Madison cycles very kindly flew fifty of their UK Cervelo dealers to the Canary Islands and presented their new bikes to us in the sunshine, and then gave us the opportunity to ride them. More about this later.

What did I ride?

1.  Cervelo S5 Team with SRAM Red groupset and Mavic Cosmic SR wheels

2.  Cervelo R5 VWD with Campagnolo Super Record and Fulcrum wheels

3.  Cervelo S5 with Dura-ace Di2 and 3t carbon wheels

4.  Giant TCR composite with Ultegra (I stayed out for a couple of days extra, and this is the hire bikes that the hotel has.)

I could talk about the differences between all these bikes all day long, please pop into the Leatherhead store and ask me about them. I will summarise my thoughts about the groupsets here, but please realise that these are all very top end bikes, and all of them worked really nicely, choosing between them is a personal thing, and what I like may not be to everyone’s taste. I would be happy to own any of them (except the Giant:))

Ergonomics

This is the main thing that sets the groupset manufacturers apart, how the shifter fits into your hand. They are all really really similar, Shimano and SRAM feel quite large in the hand, and failry similar, Campy just ‘fits’ the way the horn is curved feels lovely to hold.

Method of Shifting

All the gears worked well and were indexed correctly. Both Shimano groupsets were the smoothest shift by far. The Di2 being the fastest and crispest. The SRAM Red up-shift was lovely and fast, but personally I really can’t get used to the double tap down shift, doesn’t feel intuitive and smooth to me, much more ‘clunky’. Campy Super record, fast, accurate, separate buttons to perform each shift, and you can really feel the chain snaking smoothly across the cassette into gear, just lovely gear shifting. Front mech shifting on the Shimano groupsets was sublime, far and away better than the others, with SRAM lagging way behind.

Braking

All the bikes were set up with the front brake on the left, wrong way round for me, so I wasn’t totally happy with the braking on any bike.

This is really highlighted when doing 75 kph with Canary Island side winds on deep carbon wheels! I felt that the SRAM brakes had great power but were a little wooden. The Shimano 105 brakes/Ultegra levers were lacking power, and I really dislike the brake lever swinging left and right as well as fore-aft. The dura-ace Di2 brakes and levers were really good, powerful and accurate (and the levers move in and out in one plane only). The Campy brakes were not as high power as the Shimano, but had loads of feel and modulation.

So what was my favourite? Can you guess? Campagnolo all the way. I love the feel of the gear shift, the ergonomics and the braking. Add to that the look and aesthetics of the groupset and I would feel happiest spending a lot of money on Super Record/Record/Chorus. A very close second is the Di2, precise and perfect shifting. SRAM, works well, but just not for me, Tom and Carl disagree with me, but as I said earlier, this is all my personal ride feelings. Ultegra, yes it is good, but not as good as the others, the top end groupsets really are better, you pays your money…you makes your choice.

Written by Dave Farmer

With registrations now open, you can set a goal for your new years’ training and you’ve no need to feel guilty for eating that extra mince pie or roast potato this Christmas!

Epic 100 miles, 7320ft of climbing

Challenge 59 miles, 4073ft

Sport 38 miles, 1970ft

For more information and to enter the event, please click the link below to be taken to the Little Lumpy website;

www.littlelumpy.co.uk

Full details can be found here, but for a quick summary;

The start is again in the centre of Haslemere and again we take you through the prettiest parts of the Sussex and Hampshire Weald to the South Downs at South Harting where the Challenge and Epic routes take you over some testing little climbs.

Three distances / events to account for all levels:

	Fun 38 miles (61km) with 1,970 ft (600m) of climbing including the tough but georgous Blackdown as a last hurrah. One Feed-stop at South Harting.
	Challenge 65 miles (105km) with 3,840 ft (1,170m) of climbing, four times over the Downs and finishing over Blackdown and down Tennyson’s Lane. Two feed-stops.
	Epic 108 miles (172km) with 6,560 ft (2,029m) of climbing. Twelve climbs and three-stops.

2010; what’s being kept and what’s being improved:

Routes; we are tinkering again to take account of your feedback and to try and ensure that your day in the saddle is as enjoyable as possible. Last year the Epic and Challenge routes included three testing climbs right at the end which, on reflection (and your comments), we decided was a bit sadistic. We have, however, kept the last climb over Blackdown with a long run back down Tennyson’s Lane to Haslemere.

Same fabulous food; as regular sportivists ourselves we know the importance of good food and plenty of water filling opportunities. As the event has gained in popularity we have striven to continue with our original manifesto of feeding you on the best home made cakes and flapjacks etc so that what is a hard day remains a pleasuarable experience. Your feedback has persuaded us to continue with this approach and we have asked the locals of Haslemere to contribute.

Signing on; we want to make sure that you get away in a timely and fuss free manner, notwithstanding our obligations to log full details in case of accident, mishap or just plain ‘got lost’.

Mechanical back-up; Cycleworks will again be providing mechanical back-up and will have a tent at South Harting as well as roving van for major problems. We will provide an emergency number.

