Table of contents for November 2016 in Cyclist

 As cyclists, we love to claim that our attraction to the sport is all about the freedom of the open road and the physical challenge, but if we’re being truly honest, a lot of what we love about cycling is the stuff. In their garages, bike frames dangle from every corner, each with a story to tell of a famous previous owner or a race won Who among us can say they have never finished a glorious ride thinking, ‘But it might have been better if I had some new 25mm tyres. Or maybe a new set of wheels. In fact, it’s probably time to update this frame…’? For most dedicated cyclists, the period between taking possession of a new bike and considering which bike to buy next is approximately…

Ed Clancy Age: 31 Nationality: British Honours: 2008, 2012, 2016 Olympic Team Pursuit Champion 2005, 2007, 2008, 2012 World Team Pursuit Champion 2010 World Omnium Champion 2013, 2014 European Team Pursuit Champion 2012 Olympic Omnium bronze medallist Cyclist: Ed, you’re the first athlete to win three Olympic team pursuit titles. How do they compare? Ed Clancy: I’d trade the lot for this one. On the start line in Rio I’d have given Beijing, London, all the World Champs and every penny I’ve earned to cross that line first. I can’t remember my last decent win before Rio. It was such a hard journey with my back injury and mixed form [Clancy suffered a horrific crash in the 2015 Tour of Britain]. I wasn’t sure I’d ever ride at this level…

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/54swiss. From Meiringen head east towards Innertkirchen. At the roundabout follow signs for Grimsel and after 2km turn right onto Sheideggstrasse at the sign with a bicycle pointing towards Grindelwald and Grosse Scheidegg. Follow this road up and over the pass, through Grindelwald towards the valley. After crossing two railway lines, turn right at the T-junction to Interlaken, then turn right onto Parkstrasse towards Brienz. Take the second exit at the two roundabouts and cross the River Aare to join the main road on the north of Lake Brienz. After Brienz, look for Seestrasse on the right, then follow your nose all the way back to Meiringen.…

‘People think there’s some sort of best position. In reality it depends heavily on your physiology’ ‘You need to be aware of training zones, and what pace you’ll realistically be able to sustain’ I want to go faster. My cycling goals throughout my life have all orbited around that one simple target. I’m at my most content when the road is flying beneath me, my speed north of 40kmh. The art of getting ever quicker, though, is about more than just pounding harder on the pedals and buying a more expensive bike. The quest for increased velocity is a long and complicated journey. ‘Your velocity is determined by your power output and your drag,’ explains Dr Barney Wainwright, research fellow at Leeds Beckett University and founder of Veloptima coaching…

TRAVEL The closest mainline station to Lyme Park is Stockport, with local trains stopping even nearer at Disley. ACCOMMODATION Though more rural retreats are available, we opted for a slice of city centre luxury in the form of the five-star Lowry Hotel in the centre of Manchester, which is just a 30-minute train journey away. Offering large rooms, secure bike storage and an extensive breakfast menu, the hotel was a deserved indulgence after being beaten up by Cheshire’s cobbles. A double room starts from £140 a night. Go to thelowryhotel.com  for details. THANKS Thanks to Francis Longworth for coming up with the route and being our guide. Francis organises the Lapierre Cheshire Cobbled Classic, which features all the cobbled sectors we tackled. The 2017 event takes place on…

Come mid-October the cycling season is usually over, but this year the fallen leaves of Lombardia have been swept away by the windy desert of Doha as the backdrop to the last major race of the year: the men’s World Championships Road Race. Extreme heat in the Middle East means dates for the Worlds have been shifted two weeks on from the usual slot in late September. Even so, hosting a bike race in Qatar when the temperature can still hit the high 30s seems about as sensible as, well, organising a global football tournament in the same place, any time of the year. In an echo of the late Mrs Merton’s infamous quip to Debbie McGee: just what made the oil-rich Persian Gulf state such an appealing option for…

BMC has achieved a lot in its 22-year existence. Its trademark angular frame shapes and tube forms make its bikes highly recognisable and they’ve been ridden to victory in the Tour de France, road and time-trial World Championships, as well as mountain bike races and Ironman triathlons too. From its hi-tech, robotised Impec lab in Grenchen, Switzerland, BMC has pushed the boundaries of weight, aerodynamics and comfort. Like every brand, it has until recently seen these as separate categories, so it has the light, stiff Teammachine for racing, the aero Timemachine for speed and the Granfondo for long days in the saddle. But what if you had to pick just one BMC? ‘The engineers, faced with this question, for sure could not decide,’ says BMC’s road product manager, Mart Otten.…

