Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2017 i Cyclist

£300, windwave.co.uk Sir Alan Sugar, Britain’s very own Donald Trump, famously predicted in 2008 that, ‘Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, kaput.’ It turned out the tech entrepreneur was slightly off the mark, and so are those who predicted that rim brakes would be obsolete by now, having been overthrown by disc brakes. These new FSA K-Force brakes are solid proof that the rim brake is still developing in leaps and bounds. In line with trends towards wider tyres (see p100), the K-Force brakes boast a shallow profile sculpted out as much as possible to allow extra clearance at the top of the calliper, sitting as close as possible to the crown of a front fork. This is FSA’s first brake with a dual-pivot mechanism and also offers…

£250, flaer.com The idea behind the Revo Via is simple: a chain that’s well lubricated will generate less friction and so is more efficient. The trouble is that the slickest lubricants tend to be the least viscous so will quickly dry up, leaving your chain squeakier than Dracula’s coffin lid. What the Revo Via does is to automatically drip-feed a very thin, very low-friction lubricant onto a chain during riding. To do this, a reservoir and pump sit just behind the bottle cage and connect via a hose to a jockey wheel-mounted dripper (pictured, mech not included). The system is electronically controlled and doses the chain with 0.03ml of lube from the reservoir every 30, 90 or 150 seconds, depending on weather and ride length. That might sound like overkill,…

When the result of the EU referendum was announced at 4.39am on 23rd June 2016, the price of bike parts probably wasn’t the first thing on your mind. As the dust has settled, though, it’s becoming evident that Brexit may have significant consequences for the world of cycling, even if they are as yet largely invisible. ‘There weren’t any immediate consequences,’ says Dominic Langan, CEO of Madison, the UK’s largest distributor and importer of cycling products. True enough, prices have stayed largely the same and retailers are trading just as before. But what we in the consumer world are blissfully unaware of is the intricate nature of how currency works in the bike industry, which has so far protected prices. But not for long. ‘The main issue is that the…

‘Tom Simpson said that if he wasn’t contracted to Peugeot, he’d take up the Moulton bike next week’ It’s a wet day in Bradford on Avon, the town’s ubiquitous Bath stone stained a deeper shade of yellow. The town is as quintessentially English as it gets, based around a forgotten heavy industry that made it hum to the sound of mills for nearly 200 years. To the uninitiated that hum has subsided, but to the trained ear it’s still there. Only now it has swapped cotton and rubber for bicycles. Just not as you might know them. Curiosity and the cat ‘That was for Toby,’ says Dan Farrell, gesturing up the driveway towards a peeling picket sign with the inscription ‘Please take care! Toby the Cat may be crossing’. ‘I…

From my hotel room I have an excellent view over Newquay’s Fistral Beach. It’s undeniably beautiful, with long stretches of sand sweeping down from a fringe of green dunes, but it’s also disconcerting. Large waves are crashing onto the shore, throwing up spray that’s being whipped away by a powerful wind. It’s a sign that today’s ride could prove tougher than I’d expected. Cornish delight As a peninsula that tumbles southwest into the Atlantic Ocean, Cornwall has one of the longest coastlines in Britain. As such it provides plenty of opportunity to witness the elements at their most impressive but its abundance of surfing beaches and other attractions such as St Austell’s Eden Project mean that in terms of road cycling it remains underexplored. Due to my front row view…

Anyone who has followed Cyclist’s exploits at European sportives and gran fondos over the years will have noticed a certain pattern to the articles that appear in the magazine each month. Usually, the writer will begin the tale by jumping straight to the most significant moment of the ride – a soul-destroying climb, perhaps, or a catastrophic bike failure – followed by backtracking to the beginning of the event. There will be a description of the tanned, lithe riders waiting in the starting pen (covering a sportive for a magazine means we always get pushed to the front of the pack alongside the serious racing whippets) and then the gun will fire. Everyone will fly off at 50kmh and our intrepid writer will describe their increasingly desperate attempts to stay…

The concept of collective consciousness is debatable, but there does seem to be a hive mind when it comes to bicycle design, and Argon 18 for one isn’t shy of pointing that out in response to some probing questions about this month’s Gallium Pro. Whether or not you agree is another thing entirely but, on the face of it, the Scultura, from giant of cutting-edge mass-manufacturing Merida, and the Uriel, from artisan builder Formigli, couldn’t be more obviously born of their countrymen and environment. As a trio they’re a mixed bag, but each to their own, as they say.…

