Tabla de contenidos para Issue 49 en Cyclist Australia

Frankly, it’s a miracle the 2020 race season happened at all, but now it’s over we can’t help thinking: wasn’t it brilliant? Here are four reasons why the latest season was among the best ever… Attacking, unpredictable racing Remember how it used to be? Sky would suffocate the Tour, Chris Froome would win by four minutes and Peter Sagan would nail another green jersey to the wall of his Slovakian mansion. Not any more! All of last year’s Grand Tours were won by less than a minute, with each race going to the wire. Scripts were ripped up, crowns were relinquished, commentators ran out of superlatives and we all had to memorise a host of new names… The rise of the new guard Froome, Nibali, Valverde, Quintana, Dumoulin – all…

$7,590, partington.cc Every now and then a product comes across the desk at Cyclist that tickles us just right. Partington wheels are certainly among those. The Australian company is redefining the design and manufacturing process of premium wheels to bring us something that’s extremely light and very, very good-looking. Founder, Jon Partington, has based his company at Deakin University’s ManuFutures innovation hub at Waurn Ponds (just outside Geelong). Partington is no upstart, having worked with Ford before completing a mechanical engineering degree at Deakin. He has since embarked on a PhD in advanced composites but is now going full steam with his fledgling company. The wheels have spun heads the world over, winning praise for their claimed 1,200-gram weight and unique carbon spoke layup. The full-carbon set-up sees Partington draw…

$99, yakima.com.au When your rear-of-car bike carrier obscures the vehicle’s number plates and rear lights, Yakima’s LightMate has you covered. LightMate – the brighter, bigger brother to Yakima’s PlateMate – holds your number plate to the back of your bike rack or mounted bike with easy-on Velcro strap fittings. With robust injection-moulded plastic construction, it works with both Australian and New Zealand auxiliary number plates and comes with a 7-pin flat plug as standard. LightMate ships as two halves but shouldn’t take longer than a couple of minutes to assemble.…

$575, specialized.com/au Specialized has a knack of doing everything well. Whether it’s developing bikes, wheels, helmets, clothing or shoes, the US company rarely misses the mark as it searches for best-in-class performance. Its latest flagship shoe, the S-Works Ares, is no different. The S-Works Ares was created with fast men Sam Bennett and Justin Williams (along with half a dozen engineers) to bring us what Specialized calls its fastest and most comfortable shoe. It’s a complete overhaul on the S-Works 7, the company’s popular model which sat atop Specialized’s offerings for a couple of years. Its retention system triangulates across the midfoot, ensuring a more even spread of pressure across the shoe. Specialized says it’s 1% faster than any other shoe it has developed, something Cyclist was keen to test.…

At 86km long with 4,500m of climbing, the Hero Dolomites off-road race in Italy is a gruelling event. Which is why sports scientists from Italy’s University of Camerino say the participants make great case studies. In a recent paper published in the Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 14 riders who had completed the 2018 race were split into two groups. The first was given a 24-week program of endurance-only training (ET) while the second undertook the same plus two additional sessions per week of strength training (ET+ST). This involved exercises that mimic aspects of pedalling, namely full back barbell squats, 45° leg presses, horizontal single leg presses, cable kickbacks, horizontal leg curls, seated single leg curls and core stability exercises. FTP and one-rep max tests were periodically assessed, and…

For a team more suited to one-day Classics, Deceuninck-QuickStep had a very successful Giro d’Italia. The Belgian squad’s 22-year-old Portuguese rider, João Almeida, clung on to the race leader’s jersey for 15 consecutive days after slipping into pink on Stage 3 with a strong showing on the climb to Mount Etna. By the end of the Tour Deceuninck-QuickStep were the only team to have three riders in the top 15, including Almeida in fourth, Fausto Masnada in ninth and James Knox in 14th. An indicator of the kind of performance required to succeed at a major race came after the stage to Etna, when Masnada and Knox published some of their stats for the public to pore over. On the 18.6km, 6.7% climb Masnada topped out in 48 minutes 28…

Unless you have a horse with no name, you’ll be driving through the Tabernas Desert to reach the start of this climb. This arid southeastern knuckle of Spain is so quintessential in its desertness it became the home of cowboy movies in the 1960s and as such there is pretty much nothing and no one for miles. It would take many gruelling hours to cycle here from anywhere you would wish to base yourself in the vicinity. But there are roads, and what roads. The sun beats down the door to the Tabernas year-round. The nights are cold whatever the time of year – candy-striped snow poles line the highest roads – but even in late October it’s still in the 30s during the day. This consistent dry warmth coupled…

