Cycling

Hopes that event will return for 69th edition in 2014 with TDF Grand Depart tie-in read more

Colombian wants to ride 2014 Tour de France as a team leader

François Gissy sets new world record on the scariest-looking bike we've seen for a while read more

More than 62,000 people have now signed petition, but more needed if it is to stand chance of being debated read more

Scott’s Lin helmet packs one hell of a feature-filled punch. The in-mould construction has 18 whopping vents and some deep internal channelling, which does a good job of keeping your head cool even after you’ve trudged up long, sweaty climbs. Inside, the thin padding helps create a comfortable fit and wicks well when things heat up. The adjustable cradle uses Scott’s RAS (Rotary Adjustment System) technology to help tailor the fit using a small, quite narrow, indexed clicker wheel. Although this works well enough, after months of getting caked in mud, it can get a little gritty and doesn’t turn quite as easily. What makes the Lin really stand out is the inclusion of MIPS technology, a feature that most competitors charge an awful lot more for. MIPS is a low friction layer that sits between the helmet padding and EPS liner, helping to dissipate energy from awkward angled impacts to your head. It’s a great safety addition to any lid. All-day comfort is right up there with the best of them and the fact that the Lin weighs 278g certainly doesn’t do it any harm. We like the styling, and if green isn’t your thing there’s a full stealth option too. This article was originally published in Mountain Biking UK magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.

MPCC rules appear to allow French team opportunity to start the Tour of Switzerland

One of the guys I work with, Richard, is one of those people who like to ride their bike in places where there is no road. I know - crazy, but there you go. Apparently it’s even quite popular these days. I’m firmly of the belief that one should try every new experience in life (with the accepted exceptions of incest and folk dancing of course). So when Richard offered to take me out last Friday to show me what this this “mountain biking” (as they call it) is all about, I had to accept. But I was quite nervous about this for three reasons: Richard is quite fit. Put it this way - I can keep up with most people I meet on the road, but on the two occasions when I’ve met Richard when I’m on a bike, my attempts at keeping up have lasted less than half a mile, and ended with tunnel vision and a taste of blood in my mouth. He came 14th in this year’s Fred Whitton (and was disappointed with this result). Gulp. Richard is a somewhat experienced “mountain biker”. If you follow that link you’ll see he gets podium finishes in international races. He does things like 24-hour endurance races. Gulp. I’ve basically never ridden off-road. OK - that’s not entirely true. When I was a kid we used to take our bikes to the woods, and the last time I did this I was eleven. It ended with me falling off the back of my Raleigh Commando, and the Sturmey Archer toggle chain taking a chunk out of my right shin as the bike fell on top of me. Lesson learned, I have avoided such situations for the last 32 years. The route we took was from Blyth to Morpeth, having met first at Furnace Bank. I’d taken the road from the South, which is steep and has a nasty, rough & gravelly hairpin bend about halfway down it, and was waiting on the North side of the bridge. I heard a commotion on the other side, and saw Richard emerge from the trees with some foliage wedged in his brake levers. He’d decided to take the shortcut down the side of the hill instead of bothering with the road. We went and had a look back up it… it looked pretty much vertical to me, with tree root steps at the top. What was I getting myself into…? It actually turned out to be quite good fun. The route we took followed the course of the River Blyth to Bedlington, then did a short on-road section before again going through the woods to Bothal, and along the River Wansbeck to Morpeth. I even managed to pick up some of the language of this subculture: The route was mainly “singletrack”. This means it follows a narrow path. Sections of it were “gnarly”. So there were tree-roots and rocks sticking up. There were some “sketchy” patches. I’ve still no idea what that means, but I’ve been dropping it into conversation, and it seems to go down well. The route got gradually more “technical”. This means that it got less like a road, and more like an obstacle course. So the “singletrack” route was sometimes steep with sharp turns, or right next to a river with overhanging trees to dodge. Sometimes we were “exploring”. This means the same as “lost” does to non-mountain bikers. I know the roads around the route we cycled pretty well, but I spent most of the ride having absolutely no idea where we were. I was definitely “late” home. Again, this is like the kind of “late” you can get by visiting the pub on the way home, but without the beer. Or the pub. Yep. I can definitely see me fitting right in with this. By the time I got home, I was a bit of a mess. I’d started the ride a little dehydrated, hadn’t had anything to drink, and done a lot of physical stuff that you don’t have to do on the road. Wife was full of sympathy, laughing at me and saying that now I know how people feel when I take them out for a ride… Seriously - big “thank you” to Richard for taking it f

RCS Sport planning alternative routes for Friday and Saturday

3D printing is often in the headlines, in fact the technology looks set to start an industrial revolution of its own. Yet the use of 3D printing is still limited within the bike industry, so when Charge bikes released a video showing the world's first 3D printed titanium frame component we knew it'd get people talking.After collaborating with corporate research centre of EADS innovation works (The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company) Charge used a process developed for the aerospace industry to produced a batch of intricate dropouts for use in the frameset of the Freezer Ti custom cross bike.Watch below as Charge’s Nick Larsen talks to Andy Hawkins from EADS about the process of 3D printing and its benefits over traditional fabrication methods. Please install Adobe Flash player to view this content