Table of contents for Summer 2018 in Cycling Plus

£1000 The versatility Whether it’s commuting, training or exploring, the Diverge will cope with almost everything. At 10kg and with big rubber it’s not super fast, but it is comfortable, slick on the road and takes 700x42mm or 650bx47mm tyres. Braking is okay without being inspiring, but the rest of the spec is very well chosen. The gearing With wide, grit- and gravel-friendly tyres (a healthy 32mm in practice), and adventurous off-tarmac aspirations, you’ll want a low bottom gear, and the stiff Praxis Alba 48/32 chainset and 11-32 cassette combination delivers. The 48x11 is a more than adequate top gear for descents and faster rides. The ride Our testing was a mix of road riding, moderate singletrack and canal towpath. The Diverge’s Open Road Geometry hit the sweetspot, and it…

Your clacking cleats are drowned out by the high heels, and that’s the stags Cycling is how I get around. Usually, it’s with as much just-in-case luggage as for a week touring: laptop, bad-weather gear, inflatable boat and so on. The idea of a rack and panniers is foreign to most of my cycling chums, but I get their point. Indeed, recently I’ve enjoyed a few two-day, travelling-ultra-light trips, overnighting with little more than a toothbrush and phone. I just did a light overnight from Glasgow to Edinburgh, all on canal towpaths. It’s a fabulous route – recently tarmacked, flat and family friendly. It has cafés, pubs, sights and selfie ops aplenty. Falkirk’s amazing Wheel, half-lock half-waltzer, that links canals 25m vertically apart; the Kelpies, giant kitsch horse sculptures resembling…

The new R5 launched last year, and saw success with a stage win in the Giro d’Italia underneath Dimension Data’s Omar Fraile. The disc version came a little later than the rim brake revision, with Cervélo hoping this new generation R Series flagship will continue the models’ successes which began in 2003, with the R2.5 winning stages with Carlos Sanchez and Tyler Hamilton and Fabian Cancellara winning Paris-Roubaix on the R3 bike in 2006. Lightweight for big climbing days, compliant enough to cope with the cobbled classics, the R5 has always been the aero-optimised S5’s – as ridden by Mark Cavendish and Steve Cummings – simpler, more understated cousin. Cervélo has revised the geometry on the R5, making it more race orientated, with the stack dropping by 8mm and getting…

With the original Émonda, Trek set out to upset the apple cart by making a full production bike that could beat the most exclusive niche brands at their own lightweight game – the resulting frame weighing 690g. The original was a fine lightweight bike, but its ride was harder than the plush Domane and Trek’s IsoSpeed-equipped aero Madone. This new generation bike sees improved compliance in the frame and it’s lighter still at just 665g for this disc brake version. When you add in a new disc fork at 350g, the SLR9 Disc is one svelte chassis. Every size and every configuration of the SLR will be available in both H1 and H2 fit for both disc and rim brake frames. If you favour a longer, lower position go for…

TIFOSI HAS BUILT A GREAT reputation from making glasses with all the features you’ll find from premium brands like Oakley, Rudy Project, KOO, POC, Adidas and more, but without the premium price tag. The new Davos are a great looking pair of shades, with their sharp lines, angular full frames and full shield lenses. They’re available in plenty of variants including photochromic lens models, but we think the triple lens version we tested offers the best balance between price and features. The three lenses are a dark smoke with a 15 per cent light transmission rating, which is ideal for bright conditions, a clear lens with 95 per cent transmission for very low light, and a funky red tinted lens that offers 41 per cent transmission. The red lens works…

£129/£235 British clothing brand Ashmei has been making innovative and good-looking cycling kit for a few years. The new summer range is a showcase for how the company does things a little differently. The jersey This isn’t just a cool looking jersey, it uses a super-fine merino as the base, feeling almost silk-like to touch, and blended with 35 per cent polyester to add some form-fitting elasticity. Carbon is interwoven to improve the wicking properties. The Croix De Fer transfers moisture away and dries faster than any other merino jersey we’ve tried. Detailing is superb; the three rear pockets are well structured, with a smaller zipped valuables pocket. There are neat touches everywhere – flat-locked seams, great form fit, and the Iron Cross – which is found at the summit…

