Innehållsförteckning för Issue 39 från Cyclist Australia

By the time you read this, the Giro d'Italia will have finished and those with juice still in the tank will be getting the body steadily ready for Le Tour. Our profiled Italian Vincenzo Nibali, at time of writing, was circling his prey, and we're putting money on it right now – with a week to go – that the Shark from Messina will add another maglia rosa to his palmarès. But Vincenzo's path into cycling wasn't all smooth pedalling – his dad once threatened (and actually went through with) chopping his bike in half. Find out more on page 78. While that particular bike may have been beyond salvage, we’re pretty sure a few others were heading to the repair shop after getting caught in the early chaos of…

Why is it that you can be a size nine in one brand of shoe, but a size 10 in another? And why isn’t there a standardised sizing system to tell us whether or not a shoe will fit before we try it on? It’s a similar quandary for bicycles. Not only do brands have different ways of sizing frames, but the most common method isn’t particularly effective at indicating whether a bike will fit or not. Traditionally, frames are sized by the length of the seat tube, usually measured from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the tube itself. As with shoes, this figure is little more than an arbitrary number, so most bike manufacturers also provide a lot more detailed sizing information, packaged up…

Many people book their holidays a year in advance. Same time, same place, year in, year out. If everything goes to plan, the bakery still does those perfect soft rolls, the playground for the kids has all the equipment working, there’s always enough ice at the service station for the esky, and the other regular families have rebooked. Familiarity and consistency are key. They aren’t necessarily averse to change; they just don’t seek it out. There’s no desire to push into the great unknown. To find a location that’s a little different and ask, ‘Why haven’t we gone here before?’ Which is what makes Lake Eildon almost paradoxical. For holidaymakers who don’t ride a bicycle, Eildon ticks every box. Fans of The Castle would know it well. We’re goin’ to…

It feels like a festival and it’s being delivered at a level rarely found at any sporting event back home A striking blue Lamborghini, resplendent with flashing police lights, creeps in reverse towards the first line of riders. The music, some kind of bastardised Queen meets Euro trash house – usually reserved for only the biggest of music festivals – blares from six-foot-tall speakers. Dawn noise restrictions around Emilia-Romagna’s east coast town of Cervia don’t apply today. Th is is the Granfondo Via del Sale, and everything stops for this race – yes, I just labelled it so. The MC is racing around grabbing sound bites from the likes of two-time Giro d’Italia winner Paolo Savoldelli, cycling legend (reserved in this writer’s vocab for only the biggest of stars) Andrea…

To download this route, go to strava.com/routes/18467788. After a brief stretch south on the 60 road out of Imotski the route turns east, just past a bridge over the River Matica. Stay on this road through Zmijavci and Runovi? and it will brush the Bosnia and Herzegovina border before bending southwest and climbing up to the town of Slivno. Follow the road until it meets the 76 then head for Zagvozd. Take the turning left just past the town’s church on to the 62 road, which you stay on all the way to Kozica. Turn right to climb and pick up the 512, a high-altitude coastal road. Follow that down to the entrance to the Natural Park Biokovo. From there it’s a 46km out-and-back climb to the peak of Sveti…

THE SPEC Model Cervélo S5 eTap Disc Groupset Sram Red eTap HRD Deviations None Wheels DT Swiss ARC 1450 DiCut 48mm Finishing kit Cervélo AB08 bars, CS28 V Stem, Cervélo SP20 seatpost, Prologo Dimension TiRox saddle, Continental GP4000S II 25mm tyres Weight 7.77kg (56cm) Price $14,000 Contact cervelo.com For years, aerodynamics just meant riding in the drops. Th en it meant cutting off your ponytail and wearing pointy hats. Th en it meant deep section wheels and soon-to-be-banned riding positions. The common theme was taking things in isolation, optimising parts of a bike or rider without much consideration for the way all these elements interacted. Th en Cervelo came along, and by 2007 it had a life-sized, poseable model of its Team CSCsponsored rider, Dave Zabriskie. As the company’s co-founder…

