Foldable Bikes Party

Thursday, 31 December 2015

Asheville prepares for CX Nationals

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The top cyclo-cross riders from around the country will clip in to decide 35 Stars-and-Stripes jerseys Jan. 5-10 at the historic Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., for the2016 USA Cycling Cyclo-Cross National Championships.

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Quiz: BikeRadar's 2015 trivia challenge

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As 2015 drifts away and is replaced by a sprightly new year full of promise, what better way to see it out than with a spot of trivia? Put down the drink for a moment and find out just how much cycling-based information you're absorbed over the past 12 months.

How did you do? Share your smarts or your shame over at our Facebook page. If you want to check out all the kit that our editors loved this year, then take a look at our Gear of the Year articles too.

Here's wishing you a happy New Year from everyone at BikeRadar. We'll see you in 2016!

You can read more at BikeRadar.com

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Torch T2 helmet

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Adding lights to your helmet is a popular and very good idea – it places them above the line of car lights and makes you easier to identify as a cyclist.

Torch has taken that idea and built the lights into its T2 helmet so they look much sleeker and you can’t forget or lose them. The T2 features five LED lights front and rear, and recharges from a USB port in 1.5 hours.

The T2 features five LED lights front and rear

The run time is six to 36 hours depending on which of the four modes (high/low, constant/flash) that you use. It weighs a very reasonable 359g and comes in eight colours but only one size, said to fit 54-61cm using the two supplied sets of pads and the dial-adjusted retention system.

It’s a good shape, providing lots of coverage without looking huge, and the vents are effective. The fit is decent but compromised by the single shell size and the unpadded retention device.

You can read more at BikeRadar.com

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Santa Cruz Bronson II C S AM

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For 2016, Santa Cruz has radically overhauled its Bronson all-rounder to create an addictively aggressive, adrenaline-pumping trail weapon that we couldn’t get enough of.

Yep, it's longer, lower and slacker

It’s obvious at first glance that the revamped frame is longer, lower and slacker. The VPP linkages have been repositioned too, so the suspension doesn’t stiffen as much under power, and the rear end has the latest extra-wide Boost spacing.

The top-end CC carbon frame is available on its own or as a full build, while the cheaper C-level version tested here only comes on complete bikes. It’s heavy for carbon at 3.16kg (6.95lb) but is equally stiff and strong as the premium version.

The lower suspension link has been moved up above the BB to avoid rock strikes

Positively different

You can read more at BikeRadar.com

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BikeRadar gear of the year: Tom Marvin's 2015 MTB picks

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While guiding the tech content on What Mountain Bike magazine I come across a lot of bikes and gear throughout the year, but I unfortunately have to punt a lot of it the way of other testers. Fortunately, that also means I get to cherry pick which bits and pieces I ‘need’ to test myself. I boosted my air miles this year testing a raft of new bikes. Here are some of my favourite bikes and components from the past 12 months.

Scott Watu Helmet

Don’t be fooled, there’s no reason to drop north of a hundred quid on a lid if you want a comfortable, well-vented helmet for XC and light trail riding. Just £35 / $45 will get you a Scott Watu, and once you’ve cut the big netting out of the front vents, you’ll have just that. A comfortable, not-too-sweaty helmet that fits pretty well and sure as hell doesn’t cost the earth. Unless you lie at the extremes of the head-size bell curve, the one-size-fits-all system should provide a secure and stable fit, while the adjustable straps are also pretty comfy. My bargain of the year.

£35 / $45

Oakley Jawbreaker Prizm Trail

From budget to budget-blowing, Oakley have a legendary reputation for lens quality, and the new Prizm Trail lens takes that and makes it even better. Everyone who’s donned the Prizm Trail lens has come back impressed with its stellar performance in nearly all light conditions. The Grapefruit base colour accentuates the trail surface, while the mirrored finish keeps everything from getting too bright. It’s basically a low-light enhancing lens designed to wear on bright days.

100% ITrack gloves

Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper FSR 29

Airshot

Specialized Command Post IRCC

Lezyne Flow Caddy

Check out all of our 2015 Gear of the Year articles

You can read more at BikeRadar.com

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Mark Cavendish interview

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This feature first appeared in Procycling magazine. To subscribe, click here.

Mark Cavendish was Procycling's cover star for the April edition of the magazine. At the start of the sprinter's ninth full season as a professional, Procycling's Daniel Friebe, who ghost-wrote Cavendish's two autobiographies and knows the Manxman well, went to Spain to observe and interview him. He came back with a fascinating, in-depth feature, which showed that while the days of five or six stage wins in a single Tour may be over for Cavendish, the sprinter's competitive fire burns as brightly as ever.

When he turns 30 in May, Mark Cavendish will already be, by most estimates, the finest sprinter that professional cycling has ever seen. The question on the eve of the 2015 season was whether the Manxman was also nearing the end of the road or whether a revamped Etixx-Quick Step team and rivalry with a certain German can spur him on to a whole new level of success? "I'm a much more complete rider now. I can win harder races. I can climb now, really climb," he says

Even in a career that Mark Cavendish conducts like a religious crusade, there have been moments when both the Manxman and the cycling Gods have seemed to bow before the size of their undertaking. When Cavendish turned pro with T-Mobile in January 2007, the team's coach, Sebastian Weber, took one look at the doughboy's physique, then at his power numbers and scoffed; he told Cavendish that he would never amount to anything, in his current condition. A team-mate, the Spaniard Vicente Reynès, assumed in 2008 that he must be a friend of the sponsors.

Both Weber and Reynès were wrong – happily, spectacularly so – but the sense that Cavendish could only stick one finger up to history, logic and physiology for so long, and that sooner or later security would step in and remove the interloper, has persisted even as records and rivals have fallen.

So for Cavendish, a whiff of skepticism – even pre-emptive schadenfreude – among the reporters who have gathered to meet him at Etixx-Quick Step's January training camp in Calpe, is nothing new. He may not trawl forums or even Twitter as he once did but he knows the wolves can smell blood. Never mind that he ended the 2014 season with 12 victories. He also failed to win a Grand Tour stage for the first time since 2008 and extended an unbroken, winless run of sprints against Marcel Kittel that stretches back to 2011.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

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Froome given OBE in New Year Honours list

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Chris Froome has been named in the Queen’s New Year honour’s list with the double Tour de France champion set to receive an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). Froome won his second Tour de France title in 2015, along with a stage victory, and overall wins at the Criterium du Dauphine and Ruta del Sol.

Froome was named alongside British Cycling President Bob Howden and two volunteers in the Honours list for their services to cycling.

“I am extremely humbled and very proud to receive this honour. It is, obviously, further recognition for the sport of cycling and it caps a fantastic year for me professionally and personally. It wouldn’t be possible without the help of my team-mates, coaches and, of course, the love and support from my family,” said Froome.

Aside from an appearance at the Saitama Criterium, Froome has not raced since a crash that put him out of the Vuelta a Espana at the beginning of September. He is set to begin his 2016 season at the Herald Sun Tour at the start of February. The five-day stage race will be his first in Australia and his earliest start since the 2010 Tour Down Under. The Team Sky rider is yet to confirm the remainder of his build-up to the Tour de France, where is will be attempting to become the first since Miguel Indurain in 1995 to defend his title.

Howden said of Froome’s honour, “Chris’s OBE is well-deserved recognition of an extraordinary individual who represents the best of British sport – not only in terms of his achievements, and the hard work and dedication, which earns them but also in the way he conducts himself.

“He came under unprecedented pressure this year, which I know he accepts as a burden all sport’s great champions must carry, but the dignified manner in which he dealt with it was an example for us all.”

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

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