Italian track and road specialist Elia Viviani came to prominence during the 2015 Giro d’Italia, before winning gold in the omnium at the 2016 Olympics. His shock departure from Team Sky after three years as its principle sprinter was all the more notable as he immediately secured early season successes with his new outfit Quick-Step Floors. These included an overall victory at the Dubai Tour and stage wins at the Tour Down Under, Abu Dhabi Tour and the 2018 Giro d’Italia. But Viviani’s va-va-voom isn’t a surprise package unleashed on the day of the race – he’s revealed the kind of pre-season slog that goes into perfecting those podium-pinching bursts. His build-up begins in November and December with a month of long rides – in four-day blocks of up to…

Using a resistance band, exercise the delts, pecs, traps and shoulders 1 LOOP IT Stand with a loop of the band in each hand, arms outstretched in front of you, band shoulder-width apart. 2 STRETCH OUT Stretch the band by pulling your hands away from each other, keeping the arms straight and the elbows high, inhaling as you do. 3 STAY IN CONTROL Stretch as far as you feel comfortable and can control the tension in the band – you should feel the delts (muscle around the shoulder blades) flex, then return to the start position, exhaling as you go. Perform 3 sets of 6-8 reps.…

What’s the longest it’s ever taken you to clip in to your pedals? Ten seconds, 20, more? How long has it taken, coasting along and stabbing away at the pedal before the shoe clicks in with a relieving bite allowing you to move. I only ask because recently I think I broke my personal best in fumbling around aimlessly with a cleat. Although I didn’t actually put a stopwatch on it, for the simple enough reason that I was entirely preoccupied with the task at hand (or rather at foot), I am pretty confident it took a minute. Maybe longer. Fortunately, no one was around to witness my stunning ineptitude. Well, when I say no one, that’s not entirely true. There were plenty of people watching from the busy street…

WHAT HAPPENS ON TOUR… Our very own Ned Boulting is returning to the stage with another one-man show, Tour de Ned, where he’ll dissect the 2018 Tour de France with “music, theatre and searing rants”. The tour opens on 28 September in Southampton. ON YER BIKE British Cycling’s former head physio and bike fitter Phil Burt has gone it alone with Phil Burt Innovation. His new company, based in London and Manchester, is a one-stop-shop for getting cyclists in sync with their bike and staying injury-free. POLE POSITION Marcin Bialoblocki took over a minute out of his British national 25-mile time trial record. He rode 42mins 58 seconds - not just the first sub-44 ride, but sub-43 too. NOT SO FAB In the same week Mark Cavendish slammed race vehicles…

One of the stars of handmade bike show Bespoked has been FiftyOne Bikes, with its hand-made-in-Ireland bonded carbon fibre frames. FiftyOne refers to the four consecutive years that rider number 51 won the Tour de France, while ’87 celebrates Stephen Roche’s annus mirabilis. Its Pantone colours echo those of Roche’s Battaglin bike in a camo-fade design that incorporates the cockpit. In a further homage to Roche’s bike, the ’87 has full Campagnolo kit – Bora One wheels and an 11-speed Record groupset – compared with Roche’s seven-speed setup with, yep, down-tube levers.…

The ‘bonk’ has a deranging effect and I knew I was in trouble when I started wondering if my cat was missing me Within six months of buying a road bike I was climbing the Dolomites. It was the beginning of 2014 and I was spending time in London. Squash was my sport but my regular partners weren’t in town, so I’d been on the cycling machines in the gym. It didn’t take long to realise I’d be better off buying an actual bike and getting out on the road. Not long afterwards I met some of the fellas who’d taken part in the 2012 Dallaglio Flintoff Cycle Slam [from Athens to London in time for the Olympics]. On one of the Richmond Park rides I’d joined them on they…

German brand Cube has a well-earned reputation for damn fine bikes at very competitive prices, consistently offering value in high street bike shops that competes with online-only specialists. Like most of its rivals, Cube offers its road bikes in a range of carbon grades and technical build specs, with the pinnacle being the C:68 designation. C:68 uses the company’s advanced twin-mould technology – two solid mould pieces are used to form the tube shapes, rather than the traditional mould-and-inflated bag method – so there can be closer control of the ratio of resin to carbon fibre, imperfections (creases) can be managed more efficiently with greater control of the structure overall. The Litening’s shape maintains a pretty traditional twin triangle design, similar to Cannondale’s Evo and Trek’s Émonda, although the slim,…

