Table of contents for February 2022 in Cycling Plus

I’ve commented on these pages that the pandemic has heightened my appreciation of the riding routes on my doorstep. Having read our ‘Event Horizon’ feature (p44), I now say screw that worthiness. I just want to feel continental European sunshine on my jersey’s shoulders, American gravel under my wheels, or to finish the sections of the West Kernow Way (pictured) I missed in pursuit of a pasty. Yes, admittedly as I write this, that long-forgotten Transformers baddie Omicron has just arrived, so I won’t be using marker pen on the calendar just yet. But here’s to a more expansive year of riding in 2022. SUBSCRIBE TODAY FOR ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE OFFERS & COMPETITIONS AS PART OF OUR SUBSCRIBER CLUB! SUBSCRIBE! NEW SUBSCRIBERS TO CYCLING PLUS RECEIVE THEIR FIRST THREE ISSUES…

The Wilier Rave SLR is an all-new, highly versatile bike designed for all-road and gravel riding. Heavily inspired by the Italian brand’s performance road bikes, the Rave SLR ups tyre clearance to 42mm and blends racing with gravel geometries. It will be available in three all-road setups – with Shimano’s new Dura-Ace R9200, Shimano Ultegra R8100 12-speed or SRAM Force eTap AXS – and three gravel builds, giving you the choice of 1x SRAM XPLR eTap AXS, Campagnolo’s 13-speed Campagnolo Ekar and a 2 Shimano GRX Di2 setup. The least expensive bike, shown here, is built with Campagnolo Ekar, a carbon bar and Campagnolo Shamal wheels, and will set you back £8,680. The priciest model, with Shimano Dura-Ace R9200, costs £11,350. All of them feature the same carbon fibre frameset.…

FORME MONYASH 2 £899.99 Forme’s Monyash 2 promises a balance of comfort and performance from its aluminium frame, carbon fork and 28mm tyres – with room for 35mm tyres. Its all-round and commuting credentials are boosted by three sets of bottle bosses and rear rack mounts. It has internal cable routing, cable disc brakes and an eight-speed Claris groupset, and its handmade wheels are paired with Schwalbe tyres. CANNONDALE CAAD OPTIMO 1 £1200 Cannondale has been making its CAAD – Cannondale Advanced Aluminium Design – bikes since the early nineties. This model comes with a slightly sloping top tube, dropped seatstays and an 11-speed Shimano 105 groupset with an 11-30 cassette. But traditionalists can take heart from the calliper rim brakes, cabling that isn’t all internally routed and tyres that…

A long with Thorn, Spa is probably Britain’s leading supplier of touring bikes. It flogs tourers from the likes of Ridgeback and Surly, but also its own Spa-designed tourers, including the ‘expedition-focused’ Wayfarer that ‘provides the ultimate in luggage-carrying capability’. But the qualities that make it a touring bike – comfort, racks, full-length mudguards – are equally handy when it comes to commuting and leisure riding. The Wayfarer is based around a very well-finished Reynolds 725 frame, with three sets of bottle bosses and handbuilt wheels. Gearing is from nine-speed Shimano Sora, which is one of my favourite groupsets, with Spa’s own triple chainset. Triples are rarely seen outside of touring these days and while there will be some redundant ratios, the small gaps between gears mean you can keep a…

01 _ Ride the closest thing to the original 1903 Tour de France Okay, so the equipment and navigation at our disposal in 2022 are radically improved from over a century ago, but in terms of spirit, accessibility to enter and a stripping of all the bells and whistles of bike racing, Transcontinental Race, the self-supported solo bike race across the roads of Europe, is a magnificent echo of those early Tours de France. After two editions lost to the pandemic, race number eight returns on 24 July with its now traditional start in Geraardsbergen, Belgium and a finish in Burgas, Bulgaria, over 4000km away. The race, says the organisation, is “rider against rider, living by their wits alone, without caravan or entourage guided by personal integrity, mutual respect and…

