🎄Stage 45: Merry Christmas!

A bunny-hop masterclass and cycling up Mount Everest.

Hello,

This week’s newsletter comes at you from my family home in Grimsby, a small town in northern England. I am here for 10 days to see family and spend Christmas at home.

I headed out on the bike this afternoon for an easy couple of hours. After spending all year training in Europe’s cycling capital, Girona, it’s safe to say my expectations for good roads have increased. While the first 20 minutes was full of nostalgia as I pedalled around the roads where I first fell in love with the sport, I very quickly became bored of both the cold and the flat roads and was longing for the mountains of Catalonia.

It is nice to be home, too. Whenever I’m home I can go back to being a child again. I don’t have to think anywhere near as much as I do when I’m living solo. I think everyone will agree, it comes with its own positives and negatives.

Merry Christmas!

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.

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📖 Read

#Christmas

We may be a little bit late with this, but nothing beats drooling over some cycling gifts. This is Cyclist Magazine’s 2021 gift guide, containing everything from socks to the Campagnolo Corkscrew. There will surely be something that takes your fancy.

4-minute read

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#womenscycling

The pro-cycling ladder is a tough one. Many riders don’t make a living wage, even when they’re racing for ‘pro’ teams. The women’s scene can be even harder as there’s often less money and opportunities on their side of the sport. Kerry Jonker is a South African racing in Europe - she lifts the lid on life as a female Conti rider.

7-minute read

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#business

Kristen Faulkner is a Venture Capitalist turned pro-cyclist. Yep, you read that right, it’s not the normal change, is it? Faulkner swapped Silicon Valley investors for women’s team TIBCO-Silicon Valley. In this article, she discusses how cycling teams can benefit from mixed-gender spaces. It’s a thought-provoking piece.

5-minute read

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#adventure

Have you ever wondered how far you could ride up Mount Everest? No, me neither. But, Portuguese endurance athlete Pedro Bento asked himself that question and set out to find the answer. Over 11 days, without any extra support, Bento managed to reach Base Camp - located at 5,356 m. Random, but amazing.

3-minute read

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#training

Maintaining a level of fitness over the Christmas period can be hard. A combination of bad weather and more food and drink than normal, can mean fitness plans go out the window over the festive break. While Christmas is a time for relaxing and spending time with the family, it doesn’t mean that all of your hard-earned gains have to be lost. Here are seven tips for fitting in your rides around the holiday season.

6-minute read

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📱Tweet of the week

INEOS Grenadiers @INEOSGrenadiers

𝙁𝙐𝙇𝙇 send over the barriers on a final lap to remember for @Tompid. What a finish 🔥 #CXWorldCup (📽️ @GcnRacing)

December 18th 2021

96 Retweets1,661 Likes

Is there anything that Tom Pidcock can’t do?

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🎧 Listen

It’s a Tom Pidcock overload on this week’s newsletter. Pidcock joins his teammate, and Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas on the GTCC podcast. They discuss all disciplines of cycling, as well as the similarities between mountain biking and surfing. In this podcast, you have one of Britain’s cycling legends in the twilight of his career, as well as one of its brightest stars.

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👀 Watch

Deceuninck-Quickstep meets gravel - that’s not something you expected to see, is it?

5-minute watch

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👋🏻 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…VeloSock

VeloSock is simple, yet genius. It gives cyclists the freedom to take their bicycles inside apartments, hotel rooms, cars, public transportation without the stress of damaging the ride or leaving dirt and debris on the floors. They have solutions for all situations.

Be sure to download our app and browse their collection!