Innehållsförteckning för Issue 42 från Cyclist Australia

There's no place quite like home. While we strive to provide Cyclist readers with an assortment of destination ideas and reasons to travel far and wide, sometimes the best Big Rides are those in your own backyard. Jugiong, for example, is one of the few Hume-side towns that offer a strong enough reason to divert from the main road for a pit stop en route to Sydney or Melbourne. And yet we'd never thought it a place for cycling. How wrong we were! Whisper-quiet country roads, a smattering of gravel and all the little things that make a Big Ride truly great – this little town of 200 is worth a visit. Our ride around Jugiong and the Hilltops Region was on the shorter side, but for those with a…

$599 (approx.), giro.com Giro created the world’s lightest production cycling shoe – its 150g Prolight Techlace – back in 2017. But while there are undoubtedly those who just want the most featherweight kit, there are others who would sacrifice a little weight saving in exchange for improved adjustability and comfort. Enter Giro’s Imperial, a shoe that product manager Peter Curran says ‘offers more features, greater adjustability and professional-grade performance with best-in-class comfort’. The Imperial is still a very light shoe, a size 44 weighing just 236g. This figure is achieved by using materials and construction techniques similar to the Prolight. The upper is made from a monofilament mesh called Synchwire that’s paired with Giro’s lightest and stiffest Easton EC90 SLX carbon sole, while the dual Boa dials use soft lace…

$349 (MIPS), lazersport.com First it was all about weight. Then the trend in helmets veered towards increased ventilation. Then aero became king and helmets all started looking like bowling balls. Now it has come full circle with Lazer’s Genesis, officially the lightest road helmet it has ever produced. A size small comes in at a claimed 189g, while a medium is just 199g, and the company hasn’t forgotten ventilation or aerodynamics either. The company boasts that the Genesis offers better cooling than wearing no helmet at all, and if you want to go faster, a clip-on Aeroshell (pictured) will turn it into the aforementioned bowling ball. Get the full story at cyclist.com.au.…

$399, fesports.com.au Stages’ original Dash computer was really just a screen that displayed data generated by the company’s power meter. As such it was a useful training device for users to follow and analyse sessions prescribed by Stages ‘Link’, a software that formulates training plans based on a rider’s goals. But the unit was a little too limited to compare with the more complete bike computers on the market. The new Dash M50 seeks to address the old version’s shortcomings. It incorporates mapping capabilities and a colour screen in an attempt to make sure it can now do everything its competitors can. The M50 has a claimed 12.5-hour battery life, OSM base maps preloaded as standard and an ‘EverBrite’ 2.25in display that should mean you’ll be able to find your…

In his 2006 book, The New Spaniards, journalist John Hooper refers to the type of coffee normally served in Spain, torrefacto, as ‘double roasted and finely ground until it is the gastronomic equivalent of Semtex’. ‘The Spaniards’ addiction to torrefacto is all of a piece with a nation in which there is very little that is bland, gentle or reassuringly soft,’ he adds. ‘So is the way in which they use the word descafeinado in a wider, and universally pejorative, sense to mean “watered-down”, “artificial” or “bloodless”.’ What hope for a bicycle race in a nation with such an attitude, where bullfighting and bull running are still popular pastimes, and where no one eats dinner before 10pm? If a Grand Tour is defined by the history of the country that…

Power meters are, according to many, the scourge of excitement. They are the death knell for professional cycling, the undertaker of panache. Riding by wattage kills spontaneity and makes race winning little more than an exercise in data analysis. Yawn, yawn, yawn. Thankfully there are still riders who race with courage and romance, eschewing sensible tactics in an often futile all-out bid for glory. One of those riders is stage-hunter extraordinaire Thomas De Gendt. For a man who measures 1.77m tall and 69kg light, the Belgian’s breakaway performances have towered over the strategically safe peloton for years. The 34-year-old Lotto-Soudal rider has, on numerous occasions, lit up a stage by escaping from the energy-conserving peloton, facing the wind and riding with the freedom of years gone by. At the 2019…

