Innehållsförteckning för August 2018 från Cyclist

From £139.99, madison.co.uk Thanks to Peter Sagan, this niche American brand has risen rapidly to become a serious player in the cycling stakes. They may look like something from the 1990s, but the S2s are 100%’s latest model. They use laser etching on the lenses to give the look of a full frame but without impairing any visibility, and they are treated with a coating called ‘Hydroilo’ that repels oil and water. Expect to see more 100% glasses on your screens as long as Sagan keeps winning.…

£224.99, madison.co.uk Nothing douses the flames of a burgeoning passion for gravel riding like a misfiring drivetrain. Shimano’s solution is its new Ultegra RX clutched rear derailleur. The manufacturer has borrowed the ‘Shadow Plus’ feature from its mountain bike groupsets, whereby users have the option of flipping a switch on the derailleur body that tightens a steel friction band around the derailleur’s main pivot. That engages a one-way clutch, which reduces the derailleur cage’s movement to keep the chain taut over rough terrain. As any of those funny chaps who wear baggy clothes will attest, the design reduces chain slap, improves retention and makes shifting more precise when ‘shredding’ over uneven surfaces. Shadow Plus hasn’t just been slapped onto a standard Ultegra mech, though. Shimano says it has tweaked the…

‘It’s very hard to replicate the efforts from a Grand Tour stage. They would basically have put him on a turbo trainer for six hours’ What’s going on with Froome? The first thing to establish is that Chris Froome has now been cleared of any wrongdoing. Just five days before the start of the Tour de France, the UCI (cycling’s governing body) and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) agreed his failed test ‘may be considered not to be an AAF [adverse analytical finding]’. That ruling is the end of a very complex case. One day before this ruling, Tour organiser ASO claimed it could damage the race if Froome took part while under investigation, and told Team Sky he wasn’t welcome at the event until the issue was resolved. When the…

If there were an award for the most accomplished CV in framebuilding, Mark Hester would be on the shortlist. He excelled at his mechanical engineering degree, spent three years as a design and data engineer at Prodrive Racing Australia (a pretty big deal in motorsport), then shared the next eight between posts at Bosch and Jaguar Land Rover. Even his youth was spent helping his dad build high-performance race cars, and much like his CV, that fed directly into where he is today: high-end custom bicycles, right down to their very name. ‘Prova means to test and develop in Italian,’ says Hester. ‘When I was a kid, Ferrari used to put “Prova” and a model number on the back of their test cars. I always knew I’d use it as…

My dad was a docker for 40 years. Every day he walked five miles to the Seaforth container base in Liverpool, put in an eight-hour shift of loading and unloading, then walked the five miles home where he had his tea, lit up a fag and promptly fell asleep in an upright position on the sofa while holding the Liverpool Echo in front of him. Most of my friends’ dads had unskilled manual jobs too. A few worked at the Ford factory in Speke, some at Champion spark plugs across the Mersey. They all put in an honest day’s work with their hands. That was the world we lived in. It was a blue-collar, factory-floor society. Laptops, mobile phones and the internet had yet to be invented. My dad never…

Dear Frank My mates are all obsessed with the Tour de France, but I’ve never really been into watching pro racing. Would my own riding enjoyment be enhanced if I made more of an effort? Findlay, Sussex Dear Findlay Had you asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have answered a resounding ‘yes’. I’ve always been a huge fan of pro cycling, whether watching it, reading about it or spectating. But over the course of the past decade or so, I’ve found myself increasingly disheartened by the nagging question of whether or not the performances are too good to be true. And the riders’ defiant and incredulous attitude towards such questions has resulted in a loss of interest in it. Not in cycling itself, but in the sport.…

This is a custom carbon rig built precisely to my measurements by Dublin framebuilder FiftyOne. As you might expect, I got on famously with it, especially the paint, which FiftyOne designed with input from me and which drew admiring looks all over Tucson. The stiff and racy brief was met with low slung geometry, short fork trail and handpicked tubing from Enve and Deda, and the sum of these parts was a bike that put me in a naturally aggressive position, felt ready to deliver plenty of power and swivelled on the proverbial sixpence. It did everything well, but really came into its own on the long, swooping descent of Mount Lemmon. With 28mm Vittoria Corsa G+ tyres the bike produced oodles of grip, the Enve wheels eye-watering speed, and…

