Table of contents for March 2019 in Cycling Plus

I don’t know about you but I’m not the biggest fan of politicians right now… However – and I’m definitely jumping the gun here – we’ve got an interview on page 86 with a man who, were he to make the move into the corridors of power would get my vote. Chris Boardman is into his second year as Manchester’s cycling commissioner and, as our piece reveals, he’s a man with a burning desire to change the public’s attitudes, habits and, ultimately, their lives by getting more people on bikes. That’s a policy that I’m more than happy to get behind for the whole of the country and not just Manchester. A bike lane to Number 10? ANY OTHER BUSINESS? Energy deficient Just before I started writing this I wolfed…

Marin’s long history as one of the original Californian mountain bike innovators has a big influence on the new Gestalt X11. Its design is derived from current hardtail mountain bike geometry with longer, slacker frames and shorter cockpits. Here Marin mixes a 71.5° head-angle with a mid-height stack (measured up from the bottom bracket to level with the top of the head tube) of 59.9cm on our 56cm frame. The wheelbase is long (102cm) but with the help of a 9cm stem, the reach is shorter than expected (38.7cm). The slightly steeper seat angle of 73° puts you in a forward, attacking position, but is offset by relaxed front end. It makes off-road handling superb, letting you stand on the pedals and sprint hard over the roughest surfaces, while the…

My two friends, Ivo and Luke Gavin, and I began our ride in Biarritz, France and finished at the cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. We chose to cycle the Camino in memory of my uncle Henry who walked the same route a year or so before he took his own life. The fourth day was the most challenging: 93 miles long with a climb that took 90 minutes We chose to cycle the northern route because it’s the hardest and crosses a number of mountain ranges, but we got off to a bad start. We managed to miss two flights to France - the first because of an issue with taking bikes on trains. Then, after returning to the airport the next day, we made it…

The Kinesis isolates you from wintry road slurry and delivers and engaging, enjoyable ride For a test with quite a broad spread of prices, the final reckoning has been tough. Every bike has its merits and we’d happily live with any of them as none were disgraced by torrential rain or standing water. Scott’s Speedster is great value, and makes a great out-of-the-box workhorse. Whyte’s Wessex has great design features and still looks sharp with its mudguards fitted. But while the Scott only slowed when confronted with hills, the Wessex had a strange tendency to turn drags and headwinds into harder work than would normally be expected. The Condor Italia is a high-class machine, with gorgeous looks and a ride to match. It has plenty of speed and was only…

IN THE DEEPEST WINTER WE tend to stop using standard road shoes and pedals, and switch to mountain bike-style shoes and double-sided SPDs. This is mainly because if the roads (or trails) are icy enough to force you to get off and push, mountain bike shoes are a lot easier to walk in – you’ll be far more sure-footed in them than you would be wearing stiff road shoes with non-treaded soles and big, pronounced cleats. If, like us, you like to keep riding whatever the weather (since anything is better than turbo training, right?), then Northwave’s Himalaya might just be the ultimate bad weather boot. Make no mistake, these are substantial boots – 545g each in a size 45. But when you consider the amount of protection they have,…

WE WERE MASSIVELY IMPRESSED WITH the 700c versions of Specialized’s Roval CLX 32 Disc wheels. According to the engineers who developed them in Specialized’s wind tunnel, those 32mm-deep wheels have a more aerodynamic profile than their 400mm-deep forebears. That same profile is present on this 650b wheelset. It’s tubeless compatible (or ‘2 Bliss Ready’ in Specialized speak) and can be set-up with either standard tubeless rim tape or Specialized’s rim plugs, which are included along with 12mm thru axle end caps, quick-release levers, fittings for quick-release frames and a pair of wheel bags. The rims’ wide internal width (20.7mm) means they’re perfectly suited to big-volume gravel tyres (we ran ours with 42mm Specialized Sawtooth tyres). We set them up tubeless using Specialized’s plugs, which was pretty easy and didn’t require…

