Table of contents for Issue 63 in Cyclist Australia

Welcome to yet another jam-packed edition of Cyclist Australia/NZ. We’re thrilled to present you with our latest collection of gear and bike reviews, in-depth features, sit-down interviews with cycling’s biggest stars, and of course, stunning visuals and stories from our riding adventures at home and around the world. Our local Big Ride destination for this issue takes us to the town of Tallangatta in Victoria’s High Country, the gateway to the hidden gem that is Lake Hume – right on the Victoria-NSW border. Our team followed the shoreline of the man-made lake on a quiet, scenic loop offering incredible water views, challenging climbs and plenty of charming places to stop and fuel up along the way. It’s also the location of the Sandy Creek Bridge, the architecturally impressive span that…

$124.99, fesports.com.au The variable nature of gravel terrain – from rubble to mud to tarmac – necessitates a versatile tread pattern, particularly in a race situation. Pirelli says its new Gravel RC tyre blends the fast-rolling centre tread of its Gravel H tyre with the aggressive side knobbles of its Scorpion XC RC mountain bike tyre in an attempt to achieve both speed and grip. In another example of manufacturers blending riding categories, a cut-resistant TechWall fabric is deployed bead-to-bead, which Pirelli says protects the tyre from sharp objects piercing the tread on the road and the side walls being slashed by rocks off it.…

Cyclist: You’ve had an incredible three or four months where success seems to have bred success… Shirin van Anrooij: I feel like I did as a second-year junior when everything just clicked. You fall into this positive flow and you just want to keep going. I made a big step up in Trek-Segafredo’s December training camp, which gave me confidence for the cyclocross season. My winter aim was to secure my first cyclocross UCI World Cup podium, so to win three times and finish third overall was incredible. Cyc: And that flow has continued into the start of the road season. SvA: In the winter, so many road cyclists are doing base miles and building endurance, and that’s not always possible because of cyclocross, but it does mean you start…

Cyclists need no introduction to the benefits of caffeine. However, in a recent article on Australian academic news site The Conversation, University of Newcastle lecturer Dr Emma Beckett points out that much of the boost we get from a morning coffee or tea is more of a loan. It all comes down to how the brain interacts with a compound called adenosine, which is released as a by-product of activity during the day, binding to receptors in our brain and telling our cells to slow down, which we feel as tiredness. Adenosine levels lower when we sleep and, provided we have slept long enough, we wake up feeling refreshed. Caffeine is a similar shape to adenosine, and so also binds to the receptors but doesn’t trigger the same slow-down signal…

You can try our Tallangatta / Lake Hume Big Ride for yourself right now on FulGaz! Sign up for FulGaz today to access our Tallangatta / Lake Hume ride, as well as thousands of other routes and climbs from Australia and around the world. Visit fulgaz.com to get started Starting at the Good House (don’t worry if you’re not staying there – the directions are the same from Tallangatta), join the High Countey Rail Trail and pedal 5km into town. We stopped off for coffee and breakfast, but if you’re already fuelled, it’s still worth looping through the sleepy streets to admire the architecture. Back on the rail trail, you’ll soon cross the Mitta Mitta River; just over a kay after that, jump on the main road (Murray Valley Highway)…

Below is a table of a selection of some tyres that are pretty fast and some that are very popular but much less fast. This data comes from independent tester Bicycle Rolling Resistance (bicyclerollingresistance.com) and it suggests a few interesting things. First, tubeless is speed king; second, in pure rolling resistance terms, higher pressure = lower rolling resistance; and third, construction and compound play a crucial role, as all other factors here are equal, even most of the tyre widths. RR = Rolling resistance. Tests conducted on a rolling drum at tyre speed 28.8kmh, tyre load 42.5kg, internal rim width 17.8mm. RR med = 66psi (22-24mm), 60psi (25-27mm), 54psi (28-29mm); RR high = 88, 80, 72psi; RR extra = 110, 100, 90psi; RR ultra = 132, 120, 108psi…

In the world of cycling, it’s hard to find a brand quite as emblematic as Mavic. With its trademark yellow and black logo, Mavic is synonymous with the sport and has been at its heart, both as innovator and benefactor, for well over a century. Formed in 1889 by two Frenchmen, Charles Idoux and Lucien Chanel, the brand lays claim to a host of firsts for the cycling industry: the first aluminium rim, the first disc wheel, the first electronic groupset, the Dura alloy rims that weighed only 750g, and the tri-spoked 3G wheel that helped take Chris Boardman to Olympic individual pursuit gold in 1992. Then there’s the neutral service, which arguably cemented the brand in cycle sport legend. It was 1972 when Bruno Gormand, then chairman of Mavic,…

