Tabla de contenidos para February 2022 en Cyclist

The one everyone remembers is Rule #5 – ‘Harden The F*** Up’ – but there was (and still is) a long list of Rules, as laid down by the Velominati, governing everything from sock length to quick release positioning. There was a correct way of dressing, a correct way of riding and a correct way of behaving off the bike. And we should know – Cyclist was a champion of The Rules and ran a monthly column about them for several years. As the Velominati pointed out, however, they didn’t invent The Rules. Rather, they curated them, based on what they saw going on in the ranks of the pros. Basically, if Eddy did it, it became a Rule. And we, as devotees of the sport, simply followed. But then…

£169.99, madison.co.uk These are the squarer version of 100%’s rounder Westcraft glasses. Like their sibling, the Eastcraft glasses can accommodate either a one-piece lens or two separate lenses, the only obvious difference being that the wedge-shaped space in the middle is either filled in or not. The Eastcraft comes supplied with a one-piece mirror lens and two-piece clear lenses, although other kinds are available, including photochromic lenses. The glasses are, of course, super-light, impact-resistant, scratch-resistant, water and dirt-repellent and UV-blocking, while removable side shields offer a bit more protection. More importantly, they are so achingly hip you’ll want to be seen in them even if the British sun is still several months away.…

£179.99, zyrofisher.co.uk For years there was the Aeon, Giro’s 200g lid that seemed to suggest the company had nailed helmets once and for all. But then out of nowhere came the Synthe. It took everything the Aeon had and somehow smartened it up to set a new benchmark. Since then the Synthe has gained a few grams with the addition of Mips, and now, with the Synthe II, it has had something of a facelift. Gone are the plastic mesh side vents, replaced by larger, restyled cooling channels which Giro claims actively funnel air through the helmet to keep the wearer cooler. Mips is still also in attendance, so too Giro’s Roc Loc fit system, the original rear-mounted dial to form-fit the helmet’s internal webbing around the head. Weight is…

Why did a pair of French framebuilders decide to call their bike brand Avalanche? It’s not, as we guessed incorrectly, because the French word for steel is acier, which is just two letters short of glacier. As Marie Kervella and Laurent Beurriand explain, the name was chosen for two reasons: it’s the same word in English and French and it represents both nature and the mountains – something most cyclists will appreciate. Beurriand is originally from the Alps, near Grenoble, and Kervella comes from Sarthe, and neither were big cyclists in their youth but discovered a love for it when they moved to Paris. ‘It’s not a city to drive a car,’ Kervella says. ‘Bikes are the best way to move around because it’s a small city for a capital,…

Jens Voigt’s ’Shut up legs’ might sound like a fun catchphrase, but a paper entitled Improvement of 10km Time-Trial Cycling With Motivational Self-Talk Compared With Neutral Self-Talk claims chatting to yourself during cycling can have serious benefits. In the study, 14 riders were split into two groups and asked to undertake a 10km TT, after which they were questioned over their inner thoughts and split into two groups: neutral self-talk (N-ST) and motivational self-talk (M-ST). The N-ST group was given a series of neutral statements to replace their negative statements, for example ‘My legs hurt’ became ‘My favourite colour is green’. The M-ST group was told to replace negative statements with positive ones, so one athlete’s ‘I’ve worked too hard’ became ‘I can manage my energy until the end’. Riders…

After gaining a few hundred metres of elevation we swing off the road and leave our new friends to their tarmac-based toiling It’s mid-morning on the road above Bédoin and already cyclists outnumber cars more than ten to one. Most are already in their smallest gear and face a long struggle battling up perhaps the most famous mountain in cycling. Climbing to 1,910m above sea level, Mont Ventoux stands alone, seemingly detached from any other range. This climb is a superstar in the cycling world – its profile unique, its Tour de France appearances many and its barren, weather-beaten summit legendary. Ventoux draws riders from across the world to suffer in the wheel tracks of their heroes. Almost every metre of tarmac features graffiti urging on both pros and amateurs.…

Motorbike crashes, frenzied crowds, equipment failures, exhaustion… the life of a WorldTour photographer can be fraught, but all the effort is worth it when it results in images that bring the sport of cycling to life for newspaper and magazine readers around the world. Readers like you, for example. Having graduated from the National School of Photography in her native France, followed by a residency in Argentina, Pauline Ballet has been a professional sports photographer since 2013. After the early days of working on the picture desk and photographing for Amaury Sports Organisation, Ballet went freelance, still for ASO and also for cycling teams and in other sports. ‘I was fascinated by old-fashioned, black and white, candid photos by Robert Doisneau and I try to capture that in sports photography,’…

