are much disputed, but when the original Scott Foil debuted in 2010 it at least stamped a significant waypoint on the aero road timeline. Designed in collaboration with aerodynamicist Simon Smart of Drag2Zero, the original Foil handed the industry its new benchmark for wind-cheating road bikes, and since then the Foil dynasty has delivered 32 Grand Tour stage wins and four Monuments, including Paris-Roubaix. So how could such a winning bike get any better? Simple. Give it disc brakes, but without the compromises. ‘Disc brakes often mean heavier framesets, but the Foil Disc…

Kickr Core trainer £700, Kickr Climb simulator £500, Kickr Headwind fan £200, wahoofitness.com Indoor training has come a long way since the days of following handwritten intervals taped to a garage wall. With the advent of smart trainers and software such as Zwift and TrainerRoad, the entire experience has become more immersive, and indoor training products have evolved as a result. Wahoo is the first brand to champion an ‘ecosystem’ – a range of products designed to work together. ‘Turbo training has this perception of being a chore,’ says Megan Powers, product manager at Wahoo. ‘So we thought best way to make the experience as seamless, pleasurable and engaging as possible was to create products that all work together, each providing a different element to the session.’ At the core…

Cyclist: You boldly predicted this year that you would be the first African rider to stand on the podium at a Grand Tour, then went on to finish second at the Giro Rosa. What gave you that confidence? Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio: When I found out the route for the Giro and La Course this year, it was obvious that both were something I needed to target. I knew a lot of the mountain-top finishes and that really tough climbs like the Zoncolan [the final climb of Stage 9 of the Giro, in which Moolman-Pasio finished second] would suit me, plus I’ve been riding consistently well this year and success breeds success. Of course it was a bold statement to make, but I definitely believed it was possible. Cyc: What…

There are many brands that make great bikes. And many of those brands have illustrious histories. But few of them inspire as much passion or produce bikes quite as desirable as Colnago. Over its 64 years, the Italian marque has created some of the sport’s most iconic bikes, which have been ridden by some of the world’s greatest riders, most famously Eddy Merckx. Some of its classic steel frames, such as the Master, are still being produced today at Colnago’s headquarters in Cambiago, Italy, while the company continues to develop pro-level carbon bikes such as the C64, V2-r and the Concept aero road bike. It was the fervency of Colnago owners that inspired ex-pro and Le Col founder Yanto Barker to bring them together for a day of collective drooling…

Dear Frank A friend of mine is planning on ‘Everesting’ a local climb [doing it over and over until he has accrued the same amount of elevation as Everest: 8,848m]. I’m all for a bit of suffering, but surely there has to be some deeper purpose to it than pain for pain’s sake. What does the Velominati have to say on the matter? Andy, Derby Dear Andy I believe it was George Mallory who famously stated that the principal reason to climb Mount Everest was ‘because it’s there’. He plainly didn’t require some ‘deeper purpose’ to push himself to the limits of human endurance, however that doesn’t necessarily excuse the concept of ‘Everesting’ on a road bike. Mount Everest was first surveyed by westerners in 1865 and it took the…

The route Cyclist took to a bronze medal To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/79innsbruck. From Mutters take the L304 west through Götzens, Axams and Tanneben, after which you take a sharp right to head down into Sellrain. Follow the road, which starts as the Sellraintal Landesstrasse, up the valley to Küthai. After the resort, the L237 drops you into Oetz. Pick up the 171, which tracks the river Inn back to Innsbruck. At Unterperfuss, switch on to the Völser Landesstrasse and look out for signs to Aldrans. Go up the hill until the Römerstrasse meets the Patscher Strasse, then turn back down towards Innsbruck. Take the 182 north through the city, over the Inn Brücke and straight up Höttinger Gasse. Turn left and find the Dorfgasse to tackle the…

‘De Gribaldy told me that if I could get my weight down I could win stage races. He was right’ I magine if Peter Sagan, the most decorated sprinter of the modern era, could somehow learn to be at the front of a Grand Tour in more than just the final gallops of the flatter stages. Imagine him hanging with the leading GC contenders in the mountains, then smashing the time-trials. It seems too far-fetched to even consider it. But 30 years ago that’s exactly what Ireland’s John James Kelly – otherwise known as Sean – defied the odds to do. Between 1977 and his retirement in 1994, Kelly racked up 193 victories, including four Tour de France green jerseys and 10 one-day Classics. But rewind to the late spring…

