Table of contents for November 2020 in Cyclist

For a magazine that specialises in travel, the Covid situation has been particularly frustrating. But if there is one silver lining it is that we have looked with fresh eyes at this beautiful country we live in. We may not have the Alps or the Dolomites, and our roads have not been made famous by the passing of Grand Tours, but the UK does have some of the most spectacular countryside anywhere in the world, and enough tough climbs to keep even the most masochistic KoM-bagger happy. That’s why we decided it was time we embarked on a project that would showcase the best this nation has to offer. Not a tootle around the lanes, but something epic, something magnificent that could serve as a grand challenge to anyone who…

When it comes to updating mid-range helmets, Italian companies must think alike. Perhaps it’s due to how well protected their brains are. Hot on the heels of Kask’s updated Mojito (featured last issue), Met has redesigned its Rivale. The helmet sits below the bells-and-whistles Trenta and the aero-focussed Manta in Met’s range, and attempts to offer good levels of all-round performance at an accessible price. The new Rivale boasts better ventilation, according to Met, thanks to wider and longer front vents. These are paired with internal channelling to guide air across the rider’s scalp. While the details are hazy on the magnitude of improvement, Met claims the new Rivale is more aerodynamic too. This is in part thanks to a refined ‘NACA’ vent on top of the helmet, a feature…

So these are 51mm deep by 35mm wide for the front wheel, and 60mm by 30mm for the rear, because that’s the best blend of aerodynamics and crosswind stability? OK, got it. And the 21mm internal width is best complemented by 26mm tyres for reduced drag and low rolling resistance? Great. But just one thing – are they tubeless? That’s right, these redesigned Rapide CLX wheels from Specialized’s sister brand Roval do everything, except – whisper it – they’re clincher only. But, says Cameron Piper, product manager at the Big S, there is a reason: ‘To get the rim shape we wanted and hit our weight target, we had to make them clincher. So these are 1,400g a pair.’ There is at least one piece of evidence for the defence…

Bike brands are well accustomed to fielding queries about their frames’ geometry, fit and handling, but Twmpa Cycles has an additional set of unique questions to contend with. Is it strong enough? Will it rot? What happens if it breaks? Based in the Welsh borderland town of Hay-on-Wye at the foot of the Black Mountains, Twmpa Cycles makes its bike frames from wood, or more specifically British-grown ash, and the answers to these questions reveal that the choice of material is far more than a quirky talking point. Twmpa’s founder, Andy Dix, suggests the idea for the brand grew organically, much like the wood that he painstakingly handpicks for his builds. The metaphorical seed was planted during a conversation with author Robert Penn at Hay’s famous literary festival. Penn was…

1 CONTINENTAL GP5000 TOUR DE FRANCE £59.99, continental-tires.com If there’s one thing more pro than getting cross and throwing your bike in a hedge, it’s fitting a set of tan-wall tyres. Which is why Continental has finally given the GP5000 the full ‘cream sidewall’ treatment. The colouring adds 30g to the weight of a 25mm tyre, which is now a claimed 255g, but you will look the business, and that’s the most important thing. 2 HOME RUN ENERGY BARS £29.60 for 16, homerunsnacks.com Always knock on the fridge door before you open it because there might be a salad dressing. And always check the nutrition on an energy bar because who knows what sugary devilry lurks inside. It’s why Home Run’s makers packed these with slow-release carbs in the form…

When a ginger-haired, freckled Dutchman took over the pink jersey of race leader with a week of the 2016 Giro d’Italia to go, it seemed incongruous. In placing second to Esteban Chaves on Stage 14, Steven Kruijswijk inherited the jersey ahead of the former champion Vincenzo Nibali, Chaves and Alejandro Valverde – all established winners and stars. But who was Steven Kruijswijk? He was easily identifiable by his sharp, clothes hanger-shaped shoulders (some in his homeland called him ‘de Kleerhanger’), but there was nothing flashy about him or his team, LottoNLJumbo. They had risen from the ashes of Rabobank, which pulled out in 2012 after two decades of lavish spending. But ‘risen’ is the wrong word, for if the team had indeed risen, few had noticed. A little like the…