The standard rim brake Evo is something of a legend, it’s a bike we’ve consistently praised in all of its versions. It took a while for Cannondale to add disc brakes to the mix, after the last update to the Evo frame and fork, in 2016, because Cannondale wanted to ensure that it was imbued with the same lightness and handling the Evo’s famous for. It has succeeded – the Evo Disc is a sublime-handling bike. On paper it’s a close-run thing to the rim brake bike; the frame weight (56cm) is 829g, just 52g heavier than the rim version and the fork 360g 40g heavier, a net gain of 92g, 120g when you add in the extra hardware. We can easily live with that, when you get the benefits…

BELGIUM’S LAZER SEEMS TO BE BOTH innovative and traditional all at once, a feeling the new Bullet doesn’t dispel. The previously range-topping Z1 has 31 vents, but its aero credentials rely on fitting an external shell to cover them up. By contrast, the Bullet has four large open vents along each side, and a central one controlled by a siding cover. The Bullet’s Air Slide system consists of a front-to-back channel within the EPS foam, whose fittings and vents are shielded by a two-part customisable cover. As supplied, the rear section is solid, and the front portion has a hexagonal grid pattern above four sprung flaps. Sliding this rearwards reveals a vent above the brow, and the flaps open to channel air on to the head. Alternate covers are included…

ALONGSIDE MAVIC, FULCRUM HAS BEEN the most popular choice when it comes to original equipment on the biggest brands’ bikes. It’s for good reason too, Fulcrum’s build quality along with the quality of their hubs mean they last and stay trouble free for many, many miles. The 5s feature oversized hubs built for straight-pull spokes mated, via bladed spokes, to 26mm-deep asymmetric alloy rims. Fulcrum’s clever design keeps spoking to a minimum with the front wheel getting 24, eight on the nondisc side and 16, with far less offset, on the other. The rear wheel also gets 24 spokes, this time with 16 on the driveside and eight on the disc side. Fulcrum claims this balances out forces, keeping the wheels remarkably rigid in use. The rims are tubeless ready…

“THE ULTRA 920 AF IS AN INCREDIBLY POISED MACHINE AND LOOKS TO BE AN ABSOLUTE CRACKER”Matthew Allen, BikeRadar WIN A B’TWIN ULTRA 920 AF WORTH £1299 Our Get Britain Riding campaign – in conjunction with B’Twin and Decathlon UK – was a huge success last year: over 10,000 cyclists pledged to get friends or family on bikes saying they’d help a whopping 42,000 people take up riding. In total, you pledged to ride 23 million miles over the course of the year. This year we want Get Britain Riding to be even bigger and we need your help! The first part is simple and could see you riding away with a superb B’Twin Ultra 920 AF. Just head to http://bit.ly/CPmagGBR and tell us how many of your friends, family, work…

Sizes M (52-58cm), L (59-62cm) Colours White, black, blue, fuchsia, lime green, red Vents 24 Weight 230g (M) The lightweight Rapido has distinctive Kask looks made famous by Team Sky in its top-end lids. This race-style helmet has 24 vents positioned to optimise aerodynamics. The hinged rear retention system that slides up and down the rear straps looks cumbersome, but in use it performs well and is easily adjusted with the large twist dial. The side straps are adjustable with lockdown buckles but the webbing isn’t as soft as some. The Rapido has thoroughbred race styling that will work for a range of head sizes and shapes. Kask offers a three-year 50 per cent off crash replacement policy. HIGHS Lightweight, cool, aerodynamic LOWS Webbing, bulky retention system MAVIC AKSIUM ELITE…

During his racing career in the 1980s and ’90s, founder of Focus Bikes, Mike ‘the Bike’ Kluge was a step apart from the typical rider. He was as obsessive about preparing his body as other riders, but he was just as obsessive about the preparation of his bike. He badgered sponsors with suggestions to improve his bikes and looked to find an advantage by using new or unconventional equipment. And his approach worked, winning the amateur world cyclo-cross championships twice and again as a fully-fledged pro, along with numerous other victories on the national and international road, mountain bike and track cycling circuits During his pro career Mike decided to start building his own bikes, and make the improvements he was looking for in the equipment he was using. So,…

