The World’s Strangest Places To Cycle | The GCN Show Ep. 233

Matt & Dan are in Alta Badia this week and roundup the week in cycling. What a week it’s been! The headline this week is The World’s Strangest Places To Cycle

Subscribe to GCN: http://gcn.eu/SubscribeToGCN
Get exclusive GCN gear in the GCN shop! http://gcn.eu/fI

What is the strangest place you have cycled? Let us know in the comments below 👇
White or black shorts? Let us know 👇
Can you beat Matt’s caption? Leave yours below 👇

This week’s hot topic is the strangest places to cycle
The catamaran of Team Emirates New Zealand have an Olympic Cyclist, Simon van Velthooven, on their boat, as they have a four man “cycling” crew on board to help “power” the boat in the America’s Cup.

Sir Chris Hoy is hoping to cycle to the South Pole, but is looking for someone to ride with him though. Fancy it?

The strangest place Matt Stephens has cycled is his garage, in 1998. He decided to replicate Kuala Lumpur, so he decided to fill his garage with wet towels on hot sunny days, with the tumble drier on! True Story!

Check out the NEW GCN products here : http://gcn.eu/fI

We’ve got our usual sections including cycling shorts. Steve Cummings, the new British Road and TT champ asked white or black shorts on twitter. What do you think?

Mathieu van der Poel continues to show his versatility by finishing 4th in the Cross Country Marathon World Champs. Very impressive.

The 2017 RAAM has finished for many riders and the winner for the fourth time was Christoph Strasser, he won by 35hours!! 3000miles in 8days 10hrs.
The female winner was Sarah Cooper who finished in 11days 19hrs.

The GCN presenters have also made it on to cupcakes!

To enter the Continental Attack & Force tyre competition as well as bib-shorts and jersey, click here: http://gcn.eu/AttackForce *Good Luck*

Tech of the week comes out from 3T with their Strada model, designed by Gerard Vroomen.

A few of the highlights from National Championships around the world include
USA: Larry Warbasse who won his second pro race in two weeks to win the USA national champs.
42 yr old Amber Neben won the women’s RR and TT.
Netherlands: Ramon Sinkeldam won and Tom Dumoulin helped him out in the RR, oh Dumoulin also won the Dutch TT champs!
Belgium: Jolien d’Hoore was the women’s winner & Oliver Naesen won the mens
France: FDJ did the double with Arnaud Demare the mens winner & Charlotte Bravard winner the ladies event. The FDJ mens team had 19 riders!!
Great Britain: Steve Cummings won the TT & RR champs! And this was Steve’s first race since injury in April! Incredible. He did lots of hard training on Zwift.
Italy: Elisa Longo Borghini & Fabio Aru took the honours.
Ireland: Ryan Mullen won the RR & TT champs in Ireland and is this week’s Wattage Bazooka winner.

We’ve got wattage bazooka, caption of the week, comment of the week, Dom’s Tweet Of The Week and we cannot forget Hack/Bodge of the week! One which the guys think is bodge of the century! Xtreme Corner features GMBN’s Blake Samson 🔥

If you’d like to contribute captions and video info in your language, here’s the link 👍 http://gcn.eu/fJ

Watch more on GCN…
6 Climbing Mistakes To Avoid When Cycling | GCN Pro Tips 📹 http://gcn.eu/6ClimbingMistakes
Have Mavic Nailed Tubeless For Road? New Wheels And Tyres 📹 http://gcn.eu/NewMavic

Photos: © Bettiniphoto / http://www.bettiniphoto.net/ & ©Tim De Waele / http://www.tdwsport.com

About GCN:

The Global Cycling Network puts you in the centre of the action: from the iconic climbs of Alpe D’Huez and Mont Ventoux to the cobbles of Flanders, everywhere there is road or pavé, world-class racing and pro riders, we will be there bringing you action, analysis and unparalleled access every week, every month, and every year. We show you how to be a better cyclist with our bike maintenance videos, tips for improving your cycling, cycling top tens, and not forgetting the weekly GCN Show. Join us on YouTube’s biggest and best cycling channel to get closer to the action and improve your riding!

