An Epic Christmas Shopping List 2016

Bike Box Alanavailable from £415. This is a hardcase giving optimal protection The Velovault is available at £449 STEADFAST by former World Champion, Lizzie Armitstead GoPro's newest edition is now available at Chain Reaction for £349.99 Garmin VIRB available at Amazon for £349.99 Fenwicks Foaming Chain Cleaner - £4.49 This chain cleaner can be sprayed directly onto the chain making it a whole lot easier than any other degreaser to work with.   Mens Casual T-Shirtfrom Plain Lazy Specialized Ambush Helmet 2017 available at for £74.99 Mens Merino Wool Long Sleeve baselayer Endura Thermolite Full leg warmers Cycling Shoe laces :-)  Cable Cutter from Superstar components £13.99 Pizza Cutter from Park Tools Torque Wrench - Handy tool to have to make sure all the nuts and bolts are as tight as it should be! A bit too scientific to me, but highly recommended as a handy gift to the home mechanic.  Crank Brothers Tyre Leavers - Rich showed me these this past weekend, they fit over your Crank Brother multi-tool, nice & compact.  Park tool chain cleaner at 50% off from Chain Reaction Park tool cleaning brushes Back due to popular demand, the Air Chuck Co2 Pump Master Chain link opener for those who do their own repairs - £13.99 Dropper Seatpost, Rockshox Reverb comes highly recommended by friends who all have one! Buy from: Wiggle Chain Reaction Bargain rechargeable commuter lights from Lezyne @ £9.99! Support Qhubeka by buying something from their online store! Qhubeka hands out bikes to people who don't have an alternative mode of transport!   Available at WIGGLE for £249.95 QOM sleeveless baselayer £40 At the Edge  by Danny MacAskill who became a YouTubephenomenon! Olympics Golden Couple writes their Autobiography, The Inside Track  TomTom Bandit is a more affordable at £160 from Amazon. SEAL, tubeless sealant from Squirtlube.  Specialized Grail finger less gloves, ok maybe not the appropriate time of the year to buy these, but they are beautiful and has to be included on this list.  Squirt Long Lasting Dry Lube - This will form the ideal gift with other products like the Fenwicks Foam Chain Cleaner! Best applied on a clean degreased chain. Read a review from a Tango Cycling member here.  Mountain Woman T-Shirt from Howies Fox Cargo Ranger Baggies 40% off Womens Merino Long Sleeve baselayer DeFeet Woolie Boolie  Cycling Christmas Cards from Ginger & French Can't stop thinking about cycling, drink your tea from a stylish Cycling mug Mountain Biking The Untold British Story  Cleat Covers as used by Mark Cahill to protect road cycling cleats and to provide comfort whilst wearing road shoes. Get cold feet? These cheap toe warmers might just be the cure!  Lizard Skin Lock On Grips - £15.98 Assos Chamois Creme has been the best in the business for years!  Garmin Edge 1000 - track your rides and training with this device. The Sahmurai Sword was developed by ex-pro mountain biker, Stephan Sahm, use this kit to fix your tubeless tyres in no time. These lights will be a great asset for the seasoned commuter!  This is my commuter backpack and is honestly the most comfortable backpack on the bike, it stays in one place, has ample space and the weigh distribution is just perfect. Vaude Splash! Read a Review here from myself.

Tango Shopping!

A shopping list for everything you need to make degrease your chain and to convert your tyre to tubeless!  There are two things that I would highly recommend you to do, both of these are a bit of a hack, BUT both of them are tasks that makes you feel you have accomplished something and you will reap the benefits for months after you have done them. 1. De-grease your chain 2. Convert your tyres to tubeless Both of these are straight forward, but can potentially turn into a major faff, below are all the products you need to make your life easier to complete these tasks! Happy Shopping! TC Fenwicks Foaming Chain Cleaner - £4.49 This chain cleaner can be sprayed directly onto the chain making it a whole lot easier than any other degreaser to work with. Squirt Long Lasting Dry Lube - Is best applied on a clean de-greased chain. Many people have asked me how I keep my chain so clean, the answer is Squirt lube, I can not recommend it enough! Happy chain, happy bike. Read a review from a Tango Cycling member here.  The need for easy and quick access to our smartphones has increased a lot, making these gloves a must have item! North Wave Etip Women's Glove North Wave Etip Mens Glove Tubeless Valves are needed to replace your current valves and to complete seal the valve hole.  Airwave Tubeless Tyre Track Pump - this is only one of the pumps on the market that now acts as a compressor. In order for your tyre to seat onto the rim you need a fair amount of compressed air, this is a great gift for anyone who has been through the paces and frustration to convert their tyres.  Bio-Bike Wash is a concentrated & biodegradable bike cleaner. The concentrate can be diluted to 1:25 and still produce a heavy-duty cleaning solution. It is water based and does not contain any organic solvents.Can be used on any surface of the bike. Park tool chain cleaner at 50% off from Chain Reaction, for those who would rather not get there hands dirty.  Park tool cleaning brushes gets into all the nooks and crannies to clean your bike.  SEAL, tubeless sealant from Squirtlube is the last ingredient you need to complete your tubeless conversion. I find the more generous you are with the sealant, the better is your success to 'pop' your tyre quickly.  Tubeless Rim Tape - To convert your wheels to tubeless, you need a few essentials of which rim tape is one, the rim tape helps seal the rim so that the spoke holes are completely blocked which prevents any air or liquid from escaping.  The Sahmurai Sword was developed by ex-pro mountain biker, Stephan Sahm, use this kit to fix your tubeless tyres in no time.