BIKES MADE ME TRI I love my cycling the most. It was riding a race bike for the first time around the velodrome that got me into doing triathlons. Over the winter I ride my turbo and have used Zwift with a bunch of women riders every Sunday night for a virtual ride. RISE AND SHINE I aim to ride at least twice a week – also running and swimming – and it’s usually in the hills of North Wales with my coach and a few friends. I don’t have a plan as such - it’s just getting more hills into the legs as fast and efficiently as possible. I’m doing my first Ironman in Patagonia in December, a 120km bike ride into the foothills of the Andes so I’m…

BEFORE A RECORD RIDE Endurance athlete Sean Conway has set a new world record for the fastest, unsupported crossing of Europe by bike, here’s how 1 FIND A RECORD TO BEAT You’ve got to be hungry to break records. I’ve been building up to this one over six years. With three failed attempts and 60,000 miles, I finally achieved a cycling world record crossing of Europe through nine countries from Portugal to Russia over 3980 miles in 24 days 18 hours and 39 minutes. 2 GET YOUR STATS RIGHT You need 50 per cent fitness and 50 per cent everything else. You need to think: food, water, sleep, muscle management and mindset. I had all five perfect on maybe two days. 3 LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE I’d like to say to…

There’s hand-wringing aplenty throughout the world of sport right now about how to make it more attractive to spectators in our time-crunched era. Professional cycling hasn’t escaped. If they didn’t already exist, races of three weeks’ duration such as the Tour de France, with each stage running upwards of six hours, almost certainly wouldn’t be invented in 2018. Marketeers wouldn’t know what to do with them. From our perspective, cycling’s Grand Tours are a glorious anachronism and to tinker with their duration would be a mistake. A better tactic, as race director Christian Prudhomme has gone for, is to change the ingredients, rather than serve up a new dish. On this year’s menu, we have the shortest stage (65km) for a generation, the most cobbled kilometres for years and smaller…

Like a blaring siren, stage 17, from the spa town of Bagnères-de-Luchon in the Pyrenees to the summit of the Col de Portet, was heard by all who saw the race’s route announcement in Paris last October. Impossible to ignore, it packs three long mountain passes into a little over 40 miles, including a race-first up the Col de Portet for the highest-ever finish in the Pyrenees. It’s the shortest non-time trial mountain stage to feature in the race since 1996, but even that Bjarne Riis-won stage was curtailed from its original length at the eleventh hour because of snow. With its late race position known well in advance, it’s an unusual length for professional bike racers full stop and offers the potential to produce a major shakedown come July…

More than anything it comes down to being confident, believes Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM): “It’s about enjoying speed and having no fear. Secondly, it’s about getting the line right, recognising where the apex is on a corner and going through it correctly, braking before you get to the apex rather than on the corner itself, and shifting your weight at the right moment from one side to the other. This is most easily achieved when you’re at the front and don’t have to think about having people around you, as being in the middle of the peloton when you’re going down a descent throws up some particular problems. There are a few more unknown elements when you’re in that position, principally the fact that you can’t control the people around you.…

Orro’s Terra Gravel features a triple-butted, part hydroformed aluminium frame with a carbon fork, rack and mudguard mounts, hydraulic discs and a tidy component spec. As supplied the 50/34 chainrings and 11-28 cassette are road-orientated – you’ll climb most things on the lowest gear, but away from the tarmac we found ourselves in the big ring and biggest sprockets too often. The bike will take mudguards with the 28mm Vittoria Zaffiro tyres fitted, or 32mm rubber alone, which would improve things off road, as the higher pressures needed for 28mm tyre security on rough stuff makes for a choppy ride. Shimano’s 105 with RS505 levers ensure reliability and good performance, and Fulcrum’s R700 wheelset is wide and keen to spin, if not particularly rapid. Deda’s bar and stem, and Prologo…

1 CONSTRUCTION Topeak’s Shuttle Gauge Digital has a tough plastic and aluminium body incorporating an LCD screen, plus steel and alloy fittings with rubber dust cap. It’s palm-sized and weighs 107g. 2 USAGE Designed to give accurate pressure readings for all tyres, suspension forks and shocks up to 300psi/20.7 bar via a clear, rotating screen that also shows kg/cm2 and power level of the included CR3032 battery. 3 COMPATIBILITY The tyre valve side of the gauge has reversible internals to fit Presta, Schrader or Dunlop valves, while the pump head side has a Schrader or SmartHead adaptor, which unscrews to uncover a Presta valve head, making it compatible with every standard fitting. 4 INDEPENDENCE For mobile pressure checking, select the relevant tyre valve adaptor, push the gauge on, then turn…

