Sommaire pour October 2022 de Cyclist

Somewhere behind a bar in Marseille is a jar containing René Vietto’s toe, amputated during the course of the 1947 Tour de France so the Frenchman could stay in the race. Vietto then ordered domestique Apo Lazaridès to cut off his own toe, both in solidarity and to make him lighter in the mountains. This, at least, is the story I once read. I have no idea how I came across it, but I remember being intoxicated by this image of machoistic dedication. Years later I read a superb article by journalist Max Leonard, who went in search of the toe and found it in the back of a cupboard in a house belonging to Vietto’s friend, Bertrand. However, unlike the myth it wasn’t amputated during the Tour but after…

Founded in 2021, Italian brand Udog is one of the newer names in the shoe game but the people behind it are far from inexperienced. Alberto Fonte’s and Antonio Gerolimetto’s CVs include time at Fizik, Pinarello, Kask and Crankbrothers – all big-hitter brands, which explains the company’s name. Udog is an abbreviation of ‘Underdog’. The Tensione shoes are Udog’s debut model, and while Fonte’s time at Fizik saw him surrounded in Boa dials, here Udog uses laces because they provide for ‘upper materials that are softer and more comfortable than standard cycling shoes’ only without comprising support. Key to this support is the lace type – pressed flat with a very tight knit – and Udog’s ‘Tension Wrap System’. The construction of the laces is designed to create a ‘rope…

Just when you thought your bike couldn’t get any faster, CeramicSpeed brought out its OSPW, the oversized pulley wheel system that reduced frictional drivetrain losses by up to 4 watts. And just when you thought the OSPW couldn’t make you any faster, CeramicSpeed went and made it aero, taking the OSPW skeleton and putting a fairing over the whole arrangement. Yet cleverly it is UCI-legal, as the extra material is structurally connected and therefore definitely not an illegal fairing. The idea was developed by F1 and cycling aerodynamics expert Simon Smart and his company Drag2Zero, with the express aim of making the OSPW system as slippery as possible. Under the hood, CeramicSpeed’s standard enlarged pulleys roll on hybrid ceramic bearings, and together with the aero stylings leads CeramicSpeed to claim…

Tom Donhou isn’t new to the game. He has been building frames under the Donhou name for more than 12 years now, and winning awards for his work for almost as long. He has been the focus of various features in Cyclist over the years, from an Insider delving into his background as a fledgling builder (issue 6) to a land-speed attempt (issue 11) behind his own Ford Zephyr (he reached 129.4kmh turning a 104-tooth chainring). Over time Donhou extended his custom steel operation with small-batch models, specifically ones that pushed the envelope beyond tarmac and into adventure-road, long before the mainstream industry had taken up project gravel. Since he last featured in these pages, Donhou has moved large parts of his operation, and himself, to Greece to be closer…

1 BOLLÉ C-SHIFTER SUNGLASSES £115, bolle.com What’s the difference between a well-dressed man on a bike and a poorly dressed man on a unicycle? Attire. Also the well-dressed man would be wearing these C-Shifter sunglasses. Eyewear of choice for WorldTour team Groupama-FDJ, the C-Shifters use an oversize half-rim lens to improve peripheral vision, and Bollé’s Volt technology to enhance colour by 30%. 2 LITELOK CORE PLUS LOCK £139.99, litelok.com The first day working at a pickle factory can be a jarring experience. Another such experience is having your bike stolen – something the Core Plus lock aims to prevent. Despite weighing just 1.9kg, the wearable lock boasts the highest safety rating of Sold Secure Bicycle Diamond, and the orange fabric adds a touch of hi-vis too. 3 ADIDAS Z.N.E. 01…

