Magazine

#trainInSpain with CMI Tours

DOPING: Frustrations of a Clean Sport

Roubaix Data Anomaly

Morocco Photo Reportage

GIRO d’ITALIA: Should Cadel have waited?

ISSUE #2

2014 CMI LIFESTYLE

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Produced and Distributed by the CMI Group © Copyright 2014

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Walled Cities: Tarn Trip

The Tarn is full of many old towns and walled cities, also offering some of the best training roads in the world. Pick you own dates

or choose from our list €1999.00 per person

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Page 13

Paris roubaix

• Terpstra Data Anomaly

Page 5

Doping

• Frustrations of a Clean Sport

Page 19

Morocco

• Photo Reportage

TRAVEL .

Page 23 Tourmalet with Allan Davis Riding up the famous mountain with a famous rider Page 15 Lifedge in Spain Read about Lifege founder Tom Reed’s trip to Spain with CMI Tours

TRAINING .

Page 7 Guiding with Power Page 35 Group Ride Rules Lean to ride like a pro

RIDES .

Page 26 Chateaux & Pyramids A ride through the Chateaux de la Loire in Central France Page 17 Wales (UK) We discover the Welsh hills

FEATURE .

Page 30 The Rapha Paradox Page 31 Wilier Bike Test Page 33 Giro ‘Italia: Should Cadel have waited?

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ANTI-DOPING PROGRAMME

After the election of Brian Cookson as UCI President on 27 September 2013, an in-depth reform of the UCI's anti-doping procedures commenced

immediately.

The resultant changes – whether already introduced, under way or yet to come – essentially have the intention of reinforcing the independence of

anti-doping activities and improving their effectiveness.

Frustrations of a Clean Sport

Our sport of cycling has had its ups and

downs in the past, with many of the downs making more headline news than the ups. Anyone who's been involved in the sport is all too familiar with these hard times, and the Lance Armstrong fall-out was felt hard and deep throughout our beloved sport. One of the reasons CMI was created was to get away from the darker side of the sport. At CMI we believe that winning races shouldn't be the only method of

promoting sponsors, partners, investors and the industry as a whole. There are many ways of communicating for a bike team that do not solely rely on race results. Bike riders are competitive by nature

If you think about it, any bike rider is a bike rider because they are competitive. If you aren't competitive by nature you might be riding, but are not going to be racing a bike. So let me ask you this: why would a team's management need to put pressure on their riders to perform? Riders are hard enough on themselves and they want to win; it's in their nature! This is one of the fundamental aspects of CMI. No pressure from management for results. This creates a healthy environment within which riders can evolve and perform to their best.

Why is there pressure on riders to perform?

In cycling the pressure to perform usually comes from the team management which is under pressure from sponsors and partners to get results. This pressure trickles down from the top to the riders in an unhealthy way. Management and sponsors don't actually have any direct control over getting results. When it really comes down to the crunch, it's the riders who get the results that the management need to keep their jobs and sponsors' interest. What this can lead to has been documented all too well over the past years. Getting results at "all costs." Alternative results

You can get results for your sponsors and partners in methods other than race results and first places. A bike team is a platform for communication above anything else. Obviously if you only communicate on wins and podium finishes your communication will be limited and has the potential to create an unhealthy trickle down effect. The ethos of CMI is to communicate not on results alone, but on the team, the team's and riders' activities as a whole as well as the lifestyle. Obviously we are over the moon with good race results and are constantly striving for them, but that is not our only means of communication. Unethical finance

With all this in mind it was with a lot of frustration that I learned of an ex-team mate of mine and good friend who in the past couple years "chose" to leave his team part way through the season due to pressure from management to cross that line in the search for guaranteed race results. I was very proud of him for his decision to flatly say no, and have the guts to turn around and leave. But he shouldn't have been faced with that situation! Not in this day and age! The frustration grew bigger for me when I realized there was nothing I could do

to help him. CMI doesn't have the budget to bring him onto the team, to offer him a platform of quality races in the environment he deserves. While other teams are still able to find sponsors and investors in these difficult times, and ironically, in a time when everyone publicly claims they want the sport to be clean and don't want to invest in a dirty sport; "dodgy" teams still seem to find a budget on which to run, while CMI struggles to keep it's head above water despite a quality professional (UCI) racing calendar and an ethos that should be the ideal model for our sport right now. So while there is clearly still a ways to go before our sport is where we truly want it to be, lets applaud those who ride in the anonymous shadows of enlightenment!

UCI anti-doping helpline +800 8884

8884

Educational Programme

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Hills of the Côte d’Azur www.cmicycling.com

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Guiding With Power

How CMI Tours used power at

#trainInSpain to enhance the training effect and make the ride a sustained intensity – kind of like racing! Sim started using a power meter early on in his career in the professional ranks to get serious about training and racing. Without going into too much detail, and by using a few “visual” representations we can show you how we use power in our rides - we think you will be surprised when you see what is actually going on.

We ask Sim a few questions about how he uses power in different scenarios and what he thinks about its usefulness for those of us who want to improve our strength on the bike. Power doesn’t lie! C.G/CMI: So you sat on the front of the

bunch a lot at #trainInSpain and everyone seemed to be just sitting in there - how did you keep it so consistent? Sim: I've been riding for a number of

years now and guiding for over a decade. One of the things I use my power-meter for is to try and make a ride I am guiding as consistent as possible and at a pace that suits the group as a whole. When guiding you generally want to keep the group together as much as possible for everyone to have the best ride possible. Otherwise you go too hard up the hills

and drop people, meaning you spend half the ride stopping and waiting for the dropped riders, or you go way too slow and half the group end up getting board. So i use power to control the group and keep everyone together. C.G/CMI: How do you know what kind

of effort is appropriate for a large group of fit riders and racers? Sim: Having trained with power for many years I know my own numbers pretty well. And by now I also generally know what a group of riders on a trip can do in terms of power numbers. But usually I will use the first ride to gauge were the group is as a whole, and then use those base numbers for the rest of the week. You will usually find that approx. 200W uphill is about right. That's just fast enough for the faster riders to not feel too easy, and slow enough that the

slightly slower riders can still hang on and get over the hill with the group. On the flat however things are different. When riding on the flat it's very easy to sit in and go fast no matter how fit or tired you are. Generally on the flat you can pull a group along at about 240W (a bit more if there's a headwind) which means the guys behind you are doing maybe 200W(ish). Again this keeps the pace high enough that everyone feels they are doing a fairly quick ride (especially when the ride is 5 or so hours) and they don't feel the need to speed off and break the group up.

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The Power File for a Stage of a Pro Race

#trainInSpain

Early Season Training Camp in Spain

Get away from the cold and prepare for the cycling season like the pros. Spend a

week in Spain, on the roads used by the pros for the team training camps, and get

in some solid miles in the a stunning location.

