Table of contents for Ride Fit 2020 in Ride Fit

Human beings are asymmetrical. Bikes, are universally symmetrical… unless you’ve got them set up wrong! Accommodating the asymmetrical rider to their symmetrical machine is a huge part of my job. I’m comfortable with asymmetry, and if it isn’t causing you an issue, I believe in not correcting it as you can cause more problems than you solve. We all have ways of compensating for our asymmetry in our day-to-day lives, but when you transfer yourself to a bike, sometimes those strategies break down. One of the biggest subjects that cyclists talk about is leg length. There are different approaches to cope with actual leg length differences – where bones, such as your femur or tibia are longer in one leg than the other – and, what in my experience, is…

JAMES PALSER, CYCLE-FRIENDLY EMPLOYER ACCREDITATION PROJECT MANAGER FOR CYCLING UK “Approaching your boss to establish cycling-to-work facilities at your workplace is well worth doing. There are business benefits for firms involved in cycle-to-work schemes and employers are increasingly aware of the positive impact this can have on staff and the business as a whole. First off, identify the right person to approach – HR or those tasked with overseeing the health and wellbeing of employees. Put together a list of what you require – bike racks, lockers, shower facilities etc to enable employees to cycle in all weathers and still be presentable. Also use it as an opportunity to kind of collectively bargain: are there colleagues who are runners and could benefit from facilities, too? The more people you have…

CHRIS BENNETT HEAD OF CYCLING AT SUSTRANS “Dark nights and cold weather can put many people off cycling in winter, but with a little preparation and the right accessories, cycling through the colder months can be safe and rewarding. You don’t need masses of equipment, beyond a set of good lights, though if you cycle more regularly you might want to consider mudguards to prevent dirty water being sprayed up your back and swapping out your thin tyres for wider ones. “When it comes to clothes, a waterproof jacket and a good pair of gloves should be numbers one and two on your checklist. Make sure your coat is breathable, as it’s surprising how quickly you can overheat while cycling, even on the coldest days. To help prevent this, try…

The number of case studies where women have trained as men and then burnt out is extreme,” so says Dr Georgie Bruinvels, exercise physiologist and co-creator of the FitrWoman app, which enables women to track their menstrual cycle and access training and nutritional suggestions tailored to their changing hormone levels. “The primary guidelines around training are focused on male athletes — huge importance needs to be placed on training as a woman as opposed to training as a man.” Historically, women are under-researched within sports science because they are more complex. As Elinor Barker GB road and track racing cyclist, says, “The menstrual cycle is the reason that most physiology studies tend to focus on men; the fluctuation of hormones and therefore sensations makes results harder to decipher so it’s…

1 TRACK YOUR CALORIES No matter how many miles you clock up, if you’re putting more fuel in your body than you use, you’re never going to lose weight. Apps such as MyFitnessPal will help you tot up what you eat, while ride tracking apps like Strava can be helpful in giving you a measure of how many calories you burn on your bike. A daily reduction of around 200-300kcal shouldn’t affect your energy levels or leave you gnawing on your slippers by the end of the day. Rigidly adhering to controlled calories can quickly start to feel restrictive, but if you avoid the mid ride cake stops and other calorie-rich treats, while mostly sticking within your calorie limits, you’ll soon start to see the pounds fall away. 2 DON’T CUT OUT…

Leading a very busy work life means we often find ourselves eating the same things. So, having a meal on standby that can reward you with several servings is a real asset. Here is a recipe that is slightly higher in fat but which provides a well-balanced split of protein, carbohydrate and fat. It isn’t a complete protein source and so having some leucine or additional protein on the side to help you with your total daily intake may be advisable. Leeks are part of the allium family, which also includes onions, garlic and shallots. This makes for a great source of allicin, a sulphur compound that gives garlic its antimicrobial, cholesterol-lowering and anti-cancer properties. Then kale wades in with its high levels of quercetin, which has been seen in…

CANNONDALE SYNAPSE AL DISC TIAGRA £1034.98 The second spec level of Cannondale’s enduring endurance bike is still very reasonably priced at just over a grand. The aluminium frame is UCI-approved, should you fancy some top-level racing. It boasts an all-carbon fork and Shimano Tiagra gearing and mudguards don’t hurt its fine looks, making this a good candidate for our wintry rides round up. THE LIGHT BLUE ROBINSON V2 £1184.99 With a slim-tubed Reynolds steel frame and steel fork, the Robinson V2 continues The Light Blue’s habit of building modern frames with undeniably retro roots. Its Shimano Sora groupset, boxy rims and chunky tyres continue the theme, but does it feel current? We put it to the test against some of the UK’s finest autumnal weather. TREK CHECKPOINT AL4 £1289.99 Second…

