Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2025 i Cyclist

Tubeless tyre technology first swept through mountain biking before taking over gravel, where the ability to run wide tyres at low pressure with little puncture risk is increasingly valuable. Among roadies, however, tubeless is more divisive. ‘The vast majority of road is still not tubeless yet,’ says Josh Poertner, CEO of accessories brand Silca, which sells both tubeless sealant and TPU inner tubes. He says that while tubeless is still best for off-road, it’s less effective for on-road owing to the higher pressures road bike tyres tend to be run at. ‘At 90-100psi you have too much force and not enough time for the sealant to seal,’ he says. ‘And when a thorn enters the tyre at high pressure it does more damage.’ The downside of standard butyl inner tubes…

When it comes to length, most of the UK’s ‘toughest’ climbs are laughable by Alpine standards. Take France’s Col de la Croix de Fer. At 42km it makes Scotland’s 9km Bealach na Bà – the longest climb we have – look like nothing more than a knoll. A hillock at best. But size, as they say, isn’t everything. And what we lack in length, we make up for in other ways. Case in point: North Yorkshire’s infamously steep Rosedale Chimney Bank. Often mentioned alongside the Lake District’s Hardknott Pass as a contender for the most horrible thing in the country to ride a bicycle up, this wall of tarmac may only be a touch over 1.4km long, but the distance from start to finish isn’t the important part. The real…

Chris Auld Based in northeast England, Chris Auld started out shooting commercial projects for advertising and design agencies. His interest in cycling took him to races around the UK until in 2016 he photographed the UCI World Championships in Qatar. He has been documenting WorldTour races around the globe ever since. Xavier Pereyron ‘After taking a few shots, the sun gave way to pouring rain. I had to choose between my spot or my camera’ Fittingly for a dedicated cycling photographer, Xavier Pereyron grew up in a small Ardèche village in France – a hotspot for cycling. Each year he covers nearly 100 race days, with the Classics – in particular Strade Bianche, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix – being his favourites. Harry Talbot ‘I had to hike through this…

Ever heard of the BBC music show The Old Grey Whistle Test? Ever wondered what the title meant? So the story goes, music execs would play early cuts of records to the grey-suited doormen on New York’s Tin Pan Alley, known as ‘the old greys’, and if they could whistle the tune back after only hearing it a few times, it was deemed likely to become a hit. What does this have to do with the latest Cervélo S5? If there was such a thing as the ‘old passerby whistle test’, this bike would be top of the charts longer than Bryan Adams. The number of times I’ve heard something along the lines of ‘oi mate, what kind of bike is that and how much does it cost?’ while hanging…

We’ve reached the point in the evolution of the bike computer where it’s more about what you don’t want it to do than what you do want it to do. Simply put, most people will expect accurate GPS route plotting, a certain amount of data, a decent screen and longlasting battery life, but if you need fancy extras like card payments, wind detectors or bell sounds you’ll be looking beyond Wahoo’s new Elemnt Bolt. This third version of the Bolt is the US brand’s lightest (85g) and most affordable bike computer yet, which means it must cater for two potentially awkward bedfellows: the entry-level and the racers. ‘Appealing to both those groups makes you identify what is a core feature and trim anything that is just nice to have,’ says…

1 Vittoria Terreno Pro tyres £84.99, freewheel.co.uk Six out of seven dwarves aren’t happy. Four out of four of Vittoria’s Terreno Pro tyres are brown, thanks to a focus on making these top-tier gravel race tyres more eco-friendly. Vittoria claims it has reduced its carbon footprint in this category by 35% thanks to the use of 90% recycled or renewable materials, and says they’re made in the world’s only carbon neutral tyre factory. 2 Healthspan Elite gels £15.49 (for 8), healthspanelite.co.uk The problem with the tinnitus helpline is that it just keeps ringing. The problem with energy gels used to be digestion, but Healthspan Elite uses natural pectin to make digestion easier and the consistency less thick, so it’s easy to consume without water on the move. They feature 25g…

Bob Parlee went from boats into bikes. It wasn’t a huge leap as his job remained essentially the same: composites engineer. Having made boats from carbon fibre, he decided to apply his knowledge to his passion for cycling, founding his eponymous bike company in 2000. And the Z-series was where it all started. ‘Bob was one of the first to make a highperformance composite bicycle frame,’ says Parlee product manager Tom Rodi. ‘He was an active cyclist, and as composites entered boats in the 1980s he gained a lot of experience and appreciation for the material and its potential. His speciality in boats was developing foil shapes such as rudders and dagger boards.’ Given the remit of those parts, it’s perhaps unsurprising that before Parlee started his bike company he…

