Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2025 i Cycling Plus

WELCOME… It’s that time of year, once again, when the general public take notice of cycling (beyond the usual moans about riding on pavements and not paying ‘road tax’). Viewing figures shoot up, pubs and cafes resound with talk of the maillot jaune, and dusty bikes are dragged out of sheds, to be forgotten about once again at the end of July. We brought you a big preview last month (and I’d advise grabbing a copy of the Tour de France Official UK 2025 Race Guide too), so this time we’re taking a broader look at cycling’s biggest race, in the form of a fantastic photo gallery (p30) and reports on the tech helping teams to ride faster (p38), as well as the current state of doping (p47). Here’s hoping…

Trusted content Here at Cycling Plus, we take our testing seriously, sending highly experienced cyclists onto the roads and trails to see how each and every item stands up to their scrutiny. The result is independent and honest reviews to help make your next purchases easier. Your Experts Warren Rossiter Senior technical editor Woz tests starter gravel bikes, Cannondale’s new Synapse endurance bike and more James Costley-White Group editor Can you trust a bike rack that’s based on suction? JCW nervously finds out… Oscar Huckle Product tester It’s bottle cages on the testing agenda for Oscar this month…

Weight 9.75kg (58cm) Frame Specialized E5 Premium Aluminium with D’Aluisio Smartweld Technology Fork S-Works FACT Carbon Groupset SRAM Apex XPLR, 12-speed Wheels DT Swiss G540 Tyres Specialized Pathfinder Pro 2BR, 700c x 38mm Finishing kit (all Specialized) Adventure Gear handlebar (44cm), 3D-Forged Alloy stem (110mm), Alloy 27.2mm seatpost, Power Sport saddle The Crux DSW takes its cues from its ultra-light carbon Crux stablemate. At just 9.75kg for my size 58cm test bike, it’s by far the lightest aluminium gravel bike I’ve tested and weighs less than many high performance carbon gravel bikes too. With SRAM’s Apex XPLR 1x12 drivetrain and a host of Specialized components, the Crux DSW offers a lot of bang for your buck. Impressively light The heavily butted, hydroformed, ‘D’Aluisio Smart Weld’ frame is named after legendary Specialized…

Trusted content Here at Cycling Plus, we take great pride in producing high-quality articles. We do this by rooting out credible research from respected institutions, interviewing top experts in their field and using our own hard-won expertise when it’s relevant. Your Experts John Whitney Boost your ride John examines the research to see whether you should join the pros in taking creatine Oscar Huckle 5 of the best Oscar tests a range of bottle cages to see which one ticks the most boxes Simon Bromley Pro cycling column Is using cross-country MTB tyres for gravel racing the next big thing? asks Simon…

ITALIAN JOB After an epic ride across the Colle delle Finestre the previous day, Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the 2025 Giro d’Italia – his second Grand Tour title. RECORD FOR RUGGINS Sarah Ruggins broke the Guinness World Record for cycling the length of the UK and back (JOGLEJOG) – a massive 2,700km in just five days, 11 hours and 14 minutes. MOOR FREEDOM Bikepackers rejoice! After a recent Supreme Court ruling, you can now camp anywhere on Dartmoor’s 368 square miles of common land without the landowner’s permission. TEEN SPIRIT British teenager Cat Ferguson is “gutted” to have been pipped to the Tour of Britain Women title by New Zealander Ally Wollaston, who won by four seconds in a thrilling finale. UNRULY RACING? This year’s Unbound gravel event…

Canyon’s Innovation Lab have unveiled their latest future concept – the MPACT. This follows on from 2021’s Future Mobility Concept – a car-like, four-wheeled electric recumbent – but appears to be much closer to reality. I’d like to see it go into production. Let me talk you through what we know about it so far. The modular single-spar frame would be produced from recycled aluminium in Europe, to maximise the bike’s sustainability. It would be available in one size, said to suit riders between 155cm (5ft 1in) and 199cm (6ft 6in). There would be luggage racks front and rear, with the latter having a 25kg load capacity. No details have been given about the motor, hidden in the frame. The battery would be removable for charging by lifting the seatpost…

It’s been 12 years since Lance Armstrong confided to Oprah Winfrey that his seven Tour de France titles were a lie. Those wins came between 1999 and 2005, the first just 12 months after the Festina Affair, where doping products were found in a soigneur’s car en route to the Tour’s Grand Départ in Ireland. Both episodes shook the sport. You then have Operación Puerto, the Spanish police operation against the sports doping network of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, which came to light in May 2006. That was nearly 20 years ago. Since then, there have been ‘lesser scandals’ such as Operation Aderlass (from 2019) and the ongoing Operation Ilex led by the Spanish authorities, but in both cases there was no suggestion that the riders at the WorldTour top table…

Weight 10.5kg (L) Frame Butted 6061 aluminium alloy Fork Carbon fibre Groupset Shimano GRX RX400, 10-speed Wheels Boardman ADV tubeless ready rims on Formula RX-512/142 hubs Tyres Goodyear Connector, 700c x 40mm Finishing kit Boardman alloy handlebar (42cm), Boardman alloy stem (90mm), Boardman alloy 31.6mm seatpost, Boardman ADV saddle The ADV range is designed to be versatile – at home on trails, singletrack and wide-open gravel roads. With plenty of fittings for carrying luggage plus mudguard mounts, the 8.9 could be a great commuting option too. It sits one rung below Boardman’s top aluminium gravel offering, sharing the same smoothwelded 6061 aluminium frame and carbon fork. The value-packed build mixes 2x10 Shimano GRX with tubeless-ready wheels, quality tyres and own-brand finishing kit. Mechanic-friendly A flattened upper to the sloping top tube…

