Indice dei contenuti per May 2021 in Cyclist

Given that most of us have travelled barely more than a few kilometres from our own homes over the past year, it was no real surprise that everyone got very excited about the return of pro cycling to our screens. There’s nothing like some sumptuous aerial camera shots to remind us where we can’t visit, even if the season curtain-raiser, the Grand Prix Cycliste La Marseillaise, appeared to have been shot through a sepiadrenched potato. Once the technical glitches were resolved, fans began to wonder why they had never heard of this race before, followed by wondering why they had never heard of the winner, AG2R-Citroën’s Aurélien Paret-Peintre. The cancellations of the Tour Down Under and Vuelta a San Juan meant this obscure early-season race in southern France was suddenly…

When the UCI launched the Women’s WorldTour in 2019 there were doubts about whether enough teams would be able to commit the required resources, particularly with regard to paying the minimum salaries required in the regulations. The governing body said it wanted five teams in year one with the aim of adding more each year to have 15 teams by 2022. With nine in place for 2021 – one more than last year – that target now seems unlikely to be achieved, yet in other respects the WWT has been a success, at least in setting a benchmark for ambitious teams. The new kids on the block for 2021 are Jumbo-Visma, led by Dutch former World Champion Marianne Vos. UCI rules prevented them becoming a WorldTeam in their first year,…

Average power is quite a simple concept: it’s your total physical output divided by the time you rode for. Your output is measured in kilojoules and your time in seconds, so if you expend 2,000kJ on a three-hour ride then 2,000 divided by 10,800 (seconds) equals 0.185. You then multiply that by 1,000 to convert the figure to watts, and get 185W. And in terms of our question there’s good news here, because your average power won’t necessarily go down if you lose weight. OK, if you lose weight too quickly you may lose muscle or you may not have enough energy to sustain your normal performance because the glycogen in your muscles and liver – your body’s fuel – is low. But if you fuel yourself well and look…

Eddy Merckx once said, ‘The race is won by the rider who can suffer the most.’ It’s hard to argue against 525 professional victories including all the Grand Tours and Monuments, but was Merckx right? Does the key to success lie in how well we can cope with pain? ‘I’d say there’s an element of truth to that,’ says Neal Henderson, head of sports science for Wahoo, the US-based company that owns training platform The Sufferfest. ‘I’d use the term “exerciseinduced discomfort” as opposed to pain. Pain is something that’s actually causing damage; exercise-induced discomfort means that when you stop, it goes away and you can do it again. But yes, there’s an element of being able to dig deep and go to that next level that’s associated with good…

While it is all but impossible to eclipse Eddy Merckx in terms of achievement, Johan Museeuw might just pip him in the popularity stakes, at least here in Flanders, where it’s not just what you win that matters, it’s how you win. Museeuw rode with the kind of reckless abandon that Belgian crowds love, earning himself the nickname The Lion of Flanders and with it the most successful track record in Tour of Flanders history: three wins, including two from solo finishes, plus a further five podiums. Yet his dominance at the Classics nearly ended prematurely. A horrendous crash on the Arenberg in the 1998 Paris-Roubaix eventually manifested in gangrene, with doctors considering whether or not to amputate Museeuw’s leg (see p112). But this was the Lion, so defying all…

…THE OLYMPICS ‘The 2012 Olympics was a pivotal moment for the growth of our sport in this country. It was such a massive event and there were a lot of British female successes. In Britain I’ve never felt the media attention has been that bad. Europe has had a bit of catching up to do, but it’s getting there.’ …OFF-THE-BIKE TRAINING ‘I do a fair bit of core stability but I don’t do gym training. I used to when I was a track rider but felt like it was working against my physiology. I’m not somebody who builds muscle easily so it takes a fair bit out of me, which I find is detrimental to hours on the bike.’ …MOTHERHOOD ‘I feel psychologically stronger since having Orla. It’s not that…

