Table of contents for December 2019 in Cycling Plus

It’s pretty easy in this job to have your head turned by the sort of two wheeled exotica that passes through our office and costs north of £10,000. It can also start to become a new kind of normal: of course, a decent bike starts at £8000, I mean, you’ve got to have Dura-Ace, haven’t you? So it was heartening this month when a tester as experienced as our Simon started coming into the office singing the praises of the bikes priced from £400-£800 in this issue’s main test. Not only do you not have to spend £8000 to get a serious road bike, these days you don’t even need to spend £1000! SUBSCRIBE! NEW SUBSCRIBERS TO CYCLING PLUS CAN GET A LUSSO DRYLINE BASE LAYER WORTH £32.50 ALREADY A…

£2000 Superbly equipped racer from Decathlon These days a £2000 road bike typically comes with a carbon frame, Shimano 105 and own-brand wheels. Van Rysel’s RR 920 CF ups the ante a little here by speccing a set of the now-defunct Mavic Cosmic Pro Carbons. When it was available, this was a £989 wheelset, the Ultegra groupset has a £1099.99 RRP, factor in a 7.61kg weight and this Van Rysel’s use by the AG2R La Mondiale under 19 team and you’ve got what looks like a bona fide, stone-cold, road-biking bargain. As for the name, Van Rysel is the brand Decathlon uses for its racier bikes. And this certainly is every millimetre the race bike. The Flanders-designed and -tested RR920 is a flyer. It gobbles up miles on the flat,…

THE BIG PICTURE We thought the Taiwan KOM, which sees riders climb from sea level to 3275m, took hill climbing season to ridiculous levels, but then Marcus Leach pitched us the Bob Cook Memorial Mount Evans Hill Climb in Colorado. This event begins at an altitude (2298m) that’s not far off the height of European giant the Col d’Izoard, and then carries on skywards for 44km before topping out at a faint-inducing 4308m. Marcus lived to tell the tale, which you can read in next issue’s Big Ride.…

01 GALIBIER CAMPIONISSIMO II LUXURY MITT£25 These classic-looking mitts are made using finely perforated real leather (goatskin, in fact) with ribbing details and a press stud cuff. The palm is lightly padded but the idea is that they will mould and conform to your hand shape naturally. At £25 these mitts are very well priced for the quality. 02 VELOSKIN CHAMOIS CREAM £14 ‘Learn to love the saddle, not resent it’ is one of the slogans of VeloSkin, the Halifax-based company that creates a range of skincare products to help cyclists minimise the impact of the unpredictable British weather. VeloSkin describes this chamois cream as its ‘hero- product’. Active ingredients include shea butter, cocoa butter and soy wax, as well as the oils from coconut, jojoba, raspberry seed, argon, cucumber,…

Harrogate got its name in lights in September as host of all the races through the week-long UCI Road World Championships. The torrential weather will have taken a hit to the expected millions lining the road side and those visiting the city throughout the week, but such conditions will likely have meant more visitors to its cafes as punters sought shelter. That was the case for our photographer Joe Branston, who spent several days at the Worlds capturing the atmosphere on the ground (you can see Joe’s work in this issue’s supplement). Time and again during the event, Joe found himself back in Prologue, drying out, topping up his caffeine levels and watching bike racing. Live racing here wasn’t just a Worlds novelty. Every race of note throughout the season…

TRIBAN RC120 DISC £399 The rim-braked Triban RC120 is one of my favourite budget bikes, overcoming its modest price to deliver a fine all-round performance. Can the disc-braked version be its equal? The 6061 aluminium frame comes with a rarely seen Microshift 8-speed groupset, Promax cable disc brakes and 28mm tyres on tubeless-ready rims, which is great to see on a budget bike. VITUS RAZOR CLARIS £499.99 This costs just £400 from Wiggle as we go to press, which makes it even more appealing. I’ve tested a more expensively equipped Razor and liked it, but does the triple-butted 6061 frame deliver the same performance with 8-speed Shimano Claris and a Prowheel chainset? The brakes are from Tektro and the tyres 28mm Zaffiro, all typical kit on a bike at this…

