Primal Pantry produce a range of five bars designed to compliment a paleo diet, but before you go screaming from the room shouting ‘fad’, hang fire. Whilst we’re not about to get embroiled (at least here and now) about the benefits or otherwise of paleo what you should know is this: whether you love or loath the idea of paleo Primal Pantry Bars are still perfectly placed to fuel your ride. In fact they do so brilliantly.
So, Paleo 101: No grains, refined sugars, dairy, processed foods or oils of legumes such as soya. All of which means the Primal Pantry Bars are grain-free, don’t use sulphates in their dried fruits, contain only ‘real food’ and are suitable for both vegetarians and vegans. In fact – and this is really refreshing to know – the ingredients are pretty much spelled out in the flavour name of each bar, the Apple and Pecan Primal Pantry Bars, for example, contain dates, almonds, organic apple, pecans, cinnamon and almond oil. That’s it, no nasty surprises here.
Aside from the Apple and Pecan option the Primal Panty range of flavours are Brazil Nut and Cherry, Hazelnut and Cocoa, Almond and Cashew, and Coconut and Macadamia – the latter our favourite although we’re hard pushed to pick. The bars are handmade and cold-pressed with a rich texture and flavours that don’t overpower, yet are distinctive and readily identifiable (just like real food should be.)
Nutritional values vary slightly across the range but again taking Apple and Pecan as being fairly representative they will serve up 199kcal, 4.2g protein, 19.4g carbs (16.9g of which are sugars), 11g fat (0.9g saturates), and 3g fibre per 45g bar.
Let’s compare Primal Panty to a more ‘traditional’ bar: The much heavier (65g) Zipvit ZV8 Uncoated Orange bar offers 244kcal – so actually a much lower, adjusted for weight 169kcal – 4.7g protein (3.2g adjusted), 34.9g carbohydrates (24g adjusted), 7.2g fat (4.9g adjusted) and 10.3g fibre (7.1g adjusted). A little more bang-for-your-buck on carbs but if you don’t fancy emulsifiers, wheat gluten, wheat malt, glucose syrup, invert sugar syrup and maltodextrin then Primal Pantry Bars look like an obvious choice.
Actually to be clear – and fair – the composition of the ZV8 bars is fairly typical of energy bars across the board and they have their place and use (we’ve fuelled plenty of miles on them) but Primal Pantry clearly offers something both new and radically different.
Primal Pantry Bars retail at £27 for a box of 18 – £1.50 per-bar, not only spot on for a comparative price point but actually something of a bargain when you consider the quality of ingredients and homemade credentials. Boxes are available either in single flavour or as a mixed box with three of each flavour plus three extra, which Primal Pantry call their ‘random surprise.’
Further details and online purchase of Primal Panty Bars at primalpantry.com
Part of the Wiggle Super Series the Wiggle Royal Flyer is billed as a ‘classic autumn sportive, perfect for the shorter days, based in the wonderful surroundings of North Norfolk.’ Two routes are available, 43 and 70miles, both providing spectacular views of the Sandringham Estate and its surroundings.
The Wiggle Royal Flyer starts and finishes at Fakenham Racecourse and the gently rolling course then takes riders eastwards via the villages of Guist, Hindrigham and the stunning St Mary’s Benedictine Priory at Binham. The organisers want to encourage young riders so all under 16s ride for free when accompanied by a paying adult.
Facilities include
Event centre facilities and parking
Mechanical support
Full route marking
Rider public liability insurance
Free energy drink and snacks
Electronic chip timing
Bike wash facilities
Web results service
Emergency support
On-site catering
Event photography
Event massage
Pick-up wagons
Prices for the Wiggle Royal Flyer start at £33, full details at ukcyclingevents.co.uk
Not quite as scary as it sounds this late season event is now in its fourth year and has been a sell out in each year so early booking is recommended. The course weaves through the scenic roads below the South Downs, and loops around the stunning Devils Punch Bowl before heading for the hills of the North Downs.