Dates: March 14 – 21 2015

March 21 – 28 2015

BOOK NOW FOR 2015! www.cmicycling.com

I find it very important to keep the group together as it makes it easier for everyone to get through the ride. Otherwise you have the strong riders riding fast, then stopping, and the slower riders struggling twice as much because they are riding into the wind all alone half of the day. There's also a lot more camaraderie when everyone is together, chatting and joking. Once you hit a real climb however, things are different, climbs really bring out the differences in strength, power and fitness as well as height and therefore weight. On the climbs it's every one for themselves, go up as fast or slow as you want, stop and take photos or time yourself like a TimeTrial, regroup at the top and tell war stories of your ascent. :) C.G/CMI: You’ve done some large

international stage races, can you give us some insight into what kind of power you are putting out throughout these races? How does this compare to a CMI training camp?

Sim: Stage races and one day races are very different. And a CMI Training Camp is close to stage racing in that it is a sustained effort over a long period of time day after day. Being able to go all out for one day is one thing, but on a training camp, just like in a stage race, you have to think about the next few days. In a race the first 45mins to 1hr are hard and fast, but once the breakaway goes it's pretty cruisy for the next couple hours. Then in the last hour of racing the pace gets blistering fast again. So for the first hour you will be doing around 300W, with variations between 150W to over 1000W as attacks happen etc. The bigger the race the less change in pace there is in that first hour as it stays around a steady 45-50kph until the break gets away. After that the main group usually stop for a pee break and

you'll be doing about 170W average for the next 2 or 3 hours (assuming you aren't on the front defending a jersey in which case you'll be sitting around 270-350W for those 3 hours). Then when you bring the break back for the last hour you'll be doing around 300W again (sitting in) which equates to about 50kph. If you are actively bringing the break back (ie: sitting on the front you're looking at more like 350-400W per turn). Believe it or not the average wattage for the whole stage might only be about 200W, which is pretty close to the average wattage for one of our CMI Tours training camps for the longer and faster ride of the day which ranges around 140-200W for 5+ hours of riding. The shorter ride of the day will obviously average less. C.G/CMI: So do you think that all the

“pro’s” are training in the same way, by using a power meter? Sim: It's pretty hard to find a pro not

using power these days. There's a few "old school" guys out there still but not many. Power really is a tool, a very useful tool. It's not only great for climbs, efforts and intervals and measuring your progression, it's also very useful for accumulating data over a period of seasons and calculating fatigue and fitness peaks. Contrary to what many people might think, the pros are not constantly out there trying to hit bigger and bigger numbers up every climb every day they go training. Power is a tool, not a competition in itself. C.G/CMI: If people on the trips don’t

care about power training and just want to ride do they have to be forced into using power? Sim: Not at all. Cycling is cycling and

power is just a tool within a cyclist's arsenal. You can still sit on a steady power by following someone

experienced in front of you. I don't use power when guiding to structure a difficult training ride, I use it to monitor the pace and make sure we are not killing people too early in the week. If you focus on power too much you can drive yourself crazy, which I think is what a lot of amateur or new riders do when they get a power-meter. The advantage of power for newer riders is that you can really learn how to pace yourself, and you can see where you are going wrong and when you are burning up your matches. It is very common for people to hit the bottom of a climb pretty hard, get their Heart-Rate up quickly and then loose power as the climb goes on. With a power meter you can see this first hand and adjust your riding style to not only get up the climb quickly, but ironically, more easily. However if you don't have a power meter and don't care about power, you can just ask one of our guides or get advice from us; that's what we're here for! Or if you really don't care you can just go as hard as you want and so your own thing. We hope you found this interesting. Feel free to comment or ask us questions online and we will do our best to respond. See you out there soon for a trip or training camp.

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#trainInSpain

Early Season Training Camp in Spain

Get away from the cold and prepare for the cycling season like the pros. Spend a week in

Spain, on the roads used by the pros for the team training camps, and get in some solid

miles in a stunning location.

Dates: March 14 – 21 2015

March 21 – 28 2015

BOOK NOW FOR 2015! www.cmicycling.com

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Location: Javea, Spain

Emphasis: Riding Skills, Training and fitness.

Dates: March 14-21 2015 March 21-28 2015 Price: 1499.00 Euro Based on twin share Meals: Breakfast and Dinner included Trip Size: 26 people max.

#trainInSpain

Our base for this trip is a spacious Spanish villa surrounded by orange trees. On the outskirts of the season-front town of Javea, Spain our villa is a peaceful and quiet place to base ourselves. Popular among Pro cyclists and teams for its quiet roads and wide variety of terrain, the riding is challenging but the climbs are not as steep and hard as the Pyrenees or the Alps. This is the ideal location for a pre-season training camp!

Ride details: Day 1 Arrival: 45km ride Day 2: 85km to Calpe Day 3: 120km or 70km Day 4: 145km or 70km Day 5: 25-45km Rest day Day 6: 150km or 80km

Day 7: 105km or 60km Day 8: Departure

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Roubaix Terpstra Data Anomaly

Pro-Tour is Faster

Racing Pro-Tour is a huge step up. Just look at the average speed of Paris Roubaix this year. As Niki Terpstra crossed the line in the Roubaix velodrome, the TV announced an average speed of over 45kph “Ce dernier a d'ailleurs signé la moyenne la plus rapide de l'époque moderne, à plus de 45 km/h.” Pretty fast!

Lets compare that speed to a lesser level pro race, in this instance Stage 4 of the UCI 2.2 Tour of Serbia.

http://www.strava.com/activities/781035/overview This rider covered the 240+kms at an average of 41.2kph. So not only did the Pro-Tour guys race 15km further, but they also did it at 5kph faster! Thanks to Strava and particularly to Niki

Terpstra who posts many of his rides to the popular GPS based ride sharing web-site Strava, we can now look at some of his Paris Roubaix winning data. In fact road.cc published a piece on Terpstra's Strava upload, pointing out that his speed was "some way shy" of "Peter Post who in 1964 averaged 45.129km/h". Anomalies

If you take a look at Terpsra's Strava upload ( http://www.strava.com/activities/130432764/ ), you'll see that his average speed was actually 41.5kph, and that does NOT include the neutral zone; a far cry from the claimed 45+kph by the media. So road.cc's comparison of the speeds between the 2014 edition of Paris Roubaix and the 1964 edition are incomparable. There was no Strava back in 1964, and if you look at the difference between the claimed speed and the actual speed of the 2014 edition, we have to wonder what the real speed of the 1964 edition was. Why the anomaly?

So why is there such a difference between the claimed average speed of Roubaix, and Terpstra's GPS download? There could be a number of reasons. Average speed of races is calculated on the time taken to cover the race distance published by the organizers. A quick look at the organizers' web-site shows the claimed race distance to be 257km (2km more than recorded by Terpstra's GPS). We can also see that Terpstra started his Garmin at km Zero (ie: after the end of the neutral zone

which is the start of the actual racing). Now lets take a look at one of the other riders who has posted their Roubaix data on Strava: Sky's Kristian Knees started his Garmin at the start of the neutral zone and has a total distance of 261km. So exactly when and where the TV guys started recording the average speed, and how they came up with an average of over 45kph remains a bit of a mystery. What does this over- analyzed geekyness prove?

Not much! All it proves is that there are discrepancies in numbers, and that different people might have used a variety of numbers to calculate their times. But at the end of the day, Niki Terpstra's winning Roubaix speed was 41.5kph, and our Equipe CMI rider's time in Serbia was 41.2 (and that includes a very slow 10km ride to the hotel after the finish). Let's also

remember that Paris Roubaix is a one day race, whereas the Serbia data is taken after 4 days of racing. So although there is no doubt that Terpstra's Roubaix win was hard-fought and well deserved, and there's no doubt that it was a fast race; lets not make these guys out to be superhuman extra-terrestrials.