We’ve listed the PR7 at £650 but it presently has 27 per cent off and could be yours for £475. Perhaps even more impressively, Preston’s longstanding online outfit is also offering the PR7 ‘Road Bike Starter Kit’ with Shimano Claris for £439 – down from £699. That will nab you Shimano shoes, pedals – Look Keo or Shimano – helmet and even a seatpack with tools. If you’re looking to dip your toes into the world of road riding for the first time, and especially if your employer is registered with a Cycle to Work scheme, what Merlin describes as a ‘simple, reliable road bike’ looks like it could be a great place to start, regardless of its spec. The PR7 features a triple-butted 6061 aluminium frame (1) and a…

Carrera Virago has a 1.1kg Taiwanese-made frame and full-carbon fork and it comes with a Shimano Sora groupset Trickle-down economics may not have benefitted the wider world generally, but when it comes to budget road bikes it does seem to have worked in our favour. All of these have inherited qualities from more expensive bikes, which means five bikes that we’d happily recommend, although they will suit different types of riders. Merlin’s RP7 is a racy little number and some of us would appreciate – or need – lower gears, but’s it’s a fine, fleet-of-foot, fast-handling bike with a near-complete Shimano Sora groupset. Vitus’s Razor Claris has a lot of the same qualities though with a less-aggressive leaning to it, more distance-than performance-focused with wider tyres contributing to a comfortable…

£245 The fourth dimension Mavic’s Comete Ultimate helmet has sharp styling, subtle tone-on-tone graphics and some neat features. At £245, it’s not cheap, but it does offer MIPS for only £20 more than the standard Comete Ultimate Our example weighs 282g in large 57-61cm size. It’s constructed from EPS-4D foam, which was developed by Mavic’s sister company, Salomon, for use in ski helmets. It’s said to have up to 30 per cent greater shock absorption than EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam. Unlike standard EPS, EPS-4D has numerous individually moulded internal blocks that can react and deform independently to minimise the effects of vertical or angled impacts. It works in conjunction with the MIPS liner, which has corresponding memory foam pads, to reduce rotational forces on the brain. It has a wraparound…

£169.99 S-Phyre-alike? Replacing our old favourite RP7 shoes, Shimano’s new RC7 bears a resemblance to the range-topping S-Phyre RC9. But is the RC7 an S-Phyre on a budget? Coming in at a whopping £150 cheaper than its big brother, the RC7 makes a sound start. Our size 45 pair, at 541g, only weighs one gram more than the equivalent RC9. Its size range favours larger feet, coming in sizes 38-50, or 42-50 in a wide fit, rather than the S-Phyre’s 36-48. Shimano’s Dynalast is the basis for a superbly ergonomic shoe and is founded on a light carbon fibre composite sole with generous rubber bumpers integrated in the toe and heel. The RC7’s upper is of more traditional construction than the stretch-free, microfibre uppers of the RC9. The RC7 has…

The majority of today’s titanium bikes are made from 3Al-2.5V titanium: that's titanium alloyed with 3 per cent aluminium and 2.5 per cent vanadium. Not this Reilly. The T640 is made with 3Al-2.5V’s tougher 6Al-4V big brother. This is more commonly used for bottom bracket sleeves and braze-ons as it’s both strong and easy to machine. However, 6Al-4V is harder to draw into the more complicated world of bicycle tubes. That hasn’t stopped Mark Reilly, who learnt his frame-making trade at Omega and Enigma and first developed 6Al-4V tubing back in the 1990s. Reilly Cycleworks claims the resulting frame is ‘staggeringly stiff but supremely comfortable’. The tubes are cold-worked and stress-relieved and made with ‘extra-low interstitial gas purity’, allowing Reilly to ‘butt and shape its seamless tubes to the much…

Detones have nestled on the supplementary fringes for years. But that changed at this year’s Tour de France where a reported seven teams used them, including Jumbo-Visma and Deceuninck-QuickStep. Are ketones about to become as commonplace as energy gels? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. QuickStep nutritionist Peter Hespel, who presented on the subject, is all too aware of the science of ketones and their mooted benefits to cycling performance. “Ketones are an energy source produced by the liver during fasting or periods of low carbohydrate intake,” explains Hespel. “All of us have a level of ketones in our blood at all times but at a very low level.” Which is where extraneous ketones come in. This is a drink that elevates the rider’s ketone levels and, in theory, spares…

