Sommaire pour June 2018 de Cyclist

€799 (approx £695), cycling.favero.com At around £700, the Favero Assioma is currently the cheapest pedal-based power meter on the market. In fact, you can go even cheaper if you don’t need to read both left and right leg power, with a single-sided version coming in at just £435. By comparison, the retail price for the Garmin Vector 3 power pedals is £850 for double-sided and £500 for single-sided. The spec of the Assioma reads much like the competition: they measure left/ right pedal smoothness and torque, plus a host of other metrics that can be analysed using software such as Training Peaks, and are all wrapped up in a Look Keo-compatible cleat interface and powered by rechargeable batteries. But the big news, according to Favero, is accuracy. The Assiomas are…

£270, 2pure.co.uk Poc’s new Ventral doesn’t seem to be your typical aero road helmet – just look at all those vents. Common wisdom dictates that for something to be aerodynamic it must be smooth, yet the Swedish brand claims this is its fastest design to date despite those gaping holes. Poc says this has been achieved by a design that allows air to flow through the helmet, not just around it. The intakes on the front work with internal channels and exit ports to guide airflow over the head and out, reducing its wake and therefore aerodynamic drag. Yet this design isn’t just good for aero efficiency and ventilation. With large vents as part of the structure, the Ventral weighs just 248g for a size medium, which is very competitive…

‘They all laughed at Christopher Columbus, when he said the world was round; they all laughed when Edison recorded sound,’ penned Ira Gershwin. And not so long ago, the idea that bicycles would be printed out of metal powder like robotic anthills rising from dust was the stuff of sci-fi. Yet here we are. 3D printing has become common practice in bicycle construction. The basic process involves uploading a CAD drawing of a shape to a 3D printer, which divides the shape into thousands of particle-thick ‘slices’. These are then traced out by a laser over a bed of powdered material, melting and fusing the powder, layer by layer, to build up a three-dimensional shape. This process can take many hours, even days, but one ingenious aspect is that incredibly…

1 COFFEE BRAKE MUG $26.99 (approx £19), coffeebrakemug.com Amazing artists can always draw a crowd, and any product can sell itself on a pun. Except for our local wine shop, Planet Of The Grapes, which shut down last year. The Brake Mug, however, has a couple of extra aces up its sleeve, with a dingbat appearance to make Roy ‘say-what-you-see’ Walker smile, and a double wall, stainless steel construction with lid to keep your beverage warm. 2 MILKIT TUBELESS BOOSTER £40, milkit.com First we got fired from the clock factory for putting in too may hours, then we got laid off from the calendar factory for taking a day off. Sometimes you just can’t win, and it can feel like that with tubeless tyres too, which can be difficult to…

To download this route, go to cyclist.co.uk/74gavia. Beginning in Bormio, descend the SS38 south toward Grosio. At the town of Mazzo di Valtellina, come off the main road and follow signs for the Mortirolo Pass. Climb the Mortirolo (good luck) and descend directly over the pass down to Monno. Here, turn left onto the SS42 towards Ponte di Legno, turning off the main road just after Pontagna to cut through Ponte de Legno. Continue onto the SP29, which is the Gavia Pass, over the summit and back down into Bormio.…

‘We start with sheets of paper,’ says dhb head of design Tom Webb, as he spreads detailed concept drawings and sketches of would-be products on the table. ‘If you’ve had to distil something in pencil, you’ve really had to think about it. It’s an old fashioned approach, but it works.’ Surrounding us is the dhb Aeron LAB collection, which began life as one of these concept sketches. The Aeron range has traditionally been at the top end of dhb’s product lineup, delivering technical, performanced-focussed cycling clothing at a pleasing price point. But with Aeron LAB, it’s like dhb has leapt onto a speeding car. The range includes industry-leading Ultralight climber’s kit, carefully engineered aerodynamic Aeron LAB Raceline bibshorts and jerseys, and even a one-piece Raceline Speedsuit. But the heart of…

A stylish Italian bike for a glamorous Italian gran fondo, Bianchi’s Oltre XR3 is a light and nimble ride with fast-twitch reactions. Its vibration-dampening Countervail technology, originally developed for use in helicopters, makes for a comfortable time in the saddle and its sleek lines and classic Celeste colouring are sure to turn heads. With a 1,110g frame weight and Fulcrum 7 race wheels, it’s not the lightest ride for the 27% Muro di Sormano, but its carbon fork delivers rigidity and its intelligent geometry ensures a racy ride.…

The Colnago C64 is the first bike that made me blush. One Saturday morning I pulled into a cafe, placed the C64 beside a dozen other bikes and looked up to see a flock of club riders ogling it shamelessly. It made me a little self-conscious, and almost embarrassed for the poor inanimate object being, well... objectified. But then, the C64 is built to attract cafe stares. What matters, though, is whether it’s more than merely a trophy bike. For those unfamiliar with the C64’s lineage, the C-series is a handmade carbon bicycle dynasty. It’s iconic for its crimped tube shapes and carbon lugs yet harks back to the stylish looks of classic steel builders. All C-bikes have always been available in custom geometry, and they’ve been at the forefront…

