Innehållsförteckning för Issue 36 från Cyclist Australia

If there was ever a time of the year to be excited about cycling, it's right now. The sun is shining down – a little too much at times – and the holidays have arrived. For some of you, this letter arrives ahead of what we believe is the best Aussie event on the calendar: the Tour Down Under. Entering its 21st edition, the TDU is without a doubt the largest cycling festival in the Southern Hemisphere, with loads of classic rides like Gorge Road, Corkscrew, Windy Point and the finale down to Willunga. And it's not just about the professionals – it's about you too! The WorldTour peloton may be fighting for early-season glory, but for those of us soaking in the 35-degree rays of the Adelaide Hills, this…

If you carry your dirty bicycle into your house and set it down on your nice clean kitchen floor, the distance between the centres of the two muddy patches on the tiles will be the wheelbase of your bike. Simply put, a bicycle’s wheelbase is the distance between the centres of its wheels, and it can be influenced by two key measurements: rear centre (distance from centre of rear wheel axle to centre of bottom bracket) and front centre (distance from centre of bottom bracket to centre of front wheel axle). The resulting figure plays a big role in handling. Steering opinions ‘A longer wheelbase will be more stable at speed, and more stable with a load, but slower to turn. Visa versa for a shorter wheelbase,’ says framebuilder Tom…

Most framebuilders weren’t born that way. Ask around and you’ll hear tales of jacking in careers in advertising, former lives spent welding sheet metal, art colleges, silversmithing, professional catering… the list goes on. Yet there are few if any who can list neuroscientist on their curriculum vitae. ‘I used to work in the neuroscience research field concerned with neural and molecular reasons for sex-specific behaviours,’ says Métier Vélo founder Jamie White. ‘We’d do experiments like genetically reprogramming brain cells in a male to be female, and the other way round, and look to see whether the transgendered animals had male or female behaviours. The interesting point was that behaviour emerges because the brain processes information in a sex-specific way, not that males and females have anatomically different brains. They sense…

Those pesky butterflies were ferociously beating their tiny wings in my stomach I’d never heard of Triplo Stelvio before signing up, and I daresay few Cyclist readers would recognise the event. We do, however, all know Italy’s famed Stelvio Pass (Passo dello Stelvio to the locals), and most of us could figure out what ‘Triplo’ means. In a nutshell, the Triplo Stelvio ascends the Stelvio three times. Needless to say, it’s a big day, and this year’s 2018 inaugural event saw 25 riders from five different countries take to the start line. There are three roads that lead to the Stelvio’s summit, and those who finish the event can say they’ve ridden all three in a single day. The route is just 130km, but it features more than 4,800 metres…

EQUIPMENT Camera: Fujifilm XT-1 Lens: XF 23mm f1.4 Settings: SS, 1/4000sec, ISO 200 Instagram: @bobbarrettphotos The regular rides I do – Sydney’s morning ritual along the Eastern Suburbs beaches and out to La Perouse, or Melbourne’s equivalent along Beach Road – aren’t the ones I want to shoot. For me, riding is about adventure, exploration, meandering roads and rolling hills. More often that not, this desire requires a little more effort; perhaps a train, a drive out beyond the city limits, an overnight stay at some less-than-luxurious accommodation and a pub meal with the locals. It all makes it so much more than just a ride. This shot captures a small slice of what my cycling dreams are made of: a lone rider passes through a classic Australian landscape. Cows…

Untouched is the first word that comes to mind when describing the Highlands of Tasmania. Unlike anywhere else in the state or on the mainland, this is true wilderness that gives you an eerie feeling as you move through the vast surrounds. There’s a humility that comes as you travel through these parts – like you don’t belong, or that your passing will go unnoticed. Riding through this region is all about exploration. Many of the ‘roads’ aren’t visible on standard maps. Instead, this high country is a warren of tracks sitting on the edge of World Heritage Listed sites where mountains reach for the sky. If you’re looking to spend countless nights under the stars, this is the place. I like to approach a trip like this with a…

Let’s take bets on the name,’ says Phil. ‘I suppose it beats another game of “I spy”,’ I reply from the driver’s seat. ‘What did begin with “R” by the way?’ ‘Rachel.’ ‘What?’ ‘Yeah, I saw a woman in a car going the other way and I thought she was probably called Rachel.’ I’m uncertain how best to respond to this information. My thoughts return to Phil’s suggestion, and there follows a considered silence for a few miles while various titles for the new cycling magazine swirl around our heads like winetasting with words. Outside our Skoda Superb, Switzerland slips serenely past. ‘I’m going for Cadence,’ says photographer Paul, finally. ‘I think they might go for something really simple, like Cycling, but someone probably already owns the rights to that,’…

