Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2025 i Cyclist

What would it feel like to be punched by Tyson Fury? Or to be at the bottom of a ruck in the Six Nations rugby championship? Or to approach a chicane at 180mph on the Nürburgring? With most sports we can never really understand what the pros are going through because we haven’t been there. That’s where cycling is different. Almost uniquely in sport, everyday cycling fans can emulate their heroes by riding the same roads using the same equipment, experiencing the same difficulties and feeling the same pain (only at a slower pace and with fewer people waving flags in your face). Cycling’s most famous arenas – Alpe d’Huez, the Stelvio, the Koppenberg, the strade bianche of Tuscany – are all freely available to visit to recreate your own…

Back in his riding days, Adam Hansen was known for taking a particularly studious and progressive approach to his fit and equipment setup. He made his own super-light shoes – essentially carbon fibre slippers with cleats – ran his saddle slammed forward, his bars narrow and his front end low. In hindsight, these fit traits were ahead of their time. Another idiosyncrasy could be found at his cranks, which were unusually long at 180mm. Hansen believed that because this increased torque, it increased power. You can hardly argue it was a bad move considering his stellar career, to this day holding the record for the most consecutive Grand Tours ridden (20). But it may have been even better if Hansen had gone the other way. Although he was generating more…

It’s 4am on a late-February morning when my alarm shocks me awake. In a daze, I grab the few items I’m going to need – helmet, gels, spotlessly white shoes, passport – and try to prepare myself for the challenge ahead. It was a year ago that two of my Cyclist colleagues successfully managed to travel to Belgium, do a ride that took in many of the classic bergs of the Tour of Flanders, and get home again in a day. The challenge facing me repeats the out-and-back-in-a-day format, but with an altogether more demanding ride: the final 100km of Paris-Roubaix. London is cold, dark and unsettlingly quiet. There are only a handful of trains humming gently in St Pancras Station by the time I link up with Laurence, my…

A lot of Nitto’s business still comes from keirin but it’s also big in the European fixie scene and, in Japan, touring Nitto Component manufacturer, Fukushima Nitto is over 100 years old now, founded in 1923, but unlike European brands there isn’t this romantic vibe about it. There is a traditional artisan crafts scene in Japan but the reality is it’s much more functional and the true value isn’t so much in the products but in the labour and toil, which the Japanese call monozukuri – literally to ‘make’ (zukuri) ‘things’ (mono). Even in an office, the customary exchange between workers at the end of the day is gokurosama, meaning ‘thank you for your effort’. Monozukuri is a kind of spirit of work ethic. So at Nitto the employees need…

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Creating a cycling jacket that can repel rain and block wind while remaining light, stretchy, packable and breathable is a difficult trick to pull off. Until now, it has required a dark kind of magic to achieve this level of performance – dark enough that the PFAS-laden fabrics involved are now being phased out. ‘From a moral, ecological and legal point of view, we needed to change,’ says Fergus Niland, Santini’s creative director. ‘Even though we aren’t a colossal global entity like a Patagonia or an Adidas, at least we can say, “We did this.”’ Not that Santini or any other manufacturer really had a choice. It will soon be illegal to produce garments that contain PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals. Cut from a different cloth Fabricated with Polartec’s Power Shield RPM…

As road bike designers continue to oscillate between ultra-light, ultra-aero and all-round designs, gravel bikes are going through their own growing pains with manufacturers trying to work out how many kinds of bikes are required to ride different kinds of off-road in different kinds of ways. For Trek the answer is now ‘two’, having released the race-oriented Checkmate gravel bike to sit alongside the Checkpoint, which is now more about endurance and adventure. ‘In previous generations of the Checkpoint, we were trying to stuff lots of use cases into one bike,’ says Trek’s Whitney Beadle. ‘It was for racing, for cafe rides, for bikepacking and for just riding with your friends. We were stifled by trying to be all those things, so our decision this time around was to focus…

‘In some ways I feel this bike isn’t meant for a show,’ says Russell Stout. ‘Handbuilt bike shows are all about the complexities and details of bike design. Try as I might, I can’t help but keep things simple. A bike is a tool for a job and in my opinion doesn’t need more than what’s absolutely necessary. But I still wanted to show that aluminium can be part of the mix.’ The Bespoked handmade bike show in Manchester is dominated by elegant steel tubes and outlandish design quirks, but Stout is flying the flag for no-fuss aluminium frames. Operating out of a modest workshop in the Scottish Borders, armed with a jig, a mill, a welder and little else, he builds bikes for the love of it, using what…

1 Zéfal K-Traz U20 lock £89.99, chickencyclekit.co.uk Remorse is sending the same code twice. Regret is using a bad bike lock. That’s why accessories brand Zéfal created the K-Traz U20 lock, which it calls the ‘most efficient’ U-lock in its range and which has received top marks from France’s Sold Secure equivalent, SRA. It’s made from hardened steel and has a protective coating so it doesn’t damage your paint. 2 New Black Cyclones: Racism, Representation And Revolutions Of Power in Cycling by Marlon Lee Moncrieffe £20, bloomsbury.com Shout out to anyone wondering what the opposite of in is. And shout out to Marlon Lee Moncrieffe for writing a follow up to the award-winning Desire, Discrimination, Determination – Black Champions In Cycling. In New Black Cyclones, Moncrieffe speaks to Black people throughout the…