Let's congratulate Terpstra on a historic

win, and maybe think twice about some

of the numbers that are brandished

around cycling; especially those that are

sometimes thrown around by people

intending to "prove something".

"Number's don't lie!" they tell me. The

trick is getting the right numbers!

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Breaking Out: Pre-

season Cycling in

Jávea, Spain

“There is hardly anywhere you

can do that” he beams, “just

descending for almost an

hour.”

At this time of year, the thoughts of any

Northern Hemisphere cyclist begin to

wander. Seeds of hope, planted by the

promise of summer begin to infiltrate the

stonewall mind of even the most wind-

beaten and rain-battered.

A long, wet winter can be particularly

punishing for those on two wheels. A lack

of dry miles leaving cyclists with more than

just a few cobwebs to blast away before the

season starts. Desperate for some extended

time in the saddle Lifedge founder, Tom

looked to Jávea in sunny Spain to get seized

legs spinning again.

On arrival, Tom and a group of other well-

wintered cyclists soon found they had left,

at best, some kind of cycling purgatory and

landed in a cyclist’s heaven...

“Each night we would all sit

down with a drink at the villa,

chill out and chat about the

day's riding.”

Getting straight down to the business at

hand, the group spent six days cycling

seemingly endless winding roads, nestled

between the Mediterranean Sea and

the Montgó Mountain. Eating, sleeping and

breathing cycling, they covered over 600km

in the week.

The proximity of the Montgó Mountain to

the coast, allows for challenging climbs

taking in panoramic views across orange

groves and fishing villages, before the

smooth surface of the quiet mountain roads

winds back down to the sea, the scent of

oranges replaced by an invigorating sea

breeze.

The highlight for Tom (his face lights up

when he talks about it) was an exhilarating

30km descent literally from mountain top

down to sea level. “There is hardly

anywhere you can do that” he beams, “just

descending for almost an hour.” Besides the

incredible cycling terrain, Tom also

notes the camaraderie of the group

comparing the feeling to that of a ski

holiday, with the social side of cycling

taking equal merit to the day's training.

“Each night we would all sit down with

a drink at the villa, chill out and chat

about the day's riding.” Tom explains,

“Then we’d eat...” Nutrition is key

whilst training and covering long

distances. It can take a lot of preparation

and planning, but CMI Tours who were

leading the training provided a chef for

the group, leaving nothing to worry

about but the important task of cycling.

It’s easy to see the appeal of such a trip.

Not only is it an escape from the British

weather and a chance to rack up some

high quality training miles in the

company of pros, but it’s also a chance

to focus on nothing but cycling. A week

spent yourself into a passion sport that’s

normally grabbed and snatched at

between breaks in stormy weather

and pressing commitments.

As spring limbers up in the UK, we get the

feeling that Spain won’t be the only place

with a bit of sunshine. With longer sunny

days comes a more harmonious relationship

between work and play. This means it's

much easier to get out riding bikes, and you

don’t need to head to Spain to spend some

quality time in the saddle

As the weather improves, we can forget the

frozen fingers and rain soaked jerseys of

winter and look forward to some great days

spent riding, but it seems you can't beat a

cycling trip to Spain to really leave all your

troubles behind.

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Great Rides: Wales (UK)

Sim Green dons his cycling kit and hits

the roads of hilly Wales. If you don’t

mind a little rain with your riding, Wales

has plenty of quiet roads, stunning

views and fantastic colours to offer

cyclists.

Land of the wet yet beautiful

I started racing bikes as a Junior in the

UK. The UK is where I first turned a

crank in anger as a young mountain-

biker. Having raced in Europe, Africa

the US and the UK, I still maintain,

believe it or not, that the UK has the

best Mountain Biking I’ve ever come

across… or maybe Santa Rosa…

Anyway, there’s GREAT MTBing in the

UK, no doubt about it! However, I have

avoided the “land of the wet and

miserable” like the plague over the last

7 or so years. I have memories of

training in the UK in August in tights and

thick winter jackets. So when I recently

found out I was going to be spending 10

days in Wales at the end of August, I

wasn’t exactly jumping out of my

skinsuit to go.

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in

the midday rain…

Despite my “glass half empty” attitude, it

wasn’t long before I was forced to turn

the glass upside-down and take on a

“glass half full” view of things. On my

first day in Wales, I put on my leg

warmers, my long sleeved jersey and

my winter hat and headed out the door

to ride on the wrong side of the road

with a slight grimace aimed at the low

lying clouds. Within 40mins of riding

however, I was forced to smile. I

struggled up a stupidly steep narrow

British country lane to find myself in

front of a stunning Welsh Vista.

As the clouds clung to the hills in the

distance, a lonely Red British phone box

overlooked an otherwise deserted pond.

What the phone box was doing out in

the middle of nowhere I still haven’t

quite figured out. But needless to say,

that from this moment on, despite the

chilly weather, I was keen to discover

what else Wales had to offer to cyclists.

Roads

Although the UK is hugely

overpopulated, vast expanses of the

countryside are still untouched and left

to lye in stunning natural beauty, only to

be disturbed by the odd sheep

munching away at the emerald green

grass, of the sound of a freewheel

zipping past. A portion of my 10 day visit

took me up to the coastline of North

Wales and around the area of

Snowdonia. Although British roads are

heavily used, there is a plethora of quiet

side roads at your disposal. And even

when you are forced to ride on the

busier roads, the British, in their typically

hesitant and gentlemanly mannered

ways, are courteous and respectful of

bike riders.

Mountains or Hills?

Although the UK doesn’t have

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any proper mountains, there are

plenty of short, very steep hills to

kick you when you are down. A sign

post during an afternoon ride

announcing 25% seems to be

engrained in my mind. Coastlines

often offer stunning views, and

Wales is no exception. There is

plenty upon which to feast your sun-

starved eyes as you meander along

rolling country lanes. Winding my

way through the slightly busier roads

of Snowdonia, I couldn’t help but

think of what a great place it would

be to hold a big international stage

race. Lots of nice long climbs, great

views, and the whole lot steeped in

the history and local flavor of quaint

old mining villages.

When To Go?

The UK might not be the first place

you think of when planning a cycling

holiday, but it’s well worth a visit.

When is the best time of year to go?