£TBC, madison.co.uk If, as they say, half the battle of going fast is looking fast, Shimano’s new S-Phyre glasses will make you ride like a rocket. They sure look speedy, and Shimano makes some bold aerodynamic claims too, saying the design reduces air turbulence over the face. They weigh a mere 29g, come in a rimless or rimmed design and have anti-fog and anti-scratch lens treatments as standard. There are also photochromatic and polarised lens options. Pricing is yet to be confirmed, but expect them to be in the same ballpark as Oakley’s £140 Radar EVs.…

Classic, Evo and Light, £90 each, c3products.com With three jersey weight options, Sportful’s new Bodyfit Pro 2.0 range should have you covered for the rest of the year. The jerseys all come in a slick, skintight cut, with the Evo being what Sportful calls its ‘go-to race jersey’. The Light is constructed with large panels of mesh to aid ventilation on the hottest of days (should they ever arrive), while the Classic is for slightly colder spring and autumn weather, with a lightly fleeced main body. As for freezing winter days… well, that’s what turbos are for, isn’t it?…

I was under no illusions about the challenges of taking on these two peaks back-to-back, and I wanted a true climber’s bike. The Factor O2 was ideal, with a 740g frame and a super-light build kit headed by Shimano Dura-Ace Di2. Sure enough, the bike that is Romain Bardet’s weapon of choice for the Grand Tours is a natural climber, with a stiff rear end that preserves the power efficiency that’s so vital while climbing. I can’t say that I thank Factor for supplying me with a standard chainset (53/39) that made me plunge deep into the red, but to the bike’s credit it never seemed to wince beneath me. Descending was accurate and predictable, and on pristine Italian roads the O2’s stiffness was perfectly pitched to give a feel…

There are no air-conditioned team buses or heavily branded, high-powered team cars at the Tour of Oman. It may be organised by ASO, promoter of the Tour de France, but as the race convoy chugs its way into another dusty car park, dotted with Land Cruisers, high-end bicycles and WorldTour stars, you wouldn’t know it. Over in the car park’s Bahrain Merida ‘corner’ – that’s the only word for it – the team’s bikes, sandwiched between giant slabs of foam, are being lifted from a battered flatbed truck. A gaggle of goats bleats mournfully from inside another flatbed nearby. Multiple Grand Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali, stony faced behind his shades and seated on a plastic garden chair, takes it all in. Marginal gains it ain’t. The early-season flurry of desert…

Josh Poertner’s lunch is getting cold. The president of pump manufacturer Silca is too busy telling the story of how he came to own a brand that began life in Milan in 1917 and which now resides in a small, square building on the outskirts of downtown Indianapolis, USA, just across the street from the cafe in which we’re sitting. ‘So here’s the thing,’ he says. ‘You know Zipp wheels, right? The company used to be based about a mile from here, and when I was technical director there, the weird thing was that I never really got to meet people from around the industry, because we did almost everything ourselves. But one thing we did need were those little disc wheel adapters – they were the only pump connectors…

What better place to start hunting down forgotten gems than the oldest marque in the game? Founded in Milan by Edoardo Bianchi, the Italian company lays claim to being the longest surviving name in the business, with a heritage dating back to 1885. Over its 133-year history it has won pretty much every race going, with riders such as Fausto Coppi, Felice Gimondi, Marco Pantani, Mario Cipollini and Jan Ullrich, and is still notching up victories today with the LottoNL-Jumbo team. Bianchi’s pedigree is as rich as its bikes are diverse, so when Cyclist visited the Bianchi factory on the outskirts of Treviglio in northern Italy, we needed someone who knows their tubing, and luckily we found him: creative director and de facto bike curator Fabio Belotti, an employee of…

The Passoni Fidia is quite expensive. Not eyewateringly expensive; not kidney-selling expensive; more GDP of a small nation expensive. It costs £22,650. It’s almost impossible to review. It has no peers and no benchmarks – there’s no guide to what a £22,650 bike should ride like. It exists in a territory most people’s bank accounts have only read about in glossy celebrity bank account magazines. There are myriad bikes out there that will make us better cyclists for a quarter of the money. I can’t recommend it in good conscience. It corrupts the simple, democratic spirit of the bicycle by putting style over substance and desirability over affordability. Yet it’s impossible to condemn, because at its core the Fidia is a mind-blowingly brilliant bike. Just not by most normal measures.…

It’s possible a good number of people reading this don’t know what length cranks are fitted to their bike. Many might not even be aware that they come in different lengths. Yet cranks affect how effectively we generate pedalling force, as well as our overall comfort on the bike, so shouldn’t we be paying more attention? Let’s start with the basics. Cranks are measured from the centre of the pedal axle to the centre of the bottom bracket spindle. Lengths most often range from 160mm up to 185mm, in 2.5mm increments, and typically bigger bikes will come with longer cranks. This might seem obvious, so why consider changing? It’s time to defer to the experts. ‘There are a number of reasons, but hip range is the big one,’ says Phil…

