Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2025 i Cyclist

The idea is inspired by the Stage 20 battle between the top three riders on GC at the Giro d’Italia, where Simon Yates rode away from Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz on the Colle delle Finestre to snatch a remarkable last-minute victory. At the beginning of the stage, Yates was 1min 21sec down on leader Del Toro and 38sec down on second place Carapaz, so when he attacked, it looked like he’d need a miracle to put himself in pink. That miracle came when the two chasers started to squabble over who would do the work to close the gap to Yates. Both Del Toro and Carapaz knew that if they worked together they could pull Yates back, but neither wanted to gift the other an advantage, and both…

When it comes to gravel bikes, most of the builders Cyclist speaks to are from road cycling backgrounds. But not James Egercz. A decorated downhill racer, the Craft Bikes man is no stranger to ‘sending it’, and his gung-ho riding style has a big impact on the way he thinks about drop-bar bikes. ‘We tend to ride our gravel bikes pretty aggressively – more like crosscountry mountain bikes,’ Egercz says. ‘Bearing that in mind, we do things a little bit differently when it comes to designing and building them.’ Craft doesn’t do off-the-shelf bikes. Everything is bespoke, but there are a few things you’ll notice that set the company’s gravel bikes apart from the crowd. Slacker head angles, longer wheelbases, lower bottom brackets – subtle MTB-inspired geometric tweaks that make…

1 Gorilla Brakes Factory Racing titanium disc brake pads £19.99, gorillabrakes.com Those who doubted orthopaedic shoes now stand corrected. As do those who doubted disc brakes. UK brand Gorilla Brakes’ Factory Racing disc brake pads are made to bed quickly, minimise noise and dissipate heat for strong and consistent braking. They’re extra lightweight too thanks to the titanium backplate, so a set weighs just 11g. 2 Vittoria Rubino Tubeless Ready tyres £45, vittoria.com What did the drummer name his two daughters? Anna 1, Anna 2. What did Vittoria name its everyday road tyre? Rubino, and it has just had an update. Vittoria says a new tread and compound that uses graphene and silica has resulted in an 18% boost in rolling efficiency, 5% in grip, 21% in puncture resistance, 13%…

This is a gravel bike firmly rooted in road, sharing not just its name with Scott’s flagship racer but a blueprint that could kid you into thinking this was a fat-tyred road bike. The Addict Gravel’s carbon tube shapes are borrowed directly from the road-going Addict RC’s wind-tunnel testing, while geometry leans towards the racy end of gravel – think low and long (for a gravel bike) for a blend of reactivity and stability. Tyre clearance is 45mm, which considering many gravel bikes go up to 55mm is a nod towards the riding this bike is designed for: fast. Not to say the Addict Gravel isn’t adept at navigating technical terrain, but this is a bike that comes into its own on fast hardpack, and even does a laudable turn…

Enve’s 6.7 wheels were added to the SES portfolio in 2022 to create a lineup that now comprises four models: 2.3, 3.4, 4.5 and 6.7. In each case, the numbers relate (loosely) to the depth of the wheels, with the rear wheel always being slightly deeper than the front. When 6.7 joined the gang, the move ushered in lighter weights across the board thanks to a new carbon fibre recipe and a hookless rim design. The SES moniker represents the top of the American company’s wheel portfolio, with the rims made at Enve’s US HQ. The 6.7s are the deepest in the range, designed for speed on flat terrain, and are used extensively by UAE Team Emirates XRG and Tadej Pogačar for one-day Classics and flat stages of the Grand…

Pearson can lay claim to being the oldest cycling brand in the world, having been founded as a bike shop in 1860. And it still is a bike shop, in a sense. That part of the business has been renamed Forge1860 and is still located in Richmond, London. The Pearson name, however, was carved out several years ago. ‘Will and Guy Pearson, descendants of Tom, Pearson’s founder, spotted an opportunity in apparel, so created an offshoot business,’ says CEO Scott Davies. ‘It didn’t work out – clothing is a difficult category – but as a result we ended up in a position where the Pearson name was on a ton of stuff: socks, wheels, allen keys…’ That’s not counting a diverse range of framesets, which the brand offered even before…

If you’ve seen a flock of road cyclists recently, there’s a good chance they will have passed by in a chalky blur of muted tones. Over the years, jersey designs have gone through primary colours, dabbled with multiple logos, made it past fluoro and moved into plain black, followed by block patterns, florals and tie-dye. Now we’re in an age where the trend leans towards the plain and earthy. Propelled by the boom in gravel riding and bikepacking adventures, every major cycling apparel brand now has range of pattern-free jerseys with minimal logos in off-white, beige, stone, moss and other understated hues you’d expect to find on a Farrow & Ball colour chart. Rhiannon Wakefield, a senior designer at British brand Albion, suggests this is a bid to avoid the…

It’s hard to imagine a better place to start a ride. At 1,326m Briançon is the highest city in France. And with 300 clear days a year on average, it’s also one of the sunniest. To describe the morning air here as ‘crisp’ or ‘fresh’ is to do it a disservice, and if a few hearty lungfuls isn’t enough to get any cyclist in the spirit, the prospect of having some of the Tour’s most iconic climbs within spitting distance should do the trick. The Col du Galibier, Col du Granon and Col de Montgenèvre all lie to the north, each framed by a postcard backdrop of pine forest and Alpine pasture. But that’s not where I’m heading today. My route, known as Boucle d’Izoard, or the ‘Izoard Loop’, takes…

