Indholdsfortegnelse for January-February 2023 i Bicycling Australia

Editorial RECENTLY FUELLING UP MY VEHICLE, I WAS SHOCKED TO PUMP IN twenty litres of diesel for the grand total of a touch over $50! Seriously, I’ve never seen the dollar numbers tick over so quickly … and the litres flow so slowly. ‘Fifty bucks for twenty litres … this is getting out of control,’ I thought at the time. Considering that a few short years ago $50 would cover fuel for a week, I started thinking about the options and evaluating the alternatives. The first and most obvious were the three bikes in the rack at home. If I took a bike that day I would’ve added to the weekly distance goal, enjoyed some fresh air, arrived at the destination happier and only around 20-minutes later, covered lunch and…

TDU Primer THE FIRST ‘REAL’ TOUR DOWN UNDER IN SEVERAL years, top-level professional racing will finally return to Adelaide for the 2023 TDU in January. Completely disrupted by COVID-19, the last real Tour Down Under was held in 2020, just a few weeks before the true impact of the pandemic and crisis began to grip Australia. With international riders and teams unable to travel, the race’s immediate future looked grim, with many wondering out loud just how severe the pandemic might impact Australia’s favourite annual cycling race. In January 2021, then again in January 2022, organisers hosted ‘the Santos Festival of Cycling’ in lieu of the traditional TDU. Both events offered exciting racing, were a great outlet for fans, and provided some brilliant opportunities for up-and-coming amateur and professional riders.…

Tested: New Wahoo Kickr THE INDOOR TRAINER MARKET IS a pretty dynamic place at the moment. With the boom of indoor training software over the last few years there has been a huge increase in people regularly using indoor trainers. Correspondingly, the depth and variety in the market is bigger than ever. The Wahoo Kickr has traditionally been at the top of the pile or at least sharing the top place with a couple of other flagship trainers. With this pedigree comes the pressure to continue feature-adding and evolving in order to stay at the top. So it is always intriguing to see what Wahoo adds each time a new Kickr model comes out. The V6 (2022) model adds a few helpful features and probably does enough to keep the…

CERVELO’S ORIGINAL SOLOIST was released way back in 2002 and quickly established itself as a bike to be taken very seriously. Ridden by high profile pros such as Team CSC – Cancellara, Voigt, O’Grady, Basso, the Schlecks etc – the bike quickly gained a huge amount of respect. Looking back through online archives, legendary images of pivotal moments from many great races prevail. In its day, the respected reviewers at PEZ Cycling News said this about the bike. “What the Soloist is, and without reservation, is a great all-rounder and one of the best race bred machines tested to date. It is a tool that should be strongly considered for any rider type in the flat to rolling parts of the country, very strongly considered by any powerhouse guys that…

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN when we reflect, pause a little and recharge for a full-on 2023 … I know that’s my plan! With ongoing challenges, many of them beyond our wildest dreams, it is indeed hopeful that 2023 will be a calmer year and perhaps a time when things get back to normal. Around this time last year, I made some bold predictions about the new products and accessories that might be all the rage in 2022. And I'm pleased to say many of these rang true. This time 'round I’m going to tackle the road ahead as I feel it’s more relevant. Will it be a bumpy road, one riddled with more potholes? Yes, I suspect so. It would be remiss to not cover the economy and…

WHEN BRODIE CHAPMAN WAS A CHILD RIDING her mountain bike in the secluded bushland in her hometown of Mount Glorious about an hour north west of Brisbane, she never dreamt of becoming a professional road cyclist. This is partly because 20 years ago no female professional road cyclists made a living by riding and racing their bikes, but also because mountain biking was the only riding she knew. Fast forward to the 2020s and it is certainly not just a possibility but a reality for Brodie and her fellow riders. As an Australian professional cyclist, Chapman came late to road riding, only focusing on it when she attended university in Brisbane and worked in a local bike shop to help pay the bills. It was at this time that she…

Bike Packing 101 GERMAN BORN AND VIRTUALLY NOMADIC endurance cyclist Jonas Deichmann is one of most experienced and accomplished ultra long distance riders and record breakers around. For the past number of years Jonas has basically been living the dream, or at least his dream – the one that essentially means that wherever he lays his seat pack is his home. After quitting his job in IT sales some years ago he cut free from the life that most expect of us and took off on two wheels carrying all of his belongings in a pair of panniers, and he’s pretty well lived that way ever since. That was until record breaking fame caught up with him, which has now made him semi-nomadic, living life on the road between new…

