Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i Cyclist

I’ve been thinking a lot about speed lately. For years I would have agreed with the words of movie star and occasional cycling fan Tom Cruise in his seminal work Top Gun: ‘I feel the need, the need for speed.’ But more recently I’ve been wondering, do I? Do I feel the need for speed? I’m just not sure anymore. Whenever I head out for a weekend ride, I always record the details on my bike computer, and I always take note of my average speed. But is this just habit or do I really care how fast I’m going? It’s not like I’m in danger of smashing any Strava segments or even setting a PB. It’s one of the simple realities of getting older that ride times just get…

Strava stats, watts per kilo, ultrahigh modulus carbon… in the performance-obsessed world of modern road cycling, the simple joy of getting around on two wheels is easily overlooked. That glorious feeling of cruising along under your own steam can get forgotten when there’s a KoM up for grabs. But Tore Juncher Jørgensen of Starfish Bicycles is on a mission to change that. From the Starfish workshop in Vester Skerninge, Denmark, Jørgensen crafts what they term ‘soft bikes for soft people’. These aren’t performance machines built for crushing PBs; they’re designed for fun with an emphasis on comfort, and what they sacrifice in speed they compensate for in character. ‘I’ve always been riding bikes,’ says Jørgensen. ‘To begin with it was just a means of transportation, but then around 2017 my…

‘When I tell people at home I’m involved in cycling, they say, “Ah, keirin?” I’m like, “No, road cycling.” And they look perplexed.’ Takuya Sakamoto has been a soigneur – the great multi-taskers of any cycling team – for American WorldTour team EF Education-EasyPost since 2021 and has worked in cycling since 2015, a career path that he admits is unusual for a young man from Japan. ‘I never thought I’d leave Japan and work in Europe,’ he says. ‘Certainly not in cycling.’ In Japan, track-based keirin racing is big business thanks to the fact that it’s one of only four sports in Japan that the public can legally gamble on, but road racing has struggled to gain traction. ‘It might seem odd that road cycling’s not more popular when…

Adam Hansen was never going to sit still in retirement. The Australian former pro is best known for his record stint of 20 consecutive Grand Tours between 2011 and 2018, and for his loyal service to sprinters Mark Cavendish and André Greipel at the T-Mobile/Columbia/High Road/HTC and Lotto/Belisol/Soudal franchises. But as a gifted polymath with eclectic interests, Hansen has a uniquely energetic mind. While racing, he built his own ultra-light carbon shoes and pioneered new approaches, using narrower handlebars, adopting a vegan diet and doing cross-country skiing in winter. He has also lectured in computer programming at Queensland’s James Cook University and built his own cycling logistics software. Since retiring he has taken up Ironman, achieving an impressive 15th place at the 2021 World Triathlon Long Distance Championships. But in…

Aero kit is fastest on the flat; lightweight kit is fastest on steep climbs – we all know that. But what if you’re doing a long ride such as a gran fondo, with flat sections, climbs, descents, the full works? Is an aero, lightweight or all rounder setup faster overall? The answer isn’t obvious, so to find out we brought together three bikes and three corresponding sets of kit and tested them all on a 100km loop in the French Pyrenees, including an ascent of the mighty Col du Tourmalet. In total, the ride has 2,000m of ascent and is dominated by that famous climb, but it’s worth remembering that the Tourmalet accounts for only a fifth of the full distance, with much of the rest of the route looking…

The Grail is the racier of Canyon’s two gravel bikes – the other being the burlier Grizl – and is focussed on fast-paced gravel rides and races. And the first thing anyone familiar with the history of the Grail will notice is that the new bike has ditched its predecessor’s Double Decker bar. The Double Decker was a novel – and aesthetically challenging – suspension setup where a second bar ‘hovered’ over a lower bar, which allowed the top bar to flex considerably. The new Grail has gone for a much more conventional-looking bar, which Canyon claims is more aerodynamic and offers better ergonomics than the Double Decker, while undoubtedly being easier on the eye. Overall, the new Grail looks even slimmer and lighter than the previous version, with design…

Merida could have halted the marketing campaign for its latest Silex after Matej Mohorič won the 2023 Gravel World Championships on one. By the Slovenian’s own admission – never mind his bike sponsor’s amazement – he wasn’t really supposed to win, and it might be fair to say the Merida Silex wasn’t supposed to win either. But then, that’s the thing. Merida says the Silex has been designed to be way more capable than the average gravel bike and has introduced some fairly radical features into the second generation of the model to ensure it lives up to its billing. The headlines are as follows: max tyre size 700c x 45mm (or 42mm with mudguards); dropped chainstays; 1x and 2x-compatible; multiple fork and frame luggage mounts; dropper post-compatible; option for…

Last issue my esteemed colleague, James Spender, penned an opinion piece entitled ‘Weight matters’ (you can read it by going to cyclist.co.uk/weightmatters). And, of course, he’s right. Weight matters a lot if, say, you are deciding who should go at the top of a human pyramid. But when it comes to bicycles, weight doesn’t matter nearly as much as we think it does. I’m not suggesting it is irrelevant – plainly a one-tonne bicycle would be a nightmare to ride compared to a 10kg bicycle – but weight is given far too much importance when it comes to how we assess the quality and suitability of the bikes we choose to ride. Whenever a manufacturer releases a new version of its top-tier road bike, it will be lighter than before.…

‘Hell is not enough of a word to describe the conditions today.’ That was the verdict of Canyon-Sram’s Kasia Niewiadoma after the 2018 Strade Bianche. She had just finished second in Siena for the third time in a row yet still had a smile on her face, reflecting that it was perhaps her destiny to be a perennial runner-up at what was fast growing into one of the most prestigious races on the women’s calendar. ‘It was an extremely tough race,’ she told Cyclingnews, ‘and I have a huge appreciation for every rider who managed to finish today.’ Held in early March, snow had hit the white roads of Tuscany in the days leading up to the race, but it was heavy rain and near-zero temperatures that met the peloton…

