Table of contents for August 2015 in Cyclist

£160, bontrager.com When Jens Voigt made history by beating the Hour record, albeit temporarily, for the first time in nearly a decade, aero geeks the world over were captivated by the mysterious lump of aerodynamic polystyrene strapped to his head. The then-unknown helmet has now broken cover, and the Bontrager Ballista is available to the masses. The Ballista promises to save between 3 and 13 watts of power depending on the angle of yaw compared to Bontrager’s conventional road helmet. ‘We see this as an everyday aero helmet,’ says product manager Jason Fryda, ‘We looked at a whole bunch of options in terms of design and settled on three main vents and two moderated vents.’ Temperature control has been as much a part of the design as the aerodynamics, and…

£299.99, tomtom.com Action cams are great for capturing your rides, but trawling through the footage editing your heroic two-hour ascent up the Stelvio Pass is less fun. Luckily, the TomTom Bandit HD camera is here to help. Using its built-in GPS, accelerometer and heart-rate strap compatibility, it tags exciting moments as you record and (via the smartphone app) automatically edits them into a short film. Alternatively, buy a tandem and rent Martin Scorsese for the afternoon.…

£6,122 (as pictured), poshbikes.com It might not be the first name that springs to mind when you think of veteran Italian bicycle brands, but with origins traceable back to 1893, Olympia is actually the second-oldest bicycle maker in Italy after Bianchi (1885), and by our reckoning the third-oldest in the world (Raleigh was founded in 1888). However, with the disc-brake Leader, Olympia is not resting on its vintage laurels. ‘Adding disc brakes to a “conventional” bike only has one benefit – better brakes,’ says Olympia distributor Andy Wallis. ‘The Leader has been designed from the ground up, which allowed Olympia freedom to think beyond the restrictions that regular brake callipers enforce.’ By that, Wallis specifically means stiffness. According to Olympia, rim calliper brakes dictate that the fork crown and seatstays…

In The Rider, author Tim Krabbé recounts a story about the lengths Jacques Anquetil went to in search of victory: ‘He used to take his water bottle out of its holder before every climb and stick it in the back pocket of his jersey. Ab Geldermans, his Dutch lieutenant, watched him do that for years, until finally he couldn’t stand it any more and asked him why. And Anquetil explained. ‘“A rider,” said Anquetil, “is made up of two parts, a person and a bike. The bike, of course, is the instrument the person uses to go faster, but its weight also slows him down. That really counts when the going gets tough, and in climbing the thing is to make sure the bike is as light as possible. A…

Weight and gearing were always going to be key factors for this ride, so at 7.3kg (56cm) with a compact chainset and 11-32t cassette, the Valence SL seemed like a good choice for an Alpine assault, and I’m pleased to say it lived up to expectations. The low-slung, compact geometry no doubt helps Norco keep frame-weight low while maintaining frame stiffness. That’s not to say the Valence is a sprinter’s delight – there are plenty of stiffer bikes out there – but for an all-day ride with a lot of climbing, it’s a sound and very comfortable choice.…

The elegant Italian cyclist Felice Gimondi is sitting beneath the shade of a stone colonnade at the 16th century Lazzaretto square in Bergamo, Lombardy. To the people strolling past in the early summer sunshine, Gimondi could be mistaken for any other well-groomed Italian retiree contentedly embracing la dolce vita. But half a century ago this year, at the age of just 22, Gimondi battled through 4,177km of pain and suffering to claim an improbable victory at the 1965 Tour de France in his debut year as a pro cyclist. The victory ignited a remarkable career in which Gimondi also won three Giro d’Italia titles (1967, 1969 and 1976), the Vuelta a Espana (1968), Paris-Roubaix (1966), the World Road Race Championships (1973) and Milan-San Remo (1974). He was the first Italian…

Aluminium’s reign at the top of the cycling tree was relatively short-lived. As a material for pro race-winning bikes, it only really took over from steel in the 1990s, and by the start of the new millennium the tide was already turning in favour of carbon fibre. Marco Pantani was the last man to win the Tour de France on an aluminium bike – a Bianchi Mega Pro XL – in 1998, and after Spaniard Igor Astaloa won the 2003 Road World Championships aboard a Cannondale CAAD7, aluminium bikes soon disappeared from the pro peloton altogether. It may seem that aluminium (more specifically aluminium alloy) has been relegated to the cheap-and-cheerful end of the road bike market, yet several manufacturers have continued to make top-end, race-ready alloy road bikes, and…

