Colin Lewis Cycle Chat November 2011

Cycle Chat 26.11.11

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year will be taking place in a few week's time and Mark Cavendish (Sky ProCycling) has to be one of the top favourites to win this coveted award.

What we do know is that Jeremy Hunt (Sky ProCycling) who is in his usual wintering migration spot in Australia will be returning to the UK for that weekend. Jeremy was of course part of the World Road Race Championship winning team and played an integral part in Mark's success. We will see??!!

I can well remember writing in Cycle Chat a few years ago when Eric Zabel won the equivalent in Germany that would the day ever come when this would happen in Britain. Hold onto your hats!!

Team Sky is quickly becoming not just our main Cycling Team in Britain but is setting itself up to be the top World Team. The team enjoyed a highly successful year on the road in 2011 and established themselves as one of the most potent forces in world cycling.

Benefiting from the experience of a year in the pro peloton, the team's second season was one of rapid progression and featured an impressive run of results.

The squad ended the campaign second in the UCI's WorldTour team rankings after strong showings in arenas as varied as the brutal cobbled Classics and Spanish high mountains. With 32 wins coming from 14 different men, the riders shared the load across the season which also produced an impressive 103 top-three finishes.

Top of the list of achievements was putting not one, but two British riders on a Grand Tour podium at the Vuelta a Espana - Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins occupying second and third places respectively - for the first time ever.

Well done Sky!! Now with Mark Cavendish Number 1 next year??

With Jon Locke now being with Endura Racing, Russell Downing, one of the UK's leading road racers of the recent years, has signed for the team for 2012. The former British road race champion joins from Team Sky where he picked up a stage victory at the Criterium International and a stage and overall win at the Tour de Wallonie. Much of Russell's 2011 season was spent in support of his team leaders and he put in a gutsy performance at the Giro d'Italia in May where he rode with several broken ribs to finish his first Grand Tour.

On top of the signings already announced, the signing of Downing brings a wealth of racing experience into the refreshed squad and they go into 2012 with a team that can once again punch above its weight in races all over the world.

Until next week,

Bob.

Cycle Chat 19.11.11

At last the promised Shimano's flagship Dura-Ace Di2 is in stock priced at £1600. We are the only shop in the South West with the Di2 available at this present time!!

We reckon that within 5 years time electronic gear change will be the main group set for the keen rider. It has been well developed by Shimano and is now reliable and of course a much slicker option than cable.

The Dura-Ace Di2 has made plenty of headlines and had its fair share of racing success, not least Cadel Evans, Mark Cavendish, and Samuel Sanchez taking the yellow, green, and polka dotted jerseys in this year's Tour de France.

Outside the pro ranks though, the prohibitive high cost has meant it's a groupset for the elite or deep of pocket. But we think the Ultegra Di2 incarnation (aka Ultegra 6770) may change the world of electronic shifting, as it'll be cheaper than mechanical Dura Ace.

But try before you buy!!

As part of Ultegra Di2's launch, Shimano have made available 1000 demo bikes across Europe.

The yellow demo bike is not available at CLCycles yet ( Shimano want to supply all dealers at the same time) but we are expecting delivery very shortly. Keep in touch with Cycle Chat for all the latest news.

As well as being a resounding success on the road, this September's Tour of Britain was a huge hit on television and online, recording a 17% increase in viewers to the daily ITV4 highlights.

On average over 483,000 viewers tuned in to see highlights of Britain's biggest professional cycle race, an increase of 17% over 2010's average reach of 401,000.

More details on the 2012 Tour of Britain, which will take place between Sunday 9 and Sunday 16 September, will be revealed in the New Year, with the full route announced in the Spring. Watch this space!!

Ben Swift opened British riders' 2011 victory account in January, winning two stages of the Tour Down Under in Australia. A further 45 major wins followed for British riders in the country's collective best season in recent decades.

In between we had local cyclist Jon Locke win the KOM in the Tour of Britain and the year ended on a high, with Mark Cavendish becoming the first British rider since Tom Simpson in 1965 to win the road race world championships title.

Earlier in July, Mark won five stages of the 2011 Tour de France on his way to clinching the green points classification jersey, a British first.

All this success has secured for Great Britain the maximum rider quota for the men's Olympic road race on 28 July 2012 when the UCI confirmed GB will be allocated five places in the race. It was also announced that two members of the squad will ride the men's Olympic time trial event three days later.

Until next week,

Bob.

Cycle Chat 12.11.11

Team Sky are making a difference in British Cycling with their sponsorship and backing they give the sport and now Great Britain has secured the maximum rider quota for the men's Olympic road race on 28 July 2012.

