Innholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2019 i Bicycling South Africa

THE ONLY WAY TO TRULY DEVELOP YOUNG ATHLETES IS TO CREATE HEROES FOR THEM TO ASPIRE TO.That’s why our interview with South Africa’s number-one female cyclist, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, is so important. // NOBODY QUITE EMBODIES FIGHTING SPIRIT AS WELLAS MOOLMAN PASIO. AFTER YEARS OF RULING THE LOCAL SCENE SHE IS NOW RANKED AMONG THE TOP RIDERS IN THE WORLD, AND IS A MEMBER OF THE ALL-POWERFUL CCC-LIV TEAM DOMINATED BY DUTCH LEGEND MARIANNE VOS. // At the World Championships in September, agonisingly, she missed the winning break, and finished eighth.For most, that would have been a huge success; Moolman Pasio seesit as a failure. That’s the standard by which she measures herself. // DESPITE A FRUSTRATING YEAR (BY HER STANDARDS!) IN 2019, SHE HAS AN INSPIRING SELF-BELIEF AND STEELY…

Interval training, especially high-intensity interval training (HIIT), has been an annual ‘hot training trend’ for 15 years now, and shows no sign of falling out of favour. HIIT’s hot streak started in 2005, when in a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, exercise scientist Martin Gibala, PhD, reported that two weeks of regular sprint interval training didn’t just make riders better sprinters; it also improved their endurance, by doubling time to fatigue. Since then, dozens more studies have solidified interval training as the fastest way toimprove nearly all aspects of performance. Yet to this day, when riders come to me for training advice, and I ask if they do intervals, I inevitably get the same answer: “No, not really.” But here’s the thing: everyone who wants to feel…

Technically, cyclists did not invent drinking beer in the parking lot. Nor are we the only people who are known to partake, with gusto, out of the back of a vehicle (runners, climbers, and underage teenagers also come to mind). But I’d argue that no other user group more universally recognises the parking lot as the best place on God’s green earth that you could possibly drink a beer. For starters, there’s the immediate gratification. At no other time will that first, ice-cold sip taste more thirst-quenching and delicious than right off that last sweet singletrack descent, or as it cools your burning throat after the final 10km of that long Sunday ride in January. There’s the fact that it feels earned, a reward for pushing our physical limits, or…

For road or mountain cleats, lightly grease the cleat bolts before installing. Set the cleat on the shoe and install the bolts finger-tight. Then set up the position. For lateral cleat angle, align the tip of the cleat to the apex of the toebox (the furthest-forward point on the sole). You can use a small ruler to line up the cleat. For cleat fore-aft, position the cleat so that with the cleat over the pedal (don’t clip in yet), the pedal spindle sits just behind the ball of the big toe but in front of the ball of the little toe. This spreads your weight evenly over the pedal body. Tighten the cleats, and search for the most comfortable position – this is where a professional fitter can be especially…

Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (33) is one of South Africa’s most decorated cyclists: a three-time national road-race and time-trial champion, and the winner of numerous races in Europe. At the start of the 2019 season, she signed for Netherlands-based team CCC-Liv, and she’s one of their key riders, alongside Dutch legend Marianne Vos. Liv is a sub-brand of Giant, focused on producing quality bikes for women. Ashleigh and her CCC-Liv teammates ride the Langma for road races and the Trinity Advanced for time trials – and both the road and the time-trial bikes are optimised by the team’s performance manager, Hidde Bekhuis. “We work with an aeropod, among other things,” he says. “It’s a device that measures air resistance. We’ve also built a test set-up at Radboud University, where we maximise…

Hammer Gel Banana / / R35 Rapid energy, no sugar crash! Organic Supernatural Oat Pot – Cinnamon Banana Bread / R34 Pre-ride booster! The wizards at Wazoogles have transformed humble oats into a superfood sensation. Native Banana Bread Ruskotti / R81.95 Enjoy with that cuppa! A gluten-free, crispy and delicious Rusk and Biscotti hybrid, sweetened with natural unrefined nectars. Endurade Raw Energy Bar -Banana Almond / / R14.95 Real raw ingredients help break down damaging oxidising agents that inhibit your performance. Science in Sport GO Energy Bar – Banana Fudge / R14.95 Packed with a high-carb mix of dates and bananas, these bars will beat any bonk.…