THE SPEC Model Argon 18 Gallium Pro Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace 9100 Deviations None Wheels Fulcrum Racing Speed Finishing kit 3T Ergonova Team Stealth handlebar, 3T ARX II Team stem, Argon 18 ASP-6550 carbon seatpost, ProLogo Zero II Nack CPC saddle Weight 6.66kg (medium) Price £2,300 frameset, £6,500 as tested Contact  i-ride.co.uk The chemical element argon, from which this Canadian bike manufacturer takes its name (followed by its atomic number, 18), is derived from the Greek word meaning lazy or inactive. It refers to the fact that it undergoes almost no chemical reactions, but it’s not really appropriate to the Argon 18 Gallium Pro, which is anything but lazy or unreactive. Founder Gervais Rioux was an accomplished athlete, representing Canada in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games during his road racing career.…

To download, go to cyclist.co.uk/58jungfrau . We started in the small town of Innertkirchen, about 90km southeast of Bern. From the centre of Innertkirchen turn right onto the Grimsel Pass then follow it all the way until a T-junction at Gletsch. Turn left onto the Furkastrasse, which will take you to Hospental where you turn left at a small roundabout. Go past Andermatt and on to Wassen. Turn left onto the Sustenstrasse, which will lead you all the way back to Innertkirchen. Not tough enough? Try turning right at Gletsch instead of left. This extra chunk will add another 50km to your ride and, more importantly, tag on the Passo Novena and the St Gotthard Pass.…

To download this route to a bike computer, go to cyclist.co.uk/58gstaad . From Schönried head east along the 11, passing through Zweisimmen and turning left up the Jaun Pass after 20km. Once over the pass and in the village of Jaun, turn left at a roundabout onto a small road that almost turns you back on yourself. Follow it over the Mittelberg and down into Gstaad, going straight through the town in the direction of Gsteig bei Gstaad, at which point you’ll bear west over the Col du Pillon. After Les Diablerets turn right and climb via Les Voëttes to Col des Mosses. From there, descend down to the valley and back to Saanen/Schönried.…

To download this route to a bike computer, go to cyclist.co.uk/58meiringen . From Meiringen’s main street head east towards Innertkirchen. Take exit two on the roundabout towards Grimsel. After 2km turn right onto Scheideggstrasse (a sign points to Grindelwald). Follow this up over the pass and down through Grindelwald, descending towards the valley. After two railway lines you hit a T-junction – turn right to Interlaken. Turn right onto Parkstrasse towards Brienz. Take the second exits at both roundabouts. Cross the Beaurivage bridge over the river Aare, then join the main road on the north of Lake Brienz going through Ringgenberg. Look for Seestrasse on the right, then follow your nose back to Meiringen.…

£124.99, zyrofisher.co.uk Giro’s Synthe helmet boasts great ventilation and aerodynamics, but its £225 pricetag puts it out of reach for many customers. The Cinder addresses this, offering many similar features to its range-topping brother but at a much more reasonable price. ‘The Synthe offers slightly better aerodynamics and ventilation but at a glance they’re pretty similar, which is what we were aiming for,’ says Scott Junker, helmet brand manager at Giro. Unlike many helmets at this price point, the Cinder includes the MIPS protection system – in fact the helmet was designed around its inclusion to make sure it didn’t affect fit, which is a problem that has plagued many early adopters of the technology. ‘We focused on small details like this with the Cinder as we think they add…

From €186 (approx £161, ryderseyewear.com Ryders isn’t yet a household name in performance eyewear in the UK, but considering the tech going on in these glasses it soon might be. The Roam uses lenses made from a proprietary polymer engineered for fighter jet canopies. It’s lightweight, scratch resistant and, Ryders claims, offers class-leading optical clarity. Additional anti-fog and photochromatic coatings on the lenses, as well as a detachable lower frame bar, ensure an uninterrupted view of the road.…

Cyclist: You first had the idea for Strava in the 1990s but only launched it in 2009. Did you have to wait for the technology to catch up? Mark Gainey: Yeah, Michael [Horvath, the other Strava co-founder] and I had families, we were on opposite coasts of America – he was on the east coast and I was in California – and we were these two guys in our early forties who were still passionate about sport and camaraderie but life, obligations, kids and work got in the way. We had this old idea about a ‘virtual locker room’ after we rowed together at Harvard, but by 2009 two things had changed. One was technology with the wearable marketplace and GPS devices. The other was the concept of sharing…

