Cycling Plus

I’ll come clean, even though I don’t exactly look like a racing snake in the riding image above, I’d give anything to look even that ‘athletic’ right now. Since semi-lockdown 2.0 in October put an end to bike commuting and the latest restrictions cut

£5540 A slightly more ‘costeffective’ dream machine Wilier Triestina’s outgoing flagship bike is the Cento10 Pro – an aero road machine that was available to team riders at the Wiliersponsored Astana (it’s now riding the new Filante, see BikeRadar.co

Around this time each year I can usually be found putting the final touches to some sort of annual sportive guide for this magazine. It was no different at the start of 2020, but by the time I’d returned home from an extended holiday in March, the si

£160, £179.99 For the dedicated year-round cyclist Offering infinite run time for lights and the ability to charge devices on the go, a dynamo set-up makes sense for Audax riders and commuters alike. Once the sole preserve of custom wheel builders, a

I took my trekker over Rudland Rigg the other day. It’s centuries old, lumpy and heavy going, but that’s enough about my trekker. The Rigg was great: an old drove road that, despite looking straight on the map, snakes its way north to south across th

The Isle of Arran, known as ‘Scotland in Miniature’, boasts mountains, forests, castles and fabulous coastlines. It’s a mountain bike playground, but road and gravel cyclists can have great fun, too. You can easily complete a tarmac island circuit in

£4999 Futuristic urban transport The Precede:ON seems every inch the concept bike made real. The winner of the 2021 German Design Award certainly looks the part, and it boasts a commitment to integration with no external cables, integrated brake leve

There’s nothing worse than getting stone chips or chain scratches on your pride and joy. ZeroDue transparent adhesive protection is designed to adhere perfectly to any shape, and is UV- and scratch-resistant, too. At just 0.2mm thick it won’t add any

If you’re looking for gravel adventure and have a two-grand budget, we’d suggest searching beyond carbon and aim for some of the toughest rides around made from metal. Carbon fibre may well be the ultimate material when it comes to lightweight road r

£1499 Liverpool-based microbrand BiviBIKES offers this one-size-fits-all solution to your gravel needs. The Japanese Sanko steel tubing is something different from the norm with a frame that’s appointed with all the fixtures and fittings you could wi

WE SAY… Riders looking for adventure will appreciate the mountain - bike qualities of the Trig Ragley’s specialism is hard-tail mountain bikes and steel with bikes, such as the highly regarded Big Wig, Piglet and value-packed Marley, constantly excit

WE SAY… Radical geometry makes this the best bike here for traver sing off-road at speed The Graveller is the vision of BiviBIKES founder Fraser Barsby’s perfect adventure bike. To make his dreams become reality, Barsby’s taken a highquality but litt

WE SAY… The Vitus ticks all the right boxes for a versatile, comfortable gravel bike with good handling The Substance SRS 1 combines modern all-road geometry with classic, skinny Reynolds 725 steel tubing to create a bike that majors on versatility w

WE SAY… Lightweight bike that’s nimble off-road and speedy on tarmac but will cost you more The Felt is a ‘breed’ apart here, using lightweight aluminium instead of heavier but more compliant steel. It results in a bike that’s nearly a kilo-and-a-hal

Gravel bikes come in many shapes and forms. If you want a road bike with off-road potential, then Felt’s Breed fits the bill. It’s roadbike light and superbly equipped for the money, with a premium drivetrain, carbon seatpost, top-brand saddle and su

£1160 The original Shamal was introduced in 1992 as a professional-level, lightweight, aluminium, aerodynamic wheel. For 2021 it has been reimagined as Campagnolo’s first carbon gravel-specific model, brought out in conjunction with the 13-speed grav

WE SAY… Only your riding surface of choice separates these two tyres £55 (each) The Cinturato Gravel H is a specifically hard-terrain option from Pirelli. Built with a low-profile triple-ply tread with strategically placed reinforcement and an antipu

WE SAY… A well-made, comfortable and decent weight saddle at a good price too £74.90 Selle Italia’s heritage stretches back over a century and the Novus has history, too, having first launched in 1994 – although this latest incarnation bears little r