THE SPEC Model Canyon Grail CF SLX 8.0 Di2 Groupset Shimano Ultegra Di2 Deviations None Wheels Reynolds Assault ATR Disc Carbon Finishing kit Canyon CP01 cockpit, Canyon S15 VCLS 2.0 CF seatpost, Fizik Aliante R3 saddle, Schwalbe G-One Bite 40mm tubeless tyres Weight 8.13kg (size M) Price $6,549 + shipping Contact canyon.com/en-au Remember the Fiat Multipla? It was arguably one of the most practical cars ever made, but no one could see past the fact it looked dreadful, like a moon-landing craft with a snout like a Ninja Turtle. When function is permitted to govern form in product design, the result isn’t always easy on the eye, and I fear Canyon may have strayed into this territory with the Grail. I am, of course, referring to those handlebars, a strange…

Cyclist: You joined the Australian Institute of Sport as a junior, transitioned from mountain bike racing to the road and nearly 20 years later, retired. That’s a lot of races. Do you miss it? Cadel Evans: I get asked a lot about whether I miss racing. I miss the regular massages and being looked after by the team, but pressure and expectation is something I don’t miss at all. My last race was the in Gaes Titan Desert [mountain bike stage race] in Morocco in April of this year. When I race now, it is with an entirely different mindset. I used to race to be the best in the world, and now I race to participate. I put on a number, train to be as fit as I can…

There’s a striking moment in the second of the Thereabouts cycling movies that offers a refreshing antidote to the pro cycling scene’s complex web of intrigue and politics. The documentary follows a group of friends in 2015 as they ride their bikes from Boulder to Moab in the United States. They drift across the vast landscape, riding mainly dirt roads for a film that is both meandering and evocative. As twilight settles on the deserts of the American southwest, Taylor Phinney hunches over his machine, his long legs effortlessly speeding him along a seemingly endless road stretching towards the horizon. He’s wearing BMC team issue shorts, a hoodie and denim jacket. ‘The pointlessness is the beauty of it,’ says the voiceover. ‘We’re not training, we’re not racing, we’re not fuckin’…

Today’s stage favours the sprinters. Leading the charge for Lotto is Dylan Groenewegen ‘So these are cyclists?’ asks a charming septuagenarian in the foyer of Vitor’s Plaza apartment block in Portimao, Algarve. ‘Is there a bike race on? Well, jolly good luck to them all…’ And off cycling’s newest, oldest supporter limps to the all-inclusive buffet lunch. Portugal’s south coast is well established as a retirement magnet for British expats, and for five days it is also the venue for the Volta ao Algarve, heading for its 45th staging in 2019. Cyclist is here to spend the opening day with LottoNL-Jumbo, the Dutch team slowly emerging from the shadow of its nefarious past as Rabobank. The likes of former junior world ski jump champion Primoz Roglic have brought the team…

THE SPEC Model Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL6 Disc 2018 Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 9170 Deviations Specialized S-Works Power chainset Wheels Roval CLX 50 Disc Finishing kit Specialized S-Works SL Carbon Shallow Drop handlebar, SL alloy stem, FACT Carbon Tarmac seatpost, Toupe saddle, Turbo Cotton 26mm tyres Weight 6.83kg (56cm) Price $13,500 Contact specialized.com.au Disc brakes or no disc brakes? That is the question. For Specialized it’s a more important question than for most, because it has committed totally to the move towards disc brakes, claiming that it might eventually phase out its rim brake bikes altogether. ‘The Tarmac has always been a pure-bred race bike,’ says Specialized’s Chris Riekert. ‘But I think when we launched the original Tarmac Disc two years ago, the disc bike was seen as a club…

The plan: to share a ride through the Olney State Forest with hundreds of men and women on-mountain and other off-road bikes on the best gravel roads in NSW. For us, however, there would be some additional help – in the form of e-bikes. Pedal-assisted bicycles are becoming accepted more and more by the regular lycra-clad crowd as an alternative to pure pedal power. They’re particularly great for us ‘older’ riders, and they allow some of the larger and not-so-fit riders to experience the fun of blasting up hills and cruising fast gravel roads. On this day, our journey took us through the Watagan and Olney State Forests, a little over an hour from Sydney. Stephen Wilson, who did Gravel Grit Central Coast with me last year, took about one…