Thousands of high-rise apartments merge and creep through valleys like glaciers, the toilets sing to you, and hotel receptions are staffed by robots With 1,745km of dedicated, wide, and fast bike path in an area roughly the size of New Zealand’s North Island, South Korea has some of the best, most accessible cycling infrastructure in the world. You can ride for days on end without ever meeting a motorist. You can camp in the centre of towns. Everything is clean and neat and you can walk off and leave your bike unattended while you go into a convenience store because the crime rate is zero. While Aussies and Kiwis looking for active holidays in east Asia might think first of Japan, Korea is coming hot on its neighbour’s heels: it’s…

When travelling to explore new places I make sure my bike and gear is ready for anything and a combination of capable, reliable and lightweight (in that order). I rode my Norco Threshold, a full carbon CX bike I’ve adapted for all-road riding. It’s perfect for trips where I don’t know what’s around the next corner. It handled perfectly on bitumen, loose pavé shortcuts and broken bits of bike path. Norco has stopped making the Threshold in 2023, but the Norco Search is their dedicated gravel machine that continues its legacy. I ran a Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset with a compact 34–50-tooth crankset and 11–32 tooth cassette to give me a wide range of gears with the super light action of Shimano’s electronic shifting. I opted for 40cm bars for…

1 Cervélo S5 p134 Rather than look for more speed, Cervélo set out to make its latest S5 more refined. They’ve done just that – and found more speed as a result. 2 Scott Foil p138 One of the very first aero bikes gets a major overhaul and now looks dramatically different. So does it still blend speed with comfort? 3 Sram Force AXS p142 Sram’s original groupset for the road gets an update for 2023 that can best be described as subtle, but it’s also highly effective.…

We’re battling the Saturday morning city centre crowds through narrow streets, and my wife wants to know why we’re heading uphill if we’re looking for an underground station. ‘Because it’s called Monte Santo,’ I reply. ‘I think that means “sacred mountain”.’ I check my map of the Metro and add half-heartedly, ‘Maybe the first part of the journey is overground.’ We pass a square festooned with decorations and football scarves. A mural of Diego Maradona looks down from the side of an apartment block. I intend to lay a scarf of my own here tomorrow but for now we have a train to catch. We finally spot a bright red ‘M’ but it’s a sign for a station that hasn’t actually been built yet. We are close enough to see…

Back in 2008 Cannondale designed the original SuperSix based on the experience gained from the outgoing SystemSix race bike. The SuperSix quickly won a reputation for being light and stiff with deft handling, and in subsequent revisions Cannondale managed to blend comfort into the mix as well. This year the bike celebrates its 15th birthday and has come full circle in that for this fourth generation the SuperSix Evo has once again been informed by the brand’s SystemSix bike, which was reintroduced in 2019 as Cannondale’s aero road platform. ‘We took the features that make the SystemSix so fast and made them lighter,’ says Dr Nathan Barry, Cannondale’s aerodynamics expert. ‘The new SuperSix Evo is as fast as rival aero bikes while hitting the UCI minimum weight limit. The new…

As usual, Vittoria has pushed itself to a higher threshold with the Corsa Pro and Corsa Pro Control, which replace the previous TLR versions, the Corsa and Corsa Control tyres. Like all new releases, they promise to be faster, lighter and more puncture-resistant than previous iterations. And even though it’s almost impossible to feel minor improvements on the road, fitting a fresh pair of tubeless 28s to my bike is always exciting and makes me want to get out and ride. These Corsas have a familiar tread pattern and employ trickle-up technology from the more durable Corsa, the Corsa Next (normally branded as N.EXT). A mix of graphene and silica compound adds hardiness and grip to the tread compared with previous iterations and makes the Corsa Pro an option for…

$199, magischine.com.au Magicshine has produced a great-value alternative to Garmin’s Varia radar and rear light. In case you’re unfamiliar, radars can detect vehicles behind the rider and send the information to a paired bike computer. For city riders on busy roads, this can seem like an unnecessary innovation. However, riders who are regional, ride early or stay on quieter routes often find it a useful tool to complement (not replace) their eyes and ears. The Seemee 508 indicates approaching cars from 140 metres away with angles up to 40 degrees, meaning it can spot rearward vehicles from around the bends. Different bike computers will display this information on the head unit in different ways, but the information will usually be on the right side of your computer, using little car…

Cyclist: Congratulations on your season so far, some strong results in UAE Tour (two top fives) and a win at the Milano-Torino. How do you feel this season is going and what is your next goal? Arvid de Kleijn: Thanks! We had a good start of the season in UAE and we felt confident that we could deliver a big result in the weeks after that. Cyc: The Torino win must be a career highlight. What were you thinking as you were outsprinting the likes of Fernando Gaviria and Nacer Bouhanni? And can you do it again? AdK: In the moment itself, you’re just in the moment. I was only thinking about going as fast as possible to the line. We were feeling well prepared after a productive meeting with…

