Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2016 i Cyclist

From the roundabout in Callosa d’en Sarria take the CV-755 towards Guadalest, then the CV-70 towards Benimantell and Confrides. Just before Benasau turn left onto CV-770 to Alcoleja. Continue on the CV-770 up the backside of the Aitana, to the Puerto de Tudons summit, then make a right on CV-785, descending all the way to Penaguila. As you leave town, split right onto CV-710 to Gorga. Take the CV-720 from Gorga, passing Balones, Benimassot, Facheca and on to Castell de Castells. The CV-720 continues beyond Castells to take you, via Benigembla, to Parcent. Turn right on CV-715 to begin the climb of the Coll de Rates. After the summit the same road takes you all the way down to Tarbena, Bollula and back to Callossa to complete the loop.…

To download this route, go to www.cyclist.co.uk/53aberfoyle . From Aberfoyle head north up the Duke’s Pass on the A821 for 10km. Follow signs for Loch Katrine, then take the road around its north edge to Stronachlachar. Join the B829 and return to Aberfoyle via Loch Ard. Pick up the cycle path behind the Forth Inn car park and branch right onto the Old Gartmore Road. Head to Dalmary, then Drymen. Turn left on to B858 for 700 metres, right on to the A811 then immediately left to Killearn. Pick up the A875 then branch right in Boqhuan to Fintry. Turn left to join the B822, then left just past Balafark. Take the A81 in Port of Menteith back to Aberfoyle.…

‘There’s always a push and pull between design and engineering because what looks beautiful will rarely be what’s most efficient structurally’ Head south from San Francisco on Route 101 for an hour, past the monolithic tech motherships of Silicon Valley and into the Santa Clara valley, and you’ll find the sleepy town of Morgan Hill. Among a cluster of enormous warehouses there is one with a jagged ‘S’ emblazoned on its frontage. It’s an unassuming spot for one of the most pervasive and powerful cycling brands on the planet. Yet this is Specialized’s HQ. In one of these warehouses sits a temple central to the church of Specialized – the in-house wind-tunnel. In the next building over is a high security composites lab, inaccessible to all but the most senior…

Aesthetically speaking, it’s hard to fault the matt black V1-r, designed just over the border in Italy – in collaboration with Ferrari, no less. Internal cable routing is pretty standard these days, but throw in an under-chainstay mounted rear brake and things start looking really clean. That said, the brake – and indeed the whole bike – is more than just an exercise in beauty. While not technically all-out aero, the V1-r has been designed with speed in mind – hence the tucked away rear brake and the wind-tunnel-optimised tube profiles. This was my first outing with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 and it was indeed a slick-shifting pleasure, save for some jitters after replacing the rear wheel due to a rear puncture. Luckily it proved easy enough to rectify, and I…

Aren’t we a greedy bunch? ‘Dear manufacturer, if it’s not too much trouble, we’d like a bike that’s super stiff, mega light, crazy fast, über comfy and surefooted enough to never jangle our nerves, please. Oh, and it would be nice if we could take it on the occasional off-road jaunt. With love, cyclists everywhere. PS. If there are any moons on sticks lying about that you could throw in we’d appreciate that too.’ As little as five years ago engineers would have laughed themselves off their chairs at the mere suggestion of such far-fetched notions. Not any more. Now they’re more likely to respond by pushing forward a pile of sketches and saying, ‘Well, funny you should mention that…’ Truthfully, we have never been closer to the prospect of…

German powerhouse Focus partitions its comprehensive stable of road bikes into three series: race, aero and endurance. ‘We see our endurance range as the most important area to develop at the moment,’ says Andreas Krajewski, senior brand manager at Focus’s UK distributor Derby Cycle. ‘Before launching the Paralane we had the Izalco Ergoride. It’s a great frame but we think it no longer meets the demands riders have for endurance bikes.’ So how does the Paralane meet these demands? ‘Obvious changes include larger tyre clearances [up to 35mm] and flat-mount disc brakes,’ says Krajewski. ‘These changes support geometrical tweaks: compared to our Izalco Max race bike, the stack is 40mm greater and the bottom bracket is lower, while the wheelbase remains the same.’ The thinking behind this, Krajewski claims, is…

