October 2017

To cream or not to cream? From the history to modern application - we talk you through why you might to use, or not use, chamois cream.


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To cream... Or not to cream? That is the question. Before we answer this burning, often taboo question that still leaves many riders scratching their heads, let's have a look at the history of the humble chamois cream, put on this earth to soothe, protect, and stop the chafing of the delicate nether regions. Prior to the introduction of the chamois, legend has it that riders often placed a steak in between their soft parts and woolly shorts to soothe and prevent chafing. A steak which they'd eat later in the day, after it had been tenderised. Incredibly, padded inserts in riders' shorts didn't come about until the early 1940s when they were made of real sheep's leather, a little bit like this. Lovely and soft at first, but when washed and dried, became hard and abrasive. Not the ideal interface for the vulnerable under carriage. Hence the need for something to soften the touch and dried leather. Voila! Chamois cream was born, in the simple form of a softening balm or cream which was applied directly to the chamois itself. And it wasn't long before this became a pre-race ritual for most riders including myself, although I hasten to add, this wasn't in the 1940s. In the early 1980s, new chamois we developed which quickly became very popular. And in turn, new chamois cream was also created. But rather than to soften the toughened leather, it was to reduce irritation on the skin and reduce chafing. Over the last decade, shorts, and indeed chamois technology, has come a very long way. The fit is far better. The chamois are contoured and ergonomic, and many are also anti-bacterial. And also, they don't dry out once they've been washed. Which begs the question, do we need chamois cream at all? Well, we asked that question to you, and also some pros. Now for our survey, we actually spoke to 11 professional riders. Two of which said yes, they use chamois cream all the time. Three said no, don't use it at all. And six said they didn't use it in training but did use it in racing. And from our Twitter poll, of which we had just over 5,000 votes, so thanks for getting in contact if you voted, 45% never use it at all, which is the majority. 24% said you use it every time. And 31% said sometimes. And if you're wondering about me, I don't use chamois cream at all now. But back in the 1980s when shorts were a little bit like this, I did. If you already use chamois cream, or at least are intending to, here are a couple of suggested dos and don'ts. Never double dip.


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Should You Use Chamois Cream?

On this week’s GCN show we’ve got some terrible cycling advice, the Netherlands continues to lead the way for cycling infrastructure, and there’s an exclusive sneak peek of David Millar’s new film.

Cycling is a sport full of tips and advice, some a lot better than others. We run through a few of the worst ever pieces of cycling advice, as well as one or two that will actually help you out. Let us know the best, worst, or downright weirdest pieces of advice you’ve ever heard.

The world’s first 3D printed bridge specifically for cyclists was built recently in the Netherlands.

There are some new road signs in the sports hotbed of Boulder, CO. intended to specifically protect cyclists.

Tenuous Cycling Celebrity of the Week is back for one week only, it turns out Orlando bloom is actually a proper cyclist!

While out in Taiwan, Si and Matt got a sneak peek of David Millar’s forthcoming film, Time Trial!

For tech of the week, there are some new zwift routes, and a bike to help build cyclists puny upper bodies.

At the London 6 day, the Australian team of Cameron Meyer and Callum Scotson. But they were pushed close by Mark Cavendish and Pete Kennaugh.

This week’s pro Wattage Bazooka goes to Katie Archibald for her domination of the women’s London Six Day.

It was business as usual in the cyclocross this weekend, Maud Kaptheijns and Mathieu Van der Poel both won twice, with Kaptheijns continuing her unbeaten streak this year in the Superprestige series.

There are a lot of Hacks in this week’s Hack/Bodge, including a homemade belt made from an old tyre, with Si’s favourite tread pattern!

The winner of the SiS Team Sky bundle promotion was MITCHELL CHILD!! Drop us a message with your address and we’ll send your prize over to you as soon as possible.

Finally there is some absolutely insane action from Red Bull Rampage in Extreme Corner!

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Here are some of our top hacks to use on Zwift when you're doing your indoor training. Some simple, and others a little more in depth, they'll be sure to transform your training and help you to get the most out of your workout. 

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For years now, many riders have preferred aluminium bars to carbon, as they believe the carbon bars will fail dramatically. But does this actually happen? Are carbon bars actually stronger than aluminium?

Si went to the Controltech factory, and was given free reign of their fatigue and impact testing machines to test aluminium and carbon handlebars to destruction! The results were really quite surprising, make sure you take a look.

