CMI Lifestyle Magazine special issue 2015

Hors Catégorie

2015 LIMITED EDITION

Magazine

LIFESTYLE

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© Copyright 2015

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Editorial: For this special edition of CMI Lifestyle Magazine we have chosen cover a number of cycling elements that make up the cycling season. This takes us from the Spring Classics to stage races, via the Tour de France and the numerous cycling trips and experiences these events bring us no matter which side of the fence you are on, the Pro side, or the Enthusiast side.

Tour of Flanders

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Tour de France

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SEE THE ACTION LIVE IN 2016 1 week in the infamous Pyrenees on the roads of the TdF!

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ZEIT TEAM

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SRAM E-tap

By Martin Elburn

Bike Radar recently released a video of their first ride on the Sram ETap. Sram has been somewhat lagging in the "new flash" department and a couple of years ago they brought out their totally pointless hydraulic caliper brakes. We feel they did this because the other main groupset brands had new stuff (electronic) and they didn't, so they scrambled around and brought out whatever they could in order to be part of the "new releases" clan. Sram have now made up time and actually taken a leap ahead of the other two main groupset manufacturers by releasing a totally wireless groupset, which was used by AG2R at this year's Tour de France.

In the video, the red faced overweight gentleman takes us through the features quite nicely. He rode the bike only once however and for 90km only, not exactly long or arduous enough to really put it through it's paces. In fairness to Mr Red-Face however, AG2R did put the SRAM ETap through the hardest test possible in July!

Obviously it's new, it's got no wires, it's gadgetty, it's the latest and greatest.

But lets step back from the herd of sheep for a minute and take a look...

-By the video's own admission (and remember these guys were invited by SRAM to try the ETap out, so there's an element of product placement in this video, and needless to say they will be focusing primarily on the good points) the shifting is slightly slower than the mechanical Sram Red. -The Groupset has a total of 4 batteries (two rechargeable units on the two derailleurs, and two "watch" type batteries in the shifters. They expect the shifter batteries to last about a year, so that's pretty good life expectancy.

But with 4 batteries, the chances of one of them dying and you being left to figure out which one, sort it, replace it or

recharge it, leaves a little something to be desired, even if it doesn't take long, it still takes longer that not having to sort it. If we bear in mind the amount of issues that have been experienced by the smaller Pro teams (who don't always have 3 spare bikes per rider) with Shimano's Di2 batteries dying in cold or wet racing conditions, we can only imagine what issues having 4 batteries in a long and tough race could bring.

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-Sram's Red groupset is widely known for being the lightest groupset on the market. Although the Double Tap system was innovative when it first came out a number of years ago, the Red groupset is now essentially a no frills, lightweight, reliable system. The new ETap however is very flash, frilly and, weight for it... I mean wait for it... heavier!

-The brains of the whole system are in the rear derailleur. Undoubtedly Sram have done a lot of work to make the unit durable and unlikely to get damaged.

However, we all know how likely it is that you hit your rear derailleur in the event of a crash... so having the expensive electronic brains in this fragile location doesn't strike me as all that logical.

-If you travel on holiday or travel a lot to race, or if you simply live somewhere that doesn't have a super snazzy bike shop in the area, you can imagine how hard it could be to get parts should you damage anything on this wireless groupset. This is already the case for the wired electronic systems, but it is slowly getting better as they become more common. Worst case scenario on

a normal groupset if you are on holiday in Italy or wherever your destination may be, and you somehow bend or break a shifter, derailleur or cable, you can always find something that'll get you back on the road. Even if it doesn't work great, you can generally fit a lesser level part, or even a part from a different manufacturer to get the bike rolling again. The odds of finding spares for the SRAM ETap are, lets be honest here, NIL!

Last but not least, the shifting is quite different to anything else out there today. You use the right shifter to shift up, and the left shifter to shift down (or vise versa), which is a totally new concept of shifting on a bike, and is reminiscent of F1 "paddle shifting". To shift the front derailleur you push both shifter buttons at the same time, and it either shifts up, or down depending on which chainring you are already in.