Three generations does not a dynasty make, but after less than a decade and just three iterations, the Basso Diamante SV has come to the end of the line. Its replacement, titled simply SV (the initials standing for sempre veloce, which means ‘always fast’ in Italian), incorporates the racy and aero elements of its predecessor while falling into line with some more versatile design trends. It will sit alongside the Diamante, Basso’s lightweight climber’s bike, and the all-road Astra. According to the brand, the SV melds elements from both racing and all-road bikes, a hybrid Basso has been able to design because of – not in spite of – its absence from the WorldTour. Product manager Leonardo Basso, whose father Alcide started Basso Bikes, says the foundation of the SV’s…

If you’ve ever had even a passing interest in bikes with 20-inch wheels, there’s no way you haven’t heard of Haro. Founded right at the beginning of the BMX craze, Bob Haro started by selling BMX number plates in magazine ads and ended up with a freestyle team and a brand that would become synonymous with the sport, being ridden by some of the biggest names around, including the legendary Mat Hoffman. So why is a company right at the other end of the two-wheeled spectrum now making a road bike? It’s a question I put to Lasse Norman Leth, gold medal winner at the 2012 and 2021 Olympic Games in the omnium and madison respectively, who also happens to be Haro’s European road product manager. ‘I guess the right…

Cyclist: You’re an endurance cyclist and runner, competing in some of the toughest races in the world, and yet that’s only a small part of what you’ve overcome… Juan Dual: My background is quite difficult. Let’s say I’ve got an intense relationship with cancer. I have a rare disease [familial adenomatous polyposis], which develops cancer through most of the digestive system. So in order to save me from the cancer I have had the four biggest parts of my digestive system removed. It’s why they call me Empty Juan. Cyc: When did you get diagnosed? JD: I was 13. The doctors tested for this condition because my grandmother and uncle had died of colon cancer so they realised it could be a genetic condition I had. In a way it’s a great…

Cyclist Track Days offer a unique opportunity to ride a wide range of top-spec road bikes on a closed road circuit. Spend a day putting bikes from some of the world’s biggest brands through their paces, and we’ll even throw in coffees and lunch. SPECIAL OFFER Cyclist mag subscribers get 15% off ticket price Tickets and info: cyclisttrackdays.com Test ride bikes from these top brands Basso, Cannondale, Condor, Dolan, Enve, Factor, Orbea, Ribble, Scott, Specialized, Trek, Van Rysel, Wilier… with more still to be announced Bath, Odd Down Cycle Track 26th April 2025 London, Lee Valley VeloPark 17th May 2025 Leeds, Brownlee Centre 7th June 2025…

It’s 417km in a straight line across the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The Franco-Spanish border, for the most part, follows the highest line of mountains, which must have seemed entirely logical when it was formalised in 1659. Consequently, the boundary line itself runs for 656km. Along that distance, there are only six high passes between the two nations, plus one more into Andorra. Of those, the Col du Portillon is the lowest, peaking at a modest 1,293m. Hardly a claim to fame. Its official average gradient of 6.6% doesn’t sound particularly epic either. So why are we here? Do not judge the Col du Portillon by the stats but by the company it keeps. Its numbers alone might leave you unimpressed and reluctant to include it on…

Parlee is renowned for its bespoke framesets. American-made tube-to-tube models such as the Z-Zero have built its reputation for robust, high-quality designs that ride superbly. Yet, while not as widely recognised, stock models are just as integral to the lineup. ‘We’ve offered stock alongside our custom options for more than 17 years,’ says Tom Rodi, Parlee’s product manager. What is new, however, is the provenance of Parlee’s stock models. Traditionally they’ve been made in the Far East, just like many of Parlee’s competitors’ are, but the brand’s new all-road bike, the Ouray (pronounced yur-ray) and its gravel counterpart, the Taos, are made in Portugal. ‘It’s been a tumultuous few years. Bob sadly passed away last year, and that was after a rocky time commercially as well. But things settled down…

Freed from the shackles of the rim brake calliper, road bike tyre sizes have been trending upwards for a decade, but their growth in volume has accelerated recently. With its new 40mm wide P Zero Race TLR model, Pirelli is arguably the first road racing-focussed brand to introduce an extra-wide slick. This tyre has been launched as an extension to the brand’s Race TLR range, which until the 40mm came along ran from 26mm to 35mm in five increments. Broadly, Pirelli positions the Race TLR as its premium all-round tubeless road tyre, akin to a Continental GP5000 S TR but made in Italy. ‘It’s a race tyre but capable of rougher usage, a Roubaix or Flanders choice, for example,’ says Pirelli’s Samuele Bressan. Pirelli has three tyres in its Race…