Cyclistの Summer 2019 の目次

This year’s Tour de France celebrates the 100th anniversary of the yellow jersey – possibly the most iconic item of clothing in the history of sport. To mark the centenary, Tour organiser ASO has come up with a wheeze whereby each of the yellow jerseys handed out at the end of each stage will be emblazoned with a famous image from the past. These include landmarks of the Tour, such as the Col du Tourmalet, the Galibier and the Arc de Triomphe, as well as the Tour’s five-time winners: Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. What this means is that if Britain’s Chris Froome is leading the GC at the end of Stage 15 this year, he will be awarded a yellow jersey with a picture of…

Aldhu cranks £225, Aldhu DM 1x chainring £124, Q-ring inner chainring £40, Q-ring outer chainring £99, DM spider £30, Aldhu DM 2x chainring £159, velotechservices.co.uk Despite the recent release of Rotor’s 1x13 groupset, the Spanish brand is really best known as purveyor of cranksets. As such, it has amassed a dizzying array of products: cranks, chainrings, power meters and axles. Compatibility could easily become a problem, but Rotor has cleverly designed each component to work as part of a modular system. Want a direct-mount 1x set-up with a power meter on a 30mm axle? Done. How about spider-mounted 2x Q-rings on a 24mm axle? No problem. It means a rider should be able to assemble a set-up to suit any bike or riding preference. What’s more, they should be able…

£299, wahoofitness.com The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘roam’ as a verb that means ‘to move about or travel aimlessly or unsystematically, especially over a wide area’. That’s ironic considering Wahoo’s latest GPS aims to keep you on track with improved mapping features that will automatically tweak your route if you go exploring new roads or trails. The Elemnt Roam can also plot a course to get you to a pre-downloaded route if you are not at the start, and it allows you to save destinations as you go – a cool cafe, for example – and instantly route you back there if you want. For the first time Wahoo has introduced a colour display, saying it ‘enhances the user experience’ by making the screen easier to read. More efficient battery…

There are few more rewarding feelings than riding into crisp, fresh air at the start of the day – before the morning rush hour and the traffic that comes with it. Of course, that does come at the price of the piercing sound of an early morning alarm, and often a chilly start to your ride. So it’s important to soften that blow where possible. Enter dhb’s Aeron Speed collection. Whether you’re aiming for a marginal improvement to your training level, or the satisfaction of setting a personal best on your local loop before work, dhb promises that its Aeron Speed range will provide a dash of comfort in amongst the challenges. It also showcases the impressive technical expertise that dhb has amassed – and continues to improve upon thanks…

Our ride in the heart of the Dévoluy Massif is neatly bookended by two electronic signs laden with significance. The first is on an overhead motorway gantry as we make the two-hour transfer from Marseille airport. It reads: Vous n’etes pas une machine – faites une break (‘You are not a machine – take a break’). The second greets us as we finish our 118km ride over six cols, just as it starts raining. It’s outside a bakery, and the flashing neon sign says simply: Pain. Give peace a chance The day starts and finishes in Veynes on the bank of the Le Petit-Beuch river in the department of Hautes-Alpes. After following the course of the river for a short distance, the road shakes off the last vestiges of civilisation…

‘Race Across America is really a metaphor for life,’ says Seana Hogan. ‘There’s something about it that lets you know you’re living. It makes you feel alive. You have to live in the moment and even enjoy the painful moments, as you can’t experience the good without the bad.’ She should know. Hogan won the Race Across America (RAAM) six times between 1992 and 1998. She then took a break before returning to the sport in 2013, and has since won two age group titles in the 50-59 category. She is a legend of the event. The Californian’s fastest time over the 4,686km route (which varies slightly from year to year) is nine days, four hours and two minutes in 1995. That’s an average of 21.3kmh, inclusive of sleep and…

‘I used to be a tennis player but my dad was always saying, “Get a bike.” Then I got injured and as part of my rehab I was using a spinning bike in a gym,’ says Scarab Cycles’ Santiago Toro. ‘I was like, “If this thing is interesting staring in a mirror, what about being outside?” I got a bike and now my tennis racquets hang in the hall. ‘Before long I was riding so much that my dad said, “Let’s start a bike business together.” So five years ago I found Agustin, a traditional framebuilder here, one of the last in Colombia. He was not aware of the trends going on around him, so we updated his brand and made a commercial push using new materials and technology. ‘Unfortunately…

