Table of contents for January 2016 in Cyclist

Outside of the pro ranks only a small portion of riders look for all-out performance in their cycling shoes. Shimano caters for these watt-watchers with its R321 and R171 shoes, but is updating its offerings for the vast majority of other riders – cyclists who don’t mind ceding a small amount of efficiency in exchange for a lot of extra comfort. ‘RP stands for Road Performance, which we have adapted from our Road Competition range,’ says Brodie Gardias, brand manager at Shimano. ‘We include more padding for comfort but still use excellent upper materials and high-performance outsoles to maintain pedalling efficiency.’ The RP9’s clean aesthetic is a definite departure from Shimano’s fussier-looking race shoes, but the tech inside is remarkably consistent. Like the R321, they feature heat-mouldable uppers and insoles,…

The Airnet isn’t just a helmet – it’s a design paradox. Somehow Specialized has managed to create a new lid that is at once modern yet wonderfully old school, reminiscent of the ‘hairnet’ helmets riders sported in the 1970s and 80s but with a contemporary, aero twist. ‘The Airnet was wind-tunnel engineered and tested,’ says Specialized’s Justin Sullivan. ‘It’s based on the S-Works Evade shape but we’ve added more vents. So the Evade is still fastest – 25 seconds quicker over 40km – but the Airnet is now second of our top three road helmets, 21 seconds faster than the S-Works Prevail.’ It’s also a full £60 cheaper than the Prevail and Evade, which makes it something of a bargain in Cyclist’s eyes, yet comes with expensive trimmings such as…

Look at Chris Froome. Look at him. His body seems like it’s made from drinking straws with an orange on top. But look how fast he rides uphill. Faster than most of us can achieve on the flat, so if only we could be as thin as Chris Froome, we too could ride like a Tour champion. Or could we? ‘Lighter is faster, that’s true, but only when there’s no decline in power output,’ says Greg Whyte, professor of applied sport and exercise science at Liverpool John Moores University. ‘If losing weight means stripping power then any advantage is likely to be lost.’ Appropriately, given that we are talking about riding something that starts out with stabilisers, the key here is balance. ‘There are two aspects to finding the right…

1 VELOCITYLIGHT £49.99, velocitylight.com No one needs to see your speed displayed on your rear light, but frankly, my dears, we don’t give a damn. Showing off your kmh is clean, wholesome fun, and should you require something serious, it also functions as a 180-lumen rear light and brake light, automatically brightening as you slow down. 2 SVELTE ARMWARMERS £20, svelte.co.uk Add a bit of style to your python’s wardrobe this winter with Svelte’s new form fitting, fleece-lined snake suits, available in a range of natty patterns and prints. Happily, they also make excellent armwarmers for flamboyant cyclists too. 3 WHEELS MFG BOTTOM BRACKETS from £59.99, madison.co.uk Unless you’re a haunted door or a thirsty dingo, no one likes a creak, so the good folks at Wheels Manufacturing have developed…

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/43spain. From La Joya hotel on the AL-5106 ride south towards and through Agua Amarga. Continue to Carboneras and follow signs for Mojácar until returning to the coast. Follow the coastal road (AL-5107) for 20km into Mojácar Playa. Reaching a roundabout with a large fountain, take the second exit onto the Avenida de Andalucia, then take the first exit on a large roundabout towards Los Gallardos. Continue along the N-340a, looking out for a left turn signposted for Bedar. Continue for 20km until reaching a T-junction, turn left and continue until the town of Pilar, where the road forks – stay left. Reaching the main N-340a road, take a sharp left and take the first right onto the A-1102. Continue for 15km looking out…

There was a time when the calendar didn’t impinge on athletes’ diets, just as long as there was enough pasta to go round. ‘The International Olympic Committee’s nutritional advice for years used to be that athletes should consume huge amounts of carbohydrates all the time,’ says John Hawley, professor of exercise metabolism at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. ‘Now we look back and say, “What were we thinking?”’ Like an increasing number of experts in professional sport, Hawley’s an advocate of ‘periodising’ your nutrition – adjusting the quantity and composition of your food intake according to the training demands of the time of year. Sports scientists have created numerous models for slicing your annual training into chunks to peak for specific events, but the original is the ‘traditional periodisation’…

With La Pina being so engrained with the Pinarello brand, it would have been unthinkable to do the ride on any other bike. The K8-S is Pinarello’s Classics bike, meaning it shares many of the attributes of its top-end Dogma F8 race bike, but with additional road-smoothing comfort in the form of a seatstaybased suspension unit. The damping effect made the frame truly comfortable, yet the bike was still stiff and responsive enough to keep things exciting on the descents. The Dura-Ace Di2 groupset performed flawlessly, as expected, and a set of Fulcrum Racing Zero wheels contributed to a low overall weight that was a blessing on some of La Pina’s brutal climbs. I couldn’t have wished for a better bike on which to tackle the course.…