The second rung on Trek’s Checkpoint ladder is this AL 4, which shares an entry-level Alpha 200 aluminium frame with the lesser-specced AL 3. Up front is a carbon fork with tapered alloy steerer. Can a gravel bike really pass muster as an all-weather, all-season machine? We think so. With a frameset built to take a pounding, heaps of tyre clearance and mounts for almost anything, the Checkpoint is well-featured; when appropriately configured, it should be versatile enough to take you almost anywhere. As well as the obvious full mudguard mounts, there’s a third bottle cage mount beneath the down tube (1), which is useful for a spare bottle on long rides. The two cage mounts within the main triangle each offer high or low fitting positions, allowing for rider…

Riding in whatever the weather gods throw at you is hard enough, but the R1 is a very capable and rewarding place to be With the incessant rain and quantity of tractor-borne mud on our local roads throughout October, never was there a better demonstration of the worth of mudguard-equipped bikes. Of our five models, The Light Blue’s Robinson was always going to plough its own furrow, struggling to match the outright performance of the others, but bringing its own calm ride quality to proceedings. Its beautiful frame and competent spec have their appeal, but will fare better on flatter terrain. Next up, we have a three-way tie between the Trek Checkpoint AL 4, Ribble CGR AL and Cannondale Synapse AL. They’re separated on paper by almost £600, but on…

Selle Italia-backed Ergoview developed the idmatch Bike Lab system, which is mainly designed around science-based biometrics rather than subjective fitter-centred opinion. It’s capable of creating a fully automated rider fit, which can be as useful for the novice rider as an experienced one. Standing in front of a concave background on three marked positions and bending as required, a 3D scanner and its clever software assess your body shape and position without the need to stick any markers on to you. Zyro’s Neil Davidson explains that this saves time and, thanks to the software’s sophistication, increases the accuracy of joint locations. A huge set of measurements is created from the scans, which are the basis for the machine’s initial riding setup, also suggesting a handlebar and saddle choice, which can…

Whether you love core workouts or loathe them, strong abdominal and lower back muscles are essential if you want to maintain a comfortable position on your bike and maximise the power output of your pedal stroke. But many standard core exercises suggested by personal trainers, such as sit-ups, aren’t the best choice for road cyclists. That’s because riding a bike involves some major body imbalances (each pedal stroke sees one leg extended downwards while the other is bent and raised upwards) and some unique challenges (such as maintaining a still upper body on climbs while your legs are pedalling frantically), so you need much more functional core exercises. “It is much better to focus on asymmetrical exercises, which mirror the challenges of riding a bike,” insists Robby Ketchell, a former…

ROB WAKEFIELD, LEVEL 3 COACH, PROPELLO.NET “For a newbie cyclist the most important thing is just getting out on the bike frequently, having fun, exploring routes, getting to know your bike and understanding how your body feels when you put in certain levels of effort. Three rides a week is a good place from which you can make progress, gradually increasing the duration of your longest ride each week. Don’t worry about mileage as this will be very dependent on topography. Start with say three times 60-minute rides in a week and build up to two times 90-minutes with one long weekend ride of three hours. Once you have progressed the volume of your riding to four to five hours a week you can then think about increasing intensity by…

ROB BROWN SPECIALIST CYCLING PHYSIOTHERAPIST, CENTRE FOR HEALTH & HUMAN PERFORMANCE, “The secret to making big climbs easier comes down to your power to weight ratio – being able to produce as much power as possible, while remaining as light as possible. Along with the input of a nutritionist to help identify the right diet to manage your weight, one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve power off the bike is by performing weighted leg exercises at the gym. “Choose simple leg exercises such as leg presses, squats and trap-bar deadlifts. The goal is to keep the weight as heavy as possible and the number of repetitions (each single exercise) low, for example three to four sets of two to four reps. See a qualified trainer to…

BRYAN MCCULLOUGH SPECIALIST MSK PHYSIOTHERAPIST & BIKE FITTER “As the old saying goes, ‘There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing’ and when it comes to the capricious nature of British weather we should heed its words wisely. Things can get unpleasant pretty quickly if you are not prepared to deal with the rain. Ways to stay dry include fitting mudguards. Options range from simple clip-on guards that can attach to your saddle or to your down-tube. Full coverage mudguards are also available as clip-ons if you don’t have any mudguard eyelets or mounts (eg Crud Racer MK3). Your feet are the number one victim when it comes to wet weather, due to road spray. Your best bet is to look at some overshoes. Similarly your hands are…

