CyclistDecember 2015的目錄

£639, quarq.com With all the new power meters coming onto the market, it’s easy to forget the old players of the power game, but they haven’t forgotten you. Quarq has been lowering its prices substantially to compete with the newcomers, and its new Quarq Riken AL comes in at a friendly £639. ‘The crankset spider [the plate beneath the chainring] is certainly the most accurate place to measure power because every bit of effort that you’re putting out goes through the crankset spider to drive the bike forward,’ says Troy Hoskin, Quarq product manager. Established in 2007, Quarq has been much used in the pro peloton, but while pros use the top level Sram Red or Elsa systems, Quarq introduced the more affordable Riken R range a few years ago…

Depending on your perspective, the end of the Road Race World Championships was just the start. When Peter Sagan rolled over the line in Richmond in September with his arms spread lazily and a grin on his face, his race was done. But for Tinkoff-Saxo’s kit manufacturer, Sportful, the race was just beginning. ‘I’d love to tell you some story about us watching the World Champs, running back to the office and working feverishly all night,’ says Glen McKibben, Sportful’s brand manager. ‘But the UCI guidelines are pretty strict about what we can and can’t do, so it was a smooth process and was all finished rather quickly.’ It took Sportful less than three days to produce a prototype jersey that was ready to send off to the UCI, cycling’s…

A spiral of 50-plus vultures is rising from the valley floor like giant soot particles lifting from a fire. I’ve heard somewhere that a sixth sense allows these creatures to detect a carcass from four miles away. As we emerge from a tunnel hewn through a cliff face below the Col d’Aubisque, I fear they might be able to sense my pummelling heart rate and decide to move in for the kill. ‘There must be a dead body or a dying creature nearby to have so many vultures together like that,’ says my riding partner Marc Bruning. I feel a chill go down my spine. We’ve just tackled the Col du Soulor, gaining almost 600m in just 7km at an average gradient of 8%, and the climbing isn’t over yet.…

The atmosphere in the DeAnima workshop has changed in a flash. Gone is the easy Italian banter and laughter of a few minutes ago, and in its place is serious concentration. The two men in coincidental grey shirts – who make up the entire workforce – are now working rapidly on the raw carbon frame, wrapping tube joints in pieces of prepreg, trimming and honing the alignment of the fibres for maximum strength and a perfect finish. A handcrafted bike frame is taking shape. ‘Sorry, but we have to work fast now, especially because it’s so hot,’ says Gianni Pegoretti, his eyes fixed intently on the frame in front of him. There’s no hint of panic, but this part of the job clearly demands skill, precision and speed. The reason…

THE SPEC Model Lynskey R460 Disc Groupset Sram Red 22 HRD Deviations None Wheels Stan’s No Tubes ZTR Holy Grail tubeless Finishing kit FSA Energy alloy bars, Ritchey WCS C260 stem, Lynskey Titanium Setback seatpost, Selle Italia Elite Kit Carbonio saddle Weight 8.47kg (size 55cm) Price £3,349 (frame and fork), approx £5,165 as tested Contact hotlines-uk.com If there were a Nobel Prize for services to titanium framebuilding it would have gone to Lynskey some time ago. But then the most deserving don’t always win. CS Lewis once nominated his friend JRR Tolkien for the literature prize, only for Tolkien to be rejected by the Nobel committee because his work had not ‘in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality’. Lynskey’s credentials, by contrast, are beyond dispute. With…

THE SPEC Model Festka Doppler Groupset Campagnolo Super Record Deviations None Wheels Campagnolo Bora 30 Clincher Finishing kit 3T Ergonova Team bar, 3T Arx LTD carbon stem, Selle San Marco Regale Carbon FX saddle Weight 7.1kg Price €5,299 (£3,875) frameset, approx £6,700 as tested Contact festka.com Festka likes to think differently. That much is clear from the outlandish paintjobs on some of its bikes, with striking cubist motifs and loud colour contrasts that will leave you either shielding your eyes or reaching for your wallet. With the Doppler, however, Festka has shown that the brand’s innovation penetrates deeper than the lacquer. The Czech outfit has used different materials in a different way to create a very different bike. It’s not the first time we’ve seen carbon and titanium combined on…