£74.99 Hiplok has been forging its own path ever since it launched its first product: the groundbreaking Original Wearable Chain Lock that fits like a belt. The Hiplok DXF is one of the brand’s U-locks. Its compact shape (available locking space is 1

WE SAY… A rare combination of great looks and top performance £105.99 – 123.99 Rudy Project’s recent output with glasses, such as the Cutline (issue 375), has been all about technical details with well-placed vents, lots of adjustability and multimat

WE SAY… The svelte profile is charming but we found it lacking in the promised warmth £155 To keep cycling throughout a British winter requires key items of kit to make it comfortable, or bearable at least. Lake says its new winter shoes provide both

£29.99 CLOSURE: Elastic LENS WIPE: Full thumb REFLECTIVE: Small tabs outside of hand TOUCH-SCREEN COMPATIBLE: Yes COLOURS: Black, Grey/Green, Grey/Neon The Windchill has a generous cut without feeling baggy. The palm has strategic ventilation, which

A landmark study into what it takes to win the world’s greatest bike race was published in 2012 in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. The research, entitled ‘The Tour de France: An Updated Physiological Review’, dug deep

SAVE 35% As if the chance to save 30 per cent and to have every issue of Cycling Plus delivered direct to your door wasn’t enough of an incentive, this issue we’re also giving new subscribers a great gift – a Cateye Padrone Computer worth £49.99. We

Commuting on your bike can be more pleasant with the right backpack, but the wrong one could be an expensive mistake. Whether you’re looking to upgrade an old faithful or have finally lost patience with the floppy old sports pack you found in the bac

WE SAY… A well thought-out design with excellent features for the money, but let down by a slight lack of comfort £50 VOLUME 28 litres WEIGHT 590g LAPTOP SLEEVE No FULLY WATERPROOF Yes LIGHT CLIP No This pack is, as the name suggests, completely wate

WE SAY… This bag is well made and doesn’t miss a trick plus it’s adjustable and comfortable, all at a bargain price £55 VOLUME 20 litres WEIGHT 880g LAPTOP SLEEVE No FULLY WATERPROOF Yes LIGHT CLIP Yes The Aqua is a classic roll-top drybag with backp

WE SAY… A versatile pack that’s crammed with clever features, despite its light weight construction £60 VOLUME 30 litres WEIGHT 578g LAPTOP SLEEVE Yes FULLY WATERPROOF No LIGHT CLIP Yes This is the lightest bag on test, but still manages to squeeze i

WE SAY… A good-looking pack without standing construction and comfort plus a host of excellent features £95 VOLUME 25 litres WEIGHT 938g LAPTOP SLEEVE Yes FULLY WATERPROOF No LIGHT CLIP Yes The Transporter Roll is an urbanstyle pack (there’s a camo c

WE SAY… This high-quality bag is far more functional and practical than its large size initially suggests £100 VOLUME 45 litres WEIGHT 967g LAPTOP SLEEVE No FULLY WATERPROOF No LIGHT CLIP Yes Designed as a travel bag (evident from its generous capaci

WE SAY… If you love the Rapha look and don’t need to make long journeys this could be the pack for you £100 VOLUME 25 litres WEIGHT 925g LAPTOP SLEEVE Yes FULLY WATERPROOF No LIGHT CLIP Yes The Roll Top has a distinctly city vibe, but it does pack se

WE SAY… A well-featured, comfortable and almost fully waterproof bag with a very distinctive appearance £115 VOLUME 20 litres WEIGHT 695g LAPTOP SLEEVE Yes FULLY WATERPROOF No LIGHT CLIP No Brooks’s Dalston Tex looks more like a lifestyle bag than co

WE SAY… Very well made, superbly organised and generous pack for those who like every thing in its place £120 VOLUME 30 + 10 litres WEIGHT 1.22kg LAPTOP SLEEVE Yes FULLY WATERPROOF No LIGHT CLIP Yes Vaude’s pack is not so much a backpack but a portab

WE SAY… If you want the ultimate commuter pack and can justify the price, then you certainly won’t be disappointed £190 VOLUME 22 litres WEIGHT 1.4kg LAPTOP SLEEVE Yes FULLY WATERPROOF Yes LIGHT CLIP Yes Chrome bags have achieved neariconic status be

o say the least, 2020 wasn’t a vintage year. But amid all the turbulence, cycling actually had a pretty good run, as sales of bikes hit a global post-war high and a whole wave of new cyclists hopped onto bikes for the first time. So if you ended the