TRY 3 MONTHS OF CYCLIST FOR £5 +FREE REAL SHAVING 5-PART KIT GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE • 3 months of Cyclist for £5 • Free gift! The Real Shaving Co. 5-part kit • Free delivery of every issue • Save on the cover price • Exclusive collectable subscriber-only covers ORDER ONLINE TODAY AT store.cyclist.co.uk/subscriptions OR CALL 020 8752 8195 OR EMAIL hello@metropolis.co.uk QUOTING THE OFFER CODE CYC1022 The trial offer will automatically revert to a 6-month direct debit which will auto renew. If you wish to cancel the direct debit offer, please contact us via phone or email. You will be able to view your subscription online at store.cyclist.co.uk/login. Offer and gift is only valid to the new customers, one per household and while stocks last. Please allow 28 days…

The Canyon Grizl CF CL 8 has long been the German brand’s go-to gravel bike, and at under £3,000 with a carbon frame and full Shimano GRX groupset, it’s easy to see why. That said, to unlock this bike’s full potential I’ve upgraded the wheels from the stock alloy DT Swiss G1800s (1,630g claimed) to a pair of slightly lighter and much more aero Hunt 42 Limitless Gravel Aeros (1,548g claimed; £1,089, huntbikewheels.com). In a world where there’s a bike for every type of ride and terrain it’s hard to find a bike that does everything, which is what makes the Canyon Grizl so good. With the Hunt wheels the speed on tarmac is not far off a paid-up road bike, yet with the wide tyres and relaxed gravel-centric geometry…

It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to start a bike review like this, but… look at it. Look at it. This is the Reilly Fusion, and it is frankly stunning, as well as being the product of some brilliant innovation. Titanium has upped its game significantly in the past few years, from Bastion making its 3D-printed, titanium-lugged carbon frames to UK builder Tom Sturdy and his Fiadh, which employs 3D-printed frame parts plus a matching 3D-printed titanium fork, chainset and stem. However, as incredible as those bikes are, the key difference here is that Reilly isn’t using 3D-printing. Instead, the head tube, bottom backet, seat tube cluster, rear dropouts and tops of the seatstays are investment cast, a little bit like the steel lugs of yesteryear. But this…

In the hyper-refined world of performance bikes, we’re used to seeing incremental gains from one iteration to another, but rarely do new designs come with such a comprehensive list of claimed improvements as the Giant Propel. The affirmations here are particularly notable given the old design was hardly substandard – it achieved success under multiple WorldTour teams. Yet the last Propel did have its foibles, such as its unsightly and fiddly cockpit and a fairly burly construction. But if the claims are to be believed, the manufacturer has made many more changes than just cleaning up the front end. Giant says when built up with sister brand Cadex’s Ultra 50 Disc wheels and Aero 25mm tyres, the new Propel saves over six watts at 40kmh compared to the old Propel,…

Exposure’s Boost and Boost R lights are an uprated take on the manufacturer’s ever-popular Trace lights. Their machined aluminium cases have a similarly compact form and weigh just 45g apiece, but the front Boost offers 325 lumens versus the Trace’s 125, while the rear increases by 5 lumens to 80. Runtime is double too, up to 48 hours apiece in flashing mode, and the Boosts retain Exposure’s proprietary DayBright pulse pattern, an irregular flash designed to help riders be seen night and day.…

100% has made its name producing oversized shield lens-equipped models, so the dual-lens Norvik sunglasses mark something new from the brand. While the textured frosted layer along the bottom edge of each lens may give the impression of enclosed lenses, the Norviks use a semi-rimless design that 100% says improves peripheral vision. The frames use removable side-shields for protection, and 100% claims the interchangeable lenses are resistant to scratching, water and oil. Each set of Norviks comes with two lenses, tinted and clear.…

As is often the case in road cycling, research-driven changes at the top drive trends in the amateur ranks, and where once it was enough that socks matched your kit, now socks need to be fast. Aero socks are commonplace at the WorldTour – just check below the knee of everyone from Geraint Thomas to Alexander Kristoff – and their design elevates the humble sock from fashionable shoe-foot buffer to a piece of kit that can reduce the drag a rider creates. If the claims are to be believed, such reductions are as much as 10 watts – up there with the reductions from redesigned frames and components. In most instances, such improvements are achieved by using ribbed Lycra as the sock cuff in place of regular knitted cuffs. These…

