As this letter hits your inbox, Tour de France competitors are completing stage 13, a 136-mile stretch of “flat” road to the hilltop town of Carcassonne. Ya know, just another day on the bike!
The Tour has been quite an exciting show thus far, and in my humble opinion, all riders have very much earned their second day of rest.
With that in mind, let’s get to some Tour highlights and other cycling goodies as well.
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Haven’t been watching the Tour? No sweat. If you missed the first dozen stages, here’s a very, very quick rundown:
36-year-old sprinting extraordinaire Mark Cavendish has won three stages, putting him just one win away from tying Eddy Merckx's record haul of 34 stage wins.
Fan favorites are dropping like flies. Matthew Van der Poel, who wore the yellow jersey for six days, left the race to focus on training for the mountain bike race at the Olympic Games in Tokyo later this summer. Seven-time green jersey winner Peter Sagan also abandoned the Tour after stage 12 due to knee pain. UCI’s top-ranked road cyclist and last year’s Tour runner-up, Primoz Roglic, withdrew before stage 9 due to injuries sustained during a kit-shredding crash had me checking my own cabinets for Band-Aids.
The current frontrunner is Tadej Pogacar. He crushed the competition during mountainous stage 8, giving himself a comfortable lead that many prognosticate will hold for the remainder of the Tour.
I gotta say, it’s been cool watching a handful of grown men become totally overcome with emotion as they’ve crossed the finish line of various stages. Humans achieving their dreams is just something I don’t get tired of seeing.
The fat lady has not sung yet. With eight stages still to go, anything can happen.
Crank It
99 Problems and a Bike Ain’t One
Photo credit: Clint McKoy
Back in the summer of 2020, I was on the hunt for a new mountain bike. I invested countless hours reading “best of” articles, poring over reviews, and bouncing among bike company websites.
While I absolutely loved the process of learning about the latest models and evaluating which ones would put the largest smile upon my face, I grew frustrated with trying to do an apples to apples comparison of bike components across several manufacturers. Eventually, I took the time-consuming, painstaking step of creating my own spreadsheet so that I could closely examine all of my top contenders in one place.
A few months into my research, I came across 99 Spokes, the brilliant brain child of “three software geeks that love bikes.” 99 Spokes is a searchable database of 49,000 bikes that enables users to conveniently compare as many bikes as they’d like side-by-side – regardless of make, model, or production year. In other words, they created the best possible version of the spreadsheet I had built for myself. Better still, 99 Spokes includes some other snazzy buying tools such as a scatter plot showing the relative value of a given bike based on its specs and price, plus other bikes similar to it.
While not perfect (a few points of data were missing or inaccurate), more than any other single website or tool, 99 Spokes helped me feel confident answering a couple of critical questions: “What other bikes should I be considering?” and “Which of these bikes is the best deal?” The information they provided enabled me to discover new bikes, then rapidly narrow my search to just the ones I believed would be the best for me.
If you like digging into data and want to minimize buyer’s remorse, take a trip over to 99 Spokes. I certainly wish I’d found it earlier in my bike search – I predict it will help you with yours.
Coffee Stop
You Had Me at “Chocolate Covered”
The Daily Meal
When someone offers me chocolate-covered anything, I dependably say yes. Pretzels. Strawberries. Bacon. Chocolate satisfies in a way that few other foods do.
My current favorite treat is dark chocolate-covered dried cherries. If you haven’t had them, here is why you’re missing out: They’re bite-sized, so it's easy to eat two or twenty, and either way you feel fantastic. The tartness of the cherry and the sweetness of the chocolate play well together; there’s balance in every bite. Finally, we’re talking about chocolate-covered fruit, so this is one of those treats that occupies the rarefied air of being both a snack and a dessert. They go just as well with granola and trail mix as they do with cookies and ice cream.
I’ve tried freezing them and placing them in the least toasty parts of my jersey to prevent melting during a ride. Unfortunately, like all good chocolate treats, they are not invulnerable to heat. Thus, for now, they are strictly a post-ride reward.
I recommend stocking up on the 4-pound bag from Traverse Bay Fruit Co. That way there’s plenty to share when cycling friends come around.
Jaunt Back
Wind Can Be a Drag
Photo credit: Simon Connellan
“May the wind be always at your back” is a lovely sentiment. However, in my experience as a cyclist, wind typically hits me in the front, slaps me around incessantly for many miles at a time, and quickly deflates even my cheeriest of moods. Me and Wind – we don’t get along.
That’s why aerodynamics – the study of properties of moving air and its interactions with solids moving through it – is an important part of cycling. It boils down to this: The faster you go, the harder it becomes to maintain that speed because your body is meeting greater air resistance.
At around 10 mph, somewhere in the region of 50% of a cyclist’s power is used to overcome air resistance.
At speeds upwards of 30 miles per hour, it’s closer to 90%.
Doubling your speed from, say, 20 to 40 mph actually increases drag considerably more than you might expect — by around eight times.
Granted, I don’t often ride 40 miles per hour, but that’s entirely the point. Pros with every aerodynamic advantage can slice through the wind at the front of the peloton, holding speeds that I can only dream of. As they do, they are working much harder than the ones drafting just behind them. At that level, every minor seam and tucked zipper can create a marginal gain that can knock off a few seconds over the course of a long ride – and that can make all the difference. In other words, shaving your legs is a no-brainer.
Next time you’re facing a nasty headwind, I recommend tucking in, drafting when possible, and trying to remember that as annoying as the wind can be, it’s only making you stronger.
Cool Down
What’s Clutch About a Clutch?
Photo credit: Adhika Soreng
Generally, new mountain bike drivetrains are equipped with a clutch derailleur. No, I'm not referring to the third pedal in your stick-shift car. On a bike, a clutch is a mechanism that helps keep your chain from slapping around when you’re flying over bumps and jumps. With your chain tensioned properly, you’re less likely to drop it, damage the frame, or suffer the annoying sound of metal on metal (or carbon).
Recognizing that road cyclists encounter the occasional cobbled street, a few years ago Shimano started outfitting some of its road drivetrains with a clutch as well. As road cyclists like me inevitably (and irresistibly) find gravel segments on their rides, I expect clutches on road bikes will become increasingly common.
Peel Off
Giphy
Should you happen to find yourself on a bike in San Diego around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 13, I highly encourage you to swing by the Tracklocross World Tour, right next to the Velodrome. There will be some exciting races to watch (or join), and the fun won’t stop until the dust settles. I fully expect to stand out like a sore thumb as one of the few non-tracklocross competitors – and I’m just fine with that.
See you out there!
As always, if you come upon something you think should be featured in Group Ride, please send it along.
Group Ride is a newsletter for the social cyclist. I curate content from bike manufacturers, shops and media sources to bring you information and inspiration to ride more confidently and comfortably.
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