Table of contents for Summer 2020 in Cyclist

Pity the people of Brazil. It is a vast and beautiful country with a colourful culture and incredible natural wonders, but it is in the hands of a vandal. Since coming to power, President Jair Bolsonaro has been encouraging the deforestation of the Amazon and displacement of indigenous tribes, and now he has described the Covid-19 crisis as a ‘little flu’. He even boasted that his background ‘as an athlete’ means he has nothing to worry about. Bolsonaro’s refusal to take the pandemic seriously, insisting that everyone should carry on as normal, has ensured that his country now has the fastest growth rate of infections anywhere in world. At the time of writing, it has 555,383 reported cases, behind only the United States, but while the rest of the world’s…

Cyclist: Where does this call find you, and how are you spending your time? Mathieu van der Poel: I’m currently at home in Belgium, where we have been able to ride outside most of the time, and with one other person. Compared to other countries such as Monaco, where the closest many riders can get to riding outdoors is a turbo on their balcony, Belgium hasn’t been so bad. Cyc: Who is that ‘other person’? MvdP: Most of the time I train with Zdenek Štybar [Deceuninck-QuickStep] or with my brother, David, who is also my teammate on Alpecin-Fenix. David is more cyclocross-focussed, though, so recently we’ve raced a little less together, but at least now we have lots of time to train together. We still don’t really know when the…

Brazil is big. Today it is also cold. Really, really frost-on-grasstips cold. Condensation on the bikes, which we left outside overnight, has turned to a coating of miniature stalagmites, crystallised by temperatures that have brought snow to parts of Santa Catarina. Touching down upstate in Florianopolis yesterday, the temperature was a balmy 25°C; this morning it is -2°C. The country’s size makes it a land of extremes. To put ‘size’ into perspective, Brazil is the sixthbiggest country in the world, 35 times bigger than the UK, ranked only behind Russia, Antarctica, China, the United States and Canada. Despite a population of 210 million, each inhabitant has an average of 40,000m2 to themselves – UK residents, by contrast, get a meagre 3,600m2. So not only does the country appear massive on…

There would be every temptation to the think of the Col de la Croix de Fer as second tier in the ranks of Classic Climbs. The Strava segment for our assault from the southwest suggests an underwhelming average gradient of just over 5% for the 24.3km. The summit of the climb crests 2,000m, but only just – 2,067m. What’s more, it has not only never hosted a summit finish in the Tour de France, it has never even been the final climb, only ever the softener before an ascent of nearby Alpe d’Huez or La Toussuire. It’s not even the grandest route to the bottom of the Alpe as it is often side-stepped in favour of the more glamorous Col du Galibier. Yet to overlook the Croix de Fer (as…

As Cyclist has discovered on our latest delve into the world of carbon fibre (see p86), manufacturers are becoming so experienced at manipulating the black stuff that they are now able to satisfy seemingly conflicting demands. Need a bike that is stiff one way but flexible in another? No problem. Fancy some aerodynamic efficiency but at a light weight? Sure thing. However, while sophisticated fabrication can go a long way, brands are increasingly now also choosing to deploy mechanical devices within the frame design to further augment certain characteristics. Most often this is to help boost comfort and is particularly prevalent in endurance road and gravel bikes. Such designs have taken the form of decoupled seat tubes (Trek Domane) and suspension cartridges in steerer tubes (Specialized Roubaix). Not to be…

The Road to Rio do Rastro p62 Abus Aventor helmet, £139 extrauk.co.uk Oakley Sutro sunglasses, £130 oakley.com Ashmei Softshell jacket, £238 ashmei.com Sportful Fiandre gloves, £85 saddleback.co.uk Café du Cycliste Marinette bibshorts, £184 cafeducycliste.com Sportful NoRain legwarmers, £45 saddleback.co.uk Suplest Edge/3 Pro shoes, £299 suplest.com Col de la Croix de Fer p92 Rudy Project Spectrum helmet, £169.99 rudyproject.com Rudy Project Defender sunglasses, £210 rudyproject.com Giro Chrono Pro jersey, £129.99 zyrofisher.co.uk Giro Chrono Pro bibshorts, £159.99 zyrofisher.co.uk Giro HRC Team socks, £17.99 zyrofisher.co.uk Specialized Torch 3.0 shoes, £210 specialized.com…

