Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2018 i Cyclist

£249.99, wiggle.co.uk No you haven’t banged your head, but you are seeing stars. In its latest womens-specific design, Gaerne has topped a regular microfibre upper with Swarovski ‘stones’, creating the G.Stardust shoes. It’s safe to assume that they aren’t among Swarovski’s most precious crystals, but the effect is no less brilliant. Gaerne says the shoes aren’t all show and no go, however. All the features you’d expect in a top-end shoe are present – a light overall weight, a stiff carbon sole promising efficient power transfer, an anatomic heel cup and Boa dials to adjust shoe tension. A neat touch is the stainless steel Boa cables, which match the uppers better than the black nylon-coated steel ones found on most other premium shoes. Gaerne says that, like all its products,…

Lezyne Mega XL GPS, £180, Mega C GPS computer, £180, upgradebikes.co.uk Why launch one new GPS bike computer when you can launch two? Lezyne’s pair of Mega computers are almost identical in terms of functionality – they will both track and record all the metrics you’d expect for a £180 bike computer – and only differ in their display size, battery life and screen resolution. The Mega XL lives up to its name with a large 240x400 pixel customisable display that can be mounted horizontally or vertically and hosts up to 10 data fields on its monochrome screen. That should prove popular with turbo users following a TrainingPeaks or Today’s Plan programme, as all the data from complex training sessions can be displayed on a single screen. For those who…

In an age of marginal gains, when every aspect of training and racing is dissected in detail to gain tiny advantages, the technology around races needs to be able to keep track of events in ever more precise detail. Split-second timing, finish line cameras and results factored down to below a millimetre – modern race timing is at the cutting edge and can show the winner of a stage down to the tread of a tyre after 200km in the saddle. The job of tracking every second of the Tour de France falls to Swiss watchmaker Tissot. The company returned to the Tour de France in 2016 after having taken charge of timekeeping at the race from 1988 to 1992, but even before that it had a pedigree in cycling…

As the saying goes, you can tell a lot about a man by his hands. ‘Normally I can finish a basic bike in seven days, but this one took more than triple that time, I think 30 days,’ says Turkish framebuilder Burçak Erbil, whose scarred and calloused hands serve as living testaments to a life spent in the workshop. ‘I like to think I am good with my hands, even since I was young. I’m a mechanical engineer and have spent most of my professional life working on engine design with companies such as Ford, Nissan and Range Rover – although combustion engines are dying, so it is now electric vehicles. But I have always ridden and loved bicycles.’ Like many cyclists of his generation, Erbil started out on a…

There are climbs with amazing views, roads with rustic charm, and mountains so severe that we never forget them. There is no road, though, as stunning as Sa Calobra. Sa Calobra is in fact not a road at all, but a port town on the northern coast of Mallorca. Out of the town, the road up to Coll dels Reis winds over and through the rock formations of the Tramuntana range like brushstrokes on a canvas, and over time this road has come to be known by cyclists simply as Sa Calobra. The only way to get to the bottom of the climb (other than by boat) is to start at the top and descend for 9.5km. The gradient averages 7% and near the top the road performs an incredible…

‘If it rains, that bottom bend is going to be lethal,’ I remark to my teammate, Rich, as we roll around a few sighting laps of the street circuit. We’ll have plenty of opportunities to get acquainted with the course over the next day or so, as we are limbering up for the start of the Castelli24h criterium race in Feltre, northern Italy. Currently it’s dry and abnormally warm at this dusk hour, but my weather app suggests there’s a 67% chance of a downpour later tonight, which is the reason for my concern. The town is completely closed off to traffic, and its many bars are spilling customers onto the streets Rich, though, is quick to put my mind at ease. ‘Oh, don’t worry,’ he says. ‘They stop the…

