Innehållsförteckning för July 2024 från Cyclist

For the most part, I don’t really count those rides. It’s not like I get to work and check my bike computer to see what my average speed was (answer: leisurely but still faster than all the schmucks sitting in cars). A nip to the supermarket for milk doesn’t feature as part of my dedicated training programme, even when I buy those massive six-pint bottles that seem to weigh a tonne. I can, in total honesty, complain to my wife that I haven’t been out for a ride in ages, even if I’ve been on my bike every day. The reason is that, where I live in London, it isn’t very bike-friendly. Sure, there are more bike lanes than there used to be, but a bike ride is still more…

Immersion or hot melt chain waxing has the potential to extend drivetrain life and improve efficiency to a far greater extent than traditional drip-on lubes. However, it hasn’t really caught on because the process can seem like a lot of hassle. In an attempt to simplify things, CyclingCeramic has released a starter kit that provides almost everything you need to wax a chain: protective gloves, a bag in which to prep the chain, a cord to hang it from, a container in which to submerge it and of course a wax block that the brand says is good for up to 80 treatments. Just add a crockpot or slow cooker and you’ll be waxing lyrical in no time.…

Mainly due to the Sphaeras’ 34g claimed weight, Oakley is billing its new model as its ‘most forgettable’ glasses to date. However, given they are set to adorn the faces of Oakley’s sponsored Olympians at the Paris games this summer, the opposite is likely to be true. According to Oakley, the Sphaeras have the widest field of view of any Oakley model, helped by a raised top bar that comes with a large vent to prevent fogging. They also incorporate Oakley’s usual technology, including Unobtanium rubber grippers and Prizm lens coating.…

Cyclist: Let’s get right to it – can Tadej Pogačar do the Giro-Tour double? Mauro Gianetti: It’s a big challenge but we believe it’s possible, otherwise we wouldn’t try. We expect a completely new level from Tadej and we will have the answer at the end of July. What he did last year after his crash was amazing – with just one month to train he was able to finish second in the Tour de France just because he’s Tadej Pogačar. No other rider could have done that. Cyc: How important for cycling is your rivalry with Visma-Lease a Bike? MG: When our team was smaller, the challenge was to be as good as Sky. Now that’s changed it’s good for us, for the sport and for the public. There’s an amazing,…

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For our big day out, Basso PR manager Andrew ‘Monty’ Montgomery kindly lent me his own ‘stealth’-coloured Diamante SV. It’s a blacked-out build that hides a healthy dose of bling in the Lightweight Obermayer Evo wheels, which cost as much as a bike because of the full carbon construction that brings the weight to a hair over 1,200g. They’re paired with more sensible 30mm Continental GP5000 tyres and hybrid Sram Red/Force AXS groupset, which could have done with an extra sprocket or two, as always. The build is finished with a Fizik Vento Argo R3 saddle, a fancy CeramicSpeed OSPW system and a double-wrapping of unreleased Basso bar tape. It could hardly have been better for climbing, weighing around 6.9kg, though I’d have gotten on better with a slightly shorter…

Mud, rain, bergs, cobbles, the smell of frites in the air… the spring Classics capture the imagination of cycling fans in a way the Grand Tours can’t. As the kids would say, they just hit different. For the riders, the Classics season starts at the end of February with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but for seasoned Italian photographers Francesco Rachello and Eloise Mavian it begins even earlier with arranging press accreditation. ‘With accreditation you can move more freely during the race and get to the finish line and the podium,’ says Mavian. But even with the magic pass, getting access to the race isn’t always easy in the face of officialdom. ‘Sometimes you still have problems,’ adds Rachello. ‘You might find a policeman at an entry point who just says, “Sorry,…

‘Ask me how I train for hills,’ says Rikke Laursen. ‘My husband is 90kg; he hangs onto my saddle and I have to pull him up the short climbs we do have.’ It’s an unorthodox method, but it clearly works. Rikke was 2019 Masters World Champion, beating off high-altitude rivals despite living in the eighth flattest country on Earth: Denmark, average elevation 34m. (Pub quizzers: the Maldives is the flattest country on the planet, just 1.5m above sea level.) Along with being a highly accomplished cyclist, Rikke runs a coaching company, a coffee-cum-bike shop, a PR agency and various race teams, and from time to time commentates on Danish TV and radio. Obviously, some people just don’t need to sleep, otherwise how else has Rikke found time to guide me…

I like to imagine this scene unfolded in the Alpecin-Deceuninck team bus following Mathieu van der Poel’s victory at the Tour of Flanders. Sports director Christoph Roodhooft turns to him and says, ‘Mathieu, that was super-good. You must be feeling super-great.’ MVPD: ‘I am, boss, but also a little sad. I’m thinking about Marion and how she must be feeling.’ His teammates look perplexed, before Gianni Vermeersch pipes up: ‘Marion? Marion who?’ MVDP: ‘You didn’t see the sign? We passed it three times.’ Vermeersch: ‘Mate, all I saw was Mads Pedersen’s big aars. Sorry if I wasn’t admiring the scenery.’ MVDP is rummaging in his bag for his shampoo and pretends not to hear this. Axel Laurance: ‘Do you mean the one held up by those girls saying “Wout, we…