€149.99 (approx £135), redbullshop.com To quote its own stats, Red Bull sold 7.5 billion cans in 2019, which equates to nearly one for every person on Earth (sales of Jägermeister remain undisclosed). Not satisfied with such domination, it has now moved into sunglasses with the Spect Flow. On the face of it they look on trend, if generic, but there is a neat trick here – the lens ‘floats’ above the bottom of the frame (it is only attached at the edges) such that Red Bull claims better comfort and less judder over rough stuff.…

£25, paligap.cc There are dozens of tubeless tyre pluggers out there – little widgets that seal bigger punctures with rubber bungs – but original tubeless proponent Stan’s says its Dart is just a bit special. The theory is unchanged: push the pointy end through the hole then withdraw to leave a rubber plug in place, but Stan’s says that, unlike other systems, its plugs are specially shaped to fill holes more effectively without expanding them, while the rubber compound reacts with Stan’s sealant to create a permanent chemical bond. The pointed tip is also plastic, not metal as per other tools, so as to guard against poking holes through rim tape.…

1 5 RINGS COFFEE From £7.99 (250g), fiveringscoffee.co.uk Just because you’ve won four gold medals doesn’t mean you know coffee: we saw Matthew Pinsent have a Nespresso once, and Paulo Radmilovic (1908-1916 swimmer and water polo player) drank instant. Yet there are exceptions, as Olympic track champs Owain Doull, Philip Hindes and Callum Skinner have just launched 5 Rings Coffee: single-origin, ethically sourced, sustainably packaged and apparently quite the brew. 2 THERABODY MINI £175, theragun.com More percussive than Ginger Baker in a hammer-drill factory, the Therabody mini (nee the Theragun) is a pint-sized version of Therabody’s popular massage device, which uses an oscillating tip to knead body tissue in order to relieve tension, promote blood flow and even treat cramp. With a 150-hour battery life, three speeds and small enough…

New Team Ineos recruit Rohan Dennis may be the reigning World Time-Trial Champion, but almost any amateur British cyclist – including anyone who has ridden to the village shop for a basket of apples – has probably cycled more miles outdoors than he has this spring. ‘I was at home in Andorra but I left a few days before Spain closed its borders, because our dog needed surgery in Girona, so I have been living in Spain and couldn’t cycle outside,’ explains the 29-year-old Australian, via FaceTime. ‘One week I did just nine hours of indoor training. It was just maintenance work, but if I did four-hour rides on the turbo trainer I’d probably just hang the bike up and kick it. So I went for quality, not quantity. On…

Sam Bewley has been cooking up a storm during the lockdown. The New Zealander, a pro with Mitchelton-Scott, has also been vacuuming, washing and cleaning, all while dishing out tips in a series of amusing online videos shared on his Twitter, Instagram and YouTube channels. The idea originated on a team Zoom chat. ‘He discussed how the riders recognised the importance of social media during this challenging period,’ says Taryn Kirby, the team’s communications director. ‘He wanted to use our reputation of being an open and friendly team to create some individual, light-hearted content. We supported that and Bewley’s lockdown videos were born.’ Make no mistake, the Kiwi is no Peter Sagan. With a combined 3.5 million followers across all platforms, the Slovakian showman is so popular he needs a…

I have a soft spot for bike companies named after their owners. Once upon a time it was because some old fella who smelled like hot tin and burnt tobacco made the frames, so naturally stuck his name on the down tube. It’s why there are such wonderfully christened bikes as Hilton Wrigley, Whitaker & Mapplebeck, Leach Marathon and Pemberton Arrow (OK, so ‘Arrow’ and ‘Marathon’ are model names, but still, they’d make superb Agatha Christie characters). It’s also why Felt is Felt, named after founder Jim Felt, who started things off in 1991. Jim has since departed, having been bought out by sports consortium Groupe Rossignol in 2017, but the company’s drive for innovation remains strong. Felt the man was trying to perfect aero-triathlon bikes as far back as…