The Addict platform has been around for the best part of a decade and has enjoyed considerable success on the road – notably under Mark Cavendish in his HTC-Highroad days, and more recently Adam Yates in this year’s Tour de France. The Addict Gravel takes much from its road brethren, specifically the Integrated Moulding Process, which Scott says helps shed 11% of the material around the head tube while increasing rigidity, and proprietary HMX high-modulus carbon fibres which it claims offers 20% more stiffness. A 56cm model, therefore, weighs just 8.26kg – respectable for a bike with 35mm tyres, alloy wheels and discs. To hit this price point Scott has gone with the non-series Shimano RS500 chainset and 105 11-32t cassette alongside Ultegra derailleurs and RS685 hydraulic disc brakes. In-house…

Open Cycles may be a new name to the bike market but the man behind this progressive design has considerable pedigree: Gerard Vroomen co-founded Cervélo, and the UP represents his idea of the ideal bike. ‘I wanted a fast riding position, so the bike had to have road geometry, but with tyre clearance that would let me go almost anywhere,’ says Vroomen. ‘I thought the best solution would be to spec 650b mountain bike wheels and tyres, but using disc brakes allows the 650b option to be swapped out for any 700c, disc-equipped road-bike wheel.’ Ordinarily this would be impossible, since mountain bikes require longer, wider-spread chainstays to accommodate MTB tyres, which is achieved by widening the bottom bracket, which also widens pedal stance. To preserve the road geometry, Vroomen…

Considering Orro’s expansive range of bikes it’s surprising to think that the Sussex brand is only three years old. It now boasts a well-rounded range of carbon, steel and aluminium to suit a variety of budgets and rider demands, and with the advent of the Terra Gravel Road, it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Orro says it took inspiration for the Terra from the infamous Ditchling Beacon and its surrounding tracks near its company headquarters in the South Downs. The goal was to produce a bike that gave nothing away on the tarmac yet had the versatility to head off the beaten track and still be a reliable, fun ride for those not wanting to break the bank. To that end, Orro has plumped for an aluminium frame that’s…

To download this route, visit cyclist.co.uk/53gravel. Starting in Bourg d’Oisans, ride south toward Venosc, take a right at the Office of Tourism and descend to the gravel path that tracks the river. Follow the track over the river and then over the stream and back up to Bourg d’Oisans. Take a left into Bourg d’Oisans and onto the Rue Humbert up to the climb to Villard Notre-Dame. Ride through the village and onto the gravel track of the Col du Solude. Cross the col and descend toward Bourg d’Oisans, taking a right at the D526 in Ornon for Bourg d’Oisans, and right again when the descent ends and meets the D1091, the main road back to Bourg d’Oisans.…

As you’ll no doubt know from watching the Tour, climbs in pro races are ranked from 4th to hors category, the latter being reserved for only the toughest and hardest slopes, but can science conclude if there’s an optimal gradient to deliver us to the top? Well, the simple answer is yes. When it comes to purely considering work done, the steeper the incline the better. Fighting the force of gravity to reach a given height for a given weight always requires the same amount of effort. However, if the climb is longer in distance – as a shallower climb would be – in a strictly mathematical model a rider still has to overcome the same amount of gravity only this time over an increased distance so it will always…

If you’re taking those first steps towards a fitter you, or if you’re already serious about your sport – whether it’s cycling, running, rowing or even rollerblading – there’s a Fitbit for you. Forget complicated gadgets that you need a science degree to interpret. Fitbit couldn’t be simpler: Just wear it as a watch and it will immediately start monitoring a multitude of body metrics, giving you instant access to live data to start you on your journey. There’s no need for chest straps – get continuous automatic heart rate right from your wrist, including resting heart rate and everything you need to track your workout. Want to begin every day fresh and alert? Let Fitbit’s sleep tracker gently wake you by vibrating on your wrist. Ever wondered how far…

When in pro territory, ride a pro’s bike. Surely that goes without saying, right? By coincidence I did actually see a member of the Giant-Alpecin team riding in the opposite direction but our paths crossed too hastily to put a name to the face. Anyway, I digress. The TCR Advanced SL 0 is top of the shop in what Giant calls its ‘competition’ line. The top stock build is £5,500 with Dura-Ace Di2, but this custom spec includes Sram’s latest wireless eTap shifting, Zipp’s 404 NSW wheels and Zipp finishing kit, which all in would cost around £7,800. So how was it? It was exactly as you’d expect for a bike that leaves nothing to be desired – it was brilliant. So much so that I extended my trip another…