Well, it’s up to you, you can either go in

winter, when it’s wet and cold, or in the

summer, when it’s… wet and cold. You

must go prepared. It WILL rain, and it

WILL be a little chilly, but take a few

worm riding clothes and soak up the…

atmosphere. Even as I returned to my

sun-melted 35 degree roads of southern

France, I must admit, my trip to Wales

was well worth it, and I wouldn’t hesitate

to go again. Maybe see you there next

time

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Photo

Reportage

Morocco

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Tourmalet: with Allan Davis

My eyes are half shut, my hair is

all over the place and I look like a fashion deprived wannabe British pop star as I open the door of my hotel room and head for the elevator. A few months before he’d win the 2009 Tour Down Under, Allan Davis has beaten me to it and already pushed the button… Good, that’s something less for me to do. He’s quietly talking to his young daughter whose head is sticking out of the hotel room next to mine. She looks in as bad a shape as me. Eyes half shut, hair all over the place… I hate mornings! We are in a hotel in Lourdes in the Pyrenees during the Tour de France. Allan “Alby” Davis lives just over the border in Spain. He is not riding the Tour this year and has joined us for a couple days to help us guide our clients on the rides and tell war stories. Allan and I climb into the elevator. Allan climbs in with grace, while I stumble in, much to the dislike of a couple of Italians. Alby jibbers away to them in Italian. I can speak a few languages myself, but my Italian is as weak as a cup of British coffee on a Sunday afternoon. Then I remember Alby spent his earlier years with the Mapei team, so Italian isn’t a problem for him. After a pleasant and relaxed breakfast (I’m starting to wake up) we head out onto the roads of the Pyrenees for a little ride. On the menu today is 140km over the Tourmalet. Allan and I have a group of about 20 people to take care of. We are obviously leading one of the day’s faster groups… it is Allan Davis after all. Once we have negotiated our way out of the labyrinthine streets of Lourdes, I go to the back of the group and let the rest of the guys have a bit of “Davis time”. Alby is very friendly and down to earth, and is about as far from big headed as you can get. After about 40 or so kms I figure we can go a little bit fast, and I’m worried Alby is going to be getting bored at this pace. I roll up next to him and let him know he can pick the pace up a little. He looks at me for a second… looks at the road ahead… looks at me again, and says, “I was quite enjoying

this pace actually mate”. Perfect, can’t say it fairer than that! As we approach the little town of Sainte Marie de Campan at the foot of the Tourmalet (where Eugene Christophe famously repaired his own forks in the 1913 Tour) I shared a story with Allan. The previous year we had also ridden up the Tourmalet on the Tour de France trip. That year David McKenzie and I led a group to the bottom of the Tourmalet. Most bike riders hate stopping at the top of a climb. You just get cold sitting up there, and it’s bad for the body to then go shooting down on an even colder descent. But most people over on holiday want to stop at the top, get a coffee take photos etc. So Dave and I came up with a plan. We had a coffee at the bottom, then went on to a little bakery/cafй and had another coffee, munched slowly on a chocolatine and croissant with the local newspaper, and eventually meandered our way up the climb. As it turned out our timing was perfect. We got to the top just as everyone was starting to head back down the other side. This plan suited Allan just fine. He had got a flat tire coming into town and needed to fix that anyway. So we let the group go on ahead and settled down to “un café.” Coffees downed, we started up the Tourmalet at a steady but conversational pace, and it wasn’t too long before we started passing some of the other people from our trip. We slowed down every now and again to have a quick chat with people, before carrying on our merry way. It was turning out to be a pleasant climb. Allan was riding for the Mitsubishi-Jartazzi team at the time, and when a Belgian fan by the side of the road recognized the jersey he

started yelling, “yaaaa, Mitsubishi Jartazziiiii… VDB, VDB, VDB…” For those who don’t know, VDB is what people call Frank Vandenbrouke (the Enfant Terrible of cycling) for short. VDB had signed for the Mitsubishi team at the start of season. Allan gave a wry smile and little wave of the hand acknowledging the Belgian fan, and carried on churning the pedals. This was all good and well until we hit the ski resort town of LaMongie, 4km from the summit. Allan very slowly started to up the pace. After a while I had to go and sit behind him. About another km up the road, I was actually having to work quite hard to follow him. Now I’m more of a climber myself, and although I am nowhere near Allan’s level, I have won king of the mountains’ jersey in stage races in this exact Pyrenean mountain range. I have also climbed the Tourmalet some 25+ times.

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I am about as far from a sprinter as you can get… and yet here I am, getting schooled up the Tourmalet by a sprinter. And that wasn’t the last of it, things were about to get worse. As we exited the town of La Mongie we passed one of our other guides, British

ex-Tour de France Rider Colin Lewis. He later said that he took one look at us as we passed him (Allan cheerfully pedaling away on the front, me hanging on with my tongue hanging out like a dehydrated puppy) and just shook his head. With one km to go to the summit of the Tourmalet I was cooked! The sprinter from Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia had

worn me down. I saw one of our clients

and thought that slowing down to talk to him would be the perfect excuse for Allan Davis popping me on a climb. I tried to comfort myself by remembering that Allan is probably one of the better climbing sprinters in the pro peloton; that he won the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China that starts at over 3000meters; that he’s finished 5th at the Worlds twice… but at the end of the day, I just had to follow Colin Lewis’ actions and shake my head. After a quick stop at the top for some people to have their photos taken with Alby, we started down the descent on the other side of the mountain. I have frequently been flying down this descent and come across a herd of sheep in the middle of the road, or a lonely llama ambling across a corner as I come flying around. Allan being a true professional, we decided it would be best to take the descent really, really easy. With all the tourists around, a crash could all too easily happen. So we gingerly started our descent of the Tourmalet… until Colin Lewis came bouncing between the two of us and flew round the next few corners. Although not prepared to push it, we couldn’t just let him fly on ahead of us. So we let off the brakes just a little bit. So there’s a lesson for you. True top pros don’t always take all sorts of stupid risks on the bike. There’s a time and a place for everything. Admittedly Alby did spend most

of the descent on the phone to his wife, but still… Once at the bottom of the descent we got kicked off the road by a Gendarme more than 5 hours before the race was due to come by. Little did the Gendarme know… but this year, he’ll have a harder time kicking Allan Davis off the roads of the Tour as he has a good chance of being selected to ride the

event with his new Quick Step team. So, Allan Davis “the climbing sprinter”. And to think they didn’t know if he could make it over the Old Willunga hill at this year’s Tour Down under. With the hill being only 3km long, and with the summit a whopping 20km from the finish, and with my legs still hurting from last July, there was no doubt in my mind Allan Davis would make it to the finish with the main group on that day.

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Chateaux & Pyramids

As bike riders we tend to get around a

bit… on the bike of course! Riding in many different places around the world we are often spoiled for great rides, and we has chosen to share some of these

rides with you – more specifically, our man in France, Simeon Green, enjoys some of the best of what central France has to offer. I was up in Central France recently for a couple races. The weather was nice and sunny, and the day following the race I decided to go out for a little “discovery” ride. Leaving the town of Chateauroux I headed out North on a relatively big road. Chateauroux is right in the

center of France in the Indre department, and is also the finish of stage 5 of the 2008 Tour de France. The Monday I did this ride was a national holiday here in France, so the roads were quiet as I meandered through the lush green countryside in the direction of Levroux. The immediate area around Chateauroux is pretty flat. Belgium is probably flatter, but Chateauroux ranks up there among some of the flattest places I have ridden. Now I must admit, I’m not a big fan of flat areas. In fact I can think of nothing more boring than riding around on a billiard table. However the agricultural area of Chateauroux and its quaint little villages offer some much appreciated distractions. In all fairness, it really isn’t very long before you get into some beautiful rolling terrain that is great for riders of all levels and abilities. One advantage of the generally flat countryside is that you can see the top of the chateaus and church steeples on the horizon long before riding past them. As the road undulated past bright yellow fields of rape seed crops and past sleepy tractors chugging away working the land, the Collegiale Saint Sylvain church in Levroux beckoned from the slowly approaching horizon. As you enter the town of Levroux and zip through it’s peaceful narrow roads, what actually grabs your attention more than the church are the ruins of the Chateaux des Seigneurs de Levroux, which sits in demolished pride atop a local hillock (probably considered a mountain by the locals). The road takes you past the base of the Chateaux des Seigneurs de Levroux and rises uphill out of the town and through a small wooded area. Country lanes and tracks disappear into the trees, no doubt heading to one of the area’s many lakes where families pick-nick or spend the day peacefully fishing.