Carbs 25g Bar size 35g Nutrition A decent no-nonsense bar. Low fat, no protein and 25g of fast-absorbing carbohydrate makes for a decent choice. It does, however, have a lot of additives to achieve the makeup and texture of this bar, and while none are bad for you, it does stand out when you compare it to some of the other bars on test that make much of their natural and/or organic ingredients. Taste Not our favourite here, with a more synthetic taste than some of the other offerings, and the rice paper on the outside of the bar is an acquired taste. It does, however, do a good job of preventing your fingers from getting sticky. APTONIA FRUIT BAR RED BERRIES £0.80 Carbs 26g Bar size 40g Nutrition 75%…

Carbs 35.7g Bar size 62g Nutrition This provides a decent hit of carbohydrate at 35.7g a bar, but it does also come with a big hit of fat at 11.4g per bar. If you consider the recommendation of fat for an endurance exercising individual is between 0.6-0.8g/kg of body weight (70kg = 56g) then one bar an hour on a three-hour ride will eat up most of your daily fat intake. A decent option for a long day out on the bike that isn’t overly performance-related. Taste No complaints here, it tastes like a good flapjack. The cinnamon is subtle and mixes well with the other flavours. BEST ON TEST MULE BAR CHOCOLATE ORANGE €2.00 Carbs 27g Bar size 40g Nutrition This bar is ideal for those bigger training rides…

Some people say that the best way to learn, is from your mistakes. A nice sentiment, but wrong! In reality, the best way to learn is from OTHER PEOPLE’S MISTAKES – you get all the knowledge and none of the pain. Clever, eh? So, with this in mind, Cycling Plus sidled up to a few unsuspecting riders, bribed them with a cup of coffee and some cake, and then slowly steered the conversation around to the subject of the worst cycling tight spots they’ve found themselves. You know the sort of thing: embarrassing tales of peloton pratfalls, clipped-in chaos and the like. The idea isn’t to laugh at these awkward, sometimes humiliating incidents (though they are often funny), but rather to hold them up as examples of what NOT to…

Tenerife, personally speaking, wasn’t always the land of altitude training and breathless cycling. Go back to 2002 and this fresh-faced youth was coming off the back of his A-Level exams and booked in for a two-week knees-up with my school mates. We had few ambitions aside from a rather futile attempt at putting the ‘player’ into Playa de las Américas, Tenerife’s party resort. In the shameful ignorance of youth, I don’t remember being aware of Mount Teide, the volcano, that dominates life on this Canary Island. My trip was all about late nights in Lineker’s Bar and late mornings eating fried-breakfast pizza. If the idea of going up to Teide’s summit was entertained, and I’m fairly certain it wasn’t, it would only have ever been on one of the quad…

Sweating in the mid-summer sun, pulse racing and lungs exploding, the gradient had just eased to 15 per cent when I heard the sound up ahead. A race helicopter? No, I had made that mistake at the start of the race when we passed a combine harvester. This wasn’t a pro race, after all. And it was too steep here for heavy farm machinery. Perhaps one of the camera drones that had been buzzing overhead, then? No, it sounded more like a chainsaw. A chainsaw? It couldn’t be. On a bend up ahead, two enthusiastic Hungarians decked out in mankinis and long, flowing blonde wigs were jumping up and down on the side of the road, shouting what I took to be words of encouragement. Fortunately, they had the decency…

Look out for our Best On Test award. We only give this to gear that really deserves your attention Here at Cycling Plus we take our testing seriously and have been putting road cycling products through their paces for 26 years. Our test team, led by senior technical editor Warren Rossiter, is the best in the business. They’ve got decades of cycling experience between them and know what makes a good – and bad – bike, accessory, gadget or garment. That means you can trust us to bring you honest assessments of every product we feature. If it gets our seal of approval then you can be sure that you’ll be bagging a great buy! FIRST RIDE First Ride sees our test team bring you their first impressions of the…

Some may have wondered if 1 April had come early when British Cycling revealed that, in collaboration with online training game Zwift, it would be launching a new national cycling championship for ‘gamers’. For many others, this was a logical extension of the indoor training revolution, and the gamification that goes with it. For the naysayers, Zwift is as close to cycling as Pro Evolution Soccer is to playing football The first-ever British Cycling eRacing Championships, scheduled for February this year, is the headline act of a new partnership with Zwift. A series of qualifying rounds at entrants’ homes leads to a Zwift-based final at a venue TBC between the top ranked riders, who’ll compete for a coveted national champion’s jersey (like all such jerseys, it can only be used…