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Fresh off her win at the Taiwan KOM Challenge, Si sat down with Emma Pooley for a fascinating run through of her custom aluminium 

 Custom Aluminium
Wheels: Sense Carbon Tubeless
Tyres: iRC Formula Pro RBCC
Handlebars: Specialized shallow bend
Stem: 3t ARX Pro 70mm
Seatpost: 3T Zero 25
Saddle: Selle Italia SLR
Shifters: Shimano Ultegra Di2
Brakes: Shimano Ultegra
Front Mech: Shimano Ultegra Di2
Rear Mech: Shimano Ultegra Di2 
Chainset: Rotor Twin power with Q-Rings, 165mm cranks
Pedals: Speedplay Zero
Chainring size: 50-34
Powermeter: Sense hub based powermeter (300g)/Rotor Twin Power
Cassette: Shimano Ultegra 11-28

Finishing touches: Wahoo Elemnt Bolt, Fi'zi:k bar tape
Bottle Cages: 3T carbon 

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Numb hands happen to most cyclists, but they can be caused by one of a hundred things. We let you know how to prevent them, as well as answering as many of your cycling questions as we can on this week's Ask GCN Anything.

How to prevent numb hands, how to effectively measure your saddle height, and how to keep traction over your rear wheel when climbing in the wet. It's a real varied bunch of questions on Ask GCN Anything this week, take a look!

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The following cyclists didn't just walk the walk, they talked the talk, or maybe it's the other way around. But anyway, these cyclists were tough, make no mistake. Here's who, and here's why. Now we could not include the Cannibal in our list of toughest cyclists, could we? Although, undoubtedly Merckx is one of the finest riders of all time, that doesn't necessarily mean he's one of the toughest. But when you factor in 525 career wins, including five Giros, five Tours, two Vueltas, and three World road titles, it may actually suggest otherwise. Anyway it was the manner of the way he set about winning that sets him apart. Hence the nickname, the Cannibal. Merckx wanted to win every time he got on his bike. Driven by an insatiable appetite for success. And he once said, "The day when I start a race without "intending to win it, I won't be able to look at myself "in the mirror." His style was simple, attack. And generally, when he did, the results were catastrophic for his rivals. As well as immense strength, the grocer's son exemplified a fiery, single minded determination, which was illustrated at its best in the 1974 Giro d'Italia, where in a one particularly hard stage he attacked from the gun in atrocious, awful weather conditions, while still suffering from a bout of pneumonia to topple one of his fiercest rivals Jose Fuentes. And that ride laid the foundation for the win in the overall of the Giro that year, and also it meant that he went on to win the holy grail of cycling, the triple, the Giro, the Tour, and the World championships. Known as the badger, or, Bernard Hinault was as equally renowned for his tempestuous nature as his physical prowess on the bike. During a career that netted him a quite incredible five Tour de Frances, three Giro d'Italias, two Vuelta a Espanias, and a World road title. 

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The ability to track stand will mean that you've got more balance and therefore more control over your bike. You won't be clipping in and out as much at junctions. And you can also then show off to your mates. Coming up we show you exactly how to do a track stand as well as some advanced techniques.

First up, let's recommend a location. Unlike me, you don't want to choose asphalt or tarmac, but instead, something slightly softer just in case you do lose your balance. You also want to find a very slight incline, more on the reasons behind that a little bit later on. And in terms of equipment, you want to possibly swap out your clipless pedals for some flat pedals, that way at least you'll be able to put your foot down quickly if things do go wrong. 

Once you've chosen your location, ride slowly towards it and then point your front wheel one side or the other but pointing up the gradient. Now the gradient is important because it's going to give you some resistance, that when you push on the pedals, you will move up, and when you let go, you'll go gradually back down. So you can get that rocking motion which gives you your balance. 

I personally find it easiest being out of the saddle with my legs slightly bent, arms reasonably straight but not completely locked out. And a quietly relaxed grip, with a finger or two hovering over the front brake. However if you want to go to the next step and go no handed which is what we're going to do next. You're going to need to learn how to do this sat down. 

Now the technique of track standing in the saddle versus out of the saddle is almost identical, it's just ever so slightly harder I find personally, to keep your balance. But keep that front wheel against the gradient and roll it forwards and backwards. And from there, once you're confident in the saddle, it's simply a case of gradually loosening up your grip on the hoods or the bars. Until eventually, you're going no handed. Now the other alternative is to just take one hand off at a time, controlling it with the other one, then lifting that one off. 

Then, the ultimate and the hardest track stand to do in my book at least, is the out of the saddle, no hander. You want to rest the top tube against the inside of your thigh, just above the knee to give you a bit of stability. Again, on the same gradient. This, as you can see, is very difficult indeed.

Now you're probably thinking to yourself, I haven't got many junctions near my house where there's a gradient for me to push my wheel against and that is where this next advanced technique comes into play. So I'm now facing in the other direction on a downhill gradient and what I'm doing is rolling forward, putting my brake on, moving my body weight slightly back and that's enough to roll the wheel then backwards.


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On this week’s GCN show we’ve got self-driving cars, the Tour de France route, and some Taiwan KOM Challenge news, as well as all your usual favourites.

