Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2025 i Bicycling

IF YOU LIKE HOW I RECLAIMED MY KOM FROM AN OLYMPIAN / P.10 CHECK OUT THE 2025 TOUR DE FRANCE MADE IT OFFICIAL—AERO IS KING, WEIGHT IS HISTORY IF YOU LIKE ROCKY’S EPIC ADVENTURE ACROSS THE WORLD’S OLDEST DESERT / P.46 CHECK OUT BIKEPACKING AMERICA’S LONGEST MULTIUSE TRAIL NETWORK IF YOU LIKE IN THE SLIPSTREAM OF CYCLING’S FORGOTTEN HEROES / P.86 CHECK OUT BLACK CYCLISTS WHO PAVED THE WAY FOR THE SPORT AND CULTURE IF YOU LIKE THE FIERCEST SISTERHOOD IN CYCLING / P.30 CHECK OUT THE ALCHEMISTS IF YOU LIKE GRAVEL BIKES ARE CHANGING. FINALLY. / P.8 CHECK OUT THE BEST GRAVEL BIKES FOR RIDERS WHO WANT TO DO IT ALL…

UNTIL RECENTLY, I had always resisted making big or sudden adjustments to my bike setup. I feared that any changes might negatively affect my riding position, comfort, power, or speed. My seat height, crank length, saddle shape, bar width, reach, and stack were nonnegotiables. I wasn’t willing to throw away years of trial and error or experts’ recommendations—my measurements were backed up by bike fits. I like what I like. (I’m even very selective about my bar tape and grips.) Then, after years of riding in my “perfect” setup, I started dealing with a recurring saddle sore; I knew something needed to change. Throughout our lives, parents, teachers, managers, partners, and friends have told us how beneficial it is to try new things. While bicycle technology constantly advances and options…

JENNA FOLEY WISHES SHE DIDN’T HAVE TO LEARN ABOUT THE importance of a bike fit the hard way. About a year after she had taken up cycling, Foley was ready to conquer her very first century. She and three of her girlfriends mapped out a scenic arch-shaped route starting in Philadelphia, meandering toward the picturesque town of New Hope, and then returning to Philly. They figured out nutrition for the day and pit stops they wanted to make; they were ready for a great time. Foley didn’t know anything about bikes back then. When she bought a crusty old Fuji on Facebook Marketplace, it was pure luck that it happened to be the correct size for her. A week before the big adventure, another rider commented on her Instagram story,…

“Riding the PMC is a highlight of my year. It’s the most impactful, motivating, phenomenal experience. NANCY SAPERSTONE ISN’T a cancer survivor. She hasn’t endured cinematic crises. She isn’t one of the faster riders or the loudest personality. But Saperstone is the kind of rider and personality that makes a group stronger. Saperstone was a runner before she was a rider. She ran a couple of charity marathons in the late ’90s, and she smiles recalling how a friend told her she was getting too old for marathoning. For her 40th birthday, she and her husband did a Backroads trip to Italy. “That was the beginning of more,” says the 15-year PMC veteran. While Saperstone repeatedly notes that she’s one of the slower BGs, nearly everyone in the group calls…

IT WAS 2011 when she registered for her first PMC. Lisa Hughes and her husband had just bought a home in Wellesley, and her next-door neighbor happened to be PMC founder Billy Starr. At a party she told Starr that she was interested in doing the event. “He asked if I realized that I’d be riding for the rest of my life,” Hughes says. “I laughed it off—but he was right.” The longtime runner didn’t even own a bike. She remembers hooking up with Quigley, who showed her the ropes and did early rides with her to get into cycling shape. But on a training ride two weeks before her first PMC, someone crashed in front of Hughes at a railroad crossing. Hughes launched over her handlebar and broke her…

“HILLS NEVER GET easy,” says Wendy Fischman, “It doesn’t mean I’m the fastest or the best. But I find the thrill of overcoming the challenge is so enjoyable that the challenge dissipates,” explaining the flow state she enters on a tough ride. Unsurprisingly, Fischman typically is near the front on BG group rides when the terrain gets hilly. And pretty much nothing holds Fischman back. On Christmas Day in 2023, the lifelong skier crashed on an icy patch, tearing her ACL, MCL, and meniscus—and breaking her tibia. But she remained fixated on riding the PMC the following summer. She had to wait four long months to exercise. Then she attacked rehab and was back on her bike by Memorial Day. Her doctors said riding was fine but warned her not…