8.00 Wake up and coffee in bed. Easy breakfast of overnight oats (oats mixed with nuts/dried fruit, soaked overnight) with fresh fruit, a dollop of almond butter and coconut milk next to the pond in Can Campolier courtyard. 9.30 Hop on the bike for a three-hour ride with intervals on Rocacorba. 12.30 Arrive home, shower, make and eat lunch 14.00 Afternoon nap. 15.00 Coffee and chat with guests in Can Campolier lounge. 15.30 Sit down, put my feet up and catch up on emails, admin and social media. 16.30 Rocacorba Cycling team meeting, strategy and plan weekly activities. 17.00 Off to the local gym for a core/stretching session and recovery sauna. 18.00 Take Mila for a walk in the forest. 18.30 Dip in the pool. 19.00 Dinner prep and eat…

It’s a good time to be riding a bike. The advancements coming out in tech, frame design and drivetrain efficiency are out of this world. ¶ But there’s also a level of respect being shown by manufacturers for the essential simplicity of cycling; the thing that made it so great in the first place. The best modern bikes – whether designed for tarmac, jeep tracks or mountain slopes – are beautifully uncomplicated. (On the surface, at least…) ¶ So it’s goodbye to cumbersome suspension linkages, Frankenframes and endless wheel-size debates; we’ve reached a sweet spot where less is actually more. If you’re considering getting a new bike next year, you’re spoiled for choice. ¶ It’s the same with other gear and accessories, and not just at the top end of…

Not long ago, I was heading out for a ride on aroad bike set up with 32mm tyres. I knew that for this tyre, on this rim, I wanted to run 48 psi in the back and 42 in the front. I grabbed one of the floor pumps we have in our office for testing, when something caught my eye: the pressure gauge’s maximum psi of 220, or 15 Bar. A 220psi gauge on a floor pump is pretty common. And if it doesn’t top out at 220psi, it probably does at 160. Do you know what type of tyres one might inflate to 160 or 220 psi? High-end track-racing tubulars. Do you know how many people use high-end track-racing tubulars? Not many. Worldwide there are a few more trackies,…

1 / DEVIL’S PEAK LITE At less than 375 kilojoules, DP lite is the lightest 4% abv beer. It’s the lightest of the lites. 2 / DARLING BREW SLOW BEER Easy drinking was never this satisfying. Plus they sponsor a race in Darling... darling! 3 / FRASER’S FOLLY MOER KOFFIE This is basically a meal in acan, and as Saffa as it gets. Drink slowly and deliberately. 4 / CAR PARK JOHN PE’s own Richmond Hill Brewing company made an easy-drinking, unfiltered ale. Reason enough.…

I had two water bottles. I rode in the same stuff every day, washing the jersey and shorts at night. I’d been at a job that I loved, but which couldn’t fund things like a telephone or a bed. The little cycling gear I owned had come as hard-bought extravagances. Sometimes I wouldn’t get to washing the jersey, so I’d ride the next day in a T-shirt, and when I did that, I lied and told people the tee was a trick I used to make sure I would ride easy enough to really recover. There was falsehood on falsehood in that statement, because I also wasn’t riding enough to need to recover from anything. I’d come to Bicycling in the winter but was only getting out on days that…

Warm up for 30 min in zone 2. 4 x 8min FTP intervals: 40s at 340W then 20s at 240W, then back to 340W and repeat for 8min. Recover for 5min in zone 2 before repeating x 4. Warm down for 30min in zone 2. (Ash’s threshold power is 280W) “This is a great session, because it helps condition a road racer to make and sustain attacks. It works on a riders ability to ride over threshold pace, then clear lactate while still riding hard. “This training is also good for time-trialling, as modern thinking in time trials isn’t to ride the distance at constant effort, but to vary it around threshold, sometimes going over where the course demands, such as on climbs, and sometimes dropping under where the course…

Ride Captain Martin Markowski was never short of a chirp when the going got tough on the second stage of the HotChillee London-Paris. Just a moment before, one of the riders dared to complain of sore legs as we battled up one of the short, steep climbs that are a feature of the terrain around French villages. Markowski, a former pro rider who now rides for fun as a ride chaperone (or Ride Captain, as they are known at HotChillee), knew perfectly well what a privilege it was to be there, and his chirp was agentle reminder. Besides French villages, rolling road closures and back-up support, the biggest selling point of the London-Paris is the last 1.9km. Yes, there’s a prologue of 498km; but that’s just detail. It’s that final…

