So far so good but itвЂ™s not for everyone. On a recon ride for a Giro stage with a fresh chain that morning I came across wild animals that would have normally run away from the sound of an approaching cyclist. One benefit is immediate: your chain is silent. ItвЂ™s said to save watts but thatвЂ™s hard to tell. Have several chains with quick-links and you can do them as a batch. Then drop the dried chain in a pot of molten paraffin and after a short soak, fish it out, wipe off the wax, let it cool and put on your bike later. You clean your chain in a pot of solvent (you can reuse the solvent many times if you pour it through a coffee filter paper into a storage pot), dry it and then rinse the chain in alcohol to remove any last bits of dirt and grease. OpenRunner gets a mention too as a great alternative because it includes all the mountain passes in Europe. Other websites can send you down farm tracks and forest trails when you wanted to stay on roads: fun if you like surprises less when the suggested вЂњroadвЂќ is a rocky path for mountain biking and the sunвЂ™s going down. Where RideWithGPS wins is the choice of maps, thereвЂ™s a drop-down menu for Google, Open Street Map, OSM Cycling and others and this helps you get a map that is suited to the country youвЂ™re in. You can trace the route for a ride of course but itвЂ™s the data that helps, things such as vertical gain help you know how much food to take and the predicted finish time is both usefulвЂ¦ and a challenge. ItвЂ™s not as fun as pouring over a 1:200,000 Michelin map and daydreaming, but online mapping is practical. The problem is that itвЂ™s only for France, ideally there would be crowd-sourced maps for each country, a useful resource for cyclists but bound to help others and save on plastic bottles. People have written in with tips about taps out of sight to the passing cyclist the one just behind the gate in the park, the one on the back of the water fountain. HereвЂ™s where comes in, literally вЂњwater-cyclingвЂќ, a website to list points where you can refill your bidon, ideal when youвЂ™re out reconning Tour stages. Spoon the sludge into a baking tray, slide in the oven and youвЂ™re set. Dried tomato, peanut butterвЂ¦ bacon? Whatever works, chuck it in, especially if itвЂ™s the sort of thing youвЂ™d not touch as a snack but weirdly crave when youвЂ™ve been on the bike for hours on a hot day and canвЂ™t touch an ordinary gel or bar. Now you can start to add whatever you like. Mash ripe bananas and fold in some oats and you have a base. You can make your own energy food at home. Most of us can manage this, right? Only try this with bars and gels youвЂ™ve bought and it can make cycling expensive. Want to copy the pros? Then eat a lot during big rides. A few items of gear and more that proved useful during the course of the yearвЂ¦

Spintires maps all gone