I once told Kristian House to pull his socks up. He looked at me like I was mad, and he was probably right to – I wasn’t even on his team back then – but I just couldn’t bite my tongue. He had this little ruffle just at the top of the cuff where it wasn’t straight. Improperly worn kit is just annoying. Rain jackets are an excellent example. Let’s start with the basics. Because traditional rain jackets rarely use a stretchy fabric, you need to pick one that will fit over fully laden jersey pockets without making you look like a cling-filmed camel. But if it’s too big you’ll end up with a ride soundtrack like a flapping spinnaker, plus you’ll never get warm – you need to be…

Kidnapping was once the national sport of Italy. No one was safe. For three decades from the late 1960s, more than 700 men, women, children and pensioners were taken hostage. And the hub of the kidnap industry was a spectacular mountain range on the island of Sardinia called the Supramonte. And that’s where Cyclist is heading today. The remote gorges and caves in this area were regularly used as hiding places for the kidnap gangs and their victims. The nearest town, Orgosolo, became known as the ‘Capital of Silence’, because no one would reveal anything to the police. Our guide and native Sardinian, Marcello, has warned me the residents of Orgosolo are quite sensitive about the town’s reputation. In 1992 the town made international headlines when an eight-year-old boy was…

Moulton Bicycle (latterly the ‘F frame’), 1962 This is the original bike that debuted at the Earl’s Court Cycle Show in 1962. In a video made for the Open University in 1971, Alex Moulton describes how he quickly realised the traditional riding position was the most comfortable, and then after a ‘groping period for a definitive form’ decided that small-sized, high pressure wheels with suspension, luggage racks and a unisex, unisize frame would be crucial design drivers. However, he was still invested in form, so went to great lengths to ensure the seat tube didn’t look too tall by tapering it and painting it in billiard-cue check. The lines of the bike were also crucial – the top of the chain needed to run parallel to the chainstays, while the…

When it comes to adding speed, stability and sexiness to your bike, the best place to spend your money is on a new pair of wheels. But buying wheels has become a complicated business recently. If you walk into a bike shop and enquire after a set of high-end road wheels, you’re likely to be met with something akin to an interrogation. Would sir or madam like disc or rim brake? Carbon or alloy? Thru-axle or quick release? What rim depth? 30mm, 50mm, 80mm? What sort of riding are you mainly doing? Racing, sportives, gravel, time-trial? What about internal rim width? Tyre preferences? And, of course, how much would you like to spend? The best of the best can set you back up to £4,000. That’s correct: £4k. When Cyclist…

THE SPEC Model Merida Scultura Disc Team Edition Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 9070 Deviations Rotor 3D30 Chainset, Shimano RS805 disc brakes Wheels Fulcrum Racing Quattro Disc carbon Finishing kit FSA K-Force Compact bar, FSA OS99 stem, FSA K-Force seatpost; Prologo Scratch 2 T2.0 saddle Weight 7.48kg Price £6,500 Contact  merida-europe.com Merida is part of a royal circle of cycling brands that dwarf all others. Where many brands hire Far Eastern factories to build their high-end racing frames, Merida owns an enormous Taiwanese bike building business and numerous factories itself. It’s also big enough to throw its weight behind a WorldTour team, with title sponsorship of Bahrain-Merida, the new home of Vincenzo Nibali. So with money, marketing and manufacturing all on Merida’s side, the new Scultura should be a world-beater. Size…

How To Wear… p38 FROM TOP LEFT TO BOTTOM RIGHT Etxeondo Lasai jacket, £79 etxeondo.com Ashmei Waterproof jacket, £259 ashmei.com Poc Avip jacket, £230 2pure.co.uk Rapha Shadow jersey, £220 rapha.cc Morvélo Blaze Fuze jersey-jacket, £150 morvelo.com Northwave Blade jacket, £99.99 i-ride.co.uk Santini Guard 3.0 jacket, £139.99 zyrofisher.co.uk Le Col HC jacket, £300 lecol.net dhb Aeron Storm jacket, £125 wiggle.co.uk Chapeau Echelon jacket, £149.99 velobrands.co.uk Café du Cycliste Charlotte jacket, £207 cafeducycliste.com 7mesh Oro jacket, £250 7meshinc.com Pearl Izumi Pro Aero Wxb jacket, £129.99 madison.com Sportful Fiandre WS LRR jacket, £185 c3products.com Castelli Perfetto jersey, £175 saddleback.co.uk Catch Me If You Can p58 RIDER LEFT Poc Octal Raceday helmet, £195 2pure.co.uk Poc Do Blade sunglasses, £180…