The streets are ablaze with the blue and yellow of Astana, and from every shop window grins the face of Michele Scarponi, the Eagle of Filottrano. Hanging either side of the archway into the town centre are giant images of the rider. Balloons adorn the driveways of houses as we leave behind Scarponi’s old birth town on a ride through his native Marche region on Italy’s eastern coast. Dedications line the streets: ‘Scarpa – we’re with you’, ‘Michele – always in our thoughts’, ‘The Eagle was born here… Michi continues to fly’, ‘Grazie capitano’. It’s the most poignant and uplifting start to any sportive I’ve done. Cycling’s Peter Pan A year ago Michele Scarponi was killed in a collision with a vehicle while on a recovery ride on a sunny…

Remember the turn of the millennium? It was a time when all our computers were predicted to break, but didn’t; it was a time when people asked instead ofreached out; and it was a time when Professor Brian Cox’s D:ream band’s promise seemed genuine – things were only getting better. Except they weren’t. Not for high-end steel bikes. By 2000, steel was on a massive downer. The last time a steel bike had won the Tour de France was six years prior, a Pinarello allegedly built by Dario Pegoretti and ridden by Miguel Indurain. Aluminium had engulfed the pro peloton and the spectre of carbon fibre loomed on the horizon. Yet here we are in 2018 and I can’t help but feel the last time there were this many steel…

£300, saddleback.co.uk Enve developed its new Aero Road stem with the Dimension Data pro team and long-term collaborator and aerodynamicist Simon Smart. The key feature of the design is a shim located inside the steerer clamp area that allows the rider to fine-tune the stem angle and length. Identifying the rider as the cause of 80-90% of drag, Enve says the new stem improves efficiency by refining a rider’s fit on the bike. The potential savings of a better position are huge and as a bonus, Enve claims the stem shape itself saves an extra 1.5 watts when riding at 40kmh.…

From £15, madison.co.uk Considering the limited lifespan of most tubeless tyre sealants, Finish Line makes a bold claim for its new sealant with ‘FiberLink’ technology, saying that it will never dry out and should last the lifetime of the tyre. This is because the formula doesn’t use latex so CO2 canisters won’t affect it, and rather than gumming up into a hard-to-remove residue, the sealant washes off rim beds easily with water. It uses Kevlar fibres to plug any nicks in the tyre, so forget puncture-proof – this stuff might just make your tyres bulletproof.…

On 14th April 1996 the eyes of the cycling world were fixed on Roubaix for the finish of the 94th edition of the Queen of the Classics. With 80km to go, a trio of riders left the peloton behind and struck out for victory. Their names were Andrea Tafi, Gianluca Bortolami and Johan Museeuw. It was a daring move, but the three men laying everything on the line with 11 sectors of cobbles and nearly a third of the race still to go had more in common than just their boldness. They all wore the brightly coloured jersey of the Mapei team. The trio worked together, and when Museeuw punctured the other two waited, obeying team orders. They powered over the cobbles and entered the famous Roubaix Velodrome together. The…

1 RAPHA CARTES DU TOUR BOOK £40, rapha.cc If, according to cycling philosopher Paul Fournel, ‘in life’s orchestra, the bike is the double bass’, that would make the Tour de France the choir, and its race maps a hymnbook to La Grande Boucle. Here, Monsieur Fournel curates a glorious collection of Tour maps from 1903 to present day. 2 JOYSTICK ANALOG BAR TAPE £31.99, greenoversports.com Never judge a book by its cover. Take Britain’s Trident nuclear missile programme: the trigger button looks like a 1990s PC joystick and the launch system is a variant of Windows XP, nicknamed ‘Windows for Submarines’, yet we can all rest assured its £5.56bn cost per year is money been well spent. Similarly, Joystick Analog tape may look basic, and costs only a few quid,…

To download this route, visit cyclist.co.uk/78mallorca. Beginning in Caimari, head south to Selva and Llosetta, before swinging back toward the north for the town of Alaro. From there, follow the quiet roads of the Ma2020 toward S’Esgleieta, where the route turns north for Valldemossa. Follow the coastal road to Deia and Soller, then up the Puig Major. From the summit, descend to the reservoir along the Ma10 and look out for a sharp left turn towards the Coll de Reis. Descend to Sa Calobra and climb back up, before following the Ma10 again to Lluc and the descent back down to Caimari.…

