Indice dei contenuti per May 2019 in Cyclist

I have never really understood cricket. To me, uninitiated in its subtleties, it seems like the dullest sport in the world. Long periods drift past where nothing really happens; most of the players stand around with not much to do; the scoring is baffling; and after five days of snail-paced action the outcome is often-as-not a draw. Friends have tried to explain cricket’s appeal to me, but I still struggle to get excited about it. However, I am acutely aware that cricket is actually quite a lot like cycling. As a sport, cycling is also impenetrable to newcomers, who complain that not much seems to be going on as the peloton cruises merrily through the countryside. Like cricket, cycling is all about the slow build-up of pressure, the tactical ebb…

£75, metiercycling.com Graphene is billed as the wonder-stuff that’s set to take over the world. It’s a carbon-based nanomaterial that is somehow at once strong, light, conductive, elastic and impermeable. Someday we’ll be living in it, wearing it, watching it and possibly eating it too. But for the Metier Element Race base layer, graphene acts to dissipate heat through the kit. That means in warm weather it moves the heat away from the body, while in cold weather it warms the core temperature. At £75 it’s not cheap, but it is a slice of the future.…

Having heard about Fuerteventura’s windy roads I was keen to ride a bike that was both sturdy and aerodynamic, and the Kryon Race Disc delivered on both fronts in style. Its bladed tubes and compact frame triangle made for a stiff, fast ride, although it was also comfortable enough for an all-day outing, which Kuota suggests is down to vibration-dampening technology in the carbon layup. On an island with little rainfall and few technical descents, disc brakes are hardly a necessity, but they were still welcome for the confidence they gave me when diving into corners. Overall, the Kyron Race Disc is a muscular ride that begs you to get in the drops and crank up the speed.…

José de cauwer 69, FROM TEMSE, BELGIUM De Cauwer’s best Classics results came in 1975 when he was third in Het - - Volk and 12th in Paris Roubaix, but he is better known for his work as directeur sportif with the ADR team, where he led Greg LeMond to Tour de France glory over Laurent Fignon in the famous eight second Tour win of 1989 ‘In my home village we had nothing to see but cycling. My father was a big supporter of Rik Van Looy back in the 1950s and 60s. There were three kinds of races that were important in Belgium at that time: kermesse races – every village had its own, and good riders like Van Looy came to these races to win – the Tour…

There are only two ways to travel in or out of the remote Norwegian village of Lysebotn. It is surrounded on three sides by dark mountains of granite and gneiss, and on the other by the deep waters of the 42km-long Lysefjord. One way is to travel by boat, which is how I and the 200 other cyclists taking part in the inaugural Haute Route Norway arrive from the nearby oil city of Stavanger, floating down the fjord into the jaws of the black mountains before disembarking in the village’s port like troops heading into battle. The other is via the solitary Lysevegen mountain road, which rears steeply up from the village like the prow of a Viking longship. Built in 1984 as a service road for the Tjodan hydroelectric…

THE SPEC Model Allied Alfa Disc Groupset Campagnolo Record H11 Deviations None Wheels Campagnolo Bora One DB Finishing kit Black Inc Integrated cockpit, Fizik Cyrano R1 seatpost, Fizik Arione R1 VSX saddle, Schwalbe One 28mm tyres Weight 7.29kg (56cm) Price £8,400 Contact bicyclechain.co.uk There was a time when it felt like every bike had a distinct personality – Bianchis were made by Italians, Treks by Americans, Raleighs by Brits – but those times have gone. Nowadays it is the norm for one of the most important parts of a bike’s entire design process, the fabrication of the frameset, to be left in the hands of a subcontractor halfway across the globe. ‘Bringing back the “maker” aspect to bike building was one of the fundamental tenets of Allied Cycle Works when…

£299.99, extrauk.co.uk Cane Creek has some pedigree in suspension seatposts, having provided its Thudbuster to the mountain bike crowd for years. The eeSilk post is a toned-down version of that design, offering less travel (a still-not-inconsequential 20mm) but at a much lighter weight, making it better suited to road and gravel riding. The elastomers in the centre of the linkage are interchangeable, to suit riders ranging from 45kg to 150kg. Its own 295g weight is in fact competitive with some rigid seatposts, meaning riders should enjoy a decent dollop of extra cushioning for a minimal weight penalty.…

