Cycling

Trek’s 7.4 FX Disc is one of their big sellers, and part of the welcome trend for hydraulic brakes to appear on more hybrids. It makes much more sense than superfluous suspension forks.The Hayes brakes don’t have the absolute stopping power of some, but they easily have enough for urban riding and masses of control. Shimano provide most of the rest of the kit, the 48/36/26 chainrings and 11-32T cassette offering a huge gear range, particularly at the bottom end. Yes, there are largish gaps between gears but their sheer range more than makes up for that.Handling is sit-up-and-beg steady, not surprising given its lengthy 105cm wheelbase, a theme further emphasised by the relaxed head tube angle. This is great for high visibility head-up urban riding, and comfortable too, aided by the palm-comforting rubberised IsoZone grips. The 32mm tyres offer a good balance of plushness, protection from pothole-induced punctures and rolling resistance.Considering the price the 11.7kg (25.8lb) weight is decent. Wheel life should be boosted by the absence of rim brakes, and with rear rack, front and rear mudguard eyes and loads of clearance it’s well specced for year-round versatility, too. A top ride, good kit and a price your bank manager won’t blanch at – a star Trek and a special FX.This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.

Swede says Nibali is "solid" in lead

Daryl Impey (OGE) won the second stage of 2013 Bayern-Rundfarht. Gerald Ciolek (MTN) was second and Adriano Malori (LAM) was third. Race Results Bayern-Rundfahrt (2013) - Stage 2 Mühldorf to Viechtach (193km) 23 May 2013 Stage 2 | Stage 1 Stage Position Name Nationality Team Time 1 IMPEY, Daryl RSA ORICA-GREENEDGE 4:41:30 2 CIOLEK, Gerald GER MTN QHUBEKA 0 3 MALORI, Adriano ITA LAMPRE - ISD 4 ULISSI, Diego ITA LAMPRE - ISD 5 BARDET, Romain FRA AG2R LA MONDIALE 6 KREDER, Michel NED Garmin-Sharp 7 ELMIGER, Martin SUI IAM Cycling 8 THOMAS, Geraint GBR SKY PROCYCLING 9 GADRET, John FRA AG2R LA MONDIALE 10 RIBLON, Christophe FRA AG2R LA MONDIALE 11 BARGUIL, Warren FRA ARG 12 BOUET, Maxime FRA AG2R LA MONDIALE 13 WYSS, Marcel CHE IAM Cycling 14 HERKLOTZ, Silvio DEU Team Stölting 15 PINEAU, Cédric FRA FDJ-BIG MAT 16 NIEVE ITURALDE, Mikel ESP EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 17 GESCHKE, Simon GER ARG 18 CLARKE, Simon AUS ORICA-GREENEDGE 19 PARDILLA BELLON, Sergio ESP MTN QHUBEKA 20 HAUSSLER, Heinrich AUS IAM Cycling 21 TANKINK, Bram NED Blanco 22 LELAY, David FRA SAUR - SOJASUN 23 BARTA, Jan CZE TEAM NETAPP - ENDURA 24 ROY, Jérémy FRA FDJ-BIG MAT 25 ROLLAND, Pierre FRA TEAM EUROPCAR 26 KLEMME, Dominic GER IAM Cycling 27 MALACARNE, Davide ITA TEAM EUROPCAR 28 SWIFT, Ben GBR SKY PROCYCLING 29 THURAU, Björn GER TEAM EUROPCAR 11 30 DENIFL, Stefan AUT IAM Cycling 31 PINOT, Thibaut FRA FDJ-BIG MAT 32 SCHELLING, Patrick SUI IAM Cycling 33 CHEREL, Mikael FRA AG2R LA MONDIALE 34 LÖFKVIST, Thommas SWE IAM Cycling 15 35 STANNARD, Ian GBR SKY PROCYCLING 36 TALABARDON, Yannick FRA SAUR - SOJASUN 37 MORI, Manuele ITA LAMPRE - ISD 22 38 SCHILLINGER, Andreas GER TEAM NETAPP - ENDURA 23 39 FEILLU, Brice FRA SAUR - SOJASUN 26 40 MARTIN, Daniel IRL Garmin-Sharp 41 41 KADRI, Biel FRA AG2R LA MONDIALE 42 CUNEGO, Damiano ITA LAMPRE - ISD 50 43 BONO, Matteo ITA LAMPRE - ISD 44 KENNAUGH, Peter GBR SKY PROCYCLING 56 45 HOLLER, Nikodemus GER THÜRINGER ENERGIE TEAM +2:13 46 GAUTIER, Cyril FRA TEAM EUROPCAR +2:49 47 ARNDT, Nikias GER ARG +4:00 48 BAUER, Jack NZL Garmin-Sharp +10:28 49 OFFREDO, Yoann FRA FDJ-BIG MAT +12:38 50 RUSSAN, Meran ERI MTN QHUBEKA 51 O'GRADY, Stuart AUS ORICA-GREENEDGE 52 REIMER, Martin DEU MTN QHUBEKA 53 KONOVALOVAS, Ignatas LTU MTN QHUBEKA 54 WETTERHALL, Alexander SWE TEAM NETAPP - ENDURA 55 GERRANS, Simon AUS ORICA-GREENEDGE 56 LOBATO DEL VALLE, Juan Jose ESP EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 57 BEWLEY, Sam NZL ORICA-GREENEDGE 58 CIMOLAI, Davide ITA LAMPRE - ISD 59 PEREZ MORENO, Ruben ESP EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 60 LOZANO RIBA, David ESP TEAM NOVO NORDISK 61 FRÖHLINGER, Johannes GER ARG 62 W

