Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2015 i Cycling Plus

BOARDMAN 2015 As revealed at the London Bike Show, the British brand has updated its SLS range to include hydraulic disc brakes. Prices range from the £2299 9.0 with Shimano 105 to the £4999 9.9 with Dura-Ace Di2. SPECIALIZED PROTOTYPE SADDLE SPOTTED Spotted on Lars Boom’s bike at the Tour Down Under, this is a shorter design, as seen in the tri world. Specialized is giving little clue as to its current state of development… TEAM WIGGINS KIT As it did with Team Sky, Rapha won the race to produce the racewear for Bradley Wiggins’s new development team. It’s inspired by the mod culture he famously embraces and GB jerseys from the 1960s. FOR ALL THE LATEST BIKE & GEAR NEWS VISIT…

It looks clean and modern, with internally routed cables keeping things neat SPECIFICATION Weight 8.56kg (S/47cm) Frame Double & triple-butted 6061 aluminium Fork Carbon Gears Shimano 105 Brakes Tektro R359 Wheels Shimano RS21 Finishing kit Pinnacle SL stem, Pinnacle bar, Pinnacle seatpost, Pinnacle Race saddle, 25mm Continental Ultra Sport II tyres The Dolomites are a mountain range in northern Italy known for being pale and tall, not unlike our editor. In the 1970s they gave their name to a charming little Triumph saloon car, and in the 2010s they’re the inspiration for a line of affordable road bikes under retailer Evans Cycles’ in-house brand Pinnacle. The Dolomite Six sits at the top of the range and gets a full Shimano 105 11-speed groupset, barring a KMC chain and Tektro R539…

Subtly profiled and manipulated tubes give the bike a clean, modern look SPECIFICATION Weight 8.96kg (52cm) Frame Triplebutted aluminium Fork Carbon Gears Shimano 105 Brakes Shimano BR-561 Wheels Supra RA Pro Finishing kit Supra Speed Line stem, bar and 31.6mm seatpost, Supra Comp Line saddle, 23mm Schwalbe Lugano tyres Brought to UK shores by Merlin Cycles, Dutch brand Sensa offers bikes for every budget. The Trentino SL is a full-on aluminium racer. At £1000 exactly, it’s bang on budget and looks to offer a decent spec for the money. Thanks to some beautifully smoothed welds and a satin black finish, you could be forgiven for thinking the Sensa has a carbon frame. You have to look very closely indeed to see any evidence of joins at all, and the subtly…

OUT OF THE BOX WEIGHT 10.02kg (56cm) FRAME 6066 aluminium FORK Carbon GEARS Shimano 105, 11-28 cassette, 46/36 FSA Gossamer chainset BRAKES Tektro Spyre discs WHEELS Merida Comp FINISHING KIT Continental Cyclocross Race tyres, Merida Pro bar, stem and seatpost, Merida Race saddle Despite its recent success in the pro peloton with Lampre, producing well over two million bikes a year and boasting over 350 dealers in the UK, I’m willing to bet that – if asked – there’d be plenty of other bike companies you’d list before you got to Merida. Specialized, for instance. The American brand that the Taiwanese giant owns 49 per cent of. True story. So, a sleeping giant then? Well, we’ve been impressed with Merida’s road offerings in the past few years and both the…

Try to add an extra hour to your ride to benefit from sharing the workload 1 FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS Cycling is fun, and rarely more fun than when you hit the road with a few friends at the weekend. But if you want to get more than a few laughs out of these rides, you should keep your long-term targets in mind and make the most of the drafting opportunity afforded by working with a group of riders. Not having to take the wind the whole time will help you conserve energy so you can ride for longer. Eddie Fletcher, head sport scientist at Wattbike (wattbike.com/uk), explains: “Those weekend rides with friends can be difficult if all the riders are not of the same ability, and they can tend to…