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/106colombia. From Casa del Ciclista, follow Calle 51A to the bottom and turn left onto Via Vereda Mazo. At the roundabout take a sharp left to join Via Santa Elena. After 2.5km bear right through Santa Elena, then at the Biblioteca make the right turn opposite. Follow the signs to Las Palmas, leaving town on route 56. Stay on this road towards La Unión until you complete the climb (the road flattens and there’s a food stand to the left). Turn tail, ride back to the roundabout at the bottom and take the first exit right. At the next roundabout take the first exit, signed Rionegro. Follow signs to San Antonio de Pereira, then take the Llanogrande Rio Negro road and the right turn…

The frantic whirring of food blenders greets me as I walk into the Poole HQ of bike cleaning product company Muc-Off. It‘s early in the day, so I assume the blending is for breakfast smoothies to feed Muc-Off’s team of youthful branding creatives and product engineers. I fully expect to be handed a concoction made of kale and goji berries – or some other on-trend superfood – but as I’m guided closer to the sound I notice that the area is a workshop-cum-laboratory, not a kitchen, and the mixture is brown and gritty, not green. ‘We’re making mud,’ says Muc-Off product design manager Andrew Syme gleefully. The mud is for the latest round of development on Muc-Off’s original product, the Nano Tech Bike Cleaner, which has been the company‘s most…

‘You’re going the wrong way,’ shouts an old man leaning on a wall and puffing on a hand-rolled cigarette. These are not the words anyone wants to hear when they have just set off on a 2,605km ride from John O’Groats in the far northeast of Scotland to Land’s End at the southernmost tip of Cornwall. I didn’t notice the old boy as I pushed away from the famous signpost that has marked the beginning or end point of many an end-to-end cycle ride, but as I signal to turn right at the first junction his warning reaches my ears. He’s absolutely correct, of course. I am going the wrong way, at least according to convention. Most cyclists attempting to ride the full length of the country will opt for…

Veloflex is a small Italian business with just 10 employees who make every tyre by hand, yet it has a formidable reputation for the quality of its tubulars, and now the brand is making tubeless clinchers that look equally impressive. Like its top-end tubulars, the Corsa Evo TLRs use Veloflex’s incredibly supple 320tpi carcass, only being a tubeless tyre this is impregnated with a latex membrane to make it airtight. A high-tensile yarn is layered over the carcass to guard against punctures and the tread features Veloflex’s proprietary ‘RainDrop’ pattern that it says offers high grip and low rolling resistance.…

Italian eyewear brand Koo has taken the concept of oversize sunglasses and given it a bold, angular twist that would give pause to even the most avant-garde designers in Italian high fashion. ‘We have tried to blend scientific innovation with true Italian design,’ says Koo’s Ylenia Battistello. ‘The Spectros are a favourite of Vicenzo Nibali.’ Koo promises the large, Zeiss-made lens provides comprehensive eye protection and uninterrupted peripheral vision, but says four sculpted vents around its edge help prevent the slab of polycarbonate from fogging up. Despite their acreage, the Spectros come in at a respectable 37g.…

Ever since writer and cycling promoter Paul de Vivie invented the two-speed derailleur in 1905, the cycling world has had an appetite for sprockets that has become insatiable. A ‘cogset’ with four sprockets appeared in the years before World War II. That rose to a block of five in the years after. As wheels transitioned from the freewheel/threaded hub design to a freehub-plus-cassette configuration, the number of sprockets quickly advanced from six to eight. We went to nine-speed in the 1990s, and recent years have witnessed an arms race, with 10, 11 and 12-speed cassettes appearing in quick succession. Indeed, Campagnolo has barely given 12-speed a moment in the sun before introducing its latest Ekar 1x gravel groupset with a cassette that houses 13 sprockets. It begs the question: why…