Four years ago he was hailed as ‘the most promising young talent in the land’. Since then he has cemented his position as Australia’s best sprinter, but Caleb Ewan displays none of the bravado or cockiness common among his rivals. Standing just 5ft 6in tall, Ewan has a Colgate smile, carefully styled hair and a tattoo with his name in Korean, the birthplace of his mother Kassandra. While he could swagger with the best of them, he’s reflective and self-aware beyond his years. ‘Caleb came off third wheel and went past two world-class sprinters so easily it made my head spin’ Perhaps it’s because the sprinter has had to grow up fast. Ewan was beating highly fancied riders at 17 and signed a professional contract before his 20th birthday. His…

Farmers in the Mourne Mountains of Northern Ireland know a thing or two about borders. Their fields are divided by drystone walls made from large boulders that look as though they’ve been thrown together by Fred Flintstone. ‘That’s how they are meant to look,’ says Myles McCorry as we take in the views from the highest point of today’s ride at the side of the Spelga Dam. ‘They have big gaps between the rocks to let the wind through. Otherwise they’d be blown down.’ The wall stretching up the slope to our left is the most famous. Built over 100 years ago, it extends for 30km across all 15 peaks of the Mournes and is now a listed monument. Whether the politicians currently negotiating the future of the Irish border…

The Alps may be beautiful, but outside of the ski season they’re not exactly glamorous. For that, you need to roll southwards to the coast. Pinned between the Mediterranean and the end of the Maritime Alps, the Riviera is proper Brigitte Bardot, arrive by helicopter, lose-all-your-money-in-a-casino glam. With the last gasp of Europe’s great mountain range tempered by a far milder coastal climate, it’s also a great spot for a bike race. And it’s for this reason that I find myself queuing up on the quayside next to several million euros worth of yachts on a bright April morning. I’m here for the Granfondo Gassin Golfe de Saint-Tropez, one of the opening events in the UCI Gran Fondo World Series, and the fastest quarter of finishers in each age group…

£168.99, madison.co.uk As Garmin Edge units have increased in size, capability and price, so have reports of glitches and niggles. The result is that for its latest release Garmin has pared back the design with the aim of including everything most riders need and nothing they don’t, creating a competitively priced computer with less to go wrong than on its bigger brothers. The Edge 130 does away with the oversized colour touchscreen, in-depth mapping and exhaustive list of performance metrics. Instead it relies on a crisp monotone display, physical buttons and breadcrumb navigation, making it very much the spiritual successor to the old Edge 500, which was widely regarded as the most reliable and durable member of the Edge family. Speed, distance, time, elevation, heart rate and power, along with…

£245.94, ekoi.com The quality of Ekoi’s kit has never been in doubt, but its styling has on occasion strayed the wrong side of 1990s Euro-fluoro, with eye-watering results. More recently, though, the French brand has refined its products and its R4 shoes are a good example of its tasteful new direction. On top is a perforated synthetic leather upper and Atop lacing dials, while down below is a unidirectional carbon sole, helping to keep the weight down to 323g for a size 45. Also, the plain white colour should ensure they are versatile enough to go with any outfit, 1990s Euro or otherwise.…

It seems many of us yearn for a bygone era. We hark back to a time that was simpler, when Britain was Great and we were all more positive about the future. No, we’re not talking about Brexit – our rose-tinted spectacles are instead trained on the world of cycling, which has found its nostalgic champion in the form of World Cycling Revival, a three-day festival of racing, music, dancing, eating and vintage costumes. The inaugural event took place in June at south London’s famous Herne Hill Velodrome. The venue was recently revamped after an injection of cash helped save it from closure, and Herne Hill is itself historically significant for hosting the 1948 Olympic Games. And it’s this post-War period that provided inspiration for the World Cycling Revival. ‘We…

I’ve been riding for two miles when it finally clicks. ‘Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner, but he knew it wouldn’t last. Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona, for some California grass.’ The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ is the reason why the words Tucson and Arizona seem so inextricably linked in my mind, possibly the only reason before this trip that I knew where Tucson actually was. In the two miles we’ve been cycling (we’re in the United States so imperial measurements rule) I’ve learned from my ride companion, Miguel, that Tucson is Arizona’s second city to Phoenix – population half a million – and Arizona is one quarter of the ‘Four Corners’, the sole quadripoint in the USA where four states butt heads, the others…

To download this route, go to cyclist.co.uk/77ireland. From Rostrevor take the Sandbank Road to the B27. Turn right to Kilkeel and follow the signs for the ferry, which operates on the hour and takes 20 minutes. On the other side, follow signs for Carlingford to join the R173. Turn left in Omeath and right onto the R174 and work your way across the motorway to Jonesborough. Head to the B113, the Slieve Gullion Forest Trail and back to the B113, where you turn left to Meigh. Turn left, then right at the A25 through Newry to Mayobridge. Turn right down the Ballyvally Road before forking left to Rostrevor.…