SUBSCRIBE TO Cyclist ENJOY A FREE ISSUE WITH A 6 MONTH DIRECT-DEBIT PRINT SUBSCRIPTION* GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE • A free issue of Cyclist with a 6-month subscription* • Free delivery of every issue • Get Cyclist before it’s in the shops • Exclusive collectable subscriber-only covers ORDER TODAY QUOTING THE OFFER CODE CYC150P store.cyclist.co.uk/cyc150p hello@metropolis.co.uk 020 8752 8195 * The offer is valid on a 6-month direct-debit print subscription only. If you wish to cancel the direct-debit offer, please contact us via phone or email. The offer is only valid for new UK customers, one per household, and while stocks last.…

This one-day race is unmistakably Tuscan, from its eponymous white gravel roads to the finale in medieval Siena’s central square ‘Fear? There’s always fear,’ says Diego Ulissi. ‘Fear is part of the DNA of every bike racer. The important thing is managing it.’ The fear is heightened at Strade Bianche on its treacherous gravel sectors. Fear of the If you’re a Tuscan, there’s also the fear of performing unknown: crashes, punctures and mechanical problems. poorly in front of your family, friends and fan club. An instant Classic since its first running in 2007, this March one-day race is unmistakably Tuscan, from its eponymous white gravel roads to the cypress trees and finale in medieval Siena’s shell-shaped central square, the Piazza del Campo. But it means even more than stunning scenery…

The two-day Cateran Dirt Dash is billed as a ‘reliability trial’ rather than a race. This may account for the discernible absence of testosterone in the air as riders of all sizes, genders and ages gather for the start in the genteel surroundings of Alyth Bowling Club in Scotland. We will be heading off-road into the Perthshire Hills but are reassured ‘The Broom Wagon of Eternal Shame’ will only ever be a phone call away. I don’t know whether ‘bunch’ is the right collective noun for a group of bikepackers – it seems appropriately less formal than ‘peloton’ – but I quickly learn that while riding with company off-road may not offer any drafting benefits, it does provide other perks. Firstly, there will be regular gates to be passed through…

Race: Tour of Flanders, 2nd April 2023 ‘I love the Tour of Flanders – it always delivers some of the most attritional racing of the year, and never more so than the 2023 edition when the back half of the peloton was forced to stop and unclip to walk their way up the Koppenberg because it was just too steep and slippery to ride. It’s nice to be occasionally reminded that the pros aren’t superhuman.’ Race: Giro d’Italia, Stage 5, 10th May 2023 ‘For most of the day, Stage 5 of the Giro was a fairly straightforward sprint stage. But right at the end everything turned upside down – literally, in the case of Mark Cavendish [Astana]. In incredibly wet conditions, the final sprint ended with Cav coming down and…

I ride past solidified rivers of lava and dark pine trees into a kaleidoscope of colour. My gravel tyres shimmy over blazing rust-red dirt and dust the shade of white-hot pumice. I pass strange, sea-green boulders and black orbs of rock that glisten like the island’s night skies. And all around me the yellow flowers of Codeso del Pico and Teide Flixweed drench this alien world in a buttery glow. Many cyclists visit Tenerife, but without gravel tyres they will never get to see this remote, psychedelic dreamscape. Thanks to its volcanic geology and isolated geography, Tenerife is a laboratory for volcanologists, a museum for geologists, a pristine paradise for astronomers, a testing ground for Nasa astronauts and a film set for Hollywood movies. But the largest of the Canary…

‘I’m gone. I’m dead,’ crackles the team radio. Unzipped jersey flailing in the wind, his trademark tufts poking through his helmet, Tadej Pogačar couldn’t look more done if he tried. His 2023 Tour de France dream is over, and the culprit? Yesterday’s time trial didn’t help, nor Jumbo-Visma turning the screws today. But it’s not the time gap or a metronomic Jonas Vingegaard that has floored the Slovenian, it’s this climb: the Col de la Loze. ‘A kilometre here just goes on and on forever,’ says commentator Sean Kelly as the moto camera takes an alarming tilt. Joining forces Located between the ski resorts of Méribel and Courchevel in France’s Savoie department, the Col de la Loze is a beast, albeit a newly discovered one. Until a few years ago…

It’s rare for a sunglasses brand to be able to claim that it has brought something new to the table, but that is exactly what Poc says it has done with its Propel glasses. They have been designed using computational fluid dynamics to enhance their aerodynamic performance. That’s right: aero sunglasses. What’s more, in the context of the latest trend for helmets overlapping ears being pioneered by Kask and Poc itself, it seems the Propels were just step one in the process of extending the slipstream potential from helmet to the rest of the head. Aero edges Poc says the Propel’s gains come from a trailing edge at the sides of the lens, which is shaped to direct airflow away from the ears and towards the shoulders, not unlike its…

It wasn’t meant to be like this. Prepandemic, Zwift had plans to launch a high-end trainer and smart bike, but the change in audience demographic prompted by Covid – new cyclists looking for low-cost ways into training – caused the brand to reassess how to best serve the market. The result was the Hub, a solid direct-drive trainer at a disruptively low price. Zwift has now superseded that with the Hub One, a smart trainer that aims to simplify indoor riding even further. The already competitive hardware price is sweetened with a one-year Zwift app subscription, while the inclusion of the Zwift Cog – a single sprocket that enables virtual shifting – means most 8-12 speed bikes can be used without the need to switch out cassettes or freehub bodies.…