Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2021 i Bicycling Australia

IN THE END IT CAME AND WENT IN A FLASH – THE MOST DISRUPTED year in decades and one we’ll never forget. Yes, 2020 is (almost) behind us and we are chomping at the bit for a fresh start come January 1. Rather than look back at the crazy year that was, now’s the time to look ahead to new beginnings, fresh challenges and our cycling objectives for 2021. More a target than a resolution, why not set an annual distance goal for 2021. We all have different needs, desires, expectations and outcomes, and annual distances vary widely from rider to rider. An enthusiastic amateur may be content with 5,000km a year while a up and coming or established pro may be more comfortable with 15 to 20,000km. For some…

SOME WILL RECOGNISE DR BRIDIE O’DONNELL FROM her recent gig as a Tour de France commentator, others recall her from her record breaking UCI World Record women’s hour ride, while yet others know her as a civil servant for the Victorian State Government. However you know Bridie, it’s likely that this powerhouse of a woman has left an impression as she goes from strength to strength and achievement to achievement. Here Coco spoke with Bridie to learn more about the woman whose voice guided us from Nice to Paris this year. CH: HOW DID YOU LAND THE GIG COMMENTATING THE TOUR DE FRANCE THIS YEAR? BO’D: I had worked at the Road National Championships in Ballarat over the last few years with Matthew Keenan, and also with Robbie McEwan for…

BLACK SHEEP STARTED AS A passion project to create cycling garments that were an expression of self. To change an industry that, by their own admission, had become tired, boring and self-congratulatory. Their dream was to do things differently. To embrace everyone. To break down the stigmas that exist in the sport we all love and invite all-comers from all corners of the world to experience the joy of riding regardless of age, ability, gender or race. Black Sheep, co-founded by former professional athlete John Polson in 2014, on the smell of an oily rag has been embraced by a global community of like-minded cyclists. They have swapped a shared office space on the Gold Coast, Australia for a Flagship Store in Brisbane, which includes a café and creative working…

IT IS AN ANGLED INTERSECTION close to home, a quieter road and one I know well. Extremely vigilant and always aware of cyclists on that popular training route, I slowed the van while scanning to the right to double check no riders were coming. At that moment - on that second look - I saw movement from behind the large rear vision mirror attached to the thick A-arm that frames the window. Yes a rider, virtually hidden by a blind spot and traveling at around the same speed as the van therefore staying out of sight. Fortunately I saw her, slowed and gave way. It was a timely reminder how constantly aware we need to be when both driving and riding. That and the fact that despite our best efforts,…

An all-new model, the Scultura Endurance from Merida is not designed for lean, club racing whippets, nor for WorldTour pros, and it’s unlikely to carry anyone to the podium at the Grafton to Inverell, West Head Road Race or Melbourne to Warrnambool. What this bike is designed to do is a whole lot more than that, to offer a very broad range of riders the ability to roam far and wide, in wonderful comfort, on a wide range of surfaces. And that’s a smart move from Merida - designing a bike that’s perfectly suited to a huge segment of the market ... those who simply want to get out and enjoy quality time on two wheels. No segment hunting, not too much micro calorie counting ... not even wearing the…

AS OTHER MANUFACTURES HAVE been pursuing optimal aerodynamics, often at the cost of weight saving, Focus’s Izalco Max 9.6 seems to take a different path and do something differently. My first impressions soon into several hundred kilometres of testing was this – the German designers have sharply focussed on producing a racing bike that is lightweight and aerodynamic, but also a bike that is compliant and comfortable. FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER My first impression was that the 9.6 is aesthetically very pleasing very neat and tidy with no cables to bee seen. The build features a two tone paint job consisting of rust red with a gloss black seat tube and rear triangle. White Focus decals on the down tube are nice and simple yet still striking, particularly from a distance.…

IN AN AGE WHERE SUPER BIKES are something of the norm, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from an ever-growing crowd. However, that task is made a little bit easier when you have a history in designing some of the fastest cars in the world, and can bring that same technology, engineering and innovation to the world of cycling. That is exactly what Factor Bikes are doing, having started life as an engineering firm dedicated to working at the highest levels of design with some of the fastest, most prestigious brands in the world, including Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Maserati. That rich history and constant drive for perfection has enabled them to produce a range of bikes that takes riding to the next level, non more so evident…

