Table of contents for June 2022 in Cyclist

As I puffed and ground at the pedals, he cruised serenely into the distance, legs turning smoothly, with never a glance back. This was a few years ago and I recall my sense of disdain when it dawned on me how I had come to be so easily overhauled. ‘Why even bother riding if you’re going to rely on a motor to do all the hard work for you?’ was my feeling at the time. It was around the same period that the first reports of motor doping in the pro peloton were coming out, and e-bikes were becoming a more regular feature of the daily commute, meaning the occasional fight for space on narrow bike lanes with couriers barrelling along on deregulated e-cargo bikes. All in all, I concluded…

Pas Normal Studios doesn’t do bright. It doesn’t do garish. Instead, its cycling kit is simple, understated and finely tailored, with a dollop of Danish finesse. So it is with the Escapism collection, which is aimed at the adventure cycling crowd, but the kind of adventure kit that wouldn’t look out of place at a contemporary gallery opening. Colours are typically muted – choose from black, white, cinnamon (yellowy-brown) or army green. Made from a mix of naturally odour-resistant wool and polyester, the Escapism Wool Jersey offers cosy comfort and just enough protection against the bitterness of early-morning rides in spring. The Escapism Down Vest, meanwhile, can be worn both on and off the bike, is light and packable, and boasts ethically sourced, traceable goose down filling. A DWR (Durable…

£TBC, quoc.cc Despite being in the performance shoe game for several years now, Quoc’s range is admirably compact. The brand chooses to refine a select few designs rather than constantly expand its portfolio. The new Gran Tourer II off-road shoe is a prime example. Laces have been swapped out in favour of a one-dial closure system, which should be faster and less fiddly to adjust when the going gets muddy. The upper continues to be non-absorbent but gains a generous selection of perforations around the front of the shoe, which Quoc says improves ventilation. Recognising that adventures can often result in plenty of time covering ground off the bike as well as on it, Quoc says it has paid particular attention to the sole. The nylon-composite plate is more flexible…

Sunglasses are an essential piece of a cyclist’s ensemble, but over the years some wannabe trend-setting models thankfully failed to stand the test of time. Oakley’s Overthetops spring to mind, as do many of Mario Cipollini’s Briko glasses from the 1990s. One trend that has stuck around, though, originates from the earliest days of protective eyewear in cycling, and that is the trend for oversize sunglasses. A hundred years ago riders such as Octave Lapize and Phillipe Thys favoured large, ex-military flying goggles made from glass and leather, while Fausto Coppi sported Ray-Ban’s Aviator models in the 1950s. By the 1980s Oakley was on the scene, and before long Greg LeMond was using the brand’s iconic Eyeshades. If the trend for big sunglasses wasn’t set in stone before, it certainly…

Watching the Tour of Flanders from home after being ruled out with Covid, Wout van Aert would have seen his big rival Mathieu van der Poel ride to a second title. To add salt to the wound, he would then have received a ping from Strava informing him the Dutchman had also taken his KoM on the infamous Koppenberg-to-Taaienberg segment. Crazily, Van der Poel wasn’t even fastest on those sections of cobbles during the 2022 Ronde. That would have been Tadej Pogačar, who pulverised the pack at this key point in the race but lost his head unit in a crash so his ride wasn’t recorded. To make matters worse, the Slovenian sensation sabotaged himself in the finale, somehow contriving to finish fourth in a two-horse race after chasing duo…

There have been rumblings among doctors, coaches and even our own clients at Cyclefit that some athletes have been struggling to return to full performance levels after Covid-19 infection. Evidence is currently anecdotal but seems to be across all age groups and all variants of the disease. Data is hard to come by, but it could affect 5-10% of performance-oriented athletes. To find out more I turned to Dr Nigel Stephens (consultant cardiologist/elite bike-racer) and Dr Jon Baker (performance scientist), both of whom advised me for my book, The Midlife Cyclist, to review what is known about intense exercise and training post-Covid. Firstly, let’s look at the vaccine itself. While there are known short-term side-effects, both Stephens and Baker are clear that the health benefits are overwhelming. ‘Vaccines are safe…

Tomas Van Den Spiegel is excited. It’s late February and the CEO of the Flanders Classics organisation has tweeted a photograph of a barriered section of gently rising Belgian cobblestoned road. Underneath are the words: ‘Only three more sleeps. So ready.’ The following day he tweets a picture of the famous chapel on the Muur van Geraardsbergen and a simple: ‘Two!’ The opening weekend of the Classics is close and the 43-year-old head of one of cycle sport’s most influential race organisers is counting down the days like a child before Christmas. It’s great to see. Cobbled together Van Den Spiegel is still making his way into his office when he logs in for his call with Cyclist. It is early and he has a busy day ahead. Tomorrow brings…

