Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Cyclist

To my lovesick eye, there’s just something about the Master that represents everything that is beautiful and best about the bicycle. It harks back to an age in the early 1980s when bikes and their riders were made of steel, and everything about the sport had a certain elegance even when it was covered in mud and blood. Yet it’s also representative of the constant drive for technological improvements – the Master’s crimped tubes were aimed at making the frame stiffer and lighter (I’m not convinced by the science but I’m not going to argue with Ernesto Colnago, and they just look super-cool). To this day, my yearnings for a Master remain unfulfilled. Mundane practicalities have always got in the way, such as my inability to find one in the…

In a world of weight savings, watts and Strava segments, it’s easy to forget that bicycles are first and foremost machines of utility. Pete Skelton of Medusa Cycles knows this – that much is evident in his frame designs – but he also understands that functionality needn’t come at the expense of beauty and craftsmanship. ‘I was raised around my dad’s steel race bikes,’ Skelton tells Cyclist. ‘I’ve never owned a car, so cycling has always been a necessity. As the years progressed I found myself drawn more and more to the utilitarian side of things.’ Skelton recalls three bikes that used to hang in his parents’ garage: a steel frame handbuilt by his dad, an MKM tourer with handpainted gold lug lining, and a Thompson race bike, complete with…

It was approaching half past one on the afternoon of 13th May 1906 when a 20-year-old rider called Marcel Cadolle, who had turned professional just months earlier, sprinted under the finishing banner in Ville d’Avray to claim the 16th edition of the Bordeaux-Paris Classic. Cadolle, who had been in the saddle for 19h 26min, had spent much of the race at the front before making his move after the control at Dourdan. There, with around 40km to go, he had jumped from his bike and swiftly scribbled on the control sheet before remounting and riding away from Henri Cornet and Louis Trousselier, winners of the Tour de France in 1904 and 1905 respectively, and the only riders capable of remaining with the young Cadolle. ‘Here Cadolle is already at the…

‘We were seeing no movement in the marketplace when we were working on this and then suddenly two came out before us. It was kind of funny, but also nice to have the concept validated.’ So says Jason Haney, CEO of Caveworks, which along with Zwift and Elite released an indoor frameset last year. These indoor-only frames stand on an elongated fork while the dropouts mount to a turbo trainer. They cost and weigh much less than a smart bike while providing similarly easy fit adjustment. In removing the need to ride your outdoor bike on a turbo they offer some clear advantages for those seeking a halfway house between full-blown smart bike and a traditional bike-and-trainer setup. Zwift was first to the draw with its Ride frame in June…

1 Silca Wax Starter Pack £36, saddleback.co.uk There’s a reason why you don’t see elephants hiding in trees – they’re so good at it. And there’s a reason why you should wax your chain – it will run smoother and quieter for longer. Silca’s Wax Starter Pack includes a chain stripper to help take the lube off new or nearly new chains and prepare the surface, and follows it up with its Super Secret Chain Coating, which is a waterproof liquid wax. 2 Pop Permanent White socks £16, popcyclingco.com Why did the hipster burn his mouth on his dinner? He ate it before it was cool. And it’s safe to say he’s been wearing Pop’s cycling socks for ages now. They come in black, charcoal, navy and, most importantly, white,…

What is an all-road bike? A bike where every ride ends in Rome, surely? Unfortunately, the real answer isn’t as clear-cut. In the ever-expanding bike spectrum, trying to figure out what sits where is becoming increasingly difficult. So perhaps instead of using categories as a way of figuring out what a bike is, maybe it would be easier to use them to understand what a bike isn’t. That means when you see a bike that’s labelled as all-road, you know that it’s not going to have 25mm tyres, a low front end and have sacrificed comfort in the name of maximising outright speed. You also know that it’s not going to be long and slack, with suspension forks and a penchant for going places that might actually be better served…

‘Arace superbike might be what the pros ride, but that’s not what we think you should ride. We’ve made the Roadmachine for normal human beings, so it isn’t going to please the pros,’ says Pierre-Henri Medas, BMC’s product manager. ‘The more people we have on Roadmachines, the happier riders they will be.’ Endurance bikes have come a long way (literally) since the Roadmachine’s first iteration, the Granfondo, was launched in 2013. Disc brakes have allowed for wider tyres, with the subsequent benefits of improved comfort and reduced rolling resistance. Elsewhere, carbon fibre and cable integration have become ubiquitous, and long distance riders are willing to accept some extra weight in exchange for practical touches such as down tube storage, a chain catcher and integrated lighting – all of which feature…

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How the body adapts when it’s exposed to exercise in hot conditions is only just beginning to be properly understood, but the potential benefits are already becoming clear. Heat training is now being talked of in the same breath as altitude training, except adaptations occur more quickly and from training that is more convenient for athletes’ schedules. As such, it is exploding in popularity, being used by both riders targeting one hot event and those looking for more general performance gains over the long term. To see what all the fuss is about, Cyclist visited Dorset-based sports nutrition brand Precision Fuel & Hydration to undertake a training session in its shiny new ‘heat chamber’, an insulated room where the temperature sits at a balmy 40°C. Cycling sauna ‘That’s the best…

There are no rubbish bikes in Mallorca. If you were ever slightly suspicious as to whether companies actually sold their five-digit hero bikes – and indeed to whom, and where they got ridden – your answer is on this island. And yet for the most part, the riders who come here tend to tick off the same two climbs, Sa Calobra and Cap de Formentor, before packing their Bike Box Alans onto the next flight home. Don’t get me wrong, those climbs are stunning with a capital S-bend, so much so that if you only had a single cycling day left on Earth you might well choose one of them to ride. But I’ve been assured that if I do have a little more time on both island and mortal…