DESCENDED FROM ITALIAN rubbery greatness, custom tailored from decades of experience in the dust and mud of the biggest cyclo cross races in the world, and then hand crafted in Thailand; Challenge is very much a premium tyre brand whose excellence is appreciated by the likes of Tom Pidcock when the going gets rough – blurry sponsorship commitments aside. When the best is called on by the elite then many of the offroad greats call on Challenge to get them through the rough and tumble. The brand may well have earned their revitalised spurs in the cyclo cross fields, but they’re no slouch on any terrain, and their original and classic long standing Gravel Grinder tyre was first created by slightly rehashing their popular dry racing ace cyclo cross tyre…

OF THE FOUR WINDS, A southerly change is typically the least welcome. And not just by cyclists, but sailors and no doubt many other outdoors types as well. Southerlies can be strong, can often carry rain, usually hit hard, and deliver sudden and noticeable change. Southerlies tend to stand out from the pack, so far as the weather goes, being the antitheses of a warm and welcome northerly, a refreshing easterly or sea-calming westerly. Southerlies are bold, brash and forthright ... they have purpose and mean business. Much like the Ostro from bike company Factor, a model indeed named after southerly winds. “Ostro is the traditional name of a southerly wind in the Mediterranean, especially the Adriatic. Its name is derived from the Latin name ‘Auster’, which also meant southerly…

PURE SPORTS NUTRITION Pure Sports Nutrition are premium natural products that fuel clean performance, and contain no artificial ingredients or colours. The Pure range covers Energy Gels, Electrolyte Hydration, Recovery & Protein powders, Endurance products and more. The team here at Bicycling Australia have sampled (and ridden using) a range of Pure products and we strongly endorse them. Their Fluid Energy Gels are particularly good; they are far more ‘drinkable’ due to their liquid nature and have noticeably natural flavouring. Pure Sports Nutrition have been developed and manufactured in-house at Pure in New Zealand by qualified sports and exercise nutritionists. The brand has proven very popular – both in testing and training. Pure products have undergone rigorous testing by athletes who have assessed all aspects of performance and taste before…

The Classics IT SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY I WAS LINING UP TO ride the inaugural Bowral Classic in 2016. Back then it certainly felt like it was the start of something new, particularly for New South Wales. This year, the event felt more like a staple in the suite of established events. Each of the “classics” has their own feel, and the Bowral Classic is fantastic, drawing thousands of keen cyclists of all abilities to participate in any of the six variants on offer over the weekend. Here is how that perfect October Sunday panned out for the 150km ‘Highlander’ group. Arrival: The 630am start time, for those riding off in the early groups, means cool and dark conditions. I love the anticipation at the start line where hundreds of cyclists…

COINCIDING WITH THE FINAL arrival of warm weather – and, ironically enough, a perfectly matching black Factor Ostro ‘race gravel’ bike – the new Kask Protone certainly appeared at the right time. An updated version to an all-time classic road cycling helmet, the original Protone has been around since 2014. That was when it started to appear on the heads of many of the world’s top pros, the Team Sky riders of the day being the most notable. Sitting in an office, sadly well away from a bike, but wearing the new Protone Icon as I type, donning the helmet was a lot like pulling on a favourite pair of boots. One of Kask’s premium high-end helmets, as soon as you put the helmet onto your head you notice that…

THIS ISSUE, OUR QUEST TO REVEAL THE CLASSIC ‘MUST-DO’ rides in Australia takes a social turn – or, more specifically, a social media turn. We threw open the conversation to readers everywhere to share their favourite rides via Instagram, Facebook and the Bicycling Australia website. Keep reading for a selection of what you’ve told us… The Brisbane Valley Rail Trail. It offers 161km of gravel bliss, with fabulous towns conveniently placed all along it to provide pies and beer. Greg Aurgilmer, Queensland. “Bright to The Horn to Bright. There’s the most stunning scenery all the way up (and down) and the ‘I’ve made it to the top of the world’ view just goes forever when you make it to The Horn.” John Knight, Lane Cove, NSW ”Gyndier Drive…