Tiredness is getting the better of me. That’s not unusual on a sportive, but in this case it’s 7.30am and the event hasn’t even started yet. Like a child on Christmas Eve, excitement and anticipation got the better of me and sleep last night proved elusive. As I wait at the start line of the Gran Fondo Alberto Contador, the only thing stopping me from drifting off is the thump of Europop emanating from the giant speakers, interspersed with a bit of U2. No one can sleep through that. I slap myself awake and take in my surroundings. The start line is at the Oliva Nova beach and golf resort, a stone’s throw from a beautiful stretch of coastline on Spain’s Costa Blanca, around 75km south of Valencia. I’m surrounded…

THE SPEC  Model Time Alpe d’Huez 01 Groupset Shimano Ultegra Di2 Disc Deviations None Wheels Zipp 303 Firecrest Disc Finishing kit Time Ergodrive bars, Time Monolink stem, Time carbon seatpost, Selle San Marco Aspide Superleggera saddle, Continental GP4000S II 25mm tyres Weight 7.68kg (large) Price €9,426 (approx £8,350) Contact time-sport.com Do you remember the Citroën CX, that 1970s car that would rest on its haunches when parked but would rise up on its hydropneumatic suspension when the engine started? The idea was this gave the car an ultra-smooth ride, the suspension system self-levelling regardless of load or terrain. Oddly, the CX found huge favour in horse racing circles because massive TV cameras could be mounted to the roof and the car driven alongside the track without giving shaky images. While…

Col Of The Wild Poc Octal helmet, £180 2pure.co.uk Oakley Jawbreaker sunglasses, £175 oakley.com Sportful Hot Pack 6 jacket, £90 c3products.com Sportful Italia CL jersey, £75 c3products.com Galibier Campionissimo leather mitts, £25 galibier.cc Sportful Total Comfort bibshorts, £130 c3products.com Defeet Aireator 6in Shield socks, £10 i-ride.co.uk Fizik R1 Infinito shoes, £324.99 fizik.com Col du Tourmalet Specialized S-Works Prevail II helmet, £175 specialized.com Café du Cycliste Octopus cap, £27 cafeducycliste.com Oakley Radarlock Path sunglasses, £195 oakley.com Café du Cycliste Marina jersey, £141 cafeducyclist.com Café du Cycliste Annabelle bibshorts, £204 cafeducyclist.com Café du Cycliste socks, £18 cafeducyclist.com Specialized S-Works 7 shoes, £325 specialized.com Bikes TIME Bell Z20 MIPS helmet, £209.99 zyrofisher.co.uk 100% Speedcraft sunglasses, £179.99 madison.co.uk Le Col Pro jersey, £120 lecol.cc Le Col Pro Blackout bibshorts, £165 lecol.cc Le Col by…

Ican’t help feeling self-conscious as we saunter across the car park to the cafe at the top of Box Hill wheeling a pair of e-road bikes. There is an unexpectedly large number of cyclists around for a Thursday, and I’m nervous that people will be judging us. Those are e-bikes – that’s cheating! No disapproving glances come our way, however. ‘I don’t think anyone’s noticed,’ James says in hushed tones as we join the queue for coffee. That’s not entirely surprising. To the untrained eye, the Orbea Gain M10 and Pinarello Nytro look like ordinary road bikes. In fact, the latter cuts an uncannily similar silhouette to Pinarello’s Grand Tour-winning Dogma. Many people seem to think that e-bikes simply add a heap of extra watts to your own efforts. That’s…

£144.99, time-sport.com Just shy of £145 will usually buy you all but the most premium pedals in most brands’ ranges, but in Time’s Xpro series it only gets you on the bottom rung of a ladder that rises to the £400 Xpro15s, in all their ceramic-bearing, titanium-axled glory. That isn’t to say the Xpro10s are entry-level. The axle is hollow steel and the pedal body is carbon composite, as is the blade that provides the spring tension. It means that each pedal weighs a competitively low 113g despite having a claimed 725mm2 contact surface with Time’s proprietary ‘Bioposition’ cleats. They even have a fairing that covers the pedal to help with aerodynamics – not something usually found on the cheapest pedals in a range.…

