Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 37 i Cyclist Australia

It’s taken far longer than it should have, but we've finally managed to piece it all together: a Big Ride in the picture-perfect holiday destination of Byron Bay. Don't get us wrong, we've travelled to this summer hot spot before. However, it’s taken until this issue for us to finally bring the bike and camera man along for the trip. Of course, it helps to have a fresh-faced company like Lifecycles Travel now servicing the area from their HQ in nearby Lennox Head, and with their help – and a few gravel-ready bikes on hand – we’ve really been able to showcase the stunning Byron hinterland in all its glory. A word of advice if you plan to follow our lead: bring your biggest stomach along for the ride, because…

To download this route go to strava.com/routes/16778937. Kick off or finish at Byron Lighthouse for the perfect start or delightful finish to this ride. From town, follow signs towards the Pacific Highway and take Ewingsdale Road, ensuring you make the easy right turn onto Myocum Road shortly after the overpass. After a short rise the road really kicks upwards as you take a left onto Possum Shoot Road. Turn right and stay on Coolamon Scenic Drive for around 9km before turning left onto Goongenerry Road all the way to Federal. Drink coffee and eat snacks at Doma, then head right onto Federal Drive towards Eureka. Right onto Whian Road and turn left at the T-intersection for a lovely gravel section along Ridgewood Road. A left onto Mackie brings your time…

‘Mother-of-three becomes fastest human being on a bike at 183.9mph’. That’s how one prominent newspaper announced the news that Denise Mueller-Korenek from San Diego had just smashed the world land speed record for riding a bicycle. No human – man or woman – had ever travelled at a higher speed under their own steam on a bike. So was Mueller-Korenek annoyed that a lot of the media coverage seemed to fixate on her being a mother in her mid-40s? ‘You know, I don’t see that as demeaning in any way,’ she tells Cyclist in the days after her record-breaking ride in September. ‘It’s just part of who I am. It’s a descriptor, just like my name.’ Despite beating the previous record held by Dutchman Fred Rompelberg, who set a speed…

Having recently moved over to the latest disc-equipped TCR, the trusty rim brake bike (shown here) still remains in my fleet. Surprisingly, I found very little difference in ride characteristics between the rim model and the disc version, but of course, the improvement in braking control is chalk and cheese. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by both the weight and handling of the disc model. Fitted with a complete Shimano Dura-Ace groupset including power meter, the frameset also features thru-axles and flat mounting for the disc brakes – giving the front and rear end a clean finish and stiff ride. I've become a huge fan of tubeless tyres and a number of the higher-end Giant models come not only with tubeless-ready wheels, but actually tubeless tyres too. I wouldn’t ride anything…

THE SPEC Model Ridley Noah Fast Disc Groupset Shimano Ultegra Di2 Disc Deviations Rotor Flow chainset, Sram disc rotors Wheels Forza R45 19cc DB Finishing kit Ridley Fast Integrated Cockpit and seatpost, Selle Italia SLR saddle, Vittoria Corsa 25mm tyres Weight 7.43kg (medium) Price $5,599 (frameset), $12,799 (complete Dura-Ace Di2 Australian model) Contact ridley-bikes.com If you’re going to include the word ‘fast’ in the name of your bike, you’d better be able to justify it. Fortunately for Ridley, the new Noah Fast Disc lives up to its title. Everything about this bike has been tuned for speed, with Ridley making good use of its own wind-tunnel to hone the tube profiles, as well as getting input from the pro riders on Belgian WorldTour team Lotto-Soudal. ‘The wind-tunnel was used a…

We had a ‘recovery day’ planned between our cycling adventures in France and decided to head to Demonte, Italy to do some exploring. Without giving the day much thought other than that the weather was perfect, our bikes and bodies ready, we headed out from Demonte to climb Colle della Fauniera. As the day unfolded, this ride turned into what might go down as my most memorable cycling day ever. We probably should have been a little concerned, as the climb is better known as Colle dei Morti – ‘Pass of the Dead’. To our relief, this wasn’t in reference to cyclists, but rather an ambush that occurred in 1744. Although, later in the day, I did begin to wonder if it was going to refer to me… This pass…