The Passo Giau is not a climb to start from the bottom. I don’t mean that you should start halfway up, but rather that you should start some way from the base of the climb near Selva di Cadore. Give yourself a run at it. Warm the legs, open up the lungs. Don’t do what I did. You see, for most of the climbs in this series, logistics mean that I simply set off at the base. Bang – straight into the gradient. Almost like an intimidating first date: no preamble, no drink at the bar, just, ‘How many children do you envisage having and what’s your salary?’ On climbs such as the Col d’Izoard (issue 25), this approach can make things uncomfortable at first, but then the gradient will…

One of the things I find incomprehensible about Australia is its sheer size; there are so many places I know, but so many more that I don’t. I recently bought a gravel bike, and with it a new opportunity to explore so more than I realised was possible – and at a very different pace to the roadie scene. So when Gravel Grit Laguna came to my attention, I was immediately intrigued. But where the heck is Laguna? A Google search later, I could see the surrounding landscape looked incredible. The mind began to wander at the prospect of sharing the passion and experience with like-minded riders. Whatever the case, I knew immediately I didn’t want to suffer FOMO over it and, before I knew it, I was smiling to…

On the edge of Mazzo di Valtellina, a small town in the beautiful Valtellina valley, an unobtrusive stone monument marks the start of the climb. The gradient bites immediately with short double-digit ramps before we’re barely out of town. Any sort of warm-up is out of the question. It’s an abrupt awakening after the 30km descent from Bormio with my companions. But that’s not all. The first switchback is numbered tornante (hairpin) 33. The full translation: 33 switchbacks over the 11.4km with an elevation gain of 1,260 metres. The average gradient is a whopping 10.9% (maximum 19%). There’s little wonder the Mortirolo has a reputation for inflicting suffering on a bike. The switchback countdown is already messing with my head. The road tapers quickly to a single lane that snakes…

This bike, Canyon’s new Ultimate CF Evo Disc, weighs just 6.16kg. That earns it the title of ‘lightest production road disc bike in the world’. Yet while that might be something to brag about, Canyon brand manager Matt Leake is remarkably modest about it. ‘All we did was make a light bike lighter,’ he says. ‘The original launched in 2016, so we’ve taken a further three years of material development and carbon layup experience and applied it to a design already conducive to a light frame weight.’ To all outward appearances, the new bike is identical to the regular Ultimate CF SLX Disc – it even uses the same mould. While the choice to not address tube profiles at the same time as the carbon layup might sound like an…

Price TBC, schwalbe.com Schwalbe has a decent claim to have kick-started the trend for tubeless tyres back in 2015 when it introduced its One Tubeless. This top tier design has gone through several iterations, and the latest is the Pro One TLE, which claims to be around 20g lighter per size, 13% faster rolling and 22% grippier. The aim was to achieve the souplesse feel of a tubular tyre, so the new Pro One has fewer overlapping carcass layers under the tread. Importantly the tyres adhere to the new ETRTO tubeless standard, which is an assurance most tubeless tyres have yet to offer. According to Schwalbe, this helps guarantee the tyres’ safety and ease of installation.…

$1,199, tacx.com The original Tacx Flux won fans with its keen price, solid build and ride feel, and this second iteration promises all that and then some. Power accuracy has improved from +/-3% to +/-2.5%, peak power measurements run up to 2,000W (up from 1,500W) and a larger, heavier flywheel makes for a quieter, more realistic ride feel. It also ships with thru-axle adapters, previously an add-on item. Arguably the biggest change, however, comes in the form of gradients: the original Flux could simulate inclines of 10%, but the Flux 2 can now get up to 16%, meaning virtual training tools such as Zwift are that much better at mirroring life on the open road. The Flux 2 can also handle simulating much lower wattages than before, as previously some…