Sprinting power intervals Aim: To improve max speed and power output 10min warm-up; 6x 15sec sprints at max effort; 5min rest between each; 5min cool down. Total 41.5min Threshold tolerance intervals Aim: To increase FTP, lactate threshold and speed endurance 15min warm-up; 4x 10min at 105% of FTP; 5min rest between each; 5min cool down. Total 75min HIIT intervals Aim: To improve VO2 max, aerobic power and FTP 20min warm-up; 3x 2min at 120% of FTP, 2min between each; 3 sets with 10min between; 5min cool down. Total 75min Race pace intervals Aim: To prime you for peak performance ahead of a race or hard session, or act as a slightly easier TTI session 10min warm-up; 6x 3min at 95-105% of FTP, 1min between each; 2 sets with 10min rest…

Plangent strings play. A yellow Rolls-Royce Phantom ascends an Alpine road, a hotel perched on a precipice in the background. Down in the valley Bond follows a dot on the screen of his DB5’s tracking device, which inexplicably places his quarry somewhere on the outskirts of Geneva. We are nowhere near Geneva. Some more Rolls, some more jaw-dropping scenery. A Ford Mustang appears. More driving shots. Goldfinger stops for a roadside snack. Tilly Masterson makes a ham-fisted attempt to shoot him with a sniper rifle. Neither he nor Oddjob notices. More driving shots. Bond runs Masterson off the road. The 1964 classic 007 outing Goldfinger is a terrible guide to the Furka Pass for the modern road cyclist. Highly questionable chauvinism aside, the film plays fast and loose with continuity,…

‘For grip on a road tyre, the tread pattern doesn’t matter nearly as much as the compound,’ says Schwalbe’s Felix Schäfermeier. ‘If you have a good compound, it will perform better than a really rough tread pattern. From our perspective we use the tread pattern to reduce aerodynamic drag.’ ‘The tread is super-critical [for aerodynamics],’ agrees Enve’s Jake Pantone. ‘The tread not being smooth creates a little bit of turbulence as the air hits it, which creates a boundary layer of air that basically prevents there being suction between the air and the tyre. The turbulent layer lets the air slide really quickly over the tyre without getting stuck to it.’ But does tread offer more than just aero gains? The jury is out, but Vittoria’s Ken Avery certainly thinks…

Distance: 236.5km Total ascent: 1,450m Scan the QR code to discover this route on Strava. Starting at Jeju City, we rode anti-clockwise around the island, stopping at Sagye Beach, Pyoseon Beach, then returning to our start point in Jeju City. The route is precisely 234km and we divided this into three days of roughly 80km. Most of the riding is at around sea level, with plenty of pinch climbs and, of course, Jeju’s famous wind to keep things tough. There are very few ways to get the route wrong, with a blue line painted along the way that alternates between quiet coast roads or bike path and stints along larger, busier roads (with options to ride on the slower bike path/shared path if you want a change of pace). Don’t…

‘T he mantra with designing the new bike was “simplify and enhance”,’ says Cervélo’s director of product management, Maria Benson. ‘So there are no revolutionary steps here; more this is a refined design.’ By way of evidence for the performance of the new, enhanced S5, Cervélo reminds us that Wout van Aert used it last year to rack up the highest ever sprint points in a modern-era Tour de France, some 480*. Van Aert is quite good, of course, but I have every reason to believe the S5 helped, because this thing is quick. New for old Refinement really is the word here, because to the casual onlooker the S5 looks very much like the bike it replaces, which debuted in 2018. I tested that old S5 back in issue…

$410, kask.com The Utopia was developed in 2018 to combine aerodynamic efficiency with ventilation. The fact that it became the go - to helmet for WorldTour team Ineos Grenadiers in fast, flat races (when they also had helmets such as Kask’s well-regarded Protone Icon to choose from) suggests that Kask got the blend about right. Five years later, the release of the Utopia Y could be seen as further evidence of the original’s efficacy because, superficially, little has changed. Its sculpted shape is the same but there have been changes under the surface – chiefly the incorporation of the Octofit+ retention system that the aforementioned Protone Icon debuted. Kask says Octofit+ uses a larger rotational dial that is coated in a grippier rubber to make it easier to adjust, and…

$1,099, fesports.com.au Küat creates a wide range of high-end bike, water and snow carriers for your car and the roof-mounted Piston SR is about one of the nicest bike racks we’ve seen. The sleek design has a 30kg carrying capacity and can support a massive five-inch tyre. When fastening your bike, it doesn’t contact the frame at all, instead fixing to the tyres using hydro-pneumatic arms clad in the ultra-durable Kashima coating, synonymous with Fox mountain bike shocks and forks. The appearance and functionality add up to one seriously deluxe bike carrier and we can’t wait to see them out in the wild.…

