Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2020 i Cyclist Off Road

I’ve heard it said so many times: ‘Cycling is the new golf.’ But if that analogy is starting to feel a bit tired, then surely it’s time for an update. And I would suggest that the new version should be: ‘Gravel riding is the new cycling and the new golf.’ The golfing expression was coined in the post-2008 Beijing Olympics boom, when it was suddenly en vogue to be wearing Lycra while riding a carbon road bike on the highways, instead of wearing Argyle knitwear while swinging a carbon-shafted club on the fairways. But that was 12 years ago, and now that it is 2020 I feel like there’s a glaring oversight in this parallel, at least where road cycling is concerned. Golf is a pedestrian-paced sport, built around a…

There’s a steep climb in the depths of Carmarthenshire in Wales that has been troubling Gritfest organiser Matt Page for some time. It’s little more than a rubble farm track slicing up a hillside, but it’s an ascent he has never quite been able to conquer by bike. ‘I’ve always had to dab a foot or get off and walk,’ he tells Cyclist Off-Road when we catch up the day before the 2019 Gritfest kicks off. The climb has no official name, such is its remoteness far up the Towy Valley and well beyond the reach of the public road network, so Page has nicknamed it K2, after the notoriously difficult Himalayan peak. ‘He didn’t want to call it Everest,’ jokes event compere Ian Frewin. ‘Anyone can get up that…

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It might feel like modern mapping apps and GPS devices have made paper maps all but defunct but, when it comes to planning great off-road routes, you’re sometimes better off going old school. ‘Call me a traditionalist, but I’d still say the best way to plan an off-road cycling route is with an Ordnance Survey map,’ says Sophie Gordon, Cycling UK Campaigns Officer and expert on the UK’s off-road cycling network. ‘OS maps offer so much more information and detail about the trails and surrounding areas compared to mapping software like Google,’ she adds. Here’s some advice on how to get to grips with an OS map: Know your trails Most people know about bridleways as they often form the lion’s share of off-road routes,’ says Tim Newman, product manager…

The moment my alarm sounds I jump out of bed and throw back the curtains. Alas, despite a clear, starry sky last night, I’m not greeted with the view I am hoping for. The Matterhorn is not yet ready to reveal itself. Today’s dawn has brought with it cloud cover well below the mountain’s immense 4,478m summit, in the process concealing its sharp, pyramid shape from view. But if you can guarantee one thing about mountain weather it’s that it is unpredictable and can change in a heartbeat, so I may yet get my hoped-for views later on today’s ride. With that optimistic thought in mind, I head down to meet the others for breakfast. Border guard Straddling the boundary between Switzerland and Italy, the Matterhorn is one of 38…

Idaho is vast. Its plains and wide mountain skyline go on and on. A massive, cloudless blue sky above us seems somehow far bigger and far brighter than normal. As a result, the miles ahead of us, stretching off into our furthest vision, seem incredibly long. It’s no surprise that Idaho in northwest United States is commonly considered the near definition of the middle of nowhere – there’s not a soul, building or car to be seen. That’s good, though, as the scenery is jaw-droppingly beautiful, and today it seems to belong to us. The few residents here remain eager to preserve Idaho’s emptiness; there isn’t even a direct road running from the south to the north. Of the roads there are, many are gravel, which is precisely why we’re…

It’s not easy to define what a gravel bike is, or even what it should be. It’s a problem that has vexed Canadian brand Cervélo for a while now. ‘We bike manufacturers still really don’t know what you consumers are actually going to use these bikes for,’ says Cervélo’s global product manager, Phil Spearman. ‘The result is that most manufacturers think, “Let’s make something that can do everything beyond what a 700x28mm road bike can do.” But then all you end up with are bikes that don’t really excel at anything. That’s not what we wanted to deliver.’ Thus in developing the Áspero, Cervélo wanted to send a clear message about what the bike is, and most importantly, what it is not. Race ready ‘If we look at gravel events,…

Cyclist Off-Road: How did it feel to be the first woman to win the Transcontinental Race (TCR)? Fiona Kolbinger: It didn’t feel like a huge achievement, to be honest. I didn’t realise the implications and what people would make out of it even at the finish line. There was no big party or red carpet. It was pretty much just the race organisers and me! COR: What was the difference between you and the other 250-odd starters? FK: I just kept breaks really short. I only ever ate on the go. I’m stubborn, which is probably a good thing for this kind of race. It also helped that I enjoyed it so much. I couldn’t wait to see what was on the other side of the next mountain. COR: How…

Sometimes they appear as a blur, at other times as crisp outlines. If it’s overcast you won’t see them at all. But they’re always with you, stuck like glue and copying your every move, whether on your wheel or with you on theirs. Now, at nightfall, we are chasing them, but this is no ordinary sighting. Tonight the shadow peloton is in three dimensions. We lost the sun some time ago, yet not reckoning on being out this late we neglected to strap lights to our bars. Luckily we’re being followed by our support vehicle, whose full-beams cast our shadows into the night where they gather like holograms on a screen of dust kicked up from the track. It is surreal, two sets of silhouetted riders pounding out an identical…

To download this route, go to cyclist.co.uk/or3/matterhorn. From Zermatt, cross the river and follow the Riedweg trail, climbing almost immediately. Continue on Tuftern trail to Tufternalp and onwards to the Blauherd lift station. Follow the direction of the lift on service roads and continue all the way to Stelisee before carrying on further up the climb to Fluhalp for refreshments. Descend back to Stelisee and then turn left down a steep descent, before following the forest road west to Riffelalp. Continue down a steep gravel descent to Furi, then climb to Stafelalp on a forested valley road. After about 5km turn left towards Schwarzsee. Climb to the lift station for no other reason than to savour the views. Return by the same route to the junction and continue across to…

hings were very different in 1972. NASA was only just implementing its Space Shuttle programme, an Atari was a cutting-edge computer and a 15-year-old Tom Ritchey was building his first bicycle frame in his father’s garage in Menlo Park, near San Francisco. THe might not yet have been able to grow what has become his trademark horseshoe moustache, but the teenage Ritchey did already have a keen eye for bike and component design, and a mindset that was prepared to challenge the accepted norms of the time. Frame and fortune Ritchey was himself a successful junior road racer, and like most other young guns didn’t have money for a top-end race bike. Seizing an opportunity, he bought a broken Cinelli frame – a highly desirable race bike of that era…

To download this route, go to cyclist.co.uk/or3/idaho. From Ketchum follow the Sun Valley Road, which turns into the Trail Creek Road. Keep riding until you reach a right turning for Wild Horse Creek Road, beside the Wild Horse Creek. From there follow the East Fork road to the Copper Basin loop, which you can ride in either direction. Once completed, the loop returns you to the East Fork road. Ride back along the same route as the outward leg, avoiding snowstorms where possible.…

Growing up, there were always two types of bike shops: the one round the corner where you bought spare tubes, where the surly bloke with the dirty hands smelt of fags and they fixed everything with WD40, and the one across town, where the snooty bloke rocked back on his heels in a fashion that indicated you could never afford the things he sold. The former put me off becoming a bike mechanic (I eventually plucked up the courage to ask ‘dirty hands’ about the wages for my dream job – I was better off pot-washing); the latter made me want a well-paid job so I could buy one of the posh bikes. I can still recall the signature Cannondale Martyn Ashton trials frames, the racks of Sapim spokes ready…