The humble cycling cap is not only a handy piece of kit but a part of cycling’s culture and heritage.
We have a large selection of Italian made retro caps in stock plus some lovely moisture wicking, cotton and wool caps from Walz Caps of California. We’ve also got a couple of new caps that celebrate where Velotastic is from.
We first launched our Yorkshire caps a couple of years ago way before the Grand Depart was announced (We like to think we were there before the band wagon showed up). We’ve tweaked the design slightly for this year by printing the underside of the bill in orange and changing to an orange stripe on the top instead of the rainbow.
New on the block for 2015 is our Derbyshire cap. Celebrating, Velotastic’s home county this design is based on the county flag colours.
Both these designs are exclusive to Velotastic and only available through us.
Regular visitors to this site will know that we enjoy selling products with and element of thoughtful design to them. When we heard about 24Bottles we just knew that we had to have some of their designs in our product portfolio.
Designed in Bologna, Italy the people behind 24Bottles wanted products that were sustainable, smart and stylish.
The 24Bottles product range consists of stainless steel water bottles and naturally for a country such as Italy a bottle holder that’s capable of carrying your favourite vino on your bike.
One of the great things about the 24Bottles range is that it’s use is not exclusive to the cycling. The bottles can be used at work, hiking or taking to college and the bottle holder can be used to attach your drink to your rucksack or bag. Check out the range here.
We’re very pleased to announce that we’re now an official stockist for Velo Orange products.
Velo Orange were started in the USA with an aim to supply hard to find parts for cyclo-tourist or randoneur bikes. They have built up an enviable reputation for high quality products that maintain a retro style.
We’ve carefully curated our initial stock offering but will hopefully expand it as time goes on
A short tale involving a Saturday club run and a nondescript lump….
If you ride regularly from Sheffield or Chesterfield one popular flattish route is along the ridge between the Vale of Scarsdale and the Derwent valley out towards Crich. From there rides drop off the end of the ridge down into Cromford, Whatstandwell or South Wingfield. This road is relatively fast, low on traffic and is great for getting onto the big ring.
On a Saturday ride a few years ago myself and a few riding buddies dropped off the ridge early to descend into the Derwent Valley. We were taking quite a convoluted route and we stopped at a corner to re-group. One of the riders in the group, Andrew started to ask the names of where we’d been. I’ve lived and ridden these parts for years and am quite an anorak for such information. After rattling off about half a dozen names with glamorous titles such as Gladwin’s Mark, Andrew quipped that I was going to tell him that we’d been to ‘Otters Pocket’.
On the way out we’d ridden over a non-descript lump that gets in the way of staying on the big ring. When I’d uploaded our ride to Strava I decided to name the climb up this small hill as ‘Otters Pocket’. Since then the name has stuck and is used by many local riders who are on Strava.
Spring is our favourite time of the year. The evenings start getting a bit lighter, the opportunity to ride your best bike grows and the start of the ‘proper’ racing season starts again.
While we love the grand tours, there is just something about the Spring classics. In true Velotastic style, we sat down with a cup of tea and tried to work out why we like them so much. Here’s what we came up with….
1. They last a day not weeks.
This is one of the key reasons we enjoy them so much. None of this dragging on for days and weeks – you can watch the race and get on with your life.
2. You can usually see the same race more than once
Many of the parcours for the Spring Classics are over a relatively compact area this means that with a bit of prior planning you can see the race several times and even the finish if you are lucky. None of this trudging your way to the top of an alp to wait two hours to see the race for a few minutes and wondering who will win.
3. It gives the big guys a chance
The classics are not a climbers paradise. Many of the climbs are short and sharp and rely on raw grunt to get to the top. This gives the guys with the bigger engines a chance to win rather than being sat in the grupetto suffering when the road goes up.
4. The weather
Being the Spring and Europe the weather can be fickle. Many races have snow, rain, ice and sunshine on the same day. Riders who race the Spring classics practice there art in challenging conditions. Many enthusiastic amateurs (including us) who ride through the winter have empathy for their environment. The suffering just dosen’t seem to be there when it’s 30 degrees in the South of France. The only Grand Tour that does come close to these conditions on an irregular basis seems to be the Giro when it hits the hills.
Italia Jersey
5. Cobbles, gravel and generally bad roads
The Tours seem to be run over silky smooth ribbons of tarmac. In recent years the Tour de France has had a day on the pave just to shake things up a bit and add a bit of interest to normally bland stages in northern France.