It’s not a case of can’t, it’s more a matter of your tools not being specific to the job, or not having the confidence or knowledge to try. However, if you ride your bike a lot and you don’t clean it as frequently as you ought to, you’ll wear it out faster. Or, if you want to clean your bike more thoroughly, this is a good way to get into the bits you can’t normally reach. Maybe you want to switch to different gearing for a specific event – all of these reasons will necessitate your cassette and chain coming off. It’s worth having a cassette tool, chain whip and chain tool in your collection for all of the above reasons. You don’t need the top-spec tools that can cost…

THEN 15ST 4LB (97.7KG) NOW 11ST 4LB (72.3KG) WHY DID YOU NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT? “I’m a policeman and I was working shifts, including some nights, and I was constantly snacking. I really couldn’t be bothered to do any exercise. As a team, we would often go for a drink after work and even if we didn’t go out I would drink beer at home most evenings. The combination of all of these things made me balloon up over a period of about five years.” WHAT CHANGES DID YOU MAKE TO YOUR DIET? “First off, I stopped drinking alcohol during the week and I took a packed lunch to work. I would intentionally come to work without any cash or my debit card so that I couldn’t buy any more…

DISTANCE 161km TOTAL ELEVATION 2000m GRADE Hard: no shortage of climbs, and any 100-miler is challenging GETTING THERE Several airlines offer regular flights between London and Tel Aviv, including budget carriers, so getting there won’t break the bank. Return flights with EasyJet from Gatwick airport cost around L160. WHERE TO STAY We stayed in the Isrotel Dead Sea Hotel (isrotel.com). Rooms are pricy, at around $260 per night for a double, but this includes an extensive buffet breakfast and access to the spa, where you can float in heated Dead Sea water, if the temperature outside doesn’t appeal. GRAN FONDO ARAVA Events such as the Gran Fondo Arava offer access to riders who are happy to improvise, rough it, or throw money at the situation. The Israeli desert is not particularly well…

At just 833g for the frame and 370g for the fork the basis of the OMX is, without doubt, a light one… £7899 An everyday superbike? The new Orca OMX is a big departure from the brand’s Orca OMR. Gone are the traditional two-triangle frame shape, slender rounds tubes and rim-braked options in favour of aero-optimised tube profiles, dropped rear stays, disc-brake only design and integrated features throughout. What Orbea hasn’t compromised on, however, is the weight. At just 833g for the frame and 370g for the fork the basis of the OMX is, without doubt, a light one. Our complete 57cm test bike weighed in at 7.5kg with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, carbon Mavic wheels and (mostly dedicated own-brand) carbon components. The OMX does look, at first glance, incredibly similar…

JOHN WHITNEY: I got to thinking about this subject after cheating came to eRacing. Cameron Jeffers was stripped of the inaugural British Cycling eRacing Championship in October after using a ‘bot’ to ride at 2000 watts to climb the necessary altitude to win the ‘Tron’ bike, the fastest on the game, which he then used at the national finals. He admitted to his error, but that’s not a common theme in professional cycling. When a rider gets busted, many go to extraordinary lengths to explain away their transgression. Let’s talk about our favourites… PAUL ROBSON: It’s easy to see a failed test for cocaine, especially when it’s a classy rider, as a sign of off-bike excess rather than on-bike skulduggery but apparently it can be used as a masking agent…

This Triban is the sibling of the rim-braked RC120 I tested recently and rated very highly indeed. The RC120 Disc adds – not too surprisingly – discs, in the form of Promax cable-actuated brakes. This was originally £419 but is now a penny under £400. Triban bikes are sold by the French sports supermarket chain Decathlon. Decathlon’s bikes used to be branded as B’Twin – now its more entry-level bikes bear the Triban name while its higher-end machines sport the Van Rysel moniker and logo. Both brands’ bikes are designed and tested in Flanders, a little Flanders Lion-adorned frame label tells you so. Not so very long ago budget bikes were often hampered by their gearing, not so much by the number of gears (my first ‘proper’ bike had a…

