Tech

On Banning Powermeters

Tour de France founder Henri Desgrange toyed with format, teams, bikes and more all the time and his spirit lives on the annual suggestions after the Tour de France to make changes to the race and the sport as a whole. His successor Christian Prudhomme says power meters should be banned in racing.

But there’s a risk with the logical fallacy that “something must be done, here’s something, we must do it”. Banning the use of power meters sounds useful but probably isn’t and above all we should be wary of quick solutions.

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Team Sky’s “New” Skinsuit

Much has been made of Team Sky placing four riders in the top-10 of the Tour de France’s opening stage, including the special skinsuit with talk of a special new fabric incorporating aerodynamic advantages. Here’s a closer look at the material and the topic.

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Rivals Under One Roof

Alejandro Valverde finished ahead of Alberto Contador in the Ruta Del Sol last weekend. The two Spaniards are rivals but have plenty in common, from nationality to anti-doping bans. What you might not have noticed is that both ride bikes made in the same factory.

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Wednesday Shorts

We’ve got action on many fronts with races in Oman, Algarve and Andalucia today. This can be confusing: Which race do we follow? Why aren’t the best riders together in the same race?

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Garmin 820 Edge Review

Garmin Edge 820

After using the Garmin 820 Edge for six months here’s a review of this bike computer. Tech reviews are rare here but this one is partly prompted by glowing reviews elsewhere which seem way too generous for a product that struggles with the basics like usability and battery life.

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Book Review: Pinpoint by Greg Milner

Pinpoint book by Greg Milner

Pinpoint, How GPS is Changing Our World by Greg Milner

Do you use GPS for your cycling? The short answer is yes because even if you don’t have a bike computer on your bars or a smartphone in your pocket the satellite technology would have contributed to your ride in other ways from making that paper map to guiding the deliver truck that brought the spare parts for your bike to your home or local bike shop. GPS is everywhere and it’s free. How did this happen? Pinpoint tells the history of its creation and explores the use today.

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Watts Going On

One side-story to the Tour de Suisse was the deal with Velon and the Infront marketing agency to bring live speed, power, heart rate and cadence data from the race to television viewers, as well as added on-bike camera footage. It’s been done before but now feels like the start of something that’s here to stay but if this is going to happen it requires context, explanation and a little less hype.

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The Disc Brake Fiasco

Lars Van Der Haar

As product tests go this was not the case-study people had planned. When it was announced that disc brakes could be allowed on a trial basis it looked like an open door for the product to become established: a courtesy before a formality. Then Francisco Ventoso crashed in Paris-Roubaix, slammed into a disc and sliced his leg. He typed an open letter, used words like “machete” and within hours the trial was ended and disc brakes are banned.

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2016 Pro Team Bikes

Here is the list of who is riding what in 2016. You’ll find all the pro team bikes for the 18 World Tour teams and the 23 Pro Continental teams. As usual it’s a mixed story with many top teams using the mix-and-match approach to parts in order to accommodate more paying sponsors.

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