Always one for taking a gun to a knife fight, I rode the same bike as Philippe Gilbert at Amstel Gold – BMC’s SLR01. Given the amount of climbing involved, I was glad of it. Having such a lightweight bike (6.73kg without pedals) with a proven WorldTour track record was a huge benefit, even if my saddlebag almost doubled its weight on the day. The SLR01’s mechanical Dura-Ace was click-perfect for the duration, and a 52/36 semi-compact chainset with 11-28 cassette was easily enough to take the Keutenberg at as close to a sprint as possible, and to big-ring the Cauberg. As sure on the drops descending as it felt on the hoods ascending, the BMC was a joy to ride on such well-surfaced roads. Plus, crosswinds didn’t unduly affect…

Some riders dream of the indulgence of an entirely bespoke build, others take pleasure from picking out a brand that won’t be seen around every street corner. A good number just want the assurance that comes with knowing their bike is being ridden by the pros in the big races. Whichever camp you fall into there’s something for all tastes in this issue.…

THE SPEC Model Focus Izalco Max Disc Groupset Sram Red HRD Deviations None Wheels Zipp 202 Disc Finishing kit Zipp Service Course SL-70 bars, Zipp Service Course SL stem, Focus CPX seatpost, Fizik Antares saddle Weight 6.81kg Price €5,999 (UK pricing not yet announced) Contact derby-cycle.com If scientists at Brunel University are to be believed, beauty is nothing more than symmetry. Their theory of classical human beauty is that good-looking people have a left side of the face that is a mirror image of the right side. By this premise, bicycles are inherently ugly because they are asymmetric. The drivetrain runs down the right and, with the advent of discs, the braking system runs down the left. If the bike is to handle riding forces properly, certain tubes such as…

THE DETAILS Weight Front 769g Rear 589g (1,358g pair) Rim depth 30mm Rim width 24mm Spoke count 16 front, 21 rear Price £1,600 Contact i-ride.co.uk In a world where it won’t be long before someone invents a way of reducing the drag coefficient of your earlobes, it’s nice to see a company still ploughing a furrow in the super-light field – after all, before wind-tunnels, weight was what we were all concerned about, right? And if there’s ever a place to save it besides yourself, it’s on your wheels. Lighter wheels can accelerate more quickly, which makes them ideal for climbing, where getting up that hill fast is all about a series of accelerations to overcome gravity. Plus, the less you and your bike weigh, the less effort you need…

£1.99, torqfitness.co.uk With a host of nutrition products to cover your on-the-bike needs, Torq has turned its attention to your on-the-sofa needs. Its Snaq bars are designed primarily to accompany your mid-morning espresso or afternoon cuppa, not see you through a hard day in the saddle. The nutritionally dense snacks aim to be healthy while still ticking the indulgence box. The three gluten-free flavours – white chocolate and raspberry fizz; dark chocolate and orange zest; dark chocolate and banana chip – are cold pressed, not baked, thus retaining the goodness of the ingredients, which include whey protein crisps and maltodextrin to aid recovery.…

£649.99, uk.wahoofitness.com With the Snap, the world’s most excitably named fitness company has produced a more affordable, wheel-on alternative to its big brother, the direct-drive Kickr. ‘The Kickr Snap is aimed at the cyclist who loves to ride for the fun of it. While it doesn’t feature all the bells and whistles of our flagship model, the Snap is priced at a third less,’ says Kevin Abt, Wahoo’s sales and business development director. At 17kg, the Snap isn’t the most portable of trainers but the high-grade steel construction forms a robust base, and the high-inertia flywheel creates an accurate and consistent ride feel. ‘Our top “wheel-on” competitors lack a flywheel to provide the inertia of a rider in the real world. The Snap’s 5kg flywheel is the heart of the…

Age: 41 Nationality: British Honours: National Road Race Champion 2003, 2004 National Cyclocross Champion 1994, 2001-2004, 2006, 2007 3rd, Paris-Roubaix 2004 Cyclist: Looking back to your pro career, did you ever think cycling would become so popular in Britain? Roger Hammond: When I was a pro in Belgium [1998 to 2004] my teammates couldn’t understand the animosity between cyclists and non-cyclists in the UK. The issue was always about reaching a critical mass. Once there were enough people riding bikes it wouldn’t matter what people in cars or the press thought about the sport. But I never could have imagined it getting as big as it is now. I remember my grandma – bless her – saying, ‘When are you going to get a proper job?’ I’d tell…