WE SAY These Low Countries stoppers are high on power, precision and price HIGHS Rock-solid precision and power LOWS Vast price, limited width Weight 94g Max rim width 26mm Max rim drop 50mm Designed by Dutch recumbent specialist M5, these super-light, super-stiff callipers are a hard stopping work of art – if they fit your rims. The broad space frame ‘Powerarch’ arms are each machined from a block of aluminium billet, interlocking for maximum width and stiffness rather than sitting one behind the other. But that does limit pad span, so Zipp Firecrest and other wider rims are a very tight fit unless you trim the pads. The stainless steel spring is excessively strong, too, which caused hand ache for some testers, but power and precise feel is exceptional. DIA-COMPE…

We’re halfway through our first day and I’m spinning sedately up the Porlock Toll Road in Somerset. Riding BTwin’s Triban SE 500, I wasn’t in any danger of taking a Strava KOM, or even of catching the two riders pulling away in front of me. The elastic had snapped. As Lance Armstrong might have put it in his pre-persona non grata days, ‘it wasn’t about the bike’. I was riding the lightest of the three bikes, a machine with a much lower bottom gear than the Claud Butler sister magazine Procycling’s Sam Dansie was riding. He’s 20 years younger than me, with greater fitness, and given the bike’s overly tall gearing he didn’t have the option of twiddling. Our third and youngest rider, Simon Greenacre, of our testing department, wanted…

WHAT TO PACK For a quick training or leisure ride close to home you might not need to carry more than a spare inner tube, a couple of tyre levers, a patch kit, a multi-tool and a frame-fitting or mini-pump. Venture a little further afield, however, and you’re going to need a bit more… if you’re out there all day (or longer!) you’ll need food for starters, a decent waterproof, arm and leg warmers, dry socks and gloves to change into, perhaps a map… WHERE TO PACK IT Your cycling jersey pockets can accommodate a lot, but the more you carry the more sense it makes to carry some of your kit on the bike. A small saddle pack will take your inner tube, levers and multi-tool, but for spare…

WARM UP & COOL DOWN Too many riders neglect to warm up and cool down properly, but rest and recovery are the most important parts of any training plan and getting your pre- and post-workout routine right is crucial. The warm up prepares the body for the workout, while cooling down helps to speed up the recovery. RECOMMENDED WARM-UPS/COOL-DOWNS These will differ depending on the type of session: Recovery session - Warm up 5mins slow pedalling in an easy gear at 60rpm; repeat for cool down Basic endurance/efficiency - Warm up 5-10mins at a very relaxed level; repeat for cool down Intensive - Warm up 10mins progressively, very relaxed-relaxedworking; cool down 10mins relaxed Maximal - These sessions require a serious 20-minute warm-up, using different cadences at a resistance level set…

Iblimming love the Track, me. There was only one human being I could have hit with this revelatory text message, and it was my old friend Simon, a kindred spirit who understood the holiness of the tarmac oval. Note the capital ‘T’. Quick as a flash, he responded, fairly pompously: You were born to the Track, you. Now, this assertion is patent cobblers. Anyone who might hazard upon the historic, open air Herne Hill Velodrome in South London between nine and ten o’clock on a Wednesday morning will note, with only a cursory glance, that far from being ‘born to the track’ my riding style might in fact best be described as ‘crap’. It is awkward, slow, cumbersome and ponderous. I wobble and lurch my way around, with all the…

SPECIFICATION Weight 7.08kg (L) Frame Carbon Fork Carbon Gears Campagnolo Chorus 11 (50/34, 11-28) Brakes Campagnolo Chorus Wheels DT Swiss R23 Spline Finishing kit Ritchey stem and bar, Canyon VCLS 2.0 seatpost, Selle Italia Race saddle, 25mm Continental Grand Prix tyres Canyon has a reputation for wellpriced, lightweight, out-and-out race machines. With the Endurace, though, it has created a bike for the sportive rider. It’s a trend we’ve seen from bikes like Giant’s Defy and Cannondale’s Synapse, though Canyon has gone about it differently. It’s still very much a Canyon, geometry-wise, with the steep frame angles of its race bikes but a shorter reach and longer chainstays. It’s light, too, the frame weighs 1040g, the fork 340g. The comfort comes from Canyon’s VCLS ‘vertical compliance lateral stiffness’ technology. This carbon…

