.EST 1891.

Thursday 28 December, 2023

WINTER
JAC K E T S
G RO U P T E ST
Keeping yo u riding
t h ro ug h t h e worst
weat h er

MAKE YOUR
2024 GOALS STICK
How to come good on your New Year ’s resolutions

NEWS TECH FEATU R E

Tao Geoghegan Hart Is the winter bike Are all pro cyclists
to target 2024 Tour a thing of the past? secret Lego builders?
 STA R T LI N E 2 8 .12

I
hope, dear reader, that you are
browsing this issue having
survived the worst excesses of
Christmas. Without overdosing
on mince pies, Celebrations chocolates,
turkey or other foods that only come Living in Merckx’s shadow

20
out at this time of year. If, like me, you
did succumb, I hope you’ve been able Winter jackets on test

38
to ride it off in the days after. At least
we now just have New Year’s Eve to get
past before we can focus on what’s really
important – next year’s riding.
Deepest winter can of course be tough
for an amateur rider, so I’m hoping this
issue will help in some small way. We’ve
got examples of New Year Resolutions
that actually worked, a grouptest of the
most important piece of winter kit –
jackets – and a look at winter bikes.
My winter bike harks back almost two
decades. It’s a lovely handbuilt steel frame
that has been refurbished in recent years,
but as our tech writers find out, its winter
beating properties have been superseded
by modern bike design. Mudguards or
not, I really can’t imagine taking it out for
a ride on wet, greasy roads with its 23mm
tyres. Maybe I’ll have to repurpose it.
If you can’t face heading out for a ride
then turn to page 28 for our feature on
Photos Richard Butcher/Future Publishing

the surprising popularity of Lego in the

pro peloton. What better activity for a
winter’s night?
Happy New Year everyone, see you
in 2024.

SIMON RICHARDSON
Make your resolutions stick!
Editor
simon.richardson@futurenet.com

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 No beer, cheers Tom Pidcock grimaces after taking a sip of the
6.6% Kwaremont on the podium of the cyclo-cross World Cup
round at Namur, Belgium. Despite winning in just his second cross
race of the season, Pidcock was not enamoured with the blonde
beer, named after the famous cobbled climb, because he is not a
drinker. The Ineos Grenadiers rider won at Namur after passing
through the whole field, despite two separate mechanicals during
the event, to take his first World Cup victory in almost two years.
Photo Getty Images
 Tao targets
Levelling up at last year’s Giro...
but a crash would see an early exit

the Tour
Geoghegan Hart already impressing new team
as he settles in during December training camp

L
idl-Trek are looking to new femur. Much of the paddock talk in Italy
signing Tao Geoghegan Hart suggested he was in superb condition,
to contend for victory at the leading many pundits to believe he had
2024 Tour de France. the form to win the Corsa Rosa.
The 2020 Giro d’Italia winner But the severity of his injuries meant
ended a seven-year association with he hasn’t pinned a number on since May.
Ineos Grenadiers this year, joining the He will return to racing at February’s
American team Tour of the Algarve
to become after an absence of
their new GC “I don’t think I nine months, but
poster boy. The his new team are
team showed had a chance to already confident
their faith in
the Londoner
fully show my that come July he
will be in a position
as they
supported him
form last year” to challenge Jonas
Vingegaard for the
throughout his yellow jersey.
rehabilitation this summer and are “I hope he can go to the Tour to win
looking ahead to July with optimism. it,” Lidl-Trek’s sports director Steven de
Geoghegan Hart was sitting in third Jongh told CW. “But we have to see how
place at this year’s Giro when he crashed coming back from his injury will affect
out on the 11th stage, breaking his him. We’ve seen it in the past with Chris
Froome and Egan Bernal – a big injury
The Londoner’s ability against the
can have a big impact.
clock makes him a Tour contender “But Tao had no more complications
and we don’t think he will be badly
affected. What we’ve seen in the
December training camp from him
has been very impressive. Everything
looks good, and it’s been great to see
that there’s not been much of a drop
off in power in his legs. There are very
good signs.
“He’s already won a Grand Tour so
knows what it takes, and ask nine out of
10 DSs if they’d want Tao in their team,
and they’d say yes without needing to
be convinced.”
Lidl-Trek haven’t gone into a Tour de
France with a GC rider since Richie Porte
finished third at the 2020 race, but sports
director De Jongh is confident that won’t

6 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly

be a hindrance to Geoghegan Hart and
his ambitions.
“Actually, what we have now with Tao
reminds me a bit of the Alberto Contador
days at Tinkoff-Saxo. They were really
fun days. There is nothing more exciting
than chasing down GC success at the
Tour de France. Every day is so intense:
you can lose a podium spot so easily but
that tension is exciting.
“We’ll also be taking Mads Pedersen
but I don’t see it as a downside having a
sprinter like Mads and a GC guy in Tao
at the Tour. I see it as a luxury position to
be in. We’ve got the riders to be able to
support Tao.”

Pushing the limit

Prior to crashing out at May’s Giro,
Geoghegan Hart had enjoyed his best run
of form since winning the maglia rosa in
2020. He had taken three stage wins in
smaller stage races, and won the GC at
the Tour of the Alps.
“I was proud of how I was going,” the
28-year-old told CW and others at a
recent team training camp. “It’s about
getting back to the level I was at before,
trying to improve. It was hard not to
realise that form. Maybe not the result,
but to really push my limit, to find out
exactly where I was. It was much further
than I have ever been before.
“I don’t think I fully had the chance
to show my form last year. I was always
holding back, in the [Tour of the] Alps
and Giro especially.”
Geoghegan Hart admitted that it
was “hard to leave” Ineos, especially since
he famously skipped school to attend the
Team Sky launch back in 2010. But he
said he had no regrets about moving to
Lidl-Trek, and is excited by the prospect
of working in new surroundings and with
new equipment.
He believes he can improve his time
Words Chris Marshall-Bell Photos Getty Images

trialling by a sizeable margin – he

finished third and fourth at the 2023
Giro’s opening two time trials – and to
that end even went training at Valencia’s
velodrome in December.
“I want to do as many time trials as
possible next season,” he said. “One of the
big reasons why I’ll be starting at Algarve
is that there is a time trial straight away. I
will be looking to start well, have a good
break, and then hold that into the Tour.”

Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 7


Can gravel save
UK racing?
I
can’t say this too loudly or the
Cycling Weekly overlords will cut
this column completely, but Gravel
(capital G) is coming.
It’s interesting to look at the British
race scene in the winter of 2023. On the
women’s side, road racing is thriving. If
reports prove to be true, we’re set to have
double the amount of women’s
Continental teams racing in 2024. On
the men’s side, we just have Saint Piran
and Trinity, it’s far from the glory days of
Madison-Genesis, JLT-Condor and co.
We can argue about the how or why
until the cows come home, whether it be
Brexit, the global economy or who knows
what else. The fact of the matter stays the
same, the male domestic scene is on its
hands and knees.
When I couldn’t find a contract last
winter, my focus turned to becoming a
‘privateer’. This effectively means
finding your own group of
sponsors that allows you to race
your own calendar on your own
terms. For most, this means
Gravel, though I added some
road and TT to boot.
Portsdown Classic to kick off 2024 road season
The new Portsdown Classic will get the
UK domestic road season up and running
in six weeks’ time after the new organiser,
Seb Ottley, stepped in to replace the Perfs
Pedal Race organised by Mick Waite.
A former domestic racer turned event
organiser, Ottley picked up the baton put
down by Waite and has ensured the legacy
of the Perfs will continue albeit under a
different name. “It’s such an important
race, for the whole calendar,” Ottley told
The British Continental website.
8 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
J O E L AV E R I C K
When Waite stepped down he said
that it was due to a range of factors
that had combined to make the event
“increasingly difficult” to stage.
Ottley has said that he has now
rectified various issues which were
largely logistical. This included a
reconfiguration of the race route
and relocation of the finish line.
Waite announced in October that the
Perfs would be no more. The National B
race had become a domestic staple with a
In the UK, my bike sponsor, Ribble,
seemed to be slightly ahead of the curve.
This year brought the launch of the
multi-discipline Ribble Collective.
Could we start to see more of this?
Well, we already are... In the past few
weeks, Scott Redding Cycling Team
(SRCT) announced that they would be
folding. While they weren’t the most
successful team in the country, they
certainly made a mark. It left me
questioning, if SRCT can’t find the
sponsorship on the road, then who can?
A few days after SRCT’s
announcement, there was a complete
360. They would continue to race, but
take a step back from a full road race
programme, instead concentrating on the
World Gravel Series.
There will certainly be some critics but
evolution is never a bad thing. Gravel
allows brands to show off their products
at events where amateurs race too.
Road teams aren’t dead, but to
survive they may have to adapt.
Joe Laverick rides for
Ribble Collective
prestigious list of former winners including
Alex Dowsett and Sean Yates.
Back in October, Waite told CW that he
hoped a new event could be put together
to fill the void left by his beloved Perfs
Pedal Race. However, it was clear that any
new event needed to be given a new name.
Staying true to Waite’s wishes, Ottley
came up with the Portsdown Classic name
and told The British Continental that it was
hugely important to him to ensure that
Waite’s request was honoured.
 Shout out to the
Meadowbank
trespass crew
My wife came across this old photo
which was taken during the winter
of 1969/70, when a handful of us
A rough-weather machine sneaked onto the nearly completed
is no longer mandatory Meadowbank velodrome, built for
the 1970 Commonwealth Games in
Edinburgh. It was freezing, hence
Is the winter bike an the woolly hat over the crash helmet
and the hooded thermal jacket with
endangered species? thick ski gloves. But surprisingly no
overshoes! It was even before they’d
I still use a winter bike, an old carbon Just turned my Scott Addict into ‘winter had the chance to put down any track
one which is nearly 20 years old. To mode’. Mudguards fitted on the built-in lines and markings. We didn’t get

Photos Andy Jones, Allan Miller

be fair it has a decent spec on it. It was
once my best bike. My best bikes do not
see any winter as it is so expensive to
replace parts these days. Debbie Jones
My winter bike was also my work bike.
A combination of now working from
home and the advent of smart trainers
means that I now use it a lot less. It
used to be the bike on which I did most
of my miles, but now, perhaps only 15%.
However, using a ‘best bike’ on filthy,
salted roads is the preserve of the rich
or the silly. No matter how well the
bike is cleaned, it’s going to suffer.
Simon Daw
I used to keep my old steel bike for
winter. Now I use it almost all year.
Maybe because I am myself becoming
vintage. Jeff Ski
mounts and stock wheels fitted with caught, but I can’t remember if we
32mm endurance tyres. Otherwise my managed to get on the boards on
old bike that I would be repurposing other occasions.
has rim brakes and limited clearance I wonder if there is anyone else
for bigger tyres and mudguards. still around who was there and can
Chris Higham remember? I’d love to hear from them.
Allan Miller, email
I now have ‘winter wheels’ as my winter
bike lives on my Kickr. Paul Ruffy
I do have a winter bike and yet I am
just as likely to grab my ‘good’ bike.
Just because I prefer riding it and
whatever you ride you have to dry and
clean afterwards anyway. Rog Davis
Always train on my fixie through the
winter. When the weather turns I have
mudguards and there are no gears
to go wrong.
Rich Bradley

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Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 11

 FE AT U R E
TWO
WHEELED
TH ER APY
Allan Peiper has won stages and Grand Tours, both as a rider
and a DS. Since 2014, though, his biggest challenge has been
a recurring battle with prostate cancer. He talks candidly to
Chris Marshall-Bell about the ups and downs of his struggle
Photos Alamy, Getty Images, Jayco AlUla
n the last
couple of
years, the
hormone
treatment
has really
tested me,”
Allan Peiper
says. Prostate cancer’s grip – sometimes
loose, other times firm – on him is
approaching its decade anniversary.
“The radiotherapy has been really hard;
chemotherapy has been an absolute
nightmare. It has a big effect on your
mental and emotional state.”
The daily cycle has often gone
something like this: “In tears all of the
time, not wanting to get out of bed, not
enjoying life, struggling with everything
because your system is totally shut down.
You’re a mess as a human being. No one
wants to live like that.”
The Australian, a constant figure in the
upper echelons of cycling since the 1980s,
has on occasion questioned whether he
14 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
wanted to live at all, he says: “There have
been moments in the middle of treatment
where my body has been falling apart and
I’ve thought, ‘you know what, I’m just up
the hill from the railway tracks. If I just
went there…’” The 63-year-old pauses.
“It’s not like I was ever going to do that,
but it’s the sort of thing you think about
because your mind gets so clouded.”
It was November 2014 that Peiper – a
winner of 20 professional races during
his career – was first diagnosed with
prostate cancer, the most frequent type
of cancer in men (see boxout). “It was
earth-shattering. It was disbelief, apathy.
Then grief. I felt like the rug had been
pulled from under me. How long would I
have left? So many questions and I didn’t
understand anything. It was very scary.”
Peiper had his prostate removed and
recovered, but he began a journey of
regular check-ups to monitor the score of
his PSA levels (prostate-specific antigen
– a potential cancer risk marker). “It’s not
like I’ve had cancer and it’s come back – it
Peiper’s emotional journey
has been a rocky road

Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 15

 FE AT U R E
was never gone. The prostate had broken,
the cells had spread through my body.
It was like spreading a handful of grass
seeds and hoping they didn’t grow.”
Twice, his PSA was so high that he had
to restart heavy treatment, face up again
to the prospect of a life cut shorter than
expected. “People say they’re not scared
of dying, and I said the same thing. Then it
confronts you and you s**t yourself.”
Pro cycling stalwart
To many readers, Peiper will be a familiar
figure. He’s woven deeply into fabric of
cycling over the past half-a-century, and
that’s just the way a boy from the state
of Victoria always wanted it: “When we
Peiper grits his teeth at the
1985 Isle of Wight Classic
16 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
started discussing the possibility of an
interview, I realised how important bikes
have been for me.
“When I was aged 10, I didn’t want
anything except a bike. It was my gateway
to freedom, to go out adventuring, to jump
out of the window in the morning and to
head into the field. I then started racing,
travelling the world, became a pro.”
He was successful: a time triallist and
Classics-like rider, he won stages at the
Giro d’Italia, Paris-Nice, Critérium du
Dauphiné, and took GC victories at the
Tours of Sweden and Picardie.
“Then I became a DS, rubbing shoulders
with the best in the world.” Also a massive
success: he was part of the HTC-Highroad
sports directors’ team, managing Mark
Cavendish in his pomp, then at BMC
Racing for six years, before latterly being
UAE-Team Emirates’ lead DS.
“I’ve never described myself as a fan
of cycling. I like watching bike racing,
but it’s the contact with the riders, staff,
teams that motivates me, that buzz.
Sharing space with young, motivated,
talented people is exhilarating.”
In 2020, six years after his initial
diagnosis for prostate cancer, Peiper
directed Tadej Pogačar to his maiden
Tour de France win. “I didn’t even think
I’d ever be a directeur sportif anymore
and then I won the Tour with Tadej.” He
smiles. “There are positives to take out
of everything.” The young Slovenian had
a special bond with Peiper. “Allan was
probably the best DS I ever had,” he said
last year. “I really miss him. In 2020
he was so good with the tactical plans,
everything he said in the bus, with the
programme, it was just perfect.”
Peiper stopped working as a DS at the
end of 2021, and in 2022, with cancer
taking a stranglehold on him for the third
time, he underwent six intense months
of treatment that left him physically and
KEY WINS
Peiper’s
achievements
RIDER:
20 professional wins
Giro d’Italia stage 14, 1990
Paris-Nice prologue, 1985
Critérium du Dauphiné prologue, 1984
Tour of Sweden, 1984
Tour of Picardie, 1984
DS:
Tour de France 2020 with
Tadej Pogačar
Giro d’Italia 2012 with Ryder Hesjedal
Tour de Suisse 2018 with Richie Porte
World Championship time trial 2018
with Rohan Dennis
2x World Championship team time
trial with BMC Racing
 DS Peiper cracks jokes with
BMC Racing in 2016
mentally exhausted. “My specialists
wanted me to continue with treatment
as it had worked so well, but I said no
because I wanted to focus on quality of
life instead of longevity.”
He rejoined UAE Team Emirates
between December and February as
a consultant, but since April has been
working in a similar role for Jayco-AlUla.
“The job is looking at their performance
team, peeling back the layers, examining
all levels, and giving my advice and
opinion on how things can improve.
There are a lot of good things in place.
Being involved gives me something to
focus on that I know about.”
Giving back
From his home in Rozebeke, Belgium,
Peiper and I first speak on the eve of the
2023 Giro d’Italia. Life in recent months
has been good, but he’s had to pass many
dark days to get to this point. “There are
moments when I’m really down, don’t
want to connect with people, really at
rock bottom. But I’ve never felt that I am
a victim in all of this. I’ve never said, ‘why
me?’ Whatever
you want to call
“I’m feeling
it, for me there is
a higher force, a
really good...
reason for all of I’ve gone a
this. I can’t work
it out, but it is year without
what it is.”
Five months treatment”
after our initial
interview, we speak again. “I’m feeling
really good,” he beams. “I’ve gone a year
without treatment. In June my cancer
markers had gone up quite a bit, but the
scan I did looked pretty stable and my
specialist said that everything was good.
He said if I had no symptoms when I did a
blood test in September he would see me
in December.
“It was like I had won the national
lottery. My wife and I cried four times
before we reached the hospital’s
reception, four times before we got to
the centre of town, and then cried again
over coffee. It was a pretty amazing time
because I was 99% sure I was about to go
back down a deep, ugly tunnel, but then I
got a reprieve.”
More than 80%
of men will survive
prostate cancer for
10 or more years.
“We’ve more or
less used up all
of the arsenals
they’ve got from
the operations
to chemo to radiotherapy to hormone
treatment. It’s been an intensive nine
years. It’s hard to bounce back; every
time it takes months, but at the same time
I feel very lucky and blessed that I’ve had
nine years, been able to work most of that
time, and still keep the quality of my life
relatively high.”
This year has seen Peiper focus his
energies on his consultancy work with
Jayco-AlUla, and also his family life.
With Katrien, his wife of three years,
this summer the couple became foster
parents to two young girls; Peiper has
a 25-year-old son from a previous
marriage, and Katrien also has two
adopted boys living with them.
Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 17
 FE AT U R E

ESSENTIAL FACTS

Risks and
diagnosis
Prostate cancer is the most common
cancer among males, with one
in eight men diagnosed with the
disease in their lifetime, rising to
one in four for black men.
In the UK, more than 12,000 men
die from prostate cancer every
year, while half-a-million are living
with and after treatment.
It mostly affects men over 50,
and the risk increases as one gets
older. A person is two-and-a-half
times more likely to get prostate
cancer if their father or brother
has had it.
Symptoms to watch out for
include difficulty in starting
to urinate; frequent urination,
especially at night; pain or a
burning sensation during urination;
blood in the urine or semen;
regular pain in the back, hips
or pelvis.
Despite conflicting news reports
over the years, cycling has not
Working in pro cycling gives been found to increase the risk of
Peiper the buzz he craves developing prostate cancer.

“When I left
home at 16, I
“The bike’s “The cycling world
is always asking
“But then I did a test ride of an e-bike
for 10km and it opened up a whole new
had a lot of help,
living with loads
been the how I am doing.
I’m not looking
world for me. Going out for over an hour,
in shorts, oil on my legs, stopping for a
of families in biggest for attention, but coffee, being able to grasp what is me, that
Australia and I don’t see the inner bike rider, it’s motivating. I come
Belgium. I realised therapeutic need for secrecy. back with a buzz, I’ve been in the zone of
how many people You don’t have to riding my bike, I’ve thought clearly.
helped me, did element” give out all of the “There have been times I’ve stopped
things for me, and details all of the and cried for 10 minutes at the side of
the big effect that had on my life. I had time, but cancer is part of society. I don’t the road – the bike’s been the biggest
this vision in my mind of walking down think there’s anybody who’s not been therapeutic element for me. When you
a street holding hands with a little child, touched by cancer.” can source an endorphin buzz, an inner
looking at myself from the back. I wanted His biggest aid in his near-decade long balance, every time you do something,
to give something back. The two foster battle has been his bike. Indeed, he has that’s pretty amazing. Cycling is my life.
girls come every second weekend and for just returned from a three-hour ride on I love this sport.”
the holidays. We are their safety net.” his e-bike before we last speak. “Putting Q If you have been affected by anything
my leg over the bike is the crux of my life. in this article, please contact Samaritans
Back on the bike Last summer there were moments when on 116 123; Suicide Prevention UK on
As a high-profile name within cycling, I had given up ever riding my bike again. 0800 689 5652; and Prostate Cancer UK
Peiper’s health problems are well-known. I didn’t have the energy. on 0800 074 8383.

18 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly


THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF
Heavy is the head that wears the crown of a comparison to cycling’s
most revered rider – Chris Marshall-Bell gets the measure of what is
simultaneously cycling’s greatest compliment and greatest curse
DWIG VAN Hooydonck said it first.
After winning the Tour of Flanders aged
just 22 in 1989, the Belgian pleaded with
the press. “Please don’t call me the new
Merckx,” he cried.
Twenty-nine years later, it was the turn
of Remco Evenepoel. After becoming
junior time trial world champion, and
capping off a truly outstanding junior
career, the Belgian was defiant when
facing the media. “Being described as
the new Merckx is not something I want
to hear,” he said. “Please, just stop it,” he
FE AT U R E
later wrote on social media. “Nobody can
be a new version of something he or she
has never been and never will be. Stop
Photos Cor Vos, Alamy and Getty Images
comparing, please.”
Ever since Eddy Merckx retired in
1978, drawing to a close an unmatchable
career of 525 wins, including victories
in all the Grand Tours, Monuments and
just about every track and road race
he competed in, the cycling world –
especially fans and pundits in Belgium –
has been desperate to find the successor
to ‘De Kannibaal’.
Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 21
 It was in 1979 when Alfons ‘Fons’ De
Wolf and Daniel Willems were blessed –
or was it jinxed? – by becoming the first
two cyclists to be given the ‘new Merckx’
title. De Wolf was a slender, enigmatic
rider, and sat beautifully on the bike. He
was elegant, graceful, and had the talent
to match. Willems, meanwhile, had
time trial skills that the sport had rarely
seen before, and his debut season was
nothing short of outstanding. But neither
emulated or eclipsed Merckx – and no
one probably will, so high is the bar the
Belgian set.
But that hasn’t stopped media, fans and
even coaches and riders continuing to
pronounce any rising star The Next Eddy
Merckx. So what’s it like to wear that
name tag? Is it a burden or a privilege?
Is cycling’s greatest compliment a curse
or a motivator?

“I didn’t like
being favourite.
I worked best as
the underdog”
Unwanted pressure
At the age of 20, Fons De Wolf felt that
he was ready to turn professional. “Along
with Daniel Willems, we were the best of
our generation,” he tells Cycling Weekly.
But Belgian Cycling issued a new rule
in the summer of 1976 that prevented
espoirs from signing professional
contracts until they were 22. “We lost
three years,” he says, ruefully.
In 1979, De Wolf finally became pro
and he immediately made up for lost
time, winning five stages and the points
classification in his debut Grand Tour,
the Vuelta a España. With Eddy Merckx
having retired, Belgium was impatient for
the Cannibal’s replacement. They turned
to De Wolf and Willems.
“The press started it as soon as Eddy
retired,” De Wolf says of being given the
double-edged moniker. “Every journalist
was talking about finding a new Eddy,
but the pressure was too high for us.”
It didn’t show at first. De Wolf won
Il Lombardia and Milan-San Remo in

