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CYCLE MAGAZINE
Issue 06
spin cycle magazine
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Editor James Maloney james@spincyclemag.com Picture Editor Dan Kenyon dan@spincyclemag.com Contributors Paul Francis Cooper Brian Sweeney Chris Keller Jackson Chris Baker Ali Vermilio Nick Howe Design Uniform www.uniform.net Thanks go to: John “The Macster” McGrath Peter Hodges Tom Southam Kellie Parsons Roger Hammond Daniel Ibbotson Steve Goff Simon Branney John Moore @johnclimber Port Sunlight Wheelers
All information contained in Spin Cycle Magazine is for information purposes only and is, to the best of our knowledge, correct at the time of going to press. Spin Cycle Magazine cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies that occur. Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this magazine. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant Spin Cycle Magazine a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all editions of the magazine, including all licensed editions worldwide and in any physical or digital format throughout the world. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither Spin Cycle Magazine nor its staff, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage. In relation to any medical queries, the advice given is in no way intended to replace professional medical care or attention by a qualified practitioner and we strongly advise all readers with health problems to consult a doctor.
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Two days on Tour Racing through the puddles
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Two days on Tour Riding in the bubble
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Special Kay
An interview with Emily Kay
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Steve Goff Local framemaker
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Fat Bikes
Get to grips with the new craze
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Killer Hills
Number six Waddington Fell
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Glasgow Fixies Guest writer Brian Sweeney
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Race Against Time Book Review
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The Kit Snob Club Rider
Follow us on twitter @SpinCycleMag
Cover: Bradley Wiggins by James Maloney Left: Emily Kay by Chris Keller Jackson
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Words by Dan Kenyon. Photos by James Maloney and Dan Kenyon
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Previous: Nairo Quintana kicks for home Left: Wiggins rolls out to test the course
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I Sure. Turn left past the finish line. If you see the giraffes, you’ve gone too far.
T’S WET AT KNOWSLEY. VERY WET. Even the biggest beasts of cycle journalism aren’t prowling the course for scraps of information this year. Will Fotheringham is huddled over his laptop in the Tour of Britain press room, next to the machine that purports to make coffee and almost does. Meanwhile, Team Sky are at the race HQ annoying early, with their unwieldy black rubber matting that other Grand Tour teams used to snigger at but are now emulating. Team Sky also have enough marquee to be seen from space and, nuzzled up next to Movistar’s awning, both teams have a tunnel of dry for the riders to scoot along as they make there way onto the course to recce the ride. Few
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Liam Holohan and Alex Peters Madison Genesis
have bothered today, as the rain bounces off the bus roofs. Soon the hoards of press begin to stir and get excited, as word spreads quickly that Wiggins has arrived at Knowsley Safari Park, where this year the Tour of Britain are holding a ‘traditional’ 10-mile individual time trial. His Bradness pulls up in the back of a team car and, with a mod swagger, disappears into the Team Sky bus. As it’s a time trial rather than a stage finish, there is more security this year at Knowsley. The riders need space and peace to warm up, while the public are held back accordingly. Merseyside Police’s finest stand around with stern faces – their hi-vis clashing nicely
with the understated Sky livery. They appear to be in bodyguard mode, but this is cycling, so they’re probably hovering this close to get their snap taken with ‘the man’. Brad’s soon back out in team kit and off on course to test the corners to discover first hand if the incessant rain has washed any of the grease off the roundabouts of Prescot and Knowsley Village. It hasn’t. Not really. Working at a cycle race inside the confines of Knowsley Safari Park is a slightly surreal experience. Asking if I can get around the lake to take photographs on the estate, one of the rangers says: “Sure. Turn left past the finish line. If you see the giraffes, you’ve gone too far.”
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Above: M ike Cuming of Rapha Condor JLT warms up Right: Podium mad man Angel Madrazo and Enrique Sanz
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Cav patiently waits to start yet another TV interview
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Above and right: C av warms up
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Rob Hayles tweaks Cav’s bike
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Above: A ndy Tennant Left: Josh Edmondson and Bernie Eisel warm up
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Below: Bernie huddles and Fran Millar shows off her gold trainers behind the start ramp Right: Bernie looks almost like a 1930’s motorcyclist in his wet weather kit
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Richard Handley warms up under the shadow of the Team Sky Behemoth
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Above: G erald Ciolek and Mark McNally feel the pressure Right: Liam Holohan of Madison Genesis and Mark O’Brien of Team Raleigh
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Wiggins gets in the zone
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Above: A lex Dowsett accepts the applause as National Time Trial champion
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Above: W iggins is away Right: Elia Viviani mounts up
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Wiggins: O ut and back in 19 minutes 54 seconds
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Andy Tennant with a bend to go
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Below: Kristian House Right: Enrique Sanz
Meanwhile, the rain gets even worse. Moving from one awning to the next, chatting to the teams and staying dry, we find Richard Handley from Rapha Condor JLT. He’s abandoned Rapha’s flooded marquee and is on a set of dry rollers in the back of the mechanic’s van. It makes the most popular shot of the day, with press snappers gathering like Japanese tourists around a busby. But the real photograph to be had is a wide shot of Handley riding rollers in the back of a equipment stuffed transit van next to the towering black slab that is the Team Sky bus. The access the public still achieve with pro cycling is encapsulated by the 1km to go arch. Sitting in the middle of a vast car park with no barriers, the crowd stand well back –
cheering and clapping politely as each rider passes. WhenWigginswhizzespast–notonly claiming victory that day, but also putting the entire Tour out of everyone else’s reach – the tide of new fans recedes back towards the Sky Team bus, leaving just the amateur long lens brigade. Running the individual time trial over 10-miles has worked well. Many of the continental pros are more used to a 10k or a 25k – it shows. Some handle it, many don’t, and the rain carries on playing it’s part all day. Naturally, it stops raining as the buses pack up and set off to Stoke. The results show three Brits in the top 10 – Wiggins, Dowsett and Cavendish, who slipped in at 10th place and obviously relished a traditional British 10-miler, as well as the ever growing respect for the Tour of Britain.
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Above: F erekalsi Debesay of South African Pro Continental team MTN-Qhubeka Right: Francesco Bongiorno of Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox
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Above: I an Stannard warms down Left: Alan Marangoni Team Cannondale
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Post race warm down. Ian Stannard bleeds from road rash picked up on course
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What we learnt: Most team buses could do with a mop and bucket; lying down on the floor to photograph a rider racng through puddles means you get soaked by the following team car and, finally, the state of the coffee machine at Knowsley TOB press office could well prevent the tour returning next year. Peter Hodges has been informed...