This is everything a modern, raceorientated road bike should be £8599 Lightened, tightened and smoothed-out racer I’ve been lucky enough to be at every launch of Cervélo’s four R5 iterations, and this bike has remained pretty much undiluted from the original winning formula of 2011. It started as a lightweight, allround race bike with expertly manipulated carbon-fibre, then came the pro-ride stiffness with a smattering of aerodynamics thrown in, but the designers have kept it away from the limitations of an out-and-out aero-road bike, allowing the company’s S-Series bikes to cover that niche. All this means that you still have a traditional-looking frameset based around a two-triangle diamond. In fact, put this new R5 alongside the original and it’s a case of spot the difference rather than see the differences.…

£37 Construction DexShell’s heavy-duty overshoes are made from four neoprene panels, joined with flat-lock stitching. The rear panel on each side is a little more robust, to resist the additional stresses from pulling the overshoe on and fastening the zip. The sole has two openings with reinforced elastic edges, and abrasion-resistant fabric around the toe and mid-sole areas for durability. The zip is waterproof, with a reflective strip on each side, plus there’s a reflective logo at the front, and the ankle cuff has a wide elastic band with an internal silicone gripper and rubbery Velcro strap. Fit Our size-large overshoes were a great fit for size 45 shoes and quick to put on. The robust toe and mid-sole areas gave enough stiffness to help the overshoes hold their shape,…

THEEXPERTS TECH MASTER ROB KEMP Journalist and author Rob explains the latest sports science news to boost your cycling. PROFESSOR & CYCLIST NORMAN LAZARUS Columnist Norman, 85, is a physiology professor, author and a former audax champion. EVENT GUIDE SHAWN RATH The Global Project Manager at Haute Route offers his advice on tackling the Gravel Epic series. TOUGH GUY JAMES WIT TS Sports sciencewriterJames offers strength, conditioning and recovery advice for winter.…

01 FORGE RESILIENCE Building strength bulletproofs your body, according to coach and physiotherapist Nick Cutcliffe. “This comprises two key areas. Firstly, undertake strengt-hand-conditioning work. This should include core strength, plus work on proximal joints like the hips and shoulder.” Having strong muscles helps protect your joints. “The second part of durability is by doing long, slow efforts. These need to be easy enough to recover and repeat consistently so when you’re far into a race, you don’t break down.” This type of low-intensity training builds endurance and stamina. 02 MOBILITY IS KEY Cutcliffe highlights the importance of mobility not only for performance but for staying injury-free. “If you want to be more aero on the bike (and to be able to hold the position) you’ll need good shoulder and spinal…

01 TRIGGERPOINT GRID FOAM ROLLER £39.99 Recovery sessions are key following big rides and S&C, and this is our pick for promoting blood flow and increasing flexibility. Be warned, it can be painful! 02 THERAGUN G3 £375-£549 The Theragun is ‘percussive therapy’, which combines frequency, torque and amplitude via its pulsing and repetitive arm action to encourage increased blood flow and flush out lactic acid from the muscles. 03 CEP COMPRESSION SOCKS 3.0 £44.95 Primed to stimulate active recovery during or after cycling, these long compression socks from CEP have a structured geometry claimed to optimise blood supply and comfort.…

Last month we looked at four electric bikes for those of us returning to work. This time around, we’re putting human-powered bikes to the test. All of them are suitable for commuting, but each can also be used for much more than the daily grind to work. Their aspirations take in leisure riding, fast fitness and perhaps even racing ambitions, plus loading up for trips away. But which is right for you and the sort of cycling you do? Our first bike, Forme’s Monyash 2, is modestly priced but is every inch – or millimetre – the modern aluminium road bike, from its thru-axles and full-carbon tapered fork to its clearance for 35mm tyres. Our second entry is the most familiar, or would have been a decade ago, when aluminium…

In contrast to the Cannondale that’s coming up, Forme’s new Monyash 2 is much more representative of a 2022 all-round road bike costing around a grand. It has an aluminium frame, a full-carbon fork, cable disc brakes, front and rear thru-axles and a 34x32 bottom gear. Its all-rounder credentials are evident in its clearance for 35mm tyres – or 32mm with mudguards – plus its three sets of bottle bosses and rear rack bosses. Fittings for mudguards mean you won’t be fiddling around to mount them either. The sub-£1000 price means you’re only getting Shimano’s eight-speed Claris groupset and quite modest Tektro Mira brakes but Forme does spec a better set of wheels than you’ll find on many bikes at this price, and the handbuilt own-brand hoops are paired with…