The classics thrive on bad roads. Belgian cobbles, French Pave, Strada Bianche, tracks that are regularly abused by tractors and other agricultural machinery. This all adds up to potential punctures and additional rider skills.
This is also another reason we’ve got empathy with classic riders as these are the type of bad roads that many of us encounter on an all to frequent basis.
6. They are accessible from the UK (well the northern ones are)
With the Eurotunnel it’s relatively easy have a weekend away to go and watch a Flanders Spring classic. At the end of the trip you’ll know who’s won and not had that feeling that you’ve gone and watched the wrong stage when the following days turns into a game changer.
7. No mediocrity. You can’t win on consistancy – you have to to win by being good.
The leaders jersey in the grand tours is awarded to the most consistant rider. Sometimes the yellow (or pink or red) jersey is worn by someone who has not even won a stage or can smash it on a time trial and is mediocre at everything else. With a one day classic you have one chance – there’s no saving yourself for tomorrow or riding in the pack. Spring Classics riders have to see the break, get in the break and know how to win in a single day not a campaign over several weeks.
8. They don’t cut into your riding time (as much).
Every July our riding miles drops. After a day at Velotastic HQ we go home, watch the Tour on the TV from seven til eight and by then it’s not worth the faff to get changed and go riding. Many Spring classics can usually be seen at the weekend after a good mornings ride and do not impact on your time in the saddle.
Tom Simpson is one of our local hero’s. Born in County Durham, he was brought up in Harworth, Doncaster.
He was the as well as medals at the Olympic and Commonwealth games, he was the first and only Brit (so far) to win the Tour of Flanders. He also won the Milan-San Remo, Giro di Lombardia and Bordeaux – Paris classics and the World Championship in 1965.
Harworth memorial
Peugeot & World Champs Jersey
GB Team Jersey
Peugeot PX10
In 1957 he broke the Monsal Hill climb record with a blistering time of 1m 23.4s which would have put him 6th overall in last years event. (It took until 1981 for this record to be beaten by Malcolm Elliott in 1m 14.2s)
After Tom Simpson’s untimely death in 1967 a memorial was erected on Mont Ventoux. In 1997 another memorial was erected in Harworth. Funds were raised for this and a small cabinet containing memento’s from his career in a local working mens club by holding a bike ride. Since then the takings for the ride have gone towards maintaining both the Harworth and Ventoux memorials.
The ride is attended by both local pro riders and enthusiastic amateurs. It is a low key affair compared to many sportives. You hand over a donation (minimum of a fiver). There are no route markers just a photocopied map or a downloaded GPX file from Dinnington RC’s website. Feed stations are local pubs and supermarkets and you are on your own.
Riders are set off in groups of 40 or 50. As expected with a few pro’s and a few wannabe’s the pace is fast. After around 30k the riders spread out and small groups form.
The terrain is flat – 190m of climb for a 90k ride, and the landscape is sparce. The raw February winds and the featureless landscape of the Isle of Axholme more than compensate for the lack of hills and as it is a circular route you are going to get battered by either a headwind or a crosswind at some point during the ride.
Despite the cold weather, the atmosphere is good and the welcome back at the clubhouse is warm.
If you fancy doing a low key early season group ride for a good cause this could be the event for you.
If you cycle a bit, you’ll probably have your favourite route. You know, the one that you know like the back of your hand. We’ve got several of those.
Have you noticed that there’s a few small roads or lanes that you pass that you’ve never had time to explore ? Well no winter’s here and your best bike has probably been stored away what’s stopping you ?
Here are a few of our favourite climbs that are in our neck of the woods, that you’ll not find in the guide books.
Stanton Hill – 0.9 km, 8.9% avg, 26.9% max
Just off the main drag on the A6 between Bakewell on Rowsley, there’s a little lane signed for Congreave that’s just after the Youlgrave turning.
Cycling on the start of the lane it’s fairly flat and which lures you into a false sense of security. All of a sudden the road start’s rising and boom before you know it you are in your lowest gear tackling 25% plus hairpins.
Unthank 2.6 km, 5.2% avg, 18.2% max
Situated in the Cordwell Valley on the outskirts of Chesterfield, Unthank’s not the type of climb that you take your nice shiny bike on. It’s dirty, it’s got gravel, slurry, water running off it and the surface is sketchy in places, but these weaknesses add to it’s charm.