The details What Eneco Tour When Sunday 9th August – Sunday 16th August 2015 Where Bolsward, Netherlands to Geraardsbergen, Belgium Distance 1,121km over seven stages First held 2005 2014 winner Tim Wellens (Bel) Most races with a title sponsor would do anything to keep that patron sweet – with the Holy Grail being fans and the media referring to the event by its full, sponsor-backed name. The Amstel Gold Race (see p152) is a good example of an event where the sponsor’s name has become an inherent part of the race title. The Eneco Tour is another. First named the Eneco Tour in 2005 – Eneco is a Dutch multinational energy supplier – this Dutch-Belgian stage race is essentially a new version of the now defunct Tour of the Netherlands,…

I can’t decide if I feel relieved or shortchanged. Andy Blow, founder of Precision Hydration, is preparing me for today’s sweat analysis test and informs me it involves no physical exertion. Usually when Cyclist gets involved in a Lab Rat test, it ends up with us gasping for breath while slumped over a turbo trainer but, as Blow tells me, I can do this test sitting down in my jeans and t-shirt. ‘But surely I need to be sweating?’ I ask, slightly baffled. ‘Don’t worry, you will,’ Blow insists with a smile, as he finishes setting up what looks like a lie detector in front of me. The easy option ‘The test uses a process called iontophoresis,’ Blow says. ‘It’s basically a non-invasive way to get a chemical or a…

Cyclist: When did your interest in nutrition for cyclists begin? Tim Lawson: I did a sports science degree at Liverpool Polytechnic, which had one of the first sports science departments. I went to study there with a view to finding out how to ride a bike a bit faster. Because it was a research-based degree, it taught me where to look. It set me up for finding information in libraries. When I came out of university I had glandular fever, which put a damper on my cycling career, so I went to work for a pharmaceutical company. Cyc: What was the thinking in sports nutrition at the time? TL: Back then the go-to energy bar was Kendal Mint Cake. The guys at the Ribble Valley Cycling…

There’s something rather wonderful about France, and it’s not just the landscape or the food – it’s the language. After all, where else would have an official public body to protect the gender assignation of a sandwich, or fine one of its companies €500,000 for publishing a software manual in English only? (That public body is the Académie Française, and among other things it seeks to safeguard the French language from Anglicisation. You say email, it says courriel.) And where else would you hear the delightful phrase Chacun voit midi à sa porte or the charmingly named road Les Lacets des Montvernier? The former translates as ‘everyone sees noon at his doorstep’, meaning that one’s subjective opinions are often incorrectly professed as fact, while the latter literally means ‘the laces…

The Savoie region is packed full of flavour, so don’t simply stick to the ubiquitous pizzerias and cafes. Wine in the area is excellent, with the locally produced Jacquere grape variety making for a distinctively light, floral white wine, and beer is rather special too, with local artisanal brewers Galibier and Leman offering a range of hoppy, effervescent post-ride treats. For a mountain valley, Maurienne restaurant menus are surprisingly well equipped with fish, which in many cases is landed fresh a few hours away on the coast. A great mid or post-ride spot for such things is Le Sun restaurant in Saint-Jean du Maurienne (le-sun. fr). Try its Poêlée de seiches à la provençale , a cuttlefish dish – think meaty squid – that’s heavy on the…

They say that familiarity breeds contempt, and certainly this can be true for cycling as in is in any other area of life. The bike you’ve ridden for a few years is less appealing than the one in the shop window, not necessarily because yours isn’t as good, but simply because you know exactly what it’s like. The same can be said for roads. You get used to the routes you’ve ridden a hundred times and can become almost blind to the quality around you as you crave something new. That’s not always the case, however. I’ve lived and cycled in Dorset all my life and, despite having also been lucky enough to ride in some of the most spectacular places on earth, my local roads never fail to make…

I was eager to pitch the latest range-topping Giant Defy against this tough route because of the high praise Peter Stuart had given it in issue 35. It didn’t take long to realise the Giant’s capabilities. It dispatched steep gradients with ease thanks to a combination of its low mass and super-solid build. The exaggerated compact frame design results in a lot of exposed seatmast above the top tube for my leg length, which visually I’m not a huge fan of but, thanks to the extra flex it allows, made for a comfortable ride. The disc brakes were the icing on the cake.…