SPECIFICATION Weight 8.15kg (L/58cm) Frame Carbon Fork Shimano Ultegra, 52/36, 11-28 Brakes Oval 527 Wheels Shimano Ultegra direct mount Finishing kit Oval stem, bar and saddle, Transonic carbon seatpost, Oval 720 chainset with Praxis rings, 105 cassette, 23mm Vittoria Zaffiro Pro Slick tyres Fuji is modest about the Transonic, stating only that it’s faster in the wind tunnel than its own Altamira or SST bikes. Aero features include an aero-contoured headtube and a bladed seat-tube that contours around the rear wheel. On the flat the Transonic is time trial-bike quick. Over rolling terrain its brutally efficient ride makes short inclines easy and the frame’s rigidity makes it a very accomplished climber. The geometry delivers a great balance of stability and reactive steering and a very smooth ride, with the back…

LA MANGA CLUB We based our final five shootout at La Manga Club in southern Spain. Famous for its golf courses and as a winter base for professional football teams, La Manga’s location in Murcia also makes it an excellent destination for winter riding breaks. The roads around La Manga are often frequented by Alejandro Valverde and have hosted the Vuelta a España. Visit www.lamangaclub.com to find out more about its fully supported cycling packages, which include access to the resort’s new High Performance Sports Centre. BIKING LA MANGA Ex-pat Geoff Cox was our guide during our time at La Manga Club and helped us find some amazing roads – especially those a short drive from the resort in the stunning Sierra de Espuña. He’ll do the same for you,…

SPECIFICATION Weight 10.11kg (L) Frame 6061 aluminium Fork Carbon blades Gears Shimano Claris, 50/34 unbranded chainset, 11-28 Brakes Tektro R312 Wheels Jalco 32 spoke Finishing kit 4ZA stem, bar, seatpost and single density saddle, 23mm Kenda K196 tyres We’ve no idea where the Verenti name comes from, but if the online behemoth Wiggle continues to defy the laws of economics with bikes like this, it’s fine by us. Even Carrera’s pretty similar Vanquish costs more. The Technique is based around an understated aluminium frame and Shimano’s 16-speed Claris groupset. The 10.11kg weight is very good for the price, the fork has carbon blades and Claris is a class above 2300 and Tourney, with decent lever ergonomics and a good-looking rear mech. The 11-28 cassette means largish jumps, but paired with…

SPECIFICATION Weight 9.29kg (49cm) Frame Audacio 6061 aluminium Fork Carbon, alloy steerer Gears Shimano Tiagra Brakes Shimano Tiagra Wheels Shimano R501 Finishing kit Ritchey Comp Curve bar, 4-Axis stem, Selle Italia X1 saddle, Ritchey seatpost, 25mm Michelin Dynamic Sport tyres A full Shimano Tiagra groupset offers clunky but dependable shifting Lapierre has been in the business for almost 70 years, and its premium carbon models see action in pro races the world over, beneath riders from team FDJ.fr. Its entrylevel Sport range includes three Audacio models, of which the 400 is the most expensive. We reviewed an Audacio 400 CP a couple of years ago, and this is outwardly a very similar machine. Look a little closer, though, and there’s one noticeable difference -where the 400 CP had slim, gracefully…

The Scott’s threaded BB shell is a boon to those happy to wield their own spanners SPECIFICATION Weight 9.32kg (M/54cm) Frame 6061 aluminium Fork Carbon, alloy steerer Gears Shimano Ultegra/105 Brakes Shimano BR-R561 Wheels Syncros Race 27 Aero Finishing kit Syncros FL2.0 stem, RR2.0 bar, R1.4 seatpost and Road Endurance saddle, 23mm Kenda Kriterium tyres Scott has grabbed many headlines over the years for its trend-setting race bikes. The original CR1 heralded a new era in carbon monocoques, the Addict set the benchmark for flyweight frames, and the Foil helped usher in a generation of lightweight aero machines. All the while, though, the company has been quietly selling thousands of its Speedster aluminium road bikes. The Speedster 10 is the top-of the-line model, and at £1 short of a grand…

