Capo Cipressa Jacket
Now, it might not seem the most appropriate time of year to bring to you ladies attention a super bit of kit i had on test this early springtime. Forgive me for that, in part I have not gotten round to penning my thought on the item for a good month or two due to being busy and well, just out riding, and secondly, admittedly I only wore the garment from March-late April, so its not been at the front of my mind, however I have finally found time to share my thoughts on a top-tech jacket that most wardrobes will have space to accommodate.
Admittedly Capo is a brand I didn't have a massive amount of awareness of until last year or so. Known widely state-side and down under, their kit is minimally and stylishly designed, you wont find cluttered logos or hideous colour-schemes in their line-up, just a well executed understated style. Capo produce a host of club and team kits in the states, and unbeknownst to me I was actually already in possession of a very comfy pair of armwarmers from their via the excellent Elcyclista.
The jacket is an incredibly svelte number, crafted in a fabric Capo has termed 'Shark'. Consisting of a thin but closely yarned fleece lining, backed by the exterior layer of a matted wetsuit-like windproofed lycra, the jacket is definitely on the 'race-fit' side of the fence, offering a really flattering profile when zipped up. Bonus points already! Think of it as the women-friendly equivalent of Rapha's Pro-team jacket; a race-cut insulating outer layer designed simultaneously to afford a breathable and windproof front panel.
Reflective piping flocks the rear panel joints, but don't make the mistake of thinking this is a high-vis piece, its stealthy and ninja-like with its completely black colour. Stylish attire indeed for the day, but this wont be ideal for commuting on darkened streets come evening time. Team with a high-vis gilet or such should this be the case would be my advice.
Two large pockets provide ample storage for ride food and phones/camera etc. No internal pump pocket or such, but they do keep their shape under load extremely well, and don't sag in that unsightly way that other jerseys can be prone to.
The jersey is an ideal 3 season outer layer, teamed with either 3/4 or tights and a thick baselayer in the winter. Retailing at around £150 (although I have seen these floating about in online sales recently) the jacket is a minimally-stylish staple thats manufacturing quality means it should last quite a few seasons. I teamed it happily with the rapha 3/4 bibs during an extensive test throughout late March/early April and it performed admirably giving ample protection from wind and drizzle. Id say look to employ the jacket ideally at temperatures below 12 degrees or so.
Capo will also be involved the the really cool Rêve grand tour project, which sees a group of 6 US based ladies take part in a punishing 3479KM ride shadowing the 2012 Tour de France route. Hopefully the weather will stay nice enough for the gang they wont be needing the Cipressa jacket ;)
Capo is available in the following places
Assynt - UK Continental
Assynt, a simply majestic and haunting look at the incredible and bleak landscapes of Scotland, for the first outing of the Rapha UK Continental project. Do yourself a favour and down tools for 5 minutes, grab a coffee and get lost in this charming video...
Condor Race Socks
Condor Cycles have released a new model of sock just in time for summer, this time tipping a nod to the cool euro styling seen on PRO racers within today's peloton. Their lightweight-tech white sock features a simple striped contrasting rear logo (available in both black and red, perfect to pick the coordinating colour to your S-Works heel cup!). In a longer incarnation of their previous sock, the race model boasts a 7cm long cuff section, perfect for those looking to enhance their bronzed pins for uber-euro points.
Priced at £8.99, I can confirm from the featured pictures that even after a decent 40 wash cycle, the socks came out like new. A welcome piece of information for those prone to heavy washing of their kit. The midfoot section is crafted from a meshed version of the microfibre yarn, improving ventilation to this part of the foot, along with ease of moisture transfer - bound to a nice bit of respite on those hot summer days in the saddle. The toe and heel area offers a thicker blend of fabric, resulting in a comfortable and secure fit.
The socks are available in-store now, in two sizes, a S/M & M/L. Alternatively, those non-London residents can ping the good folks at Grays Inn Road an email or phonecall and take advantage of friendly mail order option. Another nice sock staple to add to the summer riding wardrobe.
