Innehållsförteckning för August 2023 från Cyclist

Such is the dominance of Ventoux – both physically and culturally – that it seems to leave no space for anything else. Its massive bulk looms over the flat Provence landscape, generating its own weather and looking like it has been dropped from another planet, with its pale, rocky summit so out of keeping with the fertile plains below. Its history is so stuffed with stories that the mountain acts like a magnet for cyclists, drawn to its slopes with tales of Tom Simpson’s tragic death in 1967, Eros Poli’s remarkable breakaway victory in 1994, Pantani and Armstrong racing to its summit at unfathomable speeds in 2000, or Chris Froome running up its slopes in 2016 after a crash left him temporarily bikeless. It feels as though there is no…

£1,999, fulcrumwheels.com The latest update to Fulcrum’s aero wheel range spearheads a slick rebrand for the Italian wheel maker. The rims are now 2mm deeper and the internal width has gone from 19mm to a more up to date 23mm, making the Speed 42 wheels a claimed 10% faster than their predecessors when paired with 28mm tyres. According to Fulcrum, handling and reactivity are also improved, with the Speed 42s scoring 7% and 3% better respectively than the previous model in its in-house testing, largely thanks to a blunter rim profile for crosswind performance. Although wider and deeper, the Speed 42s still manage a healthy 60g drop in weight, partly down to the hubshells being significantly reduced in size, but also due to a change to the rim makeup.…

1 PANARACER GRAVEL KING SEMI SLICK COLOUR EDITION TYRES £49.99, panaracer.co.uk The invention of the plough was truly groundbreaking… unlike these Panaracer tyres, which won’t break the ground but will roll across it at speed thanks to a new diamond tread pattern and more aggressive knobbles on the sides. Get them in funky orange or blue colours, or with a classic tan wall. 2 SPECIALIZED/FJÄLLRÄVEN EXPANDABLE HIP PACK £105, fjallraven.com Should fire engines actually be called water engines? And should the Specialized/Fjällräven hip pack actually be called a backpack? It can expand from one to the other, taking its capacity from 4.5 litres to 11.5 litres, with pockets inside for valuables and a hydration system, and on the outside to fit water bottles. Not fire bottles. 3 ECLIPSE ULTRA ENDURANCE…

It’s 30th June 2006 and Britain’s Nicole Cooke is in the town of Valréas, some 65km north of Avignon in southeast France. She is standing astride her bike, waiting for the start of the fourth stage of the 2006 Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale, the women’s equivalent of the Tour de France. As she waits in front of the crowd, she finds an inner calm; all noise fades away as her thoughts turn back in time. She sees her 12-year-old self – the girl who had sat at home in the Vale of Glamorgan every summer and watched Tour de France highlights on TV; the girl who was inspired by seeing Robert Millar climbing in the Alps and Pyrenees; the girl who dreamed that one day she would do the same.…

Is being mentally tough the answer to dealing with hard days in the saddle? ‘Mental toughness is a nice marketing phrase, which is often used as a shortcut to ignore wellbeing, and I find it tends to come from a certain type of coach or rider that doesn’t have great emotional intelligence,’ says Dr Josephine Perry, a sports psychologist who works with elite and amateur athletes. ‘When Romain Bardet crashed on Stage 13 of the 2020 Tour de France, he hit his head, got back on his bike encouraged by his team and rode another 90km when he clearly had concussion. The media coverage afterwards celebrated his “mental toughness”. But concussion is serious – it can have long-term effects on mental health and can lead to depression later in life.…

1 Colnago C68 Road p112 The legendary Italian marque has given its flagship road bike a thoroughly modern makeover. So is it still classic Colnago on the road? 2 Ventum NS1 p118 The US brand best known for its quirky triathlon bike has produced a more orthodox-looking road bike – but it has lots of character under the skin. 3 Di Luca Killer SLR2 p124 This bike’s aggressive moniker – which comes from controversial expro Danilo Di Luca’s nickname – belies its ability to go long as well as hard.…