Despite its weight almost touching 8kg, the Émonda packed a real punch on this route. A smallest gear of 34-28 made the early morning job of climbing the Duke’s Pass more than manageable, while the biggest ratio of 50-11 allowed me to pick up enough speed on the descents. Pedalling efficiency is aided by a wide BB86.5 bottom bracket, while a stiff front end enhances the S5’s accurate handling. Trek’s H2 endurance-biased geometry means the S5 has a 30mm taller head tube than the more aggressive H1 set-up of other Émondas in the range, which adds to the already high level of comfort.…

There’s a certain charm about a steel bike with heritage. A classic Colnago, Bianchi or Wilier will always tug at our nostalgic heart strings. Fixating on the past isn’t always healthy, though. Steel may be the historic material of the pro peloton, but many brands have set out to prove that steel can indeed be on the cutting edge, and Engineered has taken a particularly interesting approach. ‘We’re definitely not the first people to mix steel and carbon,’ says David Fong, founder of Engineered Bikes. The Blits, Engineered’s endurance racer, is just one of his frames that offers the option of a carbon seat tube through the centre of a steel frame. ‘People in the US have been doing it for a while, but it is far more common to…

The Chebacco is by far and away the most expensive bike here, but with good reason. Bob Parlee started working with carbon fibre more than 40 years ago, helping pioneer the use of this new wonder material in racing boats, before redirecting his expertise into bicycles in 2000. Since then he has carved a reputation as one of the world’s finest carbon fibre framebuilders, and the Chebacco does nothing to endanger that reputation. Named after one of the earliest European settlements in Parlee’s native Massachusetts, the Chebacco epitomises both the gravel movement and Parlee’s nuanced eye for design. Parlee predominantly uses round tubes, saying they give a better all-round ride feel, more evenly coping with torsional stresses. That said, the head tube is overbuilt to offer a stiffer assembly with…

It could be said that the foundations for the Datum can be found in Genesis’ Croix de Fer range, a rough-and-ready steel ensemble that has been used for years by cycle tourers and bikepackers alike. That heritage certainly seemed to help Genesis get slightly ahead of the curve when it launched the full-carbon Datum range in 2015, pre-empting the surge in popularity of the faster, racier, adventure bike sector. There are three bikes in the range, with the Datum 20 sitting in the middle of the trio. The build is largely Shimano 105 but with some deviations to keep the price down. The crankset is Shimano’s FC-RS500, for example, and the hydraulic brake levers its RS505 – a regular inclusion in bikes in this price range. It’s the details in…

Niner’s background is in making 29er mountain bikes, and it really shows in the RLT 9, a bike that looks more like a slimmed down trail-basher than a toughened-up road bike. Although made from oversized Reynolds 853, the Britsh tube manufacturer’s strongest, lightest non-stainless tubeset, the RLT’s frame is thoroughly modern: the head tube is tapered and there’s a BB30 bottom bracket, plus bolt-thru axle dropouts. The full carbon fork has just been updated too, introducing a bolt-thru axle and two extra sets of water bottle bosses for those planning longer adventures. When it comes to versatility the RLT has it in spades. Compatible with mechanical and electronic groupsets, the disc-brake routing is all external so you can opt for hydraulic or mechanical, and it will work with single, double…

Norco began life in a converted chicken coop in British Columbia, and some 50 years on it’s doing rather well. A single bike offering has expanded to a portfolio of 40, and this, the Norco Search, has just claimed the international Design And Innovation Award for bicycles. Blending a long 1019mm wheelbase with a tall 170mm head tube (size 56cm), the Search has a stable, relaxed geometry that will happily eat up paved miles but which really thrives when the going gets rough. The compact front triangle helps keeps weight down but crucially provides buckets of stand-over height for increased chuck-ability over rocks, roots and bumps. Bolt-thru axles front and rear provide solid anchor points for Shimano’s excellent RS785 hydraulic disc brakes, mated to 160mm rotors, and clearance for up…

The GT Grade came specced with Continental Gran Sport 28mm tyres, which felt a bit meagre on the tough and stiff Stan’s NoTubes Grail wheelset, but it can comfortably take up to 35mm tyres. The bars splay dramatically, giving extra steering leverage and control from the drops on challenging gravel descents, but are overkill on 28mm rubber. Personally I couldn’t get comfortable with them on the road, but each to their own. It descends well on tarmac, but despite its gravel intentions it felt a little harsher than I imagined, although I was probably taking it to extremes at times.…

