Cycling

As you’d expect from a garment with Pro and Team in its name, this jersey has a very close cut and the fit is superb. It’s not so skintight that it feels restrictive when you’re riding, but there’s absolutely no spare material left loose to flap about. The Pro Team is relatively heavy for a spring weight jersey, at 282g pre ride – especially given that it lacks the inner linings of some thicker tops on the market. After an hour of riding, its weight had increased by 195g but it managed to shed almost a quarter of that after being left to dry for 60 minutes.This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.

"Hi... excuse me... can you help me find this address?"An oft-used phrase for visitors in a foreign city. A few months ago I met up with Andy Cutler from Providence, RI, who was in Denmark to explore opportunities for Providence and Copenhagen to hook up on a creative and business level.He did a cool little experiement. He was here for two weeks and only got around by asking people on the street for directions, instead of using tech-gadgets. He wrote about it here, on the Better World by Design blog.He told me about it at Bang & Jensen café in Copenhagen one evening and I thought it to be cool.One of his observations is that Copenhageners - besides being helpful - never really gave him complete and specific directions. They sent him in the right direction and then suggested he ask someone else for further details once he got closer. I found that interesting.I've spent a awful lot of time thinking about it since then. Making mental notes of my own experiences. Asking friends about their wayfinding habits. In addition, I've been using a valuable resource at my disposal - all the guests who stay with me in my flat, my Airbnb room.The baseline of my observations it that Copenhageners aren't very good with street addresses. They'll rarely be able to tell you what house number a certain establishment is at on a certain street. Street names, too, are not something that roll right off the tongue when describing how to get somewhere. We live in densely-populated neighbourhoods with pretty much everything we need in close proximity to us. There are fixed points on our personal maps, sure. Supermarkets, cafés, banks (although less so these days with online banking), busstops, train stations, parks. When something new appears on our map, people have to start telling each other how to get there. A new café or restaurant, for example."I was at this cool, new restaurant last night. It was great.""I've read about it, heard good things about it. Where is it?"At this point a street name will, most likely, come into the conversation but rarely a house number. The description of the restaurant location will involve describing the new place's proximity to other established points on our urban map. "It's just up from XXX supermarket. You know... near XXX café.""Okay. Which side of the street? Heading towards the city or away from it?"You'll never get a specific location. You'll end up riding your bike to the new restaurant and, as you approach, you'll narrow down your wayfinding using the locations of the known establishments and finally spotting the sign for the new restaurant.I've played around with friends and colleagues, asking them if they know a certain place and how to get there. In fifty or so attempts, this is the overwhelmingly the pattern.I also discovered that I didn't know the exact street address of my regular haunts. Cafés, resturants, etc.. I often send visitors to the aforementioned Bang & Jensen café - a place I've been frequenting for over a decade. I seem to recall that the house number was over 100 and, when describing the location I'll mention some cross streets but I'll mostly mention shop names nearby by. Little pins on a mental map that will help the person find the place. If neccessary I will say "the house number is over 100", in order to help them more specifically.I just googled it and found out it's at Istedgade 130. I'm sure I'll forget that by the end of the day.I've also been asking my Airbnb guests if they asked anyone for directions while out in the city. If yes, I've asked what kind of response they got. Again, the same pattern emerged. Copenhageners were helpful but described things around the desired destination. Visual and textual clues to help them narrow the wayfinding journey. I also catch myself telling them how to get to places using visual references."It's just after a green building. There's a supermarket with a big sign reading FØTEX. It's just after that. Heading towards the city, not away from it."

NetApp rider claims win near sponsor headquarters

The Orbea Occam H30 is a 120mm full-suspension trail bike weighing less than 13kg (28.7lb) for £2,069. It's the cheapest of four Occams, although the distinctions between them are blurred by Orbea's custom options, which allow you to tweak the spec to suit your taste.At the back, the Occam has a concentric chainstay/seatstay pivot that's very similar to Trek's ABP system. The main swingarm pivot housing and bottom bracket shell are one forged piece, with the seat and down tubes welded to it. Under the top tube is a Fox Float Evolution CTD shock. There's a forged linkage pivoting off the top tube but it doesn't affect the leverage ratio – it's just there to keep everything stiff and in line.The chainset is a triple offering from Shimano's Deore line, while an SLX Shadow Plus clutch rear mech is a nice addition and should keep things more taut. Stopping duties are handled by Formula RX brakes, which come as OE equipment. The Occam rolls on a Mavic XM 119 Disc wheelset wrapped in Hutchinson's Cobra Air Light rubber.The standard H30 has a quick-release on its Fox 32 FLOAT CTD fork, but you can specify a thru-axle when you order. However, the cheapest QR15 upgrade option will add £280 to the price. A 710mm RaceFace Ride bar is matched to a RaceFace stem, resulting in a fairly standard cockpit.The finish of the Occam H30’s frame is sublimeIt’s also worth noting that the 29er version of the Occam is only £30 more for essentially the same spec.Look out for a full review of the Orbea Occam H30 in issue 149 of What Mountain Bike, on sale Tuesday 4 June. For more information on Orbea products see www.orbea.com.