As the saying goes, you can tell a lot about a man by his hands. ‘Normally I can finish a basic bike in seven days, but this one took more than triple that time, I think 30 days,’ says Turkish framebuilder Burçak Erbil, whose scarred and calloused hands serve as living testaments to a life spent in the workshop. ‘I like to think I am good with my hands, even since I was young. I’m a mechanical engineer and have spent most of my professional life working on engine design with companies such as Ford, Nissan and Range Rover – although combustion engines are dying, so it is now electric vehicles. But I have always ridden and loved bicycles.’ Like many cyclists of his generation, Erbil started out on a…

Lifecycles recently took delivery of a brand-new suite of Trek bikes. There are options designed for every type of riding terrain (apart from MTB) in the area. We had actually intended to travel with two Trek Checkpoints for the trip to Byron anyway – we picked the destination specifically for these machines. However, when we heard there was an option to fly without a bike and pick up our Checkpoints from Lifecycles, the decision was easy. The Checkpoint, dubbed the Hinterland Bike, is a dream for rides featuring a mix of new tarmac and gravel interludes. The SL6 is the top-end offering from Trek featuring an Ultegra groupset with a dual-ring up front, providing enough gearing options for riders of all levels. Hidden yet very much functional, the IsoSpeed decoupler…

It’s Day 1, and my watch reads well past 0600. The breakfast room is abuzz with activity, very little of it orderly. Riders mill about with plates of scrambled eggs as they sip on their third or fourth cup of coffee. I’m gunning for five. Like breakfast – and despite some 140km on the itinerary – today’s ride will contain little in the way of structure. Ride with a buddy, pedal solo or find a happy middle ground as the route takes us up and over Tawonga Gap and Falls Creek en route to our evening’s resting pad in Omeo. Roll out when you feel ready, take lunch when you feel hungry and at no point target any KOMs. We’ve joined Wide Open Road for its four-day Vic Alps Tour…

The importance of hydration and its role in performance is often underestimated by athletes, especially in the warmer months. Performance is impaired when even 2% loss of body weight is due to fluid loss. As such, implementing an individualised hydration plan is critical. DRINK UP It’s important to aim to commence exercise in a well-hydrated state, particularly for endurance sports like cycling. This requires a practised hydration strategy to be implemented prior to a cycling event. The amount of fluid you require pre-exercise may vary considerably from the rest of your crew, however a general recommendation to aim for is 5-7ml fluid per kg of body mass (BM) approximately four hours pre-exercise. Following this, if urine is dark yellow, then consumption of an additional 3-5ml fluid per kg BM in…

Like their nation’s infamous crosswinds, Dutch team Boels-Dolmans can blow a peloton apart. They have repeatedly done just that over the last few years – in fact, the past four World Champions have won the rainbow stripes while among their number. Britain’s Lizzie Deignan was first in 2015 (she has since signed with the new Trek-Segafredo team for 2019). Then came Danish rider Amalie Dideriksen in 2016, followed by the Netherlands’ Chantal Blaak in 2017. In 2018 it was the turn of Boels-Dolmans’ Dutch superstar Anna van der Breggen to take the rainbow jersey in a powerful display that saw her put 3 minutes 42 seconds into her nearest rival. Winning is what this team is all about. So much so that it can seem their domination has taken the…

Skyscrapers packed in as tightly as a handful of chopsticks. Jungles of dense green foliage. Towering mountain peaks. Alleyways full of restaurants crammed with bamboo. Steamers loaded with local delicacies. Red and white taxi cabs weaving between Rolls-Royces and double decker trams. This is Hong Kong, one of the world’s most exciting cities – and an unexpectedly great place to ride a bicycle. This was my second visit to the vibrant city slash beehive of activity, but this time I would be staying for four days and have the chance to share the experience with Australia’s most decorated road cyclist, Cadel Evans. Not only would we ride and document life in Hong Kong, but we would also be part of a video promoting the destination. I was hoping I’d be…