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From Stoke to Llanberis with Madison Genesis Words and images by Dan Kenyon
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Mounting up in Stoke for the sign in
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Above: A ndy Tennant says goodbye to his mum Right: Alex Peters and a potter in Stoke
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Dean Downing rolls out of sign in
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HE FIRST I SAW OF THE modern Tour of Britain was in 2007, when it passed my home village on Stage 5 between Liverpool and Kendal. I had cycled up to the cross roads just in time to see the first marshal bikes appear and begin stopping traffic. At this point, a cab driver rolled his eyes, got out of his cab and stood next to me. He wasn’t very happy. “What’s this all about? Tour of what?” He hissed through his teeth, as he stared across the empty fields. “A sodding bike race. How long will it take..?” “About 10 minutes” I told him. Soon the clatter of the helicopter was overhead before the buzz of marshal bikes and cars came past,
lights flashing and sirens screaming. The peloton swept by in a blur of colour followed by the gaudy team cars. As the last car passed, the marshal spoke into his radio, remounted his bike and was off, back on his way to the Lake District. Silence returned. The cabbie glanced at me; his eyes bright as he turned towards his car. “Actually mate... that was quite exciting.” With it’s rolling road closure, that’s pro cycle racing for you. It’s a passing circus of sound and light, which isn’t like anything else you will ever see. Flash forward six years and the Tour of Britain is getting bigger and more prestigious every year. More and more people are coming to stand at the side of the road and experience it. But I’ve always wanted to see what it’s like from the other side. Without a pro racing contract for 2013, I had to settle for wielding my press card to try and wrangle a team car place for Stage 4 from Stoke to Llanberis with Madison Genesis chauffeur driven by Roger Hammond.
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Below: Ross marks off riders in the break
The perfect place to see nothing all day. I don’t mind.
We left Stoke at around 10.30am amid the crackle of race radios and a quick dart through other team cars to take our place in the procession. The Madison Genesis car was number 16 today, which is midpack and, as Roger Hammond wryly observed: “The perfect place to see nothing all day.” I don’t mind. The driving is quite fast enough already and I get to enjoy seeing Stoke at it’s best – receding very quickly in the mirrors. Almost straight away, the day’s breakaway slips off in the narrow lanes and, with no Madison riders making it across, the team’s lead rider Ian Bibby struggling with injury, and Team Sky immediately drilling the front of the peloton to control the break, we settle in for a long quiet day.
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Above and right: I an Bibby checks in then visits the doctors car. Injuries from two crashes on stage 2 will force his retirement the next day
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Just then the radio crackles with the race numbers of the riders in the break. Ross, the mechanic, ticks them off on his list before sweets are passed around. Brian Holm, the directeur sportif for Omega Pharma Quickstep, glides alongside and helps himself to some sour snakes. More pro team raiders arrive.
Gerald Ciolek necks a couple of sweets and his team car pull alongside to jokingly accuse Hammond of doping their rider. The Volvo were are travelling in today has something called ‘automatic braking’, which apparently kicks in on it’s own when you get too close to the car in front. As we are frequently less
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than two foot off the boot of the car in front, I guess Roger’s right foot is going to be in charge today. The lanes are sometimes very narrow and, when the race radio kicks in at at last with “Madison Genesis to the peleton”, they get narrower still. Roger Hammond pulls out on the line and races at 55mph up a country
lane with about three inches to spare from the convoy’s collective mirrors on one side and three inches to the nearest old lady with a spaniel on the other. Broken mirrors are possibly the most common replacement parts on pro races after bar tape.
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One thing that you never see on TV is a team car crew peeing at the side of the road, but thankfully they do. The comfort breaks occurs outside Mold somewhere and has to be timed to perfection. “We have five minutes before the broom wagon passes and then we’re outside the bubble,” says Hammond. Cue a line of furious bladder voiding action while the Welsh Police drive past shouting “perverts”. With the bubble edge approaching, we’re back in the car and away.
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Brian Holm demands sweets. Cav’s D at HTC the pair are reunited at Omega Pharma Quickstep
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So what’s it like to see the crowds from a team car? Pretty overwhelming to be honest. Natural wonders such as climbing Kilimanjaro or trekking the Grand Canyon are fine, but riding in a team car on a pro bike race in your own country, as well as passing perhaps 30,000 people in five hours, is unique. It’s the closest that you will ever get to experiencing what extreme fame must be like. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t an ego boost. Although travelling across closed roundabouts escorted by the police is the only way to travel – unless you happen to be locked in a prison van of course. All those thousands of people
are not there to see you personally. But for many of the people at the roadside, it’s the first time they’ve seen anything like it and, as the whole flashy circus you’re part of speeds past, just how excited they end up becoming washes over you all day as a positive spirit and grows more-and-more intense. At first, it’s unnerving to have people seemingly staring directly at you. They’re really looking at the car, but you’re in the car, so they’re also looking at you. There’s two types of spectator – those treating it as a happy event, smiling and waving at you as you pass. Then there are those that stand silent and serious, as if waving
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or smiling will disrupt their ability to standing at the road side myself and drink in every detail of riders and cars. how much it would have made my Club riders tend to fall into the second day if I hadn’t been too cool to wave category and everyone else the first. and one of these stony faced team car By Wrexham, I announce in a mechanics or DS’s had taken time out faux regal voice to wave back. Roger that I’m going to I announce in a faux seems to be recognised start waving back at regal voice that I’m by a few blousy ladies, people “as it seems going to start waving who must have seen rude not to”. This back at people ‘as it him on ITV4 and now provokes amusement know a British legend seems rude not to.’ from Hammond and when they see one. mechanic Ross, who are far too busy Plaintive cries of “It’s Roger... Roger nervously thinking ahead and trying Hammond” are met with just the tips to get a TV signal to follow the race. of Hammond’s ears turning a little red Returning the waves elicits more in the seat in front of me. delight than I deserve. I think back to
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As we pass through Denbigh, a pensioner walks down his raised garden path to see what all the fuss is about. By chance we make eye contact and, as we’re moving slowly for once, I wave to him. He waves back and I give him the Obama ‘hey, there my old mate’ friendly finger wag in return. Meanwhile, the 20 or so people on the kerb in front of his house turn to see who I’m connecting with. I can imagine the pensioner down the pub that night: “Oh yes, Madison Genesis. I know them well...”
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Modern technology has added a strange sight for the team cars following a few seconds behind the peloton. We pass group-after-group stock still staring at their screens to see if their grab shot of Wiggins has come out. Shots of a moving objects can be successful with a bit of panning. Sadly, if you’re passing stationary objects at 40mph, even a 1,000 of a second panning is no good. I resort to taking photographs as people pass the lens, which is a skill in itself. By the time that I see an interesting group coming up on the road side, they are level with us and then gone.