Training indoors has never been so entertaining. You can take your pick from a Sufferfest session, a TrainerRoad workout or a virtual ride around Zwift’s land of Watopia, without cold freezing your fingers or dirt sullying your bike. And with smart trainers becoming more affordable, more cyclists stand to benefit from tailored winter workouts and precise measurement of their training efforts. Gone are the days of sitting on a turbo trainer in boredom, numbly pushing the pedals as you stare at the wall. Does that mean, though, that gone with it is the incentive to actually get out and ride? Can summer smiles now be achieved without winter miles, or is there still some logic in the ‘old-time religion’ of the outdoors approach to winter training? Rise of Zwift Launched…

Around 750,000 UK riders pedal to work each day. Cities such as London, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield have experienced a major rise in bike commuting in recent years. “Humans are the original autonomous vehicle,” says Gareth Mills, UK country manager for Strava. “Commutes logged on Strava have really grown, with a 31 per cent increase from 2017 to 2018. The average distance is now 12.1km.” As well as saving money on transport – and pleasing teenage eco-warrior Greta Thunberg – bike commuters enjoy unique health benefits. A study of 358,799 people, published in the journal Heart, found that active commuters cut their risk of heart disease and stroke by 11 per cent and their risk of dying from such diseases by 30 per cent. But commuting by bike…

There’s a fine balance between satisfying your incredible training-induced appetite and eating so much that you feel uncomfortably full – what some might call a food coma! So these four recipes are dedicated to helping you feel like a lithe racing snake throughout the off-season, packing in great nutrition yet leaving you with the get-up-and-go energy you need for consistent training (and racing, if you’re hitting the cyclo-cross circuit). First up, a quick and easy pasta dish – Tagliatelle with a creamy walnut sauce and crispy lardons. Nicely balanced with a 4:1 carb-to-protein ratio, it works well as a pre- or post-exercise meal without nailing you to the floor, as some pasta dishes can. It’s also a great source of omega-3 essential fatty acids and antioxidants to keep your immune…

It’s not hard to see why a meal like this is ideal – linguine is quick to cook and perfect for a meal two to four hours prior to training, or a first meal after a hard evening turbo. High in carbohydrate, it aids in filling carb stores prior to exercise and in replenishing them after. The sumptuous serving of olive oil has its benefits too! High in antioxidants it aids the reduction of inflammation and of harmful bacteria in the stomach. It is also shown to increase protection against heart disease and to help lower blood pressure. The recipe also uses garlic, although only half a clove; regular and high intakes of garlic have an array of health benefits, such as the reduction of LDL (bad cholesterol) and help…

Cannondale’s Synapse has long been an endurance bike favourite. One of the first bikes to offer features that now define a modern endurance machine, the Synapse expands the versatility and potential of a road bike with little difference in speed. Here we have the £999.99 Synapse AL Disc, with its price mildly elevated by some classic SKS mudguards. It’s quite the bargain on paper. Apart from the round seat tube, all of its SmartForm C2 alloy frame tubes (1) are specifically shaped to counteract stress, add stiffness, or increase comfort. The extensive SAVE flattened portions of the seat and chainstays provide the latter, while still allowing easy clearance for the 28mm tyres, and the SAVE fork is all carbon, which is impressive at the price. It’s neatly finished with a…

The new Kinesis R1 is designed as a versatile road bike that’s optimised for a single-ring drivetrain. Among its useful fixtures and fittings is internal routing and an external cable stop for a front derailleur, just in case you feel the need. If you do, the very low seat tube-mounted bottle cage might need a little spacing away from the frame to allow for the mech’s clamping band. It’s an elegant frame with a tapered head tube leading to pleasingly round main tubes and seatstays (1). The chainstays are subtly ovalised vertically and crimped for chainring clearance. The seatstays are crimped for tyre clearance below their bridge and for 160mm disc rotor clearance too. All of the tubes are straight with no S-shaped waviness and it gives an attractive, no-nonsense…

Youthful messing about on bikes became serious competitive cycling for me in 1988. My first race-worthy bikes weren’t what I later realised was my ideal size, and my riding position was determined by a combination of trial and error, sage clubmate advice and studying magazine pictures of the pros. Luck, training, plus all the information I could glean saw me through years of racing on and off-road with few problems, save for two over-use knee injuries, but age brings assorted niggles to the fore, and six years ago I had my first bike fit. Applying biomechanical and anatomical knowledge to try and maximise cycling efficiency and comfort, and prevent injury, is underrated, and many riders don’t think they need one until a problem arises. My original fit created some positional…

Turbo trainers and indoor sessions are great for maintaining fitness levels over the winter but venturing out into the cold for regular road rides still has its merits. Pro coach Liam Holohan insists that riding in the cold not only builds physical stamina and mental resilience, but also equips the rider with a greater range of road-handling skills, and a true appreciation of getting out on the road more often when the good weather returns. Group rides in the winter help build bonds and iron out strategy ahead of the new season, too. There are plenty of plus points, but to fine-tune your frosty condition skillset, try these pro tips… 01 SURFACE LAYERS It’s an oldie but it’s true. You want to layer up rather than rely on one big…