WE SAY… A very well-designed and versatile bag that’s packed with great features but comes at a cost £185 VOLUME 25 litres WEIGHT 1.28kg LAPTOP SLEEVE No FULLY WATERPROOF Yes LIGHT CLIP Yes Like the Vaude, this Ortlieb bag is a high-quality, sustaina

RIGHT FROM THE start of lockdown, we did our best to stay connected as a club,” explains Suzi Rae of the Kent Velo Girls (KVG). “Virtual rides on Zwift were an obvious option but, at the time, few of our riders used this platform as we’ve predominant

Even passionate cyclists can end up hibernating indoors over winter. A week off the bike stretches into two. Before you know it, Christmas is here and suddenly you’re dodging training to watch Home Alone with a plate of mince pies instead. By the tim

orty one years ago, Raleigh won the Tour de France with the legendary Nottingham-built Ti-Raleigh and this classic model recently enjoyed a limitededition comeback. But is this retrofaithful bike from the 1980s any match for the shiny new Aircode DRS

1984 French skibinding maker Look adapted its system to be used in pedals. This allowed riders to easily clip in and out rather than use strapped toe-clips. The main benefit was improved pedalling efficiency (allowing to power through a full pedal st

GRIDDLED CHICKEN WITH RICE AND MANGO SALAD 104 LIKE A PRO… Three training session plans from cycling’s elite coaches and riders 106 WISDOM Being fit for your age is more important than being competitive, says Norman 112 LIFE CHANGER Cycling has resul

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Elite cyclists’ training workouts vary according to numerous factors, such as the stage of a season, demands of a race and training status of the athlete. “But many workout principles are uniform; goals are often similar and elements are transferable

here you are, looking into the bathroom mirror, with a 60-year-old face staring back at you. You cycle regularly, watch your food and keep your mind active. Idle thoughts cross your mind - ‘When I hit 70, will I still be as healthy as I presently am?

No matter how fit you are, or how smooth your pedalling technique, if you have muscle imbalances and tensions hidden within your body, you are likely to suffer from nagging hip or knee pain, which will inevitably ruin the enjoyment and quality of you

If you’ve started 2021 with a fresh resolution and renewed vigour to shed some weight, chicken is a good option as it’s not just low in fat but, crucially, it’s also high in protein, which is of course essential to supporting recovery and adaption. T

£2650 Mid-range gravel slayer Merida sponsors teams at the sharp end of pro cycling so is no stranger to making bikes that love speed. Add to that its involvement in cross-country and marathon mountain bike racing and multiple World Championships and

Chris Jones, 52, from Morecambe, Lancashire transformed his life, health and weight by taking to two wheels just a few years ago… THEN 17st NOW 11st 6lb HOW WAS LIFE BEFORE THE BIKE? “In 2016 I was overweight and had been diagnosed with COPD (a group

PRICE £6799 UPGRADES £450 KILOMETRES RIDDEN 2444 As an unbelievably fine (weatherwise at least) summer turned into a wet autumn then pushed into a grey December and January, even my local lanes morphed into mudcovered tracks. If your road routes of c

When the first coronavirus lockdown struck Britain almost a year ago, I found myself, as Features Editor of Cycling Plus, in the unfortunate, or perhaps deserved, situation of having to scramble around for one of these Big Ride pieces to go into the

DISTANCE 45 miles / 72km TOTAL ELEVATION 845m GRADE Moderate. Formidable climbs like Providence Lane and Dundry aside, this is a pleasant scenic tour of Bristol DOWNLOAD komoot.com/tour/304689261 Bristol Temple Meads is the main central train station

his is a column in search of an answer. Often when I start to write, I’m doing so from a position that I’ve already established and I try to develop it by means of making a few lame gags and reaching a rather wobbly conclusion. This time it’s differe

The men’s season’s first Monument – its longest one-day race – was stretched out still further in 2020 up to 305km because of both Covid and weather. Like all the Spring Classics, last year’s race was bumped back to later in the year and MSR’s new 8

when I was younger, I didn’t hold Milan-San Remo on the same level as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. I really appreciate it now though. That’s partly because it’s the first big race in which I got my first big result, but also because riding