New change for Stage 19The web cam imagery from the Stelvio is enough to make me throw another log on the fire.See live cam here.The Passo dello Gavia and Stelvio is cancelled due to snow. In it's place a longer stage (160km from the scheduled 139km) including-le the 'smaller' climbs of Passo del Tonale and Passo Castrin await the riders. It may look like a lesser stage, removed of the epic Gavia and Stelvio, and Saturday's four climbs are covered in snow threatening to be a truncated stage. There's still a battle for podium between Evans, Uran and Scarponi. The way Nibali is riding, the race is for second and third. The young riders classification is a wicked duel between Rafal Majka (currently leading by 2 seconds) over Carlos Betancur....Lots of drama left!

In addition to the long travel TS8 suspension fork, Magura had something else up their sleeve. Something...

Euskaltel leader still hoping for stage victory

First, I hate you. It's not nice to take other people's things: bikes, headlights, boyfriends, whatever. If it clearly belongs to someone else, yet knowing that, you take it anyway, you are a douche and I hate you.Second, it's broken, as you either already know or will find out shortly, so good luck with that. Moreover, the rechargeable batteries are like eight years old and nearing the end of their useful life, so I won't miss those very much, either. (In fact, there's another little surprise waiting for you when you do decide to replace the batteries.) True, it's a rather large financial inconvenience to have to replace my blinky headlight before, instead of after, I start my new full-time job, but I could probably make do with another cheap Knog or two until I have money again.Third, I'm curious as hell as to why you chose today, of all days, to steal the damned thing, considering it's been sitting there for the taking on my handlebars outside all day (and sometimes half the night) all fall, winter, and the first half of spring. I mean, basically, any day it wasn't warm enough to go bare-handed, I just left it on there, since it's a pain in the ass to pry off with cold, numb fingers (on account of it being broken), as I'm sure you've already figured out. Because hey (so I reasoned), if it hasn't been stolen yet, then who's going to steal it now? Well, you, obviously, but why wait until the end of May? If it was a crime of opportunity, then I must say that as a thief you kind of suck, since it took you until freaking now to seize that opportunity. In fact, had the cold front not suddenly appeared last night, you would have missed it altogether, and my broken, dying blinky headlight would still be safe in my possession.Now, I suppose it's possible that you're actually some poor schmo who got stuck in the dark with no headlight, and being so desperate to ride in a safe and careful manner, and seeing mine, and also seeing the bracket for my other headlight, you made the terrible decision to "borrow" it, and the fact that it's broken and the batteries are half-dead anyway makes you feel slightly better about the situation. However, I have little to no faith in the goodness of humanity, so I'm more likely to believe that you're just a douche who takes things that belong to other people simply because you can and for no other reason. And that's why I hate you.