Signposting & marshalls; we continue to try and improve the sign-posting and particularly around the main feed-stop at South Harting which seemed to confuse some riders. Where we feel the sign-posting is at risk of pranksters we will have a marshall.

Haslemere Festival; the Festival has been expanded this year to include a Fringe festival, so why not check out the web-sites, to see whether you can combine your day in the saddle with some culture (high-brow or not so).

Hotels; we are also arranging special rates for Festival goers (and that includes you) at various hotels in the area – see News for further details. For accommodation generally in the area; www.haslemere.com/vic

DEMO DAY

TRY NEW 2011 BIKES BEFORE YOU BUY

WE ARE RUNNING A DEMO DAY WITH ORANGE TO GIVE YOU THE CHANCE TO RIDE THEIR NEW 2011 BIKES, WE WILL ALSO HAVE SOME OF OUR SPECIALIZED AND WHYTE DEMO BIKES THERE FOR YOU TO TRY ALSO.

IT IS ON SUNDAY 8^TH AUGUST – AT HOLMBURY ST MARY NEAR GUILDFORD

IT IS ESSENTIAL TO BOOK A PLACE IN ADVANCE AS PLACES ARE LIMITED- YOU CANNOT TURN UP ON THE DAY WITHOUT A BOOKING.

PLEASE RING OUR LEATHERHEAD SHOP ON

01372 363665 OR EMAIL leatherhead@cycleworks.co.uk TO BOOK

PLEASE NOTE ALL RIDERS MUST BE OVER 18, AND HELMET AND ID ARE REQUIRED ON THE DAY.

BOOK NOW AS SPACES ARE LIMITED

On Friday 25th June Anthony Gray is attempting to ride the whole of the South Downs way and back again in under 24 hours!

Anthony has ridden the whole trail in one way in under 12 hours before, and decided to see if he could achieve the double in just one whole day.

The first leg is through the night from Eastbourne to Winchester then returning in daylight while the British Heart Foundation randonnee south downs ride is riding the same trail.

Please give generously here on Anthony’s just giving page money will go to Bowel cancer campaign in memory of his sister who suffered from the illness.

Antony has gained sponsorship from;

morph fitness

Gew engineering

Nirvana cycles

And of course us.

All the staff at Cycleworks would like to congratulate him on this amazing feat. He rode 100 miles in one day at the age of ten! Almost of the ride was off-road on the Downs link disused railway from Shoreham to Guildford, then along the Wey navigation and the Thames to London. The ride took a total of 11 1/5 hours, no mean feat for most adults, and very impressive indead.

Bill rode his new Rockhopper SL bike that Cycleworks supplied him with, he rode all the way with no mechanical issues or punctures.

Please give generously here

http://www.justgiving.com/billsbigbike

Bill was riding to raise money for the Rainbow trust, for details of the very good work that they do, please see here

The Rainbow Trust website.

We have just had our most successful demo day yet.

Beautiful weather, dry trails, great atmosphere and amazing refreshments from Mrs Kirke and Mrs Line.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone that came to ride bikes, I hope you enjoyed yourselves, if the smiles on everyone’s faces are anything to go by I think you did.

I apologise for the demo being planned on Mothers Day. It is difficult to choose a day that doesn’t conflict with something. Three weeks ago Adam, from Orange MTB got married (congratulations Adam and Andrea); every other weekend in March; the Hall was booked up; then we are into Easter. All these things meant that we had to choose Mothers Day for the event, once again, thank you to all who came along.

Throughout the day we managed to get approximately 146 bikes set up for people, and seven rides organised. One every hour from 9am until 3pm. That is an average of 21 people on every ride, although the early rides are always the busiest. I think we had nearly 35 people on the first ride! Amazingly, no-one got lost, and we ran pretty much to time all day.

Only three punctures and no major crashes, only a couple of tumbles into the bushes, with dented pride being the only casualty.

The route we took had a fairly gentle warm up trail with lovely views of picturesque Holmbury St Mary (little Switzerland) before we turned into the woodland properly. The forest is managed by The Hurtwood Control Trust, a charity that survives with donations made by it’s ‘friends’, please give generously.

We then chose a trail that wound it’s way toward the top of Holmbury Hill up a wooded climb. We turned left down a short winding descent with five or six really nice corners that flatter a bike’s handling. Another fireroad climb to the top of the hill took us to the top of the trail known as ‘Parklife’ or ‘yoghurt-pots’. This trail has been extensively worked on by trailbuilding volunteers in the last year, and it really shows.

Flowing and fast, it always puts a smile on your face. We then linked together a couple of sections of ‘Telegraph’ leading to a final singletrack known as ‘secret-squirrel’. All fitted into 40 minutes of action packed riding.

A frantic change of pedals, pumping of shocks and the next ride is ready in 15 minutes, and off again. Hard work, but great fun for us staff as well as everyone trialing bikes.

Once again, thank you to everyone involved in the day, good fun, and I bet you all enjoyed a rest and slept well when you got home (I know I did).

Dave