Issue 129
£6.30
This issue is one of extreme feats. First, we recreate the longest successful breakaway at the Tour de France since the War, Albert Bourlon’s staggering 253km attack from Carcassonne to Luchon. It’s a record that has stood since 1947, but can an enthusiastic amateur on a modern aero bike hope to equal it? But 255km? That’s nothing, because we also take on the inaugural Chase the Sun Ireland, a mad dash from sun up to sun down, coast-to-coast, across the Emerald Isle. It’s 334km. And there was a headwind.
Yet for all that length and bluster, this month’s Classic Climb stars the shortest ascent we’ve ever made, the Paterberg in Belgium. Just 400m long it might not sound like much, but with near half at 21% and the floor entire cobbles, this is a climb that even the pros sometimes push.
Yet all of this is nothing compared to one man’s endeavours: Sir Bradley Wiggins, who 10 years ago this month took Britain’s first Tour de France, and in so doing sparked a revolution. To celebrate, we ask industry experts from Carlton Kirby to Tao Geoghegan-Hart to tell us what it meant to them and how it shaped British cycling in the decade that followed.
That’s all jammed into issue 129, and we haven’t even begun to list the brand new Colnago C68, Pinarello Grevil, all the kit, the opinions, the expert insights into fitness… it’s all here, so better grab a copy of issue 129 to find out more.