At the tail-end of the millennium, I competed (with no distinction) in the British National duathlon championships on a GT Blade Edge Aero, although that lack of success was not down to the bike. Apart from having a decent cyclist in the saddle, that late 90s Aero Edge was also missing GT’s ‘iconic’ (GT’s word) triple triangle (1). It is present on its 2020 entry-level GTR Sport, a budget-friendly bike that combines a dropped handlebar, fullcarbon tapered fork and cable disc brakes. The claim about the triple triangle’s ‘notoriety’ (GT, again) is that by shrinking the rear triangle and welding reinforced seatstays to the seat tube on their way to the top tube, it would ‘help reduce unwanted lateral frame flex and improve acceleration’. However, on its GTR Sport the…

£349 3D printed custom-fitted lid British start-up Hexr has an innovative approach to helmet manufacturing. Jamie Cook, former University of Oxford PhD student and founder and CEO of Hexr, argues that the polystyrene foam used for helmets for the last 40 years isn’t actually the ideal material for helmet design. EPS foam was designed for flat surface packaging, not rounded shapes like heads, suggests Cook; because it’s an insulator it actually hardens on impact. By contrast, the material used by Hexr, Polyamide 11, is a heat conductor with a hexagonal honeycomb structure, so on impact the forces are spread over a wider area and the individual cells of the structure soften, which reduces the peak force. Hexr claims a 68 per cent better impact control than a standard helmet. Polyamide…

£999.98 Climbing-friendly hoops Giant’s components arm will be rebranded Cadex for 2020 and the SLR-1 wheelsystem will continue otherwise unchanged. It’s Giant’s lightweight climbing wheelset for rim brakes and it looks like good value. For two pennies below a grand, you get a pair of 30mm tall carbon rims that are 17mm wide internally and 23mm externally. Its DT Swiss 360 hubs are laced with 16 radial Sapim CX spokes up front and 21 at the rear in a 2:1 pattern with internal locking alloy nipples. In the box is a roll of tubeless tape and a valve for each wheel, quick-release skewers, brake pads, clincher rim tapes and tyre levers. We weighed our set at 1463g, including the clincher rim tape and the tubeless valves. The relatively heavy quick…

Bikes are inherently versatile things that are generally happy to go where we point them. In the past, bikes were designed to be utilitarian with great durability, and could reasonably be ridden over many surfaces, but the evolution of competition and technology has seen the specialisation of bikes to fulfil diverse needs. While that often means that your bike is focused entirely on its designated niche and maximises your potential, it can also create the desire for more bikes. The N+1 culture (Velominati Rule 12 whereby the minimum number of bikes owned should be three and ‘N’ is the current number of bikes owned) is good news for manufacturers, but it does come with practical issues for customers. Using one bike for multiple tasks isn’t new, but there are limits,…

ROB WAKEFIELD LEVEL 3 COACH, PROPELLO.BIKE “Would you buy a £1000 plus suit without making sure it fits properly? Getting a professional bike fit from an experienced fitter is one of the most important steps when buying a new bike, or making sure an existing bike is setup perfectly for you. A good bike fit will leave your bike set up in a way that will improve your overall comfort, prevent injuries, reduce riding fatigue and make you more efficient. If you suffer from pain, numbness or sores when riding, it is highly likely that a bike fit will improve irritations that are often avoidable. As a cyclist you will spend many hours riding your bike, sitting in a static position, repeating movements over and over again. A four-hour ride…

With the main subject of this feature in mind, it’s probably about time your bike could do with a deeper clean than I detailed in the last issue. Whip your drivetrain off like the pro you’re now becoming and bathe it in a tub of your preferred environmentally friendly degreaser. Use an old toothbrush to scrub your chain and your now ‘in-many-pieces’ cassette clean before drying and reinstalling them. A little lube will help them run smooth again. WHIP YOUR DRIVE TRAIN OFF LIKE THE PRO YOU’RE NOW BECOMING Check up on your cables. Do they feel as light and friction free as they should? Apply a little light lube with some penetrating or moisture displacing qualities down the outers at a point where gravity will help, but as always,…

PRICE L9396.83 UPGRADES L14 ON A TYRE SWAP MILES RIDDEN 844 The comfort and practicality of Easton’s design ensures benefit without compromiseROBIN WILMOTT Throughout 2019, this Tarmac has been my personal reset button. Whenever I’m not testing other bikes, the Tarmac offers a calming, refreshing ride that I really appreciate. It’s one of the reasons that I’ve barely altered it since building it over a year ago. I do have plans to update the wheels, not because the Bora One 35 Disc wheelset isn’t good – it’s wonderfully light, taut and quick – but because I want to test Campagnolo’s latest, deeper, tubeless wheels. Once they arrive, the Tarmac will be the obvious home for them, and I’ll be keen to see if the supple ride quality associated with tubeless…