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Carry on a little further (22km further to be exact) down this pleasant rolling road and you end up face to face with the stunning Chateau de Valencay, one of THE Chateaux de la Loire. Having had a good look around the humungous 16th century construction, I headed back in the general direction of Chateauroux. As I was rolling down the road, I suddenly saw a tourist sign announcing “Circuit Chateaux et Pyramides” pointing right. I saw the sign at the last minute, and without hesitation I lent the bike over and shot off onto the tiny country road. I had absolutely no idea where I was going, but I couldn’t say no to seeing more Chateaus now could I? And to be honest, I was pretty curious to find out what the heck these so called “Pyramids” were all about. Besides, lets face it, getting lost is one of the beauties of cycling; one of the fundamental pleasure associated with a bike… it’s all about freedom. What better way to spend a day but riding around an unknown part of the world, with no preset destination or time restraint? What better way to spend your life is than getting totally lost on the bike and discovering places you would never come across normally? This tiny road took me up some much appreciated hills, through tiny hamlets, through the middle of wide open and deafeningly quiet farm-yards and over hills with stunning rolling views of the entire area. As the road nipped in and out of small local woodlands, the mixed yellows and greens of the local crops filled my eyes with rich, saturated natural color. I’m glad there was no one around to see me ride past these quiet

and mostly unknown little chateaus as I’m pretty sure I was riding along with the stupidest grin you have seen outside of a bad comedy sketch. In my entire 25 odd kilometers following the Circuit Chateaux et Pyramides, I saw a total of… lets see… ZERO cars! I rode past endless chateaus, some of

which I wasn’t too sure if they were really chateaus or just old tumbled down farm houses. The better maintained one were either chateaus or big luxurious houses. What did stump me a little however, was the lack of Pyramids. You’d think a Pyramid would stick out like a saw thumb in the middle of the flatlands of the Indre department of

France. Yet I failed to see anything even vaguely Pyramid-like. I figured they must have been a little further along the Circuit than I was prepared to go on the day. Oh well, maybe another time. Once I came to the town of Villegongis, having no idea where that was in relation to Chateauroux, I figured it was about time I headed left and hoped I’d come across a sign pointing me back in the direction of home. It wasn’t long before I was on the main road I had come out on earlier in the day. And before I knew it I was back home with a pleasant 100km in the legs and I ready to sit down to a good French lunch!

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But before any kind of lunch could be prepared, there was still one very pressing matter to sort out. What on earth is the story with these illusive Pyramids in the middle of France. A little research eventually told me I was actually much closer to them than I realized. My stomach was actually more in the know than I.

As my stomach grumbled for its much anticipated lunch, my eyes finally came across the info I was looking for online… Pyramids! The Pyramids are actually a local speciality; a goat’s cheese in the shape of a pyramid. I should have known! After all we are in France, and what in France is more important than food? Wine, you say? The sport of cycling? Although they are very close seconds, food is still “numero un”! So, if you ever find yourself in the Indre department of France, why not tuck-in to a Circuit des Chateaux et Pyramides? A la prochaine, et bonne apetit!

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Pro Mountains Training

€1700 per person

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The pros often go to the mountains for a week of solid training before a big event. Now you can do that too. Join us for some solid training.

Our base for this trip is a traditional Pyrenean house in a

quiet village in the heart of the Pyrenees National Park. This is the ideal location from which to start our stunning and challenging training

rides, as well as being a relaxing location for better recovery. Daily rides will take you through some stunning mountain scenery along

peaceful roads and on some of the Tour de France mountains you’ve seen on TV.

Daily sessions up to 140km in the Mountains will help you improve your riding skills as well as your fitness. Learn from experienced riders

how to improve and get the most out of yourself. Whether you are looking to improve on your riding and fitness, preparing for a cyclo-sportif,

or a youngster looking to turn Pro, this trip will help you progress.

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The Rapha Paradox

When Rapha clothing first appeared

some ten years ago, it was a brand of "retro" clothing. Designless wool jerseys that had thankfully not been seen for years were being made available once again. Mostly worn by old English men, generally seen in London traffic, sometimes seen riding in the French mountains with about as much style as an injured goat. They would appear out of the mist, looking like an old black and white photo of 1940s cycling history. A dusty (woolly) fringe company

At the time Rapha was nothing but a fringe product, appealing mostly to those who looked back and reminisced about their younger years of fitness and cycling exploits. Over the next few years the company grew little by little and developed it's own, minimalist style. Plain jerseys adorned with a single word, usually in a font only found over the door of dusty, going out of business, bike shops in back country France were encroaching on the bicycle clothing

market. As the brand developed further they also developed their style, and by the time of the introduction in the UK of the small Rapha Condor team, they had informed the world

of their presence. The classy clothing was starting to take shape. Sadly the team rarely left the constraints of the British borders, but when it did, it's style was infectious.

Rapha: a sign of depression

The Glodbal Economic Chrisis however, really saw Rapha hit it's stride. In times of difficulty, economic struggle and

depression, human beings have difficulty looking forward and imagining improvement or positive outcome. We have a tendency to look back fondly on better and simpler times, romanticizing the past as we have little to look forward to. With a stroke of luck, Rapha's timing was impeccable. As a majority of the globe looked back on previous success, everything "retro" was in vogue. TV shows such as "MadMen" became vastly popular. Suddenly wearing clothing that was in style some 60 odd years ago was "cool". Rapha's "retro" style, became mainstream, and it's classiness put it ahead of the pack. Rapha is just plain cool!

Like it or not, most of us are sheep. And very few people will argue (at least not successfully) Rapha's style and success. Everyone finds Rapha classy, and everyone wants to be like Rapha.

A quick look at Pro cycling will reveal a huge tendency for dark kits. Black is in, lack of colour and innovation seems to be the general rule these days as teams blatantly copy each-other's general designs. Even Lampre have toned down their garish kit, moving from a mostly bright pink, to a dominant colour of dark blue, with just a hint of the pink remaining. The exception to the rule is Danish team Christina Watches. In the past the team was dominated by black kit; this year however they have made an about-face and moved to very bright (and noticeable) red and yellow. Have Christina Watches lost all sense of

style? Or are they actually ahead of their times? Perhaps they are the first team to see the light at the end of the dark Global Economic tunnel to a

brighter and more promising future. You have to wonder how much longer the "Rapha style" will live on. As classy as it is, it is somewhat depressing in it's style if you really think about it. As we move out of the crisis, out of a decade of relative darkness and of looking backwards, it seems inevitable that we start looking forward to better and brighter times. We will surely (like it or not) see the reintroduction of colour and new styles into our sport's clothing designs. If not for style purposes then at least so that teams and sponsors can once again be distinguished from each-other, and stand out of the collective dark. Surely we will move towards a style, more akin to... say... the brightness of the 80s and 90s. Moving on

Are Christina Watches really ahead of

their times, or are they merely looking

back to a simpler, more successful time

as well? Is garish the new retro? If

nothing else, lets at least hope teams

come up with more personal and

distinctive designs.