True bipedalism in nature is very rare. We are the only mammals that decided to stand up out the primordial soup to walk upright around the planet, and over millions of years our feet have evolved to allow us to walk, run and jump. Then the bicycle is invented 150 years ago and the heel-to-toe movement phases the foot naturally moves through are suddenly superfluous, unhelpful even. In walking and running, the foot goes through a dynamic phase of motion from heel-strike to mid-stance to a propulsive toe-off from the 1st met (big-toe joint). In contrast, cycling is about blocking movement to ensure that all the power is transferred from the foot into the base of the shoe and then directly into the pedal. We are asking the foot to…

We’re hundreds of kilometres from the ocean somewhere in regional Victoria, but it almost feels like we’re two-wheeled explorers, circumnavigating an island on an inland sea. And in a way, we are. Lake Hume – a manmade reservoir across the Murray River near Albury-Wodonga – is estimated to hold around six times the volume of water in Sydney Harbour; after two-and-a-half La Niñas, it might even be more than that. All along our route, the water level rises above the fencelines of old paddocks, and with an extra metre or so, would threaten to submerge a few bridges we either cross or pass by. Water, water everywhere, indeed. Cruising down another tarmac roller just over halfway through the ride – farmland to my left, watery expanse to my right –…

In a recent white paper entitled Total System Efficiency: Making You Faster, engineers at Zipp put forward the idea that there are ‘five principal impending forces acting on a cyclist… wind resistance, gravity, inertia, rolling resistance and vibration’. To move forward, you must overcome these forces by putting more energy into the rider-bike system than the sum forces acting against the path of travel. So where do tyres fit in? The simple answer is everywhere. However, to find a way into this extremely complex subject, let’s start with that most touted term in regard to tyres: rolling resistance. ‘As a tyre rolls along it deforms and relaxes, resulting in energy loss – that is rolling resistance,’ says Oliver Kiesel, tyres and tubes product manager at Specialized. ‘This is elastic hysteresis…

‘Picture someone with a machete trying to cut through a jungle,’ says Simon Jones. ‘That’s what we were doing for 30km, trying to descend out of this rainforest.’ If that’s how the rider who managed to finish 15th overall in this year’s Race Around Rwanda sums up the route’s more difficult – scratch that: borderline impassable – sections, then you can be sure he wasn’t alone. ‘People were posting in the group chat asking if they’d gone the wrong way,’ he adds. ‘Because Rwanda is developing so quickly, some roads that were gravel a year ago are now paved. So the organisers just have to keep finding gnarlier sections to keep it at 400km of gravel.’ The Race Around Rwanda, first held in 2020, aims to cover 40% of its…

$1,499, thule.com/en-au To transport his bike to and from Korea, Nick borrowed the Thule RoundTrip – surely the Cadillac of travel cases. It’s tough, simple enough, and structured around a bottom-bracket mounted work stand, which attracted plenty of curious glances as Cyclist packed up its bikes in the departures hall at Gimpo airport. As well as securely protecting Nick’s beaten-up Focus Mares, we liked how the case folded into itself, down to about a third of its size – convenient for when the bike isn’t inside. It was a pleasure tow along, the Mares survived four flights without remark, and overall Nick was quite bummed to have to return it at the end of the trip.…

The Scott Foil has a good claim to be the forebear of the well-rounded aero bikes we see on the market today. Well, the second generation does – riding the first was like operating a jackhammer – but Scott’s engineers introduced enough forgiveness in its successor that in 2016 Mat Hayman was able to win Paris-Roubaix on one. The Foil’s reputation of being able to blend speed with comfort was cemented, and many competitors were playing catch-up for the next few years. Since then the Foil has had tweaks, such as the inclusion of disc brakes and the integration of cables, but this latest update to the Foil RC is the first true overhaul the bike has had since that cobble-crushing design of 2016. Burly do-over The previous Foil was…

Originally released in 2006, Force was Sram’s first road groupset. While Red AXS now sits at the top of the brand’s performance tree, Force retains a critical position in Sram’s range, as it aims to offer much of the same technology as its bigger sibling but at a more accessible price. Force’s last major update in 2019 aligned it in a technological sense with the then-newly minted Red AXS’s wireless 12-speed drivetrain, adopting the eTap shift logic of tapping the right shift paddle for a harder gear, left for easier and both together to switch chainrings. However, in detail and appearance there was a distinct disparity between the tiers. Force AXS drew criticism for its comparatively cheap appearance next to the machined aluminium and shiny silver decals of Red. The…