Need a final boost in your triathlon race/at the foot of a big climb/ at the end of a run or ride? We all do at times,it’s perfectly normal. You seem to have done everything, but for some reason you just feel under power. You’ve followed your nutrition plan, yes – but that doesn’t help at this moment; so what can you do?
Over the last thirty years I’ve raced and trained consistently. From consistent top ten finishes in the CTT British Best All-Rounder competition, through cyclocross and MTB Cross Country. Twenty to thirty starts a year on average. Under normal circumstances, I love my sport and drive home just as euphorically happy after turning myself inside out to hang onto a group in a cross race as I did to score the occasional win against the watch fifteen years ago.
VOOM is a young and vibrant brand from the U.K. and it’s one that has its base firmly in endurance sports, with triathlon, fell running and cycling being sports that the brands key people participate in at a high level. There’s also some good science behind what they do, with their own scientist within the brand team. All sounds good so far then.
A classic Lancashire road cycling route that works you into the hills and up to Jubilee Tower, before descending for tea and cake
I’d better open up by saying that I wasn’t on a drug crazed trip in our capital city. No, I’d simply gone down to London to spend time with our son, a photographic artist who lives in the south of the city. Yes, a man after my own heart, whose apartment is filled with bikes and bike parts, all fixed gear machines, including a folding one! He has other bikes… numerous at the family home, but London is for riding real – and that means fixed gear.
A bike saddle is the most personal part of your bike, and it can make all the difference in the world. That’s why getting the right saddle for road cyclists and triathletes is so important. While a good saddle is barely noticeable, the uncomfortable one will make you beyond miserable. Unless you want to make your best friend’s thigh chaff and lower parts numb, you need to find the right saddle. But what exactly does that mean?
Well, to put it simply, women-specific saddles usually have a cut-out to relieve soft tissue pressure. The use of a wider saddle helps to accommodate a woman’s wider-spaced sit bones. Sit bones are the bones that make up the area in your buttocks that are the most likely to feel pressured during a ride.
Whether you’re viewing the rolling greens of the countryside, conquering the mountains or planning a cycle across the bustling streets, the bottom line is – your bottom is in the line. No matter what the scenery might offer, without the right saddle and perfect padding for your tush it isn’t fun and you won’t be able to push as much power as possible. There’s no reason to tolerate aching muscles and pressure points when you can find a seat that goes the extra mile.
Know your body
Sitting at an altitude of 1968m the Cormet de Roselend connects Beaufort(744m) in the Beaufortain valley in the west and Bourg-Saint-Maurice(840m) in the Tarentaise Valley to the east. The climb has a rich TDF history. It was first featured in the 1979 Tour de France and ten times since. In 2019 the climb was cut from the tour as a mudslide rendered the climb impassable. It returns in 2020 for stage 18 and just happens to follow our preferred route over the Cormet!
I used to be a bit of a philistine when it came to coffee, coffee was just coffee and instant tasted okay. That was until I started drinking freshly ground and freshly made coffee. What a revelation and how bad instant now tastes. Far from being any kind of connoisseur, but I can now appreciate the subtle undertones of flavours in different coffees, although this has created a bit of hole for myself, demanding good coffee wherever I travel, even bikepacking.
Magura town sits beneath the beautiful mountains, surrounded by trails in my home – Transylvania, near to the historic city of Bran. The castles neary and the forests and hills are all magical and the riding is awesome 🙂
Philip Platt 
Ben Thorpe Photography