This month’s column will segue (almost) seamlessly from me providing a hot shower and fresh towels for Hollywood superstar Scarlett Johansson to my small contribution to the stratospheric success of British cyclists. I kept my bathroom spotlessly clean and towels neatly plumped for a week in November 2011 when Scarlett visited my village on the east coast of Scotland to film scenes for the sci-fi film Under The Skin. She spent five days on our beach being soused by North Sea waves and the location manager had nominated my shower for emergency use should the star – or any of the other actors – require resuscitation from hypothermia. As it turned out, my towels remained untouched, but I like to think I played a very small part in the success…

A bit like pieces of the cross, if Ernesto Colnago had a euro for every Eddy Merckx Hour record bike claimed to exist, he probably wouldn’t have had to sell his company last month (to Chimera, an Abu Dhabi investment fund). And it’s a similar story here, because by our reckoning there is a 50-50 chance this is the very bike ridden by Maurizio Fondriest at the 1993 Milan-San Remo. This isn’t to cause an argument, but Mr Colnago does insist this is the bike on which the Italian won, yet we can’t ignore the fact that when we interviewed Fondriest back in issue 15, he said he had ‘every bike I ever won on at home; they are on the wall, my World Champs, World Cup, Milan-San Remo’. Further,…

It’s funny how your mind plays tricks on you. When I think back to Stephen Roche’s legendary comeback on the climb to La Plagne at the 1987 Tour de France, I always think of the Irishman emerging through the mist behind the man in yellow, Pedro Delgado. But there was no mist. I know this now because, feeling wistful and in need of a socially distanced pick-me-up, I sought out that stage on YouTube. And you know what? It was sunny. The only fuzz came from the VCR recording. Another classic came a year later: ‘And look at that! Pedro Delgado has sprouted wings!’ Still, it reminded me of one of my favourite bits of commentary: Phil Liggett’s now immortal lines, ‘And just who is that rider coming up behind?…

Fancy adding 5% to your functional threshold power (FTP) in just three weeks? The answer could lie in performing shorter intervals, according to a recent study led by Bent Rønnestad, a professor in exercise physiology at the University of Lillehammer. The study compared two groups of highly trained cyclists, each completing three sessions per week for three weeks. One group did multiple sets of short, high-intensity intervals – 13x30sec with 15sec recovery – while the other did sets of longer intervals – 4x5min with 2.5min recovery. The overall effort of each group was perceived to be the same. The results were unequivocal in support of shorter, high-intensity intervals. The high-intensity group improved their FTP – the maximum power you can sustain for one hour – by an average 4.7% compared…

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You will see camels, you will see camels,’ says Mike, excitedly. I’m being driven south from Tel Aviv in the back seat of an old car. Mike, a Jewish cycling enthusiast born in the United States and now a citizen of Israel, is giving me a lift to the start town of the Gran Fondo Arava, a sportive in the heart of Israel’s Negev Desert. As we drive, Mike explains that since the foundation of Israel in 1948, Jews born outside of its borders can automatically claim citizenship in Israel – a process he likens to ‘ascending to the Holy Land’. Leaving the outskirts of Tel Aviv behind, we head south and eventually enter the emptiness of the Negev, the desert region of Israel’s southern half that accounts for almost…

Type the words ‘largest winning margin at the Tour of Flanders’ into Google and you will discover the name Henri ‘Ritte’ Vanlerberghe. In the early years of the 20th century the Belgian cyclist was renowned for his brazen riding style, often attacking from the start but almost as often unable to sustain his lead until the end. The one time it did work, spectacularly so, was at the 1919 Ronde van Vlaanderen. Legend has it Vanlerberghe turned up to the race without a bike, having arrived directly from the front line of the First World War, but he managed to borrow one and, in typical fashion, attacked into a block headwind 120km from the finish. This time he amassed a huge lead, reportedly aided by an incident involving a stationary…