Four past winners of Paris-Roubaix walk into a bar. ‘It was bullshit,’ says 1981 winner Bernard Hinault. Two-times winner Sean Kelly says, ‘It’s a horrible race to ride but the most beautiful one to win.’ John Degenkolb, who won in 2015, adds, ‘It was hard, heavy, nice, amazing, lovely and brutal.’ So far, so predictable. They’re all living up to pro cycling’s USP of pain and suffering. Then 1990 winner Eddy Planckaert arrives late from filming his reality TV show for Belgian TV, De Planckaerts, in which he lives in a wooden shack in the Ardennes. He wants to talk about another cobbled Classic, the Tour of Flanders, which he won in 1988: ‘When you’re completely worn out, thinking you might drop dead from fatigue, you reach another dimension. Suddenly…

Passoni is known for blending heritage with modernity, and there is perhaps no better example of that in its current range than the new Cicloprato. ‘Back in the late 1980s we started making very light mountain bike frames for pros who wanted to keep fit in the winter,’ says Passoni owner Matteo Cassina. ‘Barring a swap to disc brakes, those early mountain bikes were essentially very similar to what the Cicloprato is now.’ To clear up any confusion, it’s worth explaining that the Italian definition of a mountain bike is somewhat different to the full-suspension, flat bar one more commonly associated with the name. ‘We don’t do the full-face helmets, jumping-off-cliffs type of mountain biking,’ says Cassina. ‘We leave that for the Americans. Italian mountain bikes have always been more…

The great sport of cycling has a history of adopting technology from one genre and applying it to another, and in recent years the trend in road cycling has been to look to mountain bikes for developmental inspiration. Rim brakes are being superceded by discs, suspension systems are being introduced to a small degree and now we’re seeing clutches on rear derailleurs make the leap too. ‘A clutch is a device that damps a rear derailleur’s cage motion and thus checks the chain’s motion,’ says Anthony Medaglia, Sram’s chief system engineer for road drivetrains. ‘It essentially creates friction to absorb the energy of the rotating cage, but only in one direction. This can be achieved via a mechanical device, commonly referred to as a clutch but more appropriately described as…

Cyclist: You were there the day [QuickStep sprinter] Fabio Jakobsen experienced his horror crash at last year’s Tour of Poland. How did you feel? Brian Holm: When I saw Fabio crash, I thought we wouldn’t see him again. I was there in the team car and it was a madhouse. It was like a bomb exploding. All evening we had nothing to say to the riders because we didn’t know what the situation was. Then at midnight we heard from the hospital that he would survive, but we didn’t know the extent of his injuries. Then the hospital established he wasn’t brain damaged. Since the crash I’ve spoken to him a bit but not too much. He needs his space and time to adjust. To see him riding a bike…

Can those electro-pads build muscle in specific places, such as quads? They can help prevent muscle atrophy when the limb is immobilised through injury. They may help build muscle, especially in people who have certain conditions, but you’re better off training. How often should I be testing my FTP? Every month or two. Maybe slightly less for your MAP [maximal aerobic power]. How much should I expect my average power to drop as I age? Potentially not much – I’m about 10W off my best from when I was half my current age. It’s VO2 max that tends to decline, by 3-5% per decade from 30 (unless you you start training later in life).…

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/112flanders or scan the QR code. Oudenaarde is so well appointed you can just point your bike out the hotel door and ride, but if you need some inspiration the most complete resource can be found at cyclinginflanders.cc/routes. We opted for the 78km Blue Loop, which starts and ends in Oudenaarde Centrum via the Schelde cycle path. Flanders is a complex web of roads, so to list them all here is not feasible, however the route takes in the Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg, Koppenberg, Taaienberg, Kanarieberg, Oude Kruisberg and Kluisberg. The routes and bergs here are well signposted but the usefulness of a GPX file – available from the Cycling in Flanders website or from Cyclist’s library – cannot be underestimated.…

