Table of contents for September 2021 in Cyclist

Has there been a fairy tale to match it in the history of cycling? The former king of sprinting loses his powers and is written off by all as a has-been. But providence grants him one more chance… And, boy, did Mark Cavendish grab it. He wasn’t even meant to be at the Tour, but a series of fortunate events (fortunate for Cavendish, at least) saw him get a last-minute call up to the QuickStep squad, whereupon the tired, old Cav we saw in tears at last year’s Gent-Wevelgem was miraculously replaced by the confident, youthful Cav we remember, and the stage wins flooded in like it was 2008 all over again. Not since Greg LeMond returned from a near-fatal shooting accident to win the Tour de France in 1989,…

Yep, that’s nearly half a monkey for a pannier rack, but bear with us, because this is one of those rare pieces of kit that might just justify its whopping pricetag. The main draw here is versatility, or rather uni-versatility. The AeroPack fits any road or gravel bike, with one strut wrapping around the seatpost and the other two attaching to a modified quick release skewer or thru-axle. First installation takes less than two minutes, while subsequent removal or reinstallation takes seconds as there are no bolts to loosen, just sprung clips. The AeroPack comes with the Trunk Top Bag – fully waterproof, roll-top, 20-litre capacity – but if more stowage is your thing the rack is also available with pannier mounts (£289), which accommodate Tailfin’s proprietary pannier bags. Said…

Bontrager claims that the latest update of its entry-level road shoes brings advances in comfort, efficiency and aesthetics at a reduced price. The new Circuit shoes keep many of the same features of the previous version, including Boa L6 dials, toe strap closure and the nylon Bronze Series sole that gives them a 7/14 stiffness rating. This edition, however, swaps synthetic leather for a synthetic mesh and thermoplastic upper that gives a more conforming fit for added comfort and fewer wasted watts. It also introduces ‘zonal security flaps’, which are essentially bits of fabric that reduce the chance of pinching. At the rear, meanwhile, Bontrager has given the Circuit a stiff heel counter to help keep the foot as locked in as possible, which should further maximise power transfer. Trickle…

Mike Cubbage was never particularly interested in cycling. He had a successful career as a designer behind him, working as an air-conditioning draughtsman before moving to General Motors, where he helped convert a four-door Chevrolet into a new three-door hatchback. Then one day an old Y-framed Trek mountain bike parked at a local college caught his eye. ‘I saw it and thought, “I could do that.” So I went home and designed a frame that was two flat aluminium plates held apart by a ladder construction. I then took it to show a mountain bike magazine in Bath and the guys quite liked it but the managing director asked, “What other materials can you make the frame from?” When I said I could do it in laminated wood he told…

1 PIRELLI P ZERO SMARTUBE £27.99, velo.pirelli.com According to tyrepress.com, Pirelli sits seventh in the table of global tyre manufacturers, with Michelin top. In terms of volume, mind, Lego eclipses them all, making 320 million tyres a year. All that might change now Pirelli has the ‘world’s lightest inner tube’ with its thermoplastic Smartube, which at 35g is little heavier than a toy tyre. It’s also 50% smaller than a butyl tube when rolled up, and it’s yellow. 2 SYNCROS WRENCH 2.0 TORQUE €69.95, syncros.com The reason returning Swedish battleships have barcodes is so they can Scandinavian. And the reason bolts on bikes have torque values is because carbon parts and clamps can be sensitive beasts. So treat yours right with this precision torque wrench set from Syncros, which includes…

It seems you can get away with doing less exercise and keep your endurance levels the same, just as long as you don’t skimp on intensity. In ‘Maintaining Physical Performance’, a paper published in The Journal Of Strength And Conditioning Research, researchers put a group of average individuals through a ten-week programme of 6x 40min sessions per week at 90-100% HRmax, and measured their vitals. The group was then split, with one group having frequency reduced from six sessions to four, the other to two, with volume and intensity maintained. Similar tests were then undertaken with a reduction in volume by 33% and 66% respectively, and a reduction in intensity to 82-87% HRmax or 61-67% HRmax. Results showed that decreasing frequency over 15 weeks had no big impact on VO2…

One hundred and fifty clicks east-north-east of where you’re standing, 3,630m above the sea and 2,400 times larger than a football pitch, the Rhône Glacier’s reach across Switzerland and France can’t be overstated. It’s the reason for the river to your left, and the reason 1,700 cubic metres of water flows into the Mediterranean Sea, 813km away, every second. In front of you is a much smaller manmade entity, half silhouetted, half glinting under the climbing sun. This is the UCI’s headquarters on the banks of the Rhône River in Aigle, Switzerland, and its reach across the cycling world cannot be overstated either. It would certainly explain the architecture, impenetrable and metallic, a drawbridge leading to its mouth as if a villain’s lair. Whether David Lappartient rides his BMX around…