High intensity interval training (HIIT) aims to squeeze the most gains from a workout in the shortest possible time. That’s great news if you don’t have hours to spare, but the trade-off is you need to be prepared for a fairly punishing session, as Wattbike training consultant Dr David Nichols explains. How HIIT works ‘HIIT involves repeated short and very hard efforts interspersed with periods of light pedalling or even complete rest,’ says Nichols. ‘By training well above the FTP (functional threshold power), HIIT stresses both the anaerobic and aerobic energy systems. With each repeated bout we rely more on aerobic energy as we deplete anaerobic reserves. ‘HIIT can even have some benefit for longer rides,’ he adds. ‘But it’s not a silver bullet, and a combination of HIIT with…

To download this route, go to cyclist.co.uk/89france. From the centre of Veynes, take Avenue Picasso to the river and turn left. At the T-junction, turn right and cross the river. Follow this road over the Col d’Espréaux to the village of Barcillonnette. Take a left at the village square to the Col de Foureyssasse. Go through Sigoyer and Pelleautier until the road becomes the D994 to Gap. From Gap, take the D92 signposted to Romette and the Col de Manse. At the T-junction, turn left in the direction of Saint-Bonneten-Champsaur where you turn left following the signs for Col du Noyer. Turn left at Le Noyer and keep climbing. Once over the col, bear right to Le Dévoluy, then left up the climb to Rioupes. Keep on this road, which…

As the riders line up for the start of the 74th edition of Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday 3rd April 2019, one Belgian team can bask in the satisfaction of knowing they already have 20 wins under their belt. Sadly for Lotto-Soudal, they are not that team. Lotto-Soudal are the ‘other’ Belgian team. They have a respectable six wins of their own at this early stage in the season, but they are completely overshadowed by the giants of Deceuninck-QuickStep. ‘They are Manchester City and we are Fulham,’ says Arne Houtekier, Lotto-Soudal’s head of communications. ‘The Belgian media try to compare us but it’s a false comparison. Their budget is 50% greater than ours, which can all go on rider salaries. They’re aiming to be the best team in the world.…

‘Crossed Tourmalet. Very good road. Perfectly feasible.’ Rather than write an extra 993 words, it’s tempting to leave my summation of this Classic Climb at that. For that’s reportedly how Alphonse Steinès communicated his passage over the famous climb after doing a recce for organiser Henri Desgrange ahead of its initial inclusion in the 1910 Tour de France. Steinès, I think it’s fair to say, was the sort of person who liked to look on the bright side of life. He and the Black Knight from Monty Python would have got on famously. ‘Only a flesh wound!’ ‘Merely a hillock!’ Octave Lapize called the Tour organisers ‘murderers’ during the first stage to feature the climb Steinès, you see, had indeed crossed the Tourmalet, but only just. Having abandoned the car…

Medellín rises out of the jungle like a comic book city. At its heart are clusters of skyscrapers, yet these slender giants are themselves overlooked by the favelas, whose ramshackle brick-cement houses cling to the upper slopes of the Andes mountains nearly a kilometre higher still. Medellín’s airport is just 35km away, but even in the late evening the journey down National Route 56 – affectionately known to Colombian cyclists as ‘Las Palmas’ – takes over an hour. In another place on Earth, Las Palmas would seem tantalising but quite unsuitable for cycling. It’s a 12km climb from the city’s edge to 2,529m, averaging 7% and peaking at 14%, and is heavily used by a slew of HGVs and breakneck motorists snaking up and down its four lanes. But this…

Sharp, responsive handling combined with a composed and planted feel on descents made the Giant TCR Advanced Pro the perfect companion for this event. Although Giant’s TCR frame has been around for over 20 years, its compact geometry has influenced countless other manufacturers’ designs and just works incredibly well. It allows an aggressive position that never feels too stretched out or uncomfortable, and for a ride of this duration the combination of raciness and comfort is exactly what was required. The addition of Shimano’s Ultegra Di2 disc brakes made descending a joy (when I remembered which way round the brakes were fitted), and the bike was nimble up climbs despite the weight penalty from the discs. The shifting was flawless, and Giant’s lightweight SLR1 carbon wheels rolled beautifully and responded…