Welcome to the Global Cycling Network | Inside cycling

Thanks to our sponsors:

Alta Badia:http://gcn.eu/AltaBadia- // Maratona Dles Dolomites: http://gcn.eu/MaratonaDlesDolomites-
Assos of Switzerland: http://gcn.eu/Assos
KASK helmets: http://gcn.eu/KASK
fi’zi:k shoes and saddles: http://gcn.eu/fizikshoes and http://gcn.eu/fiziksaddles
Topeak tools: http://gcn.eu/Topeak
Canyon bikes: http://gcn.eu/-Canyon
Quarq: http://gcn.eu/Quarq
DT Swiss: http://gcn.eu/DtSwiss
Science in Sport: http://gcn.eu/SiS
Orbea bikes: http://gcn.eu/Orbea
Trek Bicycles: http://gcn.eu/-Trek
Vision wheels: http://gcn.eu/Vision
Zipp wheels: http://gcn.eu/Zipp
power2max: http://gcn.eu/power2max
Wahoo Fitness: http://gcn.eu/Wahoo-Fitness
Park Tool: http://gcn.eu/-parktool
Continental tyres: http://gcn.eu/continental-
Camelbak: http://gcn.eu/camelbak-

YouTube Channel – http://gcn.eu/gcnYT
Facebook – http://gcn.eu/gcnFb
Google+ – http://gcn.eu/gcnGPlus
Twitter – http://gcn.eu/gcnTW

Leave us a comment below!

– From two of America’s Dairyland, welcome to the GCN Show. – From Karpata, Dutch Caribbean, welcome to the GCN Show. From St. Ginnegan’s Scholar’s Guild Cycling in Auckland, New Zealand, – [All] Welcome to the GCN Show! – From the Grand Adeje Hotel in Badia in the Dolomites, welcome to the GCN Show. – This week we are looking at some of the strangest places to ride a bike, and we’re wrapping up some of the key National Championship events from last weekend. – Plus, we have a brand new continental tyres

Competition, and all of your usual favourites. Without it, sunshine and mountains. – It’s hot, isn’t it? – It’s gorgeous. Nice shades. – It’s not often that we take news from yachts and yachting magazines, but nevertheless, we’ve got quite a lot of interest recently surrounding the America’s Cup Catamaran of Team Emirates, New Zealand. – Go on, I’m intrigued. – Well, included in their crew is a former Olympic medal-winning cyclist

By the name of Simon Van Velthooven. And there’s a very good reason for his inclusion and that is the Catamaran’s hydraulic systems are now controlled by a static four man tandem, as opposed to a traditional method, which is the turning of the hand operated crank.

Now, they are the only team who have adopted this relatively innovative piece of engineering. But so far, it really appears to be working for them. They entered as relative underdogs, but as we record this, they’re just one race win away from winning the America’s Cup.

– Well that is a pretty weird place to ride a bike onboard a Catamaran, but I must admit, Dan, I’m surprised that actually hasn’t been used before. – I’m surprised as well. I just assumed it was against the rules, but obviously not. – Anyway, we’ve got another weird place to ride a bike.

Do you remember from our new show, just a couple of weeks back, it was the Riviera Water Bike Challenge in Monaco. So basically, riding bikes on the Mediterranean. And there was teams riding Water Bike Challenges for money, raising money for charity, and just look at some of the names that actually participated.

Formula One royalty, Nico Rosberg, and David Coulthard, him of chiselled chin, and actual royalty, Prince Albert of Monaco, and cycling royalty, Princess Tiffany Cromwell of Canyon-SRAM. – Queen Cromwell. – I think it might be Queen Cromwell, one of the two. – Yeah. – No doubt Tiffers will get in touch.

But look at Tiffers onboard her bike boat, or boat bike, I’m not too sure what you’d call it. – Since Tiffany’s riding, it’s probably a speed boat. – Good point. – Now, one man who is planning on riding somewhere slightly strange, even if he hasn’t done it yet, is Sir Chris Hoy.

He is hoping to ride to the South Pole, but he is struggling at the moment to find somebody mad enough to do it with him. – Do you know what time of year it is? – Uh, no, I don’t think a date has been fixed yet. – But we are fully booked up.