‘The mission with the Procen Air was to create a road helmet with the watt-saving advantages of a TT design, while not compromising safety or the rider’s ability to hear and see others around them,’ says Magnus Gustavsson, Poc’s director of hard goods. Poc says its wind-tunnel research proves the Procen Air boasts an improvement of 5-18 watts over its Ventral Mips road helmet at race pace (30-60kmh), depending on the individual and using the supplied visor, which attaches magnetically and is easily removable. Poc also says the helmet lowers wind noise and turbulence around the sides, making it easier to hear other riders nearby. And despite the small number of vents, the Procen Air is cooler than it looks, according to Gustavsson. ‘The vent arrangement is designed to drain…

Sleeker in appearance than the Mono II shoes they replace, Quoc’s M3 Airs enter the frame as the British-based firm’s first foray into the pro peloton. The shoes will support Ineos Grenadiers rider Geraint Thomas in the twilight years of his career, after he recently signed a two-year sponsorship deal with the brand. The M3 Air swaps the Mono II’s microfibre upper for a thinner TPU material, which the brand says better creates a close-fitting shoe that moulds to the rider’s foot shape. Quoc supplies the M3 Air with three insoles that offer varying arch support. Dual dials tighten a tongueless upper that wraps over itself like a burrito. Quoc says designing the upper in this way creates ‘increased stability and an even fit, with none of the structural obstructions…

Professional cycling has long been dominated by talk of ‘attacks’, ‘battles’, ‘pain’ and ‘suffering’, and there’s a place in northern Italy where they have experienced their share of all those things in both bike races and wars. Bassano del Grappa’s bloody history isn’t hidden from view. Just walking around the town you’ll notice the bullet holes from two World Wars that still cover the buildings next to the Ponte Vecchio, and when you look up you’ll see the hulking mass that serves as a reminder of battles past and, if you’re in town for a ride, of suffering to come: Monte Grappa. I don’t need the mountain to remind me of what I’ve signed up for. Starting today’s ride at the headquarters of Basso Bikes, just outside of Bassano, I’m…

The concept of ‘nostalgia’ is attributed to 17th century Swiss medical student Johannes Hofer, who combined the Greek words for ‘homecoming’ and ‘pain’ or ‘ache’. Less familiar is the related notion of mal du suisse – the Swiss illness – a diagnosis given to Helvetian mercenaries laid low physically by a deep longing for their mountainous homeland. The idea of homesickness as a medical affliction has fallen out of favour but, when confronted by the landscape of the Swiss Alps, it’s not hard to imagine how it might shape an identity or form an integral part of the national psyche. The mountains are awesome in the truest sense of the word – they inspire awe – because they exist on such a mind-altering scale. To cyclists, they hold their own…

I can’t help but associate Orbea with the Euskaltel–Euskadi pro team and the band of climbers it sponsored. As a kid from the flattest bit of southern England, the team seemed to represent everything romantic about cycling: daring and invariably doomed attacks, high mountains and scorching sun. Plus its niche status within the peloton, largely thanks to its Basque roots, made it seem far more exotic than its French or Italian counterparts. The new Orca appears to have a similar essence. Not for it the inevitable trudge towards aero-optimised homogeneity. Instead Orbea’s designers have launched an attack on prevailing wisdom with a bike that’s unabashed about prioritising minimal weight. Basque Country co-operative Orbea launched the first Orca over 20 years ago, and its earliest models focussed on low weight. Over…

Fara celebrates its ten-year anniversary next year and remains focussed on mastering just three frames: the F/Road, the F/All-Road and this, the F/Gravel. The company hails from Norway and specialises in bikes that can handle long-distance adventures befitting the expansive landscapes of fjords and mountains that so often feature in the Tour of Norway. Now onto the third generation of its gravel bike, Fara has overhauled the design in a bid to create a frameset that appeals to racers and endurance riders alike. Fara’s founder and CEO, Jeff Webb, says, ‘Our aim was to create a lightweight, responsive frame oriented towards the “fun” side of gravel, with a shorter wheelbase and sporty handling while not compromising its multi-day capabilities.’ Despite this push towards added versatility, Webb is aware that the…

In 2019, engineers at Argon 18 set themselves the challenge of developing a new aero frameset that matched the aerodynamic benefits of their Nitrogen aero bike, while getting as close as possible to the frameset weight of the Gallium, their specialist climbing bike, and being as comfortable as the Krypton, their endurance bike. ‘We were able to match the aerodynamics of the Nitrogen,’ says product manager Alexandre Côté. ‘So we basically made the Nitrogen with a slimmer, slicker design and saved more than 150g on the frame.’ The team fell short of matching the weight of the Gallium Pro Disc by just 10g, with a medium painted Sum Pro frame weighing in at 850g. This is still a little more than some competitor framesets, although a sub-6.8kg build with commercially…