Despite its Germanic name, the bald slopes of Blockhaus lie more than 500km from Italy’s German speaking frontier. Instead, this Apennine peak – located between the Adriatic and the jagged spine of the Italian peninsula – was named after a 19th-century outpost built by Austrian soldiers during the Unification of Italy. As troops advanced towards Rome, the Austrians abandoned the fort in 1867, precisely 100 years before the Giro d’Italia first discovered this mountain test. Having patiently waited its turn, this climb made a strong first impression in 1967 when a 21-year-old Giro debutant called Eddy Merckx claimed his first Grand Tour stage victory on these slopes – the first of 64 in total. The Belgian later paid homage to the climb by naming an Eddy Merckx-branded frameset Blockhaus 67…

The current fashion for all-road bikes dovetails nicely with the UK’s descent into crumbling tarmac hell, as our highways now pay living tribute to writer Louis Sachar’s seminal children’s classic, Holes. Ridley’s Grifn RS is a genre-blurrer, much in the way the mythical griffin is a species-blurrer. The RS is a tweaked and enhanced version of the existing Grifn, dropping 140g from the frame for a claimed weight of 840g (medium), adding a smidge more tyre clearance (42mm rather than 40mm) and even throwing in some aero gains – a claimed 5% less drag at 36kmh. The extra slipperiness comes courtesy of the revised fork crown, which improves airflow around the upper portion of the down tube. On that front, Ridley has collaborated with Apidura to offer an optional dedicated…

Cyclist: You claimed your first Grand Tour stage victory on the final day’s time-trial at the Vuelta a España in 2024. Did that feel a long time coming? Stefan Küng: My first Tour de France in 2017 had an opening time-trial in Düsseldorf. I came second behind Geraint Thomas and everybody said, ‘The win will come soon, you will see.’ It hasn’t been that easy. It took me seven more years to finally get it done, which just shows that even though sometimes it looks like a path is written for you, like you’re just going to open your arms and collect these victories, in the end winning Grand Tour stages means you’ve got to beat them all. And the best riders of our sport participate in these Grand Tours. I’ve…

Cyclist: You were a national junior ski slalom champion before you got into cycling. How did your passion for cycling develop? Anna Henderson: My parents were very active so our holidays always involved being on a bike, playing tennis or swimming. I was ski racing a lot as a kid and it shaped my personality and helped me to grow up. You spend a lot of time away from home. It opened me up to meeting people and having new experiences, which has helped me pick my way through the world of cycling, which is not a straight line. I broke my leg while skiing and it was an unnecessarily complicated recovery. Even walking was painful so I started biking more. I was trying to find more girls in cycling and…

Cyclist underwent a sample heat training session at Precision Fuel & Hydration’s HQ in Christchurch, Dorset (precisionhydration.com). Each session consists of a 60-minute sub-maximal effort in PF&H’s heat chamber. It’s set at 40°C and the rider can use a supplied smart bike or bring their own bike to set up on an indoor trainer. During the session, power output is controlled via heart rate, with the aim being to maintain the rate at 150bpm. One session costs £150, or you can get a block of five sessions for £629, or ten for £999. PF&H is currently the only company to offer dedicated heat training in the UK, but there are DIY ways to recreate the effects of heat stress. The obvious, though pricy, option is to travel to a country…

On a soaking wet training ride in Wales in 2012, a fresh-faced Luke Rowe looks directly at the camera: ‘Twenty guys on the bikes… except Jon Mould and Owain Doull, tucked up in bed. Won’t get you anywhere, boys. Four months’ time, I’ll be riding against the best guys in the world.’ The video clip, taken by Welsh Cycling TV, encapsulates Rowe, gently mocking his Welsh compatriots, an impish grin hiding a steely determination. The then-21-year-old Rowe proceeds to mention that he’d do anything to be a professional and to win races. Over the next 13 years he will actually achieve very few of those wins he craves – just two, the more recent of which comes on Stage 2 of the 2017 Herald Sun Tour – but his career…

Known for pioneering frameset designs, Look’s flagship race bike, the 795 Blade RS, actually fits quite unobtrusively in the modern line-up of aero-light bikes. Previous 795s have sported out-there details such as top tubes flowing into stems and one-piece proprietary carbon cranks, but now, after a ground-up redesign, it is looking more like one of the bunch, even if Look doesn’t quite see it that way. ‘The philosophy for updating the 795 was radically different,’ says Romain Simon, Look’s product manager. ‘The Blade is now not technically an aero bike. We were committed to creating a bike that is the most precise and efficient going downhill and in the turns.’ Visually, you’d be hard pressed to disagree. Catch a look Sitting somewhere between the Specialized Tarmac SL8, the Canyon Aeroad…

Nothing is safe from the claws of innovation when it comes to cycling tech, not even the humble helmet strap. In partnership with the HighBar design team headed by Eric Horton – formerly of Giro and Specialized – Canyon has launched the Disruptr helmet, which comes with a new semi-rigid strap system that claims to position the helmet more securely than traditional fabric-based designs. ‘Worn incorrectly – as many are – helmets can shift dramatically in a crash, exposing vulnerable areas to impact,’ says Horton. ‘This simple adjustment system increases the chances of the rider getting the helmet adjusted correctly. Plus, meaningful performance benefits are baked in.’ The claimed advantages include speed (7-watt efficiency gain at 50kmh compared to a traditional strap), temperature (4.8°C reduction in skin temperature around the…