Oxford Bike Works’ Model 1E is the company’s least-expensive model and one of two steel bikes in this test. And while Spa’s frame is made in Far East, Oxford proudly claims that its chromoly steel frames are made in the UK, by Coventry’s well-respected Lee Cooper Cycles. This ups the cost of the bike, but the frame is lovely, foregoing the usual TIG-welding for a super-smooth fillet-brazed construction. The frame and fork have fittings for racks and mudguards and there’s also a kickstand plate. Steel, that most venerable of frame materials, is paired with a mix of components that spans the last few years. There’s a modern 1x chainset with a choice of chainring sizes, but gear changes come courtesy of an old-school bar-end shifter and braking is taken care…

Bespoked was conceived by Stroudbased frame builder Phil Taylor who, in 2009, having built his own bike, wondered why there wasn’t a handmade bike show in the UK to rival NAHBS, the North American Handmade Bike Show, so that British builders could showcase their wares and share ideas. So alongside his wife Tessa, he set about organising one, and they created the first show in Bristol in 2011. “We started Bespoked to celebrate the work of independent framebuilders and the wider cycling community,” says Phil. “But it’s been amazing to witness how interest has grown over the years. We’re proud to have been part of creating a new culture for handmade bikes and help connect pioneering builders with adventurous riders.” Aside from 2014’s edition at the London Olympic velodrome, it…

£2249 All-round carbon race machine Felt’s three-model road bike line-up consists of the aerodynamically focused AR (CP381); the endurance smoothy that is the VR (CP383); and the FR, the brand’s racing allrounder with a lightweight chassis that maxes on stiffness and fast handling. The frame looks decidedly classic and its diamond shape is a breath of fresh air. This mechanical 105 version has external gear-cable routing, something I’ve not seen on a new bike in many a year. If you opt for an electronic drivetrain, the wires run internally. This entry-level model’s frame is lightweight (under 900g) and shares the same tech as the flagship bikes in the FR range. Both the frame and fork are made with Felt’s own UHC (ultra hybrid carbon), which combines three fibres that each…

£270 Stylish high-performance road shoes Quoc (abbreviated from Quoc Pham) is the eponymous cycling footwear brand founded by the British designer back in 2009. Originally concentrating on urban and classic shoe designs, more recently he’s branched out into gravel and road race shoes, in the shape of the Night Lace-up, the Mono and the improved Mono II, which is available in black or white. The Mono IIs have a tough PU Microtex upper in a two-piece construction with a wrapover tongue, inspired by Quoc Pham’s excellent Gran Tourer gravel shoe. The closures may look like slightly bulkier Boas but are actually Quoc’s own design. They work well – small adjustments are easy to make and spare dials are available. The construction quality of the uppers is excellent with the padded…

COMPLEXITY 01 Being a bike jacket is a complex job. It needs to keep out the cold without making you overheat, and it should prevent rain from getting in but not stop sweat evaporating out. It’s a tricky proposition, even with the advent of today’s advanced fabrics. Suffice to say, coming up with a suitable solution means a winter bike jacket is as high-tech as any other cycling clothing item. Scratch beneath the surface and you quickly find yourself in a world of hydrophilic polyurethane coatings and ePTFE membranes with billions of micropores per square inch. But why do they need to be so complex when all they’re doing is being a barrier between you and the elements? The answer to that is you, or more specifically, the heat and…

“I work for Birmingham City University and they were looking for a way to support the charity Cure Leukaemia’s fundraising efforts. My colleagues knew that I did a lot of cycling because I talk about it all the time, so when someone suggested I did a 500km ride to Paris, I leapt at the chance.” “I started training for it but, because of Covid, the start date got pushed back from June 2020 to September 2021, during which time one of my close cycling buddies was diagnosed with leukaemia. Sadly, he passed away in January 2021. In some ways, I feel as if I took him with me on the ride.” “I work full time, so for training I’d do a long session of about 50 miles every Sunday and…