Strange to think, but back in 1883 cycling power resided in Great Britain with the National Cyclists’ Union, whose championships conferred unofficial world status. But by the end of the century the NCU had made itself unpopular over rule nitpicking, and so Henry Sturmey, editor of The Cyclist (no relation) and latterly one half of the eponymous hub gears, sought to establish a new governing body, the International Cycling Association. The ICA too encountered problems when Great Britain argued for multiple team entries (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) to the new World Championships. This put Continental and New World noses out of joint and led to the French, Italian, Belgian, Swiss and US federations setting up their own governing body in Paris on 14th April 1900: the Union Cycliste Internationale,…

You can find out more about all of the various events at chasethesun.org. This route – Chase the Sun UK South – starts from the beach at Sheppey in the Thames Estuary and heads east. Pass through Rochester and wave at the castle before crossing the Medway and making your way across Kent, passing through Bromley along the way. The route bisects south London, passing Richmond Park, and takes in Bradley Wiggins’ 2012 Olympic time-trial route before continuing through Chertsey towards the West Country. Skirt south of Newbury, passing through the Vale of Pewsey and tackling the Mendip Hills to warm up for the biggest challenge of the day: the climb up Cheddar Gorge. From there you’re racing southwest to Blackford and then west again to the finish in Burnham-on-Sea.…

The worry for many riders is that adding compliance means taking away stiffness – something vital in a frame for efficient energy transfer Light, stiff, aerodynamic. This is the holy trinity of the racing bicycle industry, with its promise of extra speed for less effort. Compliance, on the other hand, seems to be the opposite of these traits, conjuring visions of flexible frames and slow, comfortable rides. In a sport that idolises suffering, some cyclists will always treat comfort with suspicion. But comfortable can also be fast. If a bike can reduce the amount of vibration coming from the road, it allows you to ride harder for longer, with less fatigue and less wasted energy. Comfort, it seems, is no longer just the preserve of sportive bikes but is an…

It’s 11pm. Check the road book for start times tomorrow. I’ve already done it three times today but I check again for good measure. Set alarm, charge batteries, clean lenses, transfer images to hard drive. Check alarm again. Turn off light. Now sleep. Except something isn’t right. What have I missed? Although my limbs are weary and begging me for some respite, I have a nagging feeling that’s keeping me awake. Do we have enough diesel? Yes, I filled it up today. Have I charged the laptop? Is the equipment out of the car and safely stored in the room? All the pictures have been filed to the agency and photography edited and sent with confirmation emails. What have I missed? What day is it today? Day five of the…

No Easy Days p112 Giro Aether Spherical helmet, £269.99 giro.co.uk SunGod Vulcans TF sunglasses, £125 sungod.co Castelli Perfetto RoS Light jersey, £160 saddleback.co.uk Castelli Free Aero Race 4 bibshorts, £150 saddleback.co.uk Castelli Superleggera socks, £17 saddleback.co.uk Specialized S-Works Record shoes, £350 specialized.com Bikes p125 PEARSON Met Trenta helmet, £200 met-helmets.com Roka Matador sunglasses, £200 roka.com Velobici Monti jersey, £190 velobici.cc Velobici Monti bibshorts, £190 velobici.cc Giro Empire E70 Knit shoes, £219.99 giro.co.uk SHAND Lazer Sphere helmet, £119.99 freewheel.co.uk 100% Hypercraft sunglasses, £169.99 freewheel.co.uk Maap Evade Pro Base jersey, £137 maap.cc Maap Team Bib Evo bibshorts, £195 maap.cc Attaquer Skull socks, £18.95 attaquercycling.eu Rapha Explore shoes, £220 rapha.cc…

This limited edition of Hutchinson’s Fusion 5 Performance tubeless-ready road tyres boasts a new Gridskin sidewall reinforcement that claims to improve performance and reduce environmental impact. The French brand says the mesh build of its Gridskin ‘isolates external damage’, thus minimising the development of bigger holes and punctures while also improving grip and comfort. Moreover, Hutchinson claims the addition means the process requires less plastic, rubber and manufacturing energy, with the lack of sidewall labels reducing waste further still.…

Wolftooth’s WT-1 might be its first attempt at a chain lubricant but the company has extensive experience in producing drivetrain parts, so it makes some pretty bold claims for its new lube. Wolftooth says it should last up to five times longer than other lubes as well as actively clean the chain it is applied to. The WT-1’s durability claims are based on its high lube-to-carrier fluid ratio of 95:5. Wolftooth says other lubes typically contain just 20-50% lube. It also contains a ‘detergent-like’ additive, which the manufacturer says penetrates the structure it is applied to, bringing dirt to the surface where it can be wiped away.…