On A Wing And A Prayer p58 Giro Aeon helmet, £169.99 zyro.co.uk Adidas Evil Eye Halfrim Pro sunglasses, £140 adidas.co.uk Hitting The Peaks p90 Lazer Z1 helmet, £199.99 madison.co.uk Oakley Radarlock Path sunglasses, £185 uk.oakley.com Castelli Free AR 4.0 jersey, £90 saddleback.co.uk Endura FS260-Pro Jetstream jersey, £67.99 endurasport.com Skins Cycle shorts, £100 skins.net Castelli Free Aero Race bibshorts, £140 saddleback.co.uk Castelli Free X13 socks, £14 saddleback.co.uk Shimano R321 shoes, £299.99 madison.co.uk Giro Lx gloves, £59.99 zyro.co.uk Sidi Genius 5 Fit shoes, £150 saddleback.co.uk Rare Vintage p120 Lazer Cosmo helmet, £199 madison.co.uk Oakley Radarlock Edge sunglasses, £185 uk.oakley.com Rapha Souplesse jersey, £120 rapha.cc Rapha Classic bibshorts, £160 rapha.cc Rapha Pro Team socks, £15 rapha.cc…

£1,200, i-ride.co.uk Fulcrum’s new carbon wheels aim to bring cutting-edge technology to the masses. ‘Our new concept, #fulcrumfast, wasn’t intended to apply only to those who have team cars following them, but also to those with the same performance expectations despite a more modest budget,’ says Joshua Riddle of Fulcrum’s parent company, Campagnolo. ‘Our Quattro Carbons were designed with this in mind.’ The Quattros are made from unidirectional carbon fibre and include the same 3Diamant treatment on the braking surface found on Fulcrum’s top-end wheels, for consistent braking. ‘The Quattro name derives from the versatile rim depth of 40mm – it offers both aerodynamic advantages as well as a low rotational mass,’ says Riddle. The rims have also been widened in accordance with current trends, and in terms of weight…

£189.99, zyro.co.uk Every year front lights get more compact yet still seem to chuck out more and more brightness. The debate continues as to whether a light can be ‘too bright’, but that depends on how and where you use it. Cateye’s latest fully integrated light (no separate battery) is barely bigger than a bar of soap, yet will illuminate the road ahead with 1,600 lumens for two hours. Switch it down to 500 lumens and you’ll get five hours of light, or 15 hours on the 200 lumen setting, which is still more than enough to make you very visible in built-up, lit areas.…

1 ETIXX SPORTS NUTRITION From £2.49, etixxsports.com Food, glorious food, electrolyte gels and mustard. While we’re in the mood, energy bars and custard. Sometimes sports nutrition is worth making a song and dance about. 2 DHB BLOK JERSEY £40, wiggle.co.uk Boasting more dots per inch than a 1990s Citizen Swift printer, the Blok jersey series from Dhb is perfect for colder weather thanks to its micro-fleece lining, which is like being cuddled by a flock of tiny sheep. 3 KRYPTONITE MESSENGER LOCK £49.99, madison.co.uk In the world of Superman, Kryptonite isn’t only green. In fact, in one comic it’s periwinkle, and it causes Superman to lose his inhibitions and have a private dance with Lois. But for the bike world Kryptonite’s gone orange with the dual-shackle Messenger, which is sure…

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/42pyrenees. From Saint Savin take the D13 to Sireix then Estaing, where you turn right to tackle the Col des Bordères. This descends to Arrens-Marsous, from where the D918 leads up the Col du Soulor and on to the top of the Col d’Aubisque. Here, make a U-turn and head back to Soulor, then follow the D126 to Arbéost, then Ferrières, then after 2km, turn right onto the narrow Col de Spandelles. Once over the col, descend to Gez, take the D102 to Argelès-Gazost and, finally, the D921 back to the start at Saint Savin.…

Knowing that the Peak District would dish up a stream of climbs, and that I’d be in the company of an Olympic athlete, it did occur to me I should have selected a superlight carbon frame rather than a mid-priced aluminium bike. But as soon as I got on the Trek Émonda ALR, my fears were allayed. It felt spritely on the steeper inclines, dealing solidly with my standing efforts and in no way holding me back when I needed an extra kick, and downhill it remained surefooted. For less than the cost of some carbon wheels the Émonda ALR 6 is a class act.…