As a cyclist appraising an unfamiliar bike, what are the first two things you do? You give the brakes a cursory squeeze, then pick it up. Weight really is the only proper performance metric that anyone can easily and objectively measure. As such, while modern data tells us there are more decisive variables affecting speed, how much a bike weighs remains an important factor in governing how ‘good’ it is. Besides, although attributes such as aerodynamic efficiency and comfort will be more influential on the ride, weight still makes an undeniable contribution to the experience. In most situations out on the road you can feel weight, or the lack of it, more acutely than you would the effect of some aerofoil tube profiles. But aero bikes are what the pros…

Cycling in the rain is so last year. So say the head honchos at Castelli. ‘We’ve seen a dramatic decrease in the number of cyclists intentionally riding in the rain,’ says Steve Smith, Castelli’s brand manager. ‘Working with Polartec, we’ve approached the new Perfetto RoS 3 jacket with that in mind. It’s functionally waterproof but primarily breathable and windproof.’ Castelli attributes this change to the growing popularity of indoor training and better weather forecasting, and it’s significant that a brand such as this has demoted the importance of waterproof garments. The key admission surrounding the Perfetto 3’s design is that, in the brave new world of PFAS-free materials, breathability and waterproofness are almost mutually exclusive – something many brands have skirted around. ‘The Perfetto has a 5,000mm water column rating…

Aluminium, steel and titanium have their place in bike building, but nothing compares to carbon fibre in terms of design freedom. Makers can blend light weight with comfort, aerodynamic profiles with stiffness, or blend combinations of those characteristics in different areas of the same frameset by varying tube profiles or the composite recipe. Which is exactly what has happened here. Argon 18 has pushed carbon fibre’s potential for tunability further than most in its new Dark Matter gravel bike. The company is positioning the Dark Matter as all things to all riders, equal parts racer and adventurer that can turn its hand to either depending on how the bike is outfitted. Its versatility is reflected in the frame, which mashes together features that aren’t generally found on the same bike…

Subscribe now to get delivery in time for Christmas Cyclist is the award-winning magazine for people who love cycling. So if you know someone like that, a subscription to Cyclist is the perfect Christmas gift (and if that person is you, leave this magazine open at this page somewhere a family member or friend will see it). Not only will the lucky recipient get the world’s best cycling magazine delivered to their door every four or five weeks, we’ll also send you this fantastic Bike Bundle, including a Restrap Canister bar bag worth £50, a set of Lezyne lights worth £36 and an Elite Deboyo Race thermal steel bottle worth £30. Other subscriber benefits include: • Every issue of Cyclist magazine delivered free to your door before it’s in the…

Somewhere along the way, the bicycle lost its identity. The wireless-geared, internally routed, carbon fibre creations of today are barely recognisable next to their simple metal predecessors. It’s like looking at a cockapoo next to a wolf – how did this come from that? At least, that’s the view of Sam Alison of Singular Cycles. He has nothing against electronic shifting or disc brakes – he has both on a number of his own bikes – but he can’t help feeling that the old ways are often the best. ‘I see things like fully internal cable routing as being detrimental to people’s ability to fix their own bikes,’ he says. ‘And to me that is one of the beautiful things about bicycles. You have this incredible machine that can take…

Alarm. Darkness. Hotel blackout blinds open. Still darkness. Shower in oversize shower room with dinner plate shower head. Do teeth in both his and hers sinks. Find base layer in fitted wardrobe. Wonder who uses inbuilt safes. Remove bibshorts from pointless-to-steal hanger unless you have pointless-to-steal hanger engagement hoops in your wardrobe at home. By the time I’m walking across the hotel’s millimetreperfect lawns to meet Owen for breakfast, the sun has at least put its pants on, although the dimly lit scene isn’t what I’d expect of Mallorca in October. This island of winter sun, chosen for just that reason by Dave Brailsford, is, well, grey. Hotel staff poke awnings with sticks to relieve them of puddles, and although the bruised clouds have a band of white running beneath…

Two of the eight tallest peaks in the Dolomites are part of the Pale di San Martino, the largest mountain group in the range. The Vezzana and Cimon della Pala peaks are neighbours, though the latter takes the limelight – and sunlight – thanks to its position on the edge of the massif and its distinctive appearance, with pala translating to paddle or blade. It looks much taller too, but Vezzana is actually six metres higher. That fact is completely inconsequential, but it’s something to think about as you haul your way up the Passo Rolle’s 20km with those two vast chunks of rock – the Vezzana cranes its neck to an altitude of 3,192m – looming over your every pedal stroke. Giulio Ciccone led the race over the top…

The first thing you need to know about the Van Rysel RCR-F is that it has the best-shaped drops I have ever held in my hot little hands, and likely the best drops ever made. That might seem like an odd detail to start on, but it’s so unusual to see actual innovation on one of the major contact points of a bike that it merits attention. Developed in partnership with component maker Deda, the RCR-F’s Ergodrops look much like any other one-piece bar at a glance, but the drops themselves feature an ovalised cross-section that fits perfectly inside the hand, providing exceptional purchase. Grabbing them elicits one of those ‘why aren’t all bikes like this?’ reactions and sets the tone for a well thought-out piece of design. The RCR-F…