I DON’T SPEND TOO MUCH TIME looking into life’s rear view mirror, and in the case of 2020 I think I’ll stick to this way of thinking. For the cycling industry the volatility and challenges of 2020 have ultimately delivered strong growth and more eager and keen cyclists than ever before. COVID-19 delivered several silver linings for our industry and consumers have voted with their wallets as they embraced the sport. As I write this column consumer demand is outweighing supply at the retail level - a tough problem to have. This growth has the potential to drive more investment from governments with infrastructure and the like, and highlight the obvious benefits of the sport with health, travel, tourism … and on it goes. As we head into an exciting…

AS MUCH AS IT SHOCKED SOME, HIS TOUR WINNING DISPLAY OF sheer brilliance was no fluke. The 21-year old Slovenian UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogačar had already won the Tour of California, the Volta ao Algarve, taken 3 Vuelta a’ Espana stages and finished 3rd overall in that same race during the 2019 season – which was also his first year as a pro. Signs of greatness were clearly there However, to win the Tour de France at your first crack, and at such a young age, well, it’s unheard of in modern cycling terms. That unwritten protocol that comes embedded with the jaded and fabled traditions of pro road racing unclearly dictates that a rider, any rider, no matter how brilliant he may be, serves his apprenticeship and…

ELASTIC INTERFACE ARE FIRMLY established as a chamois manufacturer, in fact if you have more than a couple of pairs of knicks in the drawer it's likely they made the pad in one or more of them. During 2019 the company started branching into other areas of the cycling comfort market with word of a 3D printed glove being one of the hot rumours from Europe. Bicycling Australia tried on and had a close up look at the gloves at the world's biggest bike show, Eurobike. We were impressed with the comfort of the new product, and particularly how they adapted to the shape of the hand. The degree of padding, despite the low profile and light overall weight, and intricate laser cut ventilation holes were also impressive and noteworthy…

PART OF MICHELIN’S ‘Competition Line’, the Power Road TLE uses the same X-Race compound as its tubed Power Road sibling. The tread thickness is also similar. In fact, tubeless aside, the main difference is the casing, upgraded from 3x120 TPI to 4x120 TPI, which provides improved robustness whilst still remaining supple enough for confident handling. The other notable difference is the removal of the anti-puncture strip under the tread, replaced instead by what Michelin calls an ‘Air Proof’ layer from bead to bead that increases both puncture resistance and the tyre’s ability to hold and maintain air. Weighing in at 275g each (700x25), the Power Road TLE is a little heavier than Schwalbe Pro One TLE (245g), but a little lighter than Conti GP 5000 TL (305g). INSTALLATION The last…

YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD THE term, but what are junk miles or in our case junk K’s, and are they are bad thing? I went to the internet to find out what Google says it means and got back “Junk miles can be defined as cycling that has little or no training benefit and only serve to build fatigue”. So they must be bad, right? Let’s be clear I’m not a coach, nor a sports scientist, I’m just your average punter who loves riding his bike. I’ve been told in the past I do too many junk miles, but do I? I always thought in the off season, which is our winter, that riding big slow K’s was a good thing. It was like a footy preseason of building up the…

THERE’S A 38-YEAR-OLD sprinter still kickin’ ‘round the peloton. He rides for Israel Start-Up Nation. His name is André Greipel. He’s won 22 Grand Tour stages, 11 of ‘em at the Big Daddy in July. He probably would’ve won a heap more if it wasn’t for the fact that for the four years between 2007-10, he was on the same team as Mark Cavendish – winner of 48 Grand Tour stages, 30 from Le Tour. Greipel, despite being the second-best sprinter in the world in that time, didn’t even get to ride the Tour till he was two weeks short of his 29th birthday… As he remarked in an interview with VeloNews in 2010, “I have proved myself. In every other team, I would be on the schedule for the…

BIANCHI SPECIALISIMA DISC & GREENEDGE GreenEDGE cycling – aka WorldTour team Mitchelton-Scott - have announced that after close to a decade with bike partner Scott they will be riding Bianchi from 2021. The team are expected to ride Bianchi’s top-end models including the Specialissima and XR4. The Italian bike company have recently updated their premium-level lightweight climbing bike for 2021, the Specialissima, getting the aero treatment and disc brakes. Replacing the current model that dates back to 2015, the revised Specialissima frame weighs in at 755g in 55cm and features a 370g disc mount ready fork. Cabling is internal, there’s an updated seatpost, and the frame features Bianchi’s CounterVail technology. The bike will be available in celeste; however, if you want to save 80g of paint, you can opt for…