Self-driving cars were in the news this week, with BMW’s semi-autonomous function passing cyclists far too close, but Audi’s latest A8 has a feature that stops doors being opened into the path of oncoming traffic.

Next year’s Tour de France route has been released, with one of the most innovative routes in recent memory, including a 65km mountain stage!!

Christophe Strasser smashed the 24hr track cycling world record, riding 941km, or 3,767 laps of the track!

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In tech news this week, we’ve got the brand new KASK Mistral aero helmet as well as loads of super lightweight tech from the Taiwan KOM Challenge.

Fernando Gaviria controlled the sprints at the inaugural Tour of Guangxi, but the race was won overall by Tim Wellens of Lotto-Soudal.

Mathieu Van der Poel dominated at the Cyclocross World Cup in Koksijde, despite suffering a nasty crash the day before.

This week’s Pro Wattage Bazooka goes to Vincenzo Nibali for his win at the Taiwan KOM Challenge.

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In association with KASK. All opinions expressed at the presenter's own.


It's the last week you can pre-order the GCN Winter Fan Kit at the GCN shop! 

Bike helmets do not last forever. If you look at the safety manual, or indeed, inside the box, you will see that you need to replace them in the event of an accident, or regardless, just every few years, which a lot of people do not do. People do not replace their bike helmets often enough. And I completely sympathise with that. It can be incredibly frustrating to have to throw something in the bin when to all intents and purposes it looks absolutely fine.

So, with that question at the forefront of our minds, I though I'd take advantage of a long time relationship with our friends at Kask, and actually ask them why you do actually need to replace your helmet every few years, and then perhaps most importantly, how can we better look after our helmets in order to try and extend their life spans?

Most bike helmets are made out of EPS, which is the kind of polystyrene substance on the inside here. Cheap ones and expensive ones alike. And it is currently the best material available with which to make bike helmets out of. However, it does have its limitations. Firstly, what you need to know is that actually it's the EPS that absorbs the energy of the impact in the event of a crash. But, according to Kask, and this was completely new to me, there is a linear relationship between the thickness of the EPS at the point of impact, and its ability to absorb energy, which is fine, until you start looking at all the little dents over your helmet. Because, just a one millimetre deep dent on a 20 millimetre thick section of EPS will mean that it will have lost 5% of its ability to absorb impact. It, of course, depends on where the dent is, and the direction of the impact. But, I think that's kinda freaky. Especially when you then start to look at the helmet in this newfound light. So, point number one about trying to make your helmet last longer is actually to protect it from wear and tear, bumps and knocks. So that means particularly, I think, when storing it, and also transporting it. Bear in mind what we just learned about EPS.

What about larger impacts then, like actually falling off your bike, or dropping your helmet from a height? Well, one of the other things that we need to know about EPS is that damage can actually be completely invisible. So Kask said that in testing over the years, they've actually witnessed the helmet failing what's called the chinstrap test. As a result of invisible cracks in the shell that were sustained through a previous impact test, which is actually, you'll be pleased to hear, a standard testing procedure. 

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How much difference is there between a Canyon superbike with the Shimano Dura-Ace R9170 hydraulic groupset, and a bike bought from eBay for £90? Matt and Si compete in four challenges: climbing, descending, braking, and time trialling, to see how big the difference is between the two bikes.

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The Global Cycling Network (GCN) is the largest online cycling channel in the world, bringing together a global community of road cyclists to celebrate everything that’s great about the world of cycling.

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Cheap Bike Vs Superbike: What's The Difference?

Thanks to Factor, Fabric, THM Carbones, and Lightweight for the products used in this video. All opinions expressed at the presenter's own.

In order to compete in the fearsome Taiwan KOM Challenge, Si and Matt needed some very special, light weight climbing bikes. Take a look at their very bling 💎 Factor bikes.

Let us know what you think of the bikes in the comments below 👇

Frame and forks: Factor O2 750g
Wheels: Lightweight Meilenstein 
Tyres: Continental GP4000 2
Handlebars: THM Carbones 
Stem: THM Carbones Tibia 80g
Seatpost: Factor
Saddle: Fabric ALM Ultimate 140g
Shifters: Sram Etap/Shimano Dura Ace Di2
Brakes: THM Carbones Fibula 120g per calliper
Front Mech: Sram Etap/Shimano Dura Ace Di2
Rear Mech: Sram Etap/Shimano Dura Ace Di2
Chainset: THM Carbones Clavicula SE 293g
Pedals: Shimano Dura-Ace/ Look Keo Blads
Chainring size: 50-34
Powermeter: N/A
Cassette: Sram Red 11-28/Shimano Dura Ace

Bike weight: 6.24kg (Matt)/6.18kg (Simon)
Tyre width: 25mm

Finishing touches: Wahoo Elemnt Bolt computers

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October 2017

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