There are rumours of hauntings in the Brownsover Hall Hotel in Warwickshire. It’s the evening before the third stage of the 2018 Women’s Tour – 151km from Atherstone to Royal Leamington Spa – and when I mention the spooky reputation of the grand Victorian mansion hotel to Beth Duryea, co-owner of women’s racing team Canyon/Sram, she raises an eyebrow. ‘Really?’ she responds, before requesting that I don’t mention it to the riders on the team. The night is needed for sleep and recovery, she says, not for anxiety over unwanted ghostly visitors. It’s not quite time for bed yet so, while the riders recuperate after Stage 2,Cyclist heads out to the hotel courtyard, which seems to be where all the action is happening. Mechanics and soigneurs roam around, busying themselves…

Rather surprisingly, it hasn’t taken that long for disc brakes to become an accepted norm on road bikes. Yet even now, descriptions of disc-equipped bikes still often include the caveat: ‘It’s quite aerodynamic for a disc bike’ or ‘It’s pretty light for a disc bike’. Fortunately, that’s starting to change. Designs such as Specialized’s latest Venge, Trek’s new Madone and 3T’s Strada have proven that discs can be added without affecting aerodynamics, and now bikes like the Sarto Asola Disc prove that the same can be said about weight. This bike weighs just 6.99kg. That’s light, period, not just for a disc bike. It may be dressed up in Campagnolo’s Super Record H11 disc groupset, but its heft (or rather its lack of it) demonstrates that the performance gap between…

All bike brands like to claim their production methods are unique. The truth is that most brands make their carbon frames in much the same way, using similar materials, often in the same factories in the Far East. So when we find a brand that really does do things differently, we sit up and take notice. Duratec produces its bikes in the Czech Republic, and it moulds its frames in a single piece in one large aluminium mould. While that may seem like a small difference, it’s a significant one. Normally, what most people call a ‘monocoque’ (one-piece) frame is actually made in several parts. One mould creates the front triangle from multiple sheets of prepreg carbon fibre, the chainstays and seatstays are created separately and then all the bits…

Cyclist: Why does Anquetil’s life continue to fascinate cycling fans? Paul Fournel: His life was more than a soap opera. He was born into a very poor family but he was so gifted on the bike that he became rich, famous and strange! By strange, I mean he didn’t live by the rules of the peloton. He was the first one to talk about money, the first one to talk about doping. He didn’t race to win medals, he was a businessman, which was very new at the time. As for his riding style, you could identify him immediately on the bike. Today when you see the peloton, all the guys look more or less the same, they all have the same position that has been learned in the…

While Molteni enjoyed success before the arrival of Eddy Merckx, winning the Belgian’s signature for the 1971 season transformed the team On October 15th 1970 Italian daily La Stampa ran a story that would transform the profile of the Molteni cycling team. Under the headline, ‘Merckx: the best sandwich-board man’, the journalist Gianni Pignata reported that winning machine Eddy Merckx, who had recorded 52 wins during 1970 for Italian coffee machine-sponsored team Faemino, had agreed a move to Molteni. ‘At the end of a record season, the Belgian swaps coffee for salami,’ reported the paper. Father and son duo Pietro and Ambrogio Molteni, producers of cold meat products, first backed a cycling team in 1958. A year later the team recorded their first major win on the final day of…

1 TOPEAK SHUTTLE GAUGE £49.99, extrauk.co.uk This gauge reads tyre pressure up to 300psi and works as an in-line gauge for a connected pump. But can it answer the question: ‘How much air is in my bike tyre?’ No, but if you treat a bike tyre as a torus, a 25mm tyre has a volume of 998ml. A 10-litre container filled to 10bar contains 100 litres air at atmospheric pressure (1bar), so when you inflate a tyre to 90psi (6.21bar) you’re squashing in 6.19 litres of ‘regular’ air. QED. 2 WOLF TOOTH MASTER LINK PLIERS £30, sigmasports.com Not being able to fit or remove a quick link in a chain is even more annoying than the time we tried to update our website for depressed tennis players but the servers…

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/77arizona. Start at Le Buzz Cafe on E Tanque Verde Rd on the outskirts of Tucson. Head northeast on the adjacent E Catalina Highway, and look out for mile post zero at the intersection with N Mt Lemmon Short Rd, where the ascent begins. Follow the road into the mountains, checking off waypoints at the Molino Basin, Thimble Peak and Windy Point at mile post 14. Willow Canyon, Palisades Visitor Centre and Bear Wallow follow, then it’s on to Summerhaven and Ski Valley. Just before the blue town sign for Summerhaven, take the fork right, signed E Ski Run Rd, and follow the road to the observatory. Return to the fork and turn right into Summerhaven for one almighty descent.…