THE CICADAS, CRICKETS, little owls, and even the rustling of leaves turned the night into a chorus accompanying my churning legs. I pedaled, angry and weeping, in the dark. I’d gotten married to the first woman I dated out of prison. Two sons and 15 years later, our marriage had been rockier for longer than it had been stable. I didn’t know that divorce would soon make me a single father but knew that whatever dam had kept me from weeping had broken. I was 42 years old and hadn’t felt this alone since I’d been in solitary confinement. On a borrowed bike with a borrowed helmet on a road lit only by the moon, I pedaled faster than I should have, two miles down a winding road in Italy’s…

I’VE PREVIOUSLY ARGUED that there are too many gravel bikes with little distinction among them. Have you ever wondered why so many are out there? I believe I know the answer. I’ve ridden on roads in several countries around the world. A paved road is a paved road. I can take my road bike anywhere, and I’m confident I’ll have the right gear for the ride. The same can’t be said for gravel roads. Their roughness and composition vary hugely. The champagne gravel of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for example, is much different from the punishing rocks on the roads around Emporia, Kansas, that make up the Unbound Gravel race route. But even saying gravel is different by region or geographic zone isn’t adequate: Gravel is so variable that nearly every…

IN MY 10-PLUS years of working as a personal trainer, new clients have often come to me with fitness goals that include “losing weight.” During their intake session, I push them to articulate specifically what that means to them. Every person’s answer is unique (although the terms “toned” and “muscle definition” come up a lot), but what they almost universally have in common is wanting to become leaner. In other words, their goal is to change their body composition by losing body fat and gaining lean muscle. Leaner doesn’t necessarily mean lighter. This distinction is so important, and it’s why I refuse to use the term “weight loss.” Words matter much more than we often realize, and just because a phrase is common doesn’t make it accurate. And when it…

“It was this place I could get away, where I wasn’t the mom with a sick kid. LIKE LOTS OF people, Eunice Groark loved to ride bikes as a kid, loved the freedom she felt as she cruised around on her 10-speed. But then, like lots of people, she eventually stopped riding. Everything changed in 2005. That’s when her son Harry was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor after he started kindergarten. “That year he went through multiple brain surgeries,” Groark says, adding that she learned about the PMC because one of Harry’s doctors was riding to raise money for pediatric cancer research. In 2007, Groark and her husband bought bikes and began training and fundraising for the PMC. “I was hooked—on both cycling and the event,” she says. This…

“I don’t know what men talk about when they ride, but we talk about our kids and parents maturing—and we talk about food a lot. LORI JOHNSTON LOVES everything about riding—especially with the BGs. “Sometimes I don’t even think, I just ride,” she says. “It’s like a zone. We see beautiful things. We have crazy experiences. You see life differently than you would in a car.” But Johnston almost quit a couple of years ago. The group kept getting faster, and she found it harder to keep up. As the oldest member of the group, Johnston’s situation crossed a line. “Suddenly it wasn’t fun anymore,” she admits. “It was really stressful—I was riding at 95 percent all the time and it got exhausting. Finally, I was like I have to…

“My riding life saves me—it gives me strength. NANCY WILLIAMSON STARTED riding about 15 years ago. Back then she was on a hybrid and thought 15 miles was a haul. But in 2011 she got a road bike and tackled her first PMC. Her father had died a few years earlier of colon cancer, and it seemed like a nice tribute. She’s come a long way since then—nearly all the BGs mention that she’s among the fastest, strongest, most hardcore riders in the group. (Fischman calls Williamson her ride or die.) “I like to go hard if I can,” Williamson admits. “I don’t want to just tool around.” Many BGs say Williamson is uncommonly kind. “She is the most supportive human being I think I’ve ever met,” Fischman says. Williamson…

Italy calls itself the Bel Paese, the beautiful country. And few would argue. It’s a title earned not just through a rich cultural history, but through the everyday poetry of the place: terraced olive orchards, cypress-lined roads meandering past vineyards, the quiet hum of life in medieval villages untouched by time. For cyclists, it’s where landscape, style, and soul converge, where a bicycle ride becomes more than motion and something closer to art. “Italy is the best place in the world to ride bikes,” says Pier Bergonzi, editor of Sportweek, the weekly magazine of La Gazzetta dello Sport. “There are big climbs everywhere. From Sicily to Sardinia to Puglia, everywhere you go, you can find amazing roads to ride.” Beyond the landscape and terrain, Italy has long been one of…