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Five and half hours are gone in what seems like an hour and, aside from Alex Peters flipping over the bars and needing his brakes checked, it’s been an uneventful yet tiring day for the riders. “Nothing wrong. The brake’s not rubbing,” says Ross. “Must be just tired,” says Peters, as he pulls away from the car. I’m not surprised. Madison Genesis is very much a development squad and, with some very tough days already behind them, Hammond is using all his experience as an ex-rider and a youth coach for British cycling to coax some of his riders through the shock of riding against Pro Tour teams conditioned by a season of Grand Tours. As we near the top of the Pen-yPass climb, it’s time for me to leave. Roger apologises for the quiet day and pulls over. I say my thank you’s and I’m out of the car. Straight away, I’m out of the bubble and back into the real world. I feel like Ray Liotta in the scene in Goodfellas, when he’s picking up his newspaper from the mat and bitching about not being special any more.
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The clatter of the helicopter fades as it crossed the summit and down into Llanberis. As I walk down the climb to the waiting lift home, the crackle of race radio is still in my head. It’s still in my head two days later. Many thanks to: Kellie Parsons; Roger Hammond and Team Madison Genesis; Volvo cars and Simon Branney, from No Bull Communications.
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SPECIAL KAY
An interview with Team GB’s Emily Kay
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EING SEVENTEEN IS ALL ABOUT being in transition. You’re slap bang between GCSE’s and A Levels, learning to drive, tackling social media, and trying to figure out who you are and who you aspire to be. This August, Emily Kay won a Junior Team pursuit world championship and then went back a week later and won the National junior individual pursuit jersey. As a boost to your sense of self, that must be pretty hard to beat. It’s the last day of August at Halesowen outdoor cycle track and the surroundings are a little more humble than the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, where Kay won her first rainbow jersey. Halesowen is the only privately-owned track in the country. Built on a marsh and still prone to flooding in wet weather, today it sits mellowing in the afternoon light. A collection of clapboard huts with plastic chairs catching the late summer rays overlook a leafy oval, as a portly father and his son bimble slowly around the banking in matching purple Halesowen CC kit, serenaded by the sound of a local pub band thrashing the Rolling Stones ‘Satisfaction’ in the function room across the car park. Halesowen CC has plenty to be satisfied with. They already had a star with Jess Varnish. Now they have another. Although Kay rides for Scott Contessa and the Olympic Development Team, there’s really only one choice of jersey today. The rainbow jersey looks pristine to the untrained eye but the trained eye of Kay knows better. “Winners have the superstition that says if you sleep in your worlds jersey for the first night, you will win another – so it’s perhaps a bit creased,” she looks a bit sheepish. “...it also still has mascara on it from when I was crying on the podium.”
Kay is also on track – concentrating on sweeping past the photographer and then cutting down across the running track to start another pass for a potential cover shot. Repeating actions in front of a camera are becoming part of her busy routine these days. Kay’s history markers are already beginning to be set in stone. From a growing number of interviews, the first pink bike, Halesowen CC racing as a child, DHL Futures Stars and sprint school, getting chosen by British Cycling’s West Midlands region to ride at the annual Revolution series at Manchester when she was 14, her first road race season with Scott Contessa. More recently, much to Kay’s amusement, the celebrity questions have been creeping in: Favourite food? Film? Warm up song? First bike? “Last week, someone asked me who I would like to play me in the film of my life story,” reveals Kay, shaking her head in disbelief. “No. Really.” We’ve met once before, sort of. In December 2010 at Revolution 31, I was on a photo story for Road.CC. Framing up a shot of junior riders, they suddenly dissolved into giggles as the self supporting clipped-in line up suddenly canted to the right. Panning along the line, there was Emily Kay faking collapse at the end. Even at 15, she was already a favourite with both the crowd and other riders – seemingly at ease with the whole atmosphere. Not surprising, given that Kay was no stranger to Revolution. “I had gone along and watched the racing from a young age and always got quite upset watching it because it made me just want to race my bike on the track. I do joke around a lot. I find that if I’m quiet and sit there thinking I tend to over think it. So if I’m laughing and messing around and then quiet on the line it works for me.”
‘LAST WEEK, SOMEONE ASKED ME WHO I WOULD LIKE TO PLAY ME IN THE FILM OF MY LIFE STORY,’ REVEALS KAY, SHAKING HER HEAD IN DISBELIEF. ‘NO. REALLY.’
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Hugh Porter’s rich tones came in over the speakers with the details of the next race and an affectionate reference to Kay, in particular. Once the pistol cracked, Kay was away – seriously quick and seriously competitive. She won the six dash that night and was fighting every time she went out on the boards. Two and a half years later, Kay was at Glasgow riding with the equally talented ‘Welsh Trio’ of Hayley Jones, Emily Nelson and Amy Hill – all products of the Welsh Cycling Programme. They’re coached by Matt Winston, from the Olympic Development Programme (ODP). Kay first linked up with Winston at the Talent Team and they carried on together into the ODP the following year for both road and track. This long term relationship has meant a great deal.
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“I have complete confidence in the training that Matt gives me and that showed as I was in the best form I had ever been in for World’s. I am able to be completely honest with him and I think that really helps, I couldn’t ask for a better coach.” A very busy schedule of exams revision and her second successful season with Scott Contessa had to be fitted around Kay’s appearance at Glasgow. “It’s tough, but my racing with the ODP takes priority. At the start of the season, I had a big block of road training where I raced for both Scott and the ODP, but as I got closer to the track worlds, road racing with Scott took a back seat as my attention was focused on the track and training camps clashed with road races a lot, like the junior national road race for example. I get on the
track through the year in the school holidays, that’s when we get together as a team. When we all finished school for the summer, track camps became more frequent and I travelled to Newport a few times to get some track time with the other girls, but apart from that, I just train at home on my own. So when do have track time together it’s crucial we get really good quality efforts.” The quartet arrived at Glasgow for the Worlds in perfect form and with Winston’s programme to follow. It all went a bit too well. Having qualified fastest, there was a buzz at the stadium and a sense of real anticipation from the crowd. This wasn’t Revolution pressure, but World Championship pressure. Kay found herself unfazed.
In the evening, be my nerves went a before a race. I was out of it and just f
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efore the final, it was weird though, and I felt the calmest I had ever felt s able to completely take the emotion focus on the process.