THE SPEC Model Giant TCR Advanced Pro 0 Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 Deviations KMC X11 SL Chain Wheels Giant SLR 0 WheelSystem Finishing kit Giant Contact SL barsand stem, Giant VariantComposite seatpost, GiantContact SL Forward saddle Weight 6.65kg (55.5cm) Price £3,799 Contact giant-bicycles.com Established in 1989, Once (pronounced ‘Onsay’) was an interesting cycling team for two reasons. Not only was it title-sponsored by a charity (Once is a Spanish foundation for the visually impaired), it was also one of the first teams to be managed by someone other than an ex-pro, a chap by the name of Manolo Saiz, who prior to Once cut his teeth coaching visually impaired tandem cyclists. Saiz was a trailblazer for innovative coaching techniques, which allegedly included having riders only training on their time-trial…

If you haven’t heard of graphene, where have you been? It’s the new miracle material that’s 30 times stronger than carbon fibre, 200 times lighter than steel, a better light source than LED and three times tastier than caviar. Well, the last one is just speculation, but graphene does promise to be the wonder stuff of the future, and Vittoria is the first cycling brand to get it into a finished product with the grapheneinfused G+ Isotech tyre compound. Vittoria claims the graphene layer in its tyres, which is just 2-8 atoms thick, gives the tyres less rolling resistance and greater puncture protection. Graphene is also ‘intelligent’ – when rolling along a straight it’s claimed the graphene hardens to reduce rolling resistance, while in a corner or under pressure while…

The countdown begins. 3,2,1… I let go of the brakes as Cyclist’s editorial assistant, Sam, who is holding me upright, releases his grip on the saddle. The bike begins to creep forwards on the gentle slope. I’m not allowed to pedal, so focus all my attention on not wobbling or going off line. I hold the bike steady and begin to feel the speed pick up under the gradual effect of gravity. By the time I pass the electronic chip timer 100m further down the road, I’m travelling at around 20kmh. ‘One down, 29 to go,’ I hear Sam shout. Our experiment has begun. Until quite recently it was standard procedure for most cyclists to pump their skinny road tyres to eye-wateringly high pressures, believing it would translate to more…

The details Sign up for much more than just a sportive What La Pina Cycling Marathon Where Treviso, Italy How far 114km or 158km Next one 10th July 2016 Price €60 (€50 the day before) includes free race jersey More information lapinarello.com It’s 19 years since Pinarello held its first cycling marathon in Treviso in northern Italy, and in that time the event has become more than a granfondo. La Pina has grown into a festival of cycling, taking up a full weekend in July and involving 3,500 participants. But despite its size it remains at heart a family affair. Fausto Pinarello, current boss of the company and son of founder Giovanni, leads out Saturday’s warm-up ride and shows visitors around the factory. Later his sister, Carla, hands…

THE SPEC ModelPretorius Outeniqua GroupsetCampagnolo Chorus Deviations None WheelsCurve 38mm carbonclinchers on Chris King R45 Finishing kitDeda Superleggerocarbon bars and stem,Deda Superzero carbonseatpost, Selle Italia SLRKit Carbonio saddle Weight7.3kg (size large) Price£2,250 (frameset includingheadset), approx £5,500as tested Contact pretoriusbikes.com Something occurred to me as I began testing the beautifully turned-out Outeniqua from Pretorius Bikes: simply that there has been a fair number of titanium bikes passing through the Cyclist office recently. A flick through recent issues of the magazine reveals a handful of classy ti builds from the likes of Moots, Lynskey, Festka and Legend. Admittedly, the latter two were hybrids of carbon and titanium, but it got me thinking that the attitudes of framebuilders towards this premium metal has evolved considerably. There was a time when titanium…

THE SPEC Model Sarto Lampo Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 Deviations None Wheels Spin K2 Koppenberg Finishing kit Deda 35 alloy bars and stem, Sarto Lampo seatpost, Forza Cirrus Pro saddle Weight 7.37kg (55cm) Price £3,400 (frameset), approx £6,000 as tested Contact impactct.co.uk There’s a distinct parallel between bicycles and suits: they’re expensive; they’re described by an impenetrable vernacular; your dad told you you’d grow into your first one (you never did); and above all else, the best ones are bespoke. Take the Dormeuil Vanquish II suit, for example. It’s made from vicuna, pashmina and qiviuk fibres, the last of which are spun from the secondary undercoat of the muskox, and is entirely made to measure. Or the Sarto Lampo bicycle, made from Japanese M46J carbon fibre, with Isoflow…

THE DETAILS Weight 1,583g pair (702g front, 881g rear) Rim depth 55mm Rim width 28mm (external), 19mm (internal) Spoke count 16 front, 20 rear Price £2,400 Contact silverfish-uk.com I first rode these wheels at their launch back in June 2013 and they made such an impression that I was eager to get hold of a pair for a full Cyclist test. It was a long wait. Full-blown production and shipping started earlier this year, and they’re only just starting to arrive in the UK. That first ride on the Aero 55s was in the Dolomites, spanning a day that provided scorching sun at the foot of the mountains and blizzarding snow at the top. There were teeth-grinding climbs and hair-raising descents, drawn out drags and even a crash (not…