It’s rare to find a bike brand non-cyclists are more likely to be familiar with than cyclists. KTM is one of them. Based in Austria, KTM is Europe’s largest manufacturer of motorbikes, known best for its range of enduro and motocross models. There have been a number of brands that have tried to bridge the gap between automotive engineering and bike design, and arguably KTM has managed it more successfully than most. It’s no newbie to bike building either, having made its first frames back in 1964. Two decades later it began to produce dedicated road bikes, and has since become a big player across Europe, although it has considerably less presence in the UK. The Lisse is KTM’s aero road bike, and at first glance it certainly looks fast.…

To paraphrase Murray Walker, you could have cut the tension in the peloton paddock with a cricket stump. Stage 17 of the 2018 Tour de France was meant to inject some excitement into proceedings by having the riders gridded like a Formula 1 race, so some would have an advantage over others before the gun had even been fired. It was innovative, daring and untried – anything could happen! As it turned out, it was about as anticlimactic as Lewis Hamilton winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. It took all of 30 seconds before Geraint Thomas in the yellow jersey was surrounded by his Sky lieutenants and order was restored. In fact, it wasn’t the F1 start that stood out that day, but the fact that at…

Colnago is a name that is automatically associated with tradition. Yet the weight of history has never prevented the brand from embracing contemporary technology. The E64 e-bike is a case in point, blending as it does the look and naming structure of Colnago’s iconic C-series dynasty with the latest e-bike drive system. The E64 blends the look of the C-series with the latest e-bike drive system However where Colnago’s C-series bikes are made using a tube-and-lug method, the E64 is made using a monocoque construction and simply painted to look the same. Colnago says this was the most effective way to incorporate ebikemotion’s X35 battery and control system, and means the only thing that visually sets it apart from Colnago’s regular C-series collection are the ebikemotion iWOC control button on…

Of all the brands featured on these pages, Cube’s rise to prominence is arguably the most recent. Yet it has long recognised the potential of e-road bikes, and the Agree Hybrid C:62 SL Disc was actually one of the first dedicated e-road bikes to hit the market in 2017. It might have arrived even sooner but Cube insisted on waiting for a motor system that allowed it to replicate the feel of a regular road bike as closely as possible. Cube wanted to replicate the feel of a regular road bike as closely as possible Fazua’s Evation system weighs under 5kg, keeping the bike’s overall weight to 13.5kg, and is compact enough for Cube to use a similar geometry to its non-electric Agree road platform. ‘Road bikes have a…

‘Ten to 15 seconds and the Porsche is at full chat. That’s the worst part. If anything is going to fail it’s during that initial tow off the line. The early section on the runaway is terrible but once I’m up to 100mph I can relax a bit, as by that point the surface is smooth. Then I really have to start putting in the effort, limbs flying everywhere, blowing out my arse, hurtling down the runway at 150mph. Then at the second timing gate I’m pulling a handful of front brake and have 400m to come to a stop. It’s all only a minute long. It’s objectively insane.’ Neil Campbell is explaining what it’s like to pedal a bike along Elvington Airfield at 149.16mph – or 240.01kmh if you…

1 CAMELBAK PODIUM BOTTLES From £11.99, zyrofisher.co.uk The strangest gift ever given for topping a Tour de France podium must surely be the 1,800kg bull awarded to Luis Herrera in 1985. Unfortunately Herrera hails from Colombia, so the bull ended up spending two months at the El Dorado airport, wandering the duty frees looking for Toblerone, before it could be delivered to his preferred address. Camelbak’s latest Podium bottles, however, are somewhat easier to transport, and are the perfect reward for the winner inside all of us. Sadly, Herrera reported that the bull died of a virus in 1993. 2 DRYSURE ACTIVE SHOE DRYER £24.99, drysure.co While one’s posterior has the surface area and warmth necessary to dry a damp chamois on the go, feet by comparison are…