It’s Condor’s most expensive bike to date – but this brilliant steel machine truly deserves to be.’ Thus spake my erstwhile colleague Stu Bowers back in January 2013. (I miss you, Stu.) The bike in question was Condor’s Acciaio Stainless (‘acciaio meaning “steel” in Italian and pronounced A-Cha-Yo, imagine an Italian sneezing’ – thanks again Stu). It cost £2,800 for the frameset and it blew my young mind. Nine years on the Acciaio Stainless is still very much alive and has been joined by this disc brake version. Price has increased drastically – frames are now £3,799.99 – but this might be more illuminating than shocking. Speaking to brands over these past few years, inflation plus Brexit plus myriad other factors means bikes just cost more. Everything costs more. I…

When the Giant Revolt first launched in 2013, gravel bikes as we now know them were just emerging. The bike that many credit to be the starting point, the Salsa Warbird, had been released only a year prior. What was then considered as an esoteric subgenre that probably wouldn’t catch on is now a fully fledged and much-hyped category of its own, yet the Revolt is case in point for how gravel bikes are still evolving. ‘The fastest-developing market outside e-bikes is without doubt gravel, and the needs for that rider are changing dramatically,’ says Giant product manager David Ward. ‘We needed to update the Revolt to meet the current demands of gravel, as well as future-proof the platform.’ So what did that entail? ‘Nothing has been carried over from…

£159.99, chickencyclekit.co.uk When Campagnolo got into the gravel scene with its Ekar 1x groupset in 2020, it also turned its hand to bikepacking luggage, and this new backpack is the latest addition to the range. It may stray close to commuting territory, but the backpack does come with Italian flair to match its robust construction and practical features. The backpack offers 18 litres of space – enough for the everyday commute or a longer trip – and is made from hardy, waterproof material. Inside is a sleeve to protect laptops, but also enough room in which to stuff shoes and kit. Outside there are two small pockets with water-resistant zips, a side pocket for a water bottle, webbing to hold a helmet, and adjustable side straps to keep it all…

‘The greatest potential for improvement in cycling speed is situated in aerodynamics,’ stated the authors of a paper entitled Aerodynamic drag in cycling pelotons: New insights by CFD simulation and wind tunnel testing at Eindhoven University of Technology. ‘At racing speed (about 54kmh), the aerodynamic resistance or drag is about 90% of the total resistance.’ But what happens in a professional peloton? Using CFD and scale wind-tunnel tests to analyse a peloton structured in the classic teardrop form, researchers concluded that every rider experienced a benefit, even those at the front. The leading rider experiences 84-96% of the drag an isolated rider does, ‘due to the upstream flow disturbance caused by the 120 riders behind him/her’. Similarly, outer-edge riders experience 59-67% of the drag. But most striking of all is…

For every one of the five following kilometres to the 1,327m summit, the gradient is well into double digits and it doesn’t let up We might as well be in another country, in another season. It’s a weekend in late August so right now the Col du Tourmalet, just 80km to the east, will be a bustling maelstrom of campervans, motorbikes, cars and cyclists by the score. Here, however, on the Col d’Arnostéguy in the western Pyrenées-Atlantiques department, we have the road entirely to ourselves. And there’s nothing else here – no cafes, no ski lifts, no power lines, no sign of the encroachment of mankind save for the narrow strip of tarmac. The difference is astounding. While the Pyrenees stretch from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, across the full…

We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way up to the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard is the longer way, taking 31km from the Alpine town of Bourg-Saint-Maurice, but it averages just 4.4% gradient and never gets above 6%. The hard way means a detour via the village of Montvalezan, which shaves 5km off the distance but throws in some vicious, steep sections that spike up to 13%. Both routes are equally attractive, but the hard way has a road that’s pink, so let’s go the hard way. Taking the pistes Bourg-Saint-Maurice sits in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeast France, just below Mont Blanc and near to the border with Italy. During the winter it is ski central, being the jumping off point for the resorts…

1 Cannondale Synapse p122 With the endurance bike market shrinking fast, Cannondale has given its trusty workhorse some clever new features for everyday riding. 2 Condor Acciaio Stainless p126 While Condor’s pedigree steel bike is nearly ten years old, a new disc brake version of the Acciaio Stainless proves there’s plenty of life in the old dog. 3 Officine Mattio OM1 S p130 This Italian framebuilder has produced an aero bike with chunky tubes and racy geometry – but there’s more to the OM1 S than meets the eye.…

The Officine Mattio website is handy. It breaks down its entire range of bikes into a Top Trumps-style scoring system, which rates characteristics out of 100 using buzzwords such as ‘KOM Performance’ and ‘Driving Pleasure’. According to no less an authority than itself, the Officine Mattio OM1 S scores 90 for ‘KOM Performance’, ‘Driving Pleasure’ and ‘Elegance’. Its lowest ranking is 80 for ‘Lightness’, followed by 85 for ‘Comfort’. ‘Acceleration’ gets an impressive 95, but its highest score is reserved for ‘Aerodynamics’, for which it receives a perfect 100. So there you have it: the Officine Mattio OM1 S is an outstanding aero race bike that sacrifices a bit of comfort for outright speed. Simple. Review done. Next bike please. But wait, there’s more. Made in Italy There are a…