After a gentle climb past a few gentrified houses and a couple of farms, the road climbs up through some woodland full of native trees. After a while you pop out onto the top of the moors with view’s to die for.
Jaggers Lane 1.1km, 9.2% avg, 25% max
Jagger’s Lane is hidden away at the head of the Amber Valley. The roads surrounding this area are very popular with riders going to and from the Peak District, but few cyclists ever dip into the valley bottom. When approaching the bottom of the climb, all you can see is a wall in front of you and the knowledge that the top of the climb is somewhere up on the horizon. The route goes up and up and up, repeatedly trying to pull your lungs out and smash your legs. A word of warning though – the route can be very icy in winter as we learned to our expense trying to descend it last year.
A big thank you to Ben from Veloviewer for his help with this post and letting us use his fantastic graphics.
Remember to ride safe and share the road because life’s too short as it is.
We’ve just had a fresh delivery in from our friends from Florida – Road Holland and we’re pleased to announce that we’re carrying two new colours variations of their popular Edam long sleeve jersey.
You might know the name Edam from cheese, but this jersey is anything but cheesy. It’s made from Road Holland’s signature 61% / 39% Merino Wool – poly blend that is perfect in cool but not arctic cold conditions. An inner layer of Merino wicks moisture away from the skin while an outer layer of polyester helps that same moisture to quickly evaporate.
A full zip means you can easily put the Edam on over a base layer and vent it if you get too hot. Additionally, the Edam features a new back pocket design with two large cargo pockets than can accommodate a shell and lots of other gear you might need. The exterior zippered pocket is large enough to fully encase a smart phone. Running along the top edge of the pockets is a reflective strip to help keep you visible at night.
The Edam features a very slight roomier cut. The extra room will easily accommodate a base layer but will not result in flapping fabric if worn alone.
The Edam is now in stock in Royal Orange (with Navy Accents), Red and Black. Get yours here.
Here’s our annual list of events that have a retro feel to them. Also included are several events that are open to all types of bicycle but are a little bit different to your ‘run of the mill’ sportive.
Our apologies if we have missed any events. If you know of any more please let us know and we’ll add them to the list.
We’ve recently had stock of our new range of Yorkshire jerseys. This year we are having them manufactured by our favourite Italian private label company who also make our Lancashire, Italia and London 24-Seven Jerseys.
Yorkshire Jersey
Our suppliers are one of the largest cycling clothing manufacturers in Europe and sew garments for some of the biggest brands and several pro-teams. We chose them as a supplier not only because of the quality of their product, but we were able to get an audit trail so that we could see exactly where our jerseys were being produced. This enabled us to ensure that our jerseys are being produced ethically and without the use of sweatshops. We like to do this with as many of our products as we can because we feel it’s the right thing to do.
Once again like our previous Yorkshire jersey it more than tips a nod to the Molteni jersey worn by Eddy Merckx in the 1970’s.
It also has a reflective strip on the outside pocket to make you more visible. The jersey has a full length YKK zip that has a fabric cover over it to make it less obvious whilst you are wearing the jersey. The fit on the jersey is club fit rather than race fit .
We hate to mention the C word, but it will soon be time to be thinking about buying presents for Christmas.
Even worse it will be time to be asked what you want as a present. We find this is quite acceptable when you are a kid as you have a list as long as your arm of ideas of what you would like, but when you start earning money you just save up, go out and buy things.
We may have the answer to some of your problems in the form of Velotastic gift vouchers.
We’ve sent our voucher system up so you can give (or ask for) as little or as much as you want rather than fixed denominations. The vouchers do not have to be spent in one go as they act as a store credit on the recipients account.
When you place your order the voucher code can be e-mailed directly to the recipient, so it’s ideal for those occasions when you are short on time.
Hopefully this will make Christmas a little easier for you, so you can concentrate on the important things – like riding your bike !
We’ve just had a delivery of Full Windsor Nutter Multi-Tools in. Like most things we sell it’s a little different (because we like different).
Featuring all the essentials for fixing your most common bike headaches. The Nutter combines all the tools you need when out riding into one simple unit. Its unique design and distinctive form turns the tool into a handle, giving you more leverage than other multi tools on the market. The tool weighs just 110g or 3.9oz.
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