Tabla de contenidos para Issue 74 en Cyclist Australia

Our second issue of 2025, and the 74th since Cyclist Australia/NZ’s inception, sees us settling into our annual cycling rhythm. We’re done with riding off the silly season, racking up outrageously productive summer kms inspired by the road nationals and the TDU. We’ve changed gear into February, with the work week, school bells and other responsibilities dictating our riding routines and routes. And right now, it’s all about maintaining momentum, keeping our love of two-wheeled workouts as the mornings grow colder and days get shorter. What better way to do this than squeezing in another trip to Victoria’s High Country before the ski season kicks in? We visit Mt Buller to get off-road and continue our infatuation with the region. You can read all about the challenging yet rewarding gravel…

In recent years there have arguably been two main trends in road bike design. First is the hunt for the perfect all-rounder – a bike that balances aerodynamics, stiffness and weight in the hopes of creating the consummate road racing machine. Second is the focus on all-out aero, where slipperiness takes priority over everything else. The Orbea Orca, however, is bucking both these trends. The Orca is every climber’s dream, with a claimed weight of just 6.7kg for a size 53cm, and it favours lightness above all else. Orbea and some of its competitors, such as Scott (see page 132), are convinced there’s a strong market for it among both pros and enthusiasts alike. Cutting it fine Lightness being the aim of the game, it’s unsurprising that Orbea has seemingly…

You only have to glance at a No.22 bike to know that it’s the work of someone with a deepseated understanding of aesthetics and proportion. Perfectly balanced, beautifully finished and with some of the cleanest lines in the business, No.22’s bicycles are influenced heavily by co-founder Bryce Gracey’s background in architecture. ‘It’s a very similar process,’ Gracey explains from the company’s facility in Upstate New York, USA. ‘You come up with an idea, then it’s a case of working out how to execute it. Typically in architecture every project is unique so there’s always a need to explore new technologies and systems to make a concept work. I think you can see this in some of the things we’re doing at No.22 that haven’t been done before. ‘It’s like: this…

Formula 1 and the bike industry have closer ties than you might assume. Specialized has worked with McLaren, J.Laverack makes the .1R with Aston Martin, and BMC has long been involved with Red Bull, or more specifically Red Bull Advanced Technologies (RBAT), its engineering consultancy division. BMC’s latest bike, the Teammachine R, is the result of the two companies’ most extensive collaboration yet. BMC isn’t short of engineering experience itself but, given the scale of the operation, RBAT could bring a level of resources – analysis software, facilities and engineering manpower – to bear that would be financially impossible for BMC to obtain on its own. ‘They are also outside of the bike industry so can approach problems with a fresh perspective,’ says Stefan Christ, BMC’s head of R&D. The…

‘We were seeing no movement in the marketplace when we were working on this and then suddenly two came out before us. It was kind of funny, but also nice to have the concept validated.’ So says Jason Haney, CEO of Caveworks, which along with Zwift and Elite released an indoor frameset last year. These indoor-only frames stand on an elongated fork while the dropouts mount to your indoor trainer. They cost and weigh much less than a smart bike while providing similarly easy fit adjustment. In removing the need to ride your outdoor bike on a turbo they offer some clear advantages for those seeking a halfway house between full-blown smart bike and a traditional bike-and-trainer setup. Zwift was first to the draw with its Ride frame in June…

When the phone rings with an invite to explore Victoria’s High Country’s gravel routes, it’s a no-brainer for me. With the promise of winding roads, stunning landscapes, and a weekend full of adventure, I quickly rally a group of mates and load up my bike. We set off for Mt Buller village on an unassuming Friday in February for what will shape up to be an epic weekend with a surprise twist. Esjay, Jake and I are road tripping from Sydney and meeting one of my oldest riding friends and gravel lover, Ella Bloor, for a weekend at Mt Buller. We, the travelling contingent from up north, hit the edge of Victoria’s High Country and break for lunch in Mansfield late in the afternoon before following the long, sweeping road…