LEE TURNER: THE INFAMOUS WTF CORNER & CLIMB Anyone who has completed the Peaks Challenge event knows about the infamous WTF Corner and the climb that proceeds’ it. If you look at the segment on Strava it doesn’t look that daunting. In fact, you could argue it looks quite easy and straight forward. The climb starts on the corner of the Omeo Highway and the Bogong High Plains Road in Victoria’s high country. This is around 400km, or a comfortable 4 to 5hr drive, from Melbourne. According to Strava it’s 25.11km @ a mere 3.8%. Easy right? The challenge is when you get to WTF Corner you already have 200kms in your tired and screaming legs. I always say when you hit the corner it’s like being smashed in the…

THE WORLD MASTERS GAMES OFFER A PLATFORM FOR over 30s to compete in a multitude of sports including five cycling categories. The 10th edition of the games were scheduled for Kansai, Japan early in 2021, and were set to showcase the region to travel-ready riders. Road and track was to be held in rural Tottori, mountain biking in ancient Kyoto, BMX in lively Osaka and triathlon in pristine Tokushima. The games attract enthusiasts from around the world every four years and were last held in Auckland in 2017. Though the 2021 event has been postponed due to Covid-19, the Games are scheduled for May 2022. Since Toronto’s inaugural event in 1985 the World Masters Games have attracted a total of 170,000 participants, and next year’s event expects 50,000 people to…

IT IS NO SECRET THAT bicarbonate supplements have a positive effect on performance. Athletes have been using bicarb for years and the positives and advantages have been both proven and documented many times. A 2019 study, published by the International Society of Sports Nutrition, illustrated the point perfectly. Peer reviewed and widely publicised, researchers studied 20 male university students – 10 being given sodium bicarbonate supplements prior to exercise and the other 10 given a placebo. Anaerobic performance was closely monitored during six weeks of high-intensity interval training, and sure enough, the conclusion was those who’d used bicarbonate showed enhanced output during high-intensity exercise. The report states “the data suggested that supplementation of HCO3- at the level of 0.2g/ kg body mass before HIIT training – enhances the effect of…

AERO-OPTIMISED BIKE HELMETS have always been about balance and compromise and slowly but surely it seems the lines between the two are coming closer into alignment. For the past few months I’ve been training and racing in Lazer’s Bullet 2.0 MIPS helmet. Initial findings - it is sleek, looks fast, packs an aero punch and has some innovative features. Ventilation is often the downfall of an aero helmet. That means more internal heat which typically leads to less output and lower performance. The Bullet has a clever ‘Airflow’ system which allows immediate opening and closing of a front slide vent to allow air in at any time. Thick hair under a helmet often causes a lot of heat and the Airslide system mitigated this immediately. I was able to test…

IN THE PREVIOUS ISSUE OF BA I introduced the Favero Assioma Duo power meter pedals. This is a follow-up piece, because often reviews only give information based on some brief interaction with a product, and power meters are a device that it is important to know that performance is reliable. By way of a quick recap: Favero is a new player to the power meter space, or even to the bike space. These pedals are the company’s first foray into sport-based power meters of any type. They have encapsulated all the electronics in a resin filled “pod” that sits around the spindle on the inside of the pedal body. The pedal body is made by Xpedo and is compatible with Look Keo style cleats. As discussed in the previous article,…

IN THIS REVIEW WE LOOK AT TWO new saddles from Repente, an Italian company that is attempting to create innovative saddles in a range of styles. They are doing a few things that are a little different to standard, but good acronyms and marketing don’t necessarily translate into a good product. In this review we’ll look at a few of these features, and importantly, see how the saddles go on a real bike under a real bum. REPENTE LATUS M: A definite trend in saddle design in the last few years has been shorter and wider saddles. The Repente Latus M fits in the moderately “short and wide” camp. The shape of the saddle is noticeably different to a standard shape. In particular, it is quite wide and flat at…

WHO? LACC WOMEN WHERE? LIDCOMBEAUBURN CYCLE CLUB POST-RIDE? SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK IN EARLY 2015 LACC, WITH THE help of a small group of female members, started their first women’s only ride. This Wednesday morning ride continues to attract new riders. It’s an easy cruise around Sydney Olympic Park aimed at women who are fairly new to road riding and want to learn about bunch riding in a friendly, non-threatening environment. From day one LACC had around 10 women consistently turn up, so they knew they were on to something and it’s stayed pretty steady since then, even in the middle of winter. The ride is deliberately pitched as a starting point for riders, although there is a core group who’s riding skills well exceed the requirements. However, they enjoy the…