Ride Across Britain was incredible, but at times it broke me I lived for 25 years as Chris never allowing Christina to come out. Coming out was the hardest thing I have had to do in my life, and I’d suffered panic attacks for years linked to my gender dysphoria. Transitioning was a huge relief, but I had to tell my children, my parents, the rest of my family and work. The overwhelming response was amazing. I wanted a physical challenge to raise awareness of LGBT networks and mental health support [Christina runs the LGBT Construct network on Twitter, promoting Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender support for people working in the construction industry]. That challenge was the Deloitte Ride Across Britain (RAB) - 969 miles from Land’s End to John…

Argon 18, like its Canadian counterpart Cervélo, has built a reputation for building well-engineered bikes that combine light weight with excellent ride quality and clever design touches. The Gallium Pro hits the lightness mark, as Argon 18 states that this disc version of the Gallium Pro is lighter than the rim-braked model, which itself has a sub 800g frame. The Gallium has the latest iteration of its 3D headset system, where interlocking solid parts extend the effective head-tube height to get the perfect fit. Argon 18 claims that the 3D system keeps the stiffness in the head-tube compared to standard spacers, which can leave room for flex. Every frame size has three head-tube height options, and we set our medium test bike at 165mm. The 72.7-degree head angle and 73.5-degree…

Specialized launched the phenomenal SL6 Tarmac launched last year. It was a radical redesign with direct-mount rim brakes offering superior stopping power over previous generations. It’s taken nearly a year for Specialized to finalise the disc version, and it has a lot to live up to to get close to its rim brake sibling. Specialized has retained the sorted geometry of the previous SL5 Tarmac but wrapped it up in its most advanced slice of carbon yet. Those superbly supple, fast and tenaciously grippy Turbo tyres are are mated to Specialized’s Roval CLX50 Rapide wheels, and 1415g a pair for aero carbon clinchers is extremely impressive. The 50mm depth offers true aerodynamic benefits, and the generous 20.7mm internal rim width shapes the tyres beautifully. They run smoothly too, which is…

CAMPAGNOLO WAS FIRST WITH 11-SPEED in 2009, two years later came EPS electronic shifting, then in early 2017 its long-awaited disc brakes debuted. Despite Shimano and SRAM beating the company to market, the Italians refused to release their system until they felt it was superior to the competition. Campagnolo developed the small hydraulic master cylinder and mineral oil flow system with brake experts Magura. Rather than create different levels of disc calliper for each groupset, the forged aluminium flat mount-only units come in two sizes, for 140mm or 160mm rotors, and are designed to fit without spacers or adaptors. The H11 designation refers to the disc brake-specific components that combine with the existing mechs, cassette and chain of all 11-speed Super Record and Record groupsets. Controlling the callipers are all-new…

MADISON ROAM £54.99 ‘Ride. Pub. Eat.’ goes Roam’s slogan, and these polyester/elastane shorts really are great for the pub, coffee shop and hours on the bike. Five pockets, including three zipped ones, a chunky zip, a Velcro-adjustable waist band and water-resistant fabric create a comprehensive package, and the tough shorts come with a lifetime warranty. ENDURA URBAN CARGO £59.99 These super-light linen-look nylon shorts come with a tough webbing belt and chunky metal buckle. On the hanger they look creased but when wearing them the creases ease out. Our fear of nylon-induced sweat proved unfounded, and these stayed fresh and comfortable. Compatible with Endura ClickFast padded liners and good value. CYCLING THE BEST SWRVE DURABLE COTTON £65 Experience tells us that Swrve’s nylon, cotton and spandex Durables live up to…

THE R1 HAS BEEN FIZIK’S top race shoe for a few seasons now, and for 2018 it has been joined by this intriguing Knit version. Unlike most knit fabric running shoes, or Giro’s new knit Empires, the R1 uses the high-stretch, highly breathable fabric far more sparsely. The idea behind the R1 is to create a shoe that has a stiff exoskeleton bonded onto a stiff and light carbon sole. Laid into this are areas of knitted fabric to allow for a more comfortable fit. The exoskeleton, which the upper is forged around, offers great control over the fit, with the offset tongue position and widely-anchored dual Boa wires combining to create a closure that wraps around your foot without folding, creasing or pinching. It’s similar to the way in…