The Ultimate just handles that much more sweetly, a rare thing in a truly lightweight bike It’s a bloody tough call but, while we each had our personal favourite, when we added up the second place votes (okay, added is a bit grand, we only had three to count), there was a clear… draw. Same thing that happened with our aero bikes in issue #48. Stu’s favourite alternative was the Trek Émonda, while James chose the Canyon Ultimate. This left Sam to be incredibly unhelpful, having given a somewhat left-field vote to the BMC Teammachine (although the BMC does deserve honourable mention – just check out the review, also in issue #48). So it was back to arguing up a windy hillside. Unequivocal was the fact that the Ultimate was…

$329, campagnolo.com Campagnolo has been lending its design and precision engineering expertise to bicycle components for 88 years, but did you know it has also, for 30 years, lent that same expertise to the very noble pursuit of uncorking a wine bottle? Created, like all Campagnolo products, in Vicenza by the same hands that create many of the company's most famous bike components, the BIG Corkscrew features quality materials, careful finishes and that signature Campagnolo artisanship. The corkscrew is designed so that the screw self-centres on the cork, ensuring optimal extraction every time and preventing that always-embarrassing moment of breaking the cork in front of friends and family at a dinner party. It has also been designed to never twist completely through the cork, thus preventing pieces of cork dropping…

$216, oakley.com/en-au Sported by Egan Bernal and Giro hero Joao Almeida, Oakley’s Sutro sunglasses have been a popular choice in the pro peloton in recent times. To earn the ‘Lite’ moniker these glasses have lost the bottom half of the frames, which Oakley says increases the field of view and improves ventilation. Another upgrade is that the arms now use Unobtainium rubber, a material that was previously used only on the nosepads. According to Oakley, Unobtainium – not to be confused with the sought-after mineral in the film Avatar – not only makes them more comfortable, but also actually increases its grip with sweat. The rest of the setup is the same as the original Sutro: the contrast-enhancing Prizm lenses, durable O Matter frame and the oversized form factor. With…

Cyclist: Merida has always been seen as a brand that delivers a great package at an affordable price. Is this an image the company has tried to cultivate? Mark Rycroft: Absolutely, and especially in Australia. Our engineers in Germany continually strive to develop class-leading innovation (like the eOne-Sixty and Big Trail, for example), and combined with our manufacturing power from our Taiwan factory, we can deliver more bike for the money. This sometimes comes at cost though as many consumers perceive value based on RRP, so that affordable price can count against us … until you ride one! Cyc: Merida is one of the few brands that caters for every bike rider from a child’s first bike, to mountain bike enthusiast, shopper, or professional racer. What part of the business…

Mark Cavendish was standing in the pouring rain in the car park of a leisure centre on the outskirts of the Flanders seaside town of De Panne when someone brushed against his left arm and he winced. The last one-day Classic of the season, Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne, was still being raced, but Cavendish was one of many DNFs. In his case the failure to finish was understandable: he had crashed, hence his delicate left arm. ‘I was in the front echelon too,’ he lamented. It was a wild day in mid-October, the rain hammering down and the wind so fierce that riders were literally being blown off the road. Mathieu van der Poel, three days after winning the Tour of Flanders, was blown from the front echelon into a deep…

You alright, mate?’ he calls from inside his air-conditioned ute. Draped over my bars in between laboured breaths, I reply, ‘All good. Just suffering a bit.’ ‘You got enough water? It’s bloody hot already.’ ‘About four litres,’ I gasp. ‘Good luck, mate. Try to have fun,’ he says as he pulls away in a cloud of dust. I look down at my Garmin and the temp is reading 33°C; and then at my watch. 7:22am. I push off and clip in; the heat hits me like a pulsating wave. Jersey flapping in the wind, sweat dripping from everywhere, my face throbbing – my body has entered into the dire-straits ‘you need to cool me down right now’ phase, and we’re only an hour in. I can just see my riding…

Back in the early 1900s the idea of a bike weighing less than 15kg was a pipe dream. But by the 1960s a skinny steel racer could comfortably hit 10kg, and with a little help from ‘drillium’ – the fad that saw mechanics and riders drill holes in brake levers and chainrings to shave grams – even lighter. Eddy Merckx’s Hour record bike of 1972, built (and drilled) by Ernesto Colnago, weighed just 5.75kg, and even De Rosa’s heart logo was a result of weight saving, with Ugo De Rosa drilling three holes into a bottom bracket shell then cutting a triangle between them to lose excess material. Aluminium followed steel, with Italian manufacturer Alan creating the original mass-production aluminium frame, which weighed as little as 1.6kg, in 1972. A…