Many of us predicted a Slovenian would stand atop the podium in Paris, but hands up who picked the right one? The 2020 Tour de France was billed as a race between the super-teams of Ineos Grenadiers and Jumbo-Visma, but as defending champion Egan Bernal crumbled and Primož Roglič imploded at the death, UAE Team Emirates rode away with the spoils. In a heist worthy of Butch Cassidy, swashbuckling debutant Tadej Pogačar secured the white jersey early on before pilfering the polka dots and ultimately yanking yellow from his compatriot’s shoulders in a final time-trial that had echoes of LeMond vs Fignon – all of it just two days before his 22nd birthday. Brailsford leaving out his former winners was not the only era-ending note in the race. Peter Sagan…

Resting heart rate tends to decrease the fitter you are because your heart becomes bigger and pumps more blood with each beat. But it’s important to understand that resting heart rate is relative. That is, someone with a resting heart rate of 60bpm could be fitter than someone measuring 40bpm. In other words, it’s not an absolute measure of fitness. That’s not to say it’s completely useless, so let’s first look at how you gauge it, and how rested you need to be. RHR is best taken first thing in the morning, just after you’ve woken up. You might have a sports watch to read it for you, but it’s easy enough to find out for yourself – count your heart rate for 15 seconds and multiply the answer by…

‘I used to work for British Cycling and we once had a workshop about human movement patterns. My entire department was in there and I think there was one guy who could squat. Everyone else had a version of a squat that wasn’t really a squat.’ Will Newton is an endurance sports coach who says his focus is to get people to move well, with a view to making them more effective human beings rather than just faster cyclists or triathletes. This is why, in his opinion, the squat is so important for anyone who rides a bike. ‘Most people look at the squat and think, “This is going to make me cycle faster.” I look at it and think this is going to make me a better human machine.…

The dying sunflowers said it all. In normal times, the sunflower fields are the perfect symbol of the Tour de France, showing the country at its vivid, high-definition, height-of-summer best. The race should copyright the image: fields of tall, swaying, bright yellow sunflowers, with the peloton as a blurry backdrop. In September, the sunflowers were wilting and rusty brown. And yet they were still the perfect symbol and metaphor – for this year’s delayed Tour de France in particular, and 2020 more generally. I first covered the Tour as a journalist in 2005 and haven’t missed a race since. Sixteen Tours amounts to a full year (plus three weeks) spent following the peloton and over that sort of time you become so used to the way things work that you…

It was perhaps inevitable we would end up here. The writing was on the wall two years ago when Specialized launched a new Venge that looked and rode, well… a lot like a Tarmac. At the same time, the Tarmac SL6 was also displaying a number of design cues borrowed from its aero sibling. Now the merger is complete and it’s time to say goodbye to the Venge. From this point forwards the Tarmac SL7 flies solo as undisputed top dog in Specialized’s road race category. ‘The engineering has just caught up,’ says Specialized road product manager Cameron Piper in justifying the union of these two thoroughbreds. ‘We can now build an 800g frame that’s a full 45 seconds faster than the Tarmac SL6 over 40km [measured in the wind-tunnel…

As the 1975 Tour headed into the Alps for its final-week shakedown, the race had a familiar feel. The peloton rolled out of Nice bound for the summit of Pra-Loup, taking in climbs of the Saint-Martin, Couillole, Champs and Col d’Allos during the 217km stage. Eddy Merckx was in yellow and seemingly set on claiming his sixth Tour victory in seven years. As the stage neared its climax, Merckx, who was 58 seconds ahead of France’s Bernard Thévenet on GC, attacked on the Allos to extend his lead. Chasing Merckx was a lone Felice Gimondi, while further back Thévenet was with Lucien Van Impe and Joop Zoetemelk. Two days earlier, inside the final kilometre of the stage to Puy de Dôme, Merckx had been struck twice by spectators. First a…