01 Elite Custom Race X £14.99 Weight 30g ● The Custom Race X replaces Elite’s revered Custom Race Plus, a common sight on WorldTour bikes. The new cage offers a 35% claimed weight saving over its forebear at 28.5g, though ours weighed 30g. Elite say the profile has been altered to improve grip and allow for easier insertion of your bottle from the side. The cage is made from a high-strength polyamide and is reinforced with fibreglass, which Elite say improves its durability. It’s available in 10 colours, so there’ll be an option to suit your bike. The cage had a reasonably strong hold on the plastic and metal bottles I tried it with, and differed from its rivals in that it cants the bottle at a more inward angle.…

PRODUCT SHOOT-OUTS Rearview radar lights Plus, women’s bib shorts and electric mini pumps put to the test IN-DEPTH FEATURES Swiss end-to-end Pedalling from near Geneva to the Austrian border Making helmets safer Behind the scenes at Imperial College’s HEAD Lab Wider and wider Why 57mm+ gravel tyres are the next tech trend Women on wheels A look at how to boost female cycling participation ON SALE 1 August 2025…

We’ve all seen the rapid escalation of bike prices in recent years. You only need to look back through the Cycling Plus archives to see how much things have changed over the past decade. In 2014, I awarded the £1,849.99 Cannondale Synapse Carbon 5 five stars out of five, praising its full Shimano 105 groupset, Shimano wheels and complement of quality components, which made it a superb all-round bike. It wasn’t cheap, but it was very good. Today, a 105-equipped Cannondale Synapse Carbon 3 – which doesn’t have a full 105 group – has an RRP of £3,200. In 10 years, the price has risen by £1,350. That’s a 73% increase. I’ve singled out Cannondale here, but it’s an industry-wide trend – bikes have simply got much, much more expensive…

The new Sarto Raso Gravel is designed with aerodynamics at its core, blended with light weight and huge clearances to meet the demands of gravel racers. But you’ll need deep pockets. A frameset will set you back £8,210, while the bike we tested has an eye-watering £14,190 price tag. Massive tyre clearances Two versions of the frame are available – one with a 700c x 48mm tyre clearance (where you have the option of running a 1x or 2x drivetrain) and another with a huge 55mm/2.2in clearance (1x only). Sarto’s pro gravel athlete Skyler Taylor is a fan of the wider option, believing that bigger tyres roll much faster on rough terrain and don’t puncture as easily as smaller designs, giving a competitive advantage. “All the performance tests show that…

Being tasked with selecting an image gallery of the Tour de France when you have well over a century of history to play with seemed an impossible job. Tens of thousands of evocative pictures to squeeze into such a small space was daunting. Who to select and who to leave out? How do you balance the epic, race-defining moments with the smaller snapshots that capture the event’s personality? Of the quartet of five-time winners, only Miguel Indurain isn’t featured, but the Spaniard bludgeoned his way to victory with such methodical ease that I struggled to find ‘interesting’ shots of him. Do I include Lance Armstrong? His wins have been officially chalked off the record books, but he’s part of the race’s history, whatever you think of him. So here he…

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Reach ● The horizontal distance from the centre of the bottom bracket (BB) to the centre-top of the head tube. If the seat tube angle stays the same, a longer reach lowers your ride position and a shorter reach means you sit more upright. Stack ● This is the vertical distance from the centre of the BB to the top of the head tube. A taller stack puts you in a more upright ride position; a shorter stack gives a lower, racier position. Trail ● Derived from a combination of head angle and fork offset, this measure shows how far the contact point of a bike’s front tyre ‘trails’ behind its steering axis. A small trail figure makes for a fast-handling bike; more trail slows down the steering response. XPLR…

Weight 11.42kg (L) Frame Aluminium alloy Fork Carbon fibre Groupset Shimano GRX RX400, 10-speed Wheels WTB ST i23 TCS rims on Novatec hubs Tyres WTB Riddler, 700c x 45mm Finishing kit Focus alloy handlebar (44cm), Focus alloy stem (90mm), Focus alloy 27.2mm seatpost, WTB SL8 saddle Focus’s Atlas frame is designed for rugged, adventurous bikepacking. With Shimano’s GRX RX400 drivetrain, quality WTB wheels and 45mm tyres, it’s ready to ramble across continents, but also has the handling chops to rival a hardtail MTB when the going gets technical. Like its test rivals, the Atlas is made from butted aluminium, with a sloping frame design and dropped stays. Practical additions include two-position bottle mounts on top of the down tube, more on its underside, and top tube (bento box) mounts. You’ll also…

Most bikes have a range of gears to enable you to crest a climb, carve down a descent and everything in between. In theory, all of the gears are at your disposal, but on some setups, it’s best to avoid using certain gear combinations to avoid what’s typically referred to as ‘cross-chaining’. What is cross-chaining? This is the act of riding in the smallest or largest cassette sprocket (the gears at the back of the bike) and the equivalent chainring (the gears at the front of the bike) at the same time. For example, on a bike with a double chainring setup, if you’re riding in the smallest cassette sprocket and the smallest chainring (1), or the largest cassette sprocket and the largest chainring (2), you’re cross-chaining. On a 2x…

Elite gravel racers are increasingly shunning dedicated gravel tyres in favour of wider rubber designed for mountain bikes. Proponents of this trend claim many mountain bike tyres – specifically lightweight options designed for cross-country (XC) racing – are faster than gravel bike tyres, despite the increased weight and aerodynamic drag most would assume they bring with them. While not everyone is convinced, many racers at The Traka gravel event near Girona in early May told us they were keen to test out mountain bike tyres – provided their gravel bikes can accommodate them. It was also a key tech trend at the 2024 Unbound gravel race in the USA, and one we expect to see repeated at this year’s event [happening as we go to press]. In the red corner,…