Matt Cazzaniga A co-founder of DeAnima who worked previously with Dario and Gianni Pegoretti on imports, sales and marketing. ‘Most of DeAnima’s customers are people who’ve ridden for a few years,’ he says. ‘They aren’t usually new to cycling and they want to know how their bike is made and what’s gone into it. These days nobody really knows who’s made anything, but we hope we’re doing something a little bit different.’ Antonio Attanasio Antonio is a framebuilder and painter who was trained by Gianni at the San Patrignano community – a residential project in Italy run on a charitable basis. The intention is to rehabilitate young people with drug problems by giving them structure, skills and self respect during their four-year stay. It worked for Antonio, and many others.…

THE SPEC Model Merida Scultura 9000 Groupset Sram Red 22 Deviations Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 direct-mount rear brake Wheels DT Swiss Mon Chasseral Finishing kit FSA K-Force Compact OS handlebars, FSA OS99 stem, Merida EGM-Light seatpost, Selle Italia SLR Kit Carbonio saddle Weight 5.8kg (52cm) Price £7,500 Contact merida-bikes.com Scultura is Italian for statue, which is perhaps an odd name for a new bike considering most statues are heavy and immobile. While the heaviest statue in the world is the Statue of Liberty at 204,116kg, the new Merida Scultura Ltd weighs just 4.56kg. Cyclist’s test version is the slightly more reasonably specced Scultura 9000, which is only a touch heavier at 5.8kg. In fact, so light is the frame that it gave pro team Lampre-Merida a slight problem. ‘No…

THE DETAILS  Weight 948g pair (417g front, 531g rear) Rim Depth 47.5mm rear, 47.5mm front Rim Width (external) 20mm Spoke Count 20 rear, 16 front Price £4,199 Contact lightweight.info The Obermayer name is only given to the very best and lightest wheels that Lightweight produces, in honour of the man who first created this unique full carbon wheelset. In the beginning, Heinz Obermayer made each wheel by hand in his garage at home, at a rate of just one wheel a day. His method was far from sophisticated – he cured his carbon with a contraption made from parts of an old lorry heater and he used his experience and feel, not hi-tech equipment, to produce some of the best wheels on the planet. They soon caught the attention of…

Guess who just got back today? Those wild-eyed boys that had been away. Haven’t changed, haven’t much to say. But man, I still think those cats are great. Dimension Data – the new incarnation of the team formerly known as MTN-Qhubeka – clearly shares Thin Lizzy’s excitement about the prospect of getting the band back together. From Britpop’s Blur to paranormal paranoiacs Mulder and Scully, reunions are all the rage right now. If it works for Gary Kemp two decades on, then why not for Mark Cavendish’s Spandex ballet of HTC lead out men just five years after their greatest hits? The South African Pro-Continental team are clearly banking on cool cat Cav (wild-eyed for sure, but is his greatness on the wane?) hitting the right notes when HTC meets…

£109, bolle-europe.co.uk French brand Bollé is a big name in the helmet and sunglasses business, but its focus has been mainly on snowsports until now. While it has provided sunglasses for pro teams Orica-GreenEdge and AG2R for some time, this is its first foray into helmets for cyclists. Bollé has aimed to pack as many features as possible into The One, with the view that it should be the only helmet you need, whether you’re racing or cruising, on-road or off-road, riding in summer or winter, at night or during the day. The most noticeable feature is the removable panels at the front and rear, which mean you can switch between a smooth aero shell or a well-ventilated option. At the front is a pair of holes that Bollé calls…

£199, giant-bicycles.com For years now cycling shoe manufacturers have strived to produce stiffer and stiffer soles, believing complete rigidity affords the rider optimal power transfer. With its new Surge shoes, Giant is challenging this school of thought. ‘With help from biomechanics experts, Giant has developed the Motion Efficiency System that is incorporated in the Surge. It combines a stiff and efficient pedalling platform with just enough torsional flex to reduce pressure and strain. The result is a more natural foot movement during the pedal stroke, which improves both comfort and efficiency,’ says Giant’s global marketing manager, Jeff Schneider. The shoes were created using technologies that sound like they have been lifted straight from an Avengers film. The ExoBeam is a bar of carbon running the length of the foot to…

Vou’d be forgiven if you’ve never attended a six-day race before. In fact you’d be forgiven if you’ve never even heard of the format, because six-day racing has been missing from the UK cycling calendar for 35 years until its recent return. The roots of the format, however, are very firmly based in London. ‘The first six-day event was in Islington in 1878 and was the result of a bet,’ says David Harmon, head of communications for Six Day London, the new track event that took place in October at the Lee Valley Olympic Velodrome. A cyclist called David Stanton wagered that he could ride 1,000 miles over a period of six days. He won the bet, and a new spectacle was born. ‘It transferred across the Atlantic very quickly,…