It’s rare to have such a good view of a road. Certainly without a hang glider, at least. But it’s almost as though the newer, larger road over the St Gotthard Pass was built in the 1970s purely to offer the best vista of the older road built in 1830. Looking southeast from a convenient layby near the top of the new road you are presented with a panorama over a set of switchbacks so spectacularly serpentine that it looks like some sort of art installation. What you can see are 24 hairpins crammed into just 4km of road, combining to add a total of 300m in ascent. It’s a view that encapsulates exactly what I think most people would imagine an Alpine pass to look like – a fairytale…

There’s always the worry when you get a new bike that it will take some time to get used to, and that aches and niggles will set in while you adapt to a new setup. That fear is hugely amplified when you are setting off for a ride of over 2,500km on a new bike. I shouldn’t have worried. The Factor O2 arrived at my door specced to my exact requirements, and as soon as I started riding it felt as though the bike and I had been partners for a lifetime. The O2 is Factor’s all-rounder road bike – not the lightest, nor the most aero, but designed for long days in the saddle. Yet the O2 is still at heart a racer, being light enough to skip up…

There are three ways to make a cyclist like you. One, bring them cake. Two, bring them a cuppa. Three, bring them cake and a cuppa. So when I opened the big cardboard box that arrived from Livingstone, Scotland, it was clear its contents and I would get along famously. Along with the shiny new bike from Shand was a packet of shortbread and a teabag. It’s the little things… Classic punk For those unfamiliar with Shand, it is what some corners of the industry refer to as a small-batch builder. That is, it fabricates its frames in Livingstone in a manner that is more artisanal framebuilder than mass manufacturer. Yet Shand turns out enough volume to earn itself the title ‘bike brand’, and while it will build almost anything…

These are perilous times for aero bikes. As we have seen in these pages already, even the mighty Specialized Venge has fallen victim to the convergence of models, as brands learn how to blend aerodynamics, light weight and comfort in a single bike – a bike that is fast, yet easier to live with day to day. German brand Cube, however, is fighting the aero corner. Far from watering down an aero model, it has taken a lightweight racer and turned it into an all-out speed machine with deep tubes and sharp angles. In fact, Cube says the new Litening C:68X Pro bears more resemblance to its Aerium TT bike than to the previous Litening model, which was all slim tubes and rounded profiles. As a result, Cube says this…

High Country p72 Lazer Z1 MIPS helmet, £169.99 freewheel.co.uk Oakley EV Zero Blade sunglasses, £143 oakley.com Café du Cycliste Francine jersey, £139 cafeducycliste.com Café du Cycliste Josephine bibshorts, £176 cafeducycliste.com Attaquer Big Skull socks, £17.95 attaquercycling.eu Vittoria 1976 Classic shoes, €149 (approx £135) vittoria-shoes.com The Grand Depart p116 Giro Aether helmet, £259.99 zyrofisher.co.uk SunGod Vulcans TF sunglasses, £125 sungod.co Castelli Perfetto RoS vest, £130 saddleback.co.uk Castelli Aero Race 6.0 jersey, £110 saddleback.co.uk Castelli Free Aero Race 4 bibshorts, £150 saddleback.co.uk Castelli Giro 13 socks, £17 saddleback.co.uk Specialized S-Works Recon shoes, £350 specialized.com Bikes p129 SPECIALIZED Giro Aether helmet, £259.99 zyrofisher.co.uk Shimano S-Phyre X sunglasses, £139 freewheel.co.uk dhb Aeron Lab Raceline speedsuit, £180 wiggle.co.uk dhb Aeron Lab socks, £15 wiggle.co.uk Fizik Vento Powerstrap R2 Aeroweave shoes, £335 extrauk.co.uk SHAND Lazer Genesis…