22 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly


Willems’s career
flatlined early
successive years, and finished 11th at
his first Tour de France. He also came
close to winning Paris-Roubaix, the Tour
of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège
with stylish performances that emulated
Merckx. Willems won 33 times in his first
three years, including at several Classics:
Scheldeprijs, De Brabantse Pijl and
Flèche Wallonne, to name a few.
But then in 1982 the wins started
drying up and became less frequent for
both De Wolf and Willems, and by 1984,
Willems had retired and De Wolf would
O U T A N D A B O U T W I T H C YC L I N G R OYA LT Y
What’s it like being Eddy Merckx?
Belgium might have a monarchy, but
there is no doubt that the real king of
Belgium is not Philippe, the man who
can legally wear a crown on his head,
but Eddy Merckx.
Wherever Merckx goes, there is a
stream of people in his wake hoping to
catch a glimpse, grab a selfie or get him
to sign an autograph.
His long-time friend and former pro
Rudy de Bie quips that, “There used
to be a joke you’d hear all the time. It
went like this: there was a stage of a
bike race and the Pope was the special
guest along with Merckx. Everyone
present would ask, ‘Who’s that person
next to Eddy?’”
Fons De Wolf occasionally goes to
restaurants with Merckx. “When you
go out with him, it’s not a normal life,”
he says, “because everyone wants to
speak with him. He will always sit with
Comparisons to ‘the Cannibal’ were
his back to the rest of the restaurant,
hard to stomach for Fons De Wolf and often we’ll ask for the table at the
FE AT U R E
only claim two more victories in the
subsequent six seasons. The Next Eddy
Merckxes were no more – and they were
battered in the media.
“Daniel and I never spoke about the
name,” De Wolf says. “We were rivals, we
were never close, but the press made it
harder for us as we shared a name.
“Daniel was not smart enough to be
the next Eddy. In my opinion, it was more
difficult for him. He couldn’t handle the
pressure, the noise, everyone having an
opinion. He could never do it.”
What about De Wolf? “I finished
second in the Superprestige rankings in
1980, just behind Bernard Hinault. That
meant I was the second best bike rider in
the world and I felt like I belonged there.
“But I didn’t like being favourite. I
worked best as the underdog. When
they didn’t talk about me, it gave me
motivation to show people they were
wrong not to think I could win. But when
I was a big favourite, it was difficult.
very end of the restaurant so people
can’t see him. Eddy is a great person
but it must be hard for him.”
Both De Wolf and De Bie are part of
a select group of former professionals
who still ride with Merckx most weeks.
Also present on these star-studded
rides are one-time Tour de France
stage winner Jos Deschoenmaeker and
former junior road race world champion
Ronny Van Holen. Every ride – usually
around 80km in length – starts and
finishes at Merckx’s house, with the
now 78-year-old hosting post-ride
drinks afterwards.
Is he still the Cannibal? “Oh yes,” De
Bie responds. “He’s still Eddy Merckx.
He’s still got his Allen keys in his pocket,
still changing his saddle height. He’s fit,
strong, and enjoys riding the bike. We
average 28 to 30kph every ride.”
De Wolf concurs: “When we go out
on the bike, he still wants to be the
best. It’s incredible. Eddy will never not
want to be the greatest.”
Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 23
 “The press tried to put pressure on me,
“The press tried to put pressure but I was clever enough to know I wasn’t
as good as Eddy. I could do a few good
on me, but I was clever enough to races, two or three months a season at a
high level, but not a whole year. I knew
know I wasn’t as good as Eddy” what I could and couldn’t do.”
At the end of 1981, De Wolf went to
Guadeloupe and became ill. “I was never
the same again.” He later found out that
he had larva migrans, a parasitic disease
where immature larval worms migrate
around various parts of the body. It meant
he was much more susceptible to getting
ill. “Many people were saying I wasn’t
good enough, I wasn’t doing a good job.

FONS DE WOLF
Born: 1956
Nationality: Belgian
First crowned as The Next Merckx: 1979

Five Vuelta stage wins in his debut

season as a pro, followed by victories
at Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia
the following two years had him set for
greatness. But illness thwarted him.

FRANK
VA N D E N B RO U C K E
Born: 1974
Nationality: Belgian
First crowned as The Next Merckx: 1996

Mercurial mega-talent Vandenbroucke

Vandenbroucke’s career was cut
short but his legend lives on
had it all. Sadly he never fulfilled his
potential, a win at Liège-Bastogne-
Liège his only Monument success.
He tragically died in 2009, aged 34.

24 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly


They were laughing at me. It was very sad
to go from 11th at the Tour to never again
being in the top 10 in the world, but what
could I do? Even though I didn’t know the
exact reason at the time, I knew it was not
my fault. Looking back now, I’m happy
with my career.”
At the height of De Wolf’s success,
fame found him. “It was strange,” he
remembers. “I would go into a shop and
everyone would know me. There were
many requests from sponsors and even
some people asking me to go into politics,
but none of this interested me.
“I never spoke with Eddy about it all,
DANIEL WILLEMS
Born: 1956
Nationality: Belgium
First crowned as The Next Merckx: 1979
Eleven victories as a neo-pro saw him
hailed as Merckx’s successor, and all that
before he had won six successive stages
of the Tour de Suisse. But health problems
cut short his career. He died in 2016.
E DVA LD B OA S S O N
HAGEN
Born: 1987
Nationality: Norway
First crowned as The Next Merckx: 2009
At 22, Boasson Hagen had won more
races than Merckx had at that age, with
successes at Ghent-Wevelgem, the Giro
d’Italia and the Tour, but the Norwegian’s
career tailed off in 2013. He’s still racing.
but when my career wasn’t going so well,
he said to me, ‘Fons, come with me. Your
bike position isn’t good, let me change it,
make you go faster.’ He is such a good guy,
he always wanted the best for everyone.”
Romance versus reality
It didn’t work out for De Wolf and
Willems, yet the name continued to be
recycled and shared out among various
other riders (see boxout). In the mid-
1990s, Frank Vandenbroucke emerged on
THE EIGHT NEXT MERCKXES
CLAUDE CRIQUIELION
Born: 1957
Nationality: Belgian
First crowned as The Next Merckx: 1979
Described as having a French-speaking
head but a Flemish heart, Criquielion won
the Worlds, Tour of Flanders and twice
won Flèche Wallonne. Grand Tour success
eluded him, however.
REMCO EVENEPOEL
Born: 2000
Nationality: Belgian
First crowned as The Next Merckx: 2018
Evenepoel was being talked up as Merckx’s
heir before he had signed a contract. In just
five years, he’s been world champion, won
the Vuelta a España, taken two victories
at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and cemented
himself as one of the sport’s biggest talents.
FE AT U R E
the scene. “With his talent, Frank is the
Cruyff of cycling,” Merckx said, cleverly
comparing VDB, as he was known, with
the footballer Johan Cruyff as opposed
to himself. “He could win anything,”
Merckx added.
Vandenbroucke never reached the
levels he ought to have, but he had
mimicked Merckx with his flamboyance.
“We need heroes, examples,” the Belgian
journalist Matthias Declercq wrote
about Vandenbroucke. “People who don’t
E R I C VA N D E R A E R D E N
Born: 1962
Nationality: Belgian
First crowned as The Next Merckx: 1983
Vanderaerden’s 94 career victories
included five Tour stages, as well as
Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders and
Ghent-Wevelgem wins. He was arguably
his generation’s best time triallist.
TA D E J P O G AČ A R
Born: 1998
Nationality: Slovenian
First crowned as The Next Merckx: 2020
A Tour win aged just 21 was followed by
a second the year after. Pogačar is the
undisputed best bike rider on the planet
right now. Grand Tours, Monuments, Semi-
Classics, week-long stage races… is he
actually The Next Eddy Merckx?
Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 25
 FE AT U R E
break, people who release us from our
daily mediocrity. People who can fly, who
do things we cannot.”
Was flair and panache all it took to echo
Merckx? The romantics and poets might
say so, but sport is a results business, and
to really copy Merckx, a rider would have
to win Grand Tours, Classics, rainbow
jerseys, time trials, sprints, mountain
tests, six-day track meets, set an Hour
record, and everything in between for the
best part of a decade. It’s as unfathomable
as it is unfeasible. “They are still looking
for the next Eddy, but they’ll never find
one,” De Wolf says. “Just like they’ll
never find the next Pelé in football.”
What has changed through the
near half-a-century search is that
even though Belgium now has two
superstars in Evenepoel and Wout van
Aert, riders who can win on a variety
of terrain and regularly throughout
the season, the country is no longer
obsessed with finding the Belgian heir
to Eddy Merckx. Since the turn of the
I N T H E G A M E O F T H E FAT H E R
Riding in the wheeltracks
of Bradley Wiggins
The tag applied to promising British
talent in the past decade has mostly
been ‘The Next Bradley Wiggins’.
As Britain’s first Tour de France
winner, Wiggins became a household
name in 2012, and he admitted that “I
felt like the most famous man in the
country.” He secured his legacy with a
fifth Olympic gold medal in 2016, and
also held the Hour record for almost
four years.
Though no Brit has emulated
Wiggins’s diverse career – which
included success on the
track, in mountainous
stage races and time
trials – there is a new
Wiggins in the men’s
peloton, his 18-year-
old son, Ben.
Wiggins junior will
race for Hagens
Berman Axeon-
millennium, non-Belgians have also
been bestowed with the title.
Enduring comparison
The latest one, alongside Evenepoel, is
Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar. At 25, he’s
already won 63 races, two Tours de
France, three Monuments, and there’s
even a chance he could challenge Merckx
and Mark Cavendish for their all-time
Tour de France stage win record.
“I have heard many times ‘this is the
Jayco in 2024, widely regarded as the
best U23 development team around.
Explaining his decision to GCN earlier
this year, Wiggins said that working
with Axel Merckx – Eddy’s son who
runs the team – was a major factor.
“With the dad he had growing up,
he knew the pressures,” Wiggins said.
“He’s been through it all and probably
to a greater degree. I couldn’t think of
anyone better to guide me through the
pressures that come with my name.”
Wiggins admitted that “no one can
prepare you for the pressure and
the noise” that comes with
being the son of a
cycling legend.
“It’s only
difficult to
deal with
when it’s not
Ben Wiggins has grown up in going well,”
the shadow of a cycling icon he added.
World champion Evenepoel is
Belgium’s latest wunderkind
new Merckx’ without the condition
being fulfilled, but with Tadej I think
we are really there this time,” Merckx
himself said in 2021, adding that Pogačar
has “no weaknesses… [and] can do better
than me in some races.” Pogačar has
always rebuffed the suggestion, saying
that “it’s impossible to win everything
he has won”, but no modern-day cyclist
looks like they could claim all five
Monuments, the three Grand Tours, a
world title and maybe set an Hour record
like Pogačar could.
The original two, De Wolf and Willems,
both claimed that the comparison to the
greatest cyclist of all time held them back
on occasions, so should it stop? “For me
it’s not a problem. I understand it and it’s
not important,” De Wolf says. “Everyone
knows Eddy, Pelé and [Lionel] Messi, and
that’s the reason people say these things.”
The comparison is an easy headline
to write, an even easier one to make
stick, and almost impossible to get rid of,
whatever a rider’s results.
“Even today, when I am presented
somewhere, they announce me as The
Next Eddy,” De Wolf laughs.
“People will always know me as The
Next Eddy Merckx.”
 FE AT U R E

28 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly

BU I LDI NG U P

Ever wondered what the pros do

to wind down? We look at why
Lego has clicked with cycling's
movers and shakers

e’s won national titles on the track and

road, and challenged for stage wins at the
Tour de France, but there’s still one prize
Fred Wright has his eye on. “It was always

Words Vern Pitt Photos Lego Group, SWpix.com, Getty Images, Emma Trott
the Millennium Falcon,” he says when we
ask him what Lego set he’s always lusted
after. “To have the massive Millennium
Falcon is pretty cool. But I tell myself, I’ve
got to have a reason to buy it.”
Wright is one of a surprisingly large
number of pro riders and coaches who
are Adult Fans of Lego (AFOLs), the
child’s construction toy. Perhaps even
more surprisingly, there seem to be some
tangible benefits to building for those
whose lives are dominated by sport.
Mark Cavendish is probably the
highest-profile, telling the BBC’s Joe
Wicks Podcast in 2020: “It’s quite a
mundane task… You just sit there and you
do it… I think it uses the same part of your
brain that’s used for meditation.”

Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 29

 FE AT U R E
Stress-buster
Rising star Zoe Bäckstedt of Canyon-
SR AM is another Lego fan. “It’s a
relaxing thing for me just being able to
come home from a race weekend, to put
some music on and turn my phone off for
a bit and just build. You watch the process introduced Bäckstedt to the joy of the
of it being put together and just enjoy
the time away from social media
and everything like that, just
having some time to myself,”
says Bäckstedt, extolling the
meditative virtues of a task
that requires some focus, but
not too much.
Wright adds: “It’s like I
quite enjoy building some
Ikea furniture. It’s not that
difficult to do.”
“It’s the one thing
that makes me switch
off from work,”
explains EF
Pro Cycling
performance
manager Emma Trott, who as British
Cycling’s junior women’s coach
bobbled bricks. “I don’t think about
anything cycling-related when
I’m building. I love my job and
thinking about all the little
tweaks that we can make,
but it’s not healthy to do it
all the time.”
She adds: “As coaches
and riders we’re quite
hands-on people. You
like to feel like you’re
making a difference
and I think that’s
the same with Lego.
Lego is a switch-off
but you’re still
Pro coach Trott’s having to follow
another Lego lover a procedure.”
For Wright’s friend and rider with
British Cycling, Rhys Britton, the allure
of the plastic bricks started as a way of
coping with the kind of adversity many
sports people face. “In lockdown I had an
injury. I broke my collarbone in 2019 at
the Ghent Six and I got back into it then.
I had nothing else to do, so I bought the
Millennium Falcon and built that while I
was injured” – we’re sure Wright wasn’t
the least bit jealous – “then I went home
for a bit and dug out all my old Lego and
rebuilt it.”
He adds: “When things aren’t going
so well it’s easy to buy a bit of Lego
and build it and then at the end you have
something cool.”
 Starting in 2000, Lego rolled
out Team Telekom sports sets
Lego therapy
In recent years “It’s the one
there has been an
increasing use of
thing that
Lego as a quasi-
therapeutic tool
makes me
in this way. Self- switch off”
help author Abbie
Headon even released a book called Build
Yourself Happy with the corporation’s
seal of approval.
If that sounds fanciful it’s worth noting
that it’s far from the first time the toy has
been used outside of its intended context.
In 2004 a study in the Journal of Autism
and Developmental Disorders found
autistic spectrum children’s interaction
A TRIBUTE TO TEAM TELEKOM
A brief history of cycling and Lego
and 'telephone booth'.
It’s worth noting that
no Lego bike has ever
had drop handlebars,
one presumes because
reaching for the drops
would put the minifigure
in a position where they
are looking at the floor.
That’s relevant because those Lego figures in a scenario of a
come 2000 with the
Olympics in Sydney
on the horizon, Lego
Hailing from one of cycling’s traditional produced a series of sports-related
heartlands, Denmark, it didn’t take sets. Four of them featured the Team
Lego long to start making tiny toy bikes. Telekom pro racing team, complete with
The first Lego set to feature them was pink bikes, released to coincide with
number 270 in 1958. It was made shortly that year’s Tour de France, which passed
after the introduction of the Lego through Germany.
system – the studs that allow bricks “We were a little bit surprised,
to connect to each other – which was because nobody had seen that coming.
introduced in 1955, and standardised the But we also didn’t really see how big
size and shape of Lego we know today. it was at that time,” recalls Bora-
But the almost as famous minifigure Hansgrohe sports director Rolf
was two decades away and so the bikes Aldag, who was riding for the
and riders that were part of the set look team at the time. He says he
much like something from a typical toy was one of those on the team
farm or garage. with kids that got a set given
The bike design that persists to this to them.
day, and can be used with the now One (set
ubiquitous Lego people, was first number 1199)
seen in 1985 in several sets that year came complete Rolf Aldag: immortalised
including 'weekend home', 'post office' with yellow by the Danish toymaker
with peers improved
when using Lego.
Plus, since the
mid-1990s it’s
been used to help
facilitate business
solutions planning.
Not that pro
riders are thinking about any of that,
they’re just concerned with where the
next brick goes. Bäckstedt adds: “If I
could take Lego to a stage race with me
and build like, one bag each day, I would
absolutely do that. But getting it home is
an absolute nightmare.”
Bäckstedt is fastidious with her Lego,
saying she keeps all the instructions
and green jersey wearers – we assume
the latter was meant to be Erik Zabel,
who won the points classification at the
Tour as a Telekom rider the year before.
Aldag says there were a few jokes on the
team bus about the body shape of the
squad’s leaders.
The figures saw plenty of action:
“At my wedding, somebody prepared
team wedding. My daughter played with
them. But after moving six times, shoot
me if you ask me where they are.”
The Telekom branding on the riders’
kits was, unfortunately, applied with
stickers (not popular with the Lego fan
community) and so any that remain
complete are likely to be desirable.
Lego hasn’t returned to the Tour de
France but has since produced mountain
biking sets (40582), bicycle police
(30638) and a BMX
park (60364).
“It should make us a
little bit proud that we
were the only ones and
that at that time people
would give Lego models
in Telekom jerseys to
their children to play
with,” says Aldag.
Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 31
 FE AT U R E

and notes written down, the date she
completed a set and what number it was:
“I’m on set number 17 at the moment.”
Bäckstedt’s model home
Not that there’s a lot of space at home
where she is able to bring builds back
from a stage race. Trott gave Bäckstedt
her first Lego set, a McLaren F1 car (set
number: 42141) as a house-warming
gift. “It’s spiralled from there, now she’s
got the Lego flowers [10280], because
you can’t kill those when she’s at a race.
The house always looks good without
the need to worry about coming back to
something dead,” says Trott.
Bäckstedt later reels off an audio tour
of her Belgian Lego palace including the
Trott uses her impressive handiwork
as a backdrop for video calls
Disney Castle (43222) in her lounge, the
Rolling Stones’ tongue (31206) and a
Japanese Castle (1170) in her bathroom.
“I like the artwork because it can go on
the wall. I choose my Lego sets by where
in the house needs Lego,” she says.
Wright can only dream. “I think
my girlfriend finds it a bit embarrassing,”
he says a little sheepishly. “But I
don’t know… we’ve got to have some
kind of hobby! I’m just looking
forward to – and I
don’t know what
Emma [Wright’s
girlfriend] thinks
about this – but just
putting it all in a
room in my house.”
To build or not to build,
that is the question...
Team-training tool
For Trott, the display of her collection
has some benefits for her work as a coach.
“My office space is where all my Lego is,
so when I’m on a team [video] call that’s
my backdrop. If you have a new person
that’s not spoken to you before, it’s a
good icebreaker because they can see
it. Hogwarts Castle [71043] is directly
above my head, and they’ll be like, ‘Is that
Hogwarts?’ And then it just rambles from
there,” she explains.
She says it’s partly
responsible for her
knowing a whole
network of staff
at BC who are
into Lego.
She’s even used
it for team-building
exercises. When the
2022-23 intake of
juniors arrived at the
BC Academy she set
them a building race
between two teams.
“You have to take it
piece-by-piece over
to your team-mate, who can’t see the
instructions, and clearly and concisely
tell them where that brick needs to go.
“This is because when you’re in a
race – say, you’re in a Madison – you
get one chance every two laps or so, to
communicate,” she says, clapping her
hands together to indicate the urgency.

Building motivation
Talking to these riders, Lego’s appeal
is its mechanical, repetitive and mildly
mentally taxing nature rather than any
creative aspect. Plus, it’s affordable on a
young pro’s salary. “I haven’t upgraded
my car as a pro but I have bought a couple
of Lego sets,” says Wright.
Also, setting goals and rewarding
oneself is a motivational tool. Bäckstedt,
who reveals she’s talked herself out of
a few purchases in recent months, even
has her next one lined up. “If I can get on
a podium somewhere at the CX Worlds
then maybe I’m treating myself to the
Avengers Tower [76269].” As for Wright,
if he lands that big pro win, you know
he’ll be ordering Lego set 75192.

32 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly

 TECH QUESTION

Has the winter

bike had its day?
Thanks to the versatility of modern machines
and the lure of smart trainers, the traditional
winter bike is becoming an endangered species

O
nly a few years ago it was de But times have changed and modern
rigueur for a keen cyclist to roadies have a wider range of options to
have a best bike for summer keep themselves fit and entertained over
racing and a winter bike the winter months. So is the winter bike
for getting the miles in from December now an endangered species?
onwards. When the weather turned,
the typical club rider would store their Hack to the future
lightweight carbon bike, then reach into the A winter bike would usually have a
back of their shed and pull out the winter cheaper steel or alloy frame and more
bike (or winter hack). This ‘Trigger’s broom’ stable geometry than the racing bike.
of a bike would It might have been
typically have a built up from parts
cheaper, heavier “This sturdy bike taken from the race
frame, hand-me- bike or cheaper
down components, would be ridden components chosen
and of course, a set for their robustness.
of mudguards.
for the long, slow Crucially, it would
This sturdy bike
would be ridden
base miles” have the clearance
and usually
for the long, slow the fittings for
base miles that made up winter training mudguards that the best bike didn’t offer.
without the user having to worry too In the days before disc brakes, fitting
much about the effects of the water and mudguards usually meant cheaper
road grime that covered it. long-drop rim brake calipers, as higher

Wet, salty roads provide the

ultimate test of durability

34 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly

 Traditional mile-munching is no
longer the only way come winter

Words Paul Norman Photos Andy Jones, James Vincent, Daniel Gould

Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 35

 TECH QUESTION
spec brakes didn’t offer that option. It
would have budget alloy clincher rims to
counter the wear on the braking surfaces
that can be significant when riding on
wet, grit-strewn roads.
“The worst component for wear over
winter was wheels,” says Dom Mason,
who was at the forefront of the charge
towards better all-weather riding options,
designing many of Kinesis’s framesets
before setting up Mason Cycles.
“Aluminium rims, mixed with water,
grit, road dirt and salt just went black
and dissolved before your eyes.”
Those rims would be fitted with
robust winter tyres such as Continental
Gatorskins and a tyre skimmer might
even be attached to try and remove
any embedded stones before they caused
a puncture.
The winter bike
would weigh a “Plenty of
lot more than the
best bike and its serious riders
weight might be
supplemented by want a fast road
a saddlebag for a
rain cape, food, bike they can
spare tubes and
the necessary
run all year”
gear to deal with
roadside repairs.
Some die-hards would even ride a
singlespeed or fixed-wheel set-up, but
whatever the choice, long steady miles
Immersive indoor training beats
the torturous tedium of yesteryear
36 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
were the order of the day for winter Today’s four-season bikes come
training, and extra weight wasn’t an specced for any type of riding
issue. If anything, it made the return to
the best bike all the more welcome once
spring arrived.
Four-season features
While the winter bike remains an option,
many modern bikes now provide the
versatility that old-school best bikes just
didn’t have. That started with the switch
to disc brakes, which meant a decent set
of wheels could be ridden through the
winter without wrecking the rims.
“Disc brakes gave consistent all-season
braking, but also saved your wheels
and meant that you could run a better
wheelset all year,” says Mason. “Modern
groupsets are also pretty durable if you
keep them regularly
cleaned. We see
Ultegra Di2 and 105
Di2 being regularly
specced for this type
of bike, because they
are just so reliable.”
Add to that wider,
tubeless tyres that
can be run at a lower
pressure and you
have the grip and
a degree of puncture protection that is
perfectly suited to winter riding. It’s also
more comfortable than a set of heavy,
23mm tyres pumped up to 90psi ever
could be.
Racing bikes of the ’90s and ’00s had
‘fag packet’ clearance all round the bike;
now the trend is for wider elements, more
spaced out and with less cable clutter. last hold-outs against this trend. The
Disc brakes play into this, allowing latest Roubaix SL8 has them, though.
for more frame clearance, into which a
mudguard can be slotted. Ride off-road
Many high-end performance road bikes The trend towards all-weather capabilities
now include mudguard fittings, as Mason is extended by all-road bikes and reaches
explains: “Many modern road bikes are its pinnacle in gravel machines. Designed
now running 28s, which were considered with plenty of clearance for wide tyres
large when we started designing our four- and mudguard mounts, both allow you to
season bikes. But not all of them have set yourself up for winter road riding and
all the fittings, clearance and attachment to take on rougher paths too.
points of a real ‘winter bike’.” “Many of our customers specify two
Trek was an early exception here, with sets of wheels, say 650b x 50mm for
its Domane frames including hidden off-road duties and 700c x 38mm for all-
mudguard mounts from the mid-2010s season, all-condition road use,” Mason
onwards. The Cannondale Synapse says. “But there are also plenty of serious
sprouted mudguard eyes in 2018 while riders who want a dedicated fast road
the Specialized Roubaix was one of the bike that they can run all year, and that

