Features

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… nearly. With Christmas just peeping its red-hatted head over the horizon, we thought we’d suggest some gifts for the performance-minded cyclist.

Okay, it's a few weeks away yet but now's the time to start thinking about presents. Maybe you’re a rider yourself, in which case you might want to point family and friends in this direction, or maybe you’re after some ideas for what to get someone with an urge to ride fast.

The American songwriter Cole Porter wrote of loving "Paris in the winter, when it drizzles," but it's still autumn and there was little chance of Tour de France organisers ASO allowing the ever-blackening storm clouds caused by the Lance Armstrong affair to rain on the parade as they unveiled the route of next year's 100th edition of the race on Wednesday.

Uh-oh! The chain has come off at the start of a steep, chalky climb. So I stop – well, more ‘fall off’ because I was out of the saddle when it happened – and put the chain back on as a dozen riders on classic bikes sail past. I get onto the saddle again, stamp on the pedals and the chain immediately comes off for a second time. I take a closer look… and see that the inner chainring has actually snapped. Damn it! There’s a long way to go and a lot of climbs to scale in just the 53-tooth outer ring. This could be tricky.