The Devils Punch is deliberately shorter than a lot of sportives to reflect the time of year and to widen the appeal – it is, however, still a challenge, and includes a couple of ‘awesome’ hills taking in some of the best views of Hampshire and Surrey. There are two route options – the Epic of 119km (with 1,395m ascent) and the Standard of 82km, which of course features a little less climbing with 1,000m ascent.
Starting at Treloar College in Holybourne, near Alton, registration opens at 07:30 with the event starts at 08:00.
As we count down to the UK’s biggest professional cycle race, The Tour of Britain, sponsor Friends Life offer the opportunity for amateurs to follow the pros on one of the key stages.
After the success of hosting a stage of last years Tour of Britain Worcester will host the 2015 Friends Life Tour Ride, a mass participation cycle event for amateur cyclists.
Three route options for the Ride are available, headlined by a ‘Pro’ 100mile route, which will showcase some of the toughest roads in the county and includes 2,246m of ascent. ‘Intermediate’ at 75miles (121km) with 1,538m ascent, and ‘Challenge’ – 40miles [64km] with 427m ascent – round out the offering.
Tour Ride Sportive starts at the University of Worcester Arena, and finishes on Worcester Racecourse allowing for a closed-road finale and with prices staring from £26.
Facilities include:
Event centre facilities and parking
Mechanical support
Full route signage
Rider public liability insurance
Free energy drink + energy snacks
Electronic chip timing and professional event photography
Rider times available online
Official finishers medal and goody bag
Post-ride food, refreshments & massage
Emergency event support
Broom wagon service
Full details of the Tour Ride Sportive 2015 at tourride.co.uk
The Oakley Jawbreaker is a collaboration between one of the world’s biggest names in eye-wear and Mark Cavendish, one of the biggest names in cycling, but the results are likely to leave people as polarised as the company’s legendary lenses…
‘Aggressive’ is the adjective most often used to describe the aesthetics of Oakley’s output – there are a few exceptions such as the sleeker RadarLock range – but for the most part there’s a somewhat bolshie angularity to their glasses and the Jawbreaker is no exception. The first thing you’ll notice about the Jawbreaker is the size – these are true XL glasses that provide an exception field of vision; they appear disproportionate without a helmet, but once suited up it all falls into place (guess Cav and Oakley really do know what they’re doing…)
Comfort levels are exceptional here with weight coming in just under 35g – the lower frame is perfectly curved to sit snuggly against the cheeks and the arms are hinge-locked to provide a range of lengths to fit perfectly under any helmet. The downside here, particularly if you are reckless enough to try and adjust them on the fly, is that it’s possible for the entire arm to disconnect with catastrophic results.
The Jawbreaker has a hinged lower frame that gives them their somewhat aggressive (there’s that word again) name for fairly quick lens switching, which is only fiddly on the first couple of tries. Ruggedness has been upped by the addition of a tiny metal cam, which sits behind the rubberised nose bridge, and replaces the more traditional weakest link plastic affair on other Oakleys.
As you would expect from Oakley, when it comes to the lenses they are outstanding with a range of tints and polarized options for every conceivable condition (conceivable, so long as you have the budget of course with additional lenses starting at around the £70 mark.) On the subject of price – the Jawbreaker starts at £170 – we still feel slightly short-changed that Oakley only adds hydrophobic coating to the outside of the lens but will happily sell you, for £17, the Nanoclear treatment for inside application. Also the specific Oakley Jawbreaker Cavendish Edition – with the dinky CVNDSH logo on the lens – is at a premium of an additional £20…
The Oakley Jawbreaker clearly brings plenty to the table, not least a slightly old-school aesthetic, and if you want the added kudos of wearing glasses that have had input from Cavendish then these are the sunnies for you. Venting is excellent, optics uncompromising, and comfort superb – if you can live with ‘aggressive’ and are willing to spend upwards of £170 these won’t let you down.