The Mawson Trail – named for great Australian explorer of the Antarctic, Sir Douglas Mawson – is like no other outback trail in Australia. The variety of terrain is almost endless. Turn by turn it leaves you wondering what grand vistas or iconic remnants of history will be around the next corner or crest. The impossibly rugged form of the Flinders Ranges leaves you more breathless than the effort required to keep your legs turning across this demanding landscape. While some days are harder than others, you’ll always feel rewarded each evening throughout the Mawson journey. It can be a somewhat meditative experience that, at times, has you feeling like you’re riding straight through a Hans Heysen watercolour. There are magnificent river gums, old dilapidated mudbrick buildings and rusted farm…

If Matthew Sowter were a footballer he’d probably have won any number of Ballons d’Or by now, and multiple Players’ Player of the Year titles too. His resume boasts an array of industry accolades, and ask any framebuilder who they admire and Sowter’s name comes up time and again. The South African headed to the UK to pursue a dream of making frames, but when a series of jobs left him feeling let down by the UK framebuilding industry (one manufacturer ‘imported most of their stock frames from China’) he struck out alone under the banner of Saffron Frameworks in 2012. Since then his frames have gone from beautifully crafted custom steel to appearing in the Commonwealth Games under Dan Craven, to this, arguably the most elaborate Saffron bike to…

Two of my favourite things are autumn and Japan, so getting to combine them on a recent trip to Akita Prefecture was a recipe for my own little slice of cycling heaven. I’ve been to Japan many times (this is my sixth) and have grown very fond of the culture, food, people and lifestyle. But my visits have predominantly been to big cities, like Tokyo and Osaka. I hadn’t explored the more rural and remote areas to see what life is like away from those manic, sensory-intensive metropolises. What I found after a few days cycling in Akita was a different Japan from that which I’d experienced. An amazingly stunning and more beautiful Japan. A remote and quiet Japan. A slower, hard-working, blue-collar agricultural Japan. And, most of all, a…

During the spring of 2015, an idea started to come together between Maap co-founders, Oliver Cousins and Jarrad Lory, and well-known sports photographer slash rider Jeff Curtes. At that point it was just a murmur, but the potential was there to create a domestic cyclocross team that would be known throughout the cyclocross world. The murmurings became stronger when Garry Millburn, arguably one of Australia’s best cyclocross athletes, reached out to Curtes about connecting him with a potential sponsor. In typical Curtes style, he took this as an armswide-open invitation and immediately pitched Millburn as the leading rider on a three-rider squad, along with himself and Andy Rogers. It was all Maap needed to cement the idea and start its own cyclocross team. Cousins and Lory were relatively unfamiliar with…

On big days out it’s always prudent to opt for a bike that’s a little less aggressive and more centred on keeping you comfortable. In that respect Trek’s Domane fitted the bill perfectly. It looks pleasingly similar to the racy Emonda, but the Domane’s stack is a little higher and reach a little shorter, which puts the rider in a more sustainable position for racking up the kilometres. While it’s a bit portlier than most race frames, neat design features such as its clearance for wide tyres and Isospeed Decoupler in the seat tube meant the bike soaked up the worst of Croatia’s occasionally broken roads. It also meant that after several hours in the saddle my hands, back and posterior all felt a lot fresher than they had any…

THE SPEC Model Basso Diamante SV Disc Groupset Campagnolo Record 12 Speed Disc Deviations None Wheels Campagnolo Bora One 35mm Disc Finishing kit Microtech Quantum bars, Basso Diamante stem and seatpost, Selle San Marco Mantra Carbon FX saddle, Michelin Pro 4 Endurance tyres 28mm Weight 7.78kg (size 56) Price $7,150 (frameset), $14,500 (approx., complete Super Record 12 mechanical Australian model) Contact dawsonsports.com.au This time last year, Notre Dame was still standing, Game of Thrones was still a critical success, and the majority of us had yet to learn the name Billy McFarland – or, for that matter, the true value of Evian water. A lot can happen in 12 months, such as Basso releasing a disc brake version of its aero Diamante road bike. We tested the rim brake Diamante…