EXERCISE 01 GLUTE STRETCH SPORTS THERAPIST Jamie Webb, Brighton Sports Therapy BENEFITS Cycling gives you tight hamstrings. How does that impact potential overuse injuries? Firstly, tension in the hamstrings affects the sciatic nerve, which can affect tension in the calves and into the plantar fascia, increasing the risk of injury in these areas. What do you need to do to pedal a bike? Hip extension. As a result, the glutes become fatigued and look for help to action that hip extension. In short, glutes do hip extension. STRETCH Sit on the floor with the right leg outstretched. Place your left foot flat on the floor outside the right knee. Hug your left knee into the body with your right arm and twist your upper body to the left. If needed,…

MARRAKESH GRAVEL EPIC STATS Location Marrakesh, Morocco Date 31 March-2 April 2022 Format 3 stages, 5 days Distance and elevation 335km, 6670m Price All-inclusive from 799 Gravel Epic was founded in 2019. It was originally envisioned as a series of one-day races set in spectacular gravel destinations. The format was then changed in 2021 to boost the fun factor by making the races multi-day stage events, fully supported including mechanics and medics. The first of these took place in autumn 2021 in Switzerland and, due to its success, Gravel Epic Marrakesh is next up in the spring (the Swiss event returns in autumn). PRE-RIDE PREP Preparation is half the battle and the best thing to get yourself ready for either course is to get base miles in the legs and…

THE BIG PICTURE With the big bike lights’ test in our previous issue, it got us thinking about the practical side of night riding. So we tasked photographer Andy McCandlish and writer Sean McFarlane to head to the Galloway Forest Park in southern Scotland – recognised by the International Dark-Sky Association as a ‘Dark Sky Park’ – and report back. On a cold, clear late-autumn evening, they were treated to a spectacular light show on their gravel ride. A full report follows next issue.…

01 LEZYNE BRASS BELL £26 A compact, classic-looking bell with a brass dome and very sprung ringer, this emits a clear ring and the hard-anodized alloy mount keeps it locked on. The clamp is suitable for 25.4mm diameter bars, or 22.5mm with the included rubber shim. 02 LIMAR AIR STRATOS €79.95 Bergamo-based Limar (supplier to the Astana pro team) is one of the world’s leading road helmet brands. The Air Stratos, however, is targeted at the multi-terrain – if still aero – market, with the reinforced double in-mould shell, relatively lean 240g weight and Air Fit comfort system all aimed at full-day gravel adventures. 03 ZEFAL PULSE A2 BOTTLE CAGE £7.99 Proving that expensive, carbon-fibre cages aren’t the only option if you’re trying to keep bike weight down, the A2…

In many ways Cannondale’s CAAD Optimo is a throwback to bikes from a decade or so ago – an aluminium frame and a carbon fork accompanied by a predominantly Shimano 105 drivetrain. Disc brakes? Nowhere to be seen. But look a bit further and the newest incarnation of the Optimo road bike has followed at least a few more recent trends in road-bike design. Gearing is lower than you’d have found a while back, the tyres a fraction wider and the seatstays have inevitably been dropped for extra rear-end comfort. Just a couple of years ago, a 105-equipped road bike from Trek, Specialized or Cannondale was yours for a grand. Sadly those days are now receding in the rear-view mirror, and the £1200 cost of the Cannondale is actually £50…

Spa’s Wayfarer will carry kilos of kit for adventures, or a change of clothes and your laptop for commuting It’s hard to choose a winner when each of the bikes has slightly different riding aspirations and there’s quite a difference in price between some of them, but any of the four would make a fine commuter bike, so it’s more about your needs. Since both the Forme and Cannondale are recognisable as aluminium-framed road bikes, there’s probably the biggest Venn diagram crossover between these two. The Cannondale is for those of us who want a bit of speed on our ride. It’s the lightest bike here, has the most aggressive geometry and sharp handling to match. Shimano 105 is also the go-to groupset at this price and the bottom gear…

