Table of contents for March 2017 in Cycling Plus

1 User friendly Most pocket-sized pumps can be a pain to use, with !ddly attachments and knuckle-on-spoke scraping an inevitable hazard. Not so with the Fabric R150, as the press-!t valve head extends out of the body using 100mm of rubber hose, making for easy in"ation from any angle. 2 Big air The 180mm long pump has a 100mm stroke holding 20cc of air for a maximum pressure of 120psi/8.3bar. The head works with both Presta and Schrader valves and can be switched between both via an easy-to-operate twist dial on the back of the head. 3 Built to last The R150 di#ers from most mini pumps in that it’s constructed using all metal parts for the body and shaft. The sandblasted !nish adds a little class, and the black…

Doing two weeks on that scale each day was off the chart in terms of physical and mental effort I’ve been fascinated by ultra-endurance challenges since I retired. I wondered how I’d respond to such extreme physical and mental pressure, and found out during the first of my two big challenges. Benali’s Big Run in 2014 had a concept linked to my past, where I ran 1000 miles over three weeks to all 20 Premier League stadiums. I wanted something that was big enough to capture people’s imaginations, push myself and raise as much as I could for a fantastic cause. In my case it was Cancer Research UK – we’ve been touched by cancer as a family, so the £265,000 we raised was pleasing. The day after finishing the…

B Twin is the house brand of the French sports supermarket Decathlon, which has 27 UK stores with two more on the way. Its business model allows it to sell bikes at prices its competitors can only dream of. But does a Flandersdesigned Shimano Sora-equipped bike for £450 – £350 as we go to press – mean corners have been cut? The first thing you notice is that the 520 has a triple chainset, the second thing is that Decathlon has gone to town and well beyond when kitting out the bike, a full nine-speed Sora groupset taking care of shifting and braking. The extra sprocket means smaller jumps, the extra ring more usable gears, though the 30x25 bottom gear is virtually identical to 34x30. The smaller jumps are welcome,…

When we get our grubby little mitts on a new bike, the first thing most of us do is lift it up to suss out its weight. The Giant Contend 2 felt light. A typical £500 road bike weighs around 10kg, this Giant nudges 9.5kg, which is roughly five per cent lighter than the Mekk and nearly 10 per cent lighter than the Merlin, which is a difference you can really feel. The Contend also looks much better in the flesh – or the metal – than it tends to in pictures, the colours more vibrant, the overall look neater, swankier and more expensive. Still, when you are the world’s biggest producer of quality bikes, even manufacturing some of your competitors’ bikes for them in your spare time, you should…

SPECIALIZED ROVAL CLX32 DISC £1700 › Tubeless-ready aero disc hoops MOST WANTED THE PREVIOUS GENERATION CLX40 WAS a firm favourite with us, combining a nicely shaped 40mm-deep aero rim with quality hubs for a wellpriced disc wheelset that rode well and proved tough enough for everything from road to cyclo-cross racing and gravel riding. Specialized claims the new CLX32s have better aero properties than the 40s, even though the rims are 8mm shallower. The new rim design is fully tubeless compatible; the wheels ship with unique spoke-hole plugs rather than tape, which Specialized claims saves weight over the usual tubeless rim tape. The 32s share the same aero-tuned hubset as the 60mm-deep aero wheels found on the Venge Vias Disc, with the new relatively shallow rim having a blunted shape.…

M ost of us would like to spend as much as we could get away with on a bike, but that’s almost certainly not a smart use of money. So, at what point are you still getting worthwhile gains for each chunk of cash you spend? After years of cheaper bikes getting better every season, have the recent economic and political events reset previous expectation benchmarks? To find out we selected three bikes that seemed to represent reasonable value at £1000, £2000 and £4000 and hit the roads to see whether the extra investment was rewarded. Not just any road either, we took our three contenders to Yorkshire to tackle the beautiful back roads and brutal climbs that form the heart of both Stage 2 and the women’s race of the…

HOW TO… Improving recovery time will give you the longterm adaptions you need to progress. In the short term it will allow you to hit those next sessions hard or, if you’re on multi-day ride, prepare you for that next day. THE BENEFITS The main nutrients needed for recovery are protein and carbohydrate, but sometimes you need a boost. Turmeric, with its main active ingredient curcumin, has been shown to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress [an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the body’s ability to counteract their negative effects] through curcumin’s anti-oxidant properties. Studies have shown that taking turmeric/ curcumin supplements – 200mg twice a day for two days pre-event and one day after – saw an increase in the speed of muscle recovery. Include black pepper…

1 ERGON TP1 PEDAL CLEAT TOOL £19.99 Ergon’s cleat fitting guide hinges open to allow comparison and alignment of both shoes at once, and enables accurate cleat fitting with clear grid lines for reference. Available for SPD, SPD-SL, Keo, Crank Brothers and Speedplay cleats. 2 NEW CLEATS - TIME ICLIC CLEATS PICTURED £15.99 Walking on your road cleats wears them out faster than cycling, and regular replacement is inevitable, so give your shoes a birthday before your old set fail. 3 LOCTITE 2700 THREADLOCKER £4.90 Pedal cleats need to be screwed on tight so they don’t move when you’re riding or trying to release from the pedals. Occasional checking is sensible, or adding a spot of this to each bolt’s thread when you fit them should do the job. 4…