Although tubeless tyre technology for road bikes has been around since 2006, there is still no universally adopted system to guarantee precise fitment between wheel and tyre brands. What’s more, tubeless tyres are getting lighter and more supple, making punctures more likely. These factors are creating a perfect storm that means good quality sealant is more important than ever. First off, why do you need sealant? ‘Tubeless sealant is a liquid placed in the cavity created by the rim channel and tyre,’ says James Wellman of Paligap, UK distributor for Stans NoTubes, which was the first bike sealant and has now been around for 15 years. ‘Its primary role is to stop air from escaping your tubeless tyre setup when you get a puncture, allowing you to keep cycling.’ ‘Sealant…

You can’t out-train a bad diet, the saying goes, but eating healthily doesn’t have to be a chore, even if mealtimes take up time you’d rather spend riding. And we can help. Nutritionist Mayur Ranchordas is a Reader in nutrition and exercise metabolism at Sheffield Hallam University as well as a performance nutrition consultant who works with Premier League football players and referees, professional cyclists and triathletes. He is also one of the brains behind Amunra ‘performance coffee’, a brew that contains the optimum amounts of caffeine and polyphenols to aid performance and maximise post-exercise recovery (see page 36). Ranchordas has devised the perfect day’s menu for the busy cyclist, based around an evening ride. We know you’re not going to ride at 6pm every day, but you can adjust…

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/117swiss or scan the QR code. Starting at the UCI headquarters in Aigle in the canton of Vaud, ride south along the bike path edging the Rhône for 7.5km, turning left at the bridge over the motorway and joining the road at Route de Placettes. Turn left onto Route de la Torme, then after a low stone bridge fork right and briefly continue parallel to the train tracks before taking the next left through the vineyards. Follow signs to Bex, then onto Route de Gryon. From here you’re into mountains and onto the Col de la Croix and it’s a case of taking the road up, following signs to Les Diablerets. At Les Diablerets follow the Route du Pillon road (the next col) past…

Chase the Sun now departs from multiple locations on the same sunrise, giving riders a choice of geographies to explore. Chase the Sun North is a double-century, which takes in the best of the English/Scottish borders from Tynemouth to Prestwick. The ride passes through stunning vistas of wilderness, heath, rivers, lochs, castles and beaches, aggregating a total elevation of 3,200m. But if foreign – and warmer – climes are you thing, Chase the Sun Italia is described as ‘the most romantic long distance cycling challenge in the world’ and departs from the Adriatic Sea on its way to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Leaving from Cesenatico, the ride meanders across Tuscan hills and vineyards, through Florence and even skirts the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and covers a total distance of 270km with…

Looking back, I had remarkably few mechanical problems over the course of my 2,500km, 14-day journey – for which I give thanks to the cycling gods. Other than the usual batch of punctures, I only had to replace a rear tyre once and repair a chain. But, had I been required to strip the bike down to its constituent parts and rebuild it afresh, I could have done, because I was superbly equipped with a set of Pro tools, as well as spare Hutchinson tyres and inner tubes. Pro’s products are of exceptional quality and there’s a tool for every conceivable job – many of them way beyond my mechanical ability. What’s more, Pro does a big range of toolkits, from a full pro setup to the bare minimum basics,…

I didn’t realise it at the time, but it was my old mate Andy’s dad, Roger, who first piqued my road bike interest. Roger rode from England to France once, which blew my eight-year-old mind, especially when he said that of course he rode all the way, pedalling round and round the deck of the ferry. He had this Sunn bike – a 1990s French brand – whose brake levers somehow moved sideways to change gears. Their neatness was mesmerising; I wanted them dearly. Looking back, those levers must have been some of the earliest Shimano STI shifters, and frankly, wow! What more could you want? Yet look at bikes now and aren’t we spoiled? The tech is incredible. But you pay for it. Or do you? OK, £5,300 for…

Italy has Veneto, the US has New England, and Scotland has… Livingstone. Perhaps not as entrenched in cycling lore as the home of Italian or American framebuilders it’s true, but Livingstone (population 57,000 and not to be confused with the city in Zambia) is where clothing company Endura calls home, and also Shand, maker of this bike here, the Stooshie. But unlike the Colnagos or Parlees of this world, which farm out much of their making to overseas factories, everything Shand does is done in Scotland. It is a proper bike company, and the Stooshie is a proper bike. Cue the clichés ‘The Stooshie is a real jack-of-all-trades, quiver killer, Swiss Army bike – insert cliché here,’ says Shand’s Saul Ayton. ‘It’s like a modernised version of our flagship Stoater,…

Some will point to his time-trial win in Laval on Stage 5. Or perhaps his performance on Stage 8 in the Alps to Le Grand-Bornand. Or the following day to Tignes, where although he didn’t win either stage, he claimed large amounts of time and chipped even bigger chunks from the morale of his opponents. Or may be his back-to-back stage wins in the Pyrenees, although by then the Tour de France was all but done and dusted. However, arguably the most significant thing that Tadej Pogačar did in the course of winning his second successive Tour was actually something that he did not do. He didn’t fall off and seriously injure himself in any of the huge crashes that marred the early few stages of this year’s race. ‘There…