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We were sat waitin the track, putting chalk remember telling them for this, we had ridden t and over again, so this w different. We just had to knew we could do. I th pressure away really h just never panicked.” Well not quite. Wat the camera travels down pairs of eyes are staring – in the zone. It’s just K around. She seems to b first bend of the oval a tension to calm. But wi the gun, Kay’s start was Phil calls “a heart in the moment” as she turn towards Jone before again. “I thought that I wa the back but I got on,” sa Then the schedule came racing isn’t like football you might sit in a room
WE KNEW THAT THEY WOULD COME OUT HARD. THEY ALWAYS COME OUT THAT WAY.
ng to get on to on our hands. I we were ready these splits over wasn’t anything o do the ride we hink taking the helped and we
tching the race, n the row. Three g directly ahead Kay that glances be taking in the and turning her ith the crack of s what her dad e roof of mouth ns her wheel straightening
as going to miss ays Kay. e into play. Track analysis, where m watching your rivals past performances on video and devise a plan to answer their moves.
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A team pursuit track race is so fleeting in length and rider form – such a quixotic factor – the only real way to tackle any race is to stick to your time spilt schedule per lap and try and hold something back in terms of energy for the last few laps. That said some observations can be exploited. “We knew that they would come out hard. They always come out that way. The problem is if we come out hard too to match them then we might die in the last laps.” The Russian front rider started too quickly for her team and they spent costly energy closing the gap. Now anxious, they used some more energy to pull half a second ahead of the GB team. Not a big number, but a space to relax in and perhaps build on as a cushion for the last four laps. Thankfully, the British team were better drilled and consistently faster. “Every training session we do as a four is written down and we analyse that, the graphs of each rider performance and from that Matt decides the turn structures, who goes in what place and what lap splits he thinks we can each do. We were planning to lap at 17.00, but we were told when we arrived that the track was running slow. In the end,
we were up on schedule every lap. It didn’t seem that slow to us.” Their planned pace pulled back half second to even the race and the Russians, instead of holding responded with another half a second more – burning extra energy a second time. With 10 of the 16 laps gone, the girls started to power up themselves as the last four laps are the time to light what afterburners you have left and seal victory. Down to three riders as planned, the girls quickly dragged Russia back and then passed them for gold. For a short moment, the winning time was touted as a new world record until some track nit-picking exercise about new distances and new rules relegated the quartet’s time to just a world championship winning performance. With all the track success of Team GB in the past few years, you would imagine that other countries are shadowing Team GB’s programme. Not quite. “At events like that, you can see just how far ahead Team GB is – even at Junior level. Some of the other nations are out ordering pizza...and they’re at the track watching races with their own races still to run. And then you look at Team GB and it’s nothing like that.
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“If we aren’t racing we’re back at the hotel resting. If you’ve finished your race, you go. If we’re still in competition we only go to the track to race. You arrive and warm up then race. It keeps our focus.”
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The equipment the girls use is also rationed for a reason. “I think British Cycling’s view is as a junior, you haven’t made it, have you? You get there on your pure talent. When you progress to podium and prove yourself, you start to see the rest of the resources. At the moment, we can be junior world champions without all that stuff. That’s the difference between us and, say, the Australians. At the Worlds, even at junior level, they have the full BT bikes and ride on a 96 gear – the same as the seniors. They’re already on the best equipment, so all they can get is stronger. I think we’re the only team on aluminium uprights and we were only using a 93 gear. As we get stronger, we get to earn the best stuff. We get to ride the black bikes.’ The full resources of Team GB’s psychological coaching won’t kick in until Kay is bringing results a senior. It’s difficult to imagine someone of Kay’s breezy disposition ever needing to sit on Dr Peter’s couch to discuss putting monkeys into boxes – Team GB’s rather alarming way of describing competitive self doubt – but certain psychological tweaks are already working well with Kay and her fellow track riders. “When we race against other countries on general meets, they are all in national kit and we are always in ODP kit. We pulled on the new GB kit for the first time for that team pursuit. That gave us such a boost. It just means more. Other nations train and race all the time in their national kit. I’ve been
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issued two skin suits and I can only wear them when I race for my country. It makes a big difference.” Kay has already proved herself on the road with wins for Scott Contessa and a strong supporting role in helping Lucy Garner defend her junior world road race champion last year in Copenhagen. “Riding with Scott meant I was able to make the big step up from racing as a U16 to a junior and racing on the road - about riding as a team. Everyone in the race knew that Lucy was the biggest threat, so we knew that they would be out to do whatever they could to beat her. But we worked really well as a team. Everyone was selfless and did the job they needed to do, to achieve the aim that Matt Winston had set us. You could see that from the way Elinor Barker led Lucy out – this was just days after she had won the world time trial herself. I think I was happier when Lucy won than I had ever been before when I had won, because I knew I had been a part of it. I just remember crying behind the podium with Elinor while Lucy was getting her jersey.” With UCI points on offer at Revolution this year and Kay turning senior at the beginning of September when she turns 18, she’ll be thrown in against some of the biggest stars of women’s racing. But you get the feeling that she’ll do just fine. She’s already met her hero Marianne Vos at Revolution last year when juniors are given a chance to embarrass senior riders and take every opportunity to do just that.
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I was definitely a little intimidated to start off with. I remember in the scratch race, I got on Marianne Vos’s wheel with one lap to go, I started to come round her and was on her shoulder and just thought, ‘what am I doing trying to get round Marianne Vos?’
That night, Kay came third in the scratch race, second to Lizzie Armistead in another race and beat Vos in a sprint. According to her dad, Phil, the best moment was on the car journey home when Kay realised that Vos was now following her on Twitter. “I had to check to make sure it was really her!” It would be glib to suggest at this point that Vos might want to get used to following Kay, but some elements of the cycle press are already rattling off like a runaway train with assumptions of Kay’s progress and looking to her inclusion in Team GB for Rio in 2016. Kay isn’t falling for that complacency.