The Di Luca Killer SLR2 is not one of the more auspiciously named bikes. In terms of the Killer part at least, it turns out that it refers not to the personality of the bike, but to the nickname of the company’s founder, Danilo Di Luca. The Italian was one of the top racers of the aptly named Noughties and has both the glory and the baggage that comes with winning in that era of cycling. His palmarès includes victory at the 2007 Giro d’Italia as well as a hatful of Ardennes Classics, but he also has a lifetime ban from competition, handed down in 2013 (for the usual reasons), although Di Luca denies wrongdoing. The Di Luca brand was founded in 2018 with the objective, says Di Luca himself,…

£19.99, ceramicspeed.com While racing may largely be a summer pursuit, CeramicSpeed says its new UFO Drip Wet Conditions lubricant has a specific formulation to maintain drivetrain efficiency whatever the weather, in conditions when other lubes either wash off or become less efficient. As such, the Danish manufacturer claims its new lube saves twice as many watts over a five-hour wet ride compared to many big-name competitors. It applies as a drip so is quicker and easier to apply than a full wax treatment, and each 100ml bottle should provide 12 applications.…

£65, goodyearbike.com The new Eagle F1 R all-round race tyre is part of a complete revamp of Goodyear’s road tyre lineup, which has seen the brand launch four new models, each available in a range of sizes, sidewall options and tubeless-readiness, for a total of 47 variants. The F1 Rs use a new 120tpi ‘short-ply’ casing, which Goodyear says makes the tyre lighter and more supple as less fabric is required. Plus the tubeless tyres gain a ‘Dual Angle Bead’ update that Goodyear claims makes them easier to install. The tyres are also said to benefit from refinements in rubber compound to make them grippier, while the brand’s R:Shield puncture protection is carried over in an attempt to ensure that while the tyres should be able to hold their own…

Do we have to wear tight-fitting Lycra every time we get on the bike? ‘The Rules’ would have said yes, but since we’ve said goodbye to gatekeeping and greetings to gravel, the focus has turned from conformity to comfort, convenience and cooling. Technical T-shirts are far from being a recent development, but those made specifically for cycling have boomed since it became socially acceptable to ride drop-bar bikes with baggy clothing. Whether it’s for pootling, commuting or for long-haul bikepacking trips, the technical T-shirt could be the perfect fit. There are those made for off-road riding, such as Maap’s Alt_Road and Altura’s Kielder, which thanks to its light weight and airy design is also fit for running (although why would you do that?). Then there are those that have…

Cyclist: This is your first season back since the birth of your second child. How are feeling? Lizzie Deignan: The past seven months have had their own challenges but life is good and both our children are happy and healthy. The balance with cycling is actually better than I imagined. Starting racing again has been a bit of a shock to the system and it has been a tough road back to fitness, but the Vuelta went well and I’m starting to feel a bit of form and feel stronger, which is exciting. Cyc: Is it weird always being asked questions about having a family? LD: I understand the reasons behind the questions about balancing motherhood and being a rider, because physically I’m still in that postpartum period so there…

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To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/142ventoux or scan the QR code. From the town of Bédoin at the foot of Mont Ventoux head southeast on the D974. After 2km, while the hordes head for Ventoux, turn off onto the D19 and follow it to Flassan. Continue south on the D19 to Villes-sur-Auzon, then take the D942 to Sault via Les Gorges de la Nesque. After negotiating Sault’s warren of streets, leave the town on the D164 and follow it for 18km to Chalet Reynard. Now rejoin the D974 for the final 6km push to the summit of Ventoux, then continue down the other side to Malaucène, from where it’s about 10km on the D19 back to Bédoin (and pizza, if you plan ahead).…

‘We see more and more in modern cycling that there are people capable of doing amazing things in both the Classics and stage races,’ says Elisa Longo Borghini. ‘For me, Tadej Pogačar is one in a million, a born champion. Then you see Wout van Aert – he goes more for stages than the GC, but he still wins a bit everywhere: up Mont Ventoux and then in cyclocross.’ And what about herself? ‘I mean, I’m average in everything, so I’m not a good one.’ Add self-deprecation to her repertoire. Few other riders can compare with Longo Borghini, who has Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche at the top of her palmarès. She has stood on the podium at the women’s Giro d’Italia and challenged for the Tour…