Further details of Oakley Jawbreaker at oakley.com – available online for purchase from, amongst other places, Wiggle.co.uk
Le Tour One Day Ahead, an ambitious charity ride covering the full 3,344km 2015 Tour de France route with ambitions to raise £1m for Cure Leukaemia, captured the public imagination this summer. Amongst those taking part was ex-British triathlete Helen Russell (Gold medallist – 2011 ITU World Sprint Duathlon) and here, in the first of a three-part series, she shares her experience with Cyclo.
After cycling just over 2,000miles, including 40,000meters of ascent and burning an estimated 95,000calories I am back home in the UK having completed the Le Tour-One Day Ahead challenge for Cure Leukaemia. It was without doubt the hardest thing I have ever done and was a struggle both physically and mentally – not helped by the fact that I needed ten stitches on only the second stage! The first week of this year’s Tour de France was touted as being one of the hardest for years-and I can vouch for that…
The Tour started in the Dutch town of Utrecht with a leisurely team ride around the 13.8km opening prologue. If only each stage could be so easy! On paper the next day looked like it would be an easy first long stage, with a typical Dutch flat profile, but things don’t always turn out as anticipated. Unfortunately at about 100km into the stage one of my team members got their wheel caught in a bridge extension track near the town of Hellevoetsluis and came down bringing another rider and myself down. I landed on the second rider’s disk brake, which sliced open my thigh.
I looked down and could see that the injury was serious and thought that my One Day Ahead ride was over before it had even started. However, the team medic reassured me that he could get me riding again and gave me ten stiches in the mechanics van at the side of the road. I don’t think he quite expected me to be riding again quite so soon, as I insisted that I get immediately back on the bike to finish the stage. I just thought of all the people that had sponsored me and didn’t want to let them down. I was allowed to get back in the saddle, but only on the proviso that if I felt any tugging on the stiches – or if the wound started to bleed – that I would have to dismount.
I think I rode the rest of the stage on pure adrenaline; there was no way that I was not going to finish the first long day. I was, however, dreading the next morning when the adrenaline would have worn off and a decision would be made as to whether I could continue. I was relieved to have good travel insurance with SportsCover Direct, as I knew that if there were any complications or if I needed to seek extra medical treatment or even be sent home I was covered…
Due to the excellent work of the medic I was given the go ahead to start the following day and thanks to the rest of the team, who looked after me and kept to a slower pace, I was able to finish the stage up the infamous Mur de Huy or ‘Huy Wall’ – a 1.3km climb with a peak gradient of 25%.
Stage four was a stage that I had been very nervous about for weeks as, at 223.5km, it was the longest leg – but not only that-there was also the small matter of seven cobbled sections!
Not surprisingly the organisers were concerned about me riding the cobbles as a fall would almost certainly result in me going home. However, for me this was such an iconic stage that I really wanted to conquer it so it was agreed that I could attempt the first cobbled section and, if I handled it well and felt comfortable, then I could tackle the other sections. I had been told that the best way to ride cobbles is to attack them, ride quickly and don’t hold on too tight. I was already feeling angry about my injury and therefore channelled it into riding aggressively and much to my surprise I enjoyed the cobbles and felt confident, which meant that I could continue to the stage finish. I was grateful to have been given in advance the advice of wearing two pairs of mitts over the cobbles, as the constant friction had caused many in the team to get blisters.
After the cobbles my body was feeling very tired going into stage five (Arras to Amiens.) That evening my partner arrived for two nights and it was so good to receive a big hug and some TLC! It was just the lift I needed after a tough few days.
Abbeville to Le Havre saw the first rain of the Tour and the coastal route meant that there was a very strong crosswind, resulting in a tough stage.