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Wandeo provides a quality bike rental program to most regions in France, and the company is based near the beautiful city of Toulouse. Wandeo, as well of offering a full support service for cyclists and cycling trips, in the form of support vans, airport transfers etc, provides rental bikes of various levels for individual cyclists and cycling trip organizers. You can go to Wandeo to hire hybrid bikes, tandems, cycling accessories such a bike carriers for your rental car, panniers, helmets etc. What Wandeo is better known for its quality, full carbon fiber road bikes. Wandeo recently signed a agreement with Wilier to offer the Italian brand as a rental bike in France. Having recently taken delivery of the new Italian brand, it was time to hit the road and put those bad boys to the test. Cycling trips and training camps company CMI Tours works very closely with Wandeo.fr and they organized the ride for this test session.

www.wandeo.fr

Wilier Bike Test

On a sunny Sunday in southern

France, a group of 4 people took to the quiet roads of the Tarn to test ride the new Wilier bikes from Wandeo. The bikes

Philippe, the owner of Wandeo showed up to our designated meeting place in the cycling paradise that is the Tarn region of France, with a van full of brand spanking new Wilier bikes. The bikes are full carbon, equipped with Shimano Ultegra 11speed, and are pretty good looking too. Some of the bikes were decorated in Team Colombia colours, others in a matt black with red highlights décor. Getting an Ultegra equipped Wilier as a rental bike is a pretty exciting deal. Many rental companies offer entry level road bikes, or those who do offer higher end road bikes tend to come at a price. But at 45 Euro a day for a Wilier with Ultegra, if you are a serious cyclist looking to rent a bike in France, look no further! The Ride

Present for this test ride was Wandeo owner Philippe Sauvage, Lara Ferrin from Australia, Brit Alex Creak who is a Rolls Royce employee based in Toulouse, and Equipe CMI/Greenover rider taking a break due to injury Simeon Green. The quartet headed off through the Gaillac vineyards in search of some of the local hills. The cars were few and far between, and the ambiance was very relaxed. As is typical in this region, the few cars the riders did come across, were courteous to say the least. As the ride undulated through the “coteaux” of the Gaillac wine region, it wasn’t long before the group started putting their Wilier bikes through their paces with some climbs, fun town-sign sprints and general goofing around and fun. The ride, planned by local experts CMI Tours, totaled a little over 90km and took the riders past hill top historic cities such as Bruniquel, Puycelsi and Castelneau de Montmiral to name but a few. It was a truly awesome ride in one of the best and lesser known areas of France for cycling. How about them bikes?

Wilier is one of those well known, quality bikes. Seen by most people in most countries as being somewhat of an “exotic” Italian brand, they have the reputation of being very stiff, and are often labeled as bikes for “bike racers”. Needless to say the Wiliers handled as you would expect. Crisp and responsive just like a racing bike should. Alex called his bike “a little

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Interested in being part of the International Racing Team? There are many opportunities to become a sponsor or partner of the team, get your name out there, on the jersey, in the press and on race results. Contact Chris: cmicycling@gmail.com

twitchy”, which fits right in with the racing pedigree of the Wilier brand. What was a little more surprising however was that everyone found the Wilier to be “smooth and comfortable”. This was a little bit of a surprise (and a good surprise I may add) as it takes a little bit of a sidestep from Wilier’s reputation for being super stiff. Stiffness in a bike is great for Pro riders, but if you are renting a bike and are looking at riding long distances, or spending a few hours a day riding in the high mountains of the Pyrenees, you also want an element of comfort. So finding that the Wilier rental bikes from Wandeo.fr were smooth and comfortable, was a very pleasant surprise indeed. Weight for it

Ok wait… I mean weight! It’s nothing new that cyclists are obsessed with weight. Whether you are a pro rider traveling the world to earn a few dollars, or a Sunday wannabe looking to discover the slopes of the Pyrenees for the first time, you want a lightweight bike. We might not need our bikes to be quite as light as they are half the time, but we bloody well want them to be as light as a feather on a diet, and if at all possible, lighter than that while we’re at it! Now these Wiliers,

although full carbon are not labeled as being some of the lightest bikes on the market. Factor in the fact that they are delivered with Ultegra, which although far from heavy is not the lightest groupset out there. Now add to that the fact that the seat-post, bars and stem are all Aluminium (which is what you want on a rental bike for solidity, durability and reliability), plus chuck in the 11Speed aluminum wheels and you would expect the bike to not be too heavy, but certainly not light either. Much to everyone’s surprise, the bikes felt light. Alex found the Wilier to be lighter than his top of the line Argon 18, and Lara found it lighter than her Argon18, and just as light as her Cannondale. The final line

At the end of a solid and fun packed 3hours of riding, the verdict was that these Wiliers were more than “just rental bikes”. Much of the post ride chatter

(once we got past the final town line sprint rundown) was about who preferred which colour, how good the bikes felt and “when can I get one of my own?” If you are going to rent a bike for your cycling trip, your weekend away, your Tourmalet attempt or whatever, you could do a lot worse than perching yourself atop a well respected Italian brand that is steeped in cycling history, lightweight, responsive and laden with quality and reliable equipment at a good price. What’s more, Wandeo deliver your rental bike to you for free in many regions of the south of France. See their web-site for details. If you are looking for a cycling trip, check out CMI Tours on www.cmicycling.com, or for a rental bike, go directly to www.wandeo.fr and have a chat with the guys about your cycling needs. Thanks to CMI Tours and Wandeo for this bike test session, which, if we’re honest, was just an excuse to go out and ride bikes… and cool bikes at that! We love those kinds of excuses at CMI Lifestyle Magazine!

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Equipe CMI Rider

Selected for World

Time Trial

Championship

Gorgi Popstefanov lives much of the year

in the USA where he recently completed

his studies to become a lawyer. In 2011 he

won the Macedonian National Road Race

Championship, and while racing the

amateur scene in the USA with the Metra

Cycling Club, he races the International UCI

scene with Equipe CMI.

Recently Gorgi received the good news

from his National Federation that he had

been pre-selected for the 2014 World Time

Trial Championships in Spain. As is often

the case with smaller cycling federations,

the Macedonian Federation does not have

the funds to fully support Gorgi’s World

Championship participation. Equipe CMI

has fallen victim to the difficult financial

times our sport has been going through

over the past couple of years. As such

Equipe CMI is saddened that it cannot

assist Gorgi in attending what is one of our

Sport’s biggest events.

If you would like to help Equipe CMI’s

Gorgi get to the World Championships, we

are in search of support and of new

sponsors.

Please contact Equipe CMI if you are

interested in getting involved.

cmicycling@gmail.com

Giro: Should Cadel Have Waited?