The rolling, luscious green hills make Emmental the perfect place for riding a bike When autumn arrives, riders from northern Europe are sadly all too familiar with dull days, damp days and downright gruesome days. But every now and then, the great gods of cycling smile down upon us and offer up days of bright sunshine, clear skies and warm temperatures. Today, I’m delighted to report, is one of those perfect days, and courtesy of an even greater run of luck I just happen to find myself in the beautiful Emmental region of central Switzerland, with nothing much else to do but ride my bike. To be more specific, I’m on the first sloping ramps of a climb out of Burgdorf, the largest city in the Emmental valley, and just…

£350, saddleback.co.uk Sidi’s list of sponsored pros reads like a Who’s Who of the sport of professional cycling, including our very own Mr Froome of course. The Shot dethrones the Wire Air to take top spot in the road shoe hierarchy and brings with it a number of updates. Most obvious is the centralisation of the double Tecno-3 dial closure system, which helps to spread the pressure over the top of the foot. It also allows easier fine-tuning on the fly, plus a noticeably quicker release when you come to take the shoe off. It might only be measurable in micro-watt savings, but the Shot is potentially more aerodynamic than its predecessor. It certainly looks cleaner and slicker. Elsewhere there’s a new sliding vent system in the 3K carbon sole,…

£699, paligap.cc For most brands, one power meter is enough. Stages has its crank, SRM has its spider, Garmin has its pedals. But PowerTap isn’t content with that and now has five power meters to choose from, offering a choice of measuring power from the hub, the chainring, both pedals and now, thanks to the P1S, just a single pedal. At £699, the P1S is far cheaper than the £1,050 bilateral power-measuring P1 pedals, as it only measures from the left side. The right pedal looks identical to the left but has none of the technical gubbins. The pedals are unique in needing no pods or external ANT+ units (such as with Garmin Vector) and can be tightened using an 8mm allen key for quick switches between bikes. It also…

Tanned, lithe and informally dressed in sweater and skinny jeans, Marco Bertoletti could easily be mistaken for a retired pro racer. Certainly there’s nothing about him that hints at his age. Except the bike he’s brought with him. ‘This is the Il ’58,’ says Bertoletti, positively beaming as he rocks back on his heels to better appraise the bicycle in front of him. ‘The 58 refers to my age. I was born on 8th May 1958, and in 2016 I was 58, and I presented this bike on the 8th May. In that sense I’m lucky I wasn’t born in 1991, because that would be a long time to wait and I might not make it!’ Bertoletti has been building frames since 1989 and, while he only struck up the…

1 FABRIC SCOOP GEL WOMEN’S SADDLE £49.99, cyclingsportsgroup.com They say dolphins get on with each other because they just click, and although true rider-saddle synergy is less guaranteed, it’s hard not to be taken with the Scoop Gel. Three soft gel pads are sandwiched between a black or white upper and coloured nylon shell. It’s wider than other Scoops – 155mm – but still comes in at very reasonable 278g, and costs an equally reasonable 50 quid. 2 PB SWISS TOOLS HEX AND TORX KEYS £38.64/£31.64, pbswisstools.co.uk Feed a goldfish some flakes and he’ll get chocolate all over his mouth, but teach a goldfish to speak, get him a tiny suit and a job interview and he’ll be able to feed himself for a lifetime. So it is with these…

There’s no escape for Dave Brailsford as he faces an onslaught of questions about the package delivered to Wiggins prior to 2011’s Critérium du Dauphiné Tucked away in the southern Mediterranean, the island of Mallorca is the perfect escape for some winter sunshine. For Team Sky, however, it is providing little in the way of sun and absolutely no escape. The team has pitched up to the town of Port d’Alcudia, which in the off-season and under slate-grey skies has all the holiday appeal of Chernobyl. The Irish bars, kebab joints and TexMex outlets lie empty behind metal shutters. The silence in the town is only broken by workmen placing concrete plasters over apartments hastily erected during the 1960s tourist boom. It’s all pretty dreary. Then there’s Sir Dave Brailsford,…