Again this is quite exciting in that it is a new approach to shifting. However, it isn't uncommon for riders to shift on the front while simultaneously shifting a couple gears on the back to make up for the big gear difference between the big and small chainrings. Such shifts are not possible on the Sram ETap as you

can't shift on the back due to both buttons being already in use to shift the front. I'm sure you will learn to get used to it and I'm sure it's not that big an issue, but it does seem like a step backwards to give riders fewer shifting and adjustment options. You can also easily imagine a beginner rider or Sunday warrior pushing the bike backwards slightly in a group as they shift from big ring to small.

To sum up, compared to SRAM's Red groupset, the ETap is: -Slower Shifting -Requires 4 batteries -Heavier -Hard to find spare parts for -Reducing shifting options -And lets not forget, way more expensive!

So unless you really want to be "that guy" who has whatever is new and loves to show off about how much money you have spent on something no one else yet has... can someone please tell me what the point of this groupset is? Looking at the list above, you'd have to be a total moron to get it!

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Tourmalet Jersey

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Tour of Hungary

and Lampre is making his return to the sport after a 4 year hiatus.

The race was very well organised and the courses, although totally unsuited to our riders due to daily finishing circuits that highly resembled a criterium, were well run, with lots of attention to detail

making them very media friendly.

In August the CMI team was in Hungary for their National Tour. Absent from the pro calendar for 10 years, 2015 marked the return of the race on the international calendar with 6 days of racing.

Equipe CMI sent a team of 6 riders, however Dima Ponomarenko (UKR) disappeared in transit and never made it to the start in time to race, meaning the team took the start with only 5 riders. Included in the roster for CMI was 2005 U 23 World Champion Dmytro Grabovskyy who, following a number of years racing with Quick Step

The only downside to the race was a low level of accommodation. The usual guaranties you get from a UCI race in terms of food and hotels went out the window, giving way to dormitories with shared bathrooms, often without towels for the riders or soap.

Our leader Dmytro was our best place finisher on a stage with an 11th place on one of the finishing circuits. Most of the team's efforts were being saved for the mountain stage that saw the riders

finish atop an 18km mountain at over 1000m. However Dmytro suffered from the high temperatures that day (43 degrees) and ironically had to pull out of the race. Simeon Green who was feeling good and looking at aiming for a top 10 on the stage made a couple of mistakes, going back to the car for

water on the approach to the mountain only to find out the car was out of water, in the confusion the main field split in two and Sim was in the second half.

Bad positioning, day over. The other event of note was Rolly Weaver getting into the race's longest break on the 200km stage. Rolly showed off the jersey well to the country, the fans and for the TV cameras.

CMI looks forward to returning to the Tour of Hungary in 2016.

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Peloton The Peloton gradually brings back the breakaway in the approach to a mountain top finish.

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TRAVEL - ADVENTURE - EXPERIENCE - FREEDOM

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Forging Memories Last week I had the pleasure of going for a truly magical ride in the Pyrenees that I would do every day of my life if i could! I already knew how nice that area is, having ridden in the Pyrenees a number of times as I live only two hours away by car, but it seems to hit me again and again every time I go. I just can't get over how amazing it is, especially when the weather is nice, which it often is in the French Pyrenees.

On this ride I was lucky enough to have Simeon Green from CMI Tours along with me, as I needed his local knowledge as well as his innovative mechanical skills towards the end of the ride when my tyre exploded! Nothing was going to spoil this ride, other than having to take a ride in a car to get home, which I luckily managed to avoid!

We started from the village of Massat, went over the Col de Saraille, which is just as amazing climb - both for its winding, slightly undulating road and also for its diverse scenery. It's like another world. Views of the higher snow-capped mountains combined with the cute old villages that are traditional to the Pyrenees, lush green fields with animals grazing all combine to form a

spectacular ocular overload.

Descending in the warm air was also another pleasure. We then headed along an amazing valley road that I had never seen before, again I couldn't believe how pretty it is and how tranquil it felt with hardly a car in sight and not much more that a few other bike riders and mountains all around for company.

After the valley road, we then climbed the Col de Latrappe which is often used in the Tour de France. This climb was also spectacular and on descending back down it, I just had to stop and take a photo of the village nestled at the bottom. Sadly I don't think the picture quite captures just how stunning it really is.