OUT OF THE BOX WEIGHT 8.52kg (58cm) FRAME Carbon FORK Carbon GEARS Shimano 105 BRAKES Shimano 105 WHEELS Shimano RS11 FINISHING KIT Cannondale C3 seatpost, bar and stem, Prologo Kappa Evo saddle, 25mm Schwalbe Lugano S tyres, FSA Gossamer BB30a chainset I love the carbon Synapse. The lighter, stiffer hi-mod version is great, but I prefer this more comfortable standard model. I also have to admit to making last year’s Bike of the Year now quite possibly the most expensive Shimano 105-equipped bike on the planet. That’s thanks to a succession of upgrades (of kit I’ve tested), creating my perfect all-day riding companion. I can see it’s quite mad upgrading an £1800 bike with over £4000 worth of extras, but it’s lost a kilo in weight – even with pedals,…

Weight 324g Rotor 160mm Semi-hydraulic TRP’s hybrid brake has proved outstanding. Putting the hydraulic fluid reservoir on top of the potentially scalding calliper sounds risky, but our Bikeradar colleagues in Colorado have dragged this down 20-mile-plus descents without boiling it, and it’s survived tandem testing too. It works with a conventional lever, and a barrel cable adjuster and lockable actuator arm make setting up very easy. Lever feel and modulation are noticeably better than TRP’s own Spyre brake and close to a full hydraulic system when used with Tektro’s compressionless brake outer. Weight is relatively high, but pads are widely available and the price is reasonable. HIGHS Consistent power and control LOWS Heavier than a conventional cable disc setup HAYES CX5 EXPERT £44 Weight 318g Rotor 160mm Cable-operated/mechanical The cheapest…

WE SAY Shimano’s flagship rim brake is superpowerful, highly adjustable and silky smooth HIGHS Outstanding power and control LOWS Heavier than conventional dual pivots Weight 150g Max rim width 30mm Max rim drop 52mm Dura-Ace 9000 introduced Shimano’s SLR EV dual-pivot design, which effectively creates a central mount-compatible direct mount brake. It significantly boosts leverage, making these brakes more powerful than standard dual pivots. Stiff architecture, super-smooth pivots and a roller-guided upper arm mean fine control is outstanding. The indexed cable clamp also allows fine clearance adjustment on the fly. It’s worth noting that while they physically open wider, Shimano lists 25mm tyres and 28mm rims as their maximum capacity, and Shimano’s wide-rim-fit pads are carbon only. CAMPAGNOLO ATHENA DUAL PIVOT £45 Weight 167g Max rim width 33mm Max rim…

WE SAY The Podium lives up to its name, grabbing number one spot with its blend of fit and performance Pockets 1 Altura is well known for its commuter products, but its packable Podium is every inch a road product. It packs very well into a cylinder shape perfectly designed for a rear jersey pocket, and uses Altura’s proprietary React Fabric to impressive effect, providing a good barrier to the elements while retaining decent breathability. The sizing is very good with a slim race fit and nice long tail, while the stretch cuffs ensure a good transition to your gloves and help to keep the elements out. It may cost 100 quid, but this excellent jacket is worth the asking price and deserves its podium position HIGHS Fit, performance, packability,…

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER Being organised and ensuring you, your kit and bike are all in good working order is a basic but key component. Aim to ride a similar distance to the event prior to entering – you’ll get the best insight into how much fuel you’ll need and the kinds of demands a full sportive will have on your body. Study the route plan in detail, noting gradients and feed and mechanics stations. PICK YOUR PACE The best way to monitor your effort is through a power meter or heart rate monitor, though you will need to have trained with one to find your levels or zones. Failing that, if you’re riding at normal pace and can hold a conversation, this usually demonstrates you aren’t pushing yourself too hard.…