Moulton AM ATB, 1988 The world’s first mass-produced full-suspension mountain bike, the ATB featured 20-inch wheels, although Moulton the stickler engineer would refer to them as the size they really measured: 18.3 inches. The frame’s front suspension unit bears a striking resemblance to the Cannondale Headshok, and in fact Cannondale’s patent includes reference to the Moulton design. The tyres, now discontinued, were made by Wolber. As Moulton technical director Dan Farrell recalls, ‘A guy bought an ATB recently and phoned up looking for tyres. I said we didn’t have any but he said he knew where we did, because he used to work for us and nearly got sacked on account of ordering too many tyres – and blow me he was right.’ Moulton New Series 2015 The stainless steel…

The titanium R240 is burly American muscle that’s brilliantly suited to British riding. A sticker just below the seat tube cluster claims this bike is ‘built to ride… fast’, which could be dismissed as American over-enthusiasm but in this case rings true. The solid frame can thud slightly at low speeds but when you put some power into the bike it comes alive, revving up to speed like a Mustang. It cedes some weight to equivalently priced carbon machines, but the frame combines a rock-solid bottom bracket area with snappy handling thanks to a short wheelbase. It’s the perfect beast for punching up Cornwall’s sharp climbs. A mix-and-match 105/Ultegra groupset is a good cost-cutting strategy though it might seem incongruous on a premium frame, but all the important bits are…

‘The biggest problem with the current wheel crop is a lack of education,’ says Jonathan Day, director of Strada handbuilt wheels. ‘People don’t understand what they need. We get a lot of customers who don’t know what a thru-axle is.’ So, here are the points to consider: RIM DEPTH – how much importance do you place on aerodynamic speed versus stability in crosswinds? 40mm is probably the limit for total confidence in all conditions. RIM WIDTH E XTERNAL.– wider can be faster aerodynamically but it depends a lot on the width of tyre. Be realistic about your bodyweight and riding expectations (eg, do you want to go off road?), as wider may also provide added stiffness/strength. RIM WIDTH INTERNAL. – important as it determines the overall shape of your tyre.…

THE SPEC Model Formigli Uriel Groupset Campagnolo Super Record Deviations None Wheels Campagnolo Bora Ultra 50 tubular Finishing kit Fizik Cyrano 00 handlebar, Fizik Cyrano 01 stem, San Marco Concor Light saddle Weight 7.11kg (54cm) Price £1,300 frameset (approx), £6,000 as tested (approx) Contact  formigli.com I’ve always had a soft spot for metal bikes. For many riders of a certain age, their baptism on two wheels was one of steel, but my life as a cyclist was forged in the bowels of some presumably monolithic Taiwanese aluminium smelting works, circa 2001. I still ride that first aluminium road bike, although it’s ignobly hung with mudguards these days and its sandy-coloured paintwork is spattered in dirt. But it’s still doing me proud. However, aside from ‘Old Yeller’, I can’t recall the…

We rattle along at a decent pace admiring the way the road zigs and zags up the face The slim pads in the front of my helmet are saturated like miniature cold sponges and I can feel the umpteenth bead of sweat trickling down my nose. I watch as the splash hits the first S of the word SuperSix on my bike’s top tube. We are in Switzerland, and this is the Susten Pass, our third and final hors categorie climb of the day. I know that if I can just keep going then there is the reward of a magnificent descent, but as I look up at the distant summit my legs seem to plead with me to stop… We arrived in this part of the country last night,…

Before I visited Switzerland for the first time, I had an image of what it might be like. In my mind I depicted green pastures, cows grazing lazily in meadows, immaculate alpine villages with pretty wooden houses, and snow-capped peaks in the distance. Being a cyclist, I also imagined a pristine ribbon of black tarmac running through it all, devoid of traffic and meandering gently like a river. The good news, now that I’m here in the Gstaad region, is that my vision has turned out to be more-or-less accurate. Gstaad lies in the southwest of the country, not far from Lake Geneva and in a knot of valleys that occupy a region between the rolling hills of the prealps and the high mountain passes closer to the Italian border.…

We’re right above the waterfall where Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty engaged in battle Meiringen is the town where Sherlock Holmes set off for his final fateful dip in the broiling depths of the nearby Reichenbach Falls. As we pass the shop fronts on a quiet Friday morning I gaze at all the delectable climbing equipment in the various outdoor shops pondering whether Sherlock bought his walking stick from one of them. As I daydream, I realise that I’ve been lagging behind my guide and riding companion for the day, Brigitte Leuthold. The road has tilted up from the moment we left the hotel, so it takes me an uncomfortable number of watts to catch her back wheel. We’re heading southeast out of Meiringen towards Innertkirchen, but we’re not actually…