My 2019 Summer of Cycling – make that Summer of Sport – is drawing to a close and it’s been quite the adventure. Whether I’ve been cycling, swimming or running, it’s been a year of constant activity, of pushing my stamina onwards and upwards. I’m already looking forward to the sporting challenges that lie in wait for 2020. There were two big reasons for my busy summer: to raise money for The Samaritans, the charity that helped me and my family when we needed it most following the death of our daughter in 2013, and to improve my own mental health by focusing on the physical. Not everything I’ve taken on this year has come off. In 2017 our youngest daughter challenged me to do my first open water swim,…

Having seen a very youthful Manchester United beaten 3-1 on the opening day of the 1995/96 Premier League season, pundit Alan Hansen famously claimed on Match of the Day that “you can’t win anything with kids”. It was a phrase that dogged him for the rest of his broadcasting career – and even bolstered it, according to Hansen himself – as Alex Ferguson’s team of precocious talents went on to win the league and FA Cup double. Fast forward almost a quarter of a century and professional cycling has experienced something very similar. We’ve seen 22-year-old Egan Bernal become the youngest Tour de France winner since 1909; 19-year-old Remco Evenepoel win the Clasica de San Sebastian, making him the third-youngest victor in history of a one-day Classic; 20-year-old Tadej Pogačar…

The World Championships in Harrogate not only highlighted young talents who are already making waves in the pro peloton, such as new road champion Mads Pedersen and elite time trial runner-up Remco Evenepoel, but also showcased some of the riders who look set to follow in their wheeltracks. Junior road race winner Quinn Simmons is one of the most promising. A very impressive solo winner of his event after finishing fourth in the time trial, the 18-year-old from Colorado is set to follow Evenepoel’s example by leaping straight from the juniors to the elite ranks having signed with Trek-Segafredo. Simmons has been winning races for fun this season, and his performance in Yorkshire underlined why. Strong, aggressive, tactically astute and always looking for opportunities to apply pressure, the American will…

We take our testing very seriously at Cycling Plus. For more than 25 years – an age when disc brakes, Di2 and super-wide 1x gearing weren't even a glint in a designer’s eye – we have been putting road cycling products through their paces. Our test team, led by senior technical editor Warren Rossiter, has nearly a century of riding experience between them in just about every discipline. They can separate the great from the also-rans when it comes to bikes, clothing, accessories – and more. If it gets our seal of approval you can be sure that you’ll be bagging a great buy! Our senior technical editor enjoys a killer ride on the Orbea Orca p14 Five budget beauties that make great bikes for new riders p38 As the…

Mango Point R Tiagra £575 WHAT’S THE STORY? The near logo-free, electric-blue Point R from Northern Ireland-based Mango is a Tiagra-equipped, endurance flavoured road bike with a semi-compact aluminium frame and carbon fork. The cabling’s internally routed and various component upgrades are possible as well as four colour choices. ALL THE GEAR? You can go up to 32mm tyres and it’s good to see rear rack mounts. Bigger tyres will allow you to hit light gravel and load up for commuting. The shallow head angle and long wheelbase make for stable handling. BUT IS IT ANY GOOD? Tiagra gives you more gears than the Voodoo’s Sora, though with a racier range. The rest of the kit is standard stuff for the money: average brakes and basic wheels. An extra £80…

The saddle is one of the key components on any bike and in recent years more technical saddles have arrived on the market. This has led to higher prices with the likes of Selle Italia, Fizik and Prologo all launching models with price tags reaching £400+. So it’s encouraging to see young Italian brand Selle Repente coming out with a range of saddles that hit the tech notes yet don’t cost the earth. This new SPYD 2.0 weighs in at a scant 166g and features a one-piece unidirectional rail made from T700 carbon. The rail is designed to be stiff at the point that it anchors to the seatpost but with the nose and tail sections flattened to create more compliance, adding to the comfort of the saddle. The rail…