will take on variable-surface conditions
with confidence.”
A gravel bike will not only handle the
worst roads with aplomb, it will allow
you to have some fun and turn down a
rough bridleway – something that can
feel surprisingly satisfying, even in
the most dire of conditions. Off-road
riding also tends to include more high-
intensity efforts than steady winter road
rides, which can give you a better, more
demanding workout and improve your
bike-handling skills in the process.
The flip-side of heading off-road
in winter is that wear on parts can
be extreme and there’s a greater risk
of mechanical failures from mud
accumulation. Cleaning your bike
regularly becomes even more of a
necessity. Even running tubeless tyres,
you’re also more likely to get a non-
sealing puncture off-road than on.
The turbo option
It’s not just the versatility of modern
bikes that has made the winter bike an
endangered species. The sophistication
of modern indoor training makes it an
attractive alternative when the weather
turns cold and damp and the daylight
hours are fewer.
Historically, a session on the turbo
trainer or rollers was an experience many
dreaded. Now a turbo session can be
considerably more enjoyable, even if a
streak of masochism is still there.
VERDICT
IS THE WINTER
BIKE OBSOLETE?
To answer this, we go back to Dom
Mason of Mason Cycles. “Thinking
back to when I started designing
Kinesis bikes in 2000, it occurs to
me that I set about trying to ‘kill
the winter bike’ from that point
onwards! I couldn’t understand why
a winter bike had to be heavy and
have old or outdated components
– why was the rider expected to
endure extra suffering?
“So I designed what we called
the Racelight T. It was a nice,
lightweight alloy frameset with
carbon fork, quite sporty geometry
and worthy of a decent set of
components. Riders started putting
their previous year’s Ultegra on
there and treating the bikes to a
good set of wheels. TΩhat was
the start of the ‘four-season’ bike,
which is what we started calling
them shortly after. I would say
today’s All- Road bikes do carry out
the tasks of the old winter trainer
pretty well – better in fact!”
So while the old-fashioned winter
hack is defunct, a new breed of
winter bikes have taken its place,
with disc brakes, bigger clearance
and wider tyres making winter
riding much more enjoyable.
A direct-drive smart trainer is much
more sophisticated than an old-school
wheel-on trainer, with better ride
feel and accurate data. Hook up to a
virtual platform such as Rouvy, Zwift
or MyWoosh and you can scratch your
competitive itch during the off-season,
complete any number of structured
sessions or take in the scenery of real-life
climbs like Alpe d’Huez.
Modern views on training also
question the idea that you should only be
doing base miles to be ready for summer.
High-intensity interval training and
polarised training offer alternatives that
may be more effective and are certainly
more time-efficient than the traditional
base miles.
Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 37
 TECH GROUPTEST

Winter jackets
Stefan Abram tests six softshell jackets to find out which offers the
best mix of insulation, weatherproofing, breathability and fit

A
t times, it is worth taking a
step back and reflecting on
those product categories
which have been transformed
in the past 10 years. Over on the tech
side, bike computers and power meters
are two prime examples: you can get a
head unit with full colour base maps and
three power cranks to go with it for less
than a PowerTap G3 Hub cost in 2013.
But when it comes to clothing, I think
no change has been more marked than
in the development and refinement of
softshell jackets. These days there is
no need to choose between insulating
warmth, breathability, effective
windproofing, or rain protection.
Thankfully, we no longer have to accept
the trade-off that blocking wind and
drizzle will also leave us feeling clammy
and uncomfortable. A single garment
will see you covered for all conditions.
But the success of softshell jackets
didn’t happen overnight. And, as a

Santini Vega Absolute £210

Weight

S
ome of the jackets on test are modest performance of Endura’s Pro SL
quite straightforwardly best 3 and Rapha’s Pro Team Winter Jacket –
399g
in their respective classes. The though I would say this jacket did a better
MAAP Training Winter Jacket has job than either, thanks in part to the extra
exceptional water and weatherproofing. layer of material covering the chest.
The Castelli Alpha Doppio is extremely This is a really good jacket and would
warm for its weight. The Rapha Pro Team be my recommendation for most riders.
Winter Jacket is just warm, full stop. It’s a little more expensive than the Endura
The Vega Absolute doesn’t conquer but you can see what you’re paying for
any categories quite like that, but what it in the more breathable, slightly warmer
does do is perform strongly across many and more weatherproof fabrics. The same
categories – and at a competitive price. is true for the Castelli Alpha Doppio, but
Although the gridded fleece of the I think its performance gains are more
Vega Absolute isn’t as warm as Castelli’s modest for the level of price increase.
Polartec Alpha fabric nor the much thicker Cut: Female/ Male, santinicycling.com
fleece of Rapha’s Pro Team Winter Jacket,
it still provides effective insulation and The Vega Absolute is
feels less bulky than the latter. a great-value all-rounder
Without a base layer, I was happy
riding this jacket down to temperatures
of around 6°C and it could be taken much
lower with a good quality merino base
layer (again, I haven’t yet found the lower
limits with this pairing). It is notable,
though, that the insulation around the
collar is a little more minimalist, making
a buff a necessity much sooner than with
other jackets with a fleecier layer.
The wet-weather performance is at the
tier just below MAAP’s Training Winter
Jacket and Castelli’s Alpha Doppio – two
jackets which rival fully fledged hardshells R A T I N G
for their waterproofing capabilities.
The Vega Absolute sits around the more

38 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly

category, improvements are still
being made. Jackets get ever more
breathable, waterproofing is made
more effective, and new forms of
insulation block out the cold without
bulking out the jacket.
To evaluate the best all-round
option, we’ve taken six insulated
jackets from across the price spectrum
and tested their mettle in the worst
weather Wales could throw at them
this winter. Through the rain and wind,
their weatherproofing claims were put
to the test – as was their breathability
and heat dissipation on the punishingly
steep climbs.

Endura’s gilet design

adds versatility

Endura Pro SL 3 £199.99

I
t’s not often that the cheapest
product on test packs quite this
Weight
many features. The Pro SL 3
really is a very well thought- 550g
out jacket, and there are genuine
reasons to choose this over the
Santini Vega Absolute – even though my
personal preference and recommendation
would be for the Italian marque.
The Endura Pro SL 3 comes with a
detachable internal gilet which uses
Primaloft’s Evolve fabric. This is very
similar to the Polartec fabric of the Castelli boosting breathability beyond what the
Alpha Doppio and provides an impressive
amount of warmth for its weight.
The rest of the jacket is a mixture of
dense fleece and the unbacked softshell
fabric. This is a point of contrast with the
Castelli Alpha Doppio, which not only has
the lofty insulation around the torso, but
also extends this down the sleeves to keep
your arms that bit warmer.
Endura’s softshell fabric isn’t as
breathable as Castelli’s Alpha
Doppio jacket or Santini’s
Vega Absolute, although it
does outrank MAAP’s Training
Winter Jacket. The latter offers better
weatherproofing, though, so it comes
down to preference and application.
The Endura Pro SL 3, however, does
have a party trick in its many zippered
vents – two on the front and two on the
sleeves. These help increase the airflow,
fabric on its own would be capable of.
Plus, if you take off the insulated gilet,
you could comfortably wear it on rainy
days up to 16°C – making it more versatile
than the others on test. But for pure winter
riding I would choose the Santini Vega
Absolute instead, as the materials used do
feel of a higher quality.
Cut: Male only, endurasport.com
Words Stefan Abram

With the Endura only having the

insulation as part of the gilet, this can R A T I N G
result in a bit of a temperature mismatch,
with your arms naturally getting colder
than your body.

Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 39

 TECH GROUPTEST

Castelli Alpha Doppio £350

T
his is Castelli’s latest and greatest
softshell jacket, boasting a variety
Weight BEST ON
of improvements and upgrades to
the previous iteration. I tested that 395g TEST
two winters ago, and was very impressed
by its performance. However, I can safely
say that this version has fully stepped up
and surpassed its predecessor.
The biggest difference between the
two jackets is the move from a ‘fleecy’
insulating layer to Polartec’s Alpha Direct
insulation. This fabric, if you haven’t had
the pleasure of experiencing it on any
other garment, is very lofty, fabulously
warm and very lightweight.
To put some numbers on it, I’ve been
happily riding in this jacket down to about
4°C without a base layer. I haven’t yet
discovered the limits with a base layer due
to an insufficient number of adequately
cold days so far this year at the time of
writing. This model is about 100g lighter
than the previous garment.
Now, reducing a winter jacket’s weight
might not sound the most obvious stat to
boast about, but it genuinely is a relevant

Alpha Doppio: premium

performance for a price

one. Compared to the previous iteration
(and other, heavy-duty winter jackets),
you don’t feel as cooped up or swaddled
as you can in some winter get-up, which
itself makes riding in the cold an all-round
better experience.
The external seam taping has gone
(what you can see on the shoulders is
just a reflective strip, plus it’s offset from
the actual seam). Despite this, the water
resistance is just as good – potentially
even better than before. Although it might
be classed as a ‘softshell’, in my experience
the waterproofing matches that of many
hardshell rain jackets.
40 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
Then there’s just all the nice little
touches, from the double cuff making
glove arrangement decisions easier, to the
double collar at the rear providing an extra
level of warmth when hunkered down on
the bars, blocking drafts coming down the
back of your neck. In all, it’s really a very
good jacket. It is also very, very expensive.
Cut: Female/ Male, castelli-cycling.com
R A T I N G
+++++
 Rapha Pro Team Winter Jacket £230

R
apha’s Pro Team Winter find that Rapha’s Pro Team Winter The Pro Team Winter Jacket misses out
Jacket really stands out Jacket comes up short – more on a few ‘nice-to-haves’, such as the lack of
Weight
against all the others literally than figuratively. a double cuff for easier glove layering or a
of this group test in 370g Notably, after MAAP’s two-way zip for better heat management.
relation to two of its qualities. The Training Winter Jacket, Rapha’s Then again, it costs less than the most
first is the level of insulation. The Pro Pro Team Winter jacket ranks second expensive jacket on test, is a little warmer,
Team Winter Jacket is really notably for taped seams. But despite that, the and the zippered chest pocket makes it
warm – a particularly thick fleece is used fabric itself isn’t as waterproof as that of easier to get your card out for a cafe stop.
across the chest, while a slightly thinner Castelli’s or MAAP’s, and after a while in Cut: Female/ Male, rapha.cc
(though still generous) fleece is used in sustained rain the fabric does become
areas that are little more protected from saturated. So long as you’re pushing on R A T I N G
the wind, aiding breathability. I found 3°C a little bit, you do at least stay warm, but
to be about the limit without the need for at a more leisurely pace, you’ll feel most
a base layer. comfortable pairing it with a rain shell.
The second superlative relates to the
cut. This jacket has a more ‘aggressive’
design, rising higher at the front to
minimise bunching when bent over the
bars in a low, aero position. If you prefer
to work on your conditioning through the
winter, rather than sitting up and plodding
through the base miles, you’ll get on well
with this jacket.
But if you are ready to shuffle a few
spacers under the stem, or mix things up
with winter gravel rides, then you’ll likely

Zippered chest pocket

is a handy feature

Aggressive cut is best suited

to hard rides and training

Cycling Weekly | 28 December 2023 | 41


MAAP Training Winter Jacket £270
I
t might surprise you how cold,
wet and unpleasant Australian
Weight
winters can actually be.
But even so, it is still a little 476g
unexpected that a winter jacket
quite as robust and weatherproof
as this was developed Down Under.
Although the outer material doesn’t quite
feel exactly like a hardshell rain jacket, it
is pretty close in texture. With this comes
exceptional windproofing properties and
waterproofing that is fully on a par with
hardshell rain jackets.
Further to that end, the seams are fully
taped throughout – the biggest point of
difference between this and a straight-up
rain jacket really comes down to the full
fleece backing, providing a considerable
degree of warmth. I would say slightly less
warm than Santini’s Vega Absolute jacket,
although the two are very close.
42 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
With this level of weather sealing,
the breathability of the jacket
does take a hit compared to
other softshell jackets, such as
Castelli’s exceptional Alpha Doppio
jacket, or Rapha’s (less weatherproof)
Rapha Pro Team Winter Jacket.
That said, MAAP’s Training Winter
Jacket does come with holes punched
in the under arms to bolster the
breathability – plus the two-way YKK
zipper helps expel some excess heat and
moisture without exposing your chest to
the elements. So, as an overall package,
the level of breathability isn’t such to
really cause a problem.
The double cuff does feel somewhat
half-hearted: the extra internal fabric
measures just two centimetres long –
much shorter than is needed for it to
actually sit underneath the cuff of the
Underarm holes and side
zipper prevent overheating
Full-fleece design aims at
top-tier weatherproofing
glove and have the jacket’s sleeve
extend over. I just layered the jacket
sleeve on top to aid the water run-off,
like a standard jacket.
In all, MAAP’s Training Winter Jacket
offers truly excellent waterproofing.
If you’re looking for something more
breathable than a hardshell to essentially
replace your hardshell, this is a great
option. Plus, despite the high price, it is
still a fair chunk cheaper than Castelli’s
Alpha Doppio. However, for general winter
riding, I think Santini’s Vega Absolute
is a more well-rounded jacket and it is
considerably cheaper still.
Cut: Female/ Male, maap.cc
R A T I N G
+++++
 Pearl Izumi Pro Insulated Jacket £217.39

P
earl Izumi has gone for quite Two-way zipper
a different approach with its aids ventilation
softshell insulated jacket. Rather
than using a densely woven fleecy
fabric (like most of the others here) the
outer shell of the Pro Insulated Jacket
is more like that of a windshell – thin
and very lightweight. Inside the jacket,
Polartec Alpha insulation is used to
provide the warmth.
This makes the jacket notably warmer
than a ‘standard’ windshell, but it adds
very little to the bulk or the weight. Roll
this jacket into a tight tube and it takes
up about the same amount of space as Weight
a traditional hardshell rain jacket, which
makes the Pro Insulated Jacket particularly
242g
Windshell-thin fabric benefits
well suited to being a flexible part of your from Polartec insulation
layering system.