Roger De Vlaeminck is wary of the sun. It is mid-afternoon in early July and over 30°C when Cyclist asks the man also known to the cycling world as Monsieur Paris-Roubaix to pose for photographs in his garden. As butterflies flit among the lavender, De Vlaeminck removes the cap that shades his face only briefly, and only when prompted by our photographer. His wariness is a legacy of years spent riding under merciless Mediterranean skies, wearing only a casquette as protection from the sun’s glare. As we head to the shade of trees to offer him a little respite, his dogs, Aiko and Snoopy, prowl the perimeter of the garden. Earlier Aiko had greeted us at the gate growling and snarling, the perfect protector of his master, before being quickly…

Racing the Condor Italia RC in northern Italy couldn’t be more appropriate. Not only is the bike returning to its birthplace, with Condor’s factory just a short hop down the road in Vicenza, but it’s exactly the kind of event the bike was built for. The RC stands for ‘race competition’ so makes no secret of the fact this bike was intended to be put through its paces with a number pinned on your jersey. And it didn’t disappoint. The 7000 series alloy triple-butted frame might not be the lightest at a claimed 1,600g, but it stands resolutely firm in every situation, helping it to retain a snappy feel. The wheels also helped a lot in this regard – Hunt’s Team 45 carbon wheels shod with Vittoria Corsa 25mm tubs…

‘If you don’t master manufacturing, you don’t grow. If you’re just a designer and sending some drawings to a company you’re hardly involved with, you lose your soul and lose the reason you are…’ So said Jean-Claude Chrétien, general manager of French bicycle manufacturer Look and part-time philosopher, when Cyclist visited the company’s frame manufacturing plant in Tunisia back in 2015. It’s a sentiment that comes to mind on Cyclist’s latest visit to Look, this time at its headquarters in Nevers, a commune in central France. We’re here to discover the embodiment of that mastery of manufacturing – the historic bikes from Look’s collection that reveal the development of the brand and demonstrate its commitment to innovation. Many of the bikes are beautiful, some are baffling, but all of them…

With a hatful of Paris-Roubaix podiums to its name, the R3 proved to be an ideal fit over the mixed terrain and road surfaces of the rural Marche. Despite selling itself as a light, stiff race bike, the R3 was supple enough to tackle the lumps and bumps of the strade bianche , helped by the addition of 28mm tyres. It handled itself well (in truth, better than the organic lump sitting on top of it) and felt slick on the flat and nimble on the hills. Precise cornering was reassuring on roads that were frequently off camber and riddled with cracks. In the absence of Frankie the macaw, the Cervélo R3 turned out to be the best partner I could have hoped for on a long…

Cyclist: You’ve won the Transcontinental three times, plus the 9,200km Red Bull Trans-Siberian Extreme. What’s the attraction of ultra-distance racing? Kristof Allegaert: I love riding on my own and having to do everything by myself. You never know where the next stop will be or where you’ll be able to get food or shelter. In conventional racing you can sit in the bunch and then sprint for the line. With ultra-racing the mental element is much stronger. Cyc: How much of it is responding to the actions of the other riders and how much of it is a personal test? KA: For me, it’s personal. If you check social media every five minutes you can get a picture of what’s going on, especially with every rider carrying a…

Why is it that you can be a size nine in one brand of shoe, but a size 10 in another? And why isn’t there a standardised sizing system to tell us whether or not a shoe will fit before we try it on? It’s a similar quandary for bicycles. Not only do brands have different ways of sizing frames, but the most common method isn’t particularly effective at indicating whether a bike will fit or not. Traditionally, frames are sized by the length of the seat tube, usually measured from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the tube itself. As with shoes, this figure is little more than an arbitrary number, so most bike manufacturers also provide a lot more detailed sizing information, packaged up…

