Hey!
Wow, what a week we’ve had. I’ve been getting into the Olympics over the last few days, and I’ve been late to more than one group ride as a result. The BMX-ing was absolutely incredible and features a little in this week’s newsletter. Then we have the Team Pursuit on the velodrome. My oh my, have we ever seen so much drama around one event?
On a personal note, I’ve started doing intervals again after my positive COVID test, and I’m fully recovered. It’s nice to be back pushing on the pedals. I had a steady four-hour ride today, and then tomorrow brings some horrendous intervals. That’ll be ‘fun’.
Girona life has perked up a little too. There’s a new cycling cafe that has opened in town, attached to the Eat Sleep Cycle bike shop. I have to say, I’m impressed. Girona is already saturated when it comes to cycling cafes, yet this new brew-shop didn’t disappoint.
I’m now on the countdown to my first race back from both injury, and COVID. In two-weeks time I will be travelling to Leuven in Belgium, and I cannot wait.
Have a good week pedalling,
Joe
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, our Chief Marketing Officer at N+1, Julian won a fixed-gear crit this weekend! What a legend!
📖 Read
#Olympics
The Olympic programme has moved onto the wooden boards of the velodrome. And wow, I did not expect this much drama. There have been crashes in both the men’s and women’s team pursuits AND equipment failure. Countless Olympic and World Records have fallen too. What a few days it’s been!
10-minute read
#roadcycling
There have been some big moves this week in the Men’s World Tour. It was recently announced that Peter Sagan, the legendary three-time world champion, will move across to the French team TotalEnergies. Sam Bennett, the 2020 Green Jersey winner at the Tour de France, will be departing Quickstep and heading to Bora-Hansgrohe. The 2022 sprint battle is one to watch!
3-minute read
#environment
Muc-Off is a brand best known for helping to keep your bike clean. The British company have developed ‘Punk Powder’, a 30 g sachet which when mixed with 1 litre of water makes a pink bike cleaning fluid. Muc-Off claims that it requires 92% less packaging. So you can keep your bike clean, and keep the environment clean. A win-win!
3-minute read
#tech #toptip
Neilson Powless just won Clasica San Sebastian, one of the biggest one-day races in the world. How did he win it? Thanks to his bike computer. “I was watching the map on my Garmin”, Powless explained. “I could see it was a sharp corner coming up that they ended up crashing in’’. So that’s how you descend guys, keep an eye on your computer.
5-minute read
#weeklygravel
Grinduro Wales is a gravel event that combines four short, timed stages over an all-day adventure route, mixed with a festival atmosphere, camping, and an epic party at the end. It sounds like good fun on and off the bike. Another one to add to the bucket list?
5-minute read
📱Tweet of the week
We’re mainly road and gravel fans here at N+1 but this took our breath away. How incredibly amazing was Charlotte Worthington on the way to winning Olympic Gold?
🎧 Listen
This week’s podcast is a Gravel special. Nathan Haas’ ‘Gravelog’ is back, this time with Caley Fretz. Caley is the editor-in-chief at CyclingTips, a long-time gravel rider and potentially the man who invented the phrase ‘groad’. Caley, a resident of Boulder, Colorado, talks about how gravel is changing the cycling industry, among others. This is the best podcast I’ve listened to about gravel in a long time!
61-minute listen
👀 Watch
Fixed-gear racing is crazy. You have one gear, no brakes, and some crazy technical circuits. What could go wrong? Fixed gear racing is also one of the best communities in cycling. Let Francis Cade bring you the behind-the-scenes.
14-minute watch