‘If you’d told me at the start of last year that I’d finish the season number one, I wouldn’t have believed it. And now I’m prepping for our “Hell of the North”. I seriously thought I’d be retired by now. Thank God I didn’t make that decision.’ Lizzie Deignan is in philosophical mood when Cyclist catches up with her on a Zoom chat. At the time of the interview she is in Tenerife, where in 2019 she and her husband – coach and former Sky rider Philip Deignan – went to ride out their ‘post-baby slog’ and realised that life was good. Deignan decided she wasn’t ready to hang up her bibshorts after all. ‘Before that I was thinking of retiring after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,’ she says. ‘Then I…

Ashmei describes its Signature kit as ‘super compressive race fit’. It’s not wrong. The original Signature bibs were among the most form-fitting, comfy-all-over bibshorts we’ve ever ridden in, and that was four years ago. For 2021 Ashmei has retained those key properties in the updated Signature bibshorts, with that compression coming primarily not from the yarn itself but the incredibly high density of its knit. This gives the bibs their stretchy, lightweight nature while offering an incongruent but wonderful degree of weather-resistance (these don’t really ‘wet out’). Several new colours now join black, and detailing has been made reflective. It’s a similar story with the jersey – less remodelled, more refined, using Ashmei’s latest merino-carbon blend that has the luxurious feel of wool with the lighter, breathable, fastdrying properties of…

Speedplay founder Richard Bryne is said to have a personal collection of more than 300 pairs of bicycle pedals, none of which look anything like the ones he designed and created in the late 1980s. Often referred to as ‘lollipop pedals’, Speedplay launched in 1991, and Bryne’s design turned the accepted pedal/cleat norms on their head. The Speedplay cleat is not just a lump of plastic, but instead harbours all the working parts. In this case it is the pedal that is the more inanimate object. The benefits to this system include double-sided entry, exceptionally low weight, low stack height and a vast range of adjustment potential – anywhere from 0-15° float plus variable axle lengths. This all makes them a firm favourite with weight weenies and bike fitters alike.…

Named after the Greek god of war, the Ares is first and foremost a sprinter’s shoe. Developed alongside the S-Works 7 shoe, Specialized took advantage of Deceuninck-QuickStep’s production line of talent to diagnose and fix the problems that come with riding fast. Boy in green Sam Bennett is the latest of the team’s sprint stars to help deliver a shoe the maker says is ‘1% faster than any we’ve ever made’. The target, says Specialized, was to minimise movement and maximise comfort during full-gas efforts. To do this the tongue has been replaced with a reinforced inner mesh sock, a bracing panel has been placed over the outer side of the foot and a new closure system has been added featuring centralised Boa Li2 dials. The manufacturer says the result…

When her professional racing licence arrived in the post at her Brittany home in January, Audrey Cordon-Ragot might have been forgiven for punching the air in triumph. The French road race champion, who rides for Trek-Segafredo, had been making the case for years that she should be granted a professional licence, not an amateur one – a sentence that you might have to read twice. Cordon-Ragot is, after all, one of the most recognisable faces in the women’s peloton. She has been riding as a pro for almost a decade, initially for Hitec before moving to Wiggle High5 then switching to Trek-Segafredo when the team was launched in 2019. Only now, however, are licences denoting that the holder is actually a professional being issued by the French federation to women…

Cold water is credited with a number of performance benefits – but which ones actually stand up to scrutiny? A peer review entitled Cold Water Immersion: Kill or Cure? grades each ‘benefit’ of cold water immersion (CWI) from one to four stars, with one being anecdotal and four high-quality evidence. Interestingly, the oft-touted ‘improved recovery post-exercise’ gets just two stars and ‘treatment of inflammation’ only one. ‘Immune function boosting’ gets two stars as well, but science is somewhat more sure about CWI as a method of ‘pre-cooling for improved performance in the heat’. In a test, a group of athletes cycled to exhaustion in 40°C heat. With 30 minutes’ immersion in 40°C water prior, average time to exhaustion was 28 minutes. Lower the water temperature to 36°C and the average…