‘Especially in winter it is important to get out and ride. To keep up the shape also during these cold months is very difficult without the right gear,’ says Adidas. We couldn’t have put it better in more stilted German/English ourselves. That ‘right gear’ is Adidas’s latest jacket and bibtight ensemble, which employs the Climaheat technology found in its running gear. The Rompighiaccio sounds like a new type of Bavarian cheese but is actually a racily cut, medium-weight jacket that contains hollow fibres to insulate without bulk. Adidas claims Climaheat is excellent at wicking moisture, the result being you’re kept at the optimum temperature. The fit is excellent, and snug thanks to a high collar and dual-layer cuffs that offer a no-draught interface between sleeves and gloves. Downstairs the Belgements…

If you’re in the market for a set of fancy wheels but are looking for something that stands out from the crowd, Industry Nine’s i25s could be just the ticket. High-quality aluminium wheels still have a firm place amid a sea of carbon, especially if you want a tough, durable set of hoops with reliable rim braking performance in all weathers (although Industry Nine does also offer carbon rim builds too). These i25 wheels are entirely handbuilt and weigh just over 1,500g a pair, plus they are tubeless ready. With a vast range of anodised colour combinations on offer, you can get creative to personalise your ride too. The hubs are Industry Nine’s own design and offer a unique aesthetic with their concealed straight-pull spoking (20 front and 24 rear)…

The Gore-Tex empire is built on a very simple concept: jackets should be waterproof but breathable. Its PTFE membrane consists of nine billion pores per square inch, each 1/20,000 the size of a water droplet. This prevents rain from entering but allows sweat vapour to escape. For £220 you want attention to detail and the Oxygen 2.0 delivers this with zipped sleeves that provide a tight fit but also makes it easy to put on. An extended tail keeps you dry from spray and stops the jacket from riding up when you go into your tightest aero tuck. Both the waterproofing and extended tail have evolved from the original Giro jacket in 1985.…

Age: 55 Nationality: British Recent teams (managerial): 2015 Tinkoff-Saxo 2014 NFTO 2010-12 Team Sky 2008-09 Astana Honours (as a rider): 1992 National Road Race Championships 1988 Stage winner, Tour de France 1988 Stage winner, Vuelta a Espana Cyclist: You became Britain’s fifth Tour de France stage-winner when you took victory in the time-trial on Stage 6 in 1988. What are your memories of that day? Sean Yates: Waiting around forever. Wondering if I’d get beaten or not. That’s the main thing. After winning a stage at the Tour you can say you’ve made it. But the idea that your name is forever in the record books of a race everybody in the world knows about doesn’t really sink in. Only later do you realise, shit, yeah, I’m up there…

Mark Cavendish and Lewis Hamilton have a lot in common. Both are current or former World Champions, both have been the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and both make their living from racing at high speeds. But the similarities come to an abrupt end during their post-race interviews. While Hamilton is as eloquent as a potato as he tries to make driving around in circles sound interesting, Cavendish is almost poetic as he describes the lead out train that delivered him to another sprint victory. But even if you had the sound turned down, you’d still spot the chasm in style between them. It’s all in the headwear. Hamilton’s oversized baseball cap reeks of bling and insecurity, while Cav’s cycling cap embodies grace and simplicity. A baseball cap is…

It’s blowing hard in Andalusia. The whitewashed fishing town of Agua Amarga is being battered by coastal winds. The azure blue sea is roaring violently and palm trees threaten to rip clear of their roots. Anywhere else in the world I might be tempted to spend the day beneath a solid roof, but these roads are too alluring, and this landscape too stunning to pass up. This region isn’t the first that comes to mind when you put cycling and Spain together. The Vuelta a Espana has rarely, if ever, come here. It lacks the high peaks of the nearby Sierra Nevada or the green forests of the country’s more northerly provinces. A geological history of volcanic activity has given the region a jagged and undulating rocky terrain, both beautiful…

Traditionalists will spit cake crumbs across the cafe at the mention of suspension on road bikes. They’re only just recovering from choking on their tea over wide tyres and disc brakes, and the idea of added suspension seems like another step closer to turning road bikes into mountain bikes. The only way the sceptics will be won over is if bike manufacturers can convince us that their innovations will provide real improvements in performance for us all. Pinarello’s new K8-S, with a suspension unit at the top of the seatstays, has become the ride of choice for Team Sky at the cobbled Classics, but most of us aren’t racing over the jagged roads of Roubaix. Shock absorbers are less necessary for the average Sunday club run, so will suspension bikes…

Recently a debate broke out on the Cyclist Facebook page: Is mass-producing bikes in Asia good for the consumer? Well the Giant, Sarto and Pretorius might help shed some light on the matter. Giant produces millions of bikes in Taiwan, Sarto manufactures thousands by hand in Italy, and Pretorius designs in the UK and has hundreds made in Asia. Prices vary across the three, but they’re all highly accomplished in their own way, which goes to show it’s not where you’re from but who you are that counts. Hang on, I thought we were talking about bikes……