With interest in cycling continuing to soar alongside the nation’s ongoing success on the international scene, British Cycling has now reached 140,000 members for the first time in its history. Yet while that success owes much to British WorldTour pros, Olympians and Paralympians in their red, white and blue skinsuits, more than half of British Cycling’s members have no intention of pinning on a race number any time soon. Now the largest organisation of its kind in the country, British Cycling has seen its Ride memberships – which are designed for commuters, sportive riders, and leisure users – overtake those for competitive racers, as more and more recreational cyclists realise the benefits on offer to all cyclists. Chief among them is the provision of worldwide third-party liability insurance for all…

Although now owned by the Northern Ireland company Chain Reaction Cycles, Vitus was born in France in the 1970s and played a pioneering role in lugged and bonded aluminium frames. In 1982, its 979 Carbone frame became one of the first to make use of carbon fibre technology. So mounting its 2018 Venon CRX felt a portentous moment, and the ride didn’t disappoint. While it would be an overstatement to say I could feel that hallowed history coursing through it, the bike was consistently comfortable despite a variety of road surfaces, helped in no small part by the 28mm tyres. There was no hint of sluggishness on the climbs, nor any issues on the descents. Equipped with Ultegra for a little over £2k, the Venon is a comfortable yet responsive…

Things were different in 1988. Die Hard was hitting the cinemas and the World Wide Web had yet to be invented, but Zipp was already thinking ahead of its time. Founder Leigh Sargent had just emerged from the world of motorsport armed with a wealth of carbon expertise and a vision to make bicycles faster. So the story goes, Sargent had seen an early Mavic disc wheel being raced by a friend and he immediately knew he could do better. So he did. Sargent created a disc wheel less than half the weight of its competitors and unlike anything else on the market. Crucial to Sargent’s original design was the honeycomb core sandwiched between the thin carbon outer skins, which provided vital strength and stiffness but added very little weight.…

As it’s the part of the bike that hits the wind first, it’s essential that the cockpitncuts through thely and airby cleanly the start . Added of the 1959 to season the standard Claeys had troika brought ofin weight the medicine , stiffness company and Dr handling Mann as principal , however sponsor , is aand fourth recruited the Belgian legend Alberic rom that fortuitous cup of coffee, things progressed swiftly and by the start of the 1959 season consideration Claeyshadbrought –cable inthe routing medicine . company ThenewDr Venge Mannas accommodates principalsponsorand only recruited discbrakes theBelgian and legend electronic Alberic gears, which allows for a simplified design and manufacturing process. The Aerofly II cockpit on the new Venge is flat, which saves weight and allows the cables to flow in…

Remember the Fiat Multipla? It was arguably one of the most practical cars ever made, but no one could see past the fact it looked dreadful, like a moon-landing craft with a snout like a Ninja Turtle. When function is permitted to govern form in product design, the result isn’t always easy on the eye, and I fear Canyon may have strayed into this territory with the Grail. I am, of course, referring to those handlebars, a strange double-decker arrangement dubbed the ‘Hover Bar’. I’m not one to knock a brand for innovating – without new ideas we’d be left with a very boring outlook for the future of our sport – but I couldn’t help noticing that whenever I rode the Grail, other riders in the group would stare…

Tour de Brexit Poc Octal helmet, £180 2pure.co.uk Oakley Jawbreaker sunglasses, £175 uk.oakley.com Rapha Pro Team Midweight jersey, £140 rapha.cc Rapha Pro Team mitts, £50 rapha.cc Rapha Pro Team II bibshorts, £180 rapha.cc Defeet Aireator Hi-Top socks, £12.99 i-ride.co.uk Rapha Climbers shoes, £280 rapha.co.uk Rising Arizona Giro Synthe helmet, £249.99 zyrofisher.co.uk Oakley EVZero Stride sunglasses, £130 uk.oakley.com Chapeau Etape jersey, £100 chapeau.cc Chapeau Club bibshorts, £119.99 chapeau.cc Chapeau Tall socks, £10 chapeau.cc Suplest Edge/3 Pro shoes, £299 suplest.com Bikes SARTO Met Trenta 3K Carbon helmet, £265 met-helmets.com Alba Optics Delta BLK ML Hippie sunglasses, €169 (approx £150) albaoptics.cc Castelli Free AR 4.1 jersey, £95 saddleback.co.uk Castelli Free Aero Race bibshorts, £140 saddleback.co.uk Castelli…