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Obviously, my goal is to make it to Rio or the next Olympics, but I know there is really strong competition ahead of me and it will be really tough. I would love to be able to represent England next year at the Commonwealth Games, especially as it’s in Glasgow. So a year on from the junior worlds to be there would be amazing.” These back to back wins in the juniors must help with the move up to seniors. But at the World’s, in particular, it wasn’t the win so much as the manner of the win that Kay identifies as the real plus for her first senior competitions this autumn. “Technically, I think we rode a really polished ride and hopefully that will make the step up a lot easier. But I know that winning a junior world title doesn’t guarantee you a career in senior cycling, the winter is going to be crucial for me to try and make that step up to becoming an elite rider.” Kay is turning senior at an exciting time. Women’s racing is on the cusp of finally being taken seriously as a spectator sport on the road with all the sponsorship that goes with that. With talk of a women’s Tour of Britain, Kay’s skills on tarmac might soon be on TV as well. “I’m unsure of what my racing schedule will be next year, but to be able to be a part of the first women’s tour of Britain would be fantastic. I’m more of a stage winner then a GC contender. I do like climbing but I wouldn’t say it’s one of my strengths but I would definitely want to win stages.” Equality in the saddle is one thing, but there is still the glaring absence of women senior coaches within British Cycling. Kay
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is keen to see some progress there too. “Cycling is still a male dominated sport, but I think it’s changing and British cycling are doing a lot to change this through strategies like the Breeze network. To have women like Pooley and Cooke as coaches would be amazing; they’ve been to the highest level and been the best in the world so to have their knowledge and experience of women’s racing would be great because it is different to men’s racing. Coaching wise though I don’t think there is much difference between men and women. All coaches know how bike races work and what training needs to be done to be the best for different riders, but I think having a female coaches would be really inspirational. I’m committed to doing all I can to help pave the women to get more women into sport both competitively and recreationally.” With the shoot and interview finished, Kay shakes hands, carefully breaks down her track bike – you wouldn’t want oil on that particular jersey – and packs the bike away in the family car. Time for my equivalent of the ‘who would play you in a film of your life’ question. Has she been out in her new jersey on the road? “The UCI issue you with a booklet telling you when you can and cannot wear the jersey. We’re only supposed to wear them in UCI competition. As I’m 18 in a week, I will never get to race in this jersey, which is such a shame.” Kay gives a little smile. “I did wear it out on a training ride last week. The funny thing was some club rider came past me wearing a replica world’s jersey and didn’t even say hello.”
VICKERS BICYCLE COMPANY H A N D M A D E I N G R E AT B R I TA I N
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Am I lacking anything? No. I’m suffering from an excess of rivals.
JOACHIM RODRIGUEZ OLIVER THE TOUR OF SPAIN 2013
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Words and images by James Maloney
STEVE GOFF
Local frame builder
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HERE IS JUST SOMETHING ABOUT traditional steel-framed bikes. Whether they evoke youthful memories of watching some of the greats battling their way up an gravel alpine climb or you just love a nice set of lugs, they have managed to survive the rise and fall of aluminium and I dare say they will be round long after carbon. Yes, the sculpted, wind-tunnel-hones lines of pro peloton carbon bikes are nice to look and definitely serve a purpose being oh-so light and blah-blah – I have two, if you’re asking – but there is just something timeless about steel bikes. It’s almost like they have a soul. After all, the basic diamond shape of a bicycle frame has not changed significantly for more than 100 years – even if the material used in their manufacture have progressed considerably. Steel itself is a material whose own development over the last century has been interwoven with that of the bicycle. Most production steel bikes tend to be TIG welded together or Tungsten Inert Gas, for the chemistry buffs out there. Tubes are cut and mitred, so that they fit against one another and then a weld is made to join the different tubes. Whereas higher end and custom-made frames commonly use lugs – oooh, lovely lugs [sorry – ed] – in the joining of the tubes. Lugs are joining pieces that fit around the ends of the tubes, which allow two or more tubes to be joined together. The lugs are then brazed onto the tubes in order to fix them into place. Brazing involves the use of another metal – such as brass or silver – that is melted to form the join and then cooled to secure it. There are arguments for – such as the fact that by brazing materials onto the frame at lower temperatures, you avoid the risk of crystallising the metal – but, more importantly
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for steel bike aficionados, they look stylist and come in all different shapes, sizes and patterns. Most frame-builders will use one of two types of steel – Reynolds or Columbus. Reynolds is based in the UK and started life in 1841 as makers of nails before turning to bicycle tubing at the end of the 19th century. The firm patented the invention of butted tubes in 1898 and have been a firm choice for many traditional frame-builders ever since. Their flagship product these days is Reynolds 953, which purports to benefit from being a “martensitic-aging stainless steel alloy” with “tensile strength in excess of 2000 Mpa”. To you or me, that means it’s light and strong. Columbus has its origins as part of an Italian firm founded in 1919 by Antonio Luigi Columbo – no relation to the American detective. In addition to making tubes for bicycle frame-builders, Columbo supplied a diverse customer base – from furniture makers to manufacturers of aircraft. In 1977, a dedicated firm was established to develop and manufacture specialist bike tubing. Being Italian, Columbus has contributed to the reputation for quality associated with Italian frame-builders. Basically, if you love all things Campagnolo, then this will probably be your choice of material for your steel bike. So why do people choose steel? Well, the main argument in favour of a steel-framed bike, particularly over a carbon fibre frame, is strength and durability. Steel is resilient to the repeated stresses placed on the bike frame when riding. Not only that, but it is also tough, as well as being resistant to cracks and impact. When dents or nicks do occur, with steel they are less likely to turn into full-blown failures. If there is a failure, it tends to progress slowly rather than catastrophically – unlike carbon fibre.
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People also like to know there was a human directly involved in its manufacture. They like to feel there is expertise, craftsmanship and care deeply imbued within its fabrication.
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IN BUYING A HIGHER-QUALITY, OR CUSTOM-MADE, STEEL FRAME BIKE, A CYCLIST IS SUPPORTING AND CELEBRATING THE CRAFT OF BICYCLE-MAKING AND DOING THEIR OWN LITTLE BIT TO ENSURE THAT IT CONTINUES INTO THE FUTURE.
With that in mind, we head over to Pimbo in Skelmersdale, near West Lancashire, to pick the brain of traditional steel-bike builder, Steve Goff. According to Steve, demand is picking up. On the morning we dropped by, he was busy working his way through one of 100 orders. Steve has more than 25 years of building steel frames, but his interest in fabricating bikes started when he was just 15 and used to build up his own bikes from old frames that he found knocking about the streets of Liverpool. Together with a friend from school, Steve would mesh together scrap parts and build them up into racing bikes before respraying them to look like those belonging to pros of that era. Steve said: “I got a job in Walton Vale Cycles when I left school. It was advertised in the Liverpool Echo, so I told my mum ‘cut my hair, I am going for a job interview’. I rode my bike out to Walton Vale, saw the guy in charge, Alan Hart, and I got the job. “I worked there as a sort of sales assistant, but luckily Norman Roberts was the frame builder there. At that point, I was getting interested in racing and, at 16, I did quite a few 10s and criteriums at junior schoolboy level, so I was getting interested in the frame building and what Norman was doing. “He sort of looked after me and through my early racing career, I used to have Walton Vale frames. The fashion then was to have little cutouts in the frame, such as hearts and different shapes, so Norman would give me the lugs, crowns and things and I would cut the shapes out myself. That was my sort of hint of a start.” Like all promising riders during those days, Steve headed over to Belgium and France with little more than his bike, and a dream of making it professional. Year-after-year, he headed back every season to hone his craft. In between, he got a job working at Pete Matthews’ shop and learnt the art of wheel-building.