£240, giro.com As one of the first things to hit the oncoming wind, a helmet can have a disproportionately large effect on overall aerodynamic efficiency. Consequently, Giro has poured a lot of effort over the years into designing aerodynamically efficient helmets, starting with the bowling ball-esque Air Attack in 2012. Ten years on, the new Eclipse Spherical is thankfully much more elegant than the original Air Attack, but the manufacturer still claims this is the fastest helmet it has ever tested. Using its own Aether Spherical helmet as a baseline, Giro says the Eclipse Spherical saves 163.5 seconds over 160km, based on measurements taken at 40kmh. The Eclipse’s admirably svelte form undoubtedly contributes to this efficiency, but Giro also credits the Eclipse’s 14 ‘Wind Tunnel’ vents. It says that, in…

The Egyptian king of the gods, a Scandinavian spirit of nature, and the first two letters of his name. It’s also the name of Rafi Richardson’s bike brand – Rå. Richardson was brought up on a farm in North Yorkshire so had easy access to nature from an early age. His father taught him how to sail and to ride horses, yet while his two younger sisters competed in the two family disciplines, Richardson took a different direction and discovered mountain biking. ‘I used to build jumps and ride in the woods, and that turned into my first downhill race when I was 14,’ he says. ‘Then I got really into it and was doing loads of downhill races and series all over the country.’ Richardson’s dad also instilled in…

1 WIZARD WORKS SCRAPTACULAR MUSETTE £35, wizard.works Racing geese for sale, if anyone wants a quick gander? OK, wrong audience. How about a musette? One that could carry a watermelon the entire length of Paris-Roubaix without it breaking (probably), and one that’s made from upcycled material (definitely) from luggage whizzes Wizard Works’ luggage? What’s good for the goose… 2 GARMIN EPIX GEN 2 SMARTWATCH £899.99, garmin.com Feather inspector sounded like a great job on paper, but it really got us feeling down. Likewise the Garmin Epix smartwatch sounds very much like its sibling, the Fenix 7, and broadly it is – except for one crucial thing: its AMOLED screen has nearly twice the resolution of the Fenix 7 and so is vastly superior when it comes to GPS mapping and…

When Fabio Jakobsen finished his opening time-trial at the start of last year’s Vuelta a España in Burgos, he came coughing and wheezing his way through the mixed zone, the area where journalists speak to riders beyond the finish line. This journalist called for an interview but Jakobsen appeared to ignore the request. This is not unusual. Plus, it seemed that the 7.1km up-and-down effort through the city had taken it out of him: he was in some distress. Yet once he had sufficiently recovered, with the coughing fits coming only every 30 seconds or so, he turned around and, riding against the flow of riders finishing their own efforts, made his way back to the journalists. This is unusual, and perhaps it says quite a lot about Jakobsen. At…

Steve Cummings is preoccupied with change. It’s something he has had to deal with since he was forced to retire as a professional cyclist in 2019 after breaking his back during a crash at the Tour of Britain, a fate that reflects the fragility of living life at warp speed. Cummings was only a few miles away from his home in the Wirral when the crash happened, cutting short his final season with Dimension Data and leaving him wondering what to do with himself once he recovered and it became clear that he wouldn’t have a team for the following season. ‘It was funny – I carried on training for six months, full gas. And then one day I was like, “What am I doing this for?”’ ‘It was funny…

The Cannondale Synapse may be the very definition of an endurance road bike, but it sits in a category that is becoming an increasingly tough sell. With pure road bikes becoming more comfortable and capable thanks to wider tyre clearances, and gravel bikes encroaching from the other side, the endurance road sector is in danger of becoming obsolete. This is why, in order to stay relevant, Cannondale has shifted the focus of its latest Synapse away from being a hardy, Classics-style racer and aligned it more towards the needs of the everyday rider. Those needs – centring on versatility, reliability and ease of use – are evident in the frameset updates. External cables and a BSA threaded bottom bracket make maintenance and component replacement simple. There are mounts aplenty and…

Bigger Is Better p26 Left to right, top to bottom Bollé Chronoshield, £215 bolle.com Roka Matador, £215 roka.com 100% Westcraft, £169.99 freewheel.co.uk Alba Optics Solo SND, £164.75 albaoptics.cc Poc Elicit Clarity, €240 (approx £201) pocsports.com Koo Spectro, £169 velobrands.co.uk Oakley Sutro, £140 oakley.com Scicon Aerowing, £160 sciconsports.com Scott Pro Shield, £90.99 scott-sports.com Shimano S-Phyre, £129.99 freewheel.co.uk Rudy Project Defender, £199.99 bikeloungeonline.com Bordering On The Insane p60 Poc Ventral Air Mips helmet, £230 pocsports.com Poc Aspire sunglasses, £180 pocsports.com Dhb Aeron Lab Superlight Waterproof gilet, £100 dhbsport.com Dhb Aeron Lab Ultralight jersey, £90 dhbsport.com Dhb Aeron Gel 2.0 gloves, £25 dhbsport.com Dhb Aeron Lab Ultralight bibshorts, £135 dhbsport.com Dhb Aeron Lab socks, £16 dhbsport.com Bont Vaypor S shoes, £335 bontcycling.com Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard p90 Oakley ARO3 Lite helmet, £102 oakley.com Oakley Sutro…