I live just south of Bannau Brycheiniog

(formerly the Brecon Beacons). As such,
the hills near me are very steep and you
generate a lot of heat while climbing them.
As the descents are fast and long, you can
also get very cold, very quickly bombing
down the other side.
As such, this jacket has become a
regular feature on most of my rides. I
start off wearing the jacket, whip it off
once I’ve warmed up, and pop it back on
if/when I need that extra insulation. I’d
usually use a packable rain jacket for this,
but Pearl Izumi’s Pro Insulated Jacket is
that much warmer.
When used just on its own, though,
the Pro Insulated Jacket doesn’t match
the other jackets on test for warmth.
I’m comfortable wearing the jacket
without a base layer at 7°C, but on
endurance rides in colder weather I
start getting chilly. Equally, the weather-
proofing isn’t on the same level as the
other jackets on test, and this jacket
feels colder when soaked through than
the others.
Essentially, it’s really great as an extra
layer – but as a softshell in its own right,
there are better alternatives.
Cut: Male only, pearlizumi.com

R A T I N G

+++++
Cycling Weekly | 28 December 2023 | 43
 TECH GROUPTEST
Castelli’s jacket of all trades
A
lthough there is one clear,
outright winner, each of
these jackets is unique and
well suited to differing
applications and budgets. I’ll run
through each in turn on our way up to
the overall winner of our grouptest.
Pearl Izumi Pro Insulated jacket:
great as a packable extra layer, it
provides an outsized level of warmth
for its 242-gram weight and ability
to fit in a jersey pocket when tightly
rolled. As a softshell jacket in its
own right, however, the warmth
and weatherproofing qualities don’t
match the rest of those on test.
Santini Vega Absolute: this is my top
recommendation for most people. The
fabrics, warmth and weatherproofing
are all of better quality than Pearl
Izumi or Endura’s offerings – while the
price remains competitive. There are
more expensive jackets which perform
better, but then you are starting to get
into the realm of diminishing returns.
Endura Pro SL 3: despite the Santini
Vega Absolute being my pick for best
value, there are still strong reasons
W H AT T O L O O K F O R I N A W I N T E R JAC K E T
The most fundamental feature of
a winter jacket is its insulation. In
the past, this has generally come
courtesy of fleece-backed fabrics.
But more recently there has been
a transition to lighter and loftier
materials which offer greater warmth
with less bulk and weight, making a
more comfortable jacket. Polartec
Alpha and Primaloft Evolve are the
two most prominent examples.
The next feature to consider is the
water resistance or waterproofing.
Castelli’s Gabba jacket shifted the
paradigm here when it first hit the
scene back in 2010. In contrast to
clammy waterproof jackets, it offered
‘water resistance’ and put a greater
emphasis on breathability.
44 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
Verdict
for choosing the Pro SL 3 instead. The
ability to remove the insulating liner, and
the four generous vents, mean that it’s a
jacket which will carry you well into the
spring and that you can start wearing
again from early autumn.
Rapha Pro Team Winter Jacket: more
expensive still, but quite unique out of
“The Polartec
Alpha insulation
is super warm”
BEST ON
TEST
The Alpha Doppio gets
top marks across the board
Since then, fabrics have continued
to improve. Other brands have
jumped on the bandwagon and
Castelli has continued to refine
its jackets, to the point of now
being effectively waterproof.
Different brands place differing
emphasises on weatherproofing or
breathability – so check carefully that
the models you’re considering align
with your preference.
Other features fall into the
category of ‘nice-to-haves’.
Double cuffs allow you to layer the
jacket over your gloves, so water runs
off (rather than into) your gloves,
while also providing an effective
barrier against the wind. Dropped
tails are present on all jackets but to
all the models tested for its aggressive
cut that’s especially well suited to a
long and low riding position. It’s
also the warmest on test, although
the weatherproofing isn’t on the same
level as either the MAAP Training
Winter Jacket or Castelli’s Alpha
Doppio.
MAAP Training Winter Jacket: the
second-most expensive model on
test, MAAP’s Training Winter Jacket
goes some way to justifying this
with its excellent waterproof fabric
and fully taped seams. They’ll
keep you dry in the wettest weather,
although you are paying a premium
for that performance.
Castelli Alpha Doppio: this is the
most expensive jacket on test by
a long way. But Castelli backs up
the outsized price with outsized
performance. The Polartec Alpha
insulation is incredibly warm while
also being lightweight – on the bike,
it feels more like a jersey than a
jacket. The double cuff and excellent
waterproofing properties makes this
the full package.
differing degrees and help shield you
against road spray from the rear tyre.
Then there are the features which
can be deal-breakers for any jacket or
jersey, such as generous rear pockets,
zipped pockets for valuables,
reflective detailing for riding at
night, silicone grippers for keeping
the hem in place and preventing it
riding up.
The final consideration is the fit –
do you want an aggressive skin-tight
cut designed for a long and low riding
position? Or is a jacket which is more
relaxed, with a bit more room for
additional layers and a more upright
riding position for endurance riding
and gravel better suited to your
riding style?
 TECH TESTED

Gear of the week The best kit, put through its paces by our testers

Trek Ballista
Mips helmet £229.99
You probably recognise the Trek Ballista’s
striking looks, made popular by pro riders
Giulio Ciccone and Mads Pedersen – but
how does this relatively bulky helmet fit
when it comes to comfort?
Most striking in terms of design
is that the Ballista uses a nylon
laces Boa-style retention
system, more commonly
seen on cycling shoes.
It’s lightweight and
just as adjustable,
and didn’t cause
any discomfort.
The Ballista
also features
Mips Air – the
Swedish brand’s
most recent
iteration of its
extra safety
features, aimed
at reducing
rotational impacts.
It is super low profile,
and coupled with the Ballista’s premium
padding, makes for a quality product feel.
As for the ride, the Ballista was very Weight
comfortable, with plenty of adjustment
around the head and chin. It is well
255g
ventilated for an aero helmet, which
might not be the best thing in the world
for the winter months, but it does make it
adaptable to all weathers.
Overall I was very impressed with
this helmet and the performance was
definitely that of a high-end aero lid. None
of the materials feel cheap and the helmet
is a great fit. All of this for £229.99 seems
reasonable, as it’s definitely a premium R A T I N G
piece of safety equipment.
www.trekbikes.com
Charlotte Broughton +++++
46 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
 Shokz OpenFit headphones £179
Finding a pair of headphones that are
comfortable, produce a high sound
quality and also allow you to hear the
environment around you has proven
tricky for me, so I was excited yet nervous
to try the Shokz OpenFit air conduction
headphones for outdoor riding.
Positive first impressions are the
minimalist style of these earbuds. The
charging case is also a clean design, which
I found very appealing, along with quality
soft-touch materials which greatly improve
the headphone ergonomics.
I was able to connect the headphones
via Bluetooth to both my phone and
laptop with no quibbles and integrate
them with the Shokz app too, allowing for
functionality such as checking the battery
life of both headphones and case. The
over-the-ear loop kept them comfortably
in place on my rides and a run.
Shokz headphones work by bone
conduction (vibration), rather than
transmitting sound through the ear canal.
This ‘open ear’ system leaves the ear canal
open to other sounds, meaning you can
hear the environment around you without
sacrificing sound quality. I could easily
Weight
hear cars approaching from a fair distance
8.3g off, which helped me to stay aware. I
listened to most of my music with the
Bass Boost setting. They weren’t as bassy
as regular headphones but, for earbuds,
sound quality is impressive.
The only niggle are the touch controls –
they are pretty sensitive, which can make
adjustments on the move quite fiddly.
At £179 I feel that the OpenFits are
reasonably priced given their excellent
quality both in design and sound, making
them a great option for cyclists who want
clear sounds with the safety of increased
awareness while out riding.
www.shokz.com
Charlotte Broughton
R A T I N G

Selle Italia Flite Boost

Gravel TI 316 Superflow £211
Cynics may roll their eyes at the amount
of cycling gear now branded as ‘gravel’,
but Selle Italia’s latest Flite Boost Gravel
TI saddle does boast features that aid
comfort on rough surfaces.
Like all Flites it has a flat
Weight
profile and measures 250mm
front to back. The Gravel also 228g
features a padded gel layer,
shock absorbers between the
rails and shell, and titanium rails, all
designed to absorb off-road vibrations.
Immediately noticeable is the
saddle’s relatively firm feel – the gel
padding certainly isn’t plush and there
isn’t much apparent flex in the saddle.
On the trails though, the combination of
the gel padding, titanium rails and shock
absorbers are surprisingly effective,
rather than the more obvious flex that
I was expecting. Even on off-road rides
exceeding four hours I didn’t experience
any discomfort from big bumps or longer-
lasting uneven stony surfaces.
If you are thinking of buying a gravel-
specific saddle the Selle Italia Flite
Boost Gravel TI 316 Superflow is
likely to meet everything on your
list of requirements. It performs well
on the trails, and is competitively priced
when compared to other high-end
gravel-specific saddles – even if it is a
significant investment.
www.selleitalia.com
Rachel Sokal
R A T I N G

Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 47

 FE AT U R E

Despite our best intentions, most new year’s

the wayside. Rob Kemp tracks down some not
made their big plans stick – and asked them h

48 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly

s resolutions fall by
table exceptions who
how they managed it

Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 49

 FE AT U R E

f you want your new year’s

resolution to stick this time
around, then mark your
calendar for Sunday, 21 January
2024. If you make it to that date
with your resolution to conquer
more kilometres, lose more
kilos or become more fluent at
swearing in French still intact
– then you’re statistically more
likely to achieve your resolution’s aim.
That third Sunday of the month,
precisely three weeks on from the dawn
of the new year, is known as ‘Quitter’s
Day’ to the number-crunchers at Strava.
Analysis from the app’s 1.8 billion
uploaded fitness activities shows that 21
January is the day when ‘New Year, New
You’ resolve is odds-on to crash and burn.
So what can we do to ensure our
resolutions don’t fall by the wayside?
Which of the many goals open to us
cyclists really pay off? And should we
even be setting down plans for the
whole year ahead while making merry
with relatives or nursing a tremor-
inducing hangover?
“I do think that the new year is the
perfect time for making changes,” says Battling Victor wants to
Dr Peter Hudson, chartered psychologist smash the cobbles in 2024
with Cyclotherapy, in a reassuring,
hangover-soothing way. “It’s after the
holiday overindulgence period, so people says Belgian pro Victor Campenaerts.
are primed to want to be healthier, The 32-year-old Lotto Dstny rider was
fitter or faster.” But, like all balanced, winner of the 2023 Tour de France
litigation-wary experts, Dr Hudson also super-combativity award – no surprise,
offers up a caveat to his own advice: “The then, that he’s not messing around with
danger is that you set yourself up to fail. ‘ordinary’ resolutions such as giving up
So, it’s vital that you think very carefully cake or taking up cross-stitch. “After
about how achievable your resolution is.” Flanders, my goal is, again, a very difficult
To discover how you can make your one, but I want to win a stage in the Tour
cycling plans for the year ahead survive de France. It will only happen out of a
beyond January at least, we asked elite breakaway, so I will probably be involved
and everyday riders and coaches their in a lot of breakaways.”
secret formula for resolution resilience. Campenaerts made it into breakaways
five times during the 2023 Tour, including
Photos Richard Butcher, Getty Images, Alamy