– Yeah, we’re definitely busy, whenever he’s doing it, we’re busy. – Yeah, I think we are blocked booked. Talking about places that are weird to cycle, do you know the weirdest place that I’ve ever ridden? – I don’t, but I’m sure you’re going to tell us all.

– I am indeed going to oblige, it’s my garage. – Go on, it’s not that weird. – Well, it was quite weird when I explained. Basically it was 1998, I was training for the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, very hot and humid conditions

And I don’t have a lot in time to go to training camps. So I thought, “How do I best replicate the humid conditions of that neck of the woods?” So, in my garage, I had a tumble drier on, filled it with wet towels, shut the garage door

On a hot and sunny day, on a number of occasions, in fact, over a period of a couple of weeks, and trained while the tumble dry was on. And I must admit, I sweated buckets and it was great. – As much as it pains me to say this,

That was actually a great idea, that sort of idea is used to this day because it’s been proven to work if you’re trying to get yourself ready to compete in a very hot climate. – So I’m a tumble dry pioneer, of some sort. – Yeah, yeah, you are, well done.

Anyway, we would like to know what is the strangest place that you have ever ridden a bike? You can, as ever, leave your comments in the comment section below this video. – It’s now time for Cycling Shorts. – This being Cycling Shorts time, we are actually going to talk this week about cycling shorts to kick things off. And a very thorny issue of black or white shorts. Now the issue always rumbles ever forwards, and it’s Steve Cummings, the freshly minted

TT & Road Champion of Great Britain who’s weighing in on the issue with his own Twitter poll, asking people if he should ride in black or white shorts. So at the time of recording this, he’s got ten thousand votes, thankfully, in my humble opinion, in favour of black shorts.

– Well, last year’s champion Adam Blythe weighed in with a tweet which, well I won’t read it out, it is quite adamant that he should be wearing white shorts, Steve Cummings. As you said at the moment, it’s very much in favour of black depending on when you watch the GCN show,

You might still have time to vote if you go over to @StevoCummings, but even if the poll has finished, you can reply. I’m sure he would love your opinion. If you want my personal opinion, I mean Steve’s quite a humble guy. – He is, yeah.

– I’ve worn white shorts before as a lot of you all know, and they can be quite humbling, take from that what you will. – Anyway, one of the most versatile and exciting riders in the world, Mathieu van der Poel has been at it again. He loves to dip his toe into other disciplines of cycling and this time, very first time in fact, he entered the World Cross Country Marathon Mountain

Bike Championships in Germany and for a kick off, he just finished at the podium in fourth place, which is absolutely fantastic and sterling effort for his first attempt to that particular discipline. It was actually won by Alban Lakata of Austria who won for the fourth time, but

You have to take your hat off to, just to the fact that that guy loves riding his bike and he just seems to be good at everything. – He’s a virtuoso rider. – Some rider, isn’t he? – Anyway, onto an even bigger test of endurance,

That being the RAAM, or the Race Across America. That, for many riders, has finished over the course of last seven days. The winner of the men’s solo race was indeed Christoph Strasser for the fourth time in his career. He completed three thousand miles in a time of eight days and ten hours,

Which is really quite incredible. What puts it into perspective is the distance back to second place finisher Mark Patterson, 35 hours. – Whoa. – That’s a convincing win, that is. – That is, not exactly photo finish, is it? – No, and meanwhile, the women’s solo winner was Sarah Cooper who completed her

Event in 11 days and 19 hours. And we want to give a special mention to Andre Kajlich, as we record this, he hasn’t yet finished, but he should do by the time this comes out. He will become the first person to complete the RAAM on a hand cycle.

– Well, that is an absolutely amazing effort, but there’s been another endurance event that finished over the weekend in the United States. The Trans America, that event is unsupported. It was won by Evan Deustch in a time of 17 days and eight hours. Second place was John Lister a whole day behind,

So another non-photo finish, and in third place, and the first woman to finish the event, the epic event, was Jane Hayes, fantastic stuff. We’re going to end this week’s Cycling Shorts with something just a little bit different. Now, Dan, have you ever been on a cake? – Not that I know of, no.