It’s easy to assume that when the pros head off to their winter training camps, all they do is ride around in the sunshine all day. But it’s not the case. Much of the work they do is off the bike, as Tinkoff-Saxo’s trainer Riccardo Colucci tells Cyclist: ‘It’s all to do with conditioning and muscle activation.’ The core facts As any cycling coach will confirm, core training is the most valuable off-bike work you can do because core strength is a factor in every pedal stroke you make. Although it’s your quads, glutes and hamstrings that produce the power, without your core keeping your body stable you will waste increasing amounts of energy rocking from side to side, especially as fatigue kicks in. A three-hour Sunday-morning ride at an…

Ivan Basso wears a broad smile. It’s the same one that has been fixed to his face throughout his career. Whether climbing with Lance Armstrong on the Tourmalet, or dropping Cadel Evans on the Mortirolo, Basso maintained this glowing grin while a world of pressure weighed down on him, leading to him being nicknamed ‘The Smiling Assassin’. On the day we meet in London, it is just one month after Basso had a cancerous tumour removed and he’s still uncertain whether the cancer has spread, yet his smile is still in place. ‘I recovered very well from the operation,’ he tells Cyclist. ‘I have to wait for a scan result to see if it’s under control.’ His cancer was testicular. A crash on Stage 5 of this year’s Tour de…

I seem to have ridden straight into the opening credits of Postman Pat. Just up ahead above the dry stone walls, with rolling grassy hills in the background, I can see the top half of a small red Royal Mail delivery van making its way along the narrow road towards the next cottage. I’m too far away to see if the driver has a cat with him, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m in Derbyshire, in what is known as the High Peak, having started out a short while ago from Hayfield – a village with superb views of the Kinder Scout Nature Reserve. My guide today is local cycling legend Nick Craig, a former pro racer and double Olympian with several national titles to his name. It’s a pleasure…

The Unblended is available in standard sizes from 48–62cm, but the DeAnima team much prefers to build it fully bespoke in consultation with the customer. The frame weighs 850g for a size 55cm – not the lightest out there, but that was never the intention. ‘We are not trying to revolutionise anything – we are using modern materials to build something with traditional methods,’ says DeAnima’s Matt Cazzaniga. The fork is an open mould item sourced from China. In the last year the team has produced around 100 bikes branded DeAnima and, like many artisan framebuilders, they work for other brands too. The Unblended costs €3,250 (approx £2,400) for frame and fork. See an upcoming issue of Cyclist for a full review where we’ll reveal how this most Italian of…

It sounds like science fiction, but the introduction of space-age materials to road bike tyres could give them a form of virtual intelligence. When you’re riding along a flat, smooth road, the rubber in the tyres will automatically harden to reduce rolling resistance, but when you brake, accelerate or take a corner it will soften to create more grip. The magic comes in the form of graphene – the wonder substance setting hearts aflutter in the field of material science. Graphene is a one-atom-thick layer of carbon that is incredibly light, strong and flexible. It could lead to folding mobile phones, dramatically lighter aircraft and, er, the thinnest, most impenetrable condoms (the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $100,000 for investment into graphene to create a safer contraceptive with…

The details Sign up for a sportive inspired by Pantani What Granfondo Les Deux Alpes Where Les Deux Alpes, France Next One 28th August 2016 (TBC) Price TBC More information sportcommunication.info I don’t tend to hang out with the over-70s, except at weddings, anniversaries and funerals. It’s not that I’m ageist, but the 30-year age gap means that our tastes in music rarely match and most of them aren’t on social media. But as I line up at the start of the Granfondo Les Deux Alpes, a two-day sportive based around the French ski resort of the same name, I’m surrounded by pensioners. It’s as if the event has been sponsored by Saga and it makes for a surprisingly calm atmosphere that is the antithesis of the usual carbon-and-testosterone sportive…

This issue we present three bikes and a 50/50 split between carbon and titanium. How have we managed that? Well, if you can’t decide between the hand-crafted titanium Lynskey, with its unique twisted tubes, or the svelte carbon Merida, which is among the lightest bikes ever created, perhaps you should consider the Festka Doppler, which combines both titanium and carbon to rather wonderful effect. Take your pick.…