BODY FAT WE ALL WANT IT, very few have it and, if we’re honest, the rest wouldn’t know where to begin to find it. We know the perfect bike body when we see it. Lean, mean cycling machines. As fat-free as a filet mignon, these whippet/human crossbreeds make kangaroos jealous on the thigh front. Owners of the perfect bike body make up a tiny percentage of persistent Lycra wearers in this, the age of the MAMIL/MAWIL. So, here’s the Cycling Plus guide to achieve it. Perfection… The ‘perfect’ cycling body carries as little body fat as is possible, depending on individual’s build/weight, while still being healthy. It’s difficult to say what a healthy body fat percentage for an adult is, but there is consensus, that a body fat percentage that…

Sizes S (51-56cm), M (55-59cm), L (59-63cm) Colours White, black, blue, green, red Vents 28 Weight 265g (S) The Propero 3 takes many of its design cues from Specialized’s top-end Prevail helmet. The EPS shell has an internal skeleton for added strength and allows for larger vents. The vents with the large front Mega Mouthport and internal channelling kept us cool, while the Headset FSL II fit system with rear dial works a treat, cradling the head perfectly. The side straps aren’t adjustable but the Tri-fix web splitter worked okay for us, and we loved Specialized’s soft 4X DryLite webbing, which sits better than most. The combination of good looks, ride performance and ease of use makes this feel like a high-end helmet. HIGHS Cool, classy looking, fit system LOWS…

We put together a poll asking nearly 2500 self-confessed non-cyclists what was keeping them off the road. Many admitted having enjoyed riding regularly as kids but no longer had the courage or confidence to cycle on our roads. Some reasons for not riding will be familiar, you’ve possibly heard them every time you’ve tried to get someone you know to join you. So, for the next time you’re met with a negative response, hopefully this insight and the experiences of once reluctant riders will help you to change their minds. Bad weather Britain’s infamous changeable climate accounts for almost one in four people refusing to go anywhere by bike. Oddly though, 7% of the total respondents do admit to cycling off-road and 8% engage in trail running, jogging and orienteering.…

WHAT IS IT? The pecs are a group of muscles situated at the chest. The pectoralis major is a thick, fan-shaped muscle making up the bulk of the chest muscles. It has fibres attaching along the collar bone (upper pecs or clavicle head portion) and along the front of the sternum, also connecting to the ribs and abdominal muscles, the upper arm and front of the shoulder. HOW IT WORKS During cycling both the pec major and minor stabilise the shoulder blade and help support the shoulder girdle when your hands are on the handlebar. The pec minor stabilises the shoulder blade by drawing it forward and down against the thoracic wall, and assists with rib elevation during breathing. The pecs’ activation increases as your cycling intensifies. They’re also heavily…

1 OUT WITH THE OLD Take out the bar-end plugs and roll forward the rubber housings on your shifters to reveal the tape. Peel off the finishing tape near the stem and unravel the tape from your bar. 2 ON WITH THE NEW Start at the bottom of the bar keeping tension on the tape and wrap moving out. The tension will ensure an even thickness around the brake lever to the top of the bar. 3 MIND THE GAP Most bar tape comes with two small sections of tape designed to make it easier to hide the small gap left when you wrap around the brake levers. Hold these in place behind the levers and wrap over the top. 4 CUTTING EDGE Make sure that you always cut the…

All three of our L’Étape du Tour trainees took part in the 80-mile Tour de Yorkshire sportive. Here’s how they got on… Murray Cox Training hard I was little too relaxed going into the Tour de Yorkshire Ride - my thinking being that it was only 129km and about 2000m of climbing. What I hadn’t counted on was it being one of the best days of summer with soaring temperatures, or that it contained one of the steepest climbs in Yorkshire! The sun made it a wonderful day out, and the gradients made it properly challenging. Now that the my legs have recovered I can say it’s one of the most fun and enjoyable events I’ve done. There was a great atmosphere, and being decked out in Team Alpecin kit…