All we did at this point, apart from fill up our water bottles from the little village fountain, was go back up the Col de Saraille to get home, and while I don't normally do "out and back" rides in favor of a loop, it really didn't matter this time. It was a pleasure to go back on the same roads we had come out on. Even though my tyre exploded going along the valley, the time it took to fix it and then get on our way just meant more time to reflect on the magical world we found ourselves in and appreciate just how lucky I was to be riding there. The third and final climb was done with caution as I wanted to make it all the way home by bike.

With a plastic sleeve in my tyre to prevent the innertube from bulging out of the gaping whole in my tyre, I proceeded

carefully, but was not going to miss out on any of the scenery or enjoyment of the ride home. We didn't get back to our starting point until almost 6pm, but it still felt like the middle of the afternoon.

That is the benefit of long European summer nights. You have numerous hours in the day in which to get out there, so there really isn't too much rush, and the traffic never picks up which is a big bonus!!

It's difficult to express with words just how enjoyable, breathtaking and stunning this ride was. The English language doesn't have the words to really express the experience I had. It sure is something that needs to be done, as talking or writing about it just doesn't do it justice. I can't wait to go back to the Pyrenees in a few weeks' time, hopefully with a little more endurance in my legs to attempt some slightly longer loops and find some more stunning mountains and valleys to ride. I think this is a ride I will never forget, a real awakening moment where I think I fully realized just what a great thing I've got going, living in one of the best cycling areas in the world. I won't be abandoning this place anytime soon!

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La Vuelta a Astana It took 3 weeks, but the big Dutchman Tom Dumoulin finally cracked. It is incredible to believe that it can all come down to one day when there have already been over two weeks of racing, and racing that isn't really ideally suited to Tom Dumoulin.

Dumoulin the Underdog: We get the impression that the majority of the public were actually quite sad to see the Giant Alpacin rider loose the coveted Red jersey to Fabio Aru. Tom Dumoulin has had all the elements to make him a big crowd pleaser. He's young and full of promise, he's surpased even his own wildest expectations and had ridden incredibly well at this Vuelta. Tom Dumoulin has also been the ultimate underdog in this race. Tall and not built like the typical climber, relatively inexperienced and with an almost non-existent team to support him, he has had to race this one pretty much alone, going blow for blow with the Astana armada.

The Astana Armada: Astana and Fabio Aru more than deserve the win at this year's Vuelta.

The team had strength in depth, even lining up at the start of the race with 3 potential winners. Fabio Aru never gave up the fight and the team had text-book perfect tactics on the penultimate day of the race, placing a number of riders in the early break to act as support for Aru later in the day. The team's strength was almost suffocating. Although Team Sky have shown suffocating strength akin to the US Postal days at the Tour de France, Astana have put together a suffocating lineup twice this year. The team at the Giro was so strong they were in a race of their own. In spite of this amazing strength (or perhaps due to it) the team failed to win the Giro and were surpassed by Alberto Contador in May. In September at the Vuelta, Astana once again put together a startstudded "suffocating" team.

More riders than any other team at the end of the stage.

The BabyBlue Devil: The Astana team is not the most popular team these days. There were numerous calls by the public and some of the cycling world for the team to be excluded from the World Tour last winter due to it's questionable behavior and long history with doping stories and issues. The fact that absolutely no action was taken against the team, not even some token action to keep people happy, has not helped the team's public image. Although France is far from having an untainted history in the sport of cycling, it has been known over the past 15 years for having slightly tougher laws, rules and tests. Italy and Spain however, have generally had a reputation that goes in the opposite direction. It will not have gone unnoticed therefore that the Astana team put together extremely strong teams both on paper and in the field for the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana, but not for the defense of their 2014 Tour de France title with Nibali in July. It isn't simply that Nibali didn't perform at the Tour de France, even on paper his Astana team, although good, was far from what it could have been considering the riders and talent on that team.