They could have called this bike the Victor Meldrew, because I don’t believe it! As I live and breathe, it’s a Rotor Uno groupset! Rarer than a spoon-billed sandpiper on a Sumatran rhino’s back. OK, technically this is the Rotor 1x13 groupset, the Uno’s successor, and technically this is a bike review, not a groupset review. But the groupset is attached to this, Festka’s latest gravel bike, so my jaw is dropping to the floor. Domf. Wheel choices According to Festka designer and founder Michael Moureček, the Scout is a natural addition to the stable, despite there already being a gravel bike in the lineup: the Rover. ‘The Rover can be used like a serious road bike and can also explore off-road, but it has limits: 40mm max tyre size,…

€44.95 (approx £38), aerocyclinggear.nl As Mathieu van der Poel surged his way through the mud and rain of the 2021 Paris-Roubaix, his Alpecin-Fenix kit was barely recognisable beneath a layer of filth. All except one part of him – his feet, which remained strangely sparkling white. Turns out he had on a pair of shoecovers from Dutch brand Aero Cycling Gear, which, as the name suggests, makes products that are aerodynamic, boast good ventilation and are moisture-wicking. Those products include its Aero Socks (€24.95, approx £21), which for the record hit the sock length debate right in the UCI-legal middle ground.…

£395, assos.com By Assos’s standards, the name given to these bibtights is quite restrained. The same cannot be said for the pricetag, but in fairness you do get a lot for your money. The material is thick and plush where it’s needed, with overlapping fabrics to aid breathability. The tights are weather-proof too, especially around the lower legs, while removable ‘impact pads’ help protect the hips in the event of a fall, and the multi-layer insert and sunDeck pouch aim to keep nether regions as comfy as possible. For almost £400, these are as good a protection from the elements as you could hope for. Or you could just pay someone to ride alongside you carrying an umbrella.…

Nothing turns a pleasant winter ride into a torturous, icy slog quicker than frigid fingers and toes. A perfect storm of sub-zero temperatures, incessant road spray and vented cycling shoes makes frozen feet one of the biggest barriers to productive (not to mention enjoyable) winter training. But what if you could keep your feet toasty and enjoy some marginal aero gains at the same time? That’s where overshoes come in. Designed to deflect the cold and wet, thus keeping feet warm and dry, these winterproof shoe covers are a cyclist’s first line of defence against adverse weather. ‘Overshoes do what their name suggests: they go over your cycling shoes,’ says Kristian Krøyer, founder and chief product officer at GripGrab. ‘This adds a layer of protection against the elements. It can…

Cyclist: You had some amazing results in 2021. Were you expecting it to be such a successful year? Ethan Hayter: I didn’t expect it at all. Looking back, maybe I should have expected to be here. In 2019 I had a really good year then I broke my collarbone at [the Tour de] l’Avenir and missed the Worlds. Then we had the pandemic and that put me back a couple of steps. It took me until the summer of this year to get back to where I should have been, so it was really nice to have such a good year. Cyc: Did you have set goals for the season, or was everything a bonus? EH: I didn’t really have any goals on the road set for me. As an…

1 BE REALISTIC Aim to lose no more than 1kg per week. ‘Anywhere between 0.5kg and 1kg is fine, but no more than that – weight loss needs to be sensible and sustainable,’ says sports nutritionist Mayur Ranchordas. ‘It’s not a race.’ The key is to strike the right ‘negative energy balance’. That is – you guessed it – to consume fewer calories than you burn. 2 STRIKE THE RIGHT BALANCE Aim to eat around 500 calories less per day than your total energy expenditure. ‘Counting calories can seem like a chore but you’ll do it if you’re serious, and while the calorie expenditure figures on gadgets such as power meters and sports watches can overestimate by 10-20 per cent, they’re still useful if you bear that in mind,’ says…

The road is just so smooth, the gradient so welcoming and the curves so enticing that I can’t help but slip into the drops Scotland is around two-thirds the size of England, yet has just a tenth of the population. This glorious emptiness, combined with the country’s rugged landscape, should make it a haven for cyclists, but there’s a problem – there simply aren’t enough roads. While England is a tangled web of motorways, A-roads, side roads, back roads, through roads and winding country lanes, Scotland (at least, once you get north of Glasgow and Edinburgh) is a great mass of hills, valleys and moors, dotted with towns and villages that are usually connected by a single road. And that road is rarely very cycling-friendly. Take the magnificent valley of…