Colin Lewis Age: 76 Nationality: British Honours National Road Race Championships 1st, 1967, 1968 250 race victories including 38 as a professional Cyclist : We hear you only started cycling because of a bet with a friend? Colin Lewis: Yes, when I was a teenager I used to go out drinking in Torquay on Saturday nights. After one night out, I woke up late and a friend was downstairs. He said, ‘Come on, get up. It’s nearly midday. We’ve got to change this pattern.’ He was a decent footballer and he bet me that in two years he would play for Torquay United’s Colt team. Then he said, ‘What are you going to do?’ The 1960 Olympic Games were on so I said, ‘I bet I’ll go to the Olympic…

Cycling through the wrinkled, coffee-coloured mountains of the Parque Rural de Betancuria, in the volcanic heart of Fuerteventura, I glance up to see two lines of gleaming white pillars curling around the cliffs like rows of teeth. With one set of these stone road barriers curling left, and another higher set sweeping right, it looks as though we’re riding into the jaws of a giant crocodile. The markers trace a stunning strip of tarmac that will take us from the corrugated peaks of the park to the black sea cliffs, fluttering palm fronds and booming surf of the western coastline. With its diverse volcanic landscapes, Fuerteventura – one of the most eastern of the Spanish Canary Islands, less than 100km off the northwest coast of Africa – is full of…

Rather like a single chapter in a book, it might seem slightly wrong to consider the Koppenberg in isolation. It’s probably the most famous Flemish cobbled climb (although you could spend many nights and get through a lot of La Chouffe beer debating that) but in some ways it owes much of that to its Belgian brethren. Other chapters such as the Paterberg, Taaienberg, Eikenberg, Oude Kwaremont and Kapelmuur are all needed to make up the full, fantastic story of the Ronde van Vlaanderen – the Tour of Flanders. And yet it’s also fun to inspect and dissect the nuances of a single inclined stretch of cobbles, and this particular hill near Oudenaarde is somehow representative of all that’s tough, yet tantalisingly attractive, about the climbs that captivate the cycling…

THE SPEC Model Bianchi Oltre XR4 CV Ultegra Di2 Disc Groupset Shimano Ultegra Di2 Deviations None Wheels Fulcrum Racing 418 Disc Finishing kit Vision Metron 5D integrated bar/stem, Bianchi Oltre Full Carbon Aero seatpost, Fizik Arione R3 saddle, Vittoria Rubino Pro G+ Isotech 25mm tyres Weight 7.8kg (size 55cm) Price £7,700 Contact cycleurope.com The original Bianchi Oltre XR was one of the first bikes that truly stunned me. Equipped as it was with Campagnolo’s Super Record EPS groupset and a set of tubular Bora wheels, it seemed to glide along. It was stiff, it was aerodynamic, but above all else it was fast. The new Oltre XR4 is like a futuristic concept drawing of that bike. The traditional Italian bling has been replaced with disc brakes, concealed cabling, an aerodynamically…

Ride Like The Wind Lazer Z1 Mips helmet, £149.99 madison.co.uk Oakley Radarlock Path sunglasses, £195 oakley.com Gore C3 jersey, £69.99 gorewear.com Gore C3 gloves, £24.99 gorewear.com Gore C7 Long Distance bibshorts, £179.99 gorewear.com Gore C3 Mid socks, £12.99 gorewear.com Pearl Izumi Elite V5 shoes, £179.99 pearlizumi.co.uk Koppenberg Specialized S-Works Prevail II helmet, £175 specialized.com 100% Speedcraft sunglasses, £179.99 madison.co.uk Madison RoadRace Premio jersey, £74.99 madison.co.uk Madison RoadRace Premio bibshorts, £99.99 madison.co.uk Madison RoadRace Premio socks, £9.99 madison.co.uk Specialized S-Works 7 shoes, £340 specialized.com Bikes CERVÉLO Lazer Z1 Mips helmet, £149.99 madison.co.uk Oakley Jawbreaker sunglasses, £175 oakley.com Sportful Fiandre Ultimate 2 jacket, £180 c3products.com Sportful BodyFit Pro gilet, £100 c3products.com Sportful NoRain gloves, £40 c3products.com Sportful Fiandre NoRain Pro bibtights, £135 c3products.com Sportful Fiandre WS shoe covers, £60 c3products.com ALLIED Kask…

£1,099, i-ride.co.uk Bkool’s Smart Air turbo was first teased to the public in late 2017, but has only now made its way to market. If the claimed features are anything to go by, it will have been worth the wait. The Smart Air uses infrared sensors to measure power, which Bkool claims keeps measurements accurate over a range of temperatures, and it has a special cooling fan to make it very quiet (a claimed 41dB, making it barely louder than a whisper). To create a realistic experience, the base of the turbo incorporates 6° of left-right tilt to mimic the movement of a bike, and it can simulate 25% gradients. It can also create resistance up to 3,000 watts. According to Bkool, these features are best employed along with its…