Race: Tour de France Femmes, 24th July 2022 Photographer: Russ Ellis ‘The first women’s Tour de France of the modern era was really something special, and having Stage 1, the opener, on the iconic Champs Élysées was the perfect curtain raiser. ‘For this shot I sat down just in front of the Arc de Triomphe in the sweltering Paris heat waiting for the peloton to arrive on the very first lap. ‘It’s an image we see every year from the men’s race, so I really wanted to be able to capture that for this historic first Tour de France Femmes. None of the big names are in the frame either, which emphasises how big a moment it was for the riders and teams.’ Race: Tour de France Femmes, 27th July…

The staff of the velodrome in the Vendée town of La Roche-sur-Yon had been busy since the early hours of the morning. It was Friday, 27th July 1934, and at midday the riders of the 28th edition of the Tour de France were due to contest the climax of stage 21a – an 81km blast from La Rochelle that was all but certain to end in a bunch sprint on the town’s track. There was much to do for the workers at the velodrome, including setting up a rider’s paddock. ‘As soon as they arrive at the velodrome, the riders will be parked in a reserved enclosure in front of the grandstand,’ reported L’Auto the day before the stage. ‘They will have at their disposal the outbuildings of the bar,…

Exercise physiologists are especially fond of testing and measuring in their laboratories. Two of their most popular exercise tests involve measuring gas analysis, that is, VO2 (where ‘V’ is for volume and ‘O2’ is oxygen), and blood-lactate concentration. VO2 is measured via our breathing and provides an insight into oxygen uptake and energy production within working muscle. This helps build a picture of our integrated cardiovascular system’s capacity (heart, lungs and blood) to provide oxygen to the muscle, and therein our muscles’ capacity to use oxygen to produce energy and power. In contrast, blood-lactate testing records our underlying preference for carbohydrate versus fat as an energy source during exercise. This is deduced by monitoring metabolic by-products such as lactate and hydrogen ions to give an insight into muscular fatigue. It…

We’ve left the Dolomites’ fabled roads behind. And in so doing I’ve stumbled upon a unique window through which to view these mountains My back wheel starts to slide from under me, my heart racing as time seems to stand still. I brace myself for the inevitable contact between body and ground and the wave of pain that will result. But it doesn’t come. Somehow I manage to wrest control of the bike back and avoid crashing onto the loose gravel underneath my wheels. It’s a timely reminder to keep my focus on the descent which, given the immersive beauty of the surrounding mountains, is easier said than done. This isn’t the first time I’ve ridden in the Dolomites, but it is the first time I’ve seen the region’s distinctive…

It’s Saturday afternoon and teams pile into the Théâtre Luxembourg; the room is alive with chatter, the gathered throng a mass of excited energy. ‘We’ve been waiting for this for so long,’ says FDJ’s Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, her anticipation visible despite the Covid mask covering half her face. ‘It’s a dream come true.’ And what a long dream it has been. Tomorrow, 144 riders will line up in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower for the first stage of the Tour de France Femmes, 33 years after women’s cycling last had its own Grand Boucle. Yes, in years past there have been women’s stage races in France, but not since 1989 has there been an official women’s Tour de France – that is, one backed by Tour organiser ASO. ‘I…

Chris Boardman once explained to me how I could make myself faster by the way I shaved my legs. ‘You can shave in a certain way so that you leave your legs rough down the front edge but smooth at the side, creating an aerodynamic effect. Aerodynamics is really important,’ he said. Human beings are a really crappy shape – a collection of tubes ostensibly – and 90% of the energy you produce on a bike goes towards pushing the air out of the way, so anything you can do to reduce drag has got to be a good thing.’ Personally, I wouldn’t let Boardman anywhere near my razor or any other sharp objects. This is the man who, after being appointed British Cycling’s director of research and development in…