Until recently, if you wanted technically proficient cycling kit you bought from a mainstream brand, which would offer a range of sober and sensible colours (or just plain black). If individuality was your thing, the clothing on offer was all too often novelty-wear with no performance pretensions. Serious riders who wanted to stand out were faced with a no-win situation, but thanks to a growing new movement of fashion-conscious brands this is set to change. ‘Cyclists are quite design-conscious and creative so it was only a matter of time before people were drawn towards creating technical kit that’s a little bit quirky and individual,’ says Claire Pepper of Omnium, an online store that curates and sells kit from new, independent brands. ‘Cycling has such a stylish history and I see…

As well as eight pro teams, the field included 11 amateur teams and a six-man squad from Holland sponsored by an Amsterdam brothel Of all the epithets you could apply to Donald Trump, ‘cycling visionary’ probably isn’t the first that springs to mind. Yet 27 years ago, Trump put his name to a bike race in the US that he envisaged would rival the Tour de France. With modesty typical of the man, he called it the ‘Tour de Trump’. Filling the gap left by the disbanded Coors Classic, it would attract some of the biggest names in the sport in its short but eventful lifespan. USA Cycling CEO Derek Bouchard-Hall credits the race with raising the profile of US cycling around the world, while its organiser Mike Plant –…

Dear Frank, The Velominati take their cues from the pros – but do you have favourite pro riders from each era who best embody the spirit of The Rules? Chris, by email Dear Chris The first thing to point out is that we did not invent The Rules. What the Velominati have done is merely document the unwritten code of cycling’s culture, etiquette and style. The Rules do their best to embody the spirit of those riders who helped weave the fabric of our sport. As they state, ‘When a cyclist kits up and climbs aboard their bike, they aren’t standing on the shoulders of giants, they stand upon a towering mountain of history and legend.’ Every so often, some bright spark comes along, reads our list of (currently) 95…

Giant Trinity Advanced Pro 0, £4,999, giant-bicycles.com Giant’s TT frame was developed in conjunction with aerodynamicist Simon Smart, and is certifiably cutting edge. The bike gave me an immediate boost of around 15 seconds on my local 10-mile course. Testing suggested that while the bike was fast, an option to adjust to a lower front end would have offered even more speed. Zipp Super 9 clincher disc and Zipp 808 NSW clincher front wheel, £1,987 and £1,157, fisheroutdoor.co.uk Zipp claims its Super 9 disc to be the world’s fastest, and I’m in no position to disagree. Paired with the new Zipp NSW 808 front wheel, I found a huge speed boost from the wheelset over the Giant’s standard box-section aluminium rims. Given more time I would…

‘Your skin remains dry, you stay comfortable and, most importantly, your core temperature is regulated and you can go harder’ ‘I’m a cynic, it’s my job,’ admits dhb’s product manager Ben Hewitt. ‘Material manufacturers come to me and say our fabric does this, it does that, and you take it with a pinch of salt. But the 37.5 material used in the dhb Aeron Storm jacket is scientifically proven to help you perform better on the bike.’ While you may not be familiar with 37.5 the material, no doubt those digits will chime as the figure in degrees Celsius of the body’s optimal core temperature. A couple of tenths either way can be desperately uncomfortable, a few degrees catastrophic. It’s highly unlikely you’ll ever pedal yourself into the absolute red,…

Assos Rally kit £245 jersey, £150 shorts, assos.com With gravel bikes growing in popularity, should we be considering making changes to our cycling wardrobe too? If you’re sticking to roads then skintight gear still reigns supreme, but if you’re thinking of a more adventurous approach to your riding then strutting around in tight Lycra all day may not be quite so appropriate. Full-on baggies may be a step too far, but Assos’s Rally kit could be the perfect middle ground. First up is the cargo short – or the H.rallycargoShorts-s7 to give it its full title – cut to a slimmer, more fitted style with heaps of stretch to allow freedom of movement. As you’d expect, the fabrics are technical, durable, lightweight and highly breathable, but as an additional benefit…