Shakespearean houses, salubrious honey-coloured towns, wonky half-timbered cottages, Cotswold views – Warwick is lovely country to cycle in, with gentle hills and landscapes. Once off the busy A roads it’s all quiet lanes, with options for all riders. Stratford’s close at hand, but less-touristy Warwick is our base, with an awesome castle, big-town facilities in a small, friendly place, and easy rail access. ROUTE ONE Cotswold canter, 68 miles A tower of strength A thoroughly delightful day of mild climbs and downhills on back lanes, with quaint villages, handsome small towns, and fine vale views everywhere. How about coffee in Ilmington, and a picnic at Dover’s Hill? Followed by selfies at the remarkable Broadway Tower, cake in Moreton, then easy lanes and roads home. Get the route: tinyurl.com/plus-tower ROUTE TWO…

Mudguards are oddly named, because they’re rarely used to fend off mud. For road riders, they’re more accurately described as liquid filth guards, as the mixture of whatever dirt is on the road and rainwater is what ends up getting sprayed over your legs, back and face during a ride. Your bike bears the brunt of the assault though, with a steady stream of wet muck coating the drivetrain and almost everything else, which can seriously curtail its lifespan. If you commute by bike in the UK, you’ll definitely feel the benefit of a machine augmented with mudguards, and if you enjoy racking up winter miles, then having a bike that’s ready, willing and able to handle the worst weather makes it easier to get out of the door. Your…

What's your abiding memory of last year’s Tour de France? Geraint Thomas adorned in yellow on the Champs Élysées? The unique – and never to be repeated – grid-style start of stage 17? Protesting farmers, pepper spray and peloton tears? All memorable, all completely redundant when it comes to improving your performance. Unlike the findings from cycling’s global innovators, such as the sports scientists, coaches and riders, who descended on Nantes, a couple days before the Tour began in Noirmoutier-en-l’Île, for the Science & Cycling Conference. This annual pilgrimage is a platform for cutting-edge training tools, radical riding techniques and nutritional advances. Sound sexy? It’s not, unless you love PowerPoint presentations, graphs and nigh-on impenetrable conclusions. Thankfully, Cycling Plus was there to assimilate the latest studies into actionable advice… 1 Arise in power…

Carbs 33g Bar size 45g Nutrition Purely carbohydrate-based, this bar provides 33g of carbohydrate making it an ideal choice for boosting performance. I do, however, question the need for all the added vitamins as this may lead to stomach-related side issues if you’re eating this bar regularly alongside a healthy diet and a daily multi-vitamin. It doesn’t state the amount of D-Ribose it contains either, which is needed to see the desired performance-boost effect Torq mentions. It’s a decent choice, just be aware of what else you’re taking. Taste Always a benchmark for taste and texture, this Organic Mango bar keeps up Torq’s usual high standards. The combination of subtle, natural flavours and soft but not overly chewy texture scores well. They are also easy to both open and eat…

The record turnout for the Salford Cycling and Walking Forum reflects an unpleasant but unavoidable aspect of life in 21st century Britain – that we seem to be incapable of sharing a few metres of road space in a safe and respectful manner. “I commute 75 miles a week on my bike and just want to feel safer,” says one of those present at the meeting in Salford. The next day, on the other side of the River Irwell in Manchester, Chris Boardman is contemplating how we arrived at this state of affairs. “As human beings, we are taught to think short term, in the span of our own lifetimes,” says the man best known as the 1992 Olympic pursuit champion, a wearer of the Tour de France’s yellow jersey,…

WHY ARE WE DISC-IPLES? We love disc brakes for a whole bunch of performance and practical reasons. Consistent control Because the braking is done by steel rotors at the centre of the wheel, riding in the rain or through muddy puddles doesn’t ruin stopping performance in the way it can with rim brakes. Rim material doesn’t affect braking either so you can use lighter carbon hoops without compromising control. Direct feel Presuming they’re properly bled, hydraulic disc brake lines don’t stretch and feel mushy when pulled hard, so you get very accurate braking feedback. Crystal-clear fingertip communication about the road surface and remaining grip translates directly into increased riding confidence, right up to the edge of your tyres performance. As one disc test virgin once memorably commented: “They don’t feel…