There is rather a lot going on inside an Elastic Interface seat pad. Firstly it is contoured in line with the body, with male pads featuring a channel down the middle to relieve pressure on the perineum, while female pads feature a raised, smooth section in the middle to alleviate chafing. Female pads are noticeably wider too, while male pads are longer. ‘There are various different densities of foam in a top-level seat pad,’ says founder Marino De Marchi. ‘To support the sit bones [which carry most of the rider weight when seated] we use an ultra-high-density foam, 120kg/m 3  , then high-density foam, say 80kg/m3 , to cushion the perineal area and sit bones, and medium-density foam to protect the skin around those areas.’ The placement and shape of…

THE SPEC Model Moots Vamoots RSL Groupset Campagnolo Chorus EPS Deviations None Wheels Campagnolo Bora Ultra 35 Clincher Finishing kit 3T Ergosum LTD handlebars, Moots RSL stem, Moots Cinch seatpost, Fabric Scoop saddle Weight 7.45kg Price £3,995 frameset, approx £8,500 as tested Contact  moots.com There’s no mistaking a true American bike brand. Moots, like many US framebuilders, set up shop in the Rocky Mountains to build all-American bikes with all-American materials to be ridden on the gravel, tarmac and dirt roads that the Rockies have in abundance. And while the brand is tied to titanium, Moots is determined to prove the material can be every bit as racy as the best of carbon fibre. The Moots story began with steel in 1981, in sunny Steamboat Springs. A decade later the…

from €529 each (approx £380), swissside.com If any more Formula 1 engineers defect to cycling then Bernie Ecclestone’s going to have a problem. One of the latest recruits is ex-Sauber engineer Jean-Paul Ballard, who’s been instrumental in creating Swiss Side’s Hadron wheels. Available in 62.5mm and 48.5mm rim depths, these carbon-faired, alloy brake track hoops have some serious aero data behind them. Take the Hadron 485s pictured here. Swiss Side claims they save 1m51s over 40km ridden at 35kmh at 180W, or 4m09s over 90km (compared to its Heidi low profile wheel). Head-to-head wind-tunnel tests are reported to show the Hadron 625 out-performing what Swiss Side calls the ‘big brands’, while steering torque – the resistance to turning a rotating front wheel that’s associated with deep-profile rims – is apparently…

£26-£240, saddleback.co.uk Castelli’s new range of luggage is aimed at the competitive cyclist. ‘This project started four years ago when we felt a true cycling luggage set didn’t exist,’ says Richard Mardle of Saddleback, Castelli’s UK distributor. ‘We have a great resource at our disposal in the form of Castelli-supported athletes, so we compiled all their positive and negative travelling experiences to develop the luggage,’ he adds. ‘Approaching the design with this knowledge made it easy to innovate, resulting in products that make life on the road easier.’ The range includes two sizes of rolling travel bag (one of which is pictured), a duffel bag, a backpack and a race rain bag. They all come in black with red trimmings and include pockets and sections designed to help organise race…

When it comes to fixing and fettling a bike, there are those who believe every job can be tackled with a Swiss Army knife, and those at the other end of the spectrum who have every tool known to man (but often no idea what to do with 90% of them). Cyclist spoke to Team Wiggins mechanic, Nick Walling, to get his thoughts on covering the essentials at home. ‘A set of allen keys almost goes without saying,’ he says. ‘Personally I prefer Park Tool and like to use a three-way allen key most of the time. Good quality is important so they’re a precise fit and they don’t round off. ‘My oldest friend in the toolbox I call “Trigger’s broom”. It’s an old set of Shimano cable cutters I’ve…

George Mallory famously said he wanted to climb Everest ‘because it was there’. His enthusiasm is in marked contrast to that of most professional cyclists when confronted by mountains. Greg LeMond described them as ‘the pinnacle of suffering’. Riders in the 1910 Tour, which included the Pyrenees for the first time, said they were being sent ‘into a circle of death’. As he crested the Col d’Aubisque, eventual winner Octave Lapize called officials ‘Assassins!’ But for most of us non-pros, mountains have a compelling fascination. Yes, they are a source of pain, but they are also objects of beauty, responsible for some of the most stunning images from bike racing. Just take a look at Les Lacets de Montvernier in this issue’s Big Ride (p82). And by ‘mountain’, I don’t…