The first major one-day spring meeting will be Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (27 February) but, as with most of the Spring Classics, the route is yet to be finalised. It’s likely to be an early foray over some of cycling’s best-loved climbs in the Flemish Ar

Despite their sense of inclusivity gran fondos, like marathons, are not to be taken lightly. “Doing your homework and learning about the course, the conditions, the duration and the changes in gradient and road surfaces is essential if you’re going t

The genius move of the organisers of the Milan-San Remo Gran Fondo (6 June 2021, milano-sanremo.org) was to not stage it in spring but in June, in the blistering heat of an Italian Riviera summer. All other mass participation rides associated with th

For most Brits, the Tour de France, with its live free-to-view coverage, is their route into the world of pro cycling, but once it’s got you in its clutches, it won’t take you too long to discover that there’s far more to the season than the three-we

If I had to pick three words to describe the Ronde I would choose emotional, iconic and unique. It is alone in its richness and is so much more than its famous cobbled hills. There are small roads, big roads, tight turns, ups, downs, ditches and cros

In March, Driedaagse De Panne (men’s race, 24th, women’s, 25th), the E3 Saxo Bank Classic (26 March), Gent-Wevelgem (28 March, men’s and women’s) and Dwars door Vlaanderen (31 March) provide the big names of the pelotons the opportunity to practise t

When we’re looking at a ride like the Tour of Flanders sportive, which can be up to 229km long if you opt to ride the full race route, ensuring you plan your food consumption correctly is very important. You want to find out where the feed stations a

Date: Saturday 3 April Website: werideflanders.com When Cycling Plus rode the Tour of Flanders sportive back in 2012, it was combined with the launch of one of the then new-fangled aero bikes, complete with wind-tunnel-friendly bare handlebars and ro

I remember going into my first Paris-Roubaix very scared. You know all the stories but you don’t yet know what to expect. The only thing I felt was that I had to get to the velodrome no matter what. A veteran team-mate, Marc Wauters, who had ridden R

Belgian veteran Philippe Gilbert is testament to how a rider can finesse the cobbles form necessary to tame Paris-Roubaix. This Classics specialist made his name in the hilly – and non-cobbly – Ardennes Classics, but won his first Monument on the cob

For the first time since 1942 when WW2 intervened, Paris-Roubaix was cancelled in 2020, after the second wave of Covid-19 hit and scuppered its rescheduled October date. Hopefully it’ll be back with a bang for the 2021 edition, which will see its fir

Now straddling Belgium and the Netherlands, Scheldeprijs (7 April) is the oldest (1907) continuing Spring Classic race in Flanders, and is even six years the elder of its closest neighbour, the Tour of Flanders. It’s flat and fast, tailor-made for th

Date: Saturday 10 April Website: parisroubaixchallenge.com This is the only one of the four Monuments sportives that Cycling Plus is yet to ride, but we did get the chance to preview several key cobble sectors of the first event back in 2011 with the

Of the spring Monuments, Liège-Bastogne-Liège - the oldest of them all (first run in 1892) – currently has something of a reputation as the least vital of the four on the men’s calendar. While it’s one of the few Spring Classics to bring the Grand To

The way the women’s calendar is set-up means that the competition in the Ardennes races is at its fiercest. In a normal year, the Tour of Flanders is where everyone’s peak begins and then the Ardennes – and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in particular – are hu

The mid-week Brabantse Pijl (14 April, men’s and women’s races) runs on a course that contains a series of short climbs that come fast and furious, and that sets the tone for Amstel Gold Race (18 April, men and women), which has more than 30 climbs f

Date: Saturday 24 April Website: sport.be he full 266 kilometres of this course in Belgium’s hilly Ardennes region may be just shy of Milan-San Remo’s distance, and there’s not a cobble in sight – aside from the odd section of pristine, modern ‘town’

THE BIG PICTURE Further wintry carnage is promised in the Sidlaw Hills, between Perth and Dundee, during our loop of the Firth of Tay. Trevor Ward’s route took him over bridges, past castles and up some very steep hills. Along the way he bumped into