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An interview with Team MTN–Qhubeka’s Songezo Jim, a rider who made it to the professional peloton from a South African township. Source: inCycle

Autumn is here, but does this mean you immediately switch to wearing winter jackets or continue to wear jerseys?  Obviously this depends on where you live on the globe, but if it’s neither too hot nor too cold, here’s the first article on some autumn cycling clothing tips to help you out, let’s start with long-sleeve jerseys. Now to clear a couple of things up between the Castelli  Trasparente and the Alpha Jersey. At first glance that’s exactly what you should ask. But I’ll first give you my thoughts on the Trasparente Jersey, or is that a jacket. The reason I mention this is that unlike a standard brushed polyester Jersey, or Roubaix if you’re going to use the branded Miti fabric, both the Trasparente punch well above their weight compared to a standard long sleeve autumn Jersey. Trasparente Jersey The Sublime Jersey weighs in at 215g, the Trasparente 334g, and the Alpha 265g. Between a standard Jersey its a whopping 119g per size, or roughly a summer jersey. The Trasparente uses Windstopper’s X-lite plus fabric on the front. This basically negates the need for a gilet, but it goes that little bit further in that the wind proofing stretches down ...

Dan Martin sealed his second place overall in the Tour of Beijing today, ending the five day race just three seconds behind the winner Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and showing again that he has hit a form peak towards the end of the season. Martin’s run of form makes up for what was an at-times frustrating season. He crashed on the final bend of Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, losing his chance of taking a second straight victory, and also fell on the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia, sustaining a fractured collarbone. He missed the Tour de France but bounced back to take second on a stage and seventh overall in the Vuelta a Espana. Bad luck struck him again in the world road race championships when he was caught up in a crash and delayed, losing his chance. However since then things have gone better for him; he put in a superbly-timed attack to win the Il Lombardia Classic earlier this month, then took that stage win plus second overall in the Tour of Beijing. As a former winner of the Japan Cup, Dan will be one of the top favourites for that season-ending event. Photo credits: Graham Watson

Some of the world’s best fixie-speed specialists turned out Saturday October 11th in Milan, Italy, to compete in the Red Hook Crit Milano, an un-sanctioned street race, now in its fifth edition. As with the RHC Brooklyn, Barcelona, and Milano, Castelli continued its support of the series by providing the official race jerseys for the event. Photo rights: Castelli  

This season all but over, the Tour of Beijing is the last UCI World Tour event of the year, after that the Japan Cup and a few other low key events will see the saxon finally out. All in all it’s that time if year where the professionals are a hanging up their wheels for a bit if off season recovery. For the fans the winter can drag by with no race news or events to gorge on. But for a pro cyclist  who may finish the season in October then start again in mid Jan at the Tour Down Under or one of the other early season races it’s just a small window of time to see family and live outside the cycling bubble. For us fans of the sport it’s a case if finding our kicks elsewhere in the cycling world, whether that be getting involved in cyclocross racing or spending the same amount of time cleaning your rain/snow covered bike that you’d spent watching a race on TV is just two ways that as a avid cyclist may pass the winter months. The other perfect way of getting your off season kicks is to delve in to the ...