Stage seven was relatively flat; starting from the cheese producing town of Livarot and going through rural villages and over rolling hills to Fougeres. Stage eight from Rennes to Mur-de-Bretagne was another rolling stage, with only two category climbs. However, one of them was at the end of the stage and after 180km in 35degree heat the 1.3km at an average of 8.4% was a real challenge. Still, the short 28km time trial from Vannes to Plumelec the next day offered welcome respite from the long stages and the team used it as an opportunity to recover. We headed out early as we had a long coach transfer to the Pyrenees, which was actually harder than the day’s ride!
I was looking forward to my first day in the Pyrenees, as I usually love mountain climbing. However, I got a shock when we reached the first mountain stage finish at the Hors Category Col du Soudet, making its debut appearance in the Tour de France. I didn’t have as many gears as I usually use in the mountains and felt like I was grinding all the way up the 15km climb. I just couldn’t get into my normal rhythm and contemplated getting off the bike a few times. However that morning we had seen a video message from Leukaemia patients at the Clinical Centre for Excellence at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and I knew that the pain they had been through and in many cases are still going through, was much worse than what I was feeling and so kept on grinding to the summit, where my frustration took over and I broke down in tears. That evening the team’s mechanics realised that if I were to survive the rest of the Pyrenees then I would need some extra gears and so, much to my relief, changed the gearing.
The next morning there was a sense of trepidation on the team bus as we would be climbing the infamous cols of the Aspin and the Tourmalet. After my struggle up the Soudet I was really hoping that the extra gears would make a difference.
We reached the Category 1 Col d’Aspin in the afternoon and much to my relief the new gearing meant that I was able to comfortably reach the summit. The second major climb of the day was the Hors Category Tourmalet – at 17.1km at a gradient of 7.3% it is a legendry mountain of the Tour de France. Lots of the cols have kilometre markers that count down how far you have left until the summit. I focussed on reaching the various landmarks of the climb, including snow protection tunnels, hotels and shops whilst counting down those markers… As we rode into the finish at Cauterets we had conquered six categorised climbs!
On the final day in the Pyrenees we were due to climb three cols and tackle our second mountain summit finish. However, after climbing the Porte d’Aspet and the Col de la Core we were informed that the Port de Lers was closed due to someone sprinkling tacks on the descent and therefore we wouldn’t be able to do the climb. I was absolutely shattered at this stage and when given the option of going up an alternative col or heading straight to the final col I took the latter option and joined the others in the team who had ridden the alternative col at the foot of the Plateau de Beille.
This was without doubt my favourite climb so far on the One Day Ahead challenge. Almost the entire route of the 15.8km climb was lined with spectators from all over the world encouraging us to keep going and many recognised us as being part of the ‘Geoff Thomas Challenge.’ There was an incredible party atmosphere with music and pop-up bars along the climb. I reached the top just after 8pm – it had been an incredibly long day but we were all excited and slightly anxious about what the following day and what our guest arrival would bring…
Part Two of Helen’s Le Tour One Day Ahead feature will be published on Cyclo soon – follow us on Twitter for all the latest news, plus feature and review alerts.
Further details of Le Tour One Day Ahead at beforethetour.com and, most importantly, you can help add to Helen’s incredible fundraising total for Cure Leukaemia by donating at JustGiving.
Bert Wagendorp’s Ventoux, recently translated by Paul Vincent, is a coming of age novel that opens with an old photograph of six friends on a cycling holiday in1982 and develops slowly into an odd, but enjoyable, brew of mystery, sport and social history genres. The novel, which at first glance seems a speed-read holiday book, has more depth than that and takes in the nature of friendship, musings on the nature of time, the small choices we make that can change our lives and a floating brothel.
Wagendorp is shameless in employing the well worn trope of childhood friends who share a dark secret and reunite later in life to reconcile with their past. If that sounds like a cycling version of ‘lets get the band back together’ then here is the line up:
Our hero and narrator, Bart – crime journalist, cyclist, divorced and nearly fifty
Andre – gone off the rails, drug dealer, getting his life back in shape after prison
Joost – maths genius turned rockstar scientist, but heading for a fall
David – the ‘stay at home’ owner of his father’s travel agency in their hometown of Zutphen
Peter – ethereal, gifted poet and published by the time he’s 18
The Yoko of this story is siren and muse, Laura. Her sudden appearance among the teenage friends triggers the competition and jealousy that ultimately leads to the tragic event that forms the hub of the story.