Former Slovenian pro Jani Brajkovi raced at the Tour de France, the Vuelta and the Giro, but in private he was battling a series of harrowing eating disorders. As a bulimic, Brajkovi would routinely make himself sick after eating. He also suffered with orthorexia – an obsession with healthy food – which meant he couldn’t permit himself even a crumb of cake. But Brajkovic is not alone: a recent study in the Journal of Eating Disorders found that a significant 17.1 per cent of cyclists experience disordered eating. “It might sound unreal, but during my career I was with the best teams - Discovery Channel, RadioShack, Astana, Bahrain and UHC (United Healthcare), and in every team, if there are 30 riders, there are at least five or six riders that…

£215 Lightweight, customisable glasses LENS 01 The high-quality, 8KO lens is shaped so it stays close to your face, right across its width, for better peripheral vision. FRAME 02 The frame is made from a material called Infinite that consists of 100 per cent recycled materials. LOOKS 03 You can choose your preferred lens, frame colour, logo colour and temple tips at no extra cost. These are Sungod’s lightest riding shades to date, at a featherweight 27g for the frameless option. They look pretty sharp, too, thanks to the retro shield lens shape with its modern silhouette. I’m also impressed that you can choose everything from the frames and lenses to the logo and temple-tip colours. Don’t panic, though, this doesn’t mean months of waiting for your new shades – my pair came…

Greg LeMond’s bike-building career started when he produced a carbon-framed bike back in 1990 and rode his eponymously named bike for Team Z in the 1991 Tour. Eventually LeMond Bicycles became part of the Trek group (reportedly netting the Wisconsin company in excess of $100 million). The partnership lasted for 13 years but sadly ended in acrimony, when Trek seemingly backed the wrong horse (Lance Armstrong) in a dispute, after Greg was outspokenly critical about the state of professional road racing, specifically doping. Since those troubled times, LeMond has been behind a smart trainer (the pro-Tour-teambacking LeMond Revolution trainer) and had a partnership with high-end French carbon bike maker Time back in 2013, building beautiful and exclusive models bearing the LeMond name. CARBON FOR DECADES A pioneer of carbon fibre…

A possible return to increased office working combined with the usual seasonal illnesses in circulation, plus whatever working from home has done to our immune systems, means we need to do everything we can to stay healthy this January. Food can play a major role in boosting our immune systems, with this month’s range of recipes all offering a hit of nutrients, vitamins plus well-balanced injections of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Leading a busy working life, especially if commuting has returned to the mix, means we often find ourselves eating the same things. Making these at the weekend will ensure you’ll have a few nutrient-packed meals ready to go for the week ahead, a real asset when you’d rather be out on the bike than in the kitchen. Spiced carrot…

How quickly you recover from exercise is down to numerous contributing factors. We’re talking your age, your level of conditioning, the quality of your tapering, cycling technique and experience, and even the daily stress that you’re managing – we now know physical and mental health are inextricably linked. There is also, as you’ll discover, what you eat, how you sleep and other more cutting-edge methods to banish residual fatigue. Sadly for those of us who’ve tipped over the 40-year mark, the hard fact is that the younger, fitter and healthier a rider is, the quicker they’ll typically recover. In truth, we all recover at different rates, no matter how meticulous our recovery protocol, but there are proven ways to help every rider come back stronger through rest and active recovery.…

DISTANCE 47 miles / 76 km TOTAL ELEVATION 950ft / 290m GRADE Easy, particularly in the middle of a Lincoln Wheelers bunch. DOWNLOAD komoot.com/tour/432352265 GETTING THERE Lincoln has a train station, Lincoln Central, serviced by East Midlands Railway. WHERE TO STAY Given our start in North Hykeham on the outskirts of Lincoln, we stayed in the Best Western Plus Bentley Hotel & Spa (bestwestern.co.uk). During our stay, there was a psychic convention in the hotel, which we didn’t see coming. There are myriad hotel options in central Lincoln; perhaps surprisingly, the centre has some famous climbs, including the cobbled Michaelgate, which was the focus of the 2021 British national champs. The Old Palace Lodge (theoldpalace.org), at the top of Michaelgate, is set in the shadow of Lincoln Cathedral in a…