Features

This is it: the final test. Shakespeare Avenue rises steeply from the Bear Flat, too steeply for the gear I'm running. It's not long but the race has been, an hour in and the legs are beginning to really hurt: I'm digging deep but the entrance to Alexandra Park seems impossibly distant, even though in reality it's a couple of hundred yards. It's just Jez and me: If I can make it to the top then It's three laps of the park and a sprint, and I reckon I can find the legs for that. If I can make it to the top.

World cyclo-cross champion Marianne Voss, who has also won world and Olympic championships on the track as well as the world road race title,  is one of the latest riders to sign up for Bike Pure, the Ireland-based organisation that in less than two years has become a major voice in the campaign for a clean sport, free of doping.

Fixed bikes were well to the fore at last week's Core Bike show with a really interesting selection of machines reflecting how diverse the one geared bit of the road cycling world is becoming. We've already showcased the track classicism of the fixed version of Colnago's Master X Light and featured the new line of Traitor bikes here and here, so let's take a look at what was on offer from Cinelli, All City, Light Blue and Identiti.

During quiet moments I often find myself hatching cycling challenges; they provide me with tangible reasons to get out on my bike and train, especially during the cold winter months. “Something to aim at”, as Tom Simpson would say. Some challenges, however, seem to appear out of left-field and, no matter how ridiculous, plug away at my subconscious until I do something about them.