The who is who of the Olympics 2016!

I'm so excited for this weekend's  racing at the Olympics  in Rio !!! I thought I'll share my thoughts on who I think it is worth looking out for during the races!

1. Jolanda Neff, Switzerland Blond bombshell from Switzerland and the best technical female rider with a hunger for winning! Jolanda's dad always says, "If you don't want to win the race, don't start it." She also mixed it up in the Women's Road and came 8th ahead of all time legend Marianne Vos and South Africa's Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio.

2. Jenny Rissveds, Sweden Young, blond and beautiful from Sweden as you would expect Jennie has a total different style than Jolanda, she knows how to pace herself and usually ride a pace that she knows she can maintain. She  won the U-23 World Championship with a huge margin and beat the Women's World Champion Annika Langvad in the next round of Elite Women's World Cup.

3. Annika Langvad, Denmark Annika's strengths used to be long marathons and has been World Champion in Marathon racing twice, this year she became the third time winner of the Cape Epic with Arianne Kleinhans. Personally I think Annika's fitness peaked after winning Leadville 100 at altitude in August 2015 and she continued building on that base, improved her technical skills and became the star of XCO racing in 2016!

4. Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa In South Africa Gunn-Rita and Sabine Spitz would probably be classed as the 'tannies' of mountain biking, but let me tell you they are everything but tannies! Commentators often refer to their age, but as we can see age is just a number! Gunn-Rita is as legendary as Julien Absalon, she has won over 20 World Cups in her career and has been World & Olympian Champion.

5. Sabine Spitz, Germany Sabine has been on the Olympic podium twice before and has been working hard this year to reach peak performance. She raced the Cape Epic with Yana Bolemoyna this year and they came second. She loves racing in the heat so Rio would suit her very well.

6. Catherine Pendral, Canada Catherine is one of my favourites! She has been World Champion before, won the the last World Cup on home soil before the Olympics. Technical, strong and friendly she is a force to be reckoned with.

1. Nino Schurter, Switzerland Nino has won almost won every big title you can win in XC MTB apart from the Olympic gold medal which was robbed from him in a sprint finish with Jaroslav Kulhavy. If you have seen any of Nino's gym work outs you will know that he takes his training to another level.

Watch this video to see a mountain bike specific gym workout of a different level!

2. Julien Absalon, France Julien is an absolute legend, he has been world champion numerous times, Olympic champion, World Cup over all winner and winner of the most individual world cups. He raced on a 26" bike until a few years ago, but has moved from Team Orbea to BMC where he has embraced 29" wheels and have now even started to race with a dropper seat post in the World Cups.

3. Jaroslav Kulhavy, Czech Republic Jaro is a powerhouse and can usually deliver on at a big event. He has won the Cape Epic alongside Christoph Sauser on the two occasions that he took part and pipped Nino Schurter on the line at the Olympics in London 2012.

4. Peter Sagan, Slovakia And what will Peter Sagan do? Current Road Cycling World Champion that started his career as a mountain biker decided to op out of the Olympic Road Race to rather compete in the Mountain Biking. I love Peter Sagan as he has a lot of personality and is very down to earth. I wouldn't mind if he did really well, but I don't think he will be on the top step of the podium. These athletes have been doing specific training for the Olympics and I'm just not sure if he is going to make it. I'm not confident enough to bet on it though as he might just surprise us all!

Your text caption goes here. You can change the position of the caption and set styles in the block’s settings tab.

5. Manuel Fumic, Marco Fontana and Jose Hermida, Germany, Spain and Italy Will the likes of veteran Jose Hermida, Manuel Fumic, Marco Fontana and a few old favourites that have been battling this year peak at the right time? This year will be Jose Hermida's FIFTH Olympics, that is certainly some effort. He had his best result at the last World Cup in Mt St Aine and is certainly in good form. Manuel Fumic & Marco Fontana have been battling to get on the podium this year. Marco Fontana got the bronze medal in London after his saddle broke on the last lap of the course, he finished standing out of his saddle! Happy Watching!!! TC #Rio2016 #Olympics #CyclingMountainBike