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Steve added: “Pete taught me how to lace a wheel, so I worked there for nine months before I went off to Belgium and raced there. Then I came back and worked in various bike shops again. I worked for a bit in Dougie Soens, which had just opened next to the ice rink in town. I worked there for some time as a wheel builder and I was racing at the Bestival and at the Kirkby track, so I got good experience in racing.” JM: How has steel frame building changed over the years since you first started? SG: Obviously, when I first started, everybody had a hand-built steel frame. All the club cyclists would have a steel frame from the likes of Harry Quinn or one of the Manchester shops. Then that started dying out when aluminium came in and they were off the peg. People got used to going in and
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picking them off the rack – that’s when the made-to-measure sizes started dying out. I struggled when that happened. My frames went right down, but they’re starting to pick up again now. People are turning back to steel. Obviously, racing lads will have a carbon frame because that’s the lightest, but they are so fragile that guys and girls like having a nice solid bike as well. Also, there is a lot of interest in retro frames. I do a lot of renovations of classic frames and I get a lot of the same frames back to be renovated that I built 25 years ago. There is a lot of interest in that and building steel forks. At one stage it was a steel fork with carbon frames, but I don’t supply carbon forks any more – it’s all steel forks and steel frame. I think that people now want the quality and that’s what they get here. JM: Why do you think that people are turning back to both steel frames and steel forks again?
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PEOPLE APPRECIATE THE CRAFTSMANSHIP. YOU KNOW, YOU CAN ACTUALLY GET SOMETHING THAT IS MADE IN THIS COUNTRY. YOU CAN GET A PERSONAL SERVICE AND ACTUALLY MEET THE GUY WHO IS GOING TO BUILD IT FOR YOU.
SG: You can get what you want, like a madeto-measure suit, but one that you can ride on and go round on. You can choose your colours and it’s more of a personal thing. I get a lot of middleaged guys coming and saying ‘this is the last bike that I am ever going to have and I want it to last’, so that’s where we come in. They come here and they get a good quality bike. JM: Just talk me through the process of how you actually put a frame together from start to finish? What happens from the moment someone gets in touch and says to you ‘I want a steel bike’? SG: They’ll call up, as I don’t really do emails and it’s more of a personal service. We will then have a bit of a chat, find out what type of riding they’re wanting to do and what sort of bike that they want. From there, they’ll make an appointment, get measured up.
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They can bring their own bike and I can watch them riding round for a bit, but I do have a cycle jig, which I can move round to all the different dimensions. More importantly, I’ll chat to them to see if they have any problems. Most people have back or neck problems, so they might want to sit a bit higher or they want a touring position or even an out-and-out racing position. We get the general idea of improving their riding position for the bike. From there I choose the tubing. That’s got to be suitable for the type of riding that they’re going to do and also their strength and body weight comes into it. If they’re a big, powerful lad, then you’re looking at an extra strong frame. JM And a wide range of sizes? SG That’s another aspect of it. I do make very small ones and I make very large ones – which you obviously can’t get from a shop right off the peg. Once they’ve decided what they want like colours, then we decide on a completion date. Maybe they want it for a special trip, a sportive or a race. Some people like ordering a new bike for the start of the season. That’s always nice. From there, we actually go on to building it. For the tubing, we either use Reynolds or Columbus – those are the most popular and the most top quality ones, really. Then it’s to the building board, where I cut out the frame and mitre it up perfectly. If it has lugs, then the lugs fit over the mitres, then that’s tacked and put in the cycle frame jig. That comes out and
it’s fully brazed and cleaned up. Then I’ll build the fork, which will depend on what size brake, mudguard, etc. Then we would put the stays in and balance up the frame with the wheels in, so if it’s a horizontal tube then it will be a horizontal top tube. Then we would clean up the frame and put like the bottom bosses on, all the gear mountings and brake mountings ready to go off to the sprayers, which is stove enamel done by C&G in Liverpool. The frame then comes back all sparkling and new and the customers are highly delighted with the product. JM: What advantages does traditional steel have over modern day carbon? SG: Steel cannot compete over weight with carbon frames. Lads and girls who are racing will use carbon because it’s the lightest and latest frames out there – that’s usually what people will race on. However, people who want to do sportives and other riding, you can come here, be measured up and have frame that fits you exactly and that you’re comfortable on. You don’t have to fit yourself into a small, medium or large frame, you can get something that is built for you to the millimetre. You don’t have to stretch yourself out or be bounced round by carbon, you are going to get a really comfortable bike that is a more traditional way of cycling. Steve’s frames start from £415 with fork. Steve Goff Cycles & Frames. Pimbo. Lancs 01695 720030 www.steve-goff-frames.co.uk
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FAT BIKES Words and images by Dan Kenyon
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“They will ride up hill technical rocky climbs better than any bike I’ve ever ridden. They float on sand and snow like nothing else.”
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KNOW THAT IT’S CHILDISH, but ever since I heard the term ‘Fat bikes’ I can’t stop singing the Imagination song: “Fat Bikes. To the days when the nights were young. Fat Bikes when we could do no wrong...” There you go, Leee (sic). John’s in your head now and if you’re too young to have heard of Imagination look them up on YouTube. One of our readers, John Moore (aka @johnclimber), who rode Killer Hill for us in Issue 4, got talking to us one day about all things mountain bike and beyond, when he suggested we
might want to take a look at his secret passion – Fat Bikes. The craze started in Alaska, when riders started to tinker with bikes so they could be pedalled across snow and, as people further south picked up the idea to use on dunes and beaches, a new form of off-road riding was born. Bikes are referred to on some American sites as ‘rigs’ and there does seem to be a big ole beardy check-shirted Fat Bike scene in the US. With mud guards and touring racks, they look surreal – like something Desperate Dan would own.
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John, who explains the appeal of having a bike with big tyres, said: “They will ride up hill technical rocky climbs better than any bike I’ve ever ridden. They float on sand and snow like nothing else.” In the UK, they are now becoming more mainstream with companies like Specialized, Kona and Trek – to name just a few – jumping on the Fat bandwagon.