M erlin’s PR7 got a bit of a reboot for 2016, creating a more modern look while still keeping the British company’s reputation for no-nonsense value. In spite of it being one of the cheapest bikes on test, Merlin’s choice of frame material and components is on a par with most of the opposition. The RRP is £450 but it’s presently available for just £349.95 or £399.95, which surprisingly depends on frame size – you’ll shell out £50 more for the two larger frames. The 6061 aluminium frame is paired with a carbon fibre fork with an aluminium steerer, while Shimano’s eight-speed Claris groupset is at the heart of the kit. Claris did as well here as with the Boardman, with consistent and accurate gear changes, and though we don’t…

L ike Giant, Specialized is one of cycling’s big hitters, with a history dating to the 1970s and, more recently, great success in the world’s biggest bike races. It has also achieved a similar level of ubiquitousness among Britain’s cycling fraternity. This is because, as with Giant, it produces the sort of bikes people want and at affordable prices. The E5 is the entry point for Specialized’s Allez range of aluminium road bikes, and it looks the business, with a simple but strikingly vivid red paintjob that wouldn’t be out of place on a bike costing much more. It weighs 9.62kg, a shade more than the Giant but nearly a bag of sugar less than the Merlin. This was the bike that turned most heads, but can that aesthetic appeal…

From its launch in 2009, through its boom in 2011, to now, Strava and the way we use it has evolved and matured. From the early King Of the Mountain gold rush, Strava has grown into a social network and a potent training tool. Many still see it as the sole dominion of the excessively competitive and either don’t see the appeal or find it frustrating not being able to achieve goals. Even though it perhaps isn’t for everyone, it is for more people than ever. Here’s how to get involved... Follow a pro There are scores of top professional riders on Strava, and following a few gives an unprecedented level of access and insight into their race and training days, such as André Greipel’s peak power of 1698W while…

I didn’t ‘discover’ these climbs, nor are they hidden to the curious map-reader, but I consider them to be some of the Cent Cols’ secrets. Their discovery is reward for the brave riders who sign up for a Cent Cols Challenge; their severity the price to pay for an appetite for gradient. These climbs remain untouched by the majority of amateur cyclists, who still see the iconic climbs as the path towards cycling achievement. Are the hardest climbs the ‘best’? Yes, usually, because the harder the effort required, the more intense and memorable the experience. Also, the hardest roads are usually the most dramatic, both through their design and setting. Our list is in no particular order, and there are so many that didn’t make it, and more still waiting…

KNOWLEDGE TAKE A TRACK PUMP 1 For an ideal track pump aim for one with a long hose that accesses the valve easily while the bike�s wheel is off the ground. Get one with a gauge so you can easily assess the pressure too. TURN TO KEYS 2 A multi-tool is great for on-the-road repairs and adjustments but try to have a good set of Allen keys in your toolbox. A decent T-handle set with a ball end on the long side is a good place to start (this allows you access to awkward bolts with reduced risk of rounding). TALK THE TORQUE 3 Torque wrenches are available cheaply and you can get very compact bike-specific ones – the bonus to using them is that you avoid over-tightening anything, which…

WHAT IS THE ILIOTIBIAL BAND? The iliotibial band runs down the outside of the thigh from the iliac crest (the prominent part at the top of the pelvis) to the upper part of the shin. Working with the muscles around the hip and buttock, the band acts as a ligament and is essential to stabilise the knee. If you stand and slightly bend your knee, you can feel the band as a hard area of tissue. ILIOTIBIAL BAND SYNDROME Irritation of the band as it rubs over the outer part of the thigh bone can lead to iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS). This overuse injury causes outer knee pain that is worsened by activity. The knee can swell and you may feel or hear a ‘pop’ when bending the knee. Causes…

B ont’s original top-end lightweight race shoe has been reinvented for endurance riders, with the heat-mouldable, unique design now enhanced with the use of top-quality kangaroo leather and cowhide. These £349 road shoes might just be the last word in luxury for big-mile footwear, though not such good news for cattle and ’roos. ON THE RADAR BIKE TECH OF THE NEAR FUTURE SITTING COMFORTABLY? How low can you go when it comes to saddle weight? Well, Selle Italia’s carbon C59 weighs a scant 61g. Selle Italia also says that it delivers ‘unparalleled comfort’, as it should for a super-heavyweight £399! CANYON BOOST DISCS German online company Canyon has launched its least expensive discbraked road bikes to date. The aluminium Endurace AL range starts at £1199 with the Shimano 105-equipped AL…