It’s not unusual for wheels to cost more than the bikes featured here, which range in price from £400 to a still reasonable £800. For that price tag, you’ll get a widely available bike with a carbon frame and fork. The least expensive bike on test here is Triban’s RC120 Disc, which comes from the same family as the RC120, which I recently awarded top marks. This time around, cable disc brakes accompany a Microshift 8-speed set-up and tubeless-ready wheels, which look like they are arriving en masse in 2020. The Vitus Razor is a £500 bike with 8-speed Shimano Claris, and is currently on sale at Wiggle for a very appealing £400. It’s a similar case for the Merlin PR7, a racy entry-level road bike that’s reduced from £650…

At its present Wiggle price of a tad under £400 there isn’t that much opposition to the Clarisequipped Vitus Razor: Triban’s bikes for sure, several Carrera models and a few Pinnacles from Evans Cycles. Like those brands the Vitus is every inch a ‘proper’ bike too, rather than the rightly derided ‘bikeshaped objects’. It shares a similar frame to the Vitus Razor Sora Disc that we tested recently, both of which have inherited the compact geometry of Vitus’s Carbon Zenium road bike. The frame has the double-butted 6061 aluminium typical of bikes under a grand or so with a carbon-bladed, alloy-steerer-tubed fork (1). The seatstays are narrow for comfort, the chainstays are formed to accommodate wider tyres. We hark on about wider tyres a lot – and with good reason.…

I’ve been saying since I can’t remember when, that the Boardman’s 8.9c is the least expensive carbon bike you can buy on the British high street. Not so fast. For 2019, Halfords’ Carrera brand launched its Virago carbon bike that’s £200 cheaper than the £1000 Boardman. It doesn’t look that elegant on the website pics but looks better in the flesh, the lines clean, the finish attractive and not trying to do too much. Weight is a claimed 1.1kg for the Taiwanese-made frame, which would be a decent achievement on a bike at twice the price. The frame also has a lot of the features familiar from more expensive contemporary road machines – the head tube and fork steerer tube are tapered, the top tube flattens along its length, the…

CHROME MACHETO TRAVEL PACK £160 Carrying capacity The Macheto is a classy looking, adaptable and stuffable travel bag that won’t make you standout in the airport check-in queue. It has two main compartments, both with a zippable organiser cover to keep items from getting mixed up – ideal for keeping dirty kit from clean, or shoes and multi-tool separate from clothing. The outer compartment is expandable and with no rigid structures and compression straps, this allows for over-packed bags to be cinched in. Alongside the main compartments are a couple of smaller, envelope-style waterproof zipped pockets, including one big enough for a 15-inch laptop. The smaller pocket on the front of the bag can be a bit tight for easy access, and larger headphones will struggle to fit in there…

$99.95 Clever alternative to standard mini-pumps Mending a puncture at the roadside is one of cycling’s biggest chores. Mini-pumps that are small enough to pocket or clip to your bike are fine but not great for actually inflating a tyre. Stompump’s biggest claim is that this compact foot-operated unit (it’s just 73mm x 68mm) will inflate a tyre three times faster than a conventional mini-pump. It’s a very well put together product, with the body, foot and pedal top all manufactured from very neatly CNC’d aluminium. Along with the flexible hose, stainless-steel fittings and dual-valve (Presta and Schrader) head, it screams quality throughout and at 185g it’s pretty light. The main plunger has a rubber bung, which when removed, hosts a storage compartment that’s 22mm wide and just over 50mm…

Just as carbon fibre dominates in high-end bikes, high-power, rechargeable LED lights are the bulb of choice for today's bike lights – and for very good reason. Today's bike lights are bright, tough, waterproof, generally easy to use, and versatile, thanks to the numerous modes that give you the correct lighting level for wherever you find yourself. The criteria for our test was to find lighting sets (or a front and rear pair from the same company) costing around £100 and that can be used on unlit streets or tracks, but not specifically off-road. All the front lights come with numerous modes – steady, flashing, strobe, pulsing, ‘breathing’ – and the same is true of the rear lights, two of which also have a brake light-type effect. All of the…