The tubeless car tyre was invented in 1952 and three years later was the industry standard, especially for performance vehicles. The tubeless bike tyre was invented in 1999 and three years later… no one was using it. Not in road cycling anyway. Mountain biking yes – the Hutchinson-Mavic UST system (Universal Systeme Tubeless) was beginning to catch on, but it was really only last year that tubeless road tyres made headway with the pros – Lizzie Deignan and Sonny Cobrelli won their respective Paris-Roubaix races on tubeless (a feat repeated this year by Elisa Longo Borghini and Dylan van Baarle). And this baffles me, because if you look at it objectively, tubeless tyres are better than clinchers and tubulars. First up, tubeless is faster. According to bicyclerollingresistance.com, the fastest road…

Cyclist: Danish cycling is thriving right now. What do you put that down to? Mads Pedersen: The whole support chain we had from a young age, with local clubs who made cycling fun for us when we were kids; the national team who started to work with us when we were about 15 years old; and the junior and Continental teams afterwards. It’s really paying off right now and showing the skills of Danish cyclists to the whole world. Cyc: How has that translated into the way the Danish national team works? MP: If you take a big country like Italy, some riders won’t see each other until they are at under-23 level. But in Denmark, we’ve been racing against each other every weekend since a really young age, and…

How does aerodynamic drag work, and why should we care? ‘Aerodynamics is basically a measure of how much energy it takes to move through the air at a certain speed,’ explains Jamie Lowden, performance engineer at WattShop. ‘In becoming more aero you can either move at the same speed but for less effort, or go faster for the same effort.’ However, getting aero isn’t always the be all and end all, says director of AeroCoach, Dr Xavier Disley. ‘Aerodynamic drag kicks in above a specific speed and the proportion of the resistive forces that are slowing you down increases the faster you go. So if you’re travelling at less than 25kmh you are better off getting comfortable and sitting upright – and this is what we tell WorldTour time-trial riders.…

We have a lot to thank the late Vincenzo Torriani for. An archetypally suave Italian businessman who favoured sharkskin suits and permanently had a cigarette hanging from his bottom lip, Torriani was by anyone’s measure the Godfather of cycling in a country where the sport is close to a religion. Sole organiser of all the races run by newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport from 1949 to 1989, he quite simply transformed the sport on Italian shores. He took the Giro d’Italia to parts of the country it had only dreamed of reaching, for example Venice’s Piazza San Marco, while introducing climbs and crowning legends – who doesn’t revere the Passo di Gavia and Passo dello Stelvio? The Sormano is the equivalent of performing 15 minutes of non-stop one-legged squats Torriani tinkered…

1 Reilly Fusion p122 This stunning titanium bike employs a construction method that helps make the finish super-smooth – and the ride is equally lustrous. 2 Moda Finale p126 Now under new ownership, this British brand completes its comeback with an aero racer that juggles some very unusual numbers. 3 Dolan Ares p132 A company that has tasted Olympic glory on the track takes a giant leap forward on the road with a bike that just begs to be ridden fast.…

Some years ago British brand Moda had a small presence in the bike market, but was ultimately off the pace compared to many competitors. However, the company changed ownership in 2020 and that shift triggered an overhaul of its entire range. ‘Most of the old models were hugely outdated, so we looked at the acquisition of the brand as an opportunity to start from a clean slate,’ says new owner Dave Williams. Two years on it’s mission accomplished – Moda now has a tidy range of contemporary bikes covering the established road and gravel niches. All tend to be priced competitively and can be adjusted to the customer’s tastes and budget because every bike is built to order, which is something still only a few forward-thinking bike brands offer. The…

Dolan has racing pedigree. Ever since Terry Dolan started building bikes in Liverpool after his previous employer, the legendary Harry Quinn Cycles, closed in 1980, speed has been a huge part of what Dolan does. From helping build the career of a young Chris Boardman to actually winning Olympic gold on the track, its heritage is plain. The brand’s road output hasn’t quite hit the same heights, although it still sees plenty of action with the EvoPro Racing and Dolan-Ellesse teams, but it’s an increasingly big part of what Dolan is doing. The Ares is the start of Dolan’s quest to conquer the world of road racing, and replaces its former top end road bike, the Rebus. With all the modern aero bike boxes checked – elongated tube profiles, integrated…