Back To Earth
Apologies all for the lack of updates on this wee blog over the last few weeks. Life has indeed traversed its way through a fantastically busy period, crowned in no minor fashion by a week of pure indulgent riding on the most incredible beautiful and brutal terrain in Italy. I took a over a week truly offline in every sense, enjoying the sensations of pushing myself and doing little other than riding my bike in the beautiful sunshine with some amazing company. Anyway! I am indeed sadly back from the bubble of breathtaking beauty and standing with a firm foothold back in blighty. Check back throughout this coming week to see some reviews trickling their way onto blog from Capo, Rapha and Condor to name but a few, and perhaps even a sneaky pic from the land of Italia. Vai Vai Vai!
A Few Good Rolls
And its back in business. Neglecting the bike over the first few months of 2012 in order to complete a charity half marathon, these past few weeks its been 'All about the bike' again. And what a welcome return it was! I enjoyed a handful of really good riding, catching up with friends and feeling a world more comfortable pushing it, thanks in no small part to going and getting my feet sorted out at Cyclefit.
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A nice hilly tarmac chase in Surrey to ease me back in the game with the sartorial guru
We took an undiscovered turning and found a peach of a climb on a SMCC roll
Which then turned into a sick 2k bridleway/gravel track. Perfect for a Flanders day ride!
At the weekend I rode my 3rd HOTN with Rowlandi. Great fun, read about it here
And i spent some time sucking this guys wheel in RePk apres work - I dont actually know him but he looked pretty damned pro. So thanks for the cheeky draft I was getting ;)
High5 Bargain
Discount Supplements has currently got a great offer on High5 Race Faster nutrition boxes, for the wallet friendly price of £4.49. The box contains 2 x Isogels, 4 x Energygels, 3 x EnergySource drink sachets, 1 x 4:1 Energysource and 1x Energysource Extreme. More than enough for a couple of rides or so. Scoop here
Cyclefit
A few days ago I paid a visit to the Cyclefit outfit, based in London's Covent Garden. I had decided to get my position looked over, but my main reason for the visit was to identify and hopefully correct the myriad of issues causing some stability issues in my lower half. I had developed what I termed 'disco-ankle' over the past few years, where my right ankle kicked out in a random motion every few pedal revolutions as my foot fought to find footing on the pedal axle. I suspected my shoes would require perhaps a shim or two, and I looked forward to having an expert properly set-up my speedplay cleats, the adjustable float not ideal for a self confessed fettler like myself to ever set up in a 100% satisfactory manner.
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It was over 2 years ago I last had a fitting and my shoes set up, at the very capable hands of ex-pro Adrian Timmis, now running the successful shop Cadence Sport full time. However in that time iv acquired a very different bike to the old aggressive bianchi, the Condor Acciaio. Im also running a vastly different pair of shoes, the S-works road show, compared to the old ill fitting Sidi genius 6 I wore at the time. So all in all lots of equipment and even body changes to address, hence seeking a set of eyes to yet again examine how I can eke more comfort and a little more efficiency out of my cycling.
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Ringing the buzzer at the shop-front of a discreetly pretty Covent Garden backstreet, I was met by Matt, Cyclefit fitter, and he ushered me inside to a well decorated unit. Delectable builds graced the walls from brands such as Passoni, Seven, Serotta and Guru. I took a seat, waited for my coffee and soaked up the gear p0rn. Not a bad way to start a Tuesday morning at 9am!
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The first part of the session was a sit down chat with Matt while he noted everything about my riding and riding past. Ambitions, injuries and bike measurements were noted in detail for input into my unique document (which to my delight was available after the session online). We spoke about my crash, around 3.5 years ago, and how it may have affected how I hold myself on the bike. I was then asked to pop up on the physio table, and I was stretched whilst matt recorded my flexibility (or lack thereof haha). I had tight hams and calves, which probably wasn't aided by the fact I had partaken in a long run the evening before. Still, my feet angle, femur length and other measurements were taken down, and again placed in the rider document.
