🇺🇦 Stage 58: Just a bike ride away...
Steel bikes from Africa and dropper seat posts on a road bike
Hello and welcome to the newsletter,
I’m writing this from a very nice hotel room in Rhodes. We got lucky on this race, all of the teams are staying in the same hotel, it’s 5 star and by the beach. I mean, we didn’t have hot water, WiFi, or heating for the first few days but once that was sorted all was good!
The first race went pretty well, we put four of our guys in the Top 20, and are riding strong. Our next race starts on Thursday and is four days long covering the whole island of Rhodes. It’s nice to be back racing after so long. After winter, you forget what it is like to be in the peloton with 150 other guys trying to win, to have that feeling back is great.
This week’s newsletter includes a Lachlan Morton epic charity ride, some of the best descending in recent history, and some slightly controversial tech.
Joe
Feel free to email me at joe@nplus1.cc if you have any questions, or feel I’ve missed something that is worth putting in the Newsletter.
📖 Read
#racing
Milan-San Remo, the longest bike race on the pro-calendar which always provides a thrilling finale took place this weekend. The 298 km epic was its usual chilled-out pace until the crazy attacks started on the Cipressa. It looked like Tadej Pogacar was going to take another big win, until his compatriot Matej Mohoric took off on the descent to take the victory. Here are six conclusions from one of the most iconic races in the world.
7-minute read
#tech
Milan-San Remo was won in an outrageous fashion, with a downhill attack. It was equally impressive as it was scary to watch. Matej Mohoric, the eventual winner had it planned all along though. The Slovenian was using a dropper seat post, which is famous in the MTB world. Effectively allowing you to lower your center of gravity to go faster downhill, it was a stroke of genius from the best descender in the world. And a stroke of genius that won him one of the biggest prizes in the cycling world.
4-minute read
#tech
A new aero superbike from one of the biggest companies in the world which isn’t crazy expensive? What’s the catch? Specialized have just announced their new Allez Sprint, an aluminum road bike built with racing in mind. With cool colour-ways and good aerodynamic data making it an overall top-class bike, what’s to stop you from thinking of alloy for your next new bike day?
6-minute read
#adventure
Lachlan Morton is well known for his epic bike rides. This past week he completed perhaps his most meaningful one yet, riding from Munich, Germany to the Ukrainian border. Morton decided to do this 1,063 km trip as fast as possible to raise money for Ukrainians seeking refuge. Riding for 42 hours straight, he raised over €200,000 and the figure is still rising.
5-minute read
#steelisreal
Steel bikes are cool. They always have been, and they always will be. Dan Craven was born in Namibia and after racing professionally for over a decade, he now calls Girona home. Craven recently announced that he’s started Onguza, a steel bike brand solely building bikes out of Namibia. There is relatively little information yet, but it’s certainly one to keep an eye out for.
2-minute read
#training
How can I improve my climbing? It’s a question I get a lot. There is no magic answer or one thing that you can do to get better, but there are some techniques that you can use and implement to improve. This article guides you through some of the most asked questions and offers some tips for going faster.
5-minute read
📱Tweet of the week
A descending masterclass to win the longest road race in the world, what more could you ask for?
🎧 Listen
Nutrition is one of the most vital parts of an athlete’s performance. As the saying goes, ‘you wouldn’t put cheap fuel in a Ferrari, treat your body the same’. This podcast with Dr Adam Collins and Damian Soong covers everything from exercise nutrition to metabolic health, and weight loss/maintenance.
40-minute listen
👀 Watch
Full gas, no brakes, and lots of corners. Fixed gear cycling criteriums have a reputation for being super fun, but they also require some of the best bike handling skills possible. Check out this video from the Red Bull Short Circuit race.
9-minute watch
👋🏻 Introducing
In this new part of the Newsletter, each week we’re going to introduce one of the brands that we work with at N+1.
Introducing… Speeds
Swiss-made jewelry that is inspired by cycling and uses parts that are from real and used bicycle parts, Speeds combines everything that you want: style, class, cycling, and recycling.
Be sure to download our app and browse their collection!