Astana under performed at the Tour de France Can't Argue: At the end of the day, Astana have performed extremely well this year, and even though many of us feel they didn't put as much effort into the Tour as they did other races, it is hard to argue with them. The team probably knew that a repeat TdF win was unlikely, and that putting all eggs in that one basket is a risky game when you have so much more to race for throughout a long season. They will come out of the 2015 season with as much as any team could dream of: a Grand Tour win, a 2nd and 3rd in a Grand Tour, a number of stage wins, national championships and a list of results too long to even remember.

TdF success of fail, you can't argue with their season as a whole.

The Gamble: So the question is; should the team be criticized for its actions and results? Did they gamble with their team selection for some races? or have they been smart about their season and spread their efforts across the year and their different riders?

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Les Trois Pyrenees CMI Tours offer 3 types of Pyrenees trip. The "Custom Trip" where you choose where you want to go and what you want to do, they organize it all for you. The second kind of trip is the "Tourmalet 10 Day" which, as the name suggests involves 10 days of riding in the Pyrenees, for this trip your time is split between two different areas of the Pyrenees, the Ariege and the Tourmalet area meaning you get in all the famous and lesser known Pyrenean mountains.

The 3rd type of trip is a week long trip

based out of Gite Massat in the Ariege for small and exclusive groups, allowing plenty of quiet relaxing time, traditional small mountain village life and plenty of riding in the mountains of the Pyrenees National Park.

For further information feel free to look at their website: www.cmitours.com or contact them directly on info@cmitours.com

In July this trip doubles as their Tour de France trip, and offers exclusive rides and TdF viewing as the Tour goes through the area.

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Managing Back Pain At CMI Lifestyle we know that cycling up mountains and riding long distances, while often leaving your body and mind with a great sense of accomplishment, can also leave you feeling a little unbalanced, problem areas such as the lower back can start to hurt and interrupt your riding experience. Tour de France winner Chris Froome was forced to withdraw from Tirreno Adriatico this year with “inflammation in the lower back”.

Without going into too much detail, the problem is that while cycling is a great cardiovascular sport and makes you very strong, it is best when combined with some strength training. When we say strength training we don’t mean hours in the gym sweating and grunting and drinking protein shakes… we mean fairly basic, non painful and very beneficial or in the case of Chris Froome even vital, exercises to strengthen the stabilizer muscles which support your lower back while you are cycling. If we can spend that much time conditioning our leg muscles to put down significant amounts of power for hours on the bike, surely we can spare a little time for the other important muscles, the ones that we often don’t have time for but that can also end up reminding us of their presence in the form of pain!

at the front - but the two MUST work together to provide healthy support.

Lets look at some of the facts in regards to cycling: Yes, by its very nature with no ground contact cycling eliminates the jarring forces on the joints of the lower back that you get from sports such as running. The problem is that little or no conditioning is provided to the lower back muscles during cycling. What's more, the position on a road bike (where your upper body doesn’t really move, but your spine still needs muscular support) will effectively “load” your lower back muscles, especially if you do not have good muscular control (in the form of the transverse abdominis and multifidus working together continuously to stabilize the spine).

CMI Tours recognizes this and have experienced it first hand . They thus have a qualified sports scientist to help clients address this issue; both before, during and after cycling trips so that you don’t only feel strong on the bike but can also prevent pain from developing later on. The great news is that specific exercises work quickly; as soon as you reawaken these muscles you start to notice results.

Figure 1: Core muscles diagram (Spine Institute, Colorado 2013) There are many other factors to take into consideration with regards to back health, joint degeneration and bone density but for now we will just focus on the actions of the stabilizers around the lower back and their role in preventing lower back pain. The image above shows the two major muscle groups that stabilize the lower back, the multifidus at the back and the transverse abdominis

to aid in larger movements such as flexion and extension (but are not supposed to be permanently tense when you are still on the bike) start to do the work of the stabilizer muscles and become overworked and hence painful. This can lead to “inflammation” similar to that experienced by Chris Froome.

In the long term this cycle of what we could refer to as de-conditioning of extremely important muscle groups can result in more complex problems over time. Studies have found actual muscle fibre wastage in the lumbar multifidus muscle in human subjects with poor muscle control and hence lower back pain (Wallwork, 2006). The lesson: don’t assume lower back pain will just go away, muscle atrophy and wastage is real and could require active attention to reverse the process.

