Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 23 i Cyclist Australia

Counter to the instincts of your average sane human being, suffering is one of the appeals of cycling. I refer, of course, to the sporting context of suffering: to undergo physical pain. The pain barrier – reaching it, feeling it and pushing past it – is part of the reason so many of us ride. (We’ve even dedicated an essay to it on page 38!) But outside of the sporting context, the world is full of other types of suffering that are far more real: war, famine, poverty, and of course, the scourge of disease. So when the latter combines with our humble exploits on the bike, it makes the achievements all the more incredible. Case in point: Ryan Hodges, who, despite being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and undergoing…

How about a little behind-the-back pedal flick on the steepest run-up on Lap 1 of a UCI C1 race? This move is straight out of the sought-after #SVENNESS internet series, which highlights the hard-to-notice ultra pro inside lines and moments of the mostly Belgian coverage. When I saw Wout van Aert reach behind and spin his pedal so his bike lay flat on his back and was ready when it touched dirt, I knew it was a special moment. Belgian US-based pro Ben Berden chimed in on my Instagram (@jeffcurtes), saying it was a move initiated by, of all people, former multi world champion and Wout’s current DS at Crelan, Niels Albert. How sick is comment chatter on a ‘Gram by legends of CX!? Wout went on to win the…

The Col de la Madeleine in the French Alps is one serious climb: all 28.3km of it up its longest flank, from the town of Aigueblanche. It’s that sheer distance that makes the Madeleine so tough. The average gradient over that distance is ‘only’ 5.4%, but it’s one of those climbs that ramps up and up, and reaches gradients of 10% towards the summit. From that same northern side, but starting from Feissons-sur-Isère, it averages 6.2% for 25.3km, while the southern side, from the charmingly named town of La Chambre, is still long, at 19.2km, but with a much steeper average incline of 7.9% . The Madeleine last featured on the Tour route in 2013, on Stage 19 between Bourg d’Oisans and Le Grand-Bornand, using that tougher but shorter side…

In the wilds of Tenerife a cyclist’s senses can become disjointed from reality. As I pedal through a volcanic world of red cinder cones, golden pumice fields and shiny black obsidian rocks, I can see the Teide volcano looming high above me, which makes me suspect, with a wince, that I must be much lower down the day’s big climb than I had hoped. Yet when I glance in the other direction, I realise that – thanks to a confusing cloud inversion – I am already high above the clouds, which float, absurdly, below the pine forest I’ve just cycled through. Craning my neck at the sight of clouds hovering beneath trees, I feel like I’m staring at a landscape painting that has been hung upside down. Strangeness surrounds me.…

THE SPEC Model Canyon Endurace CF SLX 9.0 SL Groupset Dura Ace Di2 9070 Deviations Shimano R785 shifters, RS805 disc brake callipers Wheels Mavic Ksyrium Pro Carbon SL Disc WTS Finishing kit Canyon H31 Ergocockpit, Canyon VCLS 2.0 CF seatpost, Fizik Aliante R5 saddle Weight 7.40kg (M) Price $9,199 (plus $199 shipping to Australia) Contact canyon.com/eu-au Aren’t we a greedy bunch? ‘Dear manufacturer, if it’s not too much trouble, we’d like a bike that’s super stiff, mega light, crazy fast, über comfy and surefooted enough to never jangle our nerves, please. Oh, and it would be nice if we could take it on the occasional off-road jaunt. With love, cyclists everywhere. P.S. If there are any moons on sticks lying about that you could throw in we’d appreciate that too.’…

The 1922 Tour de France was a tale of the tortoise and several hares that pulled up lame. Philippe Thys won five stages but broke a wheel. Eugéne Christophe led until his front forks collapsed. Jean Alavoine won three stages in a row but lost 76 minutes with a string of punctures, leaving Hector Heusghem wearing yellow – until he picked up a one-hour penalty for swapping a damaged bike that could have been repaired. And so Firmin Lambot, at 36, became the Tour’s oldest winner. The record still stands, despite advances in sports science theoretically extending the careers of the very best riders. So what is the ideal age at which to be a winning pro cyclist – or, for that matter, a winning club rider? ‘The standard thinking…