– Well, you have now. – Right. – Check this out, Adam Welton from Toronto in Canada has gotten in touch via Instagram. Now, for his thirtieth birthday, his very kind girlfriend made him a series of cycling themed cupcakes, okay? So as you can see from the picture, there’s a picture of

Peter on the cupcake on the left hand side, top right is one of Froome and the remaining four cupcakes are adorned with pictures of you, me, Lasty and Si! – Wow. – [Dan] That’s genius, isn’t it? – [Matt] That’s some company that we’re keeping there. – I wonder who he ate first?

– Ooh, that’s a good question. And I wonder if he put it all in one, or just bit half of the face off? Sort of like you do Jelly Babies. – Like one of your ears. – Oh, god. Next up, we’ve got cool new competition from our tyre partners, Continental.

– Yes we have indeed. So ten of you have the opportunity to win, firstly, a set of these, which are Grand Prix Force and Attack which front and rear specific tyres which are basically the after-market version of the pro-limited tubular tyres

Which you see used in a whole host of world tour team bikes. – Now the tyres use the Black Chilli Compound which basically reduces road resistance, reduces the chance of punctures, but increase grip. So pretty much everything you want from a tyre. – Yeah along with this set of tyres,

You will also, if you are lucky enough to win, receive a set of Continental Kit as well. So the bib shorts here and the jersey, which is a very cool prize indeed. Well worth entry I think you might say. You can find details on how to do this

By following the link which you’ll find in the description below this video. – This week, Gerard Vroomen, the co-founder of Cervelo, has announced his first new aero frame design in six years, in the form of the 3T bike called the Strada which has some really cool new features and integrations.

– One of those features being the fact that there is no front derailleur, there’s not even an option to have one. They’ve gone with a SRAM 1x drivetrain, and that lack of front derailleur means that it’s more aero, it’s lighter,

And I also think it’s a lot neater if you have a look at it around that part of the bike as well. It’s a disc brake only frame set, which means they have been able to design the frame and forks around that fact. It’s allowing 30 millimetre tyres,

But as you can see, when you fit 30 millimetre tyres, they are very, very close to the frame and forks, which apparently further increase the aerodynamics. – Now the other benefits of wider tyres, they’re more comfortable, they have less road resistance, but one of the drawbacks is that they are less aerodynamic.

But Vroomen claims because the bike has been entirely designed around wider tyres, that is no longer an issue. – No it’s very interesting isn’t it? We understand also that we haven’t seen any images yet, but they are in the process of designing their very own

12-speed cassette, which could get back some of the issues associated with the one by group set, i.e. if you’ve got big enough ratio of gears to get over all sorts of terrain, that you have a big jump between each gear in terms of your cadence.

Whereas this is apparently going to be fine for both. You don’t have much of a jump between gears, but you’ve got an adequate ratio for steep climbs and downhills too. It is the week leading up to the Tour de France now, which means that most of the National Cycling Federations

Around the world host their national championships the weekend just gone. As ever, we haven’t got time to go through each and every victor of each and every race, but here are a few of the highlights. – Let’s kick things off in the United States where everybody’s new favourite bike rider, Larry Warbasse,

Took his second pro win in two weeks. So he’ll be wearing the stars and stripes for his team, Aqua Blue for the next twelve months. And meanwhile, Amber Neben, 42 years of age now, did the double so she won the TT and the road event,

To add to her world TT title that she won last year in Qatar. – Yeah that was very impressive indeed wasn’t it? – Amazing. – Meanwhile in the Netherlands, it was Ramon Sinkeldam with Team Sundown who took a narrow victory over Wouter Wippet. But what took me by surprise,

Was the fact that Tom Dumoulin was there supporting him. I thought he was supposed to be on a well earned break. Not only did he help Sinkeldam to his victory, a few days previous he also retained his national time trial title. As you might expect, a load of support from fans

On the side of the road, including these fans. I think you can do your own translations for that picture which Tom tweeted. Tweet of the week? – Gotta be. Jolien D’Hoore took her 4th Belgian Title and Ag2r’s Oliver Naesen just edged out, in a really exciting finish, Sep Vanmmarcke

To win the men’s Belgian title. But surprisingly, Lotto-Soudal and Quick-Step Floors, the two world tour teams, could only manage, well 8th place was the best – – Yeah that was a surprise. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the meeting as a rider in those two teams after that championship.