£169.99, yellow-limited.com Once upon a time cyclists rarely wore helmets. Then we started to care about safety, so we looked for a helmet to protect our heads. Then we started to worry about ventilation, so we looked for a helmet to cool our heads. Then we worried about speed, so we looked for a helmet to make our heads more aerodynamic. The Rudy Project Spectrum is an attempt to balance all three of those demands, while also considering weight and aesthetics. By bonding together three In-Mould EPS sections, the Spectrum achieves an impressively light 220g weight while boasting excellent ventilation and aerodynamic performance. The vents have been modelled so that the air flows smoothly from front to back with minimal drag, while providing a certain amount of air circulation on…

While France and Italy will be forever locked in battle for the crown of cycling’s spiritual home (while Flanders looks in on mock amusement, no doubt), it should not be overlooked that in modern times cycling has enjoyed a worldwide renaissance courtesy of burgeoning cycling scenes around the globe, each with its own unique flavour. Take the US: it has pushed the off-road envelope and in so doing sewn its laid-back gravel seeds across The Pond. South East Asia has a near-insatiable appetite for classic steel racers and ‘looking pro’, right down to team kits being de rigeur. And Australia? Well, Australia is possibly best summed up by Baum Cycles, which for nearly two decades has been pushing the custom-handmade model to its limits from its home in Geelong, on…

1 SELLE ITALIA SHOCK ABSORBER KIT £39.99, zyrofisher.co.uk Bernard Hinault is so stubborn he once cut off his own nose to spite his face, then sewed it back on using a shard of fingernail and a single nostril hair. Thus the Badger would cry zut alors! at the very idea of cushioned bar tape, but for mere mortals the Shock Absorber Kit, which combines tactile bar tape with gel and foam inserts, will prove the softest, plushest hit. 2 OAKLEY SUTRO PRIZM GLASSES £130, oakley.com If someone had told you in 1985 that one day you’d carry a device that could show you four billion videos of cats being surprised by cucumbers, or that cycling sunnies would return to LeMond’s aprèsski-sci-fi look, you’d never have believed them. Yet…

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/86fuerteventura. From Caleta de Fuste head north on the FV-2, then swing west on the FV-413 through Triquivijate and Antigua, before shifting northwest on the FV-416. At the roundabout turn left on the FV-30 through Betancuria to Pajara. Take the FV-605 to La Pared, branching off at the FV-621 for an extra stop at Ajuy Beach. From La Pared head north for a few kilometres on the FV-605, then take the right turn to follow the FV-617 east. Connect with the FV-56 and head north on the FV-511 through Tesejerague. Take the Las Casitas road left to Tuineje, follow the FV-20 north to Antigua and trace the FV-413 back to the start.…

Astana is a team that arouses suspicion. Much of it is warranted, owing to a long list of doping scandals; some of it, arguably, is simply down to the West’s scepticism of the exotic East. But when Cyclist pays a visit to the Astana training camp near Benidorm in Spain in mid-December 2018, there is no sense of a team lurking beneath a cloud of controversy. Laughter and cheering erupt from behind a curtain in the hotel restaurant, startling some of the nearby pensioners who are here for a spot of winter warmth. In the closed-off area, Astana riders are tucking into the buffet dinner as new recruit Manuele Boaro climbs to his feet to address his teammates. ‘I look forward to a successful season,’ Boaro declares. He is dressed…

THE SPEC Model Cervélo S5 eTap Disc Groupset Sram Red eTap HRD Deviations None Wheels DT Swiss ARC 1450 DiCut 48mm Finishing kit Cervélo AB08 bars, CS28 V Stem, Cervélo SP20 seatpost, Prologo Dimension TiRox saddle, Continental GP4000S II 25mm tyres Weight 7.77kg (56cm) Price £9,299 Contact cervelo.com For years aerodynamics just meant riding in the drops. Then it meant cutting off your ponytail and wearing pointy hats. Then it meant deep section wheels and soon-to-be-banned riding positions. The common theme was taking things in isolation, optimising parts of a bike or rider without much consideration for the way all these elements interacted. Then Cervélo came along, and by 2007 it had a life-sized, poseable model of its Team CSCsponsored rider, Dave Zabriskie. As the company’s co-founder Phil White told…