WHAT IS CRAMP? Most endurance cyclists will experience ‘paraphysiological’ cramp at some time. Usually brought on by long or hard rides, cramp is characterised by strong muscle spasm. The muscle can be sore for up to 24 hours. It tends to be more common in hot weather, and dehydration seems to be an influence. Electrolytes in the blood become imbalanced, and low magnesium is thought to be involved. This causes the nerve endings in the muscles to become over-sensitive. FOOT AND CALF CRAMP Calf cramp is the most common cramp to affect cyclists. The position of the foot contributes to this. Poor bike setup can be to blame, particularly a saddle too high and incorrect cleat position. Foot cramp is particularly painful. It usually involves the intrinsic muscles in the…

SPECIFICATION Weight 8.36kg (M) Frame Carbon Fork Shimano 105, 52/36, 11-28 Brakes Shimano 105 Wheels Fulcrum Racing 7 LG Finishing kit Genesis 0.2 alloy stem, bar and seatpost, Genesis road saddle, 25mm Continental Ultra Sport tyres The Zero starts off with a positive few bikes can match at this price – a frame ridden in the pro peloton. The Madison Genesis riders get swankier kit, but the 950g chassis is identical, down to the carbon dropouts and routing for mechanical and electronic drivetrains. While not being fully aero, the frame flies the aerodynamic flag. Its tubes have a Kammtail profile, a truncated aerofoil that improves airflow while staying within UCI criteria. There’s a BB86 press-fit bottom bracket for drivetrain efficiency and pencil-thin seatstays for comfort, which is also the reason…

BEST VALUE SPECIFICATION Weight 7.1kg (58cm) Frame Carbon Fork Carbon Gears Shimano Dura-Ace 50/34, 11-28 Brakes Shimano Dura-Ace Wheels Mavic Ksyrium Elite S Finishing kit Deda Superleggera bar, stem and seatpost, Fizik Arione VS saddle, 25mm Mavic Yksion Pro tyres Ribble has earned a reputation for value – but the downside has been that top-notch kit has sometimes been draped on an average chassis, with Ribble having little input in frame design. Well, the Lancashire lads have developed their own frames – and this is the first. Its geometry has a northern road man’s take on what constitutes a ‘sportive’ frame, and is closer to a race frame with a few tweaks. And though the 1100g frame and 390g fork are light, those aren’t cutting edge weights these days. But…

CASH INJECTION The legacy of the Yorkshire Tour de France Grand Départ continues to deliver as Nick Clegg announced a £500,000 cash boost to British Cycling to build closed-road circuits across the county. GRAN PLANS Britain’s first-ever gran fondo, the Tour of Cambridge-shire, on 7 June, is aiming high: £1500 first prize to the winning male and female, a route that’s the envy of Belgium, closed roads and what they’re hoping will be a world record for a time trial field (700+). CITY SLICKERS Eight British cities, including Leeds and Bristol, will split £114m over the next three years to improve cycling infrastructure as part of the Cycle City Ambition scheme. BAD MEN The marketeers promoting E3 Harelbeke came under fire for a poster showing a rider pinching a podium…

CHEDDAR GORGE SOMERSET Cheddar Gorge is number one in climbing Clouseau Simon Warren’s book, 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs. It also holds a special place in our hearts, given its proximity to our Bristol office; not only is it a great climb to train on, it’s also a dramatic location for photography, as our bike test (p52) demonstrates. Rising out of the town of Cheddar in the Mendip Hills, it’s famed more for its aesthetics than its difficulty. Its craggy cliff faces and switchbacks give it more of a Continental feel than many of the up and over variety usually found in Britain, and it’s this that makes it so popular. It averages around 4 per cent over 2.6 miles, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s very steep at…

This is no cobble-calmer. In fact, the ride quality errs towards the firm side SPECIFICATION Weight 8.52kg (M/54cm) Frame Fuji A6-SL custom-butted aluminium Fork Carbon, alloy steerer Gears Shimano 105 Brakes Shimano BR-561 Wheels Oval 327 aero Finishing kit Oval 313 stem, 310 bar, 300 seatpost and R500 saddle, 23mm Vittoria Zaffiro Pro Slick tyres Fuji Bikes can trace its history back more than a century and the firm entered bicycle manufacturing as the Nichibei Fuji Cycle Company in 1919, in its homeland of Japan. Since then, the brand has sailed the choppy seas of boom and bust with varying degrees of success, and in the late 90s, the Fuji Bikes we know today emerged, headquartered in the USA. The Roubaix 1.3 is Fuji’s entry-level aluminium model, and while its…