I bet that was not a pretty place to be. One team which was very happy though, was team FDJ who took the men’s and the women’s events down in the French National Championships. The women’s was won by Charlotte Bravard, whilst the men’s was won for the 2nd time in his career,

Arnaud Demare who manged to beat Nacer Bouhanni in a sprint finish. However, I was looking at the start list for that race. Demare started with 19 teammates. – I saw from the pictures. – That’s a lead out and half isn’t it? – Now imagine all the pressure on his shoulders

With all those teammates. He had to deliver and he did, didn’t he? Well there you go. Obviously in great form, ahead of the tour, and another man who’s in great form ahead of the tour, (unintelligible) and has been selected for the tour, is Dimension Data’s Steve Cummings.

Now he won both the TT and men’s RR British Championships. But what makes the whole thing more remarkable for me, is the fact that the TT which he won was his first race back since breaking his scapula in the Tour of Basque country back in April.

But as we know, Steve Cummings is one of the best trainers out there but a lot of it was done very much like Matt Hayman when he went on to win Paris Roubaix on Zwift, so how cool is that? A computer game, that can get you fit

To win some of the biggest bike races in the world. Fantastic story. – Yeah and he replied to a tweet of mine, which said that they knew that Steve was in great form because he passed him on Watopia Island. And also, I love the fact that his on-screen Steve Cummings

Looks exactly the same. – Super aero isn’t it? Look at that. – Yeah no hair, well I guess that’s easy to do, but it just looks exactly like Steve Cummings. Down in Italy, there were a couple of very popular winners. Elisa Longo Borghini winning the women’s event.

Fabio Aru of Astana taking the men’s, and he’ll be wearing that famous tricolore jersey at the Tour de France in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, down in Portugal, not sure if you heard this Matt, but defending time trial champion, Nelson Oliviera of Movistar who’s won the time trial nationals

For the last three years, didn’t actually start the event. – Why not? – Because there was a last minute change to the start times and nobody thought to tell him. – Oh that’s just, I’d have a recount. I’d do that again. That’s just awful for old Nelson.

We’ll finish our national champs round up with another rider who’s done the double, in fact, for the second time. And that’s Ryan Mullen of Cannondale Drapac winning the Irish TT and the road race. And we’re also gonna award him a little triple really because he gets this week’s Wattgage Bazooka

Because of his quite, well, staggering stats in both the TT and the road race. Dan, hit us with Ryan’s stats. – Unbelievable numbers. In the time trial, he averages 439 watts, and then in the road race, he averaged 339 with a normalised power of 405 watts,

Which are staggering stats, I think you have to say. So he’s got the main wattage bazooka. No viewer wattage bazooka this week because we want to give the second one to Victoria Williamson a British track rider. She, around 18 months ago, had a horrific crash

At an event where she broke her neck, her back, her pelvis. It’s been a very, very long road to recovery, but just the other day she did a sprint test on a Watt Bike. Have a look at this. – Well that’s just fantastic to see. Well done Victoria. Good to see you back.

– Yeah that has to take a lot of determination, to come back over the last year and a half. Well done Victoria. I was wondering Matt, though, whether any of the national champions did a celebratory bidon technique. As shown in our nine magnificent ways to drink from a bidon video.

– Of course, I’m just surprised we didn’t see any more photos of it on social media to be honest with you. But of course that’d be quite normal really. – Underneath that video, incidentally, quite a few of you who wanted to see some outtakes from the lob. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you,

But Matt and I did that first time, so there are no outtakes to show,. – Whoa. – It’s time now for hack forward slash bodge of the week. Kick it off Dan? – Yeah Alex Dyer found this hack in Marrow Bay, California. It’s a faux-bamboo bike, so almost completely made of wood. What I think is fantastic is that saddle. I mean, look at the size of it.

It looks like a huge Brook saddle doesn’t it? – It’s like a chopper saddle or something, but it looks like the kind of bike that Tarzan maybe could’ve made in his time. Well this one is from Erik Hendrickson, and found this crutch attached to this bike. Now this is one of the most

Incredible things I have ever seen. The crutch itself forms a top tube, almost like an arrow frame mud guard, and a rack at the same time. It’s a real piece of handiwork. – It’s kind of a bodge but he’s done a good job of it. – It kind of looks effective, yeah.