The result after 4 or 5 hours in this position on a Tour de France stage for this pro rider, (Mathieu Perget who went on to race for CMI - Greenover) can be detrimental if his stabilizer muscles are not doing their proper job and other muscles are becoming overactive. Some days on CMI Tours trips and training camps can be as long as a Tour de France stage.

During certain CMI Tours trips either in the mountains, the cote d’Azur, or wherever else your taste for adventure may take you, we strive to offer you more and to ensure that while you might be overworking your leg muscles on occasion, you leave feeling strong and injury free! If you want to get started on some basic conditioning before going on a CMI Tours training specific trip please contact info@cmitours.com at the time of booking and they can send you some personalized information on how to get started, depending on your current level of strength and fitness.

Pain then arises when large muscle groups in the lower back whose role is

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Photo Reportage

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Cobbles

Gravel &

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bike rentals

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Birthday Boy Mathieu Gibaud was one of the Equipe CMI riders to race the UCI Tour of Hungary. Often active at the start of stages, Mathieu finished the race in good health. Following a long trip home, he then returned to France to celebrate his 30th birthday with family.

However this wasn't his only objective, after a week of recovery from Hungary, he also had some racing to do.

Mathieu, with the support of a few other CMI Team-mates, including Guillaume Soula who also raced the tour of Hungary took the start of a one day race in central France. With some Hungarian fitness in his legs, Mathieu rode away to cross the finish-line solo after 155km of rolling terrain, taking the win on his Birthday.

Congratulations and Happy Birthday to Mathieu from everyone at CMI!

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Roubaix & FLANDERS

With CMI Tours

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Although not prepared to push it, we couldn’t just let him fly on ahead of us. So we let off the brakes just a little bit. So there’s a lesson for you. True top pros don’t always take all sorts of stupid risks on the bike. There’s a time and a place for

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Pro Cycling Team Presented By

QUICK

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A stack of sexy team bike equipment arrived at the team’s headquarters early in the season.

Riders and mechanics spent a lot of time building and tuning each bike for each rider.

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Above: Bike testing on the cobbles at the Classics cyclosportives with CMI Tour Below: Guillaume Soula signs on at the UCI Tour of Hungary

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Team riders show off the Quick Team Issue at the UCI races in the Ukraine in May 2015.

Pro Teams have a sure way of testing and showing off equipment.

Equipment is put to the test during the season with many training and racing kilometers as well as endless travel, flights, and cars testing all elements of the team’s bikes.

Approaching the finish line on a mountaintop stage.

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Solice of Solitude and reconnecting with that careless feeling of riding like when I first started cycling; with no care for image and not a thought to what anyone else might think. This is partly why I like my ITR Clothing two-tone jersey, as it's plain and reminds me of those early days of cycling and discovery, where only the ride mattered.

There's solace in the solitude of a long "getaway" ride. You are alone with your thoughts for 4 or 5 hours in the mountains or rolling countryside away from cities, towns, dirt, noise and people. Everything in your head takes on a certain clarity and logic, all your thoughts fall into place and you appreciate nature for what it really is. I for one come back feeling rejuvenated (even if exhausted physically.)

"Getting away". Those two words evoke different things to different people. To me those are magical words. When I first started riding, back when my idea of cycling kit was a set of baggy shorts and a sweat-shirt, I used to love the bike because it took me places, it was my way of "getting away". As the years have gone by, I have had goals, challenges, races I have had to train for and seasons that have had to be structured. The simple "getting away" element of the bike has died down and has often played second fiddle to pressure and obligations.

tires all too often drowned by the cacophony of the modern world.

To go out and loose yourself in the pleasure of the ride... regardless of anything else... that is the solace of solitude!

As much as I love my team clothing, I occasionally like to put on an unmarked jersey, mixed with random shorts.

There's symbolism in going out in random kit, not being easily recognized

Every now and then you have to get back in touch with the purity of cycling however. That long solo ride, through distracting countryside, miles away form anyone and anything.

It might sound corny, but it's important to reconnect with that carefree feeling, the wind in your hair, the rich smell of pine forests, the distant twitter of birds and the whir of your own

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