As the sun sets on your sportive season, motivation nestled at the crest of the hill, thoughts inevitably turn to a new year. ‘In 2020, I’ll shed weight, build muscle, boost power and climb the results listings,’ you tell yourself. ‘The only alcohol that’ll touch my lips will be a successful splash of Dom Pérignon.’ Reality soon bites, of course. Family and work life, a drop in daylight, temperatures and immunity, plus a rise in mucus production, soon send you off track. Thankfully, with some periodised planning – dividing your training year into blocks of time – your cycling dreams can come true. But if optimum fitness seems a world away at this time of year, don’t be too hard on yourself. A study undertaken by Professor Aldo Sassi of…

Cycling is, in our biased opinion, the finest, most intricately nuanced sport; very sociable, environmentally responsible and a thoroughly practical means of daily transport. But there’s a problem. Unless you’re a track rider, ours is an outdoor pastime, and we’re blessed in the UK with a maritime climate. It’s often been said that the weather is the most common subject of conversation in the UK, and for good reason. The one thing we can rely on is that it will always be different, and often quite wet. How we deal with the vagaries of our weather varies. The maxim that there’s no such thing as poor weather, only poor clothing is generally true, but why not tip the odds more in your favour? Instead of counting on your cycling clothing…

The Light Blue build bikes that hark back to more simple times with classical looks and conventional style but modern sensibilities. The Robinson has a neat, tig welded, double-butted Reynolds 725 steel frame with a straight-bladed Chromoly steel fork and a very classy-looking paint job. The top tube is subtly ovalised in the vertical plane, as is the down tube where it joins the head tube, but it’s oriented horizontally at the bottom bracket shell to counteract stress (1). The seatstays taper at each end and kink before the dropouts, while the wavy chainstays ovalise vertically before the bottom bracket and are crimped for tyre clearance. The seat tube and generously tall head tube are round with a diameter almost matched by the chunky, mildly tapered fork legs with a…

CGR stands for ‘cross, gravel, road’, and alludes to the numerous ways that the steel, aluminium, titanium or carbon CGR framesets can be built. Versatility is a good thing, so long as a bike does master the majority of its proposed uses. Available with a wide range of single and double chainring groupsets, 700c and 650B wheelsets, plus tyres and tyre clearance, the CGR has the potential to fulfil many riders’ everyday needs. Our model was upgraded from the standard £1399 build and came equipped with a Shimano 105 groupset, including hydraulic disc brakes with Tektro rotors and Mavic’s Allroad wheelset with some fetching Continental tyres, plus mudguards. The finishing kit consists of Ribble’s own Level 1 alloy bar and stem, plus 27.2mm carbon seatpost, topped with a Prologo Kappa…

My quest to find the perfect professional bike fit took me to the salubrious environs of Yeovil, Luton and Milton Keynes. Nothing against that trio of beauty… but who says this job is all glamour?! Neatly set out in one section of the cavernous Tri UK store in Yeovil, the Guru system’s DFU (Dynamic Fitting Unit) has automated saddle and handlebar movements, and can replicate the position of any stock bike model contained within Guru’s database. Bar and saddle can be swapped in moments, crank length is adjustable and you’ll ride your own pedals. In front is a Kinect scanner, which generates rider dimension data and is used to help assess riding efficiency and position. To begin, Tri UK’s John Harfield asked about any pre-existing problems I had, such as…

Trek’s Precision Fit system has been developed by a host of highly experienced bike fitters and biomechanics experts, and the system requires a highly trained fitter to operate it. Fitters need a strong understanding of rider biomechanics and anatomy and how altering riding position can affect the body’s performance. It’s very much hands-on, starting with an interview covering your statistics, types of riding, goals for a fit, and on or off-bike physical problems, and continuing with manual measurements and assessments of foot size, knees, hips and pelvis, posture, and some body dimensions. Trek’s Jez Loftus then asked me to hold a plank position for 90 seconds, something I’d never done, but it went okay. After that the range of motion in my hamstrings and hips were measured. It’s almost the…

Long gone are the days of sitting on a turbo staring at a wall, Smart trainers are interactive and work with your phone, tablet or computer to show your speed, cadence and power. There are lots of software packages, such as Zwift and TrainerRoad, that allow you to ride in a virtual world. The app or software package will adjust the trainer’s resistance in relation to the terrain you’re riding to simulate the real world. These packages also allow you to ride with other users, take on classic routes and try out race courses. They open a whole new world of riding possibilities. Smart trainers work by communicating with your smartphone, tablet or computer using wireless ANT+ frequency and Bluetooth. While it might sound complicated in most instances this all…