Nestled among the jagged pinnacles of the Dolomites at the rock summit of the 2,239m Passo Pordoi is a blue-green bronze monument that commemorates the Italian legend Fausto Coppi. The five-time Giro d’Italia winner crossed the Pordoi in first place on five occasions between 1947 and 1954, etching his name into cycling folklore. The monument depicts his heroic cresting of the summit, cheered on by boisterous spectators, with the imposing saw-toothed peak of the 2,950m Sass Pordoi framing his glory. Even when you manage to recover your breath from the steep bends, it will be taken away by the spellbinding scenery ‘I was first over the summit there five times, maybe because whenever I was in that area I could breathe beautifully,’ he once said. Brutality and beauty: that is…

They say that Wales is home to more sheep than people, the UK has more potholes than miles of road, and at any given time a third of all French workers are on strike. But should you believe them? In my case I’m struggling when my ride guide, Roberto, tells me Valtellina has more churches than houses, even if the horizon of these hills presents a compelling case. This valley region makes up a good chunk of Italy’s northern border with Switzerland, and as a once key passage from Italy to Germany, it has been heavily contested for half a millennium. Subsumed, annexed, ceding, seizing, declaring independence, capitulating… it all happened here, and often as not it all happened in the name of God – specifically the Catholic and the…

Almost four years after the launch of its fiercely aero-focussed Ultra-Aero SLR, Ribble has released the Ultra-Race, a lightweight all-round race bike that is said to take learnings from its aero sibling. It replaces the Endurance SLR, which despite the name was Ribble’s previous all-round race bike. ‘We were very clear in what we wanted to achieve in this project,’ says Jamie Burrow, Ribble’s head of product: ‘To develop an all-round road bike that was faster, stiffer and lighter than the Endurance SLR and optimised for racing on a mixed parcours. Having completed years of CFD and wind-tunnel testing on the Ultra-Aero before starting this project, we were able to hit the ground running.’ One of the headline changes is the use of MT65 carbon, a particularly stiff and light…

The Tarmac SL7 has since been replaced by the SL8, but that doesn’t make it any less the epitome of the modern all-round race bike. It’s lightweight enough to worry the UCI rule book and aero enough that it brought an end to Specialized’s dedicated aero bike, the Venge. The result is a bike that feels planted on the flats and spritely in the hills. While Specialized will usually supply its Tarmac models dressed top to toe with its in-house Roval components, this one came equipped with an Ultegra Di2 groupset, Zipp 303 Firecrest wheels, 28mm S-Works tubeless tyres and an Enve SES AR handlebar. All of which were near perfect for an assault on the Izoard, offering a pleasing blend of lightness, stiffness and comfort. The geometry is racy…

Henri Desgrange Tour de France In the early 1890s a young Victor Goddet was working at the Vélodrome de l’Est, Paris. Every day a twenty-something rider arrived and every day Goddet studiously checked his pass. One day the rider queried this charade, stating Goddet knew very well he was a member. ‘Certainly,’ Goddet replied, ‘but I’m responsible for checking the riders, making sure they have their cards. Excuse me for doing my job.’ The rider went on his way, impressed by Goddet’s diligence. And that is how Henri Desgrange, future founder of the Tour de France, met Victor Goddet, the man he would later trust to hold the Tour’s purse strings. Desgrange was born in Paris on 31st January 1865. He gained his baccalaureate, then studied law and found work…

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/165italy or scan the QR code. The ride heads east out of Chiuro along farm tracks and gravel before joining up with SP21 at Vangione. Continue to Branchi and onwards towards Tirano, making an effective U-turn at Campagna to head southwest to the SS38. At Tresenda take the SP21 to Teglio, follow it all the way to Ponte in Valtellina and Tresivio, then fork right to Montagna in Valtellina. Follow the panoramic farm track to Ponchiera, over the bridge Passerella sulle Cassandre, and follow signs to Sondrio’s old town. If you started in Chiuro, complete the loop via the quieter SP19 to Ponte del Baghetto, then cross the Adda river back to Chuiro.…

The SuperX name has heritage within the Cannondale brand. It first appeared in 2010 attached to a dedicated cyclocross bike, but in 2021 the original SuperX was replaced by the SuperSix Evo SE and CX. The change in name only served to cause confusion – was it essentially a road bike with bigger clearances, a gravel bike with a cross build, or a cross bike with gravel leanings? In many ways it was all of the above, so Cannondale decided that its naming conventions needed better clarity. This latest update brings the SuperX name back, repositioning the bike as a race-focussed gravel machine that can double up for cyclocross duties. Speed is the main focus, so aerodynamics has become an increasingly important part of the gravel racing bike’s makeup. Cannondale…

Founded in Milan in 1947, Cinelli is one of the world’s oldest surviving bike brands. It is perhaps best known for its Hour record-setting Supercorsa Pista bike and more recently the Vigorelli track/crit bike, but Cinelli also has off-road heritage. When it was released in 1985, the Rampichino was Europe’s first mountain bike, Cinelli claims. Then, 25 years later came the alloy Zydeco cyclocross/gravel bike, followed in 2020 by a carbon version, the King Zydeco. Now we have the King Zydeco 2, an updated carbon gravel race bike that sits above the alloy Zydeco in Cinelli’s range, and alongside its handmade steel Nemo Tig adventure gravel bike. ‘We want to separate the carbon race model from adventure gravel because gravel is really segmenting,’ says Cinelli’s head of product, Fabrizio Aghito.…