Very limited stock but big savings to be had on all remaining 2011 road bikes.

Pinarello FP Quattro was £2799 – Now reduced to £2099!!

Please call for more information.  02087851086

Another staple ingredient in the Putney Cycles racing diet is SRAM components.

There isn’t a great deal to say about the Force groupset as it performs faultlessly race after race (and in the case of my own groupset year after year).

It is the original SRAM road groupset and although since superseded by RED it has the majority of the features and is nearly as light but at a much more wallet friendly price.

If you haven’t used the DoubleTap system before then there is a little relearning required but once you have got used to the operation of the levers they are great to use, firing off precise and positive shifts every time.

At the heart of every bike is the frame and if you were looking for something a bit special then the Giant TCR advanced frameset is just that.

It may not be the lightest, the most compliant or the most aero frameset on the market nor does it claim to be but damn it’s fast.

There is no hesitation when you push on the pedals, you feel like every bit of energy is being transfered into forward motion. One look at the massively oversized downtube/bottom bracket area tells you why.

One thing that is also immediately evident when riding the bike is how smooth it is and whats even more amazing for such an efficient frame is that it retains this smooth feel over the roughest of surfaces.

I’ve personally ridden one at Paris Roubaix and remained comfortable over the full 260km. My hands were bruised by the end but only a suspension fork will save you on that front!

Giant truly are a leader in carbon fibre frames and the proof is there when you ride the TCR advanced. It is a fantastic race frame and a firm favorite at Putney Cycles chosen by many staff members as well as our race team.

Another evening of furious racing at the Circus Maximus (aka Eelmore Driver training circuit).

After about an hour of bobbing, weaving and thankfully few incidents in the bunch of 55 riders, there was a mass gallop to the line.

Matti was one of the first out of the last corner but a rider with fast fading legs blocked his sprint resulting in 11th. No points today but another strong finish.

Dave was a little further back at around 26th, a failed attempt to win the prime earlier on was the highlight his race.

Another early start for Matti and Dave for another delightful Serrl road race in the Kent countryside.

The course was familiar territory having been the setting for our best result as a team in 2010. A seemingly flat course with a small climb actually had 950m of climbing over the 101km raced.

We settled in for the first 30-40km not wanting to go too hard early on. The course doesn’t really favour breakaways so we thought it wise to bide our time.

There were a few flurries of activity later in the race with Matti taking some pulls on the front and putting in some attacks. Dave even got on the front for a while although as usual the photographer was nowhere to be seen!

Ultimately it all came down to a sprint (or so we thought) which Matti won! The unfortunate news was that there was a break of 3 riders who actually took the podium places so Matti’s sprint was for 4th. Still a reasonable haul of points but a little bittersweet after thinking it was sprint for the win.

Dave was a little worried as two weeks previously he had only managed 65km of a 2/3/4 100km race and Jon had spun out in a corner during the first lap, losing a brake pad, so also failed to finish.

It started out from the HQ which was about 10km from the actual start line – inexplicably someone managed to crash out, on his own, before the bunch even made it to the start! The race was over 5 laps of about 20km each. It was quite nervous, a combo of carbon wheels, grabby braking and questionable riding from others leading Dave to lock wheels three times – one seeming like a 40kph trackstand! Also the roads were literally covered in crap from farm vehicles and the riders were treated to a lot of traffic islands which made things interesting – the Commissaire’s words – “hit them and you’ll crash – go around them on the right and you are DQ”!

There were a few attempts at breaks – Jon tried to get into a couple and at one point Jon and Dave were attacking together and got a gap but decided that at 30km, on a flat course, they were most likely going to end up getting caught before the end (and probably shown the back door) and decided to pull back into the bunch. One Addiscombe rider did get away solo and stayed away to win – not sure when he made his move but it was after Jon and Dave lit up the race!

It pretty much stayed together until the end, speeding up quite a bit on the final lap, people tried in vain to make a selection so the whole bunch wasn’t going for a sprint but people just weren’t giving up that easy. Unfortunately that all lead to the worse crash Jon or Dave have ever witnessed in person. There were 30 guys who thought they could win so were really going for it but from the photos it appears that a rider pulls out of his pedal and starts a chain reaction resulting in about 10 riders crashing in spectacular fashion! One guy ended up getting air lifted to hospital but we have since heard all involved are OK (relatively). The photo below captures the moment well.

For the record Dave managed 15th but would have been more like 25th – Jon cramped during the last lap and rolled in 10 seconds behind the remains of the bunch for 34th.