Orro is a UK brand that’s done a sterling job of establishing itself among the big boys in the endurance market. One reason for its success is that the Di2-equipped Orro Gold, complete with carbon wheelset and hand-painted carbon frame, represents fantastic value at a penny under £4,300. And it isn’t just a bike for the fiscally minded. The Orro combines a comfortable ride with plenty of agility. It held speed well on descents, aided by the deep section carbon Fulcrum Racing Quattro wheels, and although it didn’t corner as sharply as some of the stiffest race bikes on the market the handling was predictable and the frame filtered out the worst of the road imperfections that might often unsettle a speedy descent. It isn’t the lightest bike on the…

The Émonda ALR 6 is literally a carbon copy. Made from hydroformed aluminium, it aims to mimic the performance of Trek’s top-end race-ready carbon rigs of the same name. With invisible weld technology you could easily be duped into thinking it was carbon, especially in this anodised black finish. It’s Trek’s lightest aluminium frame and, paired with 50mm Bontrager Aeolus 5 Comp wheels and a Shimano Ultegra groupset, it proved to be the perfect companion for crit racing. The frame’s stiffness was perceptible (and appreciated) up that 400m climb and during the innumerable accelerations and surges in pace. It handled adeptly too, feeling planted through tricky high-speed corners and sticking resolutely to line choices while being nimble enough to make a last-minute switch to navigate its…

Sheffield’s association with steel dates back to 1740, when Benjamin Huntsman discovered a method of producing a higher-quality metal than was available at the time. Then in the mid-19th century Henry Bessemer further cemented the city’s position at the heart of industrial Britain when he found a way of producing steel quicker and cheaper with the invention of the Bessemer Converter, a huge belching horror of a machine. Stamped on everything from cutlery to factory machinery, the words ‘Made in Sheffield’ would become a mark of quality recognised and exported around the world. The city’s steel industries made it a key component in the nation’s defence during both World Wars, when it was the target of extensive German bombing. Post-war, the 1950s and 60s saw the city steadily transformed through…

When I was younger, I used to play a lot of cricket. Whenever the pitch was predictable and consistent, and therefore easy for the batting side, the term ‘flat-track bully’ was given by exasperated bowlers to a particular type of batsman who only tended to play well in such benign conditions. Orbea’s new Orca Aero is a flat-track bully. My first couple of rides on it involved laps of London’s Regent’s Park, where the roads are smooth and almost pancake-flat. In those conditions, I doubt many of its competitors could score as many runs as this bike. That’s a bold statement to make considering this is the Basque brand’s first true foray into aerodynamic design. But in a way, being late to the game has given Orbea an advantage over…

We first saw the Tifosi Mons in 2017, when it was showcased as the lightest production bike in the world, with a total weight of only 4.91kg. That version cost £9,000, and was bedecked with AX Lightness wheels, super-light EEcycleworks brakes and a Fibre Lyte chainring that cost about the same as a second-hand car. The frame was the keystone of the project, though. ‘The Mons was this little sketchbook project of mine,’ says Josh Lambert, Tifosi’s technical specialist. The bike became a sort of skunkworks project where the team at Tifosi could experiment with the limits of their designs and their production partners’ capability. ‘When I first pitched it, our directors said it wasn’t really a priority but it fits with where we want to go,’ Lambert continues. Tifosi…

There will be a time – not long after Sir Gary Verity is elected UCI President, no doubt – when every pro cycling race takes place in Yorkshire. It’s inevitable. Not content with a Tour de France Grand Départ, its own four-day race, and the 2019 World Championships, it now seems that Yorkshire hopes to host the start of the Vuelta a España. By ’eck! Ay caramba! As well as offering a suitcase of cash to race organisers, it’s traditional for potential suitors to highlight the many ways in which their city or region would be perfect to host a depart. So how will Sir Gary persuade Spain’s greatest race that it will feel right at home in God’s Own Country? Yorkshire’s relationship with Spain dates back to Roman times…