First thing’s first: this is the Colnago C68 Road Disc, not to be confused with the C68 Allroad or the soon-to-be-released C68 Gravel. As such, it replaces the C64 (there was only ever one C64) in spirit, albeit it is quite a departure in design. Each frame is still made in Italy, but tyre clearance jumps from 28mm to 32mm and the famous lugged construction is now more like ‘lugged monocoque’. ‘There are six parts of the frame as opposed to the eight parts in the C64,’ says Colnago’s head of R&D, Davide Fumagalli. ‘Splitting the frame like this meant we could increase the stiffness of the front end, which was compromised by having a junction in the most stressed area of the frame – the top of the down…

‘I love a good steel bike as much as the next tedious man in his thirties,’ wrote web editor Matthew Loveridge on this very page last month. ‘But I don’t think steel deserves the near mythical status it now enjoys… that’s inextricably linked to our collective fetish for all things retro… to our notions or artisanal integrity.’ Why, I nearly spat my naturally processed cold brew all over the Ercol coffee table. Me, tedious? Because I am 39 and I do love steel. Let me count the ways Bartali rode steel, Coppi rode steel, so did De Vlaeminck, Burton, Canins, Roche and Pantani. Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain all won five Tours on steel bikes (despite what many people say, Indurain did ride a steel Banesto at the 1995 Tour; Fausto…

The opening scene of Keith Floyd’s 1987 series Floyd On France begins with the restaurateur and bon vivant rattling through Les Gorges de la Nesque in an open-topped Citroën. His mission is to educate lumpen Brits on the gastronomic and cultural wonders of Provence, and three decades later it would seem he has succeeded. Nowadays, I’d be pushed to find a compatriot who wasn’t familiar with the joys of ratatouille, bouillabaisse or aioli. Nor would I be able to find a cyclist who didn’t know the name of Mont Ventoux. The Giant of Provence looms larger than any peak in the history of cycling. Sitting in isolation, Ventoux’s famously barren upper reaches, HC status and storied inclusions in the Tour de France make it a superstar among mountains. Add…

Did you know that there’s a gravel route up Ventoux? I do, because I’ve done it – on this bike (see issue 122). The Vitus Venon Evo is a bike that can be a rough and tumble gravel grinder one day, and a slick and quick road machine the next. It has space for tyres up to 40mm when heading off-road, but with its refined silhouette and fully integrated cockpit, it looks every bit the road racer with a set of deep-section rims slotted in. Even the mudguard mounts are subtle enough to go unnoticed. However you set it up, the Venon Evo is light, assured, fairly comfy and fun to ride.…

The Susten Pass takes time to really get going before it transitions from merely pretty to truly, breathtakingly stunning Did you know that until just a few years ago, much of Switzerland’s major infrastructure – bridges, tunnels, roads and so forth – was packed with explosives, ready to be detonated when invasion threatened? The practice was a hangover from the Cold War, a time when irritable superpowers menaced one another with complete annihilation. How times change. There’s a tortured analogy in here somewhere about a road’s hidden dangers, or perhaps something about blowing up when it all gets to be too much on a tough climb, but like every major tourist route in Switzerland, the Susten Pass is beguilingly perfect and largely free of jeopardy – legions of cars and…

Hailing from the United States, Ventum isn’t a big name in the UK. It’s best known for its eccentric One triathlon frameset, which looks like Zorro’s ‘Z’ calling card, having done away with the down tube and seatstays in an attempt to improve aerodynamics. While the NS1 has been informed by knowledge gained during the development of the One, its looks are conventional by comparison. That said, the brand’s racy all-rounder is fast becoming Ventum’s most popular bike and it has just been updated for the first time, the original design having been introduced in 2019. ‘The NS1 has changed substantially,’ says Ventum’s Harry Keeran. ‘Along with a reiterated composite construction, it sports wider 35mm tyre clearance, simplified internal cable routing, a more compliant proprietary cockpit, a T47 bottom bracket…

When I lived in Glasgow back in the early 2000s, my regular ride from my home in the shadow of the Barrowland concert hall to the nearest decent supermarket on the other side of the city took me up a steep street squeezed between the grim facades of university buildings and a derelict hospital. My hack-about-town had a triple chainring on the front. The gradient of this particular street required the granny ring, especially as I would be wearing a rucksack destined to be filled with all the natural and healthy foods that were unavailable in the east end of Glasgow (which at that time boasted a life expectancy for men of just 53 years, lower than that of Iraq). In the pre-Strava age, I wasn’t aware of the length…