ProShift will work towards determining the most efficient cadence based on a rider’s power and efficiency over time – potentially fine-tuning a rider’s own physiological attributes There was a time when we just changed gear. We’d pull a lever up or down, and the chain would move up or down the cassette. Then we invented indexed shifting, which removed the need to find the right sprocket on a friction shifter. Then came electronics, and the rule book covering a century of cables and tension was tossed aside. Now, systems such as Di2 and EPS are not only shifting more accurately, but logging and broadcasting shift data in a way that may change how we ride altogether. ‘Generally speaking we see a trend for more information, more data and more feedback,’…

TRAVEL Cyclist flew from Heathrow to Zurich with Swiss, hired a car at the airport (through Europcar) and then drove the hour and a half south to Meiringen. ACCOMMODATION We stayed in the centrally located Alpin Sherpa Hotel in Meiringen. With good wifi and a secure underground car park it was a great place to stay. There is also a supermarket across the road in case you need to stock up on any last-minute supplies. If you need a bicycle shop then P Wiedermeier’s is just down the street. THANKS Many thanks to Sara Roloff at Switzerland Tourism with help organising our trip, and to Brigitte Leuthold and Christine Winkelmann for their help and guidance while we were in the Jungfrau region. Go to myswitzerland.com for more information.…

Week 1 Time: 23min 35sec Ave speed: 43.1kmh Ave power: 311 watts Baseline test, using Giant Trinity with shallow section wheels. Week 3 Time: 22min 51sec Ave speed: 44.5kmh Ave power: 294 watts First run after bike fit and with Zipp Super-9 disc, a big focus on position at the expense of power. Week 5 Time: 23min 23sec Ave speed: 43.5kmh Ave power 310 watts Riding with unshaven legs, no shoe-covers and low PSI of 80. I struggled to hold the position. Week 7 Time: 22min 39sec Ave speed: 44.9kmh Ave power: 301 watts My first run after my velodrome aero test saw an enormous PB. I focused on details such as PSI and general neatness of my kit. Week 10 Time: 22min 33sec Ave speed: 45.1kmh Ave power: 313…

This was FDJ’s bike of choice for the Tour of Flanders and also helped the team to victory at the 2016 Milan-San Remo and the 2015 Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour. I never doubted its climbing credentials but feared it would be too puny for the cobbled tsunamis awaiting me. Equipped with Mavic Ksyrium Elite hoops, the whole kit and caboodle weighed in at barely more than 7.3kg thanks to innovations in the frame design like the seatstays bypassing the seat tube altogether and joining the top tube instead (meaning they can be thinner as they are not supporting the rider’s weight). But the oversized head and down tubes, bottom bracket and chainstays meant there was no compromise in rigidity, ensuring a ride that was, under the most demanding…

TRAVEL We flew to Marrakech with BA, as the ticket included a bike bag as part of the 23kg baggage allowance. Prices in April are around £140 return. ACCOMMODATION Marrakech isn’t short on places to stay, from traditional riads at around £70 for a double room, to supremely opulent hotels such as the Mandarin Oriental, where a night in a private villa is a mere £1,300 for two. We were lucky enough to be hosted by Timothy and wife Sylvia, who does the most excellent impromptu city tours. WHAT TO DO Marrakech is a city like no other so it’s worth taking a few non-riding days to explore. Highlights include the 12th century Koutoubia Mosque, the Jardin Majorelle botanical gardens and the walled ‘medina’, a maze of alleys and souks…

Loud And Proud p32 (left to right, top to bottom) Isadore Angliru Climbers jersey, £120 isadoreapparel.com Pactimo Pop 1 jersey, £80 pactimo.co.uk Twin Six Hot Wire jersey, £70 twinsix.com Chapeau Madeleine jersey, £69.95 velobrands.co.uk Matchy Inca jersey, £175 (inc bibshorts) matchycycling.com Angeles Creative Spektrum jersey, £90 weareomnium.cc Pactimo Van Winkle jersey, £80 pactimo.co.uk Tokyo Fixed Arrows jersey, £85 tokyofixed.cc Forward Saved By The Bell jersey, £85 weareomnium.cc La Flamme Rouge Flower Power jersey, DKK 899 (approx £103) laflammerouge.dk Hills & Yonder Which Way jersey, £110 weareomnium.cc Maap Divide Winter jersey, £128.58 maap.cc Q36.5 R1 Flowerpower jersey, €126 (approx £108) q36-5.com Velocio Lela Rose Poppy jersey, €145 (approx £124) velocio.cc Hackney GT Robi jersey, £75 hackneygt.com Attaquer…