1 MERCKX 69 £35, bloomsbury.com This year Eddy Merckx turned 70, and what better way to celebrate than to give yourself a copy of Merckx 69, which through a series of previously unpublished photographs brings to life arguably Merckx’s most successful year on a bicycle. 2 ENERPLEX JUMPR STACK 9 BATTERY PACK £79.99, goenerplex.com According to Doc Brown, a bolt of lightening is 1.21gW, meaning it would take roughly 12,517 of the 29Wh-capacity Jumpr Stack 9 portable battery packs to send Marty McFly back to the future. Or alternatively you can just charge your iPhone three times or your Garmin 10 times using the Stack 9’s built in cables. 3 SILCA IMPERO ULTIMATE FRAME PUMP £135, saddleback.co.uk King of pumped-up bling, Silca has reinvented its classic Impero pump from the…

As children we all did it, searching through cycling magazines to find the parts that would make up our dream bicycle. Some of us have never really grown up, and at Cyclist we still obsess over hi-tech components and shiny accessories. The only difference is that these days we are in the happy position of being able to bring all those special parts together to actually create a bike that will have Saudi princes and Russian oligarchs reaching for their platinum credit cards. The premise is simple: find the most expensive stock items available and assemble them. Of course, this doesn’t mean these are the best items – that’s a subjective matter and, sadly, we are not in a position to test the finished product to see how it performs.…

Valkenburg has a proud cycling heritage. I’m here on the weekend of the Amstel Gold Race, and this once-fortified town in the south of the Netherlands is decked in flags and banners. Amstel Gold is one of the three annual Ardennes Classics one-day races, despite not actually being in the Ardennes (the other two are La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège), and there is a palpable buzz of anticipation. As we near our hotel, a bronze statue greets us from the centre of a small roundabout. With one hand on the drops, head raised to view us from beneath the peak of his cap, here crouches Gerrie Knetemann. A monument to the double winner of Amstel Gold, the effigy outstretches his left arm as if in welcome. The Netherlands’ Napoleon Dynamite…

GETTING THERE Valkenburg is about a three-hour car drive east of Calais, via the E40 and E17 through Belgium. Alternatively, a Eurostar train to Brussels will bring you within 130km, and a €100 (£73) taxi ride, from the Dutch town. We flew to Brussels with Brussels Airlines from Heathrow. A return 35-minute flight (with following wind) cost £146, and our bike travelled as part of our 23kg hold allowance (a refreshing change to the discount airline approach of ‘charge extra for everything’). Transfers from Brussels airport, as well as entry to the event itself and accommodation, were supplied by Sports Tours International, whose three-day tour package costs £359. More info at sportstours international.co.uk. WHERE TO STAY The charming and welcoming Huis Ter Geul hotel (huistergeul.nl) in Valkenburg was our base.…

THE SPEC Model Colourbolt Maximum Black Groupset Sram Red22 HRD Deviations None Wheels Enve SES 3.4 Disc Finishing kit Thomson Road carbon handlebars, Thomson Elite X2 stem, Thomson Masterpiece seatpost, Fizik Arione saddle Weight 7.9kg Price £6,995 as tested; £2,000 frame and fork Contact mosquito-bikes.co.uk Oh, that’s nice. What is it?’ This was a phrase I got used to hearing while aboard the Colourbolt Maximum Black, and for me it added to the bike’s appeal. I’m always drawn to products that can wear anonymity as a badge of honour. Only once you know where to look will you be able to spot the subtle hallmark of the brand. The clue is in the name. A single coloured chainring bolt is all that gives away the bike’s true identity. Within that…

THE SPEC Model Specialized S-Works Amira SL4 Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 Deviations S-Works FACT carbon crankset Wheels Roval Rapide CLX 40 Finishing kit Specialized Women’s SL Carbon bars, S-Works SL alloy stem, Specialized Body Geometry Oura Pro saddle Weight 6.47kg Price £6,500 Contact specialized.com There’s no better advertisement for a bike than being ridden to victory by a pro after a long solo breakaway. Lizzie Armitstead did just that when she broke clear on the ascent of the cobbles of Michaelgate in Lincoln to win the National Road Race title last month. The bike was a Specialized S-Works Amira SL4, which makes it kind of a big deal. Specialized’s commitment to women’s cycling is among the best in the business, matched perhaps by only Trek and Giant. The company caters…