The tubes are double butted, the overall appearance of the frame one of quality SPECIFICATION Weight 9.75kg (52cm) Frame Genesis Mjölnir chromoly Fork Carbon, alloy steerer Gears Shimano Tiagra Brakes Shimano Tiagra Wheels Fulcrum Racing Sport CX Finishing kit Genesis seatpost and saddle, Genesis Road stem and Road Compact bar, 25mm Continental Grand Sport tyres Should you venture down to your nearest purveyor of hipsterapproved bicycles and artisanallyconcocted coffee, you may overhear someone posit that ‘steel is real’, and they may do so without a hint of irony (which is itself ironic, because, y’know, iron...). The thinking goes that carbon frames are mere disposable novelties; aluminium is but a young pretender; and steel is above all the connoisseur’s choice, the timeless tipple of gentlemen with a taste for authenticity. This…

£29.99 CONSTRUCTION Panaracer’s 32mm Gravel King is a completely different tyre to the narrower file tread versions of the same name, but has the same moderately supple 126TPI (threads per inch) casing. An aggressive-looking tread combines a small-block central strip with longitudinal bars on the shoulders, interrupted by slightly bigger blocks. PUNCTURE PROTECTION Bead-to-bead protection means these are resistant to sidewall slashes as well as punctures through the tread. WEIGHTS & MEASURES On our reference road rim the Gravel Kings measured about 30mm wide – which is 2mm narrower than their nominal size. Even taking that into account, these are fairly light tyres at an average of 313g each. RIDE QUALITY Given the name, we went in search of some gravel to test these, and found plenty on Salisbury Plain.…

OUT OF THE BOX WEIGHT 8.44kg (52cm) FRAME Carbon FORK Carbon GEARS Shimano 105, 12-30 cassette, 50/34 FSA Gossamer Pro chainset BRAKES Tektro R315 WHEELS Easton AXR FINISHING KIT Vitus Elite Compact bar and Elite stem, Vitus saddle and seatpost, 25mm Kenda Kriterium tyres There’s nothing quite like testing heavy bikes to make you appreciate the pleasure of a lightweight carbon job. When I first rode the Vitus, its acceleration was quite astonishing after my beautiful but not light steel Paulus Quiros. Now, after testing a 10.84kg Liv and a 12.5kg Pendleton, when I hop back on the Vitus it reminds me what fun it is to speed along on a lightweight road bike. Hello big ring, I remember you! When the Vitus first arrived, it had already been tweaked…

WE SAY Whatever shifting you combine it with, Shimano’s hydraulic disc is the current state of-thestopping art Weight 528g Rotor 160mm Hydraulic Whatever shifting you combine it with, Shimano’s hydraulic disc is the current state-of-the-stopping art. We’ve tested the Di2 electronic shifting version here, but the mechanical version (R658) is identical in terms of the brake, and £10 cheaper per unit. Impressively, there’s no obvious change in external dimensions or even lever pull distance compared with conventional STIs. The super-light, ultra-consistent, any-weather control is definitely hydraulic, though: single-finger power is ample and the finned IceTech pads and bi-metal sandwich frilled ‘Freeza’ rotors (£50) dissipate heat very effectively. They are heavier than the SRAM competition but they are significantly cheaper even if you get your local shop to fit and bleed…