If the Tour de France is the champagne-quaffing grand dame of Grand Tours and the Vuelta is the Ritalin-popping young attention-seeker swinging from the chandelier, then the Giro is the eccentric old aunt with the ivory cigarette holder who simultaneously oozes style and poses a fire risk. If this year’s 101st Giro actually does start in the disputed city of Jerusalem, it will be only the latest in a long line of coups and controversies that have made the Corsa Rosa the most compelling of the three Grand Tours. It was the Giro that designed the toughest route of any cycling race – so gruelling that only eight of the 81 starters finished the 1914 edition after spending an average of 18 hours in the saddle per stage. It was…

While we are climbing at a fraction of Pantani’s speed, I truly believe we may be suffering as much as he did If roads had memories, the Mortirolo Pass could tell you some stories about 1994. It was during that year’s Giro d’Italia that Italy’s favourite son, Marco Pantani, chased Miguel Indurain up its punishingly steep inclines. Pantani flew up the road, bridging to the Spaniard before dropping both him and race leader Evgeni Berzin to take the victory on the stage. His was the fastest-ever ascent of the Mortirolo (although it would be beaten two years later by Ivan Gotti) and had the tifosi in a frenzy. Even watching it today on a grainy YouTube video, his ability to dance up the 20% slopes is a unique spectacle, and…

Every year there is something new. Sometimes it’s something small – a slight change in shape, a shaving of a few grams or a trickle down of technologies from top-tier groupsets to the cheaper models lower down. But occasionally, it’s something big – the addition of more gears, the introduction of electronic shifting, or the advent of disc brakes. As the big three groupset manufacturers tussle for market dominance, so the need to drive technology and establish points of difference with rivals becomes ever more important. But how is each brand gearing up for the future? We approached all three to find out… ‘We were the first with 10-speed and 11-speed, and now we are the first again with 12-speed’ CAMPAGNOLO The Italian brand thrives on its heritage, but still…

Everything about Lombardia suggests today’s ride will be a serene and sophisticated affair. The road slips alongside the Prosecco sparkle of Lake Como, passing chic locals sipping cappuccinos outside cafes. A seaplane lands on the water in a swirl of foam and froth. Italian flags ripple in the breeze. If we’re lucky we’ll spot George and Amal Clooney, members of Como’s vacationing glitterati, on their morning stroll. But despite the glamour, sunshine and beautiful vistas, something is haunting my mind in the moments before the start of the Gran Fondo Il Lombardia. This new event is inspired by Italy’s fabled Giro di Lombardia pro race, and looming about 65km into the 110km course is one of the race’s most notorious obstacles – the Muro di Sormano, otherwise known as ‘The…

I am not a violent person, but I swear if one more person tells me a 48-tooth chainring is too small, I might well remove said chainring and beat them with it. When I first rode the Strada in a group, I found myself constantly being drawn into the same conversation. It would start with someone saying, ‘Ooh, is that the new 3T?’ I would respond in the affirmative, and then they would say, ‘Wow, it looks really cool.’ I would agree that, yes, it does look cool. And then, without fail, would come the comment, ‘Not sure about the 1x drivetrain, though.’ The main objection seemed to be that the single chainring wouldn’t be ‘fast enough’. I’m not even sure what this means. After all, the number of teeth…

Giro Aeon helmet, £169.99 zyrofisher.co.uk Oakley Racing Jacket sunglasses, £200 uk.oakley.com Castelli Perfetto Longsleeve jersey, £180 saddleback.co.uk Castelli Sorpasso 2 bibtights, £150 saddleback.co.uk Fizik R1B shoes, £299.99 extrauk.co.uk 3T Giro Synthe MIPS helmet, £249.99 zyrofisher.co.uk Oakley EVZero Path sunglasses, £140 uk.oakley.com Sportful BodyFit Pro Thermal jersey, £90 c3products.com Castelli Scudo gloves, £50 saddleback.co.uk Sportful R&D bibtights, £125 c3products.com Shimano S-Phyre shoes, £320 madison.co.uk COLNAGO Giro Synthe MIPS helmet, £249.99 zyrofisher.co.uk Oakley Racing Jacket sunglasses, £200 uk.oakley.com Brillibrilliant/Unicorn Blueberry Haze jersey, £139.48 bbuc.co Brillibrilliant/Unicorn Dance bibshorts, £148.20 bbuc.co Brillibrilliant/Unicorn Disco socks, £15.69 bbuc.co Fizik R1B shoes, £299.99 extrauk.co.uk PASSONI Giro Synthe MIPS helmet, £249.99 zyrofisher.co.uk Oakley EVZero Stride sunglasses, £140 uk.oakley.com Rapha…