NICK LLOYD ACTING HEAD OF ROAD SAFETY-ROSPA “Cycling cleats – small triangular wedges attached into the sole of a cyclist’s shoe – connect into clipless pedals [so called due to their lack of toeclips]. To release the cleat, you twists your heel outwards (some allow you to unclip in any direction, other than straight up). Most clipless pedals also allow you to adjust the spring tension of the mechanism make to make it easier or harder engage and disengage your feet. Beginners tend to use the lightest setting at first, but once they get used to using their pedals, they’ll gradually increase the tension. Before you go out on to the road with clipless pedals, RoSPA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) advises you practise riding with them…

NOW 19st (120kg) THEN 33st (209kg) WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE BEFORE THE BIKE? “I was very heavy and I struggled to do anything energetic, besides watch lots of TV! I always had excuses not to play with the kids, which was the worst part.” WHAT GOT YOU ON THE BIKE? “My GP said, unless I changed my ways, it wasn’t worth me paying into my pension, as I wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy it. With two daughters that I one day want to give away in church I knew I had to change. I started out riding on a mountain bike as I thought a race bike wound buckle. After a year I bought a Giant Defy. I now have a Canyon Aeroad CF SLX – a far better…

The Vado 2.0 is the cheapest model in Specialized’s Turbo e-bike range. Instead of opting for an off-the-shelf battery and motor system from the likes of Shimano, Bosch, E-Bikemotion or Yamaha, Specialized has worked with Switzerland’s Brose to develop its own, which has ended up being a 250W motor powered by a neatly integrated 460W/h battery. This certainly pays dividends in one respect, as the way its power-assistance is delivered is among the smoothest we’ve tried. It does a brilliant job of giving you a helpful push up to the legally restricted EU limit (15.5mph/25kph). And once there, it tapers off gently instead of simply cutting out. On climbs the power assistance is ample and welcome. It’s not as subtle as Orbea’s Gain e-bike, that has a ‘just enough’ feel,…

HEAD TO HEAD SCICON ELAN £180 Shaping up SciCon’s all-new saddle uses a fashionably short design. The Elan Power Ergo (to give it its full name) measures up a scant 240mm long (the same as Specialized’s Power saddle) and 144mm wide. Its shape is reminiscent of Fizik’s Aliante, curving downwards from the back of the saddle to the centre before rising gently again towards the nose. Its base is formed by carbon rails slotted into a carbon/nylon hull and the whole thing weighs 206g. Padded out The padding on the Elan is extremely generous and this, combined with its deep centre channel, large cut-out and flexible hull, helps to create a supremely comfortable saddle. We found it was equally good for brief but fast blasts and long days in the…

IRISH COMPANY SEE.SENSE ALREADY HAS a few innovative lights under its belt, but its latest pairing, the ACE, packs a heap of tricks into a small and affordable package. Rather than lighting your way, the ACE lights are designed to get you seen by others, but when operated in conjunction with the See.Sense smartphone app they also collect anonymised data about your journeys and in time could help improve our roads. They’re relatively small, 40 x 30mm, and each one weighs just 36g (including mount). For such compact lights they’re impressively bright (150-lumen front, 125-lumen rear), and side visibility is good too. They’re waterproof and come with a variety of mounts for bars, seatposts, forks, seatstays, clothing or bags. They bounce around a bit when you’re riding over rough surfaces,…

1 VEGETARIAN* OTE AnytimeVeloforte Di BoscoMule BarSiS Go BarHigh 5Clif BarTorq BarAptonia Fruit BarTrek FlapjackMeridan BarNamed SportStealth Juice Bar 2 VEGAN* Named SportStealth Juice BarMule BarHigh 5Meridan Bar GLUTEN-FREE* OTE AnytimeVeloforte Di BoscoStealth Juice BarTrek FlapjackMeridan Bar 3 NUT-FREE* OTE AnytimeMule BarSiS Go BarHigh 5Stealth Juice BarTorq Bar 4 DAIRY-FREE* Veloforte Di BoscoNamed SportMule BarSiS Go BarHigh 5Stealth Juice BarTorq BarMeridan Bar *Always check the packaging for ingredient details if you have any sort of food allergies Choosing what energy bars you take out on your rides can be like stepping into a minefield of information. More often than not it ends up being a case of picking up whatever your local bike shop has on offer, regardless of quality or performance. If, however, you have the time to make…