Regular rides or multi-day sportives can take their toll on the muscles, energy levels and mental sharpness if you don’t devote decent time to proper recovery. In professional circles the focus on getting high-quality recuperation ranges from post-ride recovery shakes and masseurs to ice baths and specially formulated mattresses. The ability to rest effectively so that you can get back on the bike within 12 hours of a day-long effort in the saddle and give the same again and again has become as integral to the success of the top teams as technical advances and physiological sports science. Good, effective recuperation with the correct levels of energy replacement and mental and physical rest can be achieved by riders of all standards who learn lessons from those at the elite level.…

Prescription Cycling Glasses – £20 off In need of prescription cycling glasses? Speak to the experts. With over 50 years’ experience, Optilabs make precision lenses for all prescriptions – whether mild or strong. Optilabs have a wide choice of sports frames and lenses and offer a fast turnaround service thanks to their dedicated on-site lens laboratory. £20 off all prices from 8/11/19 to 31/12/19 in the Optilabs winter sale. 020 8686 5708 • optilabs.com Chapeau! Taking inspiration from Dartmoor, Chapeau! have created a collection that’ll see you through the worst of the British winter and through to spring. Quick-drying, lightweight, breathable and natural, the new Etape Merino is a high-performance jersey for the cooler seasons. It’s as perfect under a jacket in winter as it is worn over a base…

Everybody loves cycling during the hot days and light evenings of summer but during the cold, dark months of winter it is tempting to skip training rides and hibernate indoors with a box-set instead. The solution starts with honesty: you’re not a robot or a paid professional cyclist so it is entirely normal for your motivation levels to fluctuate. But by learning a simple mind trick used by Team GB cyclists you will find it much easier to keep your training on track. “Motivation is essentially an emotion that comes from a certain part of your brain and no matter how strongly you want to achieve your goals, that motivation will come and go,” explains triple Olympic team pursuit champion Ed Clancy, who competes on the road for Vitus Pro…

In the last issue we talked about how often you want to be eating on the bike to ensure that you keep energised and fuelled for optimal performance. But which sources of fuel are the most ideal? Our choices include real food such as bananas, jam sandwiches and flapjacks, as well as energy bars, gels and carbohydrate drinks. Ultimately, though, these are divided into the three sections of; solid, semi-solid and liquid. Some great research has been done showing if all three variations contain the same amount of carbs, protein and fat, then the speed at which they are digested is the same. However, the same research shows that the feeling of fullness is always more pronounced with solids. Liquid options vary with low concentrations of around 3-4g carbohydrates per…

I can’t remember how many incarnations of the £1000 Boardman carbon road bike I’ve tested since I went to the launch of the 2009 model at the Manchester Velodrome in 2008. Originally the Team Carbon, this has recently morphed into the more modern-looking SLR 8.9c (for carbon, there’s also an aluminium SLR 8.9a). These widely available bikes have probably introduced more riders to carbon road bikes than any other. That Boardman has kept the price down to a grand a decade after its introduction is one hell of an achievement. But even though I like the bike a lot there are a few changes that will improve it – for me, anyway. That Boardman has kept the price down to a grand is one hell of an achievementSIMON WITHERS I’ve…

The Akrabbim Ascent – the Scorpion’s Pass – lives up to its name I’d been climbing through the desert for almost an hour, gaining 600m vertically. The bike computer read just over 400m in elevation. A GPS malfunction? Desert-inspired hallucinations? Come to think of it, that sign back down the road was telling: half way up the side of the Arava valley in the middle of the Negev desert in southern Israel, I reached a sign declaring ‘sea level’. No sign of water anywhere, let alone at sign level. I’d arrived the day before, glimpsing the lights of Jordan in the distance through the desert dark, as our minibus wove down the twisting road into the Dead Sea valley. Eating breakfast in the lowest place on earth, 430m below sea…

Barring the odd lucrative exhibition race the curtain has come down on the 2019 race season – and what a season it was! It’s hard to remember one as thrilling as this, which in large part was down to the performances of youth and inexperience: Egan Bernal at the Tour de France, Remco Evenepoel at the Clasica de San Sebastian and Mathieu van der Poel at the Amstel Gold Race being three such performances. Peter Cossins ponders how the kids did it on p16. A young rider, Mads Pedersen, was a surprise men’s world champ in Yorkshire, and our photographer Joe Branston was there - take a look at his photo feature on p10. We also hear from Cycling Plus writers (p4) on their best and worst of 2019, while…