Tejay van Garderen safely came through the final big test of the Tour of California to close on victory in the week-long race.

Whyte’s pitch for the T-129 is, essentially, a £250 cheaper T-129 S, crowned Trail Bike of the Year 2013 by What Mountain Bike. Given that the S demonstrates just how good a 29er trail bike can be at a very competitive price already, something similar for even less money seems like a winning bet. But if the £1,999 S is extremely good value, has the T-129 cut too many corners? Fundamentally there’s very little difference between the T-129 and its pricier sibling. The bikes share the frame, which itself shares its layout with the shorter-travel M-109. Ride & handling: Involving and rewardingThere’s already a lot of variation in the style and capability of 29er full suspension trail bikes. There isn’t really an accepted, or even common, way of doing things yet, but the Whyte manages to be different to pretty much all of them thanks to its short-rear, long-front and slack geometry. It’s not immediately obvious that it works. Climb aboard and the front wheel feels way out in front of you, with an extremely light feel through the bar. If your ride starts with a steep climb there’s a good chance those used to more traditional designs will be wandering about the trail trying to hold a line. Shuffling forward and deliberately weighting the front sorts it out, and the T-129’s short head tube and low bar make that pretty easy. The same is true coming back down the hill – hang too far back and you risk the front washing out, but shift yourself forward to a more central position and work the bar and the T-129 drops into turns with enthusiasm. The screw-thru axle reduces flex – vital with big wheelsOnce in the corner it strikes a fine balance between holding the line you’re on and making mid-corner corrections easy. Some bikes get scary when there’s limited traction, but the T-129 happily slides both ends at once and delivers you to the exit gagging to do the same again in the next turn. With a short back end the front is significantly more loftable than most big wheelers, although 26in bikes still have an edge here. There’s no getting away from the fact that the back axle is further off the ground, which matters when you’re trying to pivot the rest of the bike around it.This is one of those bikes that you have to actually ride, rather than sit there, pedal a bit and point the bar in vaguely the right direction. The T-129 demands a little more involvement than that, and repays you in spades.One thing’s for sure – it doesn’t leave many of those 29er myths, either new ones or old, standing.Frame & equipment: Daring 29er design with good specGone is the distinctive layout of earlier Whyte full suspension bikes, with a big swingarm arcing on a pair of short links and a shock nestling inside the front triangle. That layout, which Whyte have been using for years, is now only found on the 26in-wheeled 146. Whyte found the previous design lacking when it came to accommodating 29in wheels – to get the stiffness they wanted it was proving too heavy. In its place is a more conventional four-bar layout, with chainstay pivots, a small linkage at the seat tube and the shock driven directly by the seatstays. You don’t have to be particularly eagle-eyed to spot the similarity to Specialized’s FSR bikes, although there’s no proprietary shock here – the T-129 sports a regular RockShox Monarch RL. The new layout doesn’t have quite as much mud clearance as the old one, which made a particular point of tyre room. But Whyte have different priorities here, principally concerned with packaging big wheels into a compact, chuckable frame.One criticism often levelled at 29ers is ‘excessive’ length. Conventional wisdom has it that the chainstays on a 29er frame have to be substantially longer to accommodate the bigger wheel, and if it’s a full suspension bike then they have to be a bit longer again to keep th

A day to forget?via greenedgecyclingStage 14 was anything but normal.The miserable weather knocked out the Sestriere climb and organizers re-routed adding 13 kilometers to the day. Due to the weather, the helicopter was grounded thus unable to broadcast a live feed. RAI did it's best to entertain, by interviewing the fans along the route. Thanks to Twitter I was able to follow the action via Assistant DS Julian Dean of Orica GreenEDGE...Five months into retirement, this was not one of the days where I missed racing. I was very happy to be in the car and sorry for the boys as they suffered in the cold and wet, looking for ways to stay warm.We assisted with clothing changes all day long. The riders were constantly swapping jackets, gloves and whatever else they could to stay as dry as possible in the rain. At one point, we had Chinese laundry going in the car, trying to dry out the guys’ clothing that they had been wearing to give them the option to exchange clothes again later in the stage.As bad as today was, it doesn’t deter professional bike races. The first hour of racing averaged 46 kilometres/hour. Three hours in, and they’re averaging 42.5 kilometres/hour. By this point, the riders had become so cold, they were unable to accomplish basic tasks. They had to drop back to the car so that we could open their PowerBars for them because their hands were no longer functioning properly. God bless electronic shifting on Dura Ace. It’s much easier to push a button than shift a lever.The action was at the end for my feed was back on with cameras along the finish to capture the neon yellow clad Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini) crossing the line just ahead of the Shark to warm up the finish in Bardonecchia. Tomorrow's stage will not finish on top of the Col du Galibier but officially is moved further down at the Marco Pantani memorial. The weather is the deciding factor, and it looks like another epic stage upcoming.Here's the official statement by the race directors.Stage 14, Cervere-Bardonecchia, 181km:1Mauro SANTAMBROGIOITAVIN4:42:552Vincenzo NIBALIITAAST+03Carlos Alberto BETANCUR GOMEZCOLALM+94Samuel SANCHEZ GONZALEZESPEUS+265Rigoberto URAN URANCOLSKY+306Cadel EVANSAUSBMC+33GC after Stage 14:1Vincenzo NIBALIItalyAST57:20:522Cadel EVANSAustraliaBMC+1:263Rigoberto URAN URANColombiaSKY+2:464Mauro SANTAMBROGIOItalyVIN+2:475Michele SCARPONIItalyLAM+3:53Suave DS Gianni Savio on Nibali and Evans.Climbing High,Rafal Majka making a statement.One to watch is 23 year old, Rafal Majka finished 11th and is 7s in front of Betancur in the fight for the young riders competition. The cool story is that the young Pole was invited, in 2011, to the Saxo Bank training camp. Majka dropped Contador on the climbs, impressing Bjarne Riis that he offered him a pro contract on the spot. Of course, Majka signed the contract and the rest is history. I'm sure Riis is smiling!