For Dominik Dominiak, comfort is king when it comes to bikes. While most framebuilders are looking for ways to reduce weight and increase speed, Dominiak claims that all his efforts are focussed on making the ride as comfortable as possible. This quest has led him down some interesting avenues with his brand, Project D. The bike he showed at Bespoked 2023 was essentially the result of asking just how far frame flexibility could be pushed without sacrificing stiffness where it’s needed. And with no pesky UCI regulations hampering creativity, he was free to innovate, earning himself not one but two awards in the process. This fixation on comfort is unsurprising when you consider where Dominiak does most of his riding. A Polish native, he lives slap-bang in the middle of…

Watch the closing 5km of the 1980 edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège and, as the camera settles on Bernard Hinault, you soon realise the huge margin of victory about to be enjoyed by the Frenchman. The patron of the peloton is out front alone and wearing number 44 on the back of his famous yellow and black Renault team jersey, and as he enters the outskirts of Liège a motorcycle pulls alongside and there, etched on the blackboard carried by the motorcycle’s pillion passenger, are the bare details that confirm Hinault has smashed his competition: No44: 8’ 30”. It’s a huge gap of course – one that would ultimately grow into a winning margin of more than nine minutes – but those numbers alone fail to reflect the true magnitude of a…

1 Selle SMP VT30 Gel saddle £264.99, sellesmp.com What’s brown and sticky? A stick. What’s black and comfy? Selle SMP’s VT30 Gel saddle. Its inner gel layer is said to reduce pressure on sensitive bits by 30% by moulding to the rider’s shape. It comes with either a stainless steel or unidirectional carbon fibre rail, which takes the full saddle to a claimed 265g, and Selle SMP says it’s ideal for medium and wide sit bones. 2 Finish Line Halo wet lubricant £29.99, freewheel.co.uk Planning meals is food forethought. Bike maintenance forethought is using the right chain lube. Finish Line declares its Halo range, which includes wax, hot wax and wet options, to be its ‘greatest achievement’ in reducing drivetrain friction and wear. The wet lube features three key ingredients:…

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/153montegrappa or scan the QR code. We started from Basso Bikes headquarters about 10km east of Bassano del Grappa and wound our way east to Asolo for a coffee stop, then north to Possagno with a brief side-trip to the Temple of Canova. A lumpy 12km jaunt southwest brought us to the foot of Monte Grappa, where we followed the ascent – 20km and over 1,500m – and descent that will feature in this year’s Giro d’Italia (except for an extension to the mausoleum at the true summit). We then finished in the centre of Bassano del Grappa.…

Since its release in 2014, the Z1 has spearheaded Lazer’s all-rounder helmet category. It was ostensibly designed to compete with the weight and airiness of the Giro Aeon (sub-200g, remember that guy?). Now in its third generation, such design goals are still at the forefront, but the headline here is how Lazer has tried to balance them better with safety through the use of its own technology, dubbed KinetiCore. Where the second-generation Z1 was essentially the original Z1 with a Mips slip-plane liner attached inside, the new Z1 has been completely redesigned, with dozens of small EPS blocks moulded into the helmet’s inside. ‘The blocks are constructed in such a way that they can deform or break during impact, both in the horizontal and vertical direction,’ says Lazer product manager…

When Shimano released its 105 Di2 12-speed groupset last summer, the feeling was that here, at last, was electronic shifting for the masses. Historically, 105 has been Shimano’s mid-level groupset, straddling the gap between its top-tier and budget offerings, and this fully electronic version came in £700 cheaper than its big brother, Ultegra Di2. However, at a price of £1,700 it’s still by no means cheap, so has the groupset of the people gone too posh? In my opinion, absolutely not. Moving to electronic (although a mechanical version still exists) and gaining a sprocket in the process, it’s clear that Shimano has given 105 a fully fledged makeover. Not only is it functionally different but it takes on the sleeker aesthetic of its flashier siblings with a glossy finish. The…

There are few components that can have such an impact on the enjoyment of a ride as the saddle. Get it right and you’ll barely notice it’s there; get it wrong and it will leave you raw, sore and frustrated. Finding a saddle that you get on with can be a lifetime’s pursuit, and some people may struggle to ever find one that they are fully comfortable on. The solution may lie in a Reform saddle, which can be moulded to the shape of a rider’s behind. Canadian company Reform currently offers two models, the Seymour and the Tantalus, with the Seymour being the lighter at 197g and boasting a carbon shell and rails, while the Tantalus is 235g and has titanium rails and a carbon/nylon shell. They’re also mildly…