Mother Nature must be a cycling fan. I’m convinced of this because today’s course is too flawless to be coincidence. It’s a perfect loop of 113km that by the time I end up back where I started will have taken me up and over three high Alpine passes, each breaking the mythical 2,000m barrier. There’s not a single kilometre of flat road on the whole ride. All of the climbs are a challenge, but with average gradients between 6% and 7% none are too intimidating either. Perfect multi-peak cycling loops like this are hard to find, but of course they do exist elsewhere. Prime examples include the loop encompassing the imperious Furka, Grimsel and Sustenpass in Switzerland, which takes in three glaciers, four lakes and 58 hairpins, as well as…

eScultura 400 RRP $4,799, Colour: Race Red (Black) The ‘classic road bike’ of the range. Equipped with full carbon fork that features a more aero profile while still offering great comfort and shock absorption. With its classic dropper handlebar setup paired with fast-rolling 32mm road tyres, its the choice for road riders who like an active riding style. eSilex 400 RRP $4,499, Colour: Teal (Light Teal / Black), Anthracite (Black) The off-roader of the range, available in the more rugged 650B or more fast-rolling 700c set-up, similar to its non-assisted gravel relative. Both versions come with gravel / off-road tyres for extra grip. A large number of fixing points on the frame, as well as the fork, ensure it's adventure-ready. eSpeeder 200 RRP $3,799, Colour: Steel Blue (Silver / Black)…

clifbar.com.au Crafted with nutrients to support muscle recovery and repair, the Clif Builders Bar is designed to be eaten post-ride and comes in three flavours: Chocolate, Chocolate Mint and Chocolate Peanut Butter. Each bar contains 20g of complete plant protein with essential amino acids and carbohydrates for a low-GI, high-protein snack that tastes like a chocolate bar and helps you recover faster. It’s made with natural and organic ingredients, and is free from trans-fat, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and sugar alcohols.…

An enforced two-week quarantine on entering Australia gave Cyrus Monk the chance to showcase his talent: the 24-year-old Aussie saxophonist once won the U23 nationals while studying for a major in physiology. But if the fruits from his hotel isolation were anything to go by, there’s much more to his armoury than cycling, sax and science. Monk revealed himself to be a veritable renaissance man by combining hotel utensils (plastic cutlery, sachets of sugar, doors, drawers, a steaming iron) and his own falsetto, harmonica and a mini recorder to perform stonking cover versions of anything from Fatboy Slim to A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’. The Continental rider for EvoPro Racing sure lived up to his Twitter bio as a ‘cyclist with a few side hustles on the go’, and he’s not…

With a name like Giant, it would be easy to assume that the Taiwanese bike brand always planned to be a global behemoth from the day it was founded. But actually it started life in original equipment manufacturing (OEM), making parts for other companies. The company began in 1972 but it wasn’t until 1977 that the Giant Manufacturing Company’s chief executive, Tony Lo, secured the golden ticket of contracts that was to be the launch pad for future growth. The contract was to produce bikes for Schwinn, a US bike brand that dominated its market at the time with its 10-speed steel machines. The Schwinn deal followed five fairly barren years since King Liu and a group of his associates founded Giant, but it wasn’t blind luck. Having learned Japanese…

Every day’s a school day. I recently learned that British marque Carlton Cycles made a carbon-tubed, alloy lugged bike back in 1971. Motor Cycle and Cycle Trader magazine reported at the time, ‘The weight of the complete machine is 13lbs 12oz,’ continuing that ‘most certainly the experimental Carlton in carbon fibre is the most exciting adaptation of modern materials to cycle building that we have seen for many years’. Sadly the bike never went anywhere, but it struck me as wonderfully coincidental that I’m testing what’s claimed to be the world’s lightest production disc brake bike – the S-Works Aethos – and its weight? It’s 6.23kg, or 13lbs 12oz in old money. Is anything new under the cycling sun? Number, number, weight, division The foundation of the Aethos is its…

With so many advances in bike design it’s easy to forget that geometry remains critical. Yes it has become fairly standardised, but even within a narrow spectrum there is a sea of difference between bikes pitched at either end. And here, with Basso’s reincarnated Diamante SV, the geometry dial is turned all the way up to racy. But there is a twist. Measured approach Reading out a string of numbers is boring, which is why robots make terrible speeches. But I’m going to do it anyway because numbers are vital clues to the SV’s character. From the geo charts this size 56cm has 587mm stack, 386mm reach, 406mm chainstays and 985mm wheelbase. In other words, the SV has a short wheelbase and short rear end, two things associated with fast,…