INDEPENDENT EVENTS The Viking Challenge – 2nd October 2016 vikingchallenge.org.uk Salisbury Saxon Sportive – TBC November 2016 britishcycling.org.uk The Green Jersey Gravel Rush – TBC March 2017 britishcycling.org.uk Dirty Reiver – 22nd April 2017 dirtyreiver.co.uk Dorset Gravel Dash – TBC May 2017 ridinggravel.com Eroica Britannia – TBC June 2017 eroicabritannia.co.uk Aggregate 100 – TBC August 2017 aggregate100k.uk WIGGLE CX SPORTIVE SERIES White Horse Ridge – 25th September 2016 Salisbury Gold Rush – 16th October 2016 Chilterns Wildwood – TBC Feb 2017 South Downs Sting – TBC Mar 2017 Surrey Hills Gravel Cross – TBC Apr 2017 Winchester Battle in the Bowl – TBC June 2017 The South Downs Way – TBC July 2017 ADVENTURE CROSS SERIES Dumfries, Galloway Gallop – 18th September 2016 Keswick, Lakeland Monster Miles – 16th October…

1 CRANKALICIOUS CYCLE CARE from £3, dodo-juice.myshopify.com While we’d never recommend eating your dinner off your chainset, we’re pretty sure you could attain near-medical cleanliness of your drivetrain with Crankalicious’s list of cleaners and buffers. Our personal favourite is the ‘Like Pneu’ tyre cleaner, which does an excellent job of restoring stained tan-wall tyres. 2 RIE:SEL DESIGN RIT:ZE AND FLA:SCHE €9.95 (approx £8.45), riesel-bike.com Deed Poll says it will refuse name changes that contain symbols or punctuation marks, but ask German graphic designer firm Rie:sel and it will tell you these are precisely the things all names need, whether that’s the funky comic-print Rit:ze Ass Saver or Fla:sche water bottle. We’re willing to forgive the grammatical floutings, yet we remain sad that Deed Poll also discourages changing your name for…

Cyclists come here in their droves to enjoy the delights of this wonderful part of mainland Spain I’m flagging after a long day and a delayed flight, but as I wait for my luggage to appear, my sense of humour is being sustained by a group of men in orange polo shirts. Printed on the back of each is ‘Pete’s Stag – Benidorm 2016’, and I can’t help pondering what kind of fate awaits the poor groom-to-be, who is currently sporting a pink tutu, fishnet stockings, some badly applied make-up and something written on his forehead in marker pen. The arrival of my bike bag cuts short this impromptu cabaret and I leave Pete and his ‘mates’ behind. Alicante airport is probably used to seeing cyclists, stags and hens in…

Big Ben chimes at the start of the 6 o’clock news. You turn off the radio, put down your file, remove the stub of pencil from behind your ear, rouse the Jack Russell from his bed, glance at your ‘Oscar’ from the Bespoked Awards, and lock up. It’s the end of another fulfilling day spent crafting unique, exquisitely finished bike frames for discerning customers. You sling your leg over the top tube and pedal home. Life has never been so good… Or maybe… you wake in a cold sweat. The order book is bare, the landlord wants the rent for your workshop, and your one client spends an hour a day on the phone changing the details of the frame he’s commissioned. Your legs ache from countless hours on your…

We carve racing lines across perfectly smooth tarmac that’s laid like unspooled cassette tape You might want to put it in the wee ring about now.’ We’re only 1km into our ride and already I’m getting a sense of trepidation at what the day ahead holds for us. I’ve spent the past hour or so taking breakfast in a guesthouse overlooking the fields that divide our lodgings from the small town of Aberfoyle, trying to second-guess the wind direction and the likelihood of rain appearing above the tree-covered edifice of Craigmore looming behind the town’s main street. Our route out of Aberfoyle towards Loch Katrine and further into the Trossachs National Park takes us immediately on to the Duke’s Pass, up and over the 420m hill and into a…

As the climb gets- going I suddenly surge clear, still fresh legged, picking off riders one by one It’s only deep into the twisting, interminable ascent of the Col de la Bonette, when the lush meadows have given way to moonlike scree, that I finally click: the fruit and veg van tailing me is in fact the broom wagon. As the driver draws up, he winds down his window and asks if I’d like to continue. The problem, he says, is that the temperature at the summit is 0°C. Falling sleet is adding to the piles of snow that have already blocked the extra loop of the Cime de la Bonette and the leaders were pulverised by gale force winds. I find all this hard to believe. Down here…

If you ever thought bike designers were running out of ideas, this month’s trio will make you think again. From a century-old brand to an internet leviathan to a new custom frame outfit, these bikes from Fuji, Canyon and Engineered all push the design envelope in new and exciting directions, be that insane weight, clever comfort or intricate design flair. Our choices have never been so broad, which is good, because let’s face it: there’s always room for one more.…