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Although the scene may have started on these shores with Bruce Mathieson (Puglesy on Patrol online) in Scotland, the fifth UK Fat Bike gathering took place this summer in North Wales and the chunky club is growing every week. It’s the first time that I’ve ever ridden a bike ‘no hands’ on a beach, but riding such big bouncy tyres on the rough stuff does take practice as you get more kick back than you would from a mountain bike. John, who learnt the lesson early on, said: “It can be very dangerous if you get airborne on them. Three days and nights in Wrexham hospital are my proof of that. “It bounced up and hit me so hard in the nuts that I was knocked out with the pain before I hit the ground. Oh and the stem broke three of my ribs. My collar bone will never be the same again, but I still rode the same bike the very next ride, six weeks later.” So if you’re bunny hopping logs on a ‘Fattie’, keep plenty of flex in the arms and legs – whether you have nuts or not. Thanks to John Moore for letting us muddy his bike and show us how two fat bikes can fit in one Mini.
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SPIN CYCLE MAGA
KILLER
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AZINE PRESENTS
R HILLS
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WADDINGTON FELL KILLER HILLS Distance: 2.2 miles Average grade: 5.8% Maximum grade: At least 16% Height: 1,268 ft Feet gained: 752 ft
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OST HILL CLIMBS IN THE UK CAN be approached from either direction and with Waddington Fell, the Newton side is definitely the hardest. From the Waddington village side, it’s a pretty straight road. You can see the job in hand and it’s a steady gradient until last 100 yards or so. In addition, more often than not, you’ll have the Brucie bonus of a tailwind to ease your rump up the worst of it. However, from Newton, Waddington Fell is a tricksy, mendacious ribbon of Tarmac that deserves humbling by Quintana but instead sits back and welcomes the constant batch of huffin’ puffin’ amateurs like a school bully –
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with a playful cuff around the victim’s head to start with establish who’s boss, a pretence of play fighting as the teacher passes, before resuming the beating. Our friends at The Bowland Badass try and neuter the climb by calling it ‘The Big Wad’ and ‘Big Boy’. It’s a bit like meeting a bear in the woods, bowling up to it and trying to high five it. Approach with respect and deference, or run away, and you might live. To be fair to the BB boys, they do go on to call it ‘The Evil Anvil’ and not to underestimate it’s ‘rigours’. The Trough of Bowland, as a whole, has a deliciously creepy atmosphere when you ride
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it. If you look on a map of the UK, it’s the part of the map with the least main roads across it and, the lack of traffic combined with the enclosing rather tumulus hills, give the area an ancient, secretive stillness. It reminds me a little of that Hammer House of Horror story of the village full of cannibals that only appeared once a year to ensnare unwary motorists – all very Slaughtered Lamb ‘don’t stray from the path...’ territory. Waddington Fell has been much raced over the years by car enthusiasts and cyclists – the Tour of Britain crossed it in 2009 without losing anyone to werewolves or pagan ritual, but that was in daylight with a Police escort.
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On an empty winter’s day, in the gloaming, with the single crow cawing from the twisted oak, the whisper of the wind across the moors… I’m just saying. I wouldn’t venture across the Trough at dusk – even with an 11- speed.
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Where was I? Starting from Newton village, you point yourself at the highest thing in sight. Glide over a small stone bridge and you’ll immediately see the task ahead, as the road rises up through the trees for 600 yards. The good news is that this is the steepest and worst stretch of the whole climb – the bad news is that front loading the pain is not always the best way to enjoy the scenery. During what I call my ‘summer of cramp’ in 2011, which I hadn’t had before or had since, this stretch is the only hill I’ve had to walk part of in 25 years. Once you reach the farm buildings, it eases off and then grinds on up to a left hander and more open country. This left hander is, of course, a right hander on the way down and one to watch out for if you ever descend Waddington this way. It’s tight on the wrong side of the white line, let alone the right side of the white line and you have very little time to realise this – correct your line and cut 20mph off your speed before you reach it. Fear not. There is an loose dry stone wall and a short drop into the field beyond as a last resort. Climbing on, you hit another little patch of steepness before the moors open up. Taking the photographs, I danced alongside our Killer Hill model John at this point in true Grand Tour fashion screaming “Allez! Allez!” in
his face. “That...is..f***ing annoying,” observed John. Back on the climb, you then come around a left hand curve and the rest of the climb is laid out in front of you – with tiny white blobs of sheep on the far heights to give your grateful mind an idea of the distance you have left to sweat up. I remember contemplating this view the first time when I took part in the Bill Bradley Memorial Ride and having my moment of panicked contemplation interrupted by the chirpy voice of veteran champ, Peter Matthews, as he pulled alongside. “Is that a compact you’re using?” “Yes.. Pete...It...is” “Oh. I thought so..” Pete gave a condescending smirk, as he slipped into his bottom gear of 39/25 and pulled away. In the middle of this moorland stretch, you dip down momentarily then face another steepish section that you know is coming as you can see every rider in front of you (aside from smug so and so’s like Matthews, of course). Give up the comfort of the saddle and rise reluctantly into the final option of standing on the pedals. Even after this, the road curves around the hill to the right and the flat section crowned by the cattle grid that marks the top is an unnecessarily long time in coming.
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It graduates from leafy valley to God-forsaken moor before giving you plenty of fresh air and a sense of achievement.
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As far as climbs go in the area, it’s probably the most satisfying to tackle as it’s lumpy and long. It graduates from leafy valley to God-forsaken moor before giving you plenty of fresh air and a sense of achievement. Unless your daft and have decided to carry on to the Nick of Pendle and the Black Hill, you’ve probably finished the rough stuff for the day. It’s a careful descent from here and you’re in the rather cozy village of Waddington complete with the welcoming arms of the rather fine cyclist friendly cafe by the bridge. The Bowland Badass boys note that the Strava list for Waddington Fell is ‘populated by the usual bunch of local loonies’. You can count Ben Greenwood, Hugh Carthy and Sir Brad as certifiable then. The BB boys identify the KOM leader as setting a time of 10 minutes 13 seconds and issue the following warning: “Do not even think of trying to beat this time, even on a training day. There are two reasons: 1.You won’t beat it. 2. If you do, he will kill you, or kill himself trying to win it back off you.” Wise words from the Badass boys.
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G S A L G F
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O I GET’S THIS PHONE CALL FROM my mate Daniel “Sweeney I’ve got this idea why don’t you go out riding with james and jenny for a fortnight and document it…….” To put this in perspective, James is a legend not only known locally but globally for his cycling prowess and his shocking behaviour. I mean this maniac made the front page of the Sun newspaper for jumping off the Kingston Bridge into the Clyde – bike locked carefully to the railings, cycled across the Alps on his fixie with a house on his back, pioneered the first ever frozen canal Keiren on the Partick basin…..So aye,was the answer to that.