VICTOR CAMPENAERTS, on stages 18 and 19, which had both been

LOTTO DSTNY forecast as sprint finishes. You’d be brave
or foolish to bet against him realising that
RESOLUTION: resolution too. “Most of my resolutions
are based around my cycling targets so I
“I WANT TO WIN don’t really forget them – but just in case,
I suggest you get a big pen, a big piece of
AT T H E T O U R ” paper, write them out and stick it to the
fridge so that every time you go get a beer,
“My new year’s resolution is to win a you’re reminded of your resolution.”
race in Flanders on the cobblestones,” It’s a handy tip, especially if, like me,
you’ve resolved to give up drinking
beer at home in 2024. But for those of
us not wrapped up in the WorldTour,
resolutions are still a useful tool for
improving performance – especially if
you can see their tangible impact early on.
Make it your own: Though racing
Le Tour may be beyond your reach, you
can resolve to complete a stage of it. The
likes of Thomson Bike Tours offer Tour

50 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly

 explains amateur road cyclist Gary Dunn.
A retired naval engineer from Tavistock,
Devon, Gary, 61, openly admits that he is
a spreadsheet nerd. “Excel-ent!” I reply.
Dunn proceeds to confide in me that
tracking his times, while also setting
himself PBs on local and Zwift Strava
segments, has enabled him to absolutely
own every new year’s resolution he’s set
himself. “As a bit of a geek – I like to use
spreadsheet conditional formatting and
graphing to highlight when I’m lagging or
leading my targets for the week.”
If he is not hitting his targets, the
spreadsheet notifies him in red. “It’s a
great incentive to get out for a ride, on
my own or with a mate, for a few hours
knowing I need to hit a target.”
Dunn’s enthusiasm for data recording
isn’t just endearing – it’s also extremely
effective. “The first year I did it, I surprised
myself by managing
to record almost
“Get a big pen, 9,000km [5,600
write them out miles] by the end
of 2020.” The year
and stick it before, Dunn had
barely clocked up
to the fridge” 2,000km. “By
recording data and
chasing Zwift green
jerseys –my only realistic opportunity on
the Champs-Élysées – I found that seeing
my improvement as hard data was a huge
motivating factor.
“I’ve always enjoyed setting myself
cycling challenges,” he adds. “While
serving on a Royal Navy submarine in the
1990s deployed ‘somewhere under the
de France challenges for cyclists of all North Atlantic’, I rode the equivalent of
abilities. Alternatively, why not ride Glasgow to Plymouth on a very primitive
a self-guided stage of the 2024 race? stationary exercise bike – using an A A
Autoroute map to check the mileage.
GARY DUNN, “Last year, my new year’s resolution
A M AT E U R R I D E R was to achieve 100 new PBs on Zwift –
I’m at 136 already [as of December 2023]
RESOLUTION: and I’ve even held a couple of polka-dot
jerseys this year.”
“SEGMENT For those not so well acquainted with
Zwift, the platform awards temporary
SUCCESS BY sprint and KOM/QOM jerseys to the
fastest riders currently on course.
SPREADSHEET” From cycling while serving his nation
on submarines to smashing spreadsheet
“For me the success of my new year’s scores and Zwift jerseys, Dunn has
resolution came through the use of data mastered his new year’s resolutions with
to see what changes I was making,” a mantra of “use the data”.
SIDESTEP
S E L F - SA B O TAG E
5 resolution
pitfalls to
avoid
Sports psychologist Abigail Siu
flags up the most common ways
resolutions fall short
Q Ditch the fantasy goals:
Setting goals that are straight out
of the TdF won’t get you anywhere.
Keep it achievable.
Q No all-or-nothing nonsense:
Life happens and setbacks are as
common as Monday morning blues.
Don’t bin your goals just because
you stumbled a bit. Dust yourself
off, get back on the bike and keep
riding toward those gains.
Q Get specific: Be clear, set
measurable targets and anticipate
roadblocks in your planning.
Q Grant rewards: Celebrate each
little victory en route to your goals
– it will help your motivation and
enjoyment. Treat yourself with
the occasional ‘cheat’ to give your
motivation an extra boost.
Q Ignore Insta: Avoid the social
media comparison trap; focus on
your journey. Real gains happen on
the road, not on your feed.
Make it your own: Identify local
KOMs as targets for 2024. Head out
and ride segments a few times to get
a feel for the road, while identifying
things like potholes and traffic levels.
Use Strava’s route-builder to plan the
details of your resolution ride.
Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 51
 FE AT U R E
M AT YÁ Š KO P E C K Ý, T E A M
NOVO NORDISK
RESOLUTION:
“TRAIN MORE
C O N S I S T E N T LY ”
Not all heroes wear virtual polka-dot
jerseys, but one who is hoping to wear a
few real ones in 2024 is Matyáš Kopecký.
A professional road racer from the Czech
Republic, Kopecký currently rides for
Team Novo Nordisk. He’s only 20 but
he’s got the resolution bug already. “Back
in January 2023, I resolved to get a top
10 in the European U23 Championships.
I achieved top five, so I take that as a
resolution realised,” he enthuses.
“The outcome of the races that I
targeted early on was pretty good. I never
put a specific result on individual races,
just a general plan to achieve a top-10
spot.” Kopecký also echoes a suggestion
made by psychologist Dr Peter Hudson,
that by making your resolutions known
to others helps ramp up your motivation
to achieve them.
“I’d perform
slightly better by “Choose a start
making my plan
known because date to suit
this added
some pressure your cycling goal,
on myself,”
Kopecký says.
not 1 January”
“If I didn’t reach
the result that I wished for, well, it’s
all about moving on and taking the
learning points with me.” What’s his
resolution for 2024? “It is all about
being more consistent for me. I’m sorry
to disappoint you if you expected
something more exciting.”
There is a reason behind Kopecký’s
apparently simple goal. “You need to
challenge yourself, but failing to reach
goals time after time is not good. It is
important to be realistic. That way, it
is possible to fail, but there is a good
chance you’ll succeed. But hey, I’m only
20, so what do I know?”
Make it your own: Write down
a weekly training programme and
include regular rides with others to
keep you accountable. Bear in mind
52 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
your competing life priorities. This will
help establish a strong cycling habit and
a commitment to riding consistently,
whatever hurdles crop up.
JACOB TIPPER,
EX- RI B B LE-WE LDTITE
RESOLUTION:
“ TA R G E T A DAT E ,
D O N ’ T S TA R T
WITH ONE”
Whether you’re looking to hit a PB,
ride new roads or even cut down on the
booze, Jacob Tipper, ex-elite rider with
UCI Continental team Ribble-Weldtite,
advises that you don’t use 1 January as
your starting point.
“Whenever I tried to follow new year’s
resolutions, they invariably failed. That’s
because, in hindsight, you’re really just
using a date for the sake of a date. You’re
grasping at straws if you’re starting
something new in January when it comes
to the cycling
calendar. Your
performance-
related so earlier in the build-up to a new season.
resolutions Admittedly that does tend to fall towards
should already the end of the year, but don’t leave
be in place actioning it until 1 January.”
by then.”
Tipper,
Tipper isn’t the only coach who urges
his riders to hit the new year running –
who now well, cycling. “Most of my athletes race
coaches other riders on setting goals cyclo-cross too, so our season typically
(jtperformancecoaching.com), points ends in late November,” explains Paul
out that cyclists who are serious about Warloski, a USA Cycling Level 2 coach
making behavioural changes to lift their (simpleendurancecoaching.com).
performance should have started in “We take a week or two to decompress,
November. “Obviously goal-setting is a then start up again because we want to be
useful tool for cyclists. I’ve known plenty a couple of weeks into base training by
of people who’ve laid down plans on New Year’s Eve.”
New Year’s Day to lose five kilos or add Warloski sends out a resolution form
20 watts to their threshold power, with by the start of December asking clients to
varying degrees of success. Whenever identify goals. “We focus on the process
I needed to cut out bread or high- goals that will get us there. Some clients
GI carbs, or make those kinds of need to work on nutrition, others on
resolutions, it was at a specific moment sleep, others on doing more endurance.
in time based upon the cycling season We create actionable goals based on
calendar, not the orthodox one. processes. We refer to the form through
“Even if I did make a resolution – to win the year and alter it as necessary – it helps
a national B race, or raise my threshold centre my coaching advice and helps
or lose a kilo or two or whatever – I did them to stick to their resolutions.”

Make it your own: Identify an event, or
events, you want to do and work back from
that date, rather than focusing on making
changes from 1 January. If your goal is a
personal one, decide when you want to do
it by and again work back from there.
SAM JON ES, CYCLI NG U K
RESOLUTION:
“SPEND A NIGHT
SLEEPING UNDER
T H E S TA R S”
For those who fancy a cycling resolution
that’s not so performance-focused, Sam
Jones, 41, from Bramley, Surrey, may have
the answer after successfully achieving
his bikepacking utopia once a month
since 2019. “Back then, I set myself the
challenge of heading out for a ride and
a night’s camping out every month for
a whole year. The new year seemed like
How about one night under
canvas in 2024 – or even 12?
a natural kick-off point. I had tried this
challenge previously, starting it halfway
through the year, and funnily enough I
never completed it. In the wintry months,
when there was snow on the ground, any
friends I asked to join me just replied,
‘You’re bonkers!’.
“But fast forward to the summer and
everything changed,” says Jones. “One
time I had 10 colleagues join me for a
ride and camp-out.” He wrote about
his experiences for Cycling UK and the
idea piqued the imagination of others,
including the people at the Ordnance
Survey office. “They loved the story
so much they offered to support the
challenge for one year,” whereby Cycling
UK’s year-long bikepacking challenge
was born. “It encourages cyclists to step
out of their comfort zone and explore
their location with an overnight stay,”
adds Jones, confirming that new year’s
resolutions can work – so long as you
make it beyond Quitter’s Day.
Make it your own: It doesn’t have
to involve camping, but resolve to
experience a new cycling discipline in
2024 – from gravel biking, to time trials,
indoor cycling or bikepacking. Not only
will you learn new skills and meet new
people – you’ll have a new topic to regale
your mates with at the cafe stop.
NEW YEAR,
NEW-TRITION
“Don’t diet.
Make
permanent,
sustainable
changes”
As the new year rolls in, many
cyclists embark on the quest for a
healthier lifestyle, often through
adopting new diets. But Dr Ruth
Fairchild, reader in oral and public
health nutrition at Cardiff Met
University, suggests that January
might be the wrong time to dive into
drastic diet changes.
“The ‘new year, new diet’ trend
tends to be short-lived and may
lead to negative outcomes like
weight gain and reduced self-
esteem,” warns Dr Fairchild.
“Instead of traditional diets, focus
on sustainable behaviour changes.
Whether it’s reducing food intake,
increasing energy expenditure, or
a combination. Lasting changes in
behaviour are more effective for
weight management.
“Every individual has unique
energy needs and preferences,”
adds Fairchild, “Avoid restrictive
diet labels and aim for a diverse,
balanced diet.
“For weight loss, prioritise
consuming a variety of foods in
moderation while staying active.
Diets labelled ‘plant-based’ or
‘ketogenic’ may limit nutrients and
long-term sustainability. Remember,
small, lasting changes beat short-
lived resolutions.”
Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 53
 FITNESS
ASK THE
EXPERT
Stretching
Does pulling on tendons really benefit
your riding – and if so, how?
A
t a physiological
level, what happens
to tendons and
muscles when
they are stretched?
In the case of static stretching, the
tissue is slowly elongated to tolerance
and the position held at the greatest
tolerated length. This induces only
temporary changes in tissue length,
either by altering the nervous system and
changing the length of stretch that feels
tolerable, or by a temporary elongation
of the fibres within the muscle or tendon.
Longer-term changes in tissue length are
more effectively achieved through loaded
stretching or eccentric weight training.
Which method of stretching
results in longer-lasting changes?
Eccentric loading [where muscle
lengthens under load] has been shown
to result in longer-lasting changes due
to neo-myogenesis [formation of new
muscle tissue]. This creates structurally
longer muscles rather than simply
stretching the existing tissue. The process
likely involves the release of growth
factors such as insulin-like growth
factor (IGF-1), platelet-derived growth
factor (PDFG) and fibroblastic growth
factor (FGF) which then stimulate the
production of new muscle cells and
muscle maturation.
How often should cyclists stretch?
It depends on the individual – it needs to
be an individualised approach, depending
on the type of cyclist and how flexible
they are naturally. If you’re naturally
flexible, stretching probably doesn’t need
to be a big part of your weekly routine.
If you’re one of those people who’s really
54 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
quite stiff, you may need to include
more stretching in your weekly routine.
If you’re neither extreme, it’s a case of
finding out what is right for you, bearing
in mind that that might change over time.
Can stretching improve
cycling performance?
No, not directly, but indirectly it could.
If stretching improves mobility and
flexibility, that may allow you to get into
a more powerful or more aerodynamic
position, thereby improving
performance. Improving flexibility
through the posterior chain could
allow a time triallist to get into a lower
position, for example.
What are the best stretches
for cyclists?
Hip flexor and hamstring stretches such
as the 90/90, as well as stretches for the
upper back (see panel). These areas can
become tight because of the sustained
posture of cycling. Upper-back stiffness
can have a knock-on effect to the neck
and shoulders.
Should cyclists stretch
before riding?
Only if they feel it benefits them.
Stretching the back and dynamic
movements such as leg swings can be
best for warming up. It’s a basic check
that everything is moving nice and
freely. The best combination of stretches
will vary from individual to individual,
and from day to day. One day you might
need to do quite a lot, whereas another
day you might not need to do any at all.
Can stretching before riding
negatively affect performance?
Yes, but only if the stretches are done
literally seconds before the bike effort.
If you’re a track sprinter and you go
and do lots of stretching, then jump
straight on the bike and try to explode
out the blocks, your performance
will be reduced. The many research
papers showing that stretching reduces
explosive power immediately after
stretching don’t apply to most real-life
cycling circumstances. Most of us are
not performing stretches immediately
before explosive efforts.
What is the latest research on
stretching for cyclists?
There was an interesting paper
published by Thomas et al in the Journal
of Strength & Conditioning Research
(2023) showing that stretching could
actually increase your strength. It
studied long-duration stretching
carried out on a very regular basis and
found that it may improve strength. In
the short term, stretching negatively
affects strength, but this study suggests
there may be a longer-term gain.
 TLC FOR TENDONS
5 of the best
stretches for
cyclists
90-90 HAMSTRING STRETCH
Lying on your back, extend one leg
straight out with the other bent at the hip
and knee at a 90° angle. Then extend the
bent leg into the air and repeat 10 times.
Change sides and repeat when done.
MEET THE EXPERT
Tim Pigott
is a lecturer at the University of
Salford, as well as being a physio,
coach and bike-fitter. He has
worked with countless elite
athletes, including GB Olympic
and Paralympic stars. His
username on X is @HP3_Tim and
on Instagram he is timpigotthp3