There are many schools of thought on bike weight. The most popular is what we’ll call the Froome approach, where you simply go as light as humanly possible. As such you’ll do things like choose a Dogma F8 XLight over a standard Dogma F8 to save a claimed 80g in the chassis (although you have to wonder why, given that most pro bikes come in well under the UCI’s 6.8kg minimum weight limit). Then there’s the Anquetil theory, favoured by strange beasts for whom weight seems to be as much a state of mind as a physical property. Telltale signs include things like switching your bidon to your jersey to make your bike lighter for climbs, while thinking nothing of carrying a comb about in your back pocket. Polar opposite…

Just a passing craze or a bona fide emerging sector? The truth is, we still don’t know for sure, but despite this uncertainty it’s clear that the term ‘gravel bike’ has stuck in the UK – even if the notion of what it actually means is still misinterpreted. The impetus for this new genre of bicycle comes mostly from the US, which has roughly five times as many kilometres of unpaved roads as the UK has paved. That’s a lot of gravel to play with (about 2.1 million kilometres, in fact), so it’s only logical that more adventurous road riders, not wanting to be bounded by tarmac alone, would want their bikes set up to give them the versatility to explore further afield. Clearly we do not have the same…

Titanium construction should ensure longevity, while the material’s slightly more forgiving attributes ought to keep things a little comfier on the rough stuff Where many brands add cyclocross and winter mile-munchers to their ranges as almost an afterthought, Kinesis has made these bikes its bread and butter for years. These UK-designed frames have built themselves a solid reputation too, promising good performance for your money and a hardy platform adept at coping with all manner of British conditions. As such it’s fair to say Kinesis is ideally placed to deliver the UK market a worthy gravel bike. Enter the new Tripster ATR. ATR stands for ‘Adventure, Tour, Race’, and the 3Al/2.5V titanium tubeset aims to deliver a bike equally capable regardless of which way you choose to enjoy your cycling.…

The only features that might give its all-terrain nature away are the disc brakes and fat tyres, but even those are not uncommon on modern road bikes Specialized claims the Diverge ‘excels where the road ends’, but that’s not to say it shouldn’t excel on the road either. In fact, look only at the spec sheet and you might not think it’s a gravel bike at all: the Fact10r carbon frame, Dura-Ace groupset and carbon wheels all suggest a tarmac-based speed machine. The only features that might give its all-terrain nature away are the disc brakes and fat tyres, but even those are not uncommon on modern road bikes. So what makes it stand out? First off, the geometry of the Diverge is tailored to be sympathetic towards more adventurous…

‘What most people really want is a bike that rides like a road bike most of the time, but can handle itself off road and in the gravel. That is what the Slate is about’ Cannondale has a history of revolutionising the cycling industry – the TIG-welded ST500 changed the game for aluminium frames in 1983 – and it’s attempting a similar coup with the introduction of the Slate, a bike designed to dissolve the borders of an increasingly fractious market. ‘Our industry does like its segmentation,’ says David Devine, one of the Slate project’s key engineers. ‘But rather than design to fit a specific category, we set out to make a road bike that was just more fun. What most people really want is a bike that rides like…

‘More riders don’t want to race. Instead they want the freedom to explore but are still highly competitive, so we designed the C5 with this in mind’ Cervélo has built a reputation for making cutting-edge race bikes, so the introduction of the adventure-focused C5 might seem like a seismic shift in focus for the manufacturer. However, according to brand manager JürgenKallnbach, the C5 isn’t the departure you might think. ‘The C5 is as stiff as our R5 but more comfortable, the frame weight of the C5 is 840g and our new C fork has been developed out of Project California,’ he says, referring to Cervélo’s state-of-the-art West Coast development facility. ‘So the C5 is capable of performing with the best, much like our other platforms.’ So if the C5 is…

The saddle seems to have formed an unholy alliance with the handlebars in an effort to throw me off the bike I’ve got a mutiny on my hands. The handlebars are beating relentlessly at my palms. The harder I grip, the harder they hit. I’m tempted to release them, but I don’t for fear of tumbling onto a bed of stone and grit. The saddle is being no kinder, and seems to have formed an unholy alliance with the handlebars in an effort to throw me off the bike. Phil, my guide for the day, seems to be having a much easier time of things. He’s sweeping ahead, hopping over tree branches and through rocky ditches with reckless abandon. When he suggested the idea of a gravel ride, I had…