Ventoux’s Wild Side p66 Lazer Z1 helmet, £159.99 freewheel.co.uk Pearl Izumi Pro jersey, £139.99 freewheel.co.uk Pearl Izumi Pro bibshorts, £189.99 freewheel.co.uk Pongo London Cycling socks, £17 pongolondon.cc Bont Riot+ shoes, £150 bontcycling.com Bikes p121 FESTKA Rapha Brevet Insulated jacket, £150 rapha.cc Rapha Brevet mitts, £60 rapha.cc Rapha Cargo bibshorts, £195 rapha.cc Rapha Pro Team socks, £15 rapha.cc Suplest Edge+ Gravel Performance shoes, €249 (approx £212) suplest.com BMC Lazer Genesis Mips helmet, £229.99 freewheel.co.uk 100% Westcraft sunglasses, £169.99 freewheel.co.uk Velocio Alpha Merino Air jacket, £199 velocio.cc Velocio Alpha Long Sleeve jersey, £155 velocio.cc Velocio Alpha gloves, £94 velocio.cc Velocio Signature Rain bootie, £78 velocio.cc BASSO Poc Omne Eternal helmet, £230 pocsports.com SunGod Airas sunglasses, £130 sungod.co Pearl Izumi Torrent WxB jacket, £174.99 freewheel.co.uk Giordana G-Shield Thermal bibtights, £149.99 bikeloungeonline.com Giro Xnetic…

£1,799.99, freewheel.co.uk Shimano has been busy during Covid. Not only has it recently dropped its new 12-speed Dura-Ace 9200 series groupset, it has also reworked the wheel line-up, and things are looking promising. Finally. Because while the Big S has been doing the tubeless thing since 2007 (yes really, the Dura-Ace Scandium C24s were tubeless-ready), it might be argued it has been behind the curve in another crucial area: rim dimensions. For years it stuck to 17mm internal rim widths, but for the all-new Dura-Ace 9270 series, internal width is now 21mm, much more in keeping with the current appetite for wider tyres. Wheels now come in 36mm, 50mm (pictured) and 60mm depths and are exclusively carbon – goodbye alloy-cored, carbon-wrapped C24s. Hubs retain Shimano’s cone-and-cup bearings, although they’re only…

1 DEXSHELL PRO VISIBILITY SOCKS £25, upgradebikes.co.uk Look, we’re not anti-mask, we just thought Ace Ventura was better. It’s a similar story with rain – we’re not against getting wet feet per se, but having dry tootsies is nicer. It’s exactly what DexShell promises with its waterproof socks, which use a Porelle membrane wrapped around a Coolmax liner to create a fully waterproof but breathable sock of relatively minimal bulk. 2 PURE SPORT CBD BALM £43 (50ml), puresportcbd.com ‘I before E’ except when your foreign neighbour Keith seizes eight counterfeit beige sleighs from some weirdly feisty caffeinated heifers. And CBD before THC, because there is a gathering body of evidence that suggests CBD products have all manner of healing powers. Hence Pure Sport’s CBD Muscle And Joint Balm, a high-strength…

In 2002 a new race was added to the international cycling calendar. The Tour of Qatar seemed like a novelty – a professional race held in the desert – but it had serious ambition behind it, as well as serious money and, perhaps crucially, the endorsement of the greatest cyclist of all time. Eddy Merckx and his business partner Dirk De Pauw worked with ASO, the Tour de France organiser, to build the Tour of Qatar into a race that attracted some of the world’s biggest teams and stars even as it remained a curiosity. It was an event with no roadside spectators. Unlike so many major bike races, it did not act as part of a marketing campaign for the country – at least not in the traditional sense.…

On the eve of the 1935 Tour, the French weekly Sport ran its front-page pre-race preview. Under portrait sketches of 11 ‘stars of the next Tour de France’, Martial Chevreau wrote damningly on the race’s increasing ‘commercial appetites’ before concluding: ‘In the past, we risked a winner’s name. But as there are 4,000km of road, flint, cobblestones, tracks, climbs, the whole procession of miseries both great and small, as well as accidents [to consider], well it is better to keep quiet about one’s favourites.’ Even if Chevreau had written about who he thought might win, it’s highly unlikely his eye would have been caught by a 22-year-old from a village just outside Bruges. Romain Maes was in his third season as a pro and had only started the Tour once,…

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Pain de sportif is a brioche baked with dried fruits and nuts, and one most deserving of its name and favour among the cyclists of the Savoie department. Because here is where giants rub shoulders, where Croix de Fer faces off with the Galibier as Iseran looks on, Petit Saint-Bernard at her heel. This part of France requires dense calories, and that’s precisely where any rider looking to tackle this month’s Classic Climb, the Cormet de Roselend, should begin: ordering a slice of pain de sportif from Beaufort’s favourite bakery, Pouilloux Boulangerie. Beaufort, of course, is most famous for its cheese, and though it seems desperately unlikely as you sit on your top tube just shaded by Pouilloux’s red awnings, you’d swear you can detect a pungent bass note to…

1 Festka Scoutp122 Wide tyres? Check. 1x drivetrain? Check. But wait… Festka bucks a trend among gravel bikes by making the Scout stiff. And it works a treat 2 BMC RoadmachineXp126 The clue is in the name – the Swiss giant’s road bike line-up gets a new model that can head off-road without sacrificing performance 3 Basso Palta II p130 It’s a clean sweep this issue with a model Basso calls ‘a gravel bike for road cyclists’. But has the Italian brand tamed the original Palta’s wild side?…