I then had white dot stickers strategically placed to track my joints using their Dartfish motion capture software. Then it was time to mount the Ben Serotta designed SiCi (Serotta International Cycling Institute) fit bicycle and be recorded and observed. A laptop read out my efforts through each part of the pedal-stroke, and Matt circled the floor umming and ahhing, asking about any discomfort I was feeling.
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Matt then explained that my randomized ankle spazz-out, was actually in no small part down to an aggressive kick back up and into the pedal stroke. In effect Im failing to pedal properly, using my legs as vertical pistons, and instead trying to pull up and around on my upstroke, which Matt explained should actually serve as the recovery period of the pedal revolution. I explained I imagined this was down to being a bit obsessed with pedalling a perfect circle, and then it became apparent watching the video on the dartfish software that actually the pedalling motion is more of an vertical oval shape! So Iv come away trying to learn how to pedal properly, and after years of habit its actually incredibly hard to undo my bad habit! The laptop in front of the bike displayed some alarmingly red outputs on the graph that perfectly illustrated to me how I was yanking that foot back up to the top of the stroke. I spent a good ten minutes cycling on the SiCi trying to eliminate that horrid red bar from the screen, no small task!
I opted to have the sidas custom insoles moulded for my shoes, in order to further stabilise my pedal-stroke. Having to jump onto a curious inflatable moulding system I apologised profusely for the state of my feet, looking battered and shrivelled due to having put in a large amount of running miles the past few months. I was assured that worse feet have been seen, although I suspect that this was a case of keeping the customer happy :) Once in the correctly moulded insole, I definitely felt they were more firmer than the cushy flimsy stock footbeds in there already, and I knew these might take a bit of getting used to. Popping back onto the bike I instantly noticed how much more engaged I felt with the pedal, and definitely noticed an increase in my output, which in teaming with correct cleat placement and a shim in each, really enabled my to get that correct piston like tracking in my knees.
My position was tweaked by a minute amount, less than a cm in the saddle fore position, but to be honest I was attending the session about 90% happy with my bike set-up, it was more to address the waist down issues and tracking, so I was happy that it reinforced I had the bike set up correctly in the first place (hats tipped to Condor and Sammy for that).
We had a really good chat about the strengthening and conditioning that's going to aid me this coming year, iv a lot to do in terms of getting my core solid, strengthening my back to avoid a recurrence of the bulged lumbar discs that ruined my cycling a couple of years ago, and also I need to work on getting my strong but very dormant glute muscles to fire on the pedal-stroke.
Overall it was a really enlightening and worthwhile way to spend 3 hours as I look to enhance my comfort and performance on the bike this next year. I thought it was great how also each client is given the link to their fit videos and a cracking spreadsheet detailing rider history and changes to the bike/position.
There's no denying the pedigree of Cyclefit, and id thoroughly recommend it to anyone who, like me, felt 'ok' but not 'quite right' in the saddle. Whilst it is on the expensive side, its a really worthwhile investment in comparison to other things, and I don't think you can put a price on comfort and the enjoyment not having those on-the-0bike niggles can bring. In this day and age, riders are dropping serious coin on bikes, clothing and shoes, so think about if you could benefit from a fitting session and if so, get to it. I plan to pen a follow up in around four weeks time when iv done some serious miles with my current setup, and il try and identify any real world change (if any, no matter how big or small) the fit has made to my riding.
My position was tweaked by a minute amount, less than a cm in the saddle fore position, but to be honest I was attending the session about 90% happy with my bike set-up, it was more to address the waist down issues and tracking, so I was happy that it reinforced I had the bike set up correctly in the first place (hats tipped to Condor and Sammy for that).
Overall it was a really enlightening and worthwhile way to spend 3 hours as I look to enhance my comfort and performance on the bike this next year. I thought it was great how also each client is given the link to their fit videos and a cracking spreadsheet detailing rider history and changes to the bike/position.