Sprinter angry with race commissaires after suffering on the Jafferau climb

Tejay van Garderen is on the cusp of earning the first major stage race victory of his career. Photo: Casey B. Gibson | www.cbgphoto.comMOUNT DIABLO, Calif. (VN) — While BMC Racing ground the rapidly tearing peloton to dust high on Mount Diablo, Tejay van Garderen could have sailed away and tried for a stage win, an exclamation point on his Californian coronation as the United States’ premier stage racer. He did not. He stayed put, stayed close enough to the threats without a moment of panic. In short, he showed restraint and balance where, in the past, he may have tried to do too much. He was metronomic. “There was really no reason to panic. I knew I had an incredibly strong team, and I knew I had a solid buffer of time. All we had to do was just ride smart. I think that’s come with a bit of maturity. To learn to just relax a little bit,” said a happy van Garderen atop Mount Diablo. “There was no reason to try to attack the race, or blow everyone’s heads off. I just gotta keep cool and do my thing.” His “thing,” in California at least, is winning. Van Garderen smashed Friday’s individual time trial, taking the stage and icing his nearest rival, Aussie Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff). After gaining a bit more time on the above-category Diablo, van Garderen now sits 1:47 ahead of Rogers, and 3:26 up on climbing ace Janier Acevedo (Jamis-Hagens Berman). Barring absolute disaster on Sunday in a stage from San Francisco to Santa Rosa that touts no major obstacles, van Garderen, 24, has earned his first major stage race win as a professional, though his talent has long been known, evidenced by his fifth-place finish at last year’s Tour de France. “I knew I was going to have to rely really heavily on my team, and luckily we brought a strong one here. I saw them just take control from kilometer zero to 200ks … all I had to do was follow,” he said. “It was stress free — really easy. I’m really proud of my guys. Even if we were getting some GC guys moving, I just knew that I could stay relaxed, because I had strong climbers pulling me all the way to the finish line. It was just an incredible day.” He appears a slightly different rider this year — he says perhaps becoming a dad has changed his makeup a bit — and his confidence is only growing now, heading into the final Tour de France tuneups. He’s also keeping the pressure on his team at a minimum by seizing control of the race whenever he can, be that a climb, or in the crosswinds. “He’s still young, but he has a good team. … He proved in the past he’s a typical stage racer. In one-week stage races, he’s complete. Good in the mountains, good in the time trial. Good in the echelons. And he’s perfect for going in those races. I think he has a big future,” BMC sport director John Lelangue said. “He has already proven he’s there… each race that he’s doing, he’s always regular, making a top five, a top 10.” As a captain, team managers say he’s growing as well. Van Garderen was tough in the heat to Palm Springs, only losing a handful of seconds to Acevedo, and gaining time on other GC men. He was dominant in the time trial, and crafty in the crosswinds toward the coast, which saw the stealing of the yellow jersey from Acevedo. “The goal, obviously, wasn’t to win the stage, it was to protect the GC. And follow the race. Lead at our speed, you know, without putting any stress on Tejay,” said BMC president Jim Ochowicz. Van Garderen, he said, wasn’t told to not chase certain moves but was trusted to ride his own race. Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Leopard) said the win here in California must be comforting to a rider on the cusp. “I suppose it’s pretty comforting,” he said. “It’s not that far to go to the Tour. Having an overall win in the pocket with some tough circuits. Winning the TT in a convincing manner. Being strong and solid today. I guess he’s ready mentally and physically. It’s an important step for him on his way to a potential Tour de France podium this year.” The Tour is a discussion for

Stage winner riding his fifth Grand Tour in a row