MATERIAL: BUTYL / PRICE: $6–$12 / WEIGHT: 100g–150g (700 x 28) This is the style of tube that has been inside almost every bike tire since the 1950s. Butyl, a synthetic rubber primarily made from isobutylene, is cheap and durable, and holds air extremely well, losing only about one psi per day. Tubes made from butyl are not light, though—weighing 100 grams or more per tube. Plus, butyl lacks the elasticity of latex and TPU, so it creates more rolling resistance than the other tube types. BEST FOR Any rider who values ease of use and low maintenance. ADVANTAGES Cheap, repairable, excellent air retention, wide availability in every tire size. DISADVANTAGES Heavy and slower rolling resistance. MATERIAL: LATEX / PRICE: $15–$25 / WEIGHT: 80g (700 x 28) Natural latex rubber…

Look no further than The Bike Shop, our weekly video podcast series designed to make you a stronger, smarter rider. Our editors serve up insider advice, fresh perspectives, and the latest buzz in cycling—so you’re always in the know. FALL IS UPON US. Crisp air. Crunchy leaves. Open roads. Autumn is the ultimate riding season, and we’ve got the bikes and gear to match. Our editors handpicked the best equipment for every riding surface and forecast, to keep you moving no matter what the season throws your way. Don’t just build strength, build cycling strength. This memberexclusive guide will train you to engage your riding-specific muscles using moves that mimic your position on the bike for maximum power and speed. You’ll improve not only your cycling performance but your health and…

I HAVE AN unusually fast coworker. His name is Bobby Lea, and I could spend many paragraphs describing his palmarès, but the highlights from his professional racing career spanning from 2006 to 2016 include his three Olympic trips for Team USA in 2008 (Points Race and Madison), 2012 (Omnium), and 2016 (Omnium). He also grabbed a bronze medal in the scratch race at the 2015 UCI Track World Championships. So I wasn’t shocked when I received an email from Strava informing me that Bobby had claimed one of my lunch ride KOMs near Bicycling’s office in Easton, Pennsylvania. Still, the notification stung a little bit, as it arrived on my birthday. (To be fair, Bobby didn’t know.) While my competitive career was far less prolific than Bobby’s, I did manage…

“I love the simplicity of [cycling] and the camaraderie and the coffee and the way your mind can go anywhere it wants. THE FIRST BLOW came in 2001 when Patti Quigley lost her husband, Patrick, on September 11. He was on United Airlines Flight 175, which was hijacked after its departure from Boston and then flown into the World Trade Center’s South Tower. At the time, Patti had a toddler and was eight months pregnant. A year later, Patti and another 9/11 widow started planning a charity ride from New York to Boston. It was an ambitious idea, because Patti didn’t own a bike at the time. But since Patrick had ridden when he was younger, it seemed like a fitting tribute. “We were raising money for women in Afghanistan,”…

“This particular group of women and what we’ve created is really supportive. RIDING WITH LAURA means “there is no dead air unless we’re gasping up a hill,” says fellow BG Lori Johnston. “Ask her a question, and she’ll give you a five-minute answer. But she is just sunshine.” Wendy Fischman, who used to live down the street, agrees. “Laura is the cheerleader for the group,” she says. “She always reminds us how strong we are.” But where does this optimism come from? It’s a fair question to ask of someone who’s gone through not one but two bouts of breast cancer. “Someone once told me that your windshield is so much bigger than your rearview mirror,” she says. “I just want to keep looking forward.” The first episode began in…

“I love the PMC because it is my weekend to honor my cancer. CARIE CAPOSSELA IS not low-key about her cancer experience. “We don’t spend a lot of time talking about our breast cancer,” she says. “But I like to talk about it, and the biking has been loaded with emotion.” Capossela was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001—she went through multiple surgeries, chemo, radiation, tamoxifen, and eventually reconstruction. The experience of thinking she might die and then recovering has left a lasting mark. Early in her treatment, her oncologist suggested she ride the PMC. “And I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll wait till my hair grows back,’” she recalls. “I had it in my head that if I hit the five-year mark, I would do it.” And in 2006 she…

Walk into a typical bike shop and ask which upgrade will boost the performance of your bike, and an employee likely will suggest a new wheelset. Lighter wheels will definitely liven up your ride, but they are not cheap. If you’ve entered a really good shop, an employee could suggest replacing the heavy tires with something lighter and more supple—a more economical option. The “best bang for your buck” answer, though, is to upgrade your inner tubes. New wheels might set you back $1,000 or more. A set of good tires can easily cost $200 now. But a high-end pair of inner tubes runs about $40 to $50 and can deliver as much of a performance gain as those premium tires. I’m not talking about the thick, heavy butyl tubes…