Early in the morning of the fifth stage of the 1989 edition of the Tour de France, José De Cauwer, the sports director of Greg LeMond’s ADR team, could be found pushing a bicycle through the corridors of a hotel in Brittany. De Cauwer was looking for the room of Claude Jacquat, the head of the Tour’s race jury. Jacquat had barely woken when he heard De Cauwer knocking on his door and angrily answered while still wearing his dressing gown. ‘What are you doing here?’ he barked. ‘Are you crazy?’ De Cauwer was not crazy. In fact, he had a very good reason for risking the wrath of Jacquat so early in the morning. Months before the Tour, LeMond had ridden a practice time-trial with some new aero bars…

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If time permits and you fancy something a little different during your stay, this area of Switzerland also offers up some excellent mixed-terrain riding, and this route out of Villars-sur-Ollon is an ideal morning freshener and is negotiable on a road bike despite its gravel sections. Start on the Col de la Croix road but after 5km fork right towards Coufin and climb on towards the village of Taveyanne. From here it’s the kind of unpaved roads you’d expect to find in Tuscany, so take this dusty climb up to a height of 1,755m, culminating in the ski town of Les Chaux. Then it’s a fast, sinuous descent on the road back to Villars-sur-Ollon. Given its proximity and length, the gravel sections of this ride could be shoehorned into the…

If you’d been walking down Boulevard des Déportés in the Breton town of Fougères on the morning of Stage 4 of the 2021 Tour de France, you might have spotted a bicycle rack outside a primary school. This particular bike rack is forged in the shape of a cyclist at speed, and on it you may have noticed the inscription that reads: ‘Mark Cavendish. 30 stage wins at the Tour de France including the stage Livarot-Fougères in 2015. Tour de France green jersey in 2011; World Champion 2011.’ And if you had retraced your steps later that day, after the hubbub of the Tour’s stage finish had died down, you might have seen a green jersey wearing cyclist arrive outside the school. You would have seen him jump off his…

It’s 3am on the Isle of Sheppey, a small adjunct off the northern coast of Kent. It has been a raucous night and a few remaining England fans are still celebrating last night’s emphatic 0-0 draw with Scotland. I’m heading to the start line of Chase the Sun. At 330km (or 205 miles in old money) it’s the longest one-day cycling event in the UK. ‘Riding from the first ray of sunrise to the last ray of sunset, coast to coast, on the longest day of the year,’ is the concept in a nutshell according to Olly Moore, the accidental founder of an event that this year has attracted more than 600 cyclists to this area of marshland some 70km from London. Undeterred by the brutally early start – that…

GETTING THERE A Chase the Sun bus service runs from Wandsworth Common and provides passenger, bike and bag transfer in any combination from London to ride HQ at Minster on the Isle of Sheppey. It also offers transport back to Minster the day after the ride, via a stop-off in London for those wishing to depart there. Alternatively, trains leave from London St Pancras to Sittingbourne approximately every 30 minutes. Change at Sittingbourne and continue to Sheerness station on Sheppey. Or you can cycle the remaining distance from Sittingbourne to race registration, which should take around an hour. ACCOMMODATION We stayed in the Shurland Hotel about 6km from the start, but for maximum convenience stay at ride HQ itself, the Abbey Hotel. Both are around £60 per night. Chase the…

A block headwind reduces me to walking pace, with my carefully planned schedule slowly going up in smoke One more coffee won’t hurt. At least that’s my rationale as I sit luxuriating in the early-morning sun, serenaded by birdsong and all thoughts of still needing to cycle 500km to get to Land’s End pushed firmly to the back of my mind. Compared to the previous few days’ exertions in the Welsh mountains I can’t help but think that today’s stage will be relatively straightforward. So when my mum offers to make me another coffee, I gladly accept. After almost two weeks of riding, my route has taken me to my home turf near Monmouth on the Welsh border. It’s certainly a pleasure to be fussed over by my family after…

Sram has for some time been widely seen as the most innovative of the big three groupset manufacturers. In 2015 the brand made its flagship Red groupset not just electronic, but wireless. Within a few years Sram had added an extra sprocket to the cassette and brought the wireless technology down a tier to its Force level components. In doing so Sram created its AXS family concept, whereby all components are cross compatible, not just between tiers but riding disciplines too. Rival eTap AXS is the extension of that, bringing that interchangeable 12-speed, wireless tech and power measurement down to a third tier and its most accessible price point yet. The manufacturer has done this mainly by changing the materials the groupset is made from and reducing some of the…