HIGHLY COMMENDED Carbs 47.5g Bar size 70g Nutrition High carbohydrate and calorie content per bar, though most of the carbohydrate is fruit-based making it very high in fructose. This is a slower digesting carbohydrate compared to glucose and over-consumption during an hour or more may lead to some potential stomach issues. It’s also higher in fat than other bars and though the nuts may be great for texture, they won’t improve performance. It’s an ideal option to add some zest and break up the monotony of all the other bars. Taste The best bar here when it comes to flavour; quite chewy but as it breaks down in your mouth it’s basically like eating cake! SIS GO BAR APPLE & BLACKCURRANT £1.50 Carbs 26g Bar size 40g Nutrition SiS bar…

Thinking back, I’m not sure what I expected to find on my visit to the Simplon HQ. Simplon bikes have only been available in the UK since 2017, but I’d seen plenty of them in Europe over the years. The brand always had a huge presence at Eurobike – the world’s biggest bike show – and constantly seemed to be at the cutting edge of lightweight race machines. I guess I was anticipating some sort of huge, faceless corporation with a high-tech and efficient assembly line. So I was pleasantly surprised by what I found at the company’s base in the Austrian town of Hard, which sits on the shores of Lake Constance. Simplon may be a high-tech operation, but it’s compact compared to some of the giants it’s competing…

“There’s a fine line between maximising training stimulus to promote the greatest gains and tipping over into a downward spiral of under-performance,” warns Dave Nichols. With adequate recovery, a deliberate period of intensified training can boost performance to a much higher level. “If you get this wrong, the side effects of over-training can last weeks, months or even wipe out an entire season.” But get it right and you’re destined for success. A great example of a good trainer is Dimension Data’s Ben King. He’s someone who is always right on top of his training and finally made his breakthrough with two stage wins at the 2018 Vuelta a Espana. He went into that race a bit fresher, and reaped the rewards. Of the guys I worked with, he was…

Protein is important muscle recovery. So you need to get some in your system after training to ensure your muslces can repair and rebuild themselves. But that doesn’t mean you have to neck a protein shake or gobble a steak as soon as you get home. There is another way to get your protein fix easily: eggs. What protein? When looking at protein choices, whey protein (often used to make protein shakes and bars) has a high amino acid profile and is fast-absorbing. But if you prefer a real food source for your protein eggs are the ideal option. They have a protein digestibility score of 97 per cent (together with milk, the highest scoring of all proteins) and provide all nine of the essential amino acids needed to promote…

Nobody emerges from the Tour de France unscathed. The riders’ suffering, of course, is well documented. Grand Tour cycling – 21 days with over 80-plus hours in the saddle during the hottest month of the French year – is nothing short of barbarism. Even the lucky ones who avoid crashes and getting ill pay a hefty physical and emotional toll for making it to the finish in Paris. Spare a thought, too, for the race’s staff, whose job it is to keep the whole thing afloat – a high-wire act if ever there was one. And shed a tear, if you can find it in you, for the poor journalists, who follow the riders around France and spend so long driving, finding hotels and generally languishing in logistic hell that…

Sitting us down to explain a bit about what we could expect from an Osona Cycling Tours experience, it didn’t take long for Raimon Pericas to veer off track into a monologue about Catalan independence. “Don’t get him started on this,” says Darren Gatehouse, another of the ride guides for our visit and an adopted Catalan from London. And you know what? We really didn’t. They say sport and politics shouldn’t mix but in the case of cycling – an activity that revolves around travel, culture and borders – the two are inextricably linked. Raimon, a Catalan native who grew up in the Osona region that gives the company its name, is fiercely behind the independence cause. The UK’s turbulent politics has given me more than enough to digest over…