We’ve all been there. You’re just riding down the road, minding your own business, when a motorist drives past you, missing you by mere centimetres. It can be scary and frustrating and it’s almost always dangerous. So what can we do to avoid being “buzzed”? Is it safer to ride further out from the curb? A few weeks ago I was riding down Punt Road on my way to CyclingTips HQ when a van sped past me far too close, the vehicle’s wing mirror missing me by roughly 10cm: After posting the above video to YouTube I received a bunch of comments, including the regular anti-cycling comments you might expect on YouTube: “Get off the road then u mong. And get a car u f***ing hippie”, read one. “Mate I would have been closer shouldn’t be riding on the road”, read another. And then there was this old chestnut: “Should be paying bicycle rego.” But among the predictable and unhelpful comments others also suggested I should have been riding further out from the curb, to force passing motorists to use the other lane. First thing’s first: what’s the maximum distance from the curb a cyclist can ride, according to the road rules? I’ve looked through the 480-page-long Victorian Road Safety Road Rules 2009 and as far as I can tell there’s nothing in there saying a cyclist can’t use the entire lane if necessary. This is because the road rules treat cyclists the same as drivers unless otherwise stated (see rule 19). But there are a number of road rules we cyclists should be mindful of when selecting a lane position. Rule 129 says “A driver on a road (except a multi-lane road) must drive as near as practicable to the far left side of the road.” You could argue that riding close to the gutter isn’t “practicable” for a number of reasons. There’s often more debris and drain covers closer to the edge of the road and, perhaps more importantly, riding close to the curb gives you less bail-out room if a motorist does get too close. Rule 253 says that a driver or rider must not “cause a traffic hazard by moving into the path of a driver or pedestrian” and rule 125 prevents drivers (and therefore riders) from “unreasonably obstructing drivers or pedestrians”. It’s interesting to note that rule 125 also makes it clear that merely travelling slower than other traffic does not constitute a breach of the road rules … unless the driver is moving “abnormally slow” (follow the link above for a definition). As long as these conditions are met, and as long we aren’t riding more than two abreast (rule 151) – except while overtaking – it’s legal to use as much of the lane as necessary. And speaking of questions of legality, what does the law say about motorists who pass cyclists as closely as in the video above? Commenting on the video, Sergeant Arty Lavos, State Bicycle Operations Coordinator at Victoria Police said “The driver in the video has not really committed an offence”. In response, Garry Brennan from Bicycle Network told us his organisation has been informed of cases where police have acted against drivers in similar circumstances, citing rule 144: “Keeping a safe distance when overtaking”. Either way, the actions of the motorist in the video above certainly aren’t recommended by VicRoads on the organisation’s Share the Road page: “Be patient and give bike riders a clearance of at least one metre when passing [cyclists], more if travelling over 60km/h.” So could the “buzzing” in the video above have been prevented if I’d been further out from the curb? A paper published in the Accident Analysis & Prevention journal in 2007 by Dr Ian Walker from the University of Bath would suggest not. With one of his colleagues in the engineering department at the University of Bath, Dr Walker modified a bike to carry an “accurate ultrasonic distance sensor” which could record how close motorists got as they passed the cyclist. There were a number of i