When is a Classic Climb not a climb at all? Mallorca’s Cap de Formentor is more like a Classic Undulating Road. Over its 17.3km distance – not including the way back, and it’s a dead-end so you have to do it in reverse afterwards – there’s only a 590m elevation gain and the mixture of climbing and descending takes the average gradient to just 1.2%. But that doesn’t take anything away from its place as one of Europe’s must-do rides. Doff your Cap The Cap de Formentor is Mallorca’s northernmost point, with the lighthouse at the end marking its location since 1863. However, the road has only existed since 1925. Before then the peninsula was owned by Mallorcan poet Miquel Costa i Llobera, whose works include The Pine of Formentor.…

The Everest Challenge has proven to be as durable as the riders that complete it. What might have seemed like a fad when it first gained popularity is now baked into cycling culture, so much so that new variations are being spawned, including the Roaming Everest. Whereas the original Everest Challenge requires you to repeat one climb as many times as necessary to accumulate 8,848m, and can so be attempted by virtually anyone, virtually anywhere, including virtually, a Roaming Everest dictates that no climb may be repeated and therefore needs a mountainous area. It is as exclusive as the original is inclusive. A side note: Hell’s 500, the Melbourne-based group that set down the rules of Everesting and the guardians of the online roll of honour, doesn’t recognise a Roaming…

The launch of new cycling clothing rarely generates the same level of interest as techier, higher-profile products such as bikes. There are exceptions, though, like when Assos, the first cycling apparel brand to use Lycra and the inventor of the bibshort, updates its top-of-the-line design. The Equipe RS Schtradivari S11 bibshorts, to give them their full name, are a big departure from the Equipe RSR S9 Targa design they replace. According to Assos they are the result of two years and almost 200,000km of testing with the Tudor Pro Cycling team. Understandably, then, they use Assos’s race fit, which is more second skin-like (and less forgiving on body shape) than the brand’s more endurance-focused products. As ever from the Swiss brand, quirky feature names abound. Case in point is one…

Cyclist: You claimed your first Grand Tour stage victory on the final day’s time-trial at the Vuelta a España in 2024. Did that feel a long time coming?  Stefan Küng: My first Tour de France in 2017 had an opening time-trial in Düsseldorf. I came second behind Geraint Thomas and everybody said, ‘The win will come soon, you will see.’ It hasn’t been that easy. It took me seven more years to finally get it done, which just shows that even though sometimes it looks like a path is written for you, like you’re just going to open your arms and collect these victories, in the end winning Grand Tour stages means you’ve got to beat them all. And the best riders of our sport participate in these Grand Tours. I’ve…

How the body adapts when it’s exposed to exercise in hot conditions is only just beginning to be properly understood, but the potential benefits are already becoming clear. Heat training is now being talked of in the same breath as altitude training, except adaptations occur more quickly and from training that is more convenient for athletes’ schedules. As such, it is exploding in popularity, being used by both riders targeting one hot event and those looking for more general performance gains over the long term. To see what all the fuss is about, Cyclist visited Precision Fuel & Hydration to undertake a training session in its shiny new ‘heat chamber’, an insulated room where the temperature sits at a balmy 40°C. Cycling sauna ‘That’s the best operating temperature for the…

‘The original Addict Limited weighed 5.9kg, which was impressive for 2008,’ says Scott product designer Christian Holweck. ‘Back then parts were lighter, there were mechanical groupsets, tubular wheels and tiny cassettes. Today bikes are much heavier because of modern components and design trends, so we set ourselves the target of making the new Addict RC hit that old number: 5.9kg. ‘Whenever you ask your friends, “What do you consider to be a very lightweight bike?” we want the Addict RC to come to their minds first.’ Here is that bike, part homage, part engineering challenge, and every bit what Scott set out to create: the lightest production, fully integrated disc brake road bike in the world, a mere 5.87kg on my scales. I didn’t realise I needed a bike this…

Ridley’s Grifn RS is a genre-blurrer, much in the way the mythical griffin is a species-blurrer. The RS is a tweaked and enhanced version of the existing Grifn, dropping 140g from the frame for a claimed weight of 840g (medium), adding a smidge more tyre clearance (42mm rather than 40mm) and even throwing in some aero gains – a claimed 5% less drag at 36kmh. The extra slipperiness comes courtesy of the revised fork crown, which improves airflow around the upper portion of the down tube. On that front, Ridley has collaborated with Apidura to offer an optional dedicated frame bag, and I’m told the bike is actually faster with it fitted because it fills most of the front triangle and acts like a giant fairing. Other notable features include…