I t may be winter, but there are still plenty of reasons to ride. Recently I went to my mum’s for the weekend. It’s 60 flat kilometres from York to Hull, and it was a fine day, so of course I cycled it. The same day, one of my cycling chums did similar, except he’s in Cambridge and his mum’s in Derby, 170km away. Obviously that’s not a suitable distance for a day ride. He’s an audax rider [participants attempt to ride long distances within a pre-defined time] – a keen member of Audax UK, the longdistance cycling association – so he expanded it to 200km. That way he could register it as a self-made audax, to add to his season’s day trips of 200s, 400s and 600s. There was…

I n just a decade Boardman Bikes has changed the face of British cycling. From a standing start the brand has garnered Olympic road and triathlon gold medals, but more significantly for the wider riding populace, its bikes have become some of the most popular among a new generation of cyclists. This has been helped by their widespread availability, initially through Halfords – which now owns the brand – but also by the popularity of founder, former pro Chris Boardman, as both cycling commentator and respected cycling activist. But the company cut its teeth producing bread-and-butter bikes such as this Boardman Road Sport. This has an RRP of £449.10 but is presently on sale for just £399.20. As with five of our test bikes, it comes with Shimano’s eight-speed Claris…

M ekk has been around for a few years now, the brainchild of long-time Brit bike industry stalwarts Mark Edwards and Ken Knight – their initials forming a handy acronym for the company moniker (where some other four-letter combinations might have proved, uhm, troubling…). The SE 0.1 is the entry point to the four-bike Pinerolo range, consisting of two aluminium bikes and a pair of carbon fibre machines, with Mekk’s carbon fibre Poggio road bikes above that. By now you won’t be surprised to hear that the SE 0.1’s kit is based around Shimano Claris and a threaded bottom bracket, though Mekk’s associated brand Saturae supplies most of the rest of the kit, including the good-looking chainset and Shimano-alike wheels. The 10.01kg weight is about average, pretty much halfway between…

THE EROS MAY not turn base metals into gold, but Alchemy has turned exotic and highly corrosionresistant titanium into a longdistance multi-surface all-rounder. It’s sold in the UK by Saddleback, which also distributes most of the brands showcased on the Eros. Alchemy was founded in Texas in 2008 before decamping to Denver in 2011, where it builds bikes from carbon fibre and stainless steel as well as titanium. According to Alchemy, the Eros features ‘stateof- the-art titanium craftsmanship [1] set against the guidelines of the American Welding Society… welds must be flush to the joint, no concave or convex welds and no undercutting’. A more familiar claim is that the Eros is designed ‘to be vertically compliant while maintaining lateral rigidity’. The Eros is available in satin with polished logos…

EAT RIGHT FOR EACH RIDE If your aim is to be lighter while keeping power output high, periodising nutrition around training is imperative. Fuel your rides with optimal glycogen stores but on rest or light training days reduce your calorie intake. If you need to top up your glucose levels on a ride do it with 30–60g of carbohydrates per hour. That’s a handful of jelly sweets, two gels or two medium ripe bananas. MIX GOING FAST To encourage fat burning it’s important to mix up your rides. Longer, fasted sessions are great to get the miles in and churn through the calories, but you may not be able to reach maximal power/speed potential in these sessions. Go for a maximum of two fasted rides a week. Look to include…

WHY WORRY Physical exercise is very beneficial in controlling weight, reducing cardiovascular disease, strengthening bones and muscles as well as improving your mental health and mood. However, what many people don’t realise is that too much exercise can have a negative impact on your immunity. The body produces two hormones during exercise – adrenaline and cortisol – which suppress white blood cells resulting in a temporarily weakened immune system for the 3-72 hours following an intense workout. This puts athletes, including cyclists, at a higher risk of upper respiratory tract infections. HOW CAN WE AVOID THIS? The key is to find the right level of exercise that challenges your body to maintain and increase fitness without overstressing it and increasing your chances of contracting an infection. More pronounced weakened immune…

Hip flexors may sound like a trendy gadget but they’re the muscles that can ruin a ride if not stretched correctly. LEARN TO LUNGE It’s possible to almost miss out stretching the hip flexors in a low lunge if you fail to push your hips forward, so don’t do the stretch with your backside sticking out! Many people have trouble detecting the position of their pelvis. If you’re unsure, reach around and slide a hand down your lower back. Rather than feeling the dip of your lower back or lumbar curve, you’re aiming for a flatter lower back. LUNGE LOW WITH A HIGH CHEST To perform a hip-flexor-stretching lunge correctly, lower down to all fours. Step your right foot up in between your hands and raise the upper body. Push…

If the peloton were a Rubik’s Cube, someone just indulged in a frenzy of twists and turns. Superficially it looks much the same as it did before, except that, seen from every angle, it has been disorientatingly re-aligned. The first sign of how devastating this re-configuration in the world of professional road racing was going to be came late last year when someone from Katusha posted a picture from its winter get together showing new signing, Tony Martin, clearly wearing red. On the one hand this makes sense, he’s now that team’s rider. On the other, Tony Martin never wears red, never has worn red and never should wear red. He’s a blue kind of rider, with large swatches of black, and on those frequent occasions when he’s representing his…