The S-Works Diverge was built for this kind of event. The bike is a top-end gravel racer, yet it fits the bill of the emerging trend of ‘credit card touring’, and is well suited to the less competitive end of the Rollercoaster too. Taking the Diverge onto its intended terrain proved that despite its fancy paintjob and neat electronic components it really is as tough as hell. I bounced my way down 45% fire roads half out of control, pounding on every contact point, and the bike held up without a scratch. All apart from the carbon saddle rails, which sheared halfway through the trip. The Future Shock really showed its merit on tough rocky descents, with the front suspension offering great control and (relative) comfort. At the same time,…

Dt would be easy to assume that Rose and Canyon are very similar companies: they both hail from Germany and both have a direct-to-consumer sales model. Having tested both the Rose X-Lite Six Disc and Canyon Ultimate Disc recently, I can also say that both produce very accomplished road bikes. Yet that’s where the similarities end. Rose is not a brand we’ve featured before in Cyclist, so it’s worth recounting a little about what sets it apart from its more conspicuous compatriot. Rose has been selling bikes since 1907 (in between also selling sewing machines to keep the business ticking over through the winter), and has been making them since 1979. It remains a family-run business, as evidenced by its slogan: ‘The price is cheapest in the smallest store’. I’m…

It’s official. Disc brakes are here to stay. Some cyclists might not be convinced – yet – but nearly all the leading brands have disc brake versions of their top models, and many of them say they may phase out rim brakes altogether in the future. The acceptance of disc brakes right up to pro level has become a reality faster than many anticipated in a culture that historically likes to put its head in the sand with regard to new ideas. But it’s hard to ignore the benefits, not just in terms of braking performance but also in the freedom disc brakes afford elsewhere: for example opening up frame and fork clearances for larger tyres and different sized wheels, and removing the need for braking surfaces on wheel rims.…

‘We designed the SLR01 by stipulating 247 parameters – the characteristics we wanted – and creating a further 18,000 virtual iterations of potential frames’ ‘If there’s one product I know better than any other, it’s the Teammachine. Do you want the lightest, the most compliant? As a GC rider, I wanted fit, nimbleness and balance. This ticks all the boxes.’ So said Cadel Evans at the launch of the Teammachine SLR01 Disc, and he should know. He estimates he’s ridden more than 150,000km aboard one Teammachine or other, including the one he rode to Tour de France victory in 2011. However, it’s this latest version he and BMC are most excited about. For a time, manufacturers struggled to integrate disc brakes into race bikes. Weight increased along with head tube…

‘We tested multiple layups and three full frames were made from the shortlist of different layups, so we could all test them and feel the characteristics for ourselves’ In recent times manufacturers have proved that their aero road bikes can incorporate disc brakes without suffering a decrease in aerodynamic efficiency. But now they’re going one step further, showing that by opting for disc-specific designs, rather than bikes that can be converted from rim brakes to discs, they can actually make a bike more efficient at cheating the wind than it would otherwise have been. Orro’s new Venturi is a prime example of this. ‘We didn’t have to compromise on things like cable routing so we were able create a really clean front end,’ says Orro’s Adam Glew. ‘We could also…

‘Discs are the future. They deliver superior stopping power, but also the thru-axle makes for stiffer framesets, and losing rim callipers allows for wider tyres’ The Vitus ZX-1 has pedigree. In 1991, while other bikes were still in veritable metal nappies, the ZX-1 was breaking new ground, then mining it for oil and turning that into polyacrylonitrile to create one of the commercial market’s first carbon monocoque frames. Now the ZX-1 is back, and Vitus has once again done its utmost to create a trail-blazing ride. ‘The original ZX-1 was designed with aerodynamics in mind, and the latest ZX-1 Team is no different, using CFD to create a frame with kamm-tail tube profiles,’ says Vitus product manager Jodie Shann. ‘We found those shapes had the greatest effect on smoothing airflow,…