Hitting the wall – often called ‘bonking’ in cycling circles – refers to the distinct point when you run out of stored carbohydrate energy so riding starts to feels exponentially harder than it should. You know it’s a true bonk when you would happily pay £15 for a can of Coke or a Mars bar because your brain is craving sugar that much. The bonk is different to the kind of ‘blow up’ that happens more suddenly when you’ve gone too hard for a very short period of time and run out of anaerobic energy. The bonk can strike even when you’re riding at a steady, aerobic pace. To avoid it we first have to understand it. There is more danger of bonking on longer rides, because clearly there is…

TRAVEL Oliva, on Spain’s east coast, is a similar distance from both Alicante and Valencia airports, taking about an hour by car from both. ACCOMMODATION Cyclist stayed at the Oliva Nova beach and golf resort in Oliva, which handily is where the gran fondo begins and ends. It’s only a two-minute stumble from the main hotel building to the start line. The hotel is extremely welcoming to cyclists, allowing riders to store bikes in bedrooms as well as offering excellent and hearty buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There’s also a full spa service for post-ride recovery. Double rooms start at around £200 per night including breakfast. For more information visit olivanova.com. THANKS Special thanks to Laura Meseguer, press coordinator for the Gran Fondo Alberto Contador, for arranging our place…

When I first saw the Titici F-RI01, I’ll admit my heart sank a little. The squashed-flat top tube emblazoned with the mandatory three-letter acronym – PAT (Plate Absorber Technology) – suggested a bike trying a bit too hard to find something to make itself stand out from the crowd. But then I rode it. Shame on me for my presumption, because the Titici didn’t just impress me out on the road, it really impressed me. I still wince at the silly acronym, but I’m happy to concur that PAT, which Titici claims improves shock absorption by 18% compared to a ‘standard tube’, does afford the frame a palpable degree of additional comfort. The unique top tube shape also plays its part in preserving the lateral and torsional stiffness required to…

E-bikes are booming. Electric-powered bicycles in all their forms are among the fastest-growing areas of the bicycle market, and e-road bikes are helping lead that charge. It’s not that we’re all getting lazy – in fact you could argue it’s just the opposite, as e-bikes have the potential to get more of the population cycling. The appeal of e-bikes certainly now goes far beyond the outdated perception of them as simply vehicles for old people. You might not want to arrive at your place of work dripping in sweat, for instance. Or maybe you want to keep up with a stronger partner or club run, or you might just want a bit of help to tow the kids around in a trailer at the weekend. A helping hand from a…

At a time just a couple of years ago when most other road-specific e-bikes were heavy and bulky, Orbea’s aluminium Gain D10 cut an impressively svelte figure – in fact, from certain angles you’d be hard pressed to tell it was an e-bike at all. Even its 13kg weight didn’t necessarily give the game away – yes, it was heavy for a traditional road bike, but was still far lighter than most other e-bikes at the time. With its new carbon-framed Gain M10, the Spanish brand has closed the gap to a traditional road bike further: the bike is now lighter, at 11.3kg, and the drive system even more smoothly integrated than before. The idea, says Orbea, is to ‘enhance your ride, rather than dominate it’ What allows the…

It’s a powerful statement in itself that a brand with Pinarello’s racing heritage was one of the first to come to market with an e-road bike. But what’s more, the Nytro looks remarkably similar to Pinarello’s top-of-the-line thoroughbred, the Dogma – vindicating the Italian marque’s belief that there was no reason these previously opposed sectors of the market couldn’t be brought together. The geometry is very similar to the Dogma’s too, with the intention that the Nytro should still handle just like a high-end road bike. To a similar end, Pinarello has used the Fazua Evation motor system and battery, meaning the Nytro weighs just over 13kg overall (size 55cm). The geometry ensures the Nytro should handle like a high-end road bike The compact Fazua unit slots neatly into the…

The e-road market is developing rapidly right now, and British brand Ribble has positioned itself at the cutting edge of the sector with its Endurance SLe, claiming it has created the lightest design in the world. Ribble explains it wanted to ‘develop a product that would provide smooth and controlled power assistance when the rider needs it, but when power assistance wasn’t required would look and feel like a normal high-end road bike’. Every tube profile looks just as you’d expect from a regular high-end road bike That was the primary reason behind opting for ebikemotion’s rear hub-based X35 drive – despite delivering up to 250W of extra power it is compact and near-inconspicuous, weighing just 3.7kg. The end result is virtually indistinguishable from the non-electric Endurance SL version this…