Eddy Merckx Age: 73 Nationality: Belgian Honours Tour de France 1st, 1969-1972, 1974, 34 stage wins Giro d’Italia 1st, 1968, 1970-1972, 1974, 24 stage wins Vuelta a España 1st, 1973, 6 stage wins Paris-Roubaix 1st, 1968, 1970, 1973 Tour of Flanders 1st, 1969, 1975 World Championships Road Race 1st, 1967, 1971, 1974 Merckx claimed many more major wins but we’ve run out of roo… Cyclist: What did you make of the 2018 season? Which moments stood out? Eddy Merckx: Nibali winning Milan-San Remo was a big moment [Vincenzo Nibali produced an impressive winning solo attack over the Poggio], and Peter Sagan at Paris-Roubaix was also very good. It was also nice to see Chris Froome attack like he did on the Finestre in the Giro d’Italia. In 2017 he won…

My bag is filled with all manner of clothing and footwear. There’s enough here to combat everything the Aussie summer can muster, from an absolute scorcher to an absolute downpour. Yes, there’s lycra stashed away in there, although that skin-tight number forms part of my fancy-dress outfit for a multi-day music festival; there’s no cycling on my itinerary, unless it’s on the back of someone’s cruiser traversing to the next stage. That’s how cycling fit into the itineraries of my previous visits to Byron, anyway. That is to say, there was little to none of it. But I had spied the luscious landscape on those occasions and vowed to one day return with cleats rather than party shoes. A year on, that day finally came. Nature calls The early Cape…

Full disclosure: we stayed in a stunning four-bedroom beach house down in Lennox Head run by Lifecycles. Lennox is approximately 20km south of Byron and is an easy ride into town if you choose to start and finish at Lifecycles’ spacious Airbnb. For our particular ride, we hopped in the car and jumped out to start from Byron, but you could easily modify this route to suit your needs around accommodation and location. Chris and Alice can also accommodate for rides both shorter and longer if you so wish, but take it from us, 100-odd kilometres feels like more than enough up here. Lifecycles’ guesthouse is located only a block from the beach and is just back from the main shops. The guesthouse sleeps nine to 12 people in four…

What better place to start hunting down forgotten gems than the oldest marque in the game? Founded in Milan by Edoardo Bianchi, the Italian company lays claim to being the longest surviving name in the business, with a heritage dating back to 1885. Over its 133-year history it has won pretty much every race going, with riders such as Fausto Coppi, Felice Gimondi, Marco Pantani, Mario Cipollini and Jan Ullrich, and is still notching up victories today with the LottoNL-Jumbo team. Bianchi’s pedigree is as rich as its bikes are diverse, so when Cyclist visited the Bianchi factory on the outskirts of Treviglio in northern Italy, we needed someone who knows their tubing, and luckily we found him: creative director and de facto bike curator Fabio Belotti, an employee of…

THE SPEC Model Merida Reacto Disc Team-E Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 Deviations None Wheels DT Swiss PRC 1400 Spline Finishing kit Vision Metron 5D Full carbon integrated bar/stem, Reacto S-Flex carbon seatpost, Prologo Zero II saddle, Continental GP4000S II 25mm tyres Weight 7.53kg (56cm) Price $8,999 Contact merida.com.au With 5.5km to go in last year’s Milan-San Remo, Italian cycling fans came alive when their hero, Vincenzo Nibali, attacked on the Poggio to go clear of the field by the tiniest of margins. Could he hold on? In a superhuman display of strength, and with the best sprinters in the world bearing down on him, Nibali won the race by barely enough for him to put his arms in the air. It was the most courageous way to win a Monument.…