GRANT CLARKE, ILLUSTRATOR In the centrefold of this month’s issue you will find an illustration by Grant Clark. Clark was recently commissioned to create a new look for the Cape Town Cycle Tour, and you will probably have seen his work in the entry notifications for this year’s event. Inspired by his work, Bicycling has asked Clark to produce a series of artworks for us, and they will be a feature in each issue of Bicycling next year. (Buy all six in 2020, and complete the set. You will also be able to download a high-res print file.) Although Clark currently lives in London, he is proudly South African, and boasts a solo charity ride from Cairo to Cape Town among a long list of cycling achievements. His best tip…

1 / TOPEAK JOEBLOW MOUNTAIN / R2 279 The big ol’ steel barrel is tough and helps this pump inflate huge tyres in a hurry. The clear 60psi gauge has 1psi hashes. 2 / SPECIALIZED AIR TOOL MTB FLOOR PUMP / R1 350 Not only does this pump feature a 40psi gauge with 1psi hashes, it also has a bleed valve and a high-volume barrel for quicker inflation. 3 / LEZYNE ALLOY OVER DRIVE / R1 195 A clear, black-on-white, 60psi gauge with 1psi hashes offers excellent resolution and readability, and the aluminium-and-steel pump stands on a stable tripod base.…

We’ve all been there: you head out for a long ride stacked with elevation. Things seem to be going great, until the road tilts up, you start climbing, and boom – a sharp twinge in your knee fires as you press through the pedals, and forces you to slow down. Know that you’re not alone. Knee pain’s one of the most common lower-body issues among cyclists, and it often stems from overuse, according to a 2010 study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. Riding longer or harder than your body is conditioned for strains your connective tissues and causes inflammation and pain. Often, these crank-stopping aches that seem to come out of nowhere are actually the first noticeable symptom of a long-brewing problem. But no matter how long you’ve…

That’s the name of this custom paint scheme, which graces the frame of Andrew Bloom’s Cabal Ascent 1 Disc with wireless SRAM Force eTap AXS. Andrew is one of the founders of Cape Town-based Cabal, and his bike really shows off their new custom offering: as part of the purchase price, a customer can choose one of nine flat colours and a gloss topcoat, or go full custom for a R5k surcharge. The paintwork is handled by another local maestro, Jared Mahaffey at BMC in Salt River, whose skill and attention to detail is world-class. CABAL ASCENT 1 DISC CUSTOM FROM R76 500 RIDECABAL.COM…

439 Kilojoules in your standard medium banana SEVEN Typically, the number of bananas in a kilogram 4011 THE PLU CODE FOR STANDARD YELLOW BANANAS 1.9 billion rand Gross value of bananas produced in South Africa each year 1 The number of grams of protein in your average banana 15-19CM SA’S CUTOFF FOR A ‘MEDIUM’ BANANA 9 tons We couldn’t find any stats on banana consumption at cycle races in SA, but at Comrades they go through 9 tons of the things. Can the Cape Town Cycle Tour be far behind? thirty-three The record for most bananas eaten in one sitting 114 000 000 TONS OF BANANAS GROWN GLOBALLY IN 2017…

IT WAS MY LUCKY BREAK. South African cycling powerhouse Ashleigh Moolman Pasio was taking an unusual mid-season hiatus from the incessant demands of professional cycling at the highest level. It was August, and the race calendar was packed. Ash’s CCC-Liv teammates were dicing it out in the Women’s World Tour (WWT) at the Postnord Vårgårda West Sweden. Despite being a pillar of the CCC-Liv set up, Ash was back ‘home’ in Catalonia, eastern Spain, pressing a hard reset on a challenging 2019 season in her new team. Ash was unfamiliar in a casual summer dress. The distinctive South African flag on her white jersey, as national road race and time-trial champion, was absent. The usual grinding race intensity etched across her face from pixelated TV footage was also missing.…

TEMPERATURES 40 degrees plus, down to 10 TERRAIN Mainly rolling hills, with some steep kickers SPEEDS Group 1: 32km/h Group 2: 29-30km/h Group 3: 27-28km/h Group 4: 25-27km/h Group 5: 24-25km/h MINOR IRRITATIONS: Bossy Ride Captains / Concertina effect of the large group MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS Rolling road closures / Back-up support / Baguettes and pastries / The ride Into Paris STAGES Stage 1: London to Folkstone, 175km Stage 2: Calais to Amiens, 165km Stage 3: Amiens to Paris 185km CHECK OUT WWW.HOTCHILLEE. COM FOR MORE INFO.…