What are the best desk stretches
for time-restricted cyclists?
The best thing to do is to try to prevent
that stiffness from developing in the
first place. If you keep moving, you
don’t get stiff. While working at the
desk, try to vary your positions. Stand
up and move around every so often.
Stay well hydrated – the increased
pee breaks will help keep you moving.
Avoid sitting for prolonged periods
without changing position. Use
opportunities such as phone calls to
stand up and move. Any sustained
posture for too long isn’t ideal; standing
all day isn’t ideal either – stand-up
desks aren’t the best solution.
HALF-KNEELING
DIAGONAL STRETCH
KNEELING T-SPINE ROTATION Kneeling with your left leg
Half-kneel with your left hip and leg in front and your right hand
in front up against a wall. Place your on your chest, rotate your
arms together out in front of you, body left until your right
then with the right arm move outward hand reaches your
and round until your body is in a ‘T’ left foot and bend
position. Bring the arm back around. back around.
Once your arms are back together, Repeat 10 times
lift the left arm over your head until and then change
your arms make the T position while sides.
your body faces the wall, and bring it
back around. Repeat around 10 times. KNEELING QUAD STRETCH
Change sides and repeat once done. WITH PULSE
Kneeling down, place your right foot on
a bench behind you with your left leg
out in front. Hands on your
hips, rotate your hips back
and forward again in
a rapid pulse-type
movement 10 times.
Swap legs and
repeat.
KNEELING QUAD STRETCH
Words Charlotte Broughton Photo Future

Is stretching with bands
recommended for cyclists?
There are lots of different ways to get
the same end result. Yes, you can use
heavy mobility bands or yoga straps
to maybe push a little bit harder and
further. Do the f lexibility work that you
most enjoy – the exercise that works is
the exercise you’re motivated to do.
WITH TWIST
Kneeling down, place your right foot on
a bench behind you with your left leg
out in front of you. Place your left hand
on your hip and right arm in the
air and twist to your left side.
Repeat around 10 times.
Swap legs and arms, then
repeat.

Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 55

 The Doc suggests bringing the ‘awe and exit’ strategy into play this festive
period – it is indeed the season to cycle
I
f you live in northern Europe and
ride a bike for the pleasure of it,
you’ll have noticed that we have
Christmas at a very stupid time of
year. We could have had it any time, really,
since it’s not literally on the date that
Christ was born, it’s just an open-mould
knock-off of a pagan midwinter festival.
We could have had it in summer, and
run the final weekend of the Tour as an
alternative to the Strictly Christmas
special. Failing that, we could at least
have had it when the weather wasn’t sub-
zero, and when the roads were dry enough
that you could take your new Christmas
kit out for a spin without having to spend
the King’s speech washing it. The UCI
used to arbitrarily run the Track Worlds
in February just to annoy bike riders by
making them go training in the snow, and
essentially the Christian churches are up
to something similar.
However. There is one significant
upside. It makes us look good. In that
rubbishy week between Christmas and
Cast this year’s medals aside...
you probably don’t deserve them
58 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
How to… be better in 2024
If you want to be a better, stronger, faster
rider in 2024, start off by reviewing 2023.
I mean, how good were you really? Be
honest, and don’t let that faint memory
you have from this time last year of
wanting to be a better rider in 2023
cloud your judgement. That’s no longer
a good reason for putting a positive spin
on your 2023 form. That’s why you had
your annual review of yourself in October,
isn’t it?
Whatever you thought in October, you
probably weren’t all that good. If you had
any stand-out performances, it is probably
best to delete them. They were more
than likely the result of a dodgy power
meter or of pure dumb luck. Josh Tarling,
New Year, when no one knows what to do
with themselves, we go cycling. And our
families gaze upon us as we head out into
the cold and the rain, on the icy roads, and
they think: “Wow. That’s pretty hardcore.
I never knew John/Kate/whoever was
quite that dedicated.”
Then they return to couch-bound sloth to
eat more. And with every Celebration that
passes their lips, we rise in their estimation,
and they themselves sink a little.
Midsummer resolutions
This is where other people’s stupid New
Year resolutions come from. It’s people
like us, presenting a glowing, healthy
contrast at just that point of the year
when people are most vulnerable. And,
like Christmas, it’s a stupid time of year
for self-improvement. Resolutions would
work better in June. It’s not like very
many of us took up cycling in midwinter.
It does not matter that dedication and
hardcore-ness are far from our actual
motivations. There are a number of
if you’re reading this, you probably want
to disregard the European TT Champs, for
instance, and perhaps the Worlds as well.
Make sure to leave some fudging
room in the 2024 plan. If you’re unsure
how you’re going to go, avoid buying
any new kit. That way you can make an
allowance for how well you’d have done
if you’d actually bought it. You don’t
need to exaggerate madly – believing the
manufacturer’s claims about it will usually
be enough. (That’s why you were going to
buy it in the first place, remember?)
And supposing you actually do improve
in 2024, make sure to leave some space to
improve again in 2025 or we’ll all be back
here this time next year.

reasons for cycling at Christmas. One is
a chance to fit in some training, even if
it’s too early in the year for anyone other
than cyclo-crossers and pros aiming for
the UAE Tour.
A second reason is servicing our
normal disorders. We must ride because
we must – any excuse will do and there’s
“We ride because we must, there’s
not much at Xmas to stop us”
not much at Christmas to stop us. The
Festive 500 challenge is popular because
it is an enabler. Every year I’m in equal
measures impressed and stunned at the
mileages some of my friends selflessly
clock up in the service of boosting
Rapha’s social media in the run up to the
January sales. One friend last year found
himself bound up in other commitments
till New Year’s Eve and did all 500km
on a turbo trainer in one mammoth
24-hour effort. Or… well, just maybe he
was trying to escape from a New Year’s
Eve party. After all, compared to one of
those, 24 hours on a turbo would be
very attractive.
And this is reason number three to
ride at Christmas: it gets us the hell out
of a house full of people to whom we are
closely related and would therefore like
to get far away from. It is our own special
genius that has allowed us to somehow
present this selfishness as some sort of
noble suffering.
A warning, though. Do not be tempted
by shortcuts... A friend of a friend once
went ‘for a ride’ that went all the way to a
cafe 400 yards away. Ten minutes after he
arrived, the rest of his family wandered in.
He spent 90 minutes hiding in the toilet,
which wasn’t as fragrant as a ‘five’ on the
hygiene score-chart would have implied.
Just make sure you ride far enough
to avoid a lavatorial-based lockdown
ACTS O F CYC LI N G
STUPIDITY
A report reaches us of a rider at a New
Year fancy-dress TT last year who set
off on a bike decorated with things
he’d nicked off the Christmas tree.
About a mile in, a long strand of
tinsel, followed by some fairy lights,
wound itself into his front wheel,
eventually and abruptly jamming
against the back of his fork crown.
He swerved several times as his
weight was thrown forward by the
unexpected braking movement, and
eventually crashed.
He had his grazes dressed at A&E,
where he was sure he heard them
carefully record the cause of the
Photos SWpix.com
accident as ‘tinsel’. He’s now very
proud to occupy, all alone, the cell
on the UK accident spreadsheet for
‘injuries sustained from tinsel’.
Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 59
 FROM THE ARCHIVE

10-mile
scratch race
Interwar years

R
iders prepare for a 10-mile
scratch race at the wooden
track at Bilston. Bilston
in Wolverhampton we
presume, as the advertising hoardings
also feature references to nearby Tipton.
Perhaps the most obvious feature is
the lake in the middle of the track, with
railings running along the inside border
to stop riders taking an unscheduled dip.
There are plenty of cycle tracks around
lakes, but velodromes? Far less common.
We could only come up with one
other – the Mariakerke track in Ghent,
where the first ever Tour of Flanders
finished in 1913. Racing right next to
a body of water does seem to pose an
unnecessarily high risk of a soaking, as
well as taking up all that valuable track-
centre space. All the same, do let us
know if you can think of any others.

Photo Cycling Weekly Archive

60 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly

Cycling Weekly | 28 December, 2023 | 61

Gios Super Record
The cobble-slayer of De Vlaeminck and the legendary Brooklyn
I
t’s impossible not to look at this
bike and visualise Roger De
Vlaeminck bent low over the bars,
back perfectly flat, sideburns
rakishly long, grinning and grimacing
as he rides towards another impeccable
Paris-Roubaix victory.
“ Una Gios è blu come una Ferrari è
rossa ,” was the simple rationale behind
the famous and evocative colour, now
known as Gios blue. Bicycle brands
love to associate themselves with motor
racing, but in reality it was sponsorship
from Brooklyn chewing gum that gave
Gios its signature colour.
Tolmino Gios set up a bike shop in
Turin in 1948 selling city bikes. Ten years
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62 | 28 December, 2023 | Cycling Weekly
CLASSIC BIKE
later he brought in his sons, Adriano, Aldo
and Alfredo, but it wasn’t until 1971 at
the Milan show that the chance meeting
with Brooklyn owner Giorgio Perfetti
took place. Perfetti ordered a quantity
of chopper-style bikes for competition
prizes, but was so enamoured by Gios that
he set up a team that would ride its race
bikes, starting in the 1973 season.
The livery had to match Brooklyn’s
stars and stripes-inspired branding,
and that is how Gios blue came about.
Simultaneously vivid and deep, this
was the colour that would dominate the
Classics for the next five years – and
the Super Record bike created for De
Vlaeminck, Patrick Sercu and the team.
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Words Simon Smythe Photo Photographed at Golden Age Cycles by Richard Butcher/Future
De Vlaeminck won three of his four
Paris-Roubaix on the Gios Torino, one
Milan-San Remo, one Tour of Flanders
and the Tirreno-Adriatico overall every
year up to and including 1977, the final
year of the Brooklyn team.
The Gios Torino Super Record model
continued to be produced until 1982 and
is one of the most admired and best loved
handmade Italian superbikes.
This one that we photographed at
Golden Age Cycles is a later, post-team
Brooklyn model and some might say that
to build it with Shimano 600 components
is sacrilege. Whatever you put on it, you
can’t take away the fact that it’s an iconic
Gios Torino Super Record.
N EXT WE E K’S I SSU E
Do more on your bike in 2024
Team GB gear up for Olympic year
Pull-out mileage chart
O N SA LE E V ERY T H U RS DAY
9000 9001