WE SAY SRAM’s Red cable callipers minimise weight and drag without compromising control HIGHS Aero profile and low weight LOWS Not as powerful as Shimano Weight 127g Max rim width 30mm Max rim drop 50mm SRAM’s sleek, slipstream-aligned QR cam may only save fractional drag, but it all helps. The additional anchored (rather than roller) cam ‘Aero Link’ brings the pads in fast before boosting power at the point of contact to give more bite than the average dual pivot. Deep-set, cold-forged arms give accurate feedback however hard you pull, and these top-of-the-crop rim stoppers come with SwissStop Flash Pro pads as standard for consistent control. There’s plenty of room for the widest rims, and at under 130g these save a few grams over most of the competition. FSA SL-K…

WE SAY Traditional shell jacket lifted by Italian styling but the fit won’t suit all HIGHS Great styling and highly packable LOWS Fit won’t suit the slimmest riders Pockets 0 Italian styling lifts Castelli’s good, if somewhat traditional, packable jacket. Windproofing is courtesy of the ripstop fabric, which combines with a DWR (durable water repellent) coating to deter water ingress. There’s ventilation on the back of the shoulders and neck, though it’s less breathable than the best jackets, and the fit was a little loose around the shoulders and flapped in use on our slim tester. In spite of being devoid of pockets, the Velo packs neatly into its collar, and we also like the colour – an attractive alternative to the neon yellows favoured by some manufacturers DHB WISP…

WE SAY Aptly named, a classic packable that looks good and is a great performer Pockets 1 Rapha’s Classic Wind Jacket is a good looking garment, and as you’d hope when you’re forking out this kind of money, it also performs extremely well. So well in fact that it’s unlikely you’ll be needing the 30-day money-back ‘Classics Guarantee’ offered. The Classic Wind Jacket packs well, offers strong wind protection, and good water resistance and breathability. It features a long tail, valuables pocket, reflective details, taped seams on the shoulders and windblocking cuffs. If your budget can stretch this far then it’s a terrific outer layer to add to your collection. HIGHS Design, performance, fit LOWS Nothing, if you’ve got the budget ODLO MUD HARDSHELL TRANSPARENT £75 Pockets 0 Want to…

SKEWER YOURSELF 1 First, beat yourself soundly over the head with a mini pump (you did remember to bring the pump, didn’t you?). Next, loosen the quick release mechanism and take the wheel out of the bike. Make sure all the air is out of the tyre, then remove the quick release skewer from the wheel and keep it handy SQUEEZY DOES IT 2 Hold the wheel vertically and, starting at the top, use both hands to squeeze the tyre beads away from the rim hook and into the centre of the rim channel. Gradually work your way down both sides of the wheel until your thumbs meet again at the bottom of the wheel LEVER-AGE 3 You should now have just about enough slack in the tyre to be…

SPECIFICATION Weight 8.1kg (M) Frame Carbon Fork Carbon Gears Shimano 105 Brakes Shimano 105 Wheels Fulcrum Racing 7 LG Finishing kit 3T Arx Pro II stem and Ergosum Pro bar, Argon 18 ASP 150 carbon seatpost, Prologo Kappa Evo saddle, 25mm Continental Ultra Sport tyres Over the following pages we reveal our findings on 30 top rides in our rundown to the final five shootout The Krypton really is all about its frameset. This is a reworked top-of the-range Gallium from a few years ago, which has lost weight and is now claimed to be stiffer through drivetrain and headtube. Like all of its bikes, it’s built around Argon 18’s own HDS, or ‘Horizontal Dual System’. This divides the frame along a diagonal line from the top of the head-tube…

SPECIFICATION Weight 7.74kg (58cm) Frame Carbon Fork Carbon Gears Shimano Ultegra Brakes Shimano Ultegra Wheels Bontrager Race Tubeless-ready Finishing kit Bontrager R2 stem and bar, Paradigm Race saddle, Carbon seatpost, 23mm R2 Hardcase tyres After the Madone morphed into an aero-optimised speed special, the company was left with a gap in its arsenal – which the Émonda fills. The SL6 uses new 500 series OCLV carbon to create a 1050g frame. But it’s not all about weight. Though the Émonda is an all-new bike, the minute we started riding we felt at home. It took us back to the Madone’s glory days. The geometry gives a comfortable yet commanding position. You can still get down in the drops and push the pace without feeling cramped, but on the hoods you…