Cycling has its esoteric words – quacking* anyone? – but nothing compared to Royal Navy jackspeak. Something’s good? It’s hoofing. You’re perturbed? You’re threaders. Someone’s spinning a dit? You’re getting told a story. Someone’s black catted you? They’ve tried to trump your fine anecdote with a more exaggerated tale. And nutty? That’s a chocolate bar, obviously. Hence this smoothie drink’s name: nutty slack, right? But hang on, there’s no chocolate in this recipe. And that ‘slack’? One etymological explanation revolves around nutty slack being the name for domestic fuel popular in post-war Britain, a mix of coal dust (slack) and nuts (small lumps of coal). It was cheap, it was easy to come by, it was a significant factor in the Great Smog of 1952, which enveloped London and is…

If you ride here long enough you’ll probably see him. It is none other than Johan Museeuw Oudenaarde is the kind of place you can find anywhere in Flanders – a mix of olden-day charm and industrial bustle. A large square dominated by a gothic town hall faces off against blocky apartments and a swing bridge over the Schelde river. It is in many ways just another unremarkable rural town. The average tourist wouldn’t dally here long, perhaps taking in a visit to the Adriaen Brouwer exhibition that honours the town’s most famous son (he was a painter, if he’s not famous enough for you to have heard of him) before returning to the N60 and heading up to Ghent or to the coast. For cyclists, however, Oudenaarde is the…

Working exclusively in steel, Jaegher is a company steeped in generations of Flemish cycling tradition – Tom Boonen just bought one, for instance – and the Hurricane is its off-road option. Tubes have been picked to be stiff yet comfortable, while geometry is based around a long wheelbase and there’s room for up to 47mm tyres. The Hurricane makes a fine fist of skimming over the cobbles and rough roads of Flanders, while the handling is nippy yet happily tempered by that wheelbase to offer predictability on this region’s treacherous descents. The bike features Campagnolo’s first gravel groupset, Ekar, with a 1x13 setup rangy enough for road sprints and grovelling up the Koppenberg. Campy’s light and stiff Shamal wheels top off a fine machine nicely.…

2005 Wins silver medal in the scratch race at the Junior World Track Championships. 2007 Wins the first of two straight scratch races at the Under-23 European Championships and takes silver in the points race. 2009 Wins gold for Great Britain in the team pursuit at the Track World Championships, as well as silver in the scratch race and bronze in the points race. 2011 After two straight second places, wins the British National Road Race Championships for the first time. 2012 Takes silver for Team GB in the road race at the London Olympics behind Marianne Vos. 2015 Wins a third British title, retains her World Cup crown and caps the season off by winning the World Championships Road Race in Richmond, USA. 2016 Takes a Classics treble with…

Spring is a time of reawakening. The flowers bloom, the trees blossom, woodland creatures emerge from their burrows and cyclists leave the safety of their turbos to venture out onto the tarmac again. Those hardier souls who have ridden outdoors throughout the winter start to peel off their layers, and everyone has the same thought on their minds: it’s time for some new kit. Gearing up for spring can be tricky as it’s such as capricious season. On any given outing a rider can be faced with a multitude of weather conditions or wild temperature fluctuations. That’s before having to deal with the mud and debris-strewn roads of winter that haven’t yet had time to clear up or dry off. Fortunately, the Cyclist team has a wealth of experience when…

powered by Day Seven: Bassenthwaite to Threshfield To download this route go to komoot.com/tour/225713220 or scan the QR code. Follow the A66 alongside Bassenthwaite Lake until the turning for Thornthwaite. Follow this road to the B5289, which leads to Brackenthwaite. Turn left and follow signs to Ennerdale Bridge, then Eskdale Green. Turn left to Ambleside, cross Lake Windermere and continue towards Kendall. Take the A684 through Sedbergh to Hawes. Pick up the road for Gayle and continue over Fleet Moss, joining up with the B6160, which leads to Threshfield. Tips to stay on track No7: Hide the Tour line When planning routes on a laptop, hold down the ‘m’ key to remove the blue Tour line and see the type of road you’ll be riding. You can also use the…