The UCI confirmed GB will be allocated five places in the race. It was also announced that two members of the squad will ride the men's Olympic time trial event three days later.

The announcement comes on the back of a hugely successful season on the road for British riders, culminating in Mark Cavendish's World Championship win in Copenhagen last month.

Next question will be who will these 5 riders be apart from Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish?? My first 2 would be Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome. Number 5?? Answers to Simon in the shop please!!

Team UK Youth are a Team we are getting to hear more and more about (and now entering their second year) particularly with Magnus Backstedt in its ranks. I like the name as it spells out plainly their intentions. Now one of the riders we follow Yanto Barker (not quite a youth!!) has become part of the team my curiosity had me investigate since the team has now registered as a UCI Continental team.

The most important aspect of the Team is that they are sponsored by Formula 1 World Champion Nigel Mansell OBE. Nigel in his F1 days was always a man with guts and determination to win. That has been brought to Team UK Youth.

In 2012, the team will ride bespoke bikes from WyndyMilla and take on an increased programme in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world; spreading the message of charity UK Youth further afield.

Building on the success of the 2011 season, many of the team's riders will stay for the following season. The ethos being to develop and nurture talent at a high level with the help of experienced rider Magnus Backstedt.

New additions for the team apart from Yanto will be Chris Opie, Richard Tanguy and Swedish rider Christofer Stevenson. Christofer is a consistent top 5 finisher in UCI 1.1 and 1.2 races.

Included in the team is Greg Mansell (Nigel's son) who after a motor racing career turned to cycling in 2011 taking his first ever win at the Mountbatten Circuit Race in Portsmouth.

With the decision to register as UCI Continental, they will be taking on good races in Europe and further afield. This is so they can be as competitive as possible in Premier Calendar events and the Tour Series in the UK.

In keeping with the British feel of the team, the bikes of choice will be WyndyMilla's Massive Attack in custom white and Union Jack decals. Each bike will be custom fitted as part of WyndyMilla's bespoke cycling approach, creating Rare British Custom for the team. Riders will be fitted at WyndyMilla's store in Seale, Surrey.

Founded in 1911, UK Youth is a leading national youth work charity supporting over 750,000 young people, helping them to raise their aspirations, realise their potential and have their achievements recognised via non-formal, accredited education programmes and activities.

Until next week,

Bob.

Cycle Chat 05.11.11

What with the World Road Championships and all the moves by our local riders securing contracts for 2012 the European Track Championship got left behind.

But first of all it's an interesting read about Jon Locke who has just signed for Endura with thanks to their website:-

"Jon Tiernan-Locke (age 26) had a fine year with a stage win and 2nd overall at the Vuelta a Leon (UCI 2.2), but it was his dominant performance in the King of the Mountains competition at the Tour of Britain (UCI 2.1), where he also finished 6th overall that really brought him to the cycling world's attention.

"After a solid 2011 season I'm really excited to be joining Endura Racing and looking forward to taking on a more challenging race programme. Naturally I want to continue my development as a cyclist, and see Endura Racing as an ideal environment to do this in. I aim to hit the ground running in 2012, and contribute to the teams already impressive palmares, especially in the tougher stage races.""

So Britain topped the medals on the track and it all started with a trio on the first night.

Both the men's and women's team pursuit squads won their events with apparent ease, and encouragingly posted fast times on what is a notoriously slow track in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. Victoria Pendleton and an ever improving Jess Varnish rounded off the tally with a win in the women's team sprint.

Four gold medals won by British riders in the last hour of racing at the European track championships on Sunday ensured that Great Britain finished on top of the medal table.
Victoria Pendleton made up for her disappointment in the sprint by winning the keirin while Ed Clancy and Laura Trott won the men's and women's omniums respectively, giving those three riders two golds each.

The fourth gold came courtesy of Matt Crampton who rescued the three day competition for Britain's male sprinters. After the slip up in the team sprint, Sir Chris Hoy going home with a chest infection and then Jason Kenny missing out on a medal in the sprint it looked like being a disastrous competition for them.

Victoria won two more, first the individual pursuit, where she set a time that would be world class done in isolation, then the 500m time trial in which she was favourite anyway.

Laura Trott - who is still only 19 - is now almost certain to ride these two events at the Olympics next year.

So that was yet another boost for British Cycling. Well done the boys!!

Next stop Olympics but with a re jig of the team as the events have been re jigged!!

See you next week,

Bob.

Colin Lewis Cycles Limited, 17 Dartmouth Road, Paignton, TQ4 5AD. Telephone: 01803 553095. Registered company number: 4095543.