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I’ve cycled in every city I’ve lived in but nothing comes close to snaking your way through the hills of Glasgow.
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Anyone who cycles for a living in Glasgow has got to be mental. When its not raining it’s pissing it down. The sky can almost always be touched sitting in your saddle. The roads? Steep. Wet. Full of holes. But cycling around with James and Jenny rekindled a love for the adventure that every day brings cycling around Glasgow. I saw more of the city I was born in during those 2 weeks than I ever had before. Those 2 weeks became years and revolutionised the way I travel to work and resulted in an ongoing project. I’m still shooting to this day.
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Words and photographs by Brian Sweeney www.graphicalhouse.com
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THE RACE AGAINST TIME
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NOTHER SUMMER GONE and another British success story at Le Tour – not to mention the annual opportunity to win ‘His and Hers’ Boardman bikes. In The Race Against Time, Edward Pickering takes us back 20 years to find out just how success began for British riders and also Uncle Chris’s bike empire. Pickering dissects the rivalry between two peculiar men for the hour record, a few of the characters surrounding them, and the spin offs and the resonances for British cycling’s fortunes the Hour record created. If reading about two compulsive obsessives going very quickly around and around a track doesn’t grab you, I don’t blame you. I wasn’t expecting it to be fascinating either, but having seen the film of The Flying Scotsman with Stephen Berkoff hamming it up beautifully as an Anton Differing style Hein Verbruggen, I was prepared to give it a whirl. Surprisingly it was even more entertaining and bizarre than Mr Berkoff. Next time you watch Chris Boardman in his sensible pullover
analysing a Tour de France stage with all the expressive vim of a driving test examiner explaining your failure points, it’s worth remembering that this was a man who was, in his youth, riding right along the ragged edge – both mentally and financially – all for the sake of racing against the clock. Time trial, as Pickering admits, is “to cycle sport what prog rock is to modern music. It’s a dorky subsection of the form, populated by obsessives outside the mainstream”. Boardman and Obree were certainly nerdy; they still are today, but the technical and physiological advances both riders made in their struggle to go faster than anyone else and then faster than each other is the bed rock of modern pro cycle training and also adds another embarrassing chapter to UCI history. It’s interesting to find a certain Mr Verbruggen finding more and more
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By Edward Pickering Bantam Press £16.99
desperate reasons to ban Obree’s brilliant technical advances in position and frame set up – even after everyone else, including Boardman, were emulating the innovations. On one occasion, Obree elegantly satisfied the UCI’s ruling that ‘the tip of the saddle must be 50 millimetres behind the centre of the bottom bracket’ by putting the saddle as far back as it would go and then cutting its nose off. Then there’s the relationship between Boardman and Peter Keen. Keen was the forerunner to Brailsford, who really started the wheels rolling for British track success, but is now more famous the one who doesn’t have a knighthood yet should. Keen and Boardman’s hard work on how to use wattage as a consistent marker for performance culminated in last year’s marginal gains win by Wiggins. Sir Brad “won the time trial and time trialled the hills” to win the
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Tour and his success was a direct legacy of Boardman and Keen’s analytics on how to produce every watt of effort. It isn’t just the elusive Peter Keen who is re-interviewed. There are the largely unsung key figures such as Doug Dailey, the BC National Coach, who supported both riders and coached Obree while Keen looked after Boardman. Along with Keen, Dailey was instrumental in nurturing cycle talent and building the personal support ethos that is proving so successful today. There’s also the original secret squirrel Mike Burrows “a visionary engineer with seventies hair” – and perhaps a casualty of resin fumes, who first tinkered with carbon fiber in the early 1980’s. “We were going, ‘Shit! Ooh! Stuff!’ Burrows recalls enthusiastically. “What can we do with this?” Burrows was dismissed by a puzzled cycle manufacturing industry, who couldn’t comprehend the moncoque frame with no centre triangle space that he was showing them. “They said, ‘Why did you cover the frame up?’ ‘I didn’t cover the frame! This IS the frame!’ I got nowhere. They were as thick as shit the lot of them.” The old adage that history is
written by the victors is, unfortunately, often superseded by the adage that states that history is written by those with the cash. It explains why Simon Cowell is ‘a genius’ – rather than someone who just rehashed Opportunity Knocks and got very lucky. In a similar vein, Lotus took an awful lot of credit for making Boardman’s bike – just as Formula One were credited two years back for creating Cav’s winning bike. In truth, what happened in post Olympic gold at Barcelona in 1992 was that Boardman was so skint (in those days cereal manufacturers couldn’t see the relevance of cycling in general – let alone track cycling) that he had no bike to use for the hour record. Both Lotus and Halfords, who also owned one of Boardman’s Olympic bikes, refused to lend him theirs. How things change. Well sort of... although Lotus are still struggling with Noddy cars, while Halfords – at least – have shown a little more interest in Boardman in recent years. All in all it’s a fine read – although being reminded of Boardman’s proclivity for yellow and purple kit is an unwelcome part of the photo sections. The Race Against Time is beautifully researched and written and an essential reference for anyone interested in the roots of British cycling success on track and road.
“A VISIONARY ENGINEER WITH SEVENTIES HAIR”
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THE THE VIEW VIEW FROM FROM A A SCOTTISH SCOTTISH WINDOW WINDOW
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A week before the Tour de France, Mark Cavendish passes on his way to winning the National Road race championshp in Glasgow Photograph courtesy of Brian Sweeney
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LEAVE THE CITY COME BACK STRONGER
www.graphicalhouse.com
past – present – future
Nº6 THE KIT SNOB
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By Wheelsucker
club rider
O
H THIS..? IT’S A limited edition Velo St Sebastian Grande Departé Hinault jersey. Rapha made just four of them for the 60th anniversary of the only Pro Tandem race between Antwerp and San Sebastian... Merino?! Noooo. It’s made from yak wool from the Mottram Mountains of southern Nepal. All the wool comes from
the same Yak so they have to harvest it in summer. Strictly limited edition. Even Hinault doesn’t have one. Just me, Gary Kemp, Sir Paul Smith and an anonymous North Korean bidder. It comes with an additional ‘Du Badger Unleashed’ fabric badge – but I’ve stuck that on Ebay for £300.. Chance for the newbies to own a bit of cycle history...
NEXT ISSUE In 2014 SpinCycle magazine will become an online quarterly magazine. We’ll still be giving you great stories and features – but each issue will be bigger with more writers, photographers and illustrators. Many of you are still hankering for a printed edition. So are we and we have the answer. In 2014 we will also be bringing out our first, limited edition, Spin Cycle Annual. Exciting times.
SPIN CYCLE MAGAZINE 2013