For my 40th birthday celebration I treated myself to one of my guilty pleasures – a mountain bike stage race. But this wasn’t just any mountain bike enduro. It was held in Alice Springs and features 200 competitors from all over Australia riding some of the most unique trails I’ve ever seen. Thanks to the folks at Rapid Ascent, they hooked me up with a media entry which gave me the best excuse I could come up with to travel to Alice Springs for a week of incredible Mountain Biking You can read each of my brief stage reports below, but I’ll give you a short recap of the event itself. Let me begin by saying that Alice Springs is a mecca for mountain biking. Each of the five trails that we did were vastly different and I can only imagine how much more exploring there is to be done. Within a few minute ride from Alice Springs itself you have dozens of trail options that remind me of what you’d find in Arizona, California or Mexico (i.e. very desert-like, rocky and singletrack heaven). Don’t forget the tyre sealant – all those sharp thorns from various vegetation are like magnets to the tyres. The event itself had the vibe of showing up to a local mountain bike race, but most of the people were from elsewhere around Australia. Many of the competitors stayed at the same hotel (the Chifley) as were many of the stage starts and presentations. By the time the week was done, it felt like you had 200 new mates. The racing itself was either ultra-competitive, or as relaxed as you wanted it to be. At the pointy end there were World Cup standard racers fighting it out on every stage. At the back of the race there were all sorts of riders who were there simply to enjoy the atmosphere and ride some of Australia’s best trails. If you’re looking for something new or an excuse to visit one of the coolest places I’ve been to in Australia, I highly recommend signing up for this event next year. Click here for detailed race results. Find out more about the Ingkerreke Commercial Mountain Bike Enduro here. STAGE REPORTS Stage 1: Two stages were held on day 1 yesterday and there was no easing into it. The first stage was a quick 42km loop west of Alice Springs finishing on the town’s velodrome. I placed myself in the start grid based on the look of the competitors around me (right in with the guys with beards and hairy legs). As it turned out, I nailed it and immediately found my place in the pecking order. Nearly every kilometer of stage 1 was flowing singletrack and the trail conditions were perfect with some recent rain. As always, there are some unique characteristics to these trails and the two that stand out are the jagged rocks that hit your pedals more times than not, and the razor sharp needles that stick into your tyres (there’s no way you’d make it without slime in the tyres). In the end I managed to follow someone who was better than me and pushed me all the way to 13th place overall (1st in my new category, the 40-49 year olds!). Stage 2: Later that evening we had the stage 2 time trial up Anzac Hill. It was only 300m long but an average of 11%. It was a fantastic atmosphere with many locals lining the road shaking cowbells in our ears. I hit it as hard as I possibly could and thought for certain that nobody would be able to beat my time. Was I ever wrong! I managed to get a time of 1:01 (9th in Vets, 43rd overall) and the winning time was by Andrew Blair (also winner of stage 1) who bombed up that hill in 44 seconds! (The Strava segment for the hill can be found here). Today’s Stage 3 is 49km through some of the region’s best trails – apparently more singletrack heaven over fast, flowing and undulating terrain. Let’s see if I can hold together my lead in the Vets category. I’ll beat up on them while I can! Stage 3: Stage 3 didn’t exactly go as I envisioned it the night before. I started the day in yellow (40-49 Vets) and while I had no upfront hopes of winning my category, it’s n

In the latest round of trickle-down news, SRAM has announced key upgrades to its X0, X9 and X7 trigger shifters, infusing many of the features currently found in the XX and XX1 models. SRAM also added a new budget-priced X7 Type 2 rear derailleur with its impressive clutched-pulley cage.Visual changes to the 10-speed shifters are dramatic with the new X0, X9 and X7 triggers all sporting a trimmer and more streamlined shape. The X0 model also retains its adjustable cable pull lever that allows riders to more finely tune the ergonomics.The changes are more than skin-deep, too, with all three boasting XX-level internals, including SRAM's Zero Loss mechanism for faster shifts and shorter lever throws, according to SRAM, plus ball bearings for the X0 and X9 levers. X7 will carry on with bushings to keep the cost down but the cover will sport a more convenient rubber flap for quicker cable changes.The new XO shifters feature a trimmed-down shape similar to that of XX and XX1All of the new shifters should be available now. We're still waiting for claimed weights from SRAM but prices are as follows:· SRAM X0 trigger shifters, US$262/€236 per pair· SRAM X9 trigger shifters, US$123/€111 per pair· SRAM X7 trigger shifters, US$70/€63 per pairAlso arriving in stores right now is the new X7 Type 2 rear derailleur with the same pulley-controlling roller clutch as on the current XX1, X0 and X9 Type 2 models, meaning that even riders on a tight budget will be able to enjoy quieter drivetrains, less chain slap and better chain security. Also making its way on to the X7 Type 2 rear derailleur is the same Cage Lock feature, which locks the pulley cage in a forward position and removes chain tension for easier wheel changes.Claimed weight is 293g and suggested retail price is US$89/€80. SRAM will offer the X7 Type 2 rear derailleur in short, medium, and long pulley cages with maximum cassette cog compatibility up to 36 teeth.The new X7 Type 2 derailleur has a clutch in the lower pulley to decrease noise and improve chain retention