The re-emergence of Laura in 2012 and the renewed connections between the characters develop in a fractured timeline that suits the slow reveal of the ‘event’. The conclusion of these renewed relationships drives them all to make a return journey to mark the 30th anniversary.
Despite the non-linear structure and the rich references this is a page-turner that is very funny, and often very touching. The Epilogue, which feels a little of an after-thought, is pure Edam but we can forgive that as the rest of the book is such a fun ride.
The book is heavy with musical, literary and artistic allusions and connections – from Proust and the Col de Madeleine to Petrarch’s ‘The Accent of Mount Ventoux’ to the film The Night Porter and Italian Cinema in general. That’s all before we get to the liberal references to the history of cycling, the poems of Jan Kal, The Rider by Tim Krabbe and, of course, Tommy Simpson.
As co-founder and editor of the cycling magazine The Wall, Bert Wagendorp obviously knows his cycling. The book was a bestseller in Wagendorp’s native Netherlands as well as Germany, France, Denmark and Norway. A Dutch version of Ventoux was filmed in 2015.
Ventoux by Bert Wagendorp / Paul Vincent is published by World Editions International, currently available from, amongst other places, Amazon at £10.68 hardback and £ £6.53 on Kindle.
Rock Rub is a rather odd thing, but like many odd things we’ve sort of fallen in love with it.
The basics: Rock Rub is either a massage wax or a callus-busting moisturiser for your hands or possibly both. If you looked at the strap-line on the jar – ‘Go stronger, for longer’ – you might get a third, more Fifty Shades, impression. The confusion comes in depending on whether you check out the wax on the US website or its UK counterpart; in the US, Rock Rub is predominantly sold on the basis on its hand-moisturising strengths whereas in the UK it would appear we’re not quite ready to admit that rough hands are something that need dealing with. Weird, but there you go and in fact Rock Rub is pretty damn good all round.
The reason why Rock Rub works well as both a moisturiser and a massage aid is down to the ingredients of course. Beeswax (Australian beeswax to be specific, although we don’t know if that’s significant) forms the base along with canola oil, to which is added vitamin E, patchouli, lavender and the mysterious sounding ylang-ylang. It’s really the latter – along with the vitamin E benefits – that make Rock Rub so good for the skin, whilst the beeswax, with it’s slightly ‘tacky’ qualities that make it so well balanced for massage, particularly myofascial release.
Whilst we had feared that patchouli and lavender would be an overpowering combination, the smell is actually subtle and, most importantly for massage, the consistency remains constant during treatment and a little goes a surprisingly long way.
So whether you’re looking to soften those cycling hands or just get some much-needed massage in before that next long ride, Rock Rub pretty much hits the spot. We’re glad to have cleared up any confusion…
Rock Rub is available in 50g pots at £6.72 or 400g pots at a really reasonable £14.99. Further details at shop.rocktape.net
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Primal Pantry produce a range of five bars designed to compliment a paleo diet, but before you go screaming from the room shouting ‘fad’, hang fire. Whilst we’re not about to get embroiled (at least here and now) about the benefits or otherwise of paleo what you should know is this: whether you love or loath the idea of paleo Primal Pantry Bars are still perfectly placed to fuel your ride. In fact they do so brilliantly.
Aside from the Apple and Pecan option the Primal Panty range of flavours are Brazil Nut and Cherry, Hazelnut and Cocoa, Almond and Cashew, and Coconut and Macadamia – the latter our favourite although we’re hard pushed to pick. The bars are handmade and cold-pressed with a rich texture and flavours that don’t overpower, yet are distinctive and readily identifiable (just like real food should be.)