Made exclusively for us by our friends at Apres Velo, the regular fit crew neck tee features the Cyclist logo and is given a special enzyme silicon wash – for added stretch and comfort. Each subscriber will also receive a Cyclist-Emalco mug. We’re traditionalists at heart. That’s why we love enamel (and print). Known for its hardy and lightweight construction, our 8cm custom mug is designed to last a lifetime of Tours de France, late nights watching our homegrown heroes over in Europe and weekends away with mates – with your choice of beverage splashing around inside, of course. Subscribe this issue and you’ll receive the coming six editions of Cyclist delivered direct to your door, plus we’ll send you a T-shirt and a mug. 3 EASY WAYS TO ORDER…

I rode a top-level aero bike a couple of years ago, and it left me feeling pretty beat up afterwards. Meanwhile, a lower-spec model that I owned left me with the spine of an 80-year-old. So, how far have aero bikes come in the last two years? The answer is ‘a damn long way.’ The BMC TMR01 Two is the smoothest aero road bicycle I’ve ridden, hands down. Other brands have no doubt been improving their offerings, but if you take a quick look at where BMC was with the original TMR and where it is now, it’s an exceptional about-face. Hydraulic brakes have played a role in this transformation, as well as the clean front end made possible via the combination of eTap and hydro lines that can make…

This bike was perfect for Akita. It was flawless powering across rice fields, climbing super steep hills of ski resorts or getting muddy on rain-soaked fire trials. When visiting remote, rural areas you don’t want a bike to stop you exploring every path – you want it to be able to take a relative beating and be reliable, but still perform when you want to put the power down and swap turns for a couple of hours. Indeed, I found the Checkpoint comfy to ride on all surfaces. It was nice to have some confidence with all-terrain traction and stopping with the combination of Schwalbe 35c G-One tyres and Shimano Ultegra disc brakes. On day one, the bike got covered in mud, and with little cleaning and no chain lube…

Croatia is a country of contrasts. The cities have the lively hustle of Turkey, but the people have the relaxed attitude of the Italians. The modern infrastructure feels like western Europe, but the food and culture are of the Middle East. Look in one direction and you could be on the beaches of the French Riviera; look in the other and it’s like you’ve been transported to the barren mountains of the Pyrenees. According to my ride partner for the day, a strapping gentleman by the name of Ivo Piljic who runs bespoke holiday business More Hvar, even Croatia’s bike riders are a contradiction in terms. ‘We look like bouncers but climb like Colombians,’ he tells me with a wink as we review today’s route over breakfast in our start…

TRAVEL Around two stops and $1,800 will get you from Australia to Croatia and back. Split’s airport is best situated to access Nature Park Biokovo. If you don’t want to pay to take a bike, you can hire one from trektravel.com. From Split it’s around 85km to our start town of Imotski, which isn’t much more than an hour’s drive down the E65 highway toll road. If you prefer to do a loop, the Sveti Jure can be easily tackled from our finish town of Makarska. ACCOMMODATION Cyclist stayed at Hotel Venezia in Imotski (hotel-venezia.hr) and Hotel Park in Makarska (parkhotel.hr). While Hotel Park is modern and Hotel Venezia more traditional, both offer spacious rooms, bike storage and delicious, locally sourced food. THANKS Firstly to Luka Kolovrat and Hloverka Novak…

A sea of Lycra and fluoro takes off from the foothills of Bright on a crisp spring morning. I’m surprised to see, among the hundreds of cyclists, a semi-naked man running alongside them. Ben Ferris is Australia’s real-life answer to Forrest Gump, a marathon man running solo throughout Australia, raising money for charity, promoting sustainable living, renewable energy and staying fit. I tell him he should get a bike, and he laughs and says that running is an even better way to see the countryside. I’m supposed to be riding as well, but a spectacular crash and subsequent surgery in November 2018 put my arm into a sling and me out of action. As disappointed as I am to not be able to take part in my first Great Victorian…