– Alright moving on, we’ve got this one in on Twitter from @subflux, floating laptop for when he’s doing his indoor training, which looks more outdoor to be honest. – It does look like he’s in the middle of a forest somewhere but that does look pretty good. Next up we have this from @kenmorebikebrews

Over on Instagram, a worn out old chain that took me 2000 miles to my first double-century, now it’s his favourite belt buckle. That’s actually pretty cool. – Yeah that is quite cool. And finally, we have possibly the bodge of the century from Caleb Knerr. Definitely some hacking went into this bike

Seen outside an Edwards, Colorado bike shop. Do you reckon that even works? – Well I’d like to see somebody riding that. – So basically he’s powering the wheel that’s in contact with the floor via the back wheel, and in a series of pulleys and chains, isn’t he?

– I mean that has a whole new definition of three wheeler tryc isn’t it? – That’s amazing. – Well keep your hacks and bodges coming using the hashtag #gcnhack on Twitter or Instagram. – Mind officially blown Dan. – Caption competition now, you’re chance to win GCN CamelBak water bottle.

Last week’s photo was this one from the Tour of Switzerland, and the winner is Jakob Adam who put caption, “Don’t get a slash in your tyres.” Very well done. We see what you did there, get in touch with us with your address and we’ll get that bottle to you ASAP.

– And hopefully you’ll get a few more likes. There’s only one at the time of going to press here, but yeah, definitely deserves more likes. Very witty indeed. Now next up we have this picture of Pete Sagan again at the Tour of Switzerland with a bidon. I’ll start you off.

This is my version of the GCN air bidon. – Hm, if you can do better than that, please leave your captions in the comment section down below and we will pick winner this time next week. – On the channel this week, on Wednesday we’ve got a top descending mistake,

So on Thursday we’ll have our top 10 riders to watch out for at the Tour de France with loads of extra cool added value by the medium of stats. And then on Friday, we have ask GCN. – Saturday’s pro-bike will be coming straight from the Tour de France

Where Lasty and Si are heading soon. On Sunday we take a look at how Team Sky use their indoor trainers. Monday we’re back in the maintenance set, and then on Tuesday it’s the GCN show, which next week will be coming again straight from out of Alta Baldia

Where will have just finished the Maratona dles Dolomites. – So me might be presenting for the very first time actually laid down on that one. – And, as a bonus then, you will be getting extra content this coming week from both Si and Lasty who are at the Tour de France

In the lead up to that huge race, and from Matt and myself who will be here in Alta Badia for that entire week. Keep your eyes out on social media as well because we’ll be doing a couple of live videos, too. Oh incidentally Matt, before we finish with the segment,

I got compliment for the first time ever, on my pronunciation. – What word was that then? – Dusseldorf. – In the Tour de France preview show, Dusseldorf, hopefully I got it right again, but I’ve never been complimented on it before. – That was very good, that. I must admit I’m mighty impressed.

– Dusseldorf. – [Both] Extreme corner. – This week’s Extreme Corner comes from one of our friends over at the Global Mountain Bike Network that being, Blake Samson, who’s been pulling off some incredible tricks at the Crankworx Whip Off Event in Les Gets. – Nothing to do with ice cream by the way. ♫ I want you baby. ♫ Just can’t stop. – He was whipping up a storm, wasn’t he? – That was so good. Yeah you could stick a flake in it and some strawberry sauce. – Alright well that’s almost it for this week’s GCN Show, but just to let you know, we’ve got some brand new merchandise at shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com,

Including some casual wear in both sky blue and grey, which looks pretty cool. There’s a sale on. All items in the sale have at least 25% off. and we’ve got complete stock now of the fan kit, which includes a women specific kit as well. – And as well as all that lovely stuff,

To celebrate July we’ve got some new yellow logo GCN kit in as well, and once you’ve done some shopping, if you haven’t already, you can subscribe to the Global Cycling Network. It’s absolutely free. Do it by clicking on the globe somewhere in the middle of this screen. Now, for my six climbing mistakes,

How about clicking just down here. – Or if you missed Si in France having a look at Mavic’s, pretty innovative new tubeless tyre system, you can click just down here. – Don’t forget to share and like.