The summit of Dongyanshan signals the high point of the day. We’ve been on the road for little over an hour and we’re spent. Another hors catégorie climb has been ticked off, but our list of scalps doesn’t even begin to touch the sides of this cloud-stretching land they call Taiwan. We need more time. Our Taiwan journey has been relentless, the days busily filled with rides along the coastline and northern mountains – but there has been far too much on offer to squeeze into a single trip. We’re yet to even pack for the return leg home and have already promised ourselves we’ll be back one day. Yao Chenyu, a Taipei bike shop owner and our guide for the day, is already planning tomorrow’s ride. The rest of…

For Adelaide native Ryan Hodges, the involuntary yet necessary act of breathing while racing his bike up infamous Willunga Hill – not once, but twice – during last year’s Beat Cancer Tour in South Australia is something he no longer takes for granted. That’s because two years ago, the then 32-year-old father-to-be was rocked after being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Hodges was previously the picture of good health. A non-smoker and long-time cyclist was simply not supposed to develop deadly lung cancer. But after six months of increasing difficulty breathing, a CAT scan showed a tumour that was originally dismissed as a severe bout of pneumonia. ‘I just didn’t feel right,’ Hodges tells Cyclist. ‘Breathing was difficult and even after multiple doctor visits and a chest X-ray, I…

If you ever thought bike designers were running out of ideas, this issue’s test bikes will make you think again. From the brand built in a barn to an internet leviathan, these two bikes from Trek and Canyon push the design envelope in new and exciting directions, be it clever comfort solutions or intricate design flair. Our choices have never been so broad, which is good, because let’s face it: there’s always room for one more.…

Cyclist: The UCI suspended testing of disc brakes on safety grounds after Movistar’s Fran Ventoso was badly injured at Paris-Roubaix. Will they be making a return? Brian Cookson: I don’t think we have seen the end of disc brakes by any means. We took the cautious decision. The equipment commission looked at the whole issue over the past year or two and agreed to allow limited testing. With the Ventoso incident some serious concerns were raised and while there are alternative interpretations as to what may have happened, the equipment commission erred on the side of safety. So it is a temporary halt. There may well be requirements to modify them – maybe a cover or something – but it was right to err on the side of caution. Cyc:…

The following references to ‘suffering’ are meant in the context of sport. Just because you can’t stand in the shower after a race or training session, it doesn’t mean you have suffered as much as a victim of war, disease, famine or poverty. Cyclists used to suffer in silence. Now we sing from the rooftops about it. Instead of a sign of weakness, it’s a badge of honour. You can get a ‘Suffer Score’ on Strava, subscribe to videos from ‘Sufferfest’, or enter a race called ‘The Suffering’. One well-known brand has even adopted the slogan Ex Duris Gloria – ‘From Suffering Comes Glory’ – for its cycling club, and published a book called Kings of Pain. Suffering is now a USP. Inevitably, it’s us amateurs who make the biggest…

How many chains do you think a pro team goes through in a year? It’s about 1,000. Gels? About 15,000. And how many men does it take to change the pressure washer in a team bus? About eight (if you include me, standing around and making helpful suggestions). Cyclist is at the Trek-Segafredo service course in Deinze, Belgium, and a large kerfuffle has erupted as the team bus has just arrived back from the Tour de Suisse. This doesn’t happen often, and the service course is usually a calming place – a warehouse stocked with order, tranquillity and all the bike parts you could ever dream of. The service course is a pro team’s base of operations, where everything is kept to run the team throughout the year. Service courses…

Remember twanging rulers on desks at school? The shatterproof plastic ones were best. You could create some great comedy noises, altering the pitch by how far along you held it and even sliding it mid-twang for a different kind of sound altogether. Why, you might ask, am I wittering on about schoolboy classroom antics? Well, oddly that’s what comes to mind when I think of describing the way Trek has designed the seat tube of its new Domane in order to offer tuneable comfort. For the record it doesn’t make any twangy noises, but the seat tube is split in two below the IsoSpeed decoupler (where the seat tube bisects the top tube), with a movable wedge sandwiched in between. Loosening the clamp bolt, which also doubles as one of…