On Stage 6 of this year’s Grio d’Italia, more than half the peloton were held up in a crash nearing a roundabout with 11km to go. The crash resulted in Cadel Evans taking time out of all his GC rivals, placing him in good position for an attempt at the overall win in the 2014 Giro. Social media and the press fired up and started the debate as to whether Cadel should have waited for the crash victims to pick themselves off the road or not. The Crash

The crash resulted in a mere 15 odd riders still upright and going hell for whistle in the stage finale. Present in the group was GC hopeful Cadel Evans of BMC, and Pink jersey wearer Michael Mathews. The duo had a few teammates in the group, and they pushed on as hard as they could to gain as much time as possible on the bunch of guys lying on the road in pain. The unwritten rules of cycling suggest they should have slowed down as the crash was not a “racing incident” and taking time out of that many people on such an unfortunate event is not sportsmanlike. That unwritten rule has come about after decades of bike racing, and is in place in great part for the safety of the riders. If you never waited and made the most of mechanical and unfortunate incidences to win races, there would be a far great desire and need for riders to take unnecessary risks, putting themselves and their fellow riders in danger. But in this case, should Cadel have waited? The 3km Rule

The 3km rule that states that in the event of a crash or a

mechanical incident, a rider will get the time of the group he was with when the event took place, was established for the safety of the riders; so that you don’t have to take unnecessary risks to avoid loosing time overall. The rule used to be a 1km rule, but was extended to 3km because people were still having to take risks in the approach of the finish. In Stage 6 of the Giro the crash took place with 11km to go. So you could consider it to be a “racing incident”, and that pushing on after the crash is just “bike racing”. On the other hand however there were so many riders involved in the crash, that you could argue it was no longer a true “racing incident” as the vast majority of the riders crashed due to no fault of their own, due to no lack of fitness or ability or bad positioning in the group. Who would wait?

First of all you need a “patron”. A well respected rider who has a commanding air about him, and who commands respect through his riding ability, his experience and more often than not his past results. Such a decision is also often taken by a “neutral” rider, one who doesn’t stand to gain from the outcome either way. Typical examples of these types of “patrons” are Mario Cipollini, Fabian Cancelara and of course Lance Armstrong. With no disrespect to any of the riders in the front group of Stage 6 of the 2014 Giro, there was no one rider that fits that description. Cadel was obviously the most medaled rider, but 1) he’s not a commander, he’s not a rider who bosses the peloton around, 2) he stood to gain from not waiting, so why would he suggest they wait? And 3) he would argue that he and his team

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worked hard to position him and keep

him near the front in order to avoid

crashes, and that that hard work and

effort is what gave him the edge, not the

crash. Michael Mathews of Orica

Greenedge was in the Pink jersey, and

as leader of the Giro, he is in many

ways the commander and chief of the

race. Therefore many riders would look

to him to lead the decision to wait for

their fallen brethren. However,

Mathews stood to gain an extra day in

Pink, and wasn't going to gain very

much from the crash in the grand

scheme of things, so why would he lead

a charge to wait? And although

Mathews has ridden exceptionally well

during the first week of the Giro, he’s

not a “big rider” and a patron. Let’s also

not forget that Mathews had led the

movement to neutralize the wet and

dangerous “crit style” stage 4, and had

already had a bit of a run in with a few

of the BMC riders over that decision. In

all honesty he was unlikely to push his

luck, and try to boss them around

again. Not that he is scared of them,

but there would be a higher chance they

might ignore him, and that would

damage his credibility and ego as Giro

leader.

There’s already been a protest!

In bike racing it isn't uncommon for the riders to make their voice heard as one. Protests and decisions form a kind of rider democracy. However it is uncommon to have more than one protest per race. As a rider, you tend to have to choose your battles. You can cancel, neutralize or protest a stage, but it’s almost as if you only have one veto per event. After that, you somewhat accept that you have made your voice heard, and from then on you put up with pretty much anything, so as not to disrespect the sport, the organizers and the spectators. The riders had already neutralized stage 4, and thus the reality of neutralizing the finish of stage 6 as well was highly unlikely. Heat of the moment

Before we criticize anyone lets also remember that bike riders are normal people. In the heat of the moment there will have been a lot of looking around, a lot of confusion as to what had happened and who was where in the race. There was only 11km to go in the stage, so everyone would have been riding quite hard and been quite tired. With all the confusion, once you've looked around a few times and figured out what has just happened, the window of opportunity to slow down and wait can be gone in a flash. Even if someone in that front group did consider it best to slow down and wait, by the time they would have processed the events in their head and given it a second thought, they would have already been sitting on someone’s wheel with an iron grip on the handlebars at max heart-rate. In other words, thinking “we’re clearly not stopping are we!” The unwritten rules.

What about the unwritten rules of cycling I hear you cry. The unwritten rules are often more respected by riders than the written rules. The unwritten rules are what make up the history and the beauty of this sport. However they are just that; unwritten! By that nature they are at best murky. If the Yellow jersey stops to pee during a stage, you don’t attack! That is the unwritten rule. But if the yellow jersey stops for a pee at the bottom of the final climb of the queen stage, well that’s just his own stupidity. So you don’t “always” wait for the yellow jersey as you might think. The unwritten rules are, unwritten! Should they have waited?

At the end of the day you can debate it until the cows come home. The reality of the matter is that they didn’t wait, end of story! Will it come back and bite Cadel in the ass. Maybe, maybe not. It’ll all depend, once again, on circumstances. We wish all the injured riders of the Giro a quick and painless recovery, as well as a good end to their season.

Custom Trips Designed by you and adapted to your

needs, you tell us where you want to

go and what you want to do.

We can help you, advise you and plan

your trip from start to finish, taking the hassle out of planning.

Past custom trips have included: - French wine country - Famous Pyrenean climbs - Riding the Tourmalet - A week in the Pyrenees - Training camp in Italy - Trying your hand at European racing.

Contact us now to start discussing

your trip ideas and possibilities. cmicycling@gmail.com

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Group Ride Rules: Ride Like a Pro

There are a series of basic rules to

follow in order to ride properly in a group, and yet it is often surprising how few people know these rules. You might think this doesn’t apply to you, after all, you are a Cat 1 and winner of the Thursday night or Saturday morning World Championships… it’s amazing how many people don’t know how to ride in a group. If you are new to the sport, this will help for your next group ride, if you are old to the sport, this should be a useful recap of what you hopefully already know. Rule 1: It’s Not a Race

A group ride is NOT a race. You are not to “Attack” off the front or try to show everyone how strong you are. That’s what races are for.

This is not how your group ride should look. Rule 2: Bar-to-Bar

This is probably THE most important rule. Whenever riding in a group you should be riding 2 by 2, side by side (with only a few centimeters between you, you should not be able to fit a bus between you and the rider beside you) and be perfectly handlebar to handlebar. Do not at any time sprint ahead and disrupt the flow. Even if there is a corner coming up, stay side by side and go through the corner like a well oiled machine. Riding with your bars ahead of the rider beside you is called “half-wheeling” and is a major faux pas. It’s up to you to keep up with the speed of the slower rider next to you. And for goodness sake, please try

to keep to the side of the road, there is no need to take over the whole lane and annoy car drivers.

Bar to bar – keep it tight.

As with everything, there is an exception to the rule. If there is an uneven number of riders in the group and you don’t have anyone to ride along side, you should place yourself in between the two riders ahead of you, with your front wheel between their two rear wheels. This allows the riders behind you to remain bar to bar and to keep the group tightly together. The riders behind you should ride with their front wheels either side of your rear wheel. It’s not acceptable to sit directly behind the rider ahead of you and leave a gap to your side.

Now, before you spark up and say that riding between the wheels of the riders preceding you is unsafe, let me point out, that if everyone is riding bar to bar as they should be, you are guaranteed the space of a handlebar’s width within which to move, which should be ample. So even if the two riders ahead of you knock into each other, you should have plenty of space. This is a pretty safe place to be. Make sure someone fills that gap before you take your turn on the front however!

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Rule 3: Peeling Off

When you are tired of riding at the front, and you feel it is time for you to go to the back, make sure the rider beside you knows you are tired and want to go back. Once you have both established that you are going back, check briefly that there isn’t someone overlapping your back wheel, then both riders slowly and gradually move to the outside and let the group come through the middle. Do not suddenly veer off to the side, peel off in a steady and controlled manner. Rule 4: Pulling Through

When the two riders ahead of you peel off, it is your job to come through to the front and pull the group along. If you do not want to ride at the front because you are tired or less fit than the rest of the group, it’s too late to avoid it now. Once you are in second wheel, you MUST come through to the front. Do not speed up, and do not get out of the bar-to-bar formation. Maintaining a steady speed, squeeze through the gap and go to the front. When the two riders ahead of you peel off, don’t slow down and look around as if you don’t know why on earth they would be pulling off to the sides of the group. Maintain your speed and go straight through without hesitation.

Rule 5: Too Tired To Go To The Front

If you do not want to go to the front, sit at the back and let the riders coming back from the front of the group slot in ahead of you. It is not acceptable to work your way up to the front of the group and then look around acting lost and confused, slowing down because you don’t feel strong enough to be at the front. If for whatever reason you do find yourself at the front, go through and take what is known as a “token pull”. You go to the front for a couple

seconds, agree with the rider beside you that you are both peeling off, and go to the back. Rule 6: Gaps There should be NO gaps

in a group ride. As soon as you see a gap, fill it by riding into the space in a steady and controlled manner. There is no need to sprint into the space and then slam on the brakes, just gradually fill in any gaps as soon as you see them. Rule 7: Moving About In A Group

If you need to go to the back of the group, or need to move out away from the side of road because the road is damaged (for example), just steadily move in whatever direction you want to go in. The key to all group riding is to do things gradually and steadily. Even if there is a rider right next to you as you pull out to the side of the road, if you do it gradually, the other rider will naturally have time to move over with you. If you do anything sudden you will likely cause a crash. This is also very important when “peeling off” and “filling a gap”.

Any questions? The pros at training camp demonstrate this fundamental well – obstacles and other such problems of the road are easily indicated with a simple point. Rule 8: Obstacles and Hand Signals:

Now, this is a very important rule. I’ve recently seen in both the US and Australia that people in group rides have gotten into the habit of yelling. I’m not too sure where this habit has come from, so let’s set a few records straight. When you see a hole in the road, it is absolutely NOT acceptable to yell “HOLE” at the top of your voice, then weave around it at the last minute. It is also unacceptable to yell “SLOWING” when you slow down. If you can’t see that the riders in front of you are slowing down, then maybe you should stick to monopoly on a Sunday afternoon. All obstacles should be warned of by a simple hand signal. This does not mean pointing at something for 5 minutes after

you have passed it. When you see an obstacle in the road ahead of you, put your hand down and give a signal that lets the riders behind you know in which direction they should go to avoid it. Traditionally a quick wave of the hand will suffice. If you only see the obstacle at the last minute, ride through it! Better to get a flat than to take down the whole group. On the subject of obstacles, please only point out those that are worth pointing out. What obstacles are worth pointing out? I hear you cry. That’s simple. An obstacle worth pointing out is one that will damage a bike or person behind you. Please don’t point out manhole covers unless they are deeply set in the road, and don’t point out leaves or small cracks in the road, and certainly don’t point out obstacles in the next lane. Rule 9: Yelling As I said above, yelling

is a big no-no. You don’t see the Pros riding around Europe on their pre-season training camps yelling “CARRRRRRR… HOLE, GRAVELLLL… RED LIGHTTTTT”. The problem is this: when you are more than two riders behind the person yelling, all you can actually yeah is a general “BLURRRRR” being yelled. So while everyone should be keeping their eyes peeled for general speed changes and obstacles, suddenly the majority of riders are looking around wondering what has just been yelled out. No one actually knows if you have just yelled “HOLE” and have not pointed it out, meaning some riders are scanning the ground left right and center looking for an imaginary hole. Other riders are craning their necks thinking you yelled “CAR”, while yet more riders are looking behind them thinking you yelled “George has a FLAAAT!” Yelling is strictly forbidden! Rule 10: Slowing and Adjusting Speed

This is probably the biggest crash causer on group rides. For some reason, when someone slows down ahead of them, a lot of riders jump for their brakes and yank the heck out of

them, almost skidding and taking

everyone down with them. You should

be riding ever so slightly to the side of

the rider in front of you; so when they

slow down, you either stop pedaling and

start to slightly overlap your front wheel

with their rear wheel, or you touch the

brakes gradually, once again using the

“wheel overlap” as a buffer zone so as

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not to slow down too suddenly

for the riders behind you.

These may seem like a pointless bunch of snotty European old school rules, but they come from very simple principles of general safety for a group ride. So stick to them, and spread the good word to your fellow new-comers to the sport. For any Pro rider worth his salt, these are not even thought of as “rules”. They are instinctive and are a natural part of riding. This may be why some road riders can come across as rude and arrogant. Ride etiquette is so second nature to them, that in their eyes, the only reason anyone would break them, would be on purpose. Be safe out there people, ride smart!

Meet Mathieu Perget

Mathieu Perget: is a Frenchman from Montauban in the south of France who in his

career, has ridden all three Grand Tours for a total of 6 Grand Tours participations. After enjoying riding for Spanish team Caisse d’Epargne for 5 years, Mathieu was given the opportunity to lead the AG2R team in 2011, with the additional bonus of a big pay rise. Sadly for Mathieu his time with AG2R wasn’t what he had hoped. A broken femur at the Tour of San Luis early season sidetracked him for much of the year, and his easy going, happy go lucky attitude didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the AG2R team. He had been far happier with the Spanish team, and as we all know, happiness leads to success. Leaving AG2R and seeking a new outlook and attitude on the sport of cycling, Mathieu didn’t want to sign for a team that wouldn’t offer him the kind of calendar he was motivated for. Not keen on one day races around Europe, Mathieu wanted a stage race calendar that would also take him to new lands and rekindle his love for the sport.

It came as something of a surprise to Equipe CMI when a rider of Mathieu pedigree expressed an interest in joining the team. But he fitted in well with the easy going

atmosphere of Equipe CMI, and this lead to many great times and some good results for the squad as a whole, most notably with the overall win of the 10 day UCI Tour of Morocco in 2013.

Mathieu Perget spent 5 years with Caisse d’Epargne before joining CMI

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