$799 rear, $429 front, dtswiss.com It was 25 years ago that DT Swiss patented its ‘Star Ratchet’ freehub design with its original DT Hügi hubs. It’s been virtually unchanged ever since, but here we have its first major overhaul. DT dubs the system ‘Ratchet EXP’, whereby the inner ratchet ring is now screwed directly into the hub shell and wound over the top of the driveside bearing, which can now be pushed further away from its non-driveside counterpart. The result, says DT Swiss, is a system that is 15% stiffer, more durable, easier to maintain and lighter.…

When CSC’s Ivan Basso attacked on the final climb of the 2004 Giro di Lombardia, it looked like the efforts the Saeco team had made over the preceding 240km would come to nothing. Damiano Cunego, the 23-year-old Saeco rider who had announced his arrival five months earlier by winning four stages and the overall at the Giro d’Italia, had launched his bid for a first Monument with just under 15km to go, riding away from a small leading group on the descent of the penultimate climb. For a short time it had the look of a successful move, with the ‘Little Prince’ pulling out a decent lead, but Basso led the pursuit of the young Italian alongside Rabobank’s Michael Boogerd, and the catch was made well before the final climb.…

Despite his extreme fitness, natural talent and deep love for riding his bike, Lachlan Morton has had a complicated relationship with the professional side of cycling. His individualism and unorthodox approach has regularly clashed with the dogma of the WorldTour, but while Morton’s path hasn’t been the smoothest it has taught him a lot. ‘In the WorldTour it’s easy to get caught in the bubble, thinking that what you do is more important than it really is,’ he says. ‘I took a break a few years ago and it taught me about balance, gave me a wider perspective. It’s just sport. It’s only as important as you make it and I’m the only one making me do it, so I might as well get what I want out of it.’…

‘This isn’t part of the climb. It doesn’t have a name,’ Jean-Philippe, our guide for this short but mighty ride out of Saint-Lary-Soulan, explains to Zoë and me. The road from our hotel in town to the base of the Col du Portet, in other parts of the world (like back at home in Sydney), would demand some kind of ranking. A name, at least. A little reassurance that yeah, it’s meant to be hard, this climbing thing. But here, in the Pyrenean heart of the Tour de France, the new giant of le Tour gifts its challenger with nothing but a steady 9% gradient – until they have proven their worth. Our final duel today will be with the Col du Portet. ‘A giant – a Tourmalet and then…

$1,399, evocsports.com Do you prefer it hard or soft? When it comes to bike bags there are benefits to both. A hard case can take the knocks better, but a soft bag is usually lighter and easier to stash away when not in use. Evoc’s new Road Bike Bag Pro aims to be best of both worlds, with the company describing it as being ‘soft where possible and hard where necessary’. It uses an impact and pressure-resistant polycarbonate upper and lower section joined by a collapsible fabric middle section. The fabric sidewalls are held up with removable plastic rods, and are protected by a horizontal polycarbonate spacer to prevent the bike from being crushed laterally. The upper is shaped so the bike’s handlebars and seatpost don’t need to be removed…

$299, smithoptics.com/au Smith Optics may seem like a relatively new brand in cycling terms, but it actually dates back to 1965, when an orthodontist called Dr Bob Smith turned his hand to making ski goggles that didn’t mist up. That spirit of innovation is alive and well with the Wildcat sunglasses, which showcase Smith’s ChromaPop lenses. Smith claims these make use of the most scientifically advanced polarising lens technology to date to enhance colours and clarity of vision. The glasses also come with an interchangeable clear lens for drearier days. The lenses are, clearly, enormous. That not only provides a wide field of vision, but also makes the Wildcats very much on trend.…

The inaugural Dirty Detours: Whangamomona was held in late October. It’s hard to describe what Dirty Detours is all about. Let’s just say, it’s an experience first and foremost; a unique event blending cycling culture with country flair. The event showcased some of New Zealand’s best people, countryside and rugged roads in a far-flung location. After traversing some scenic but damn-tough countryside, riders returned to a festival with live music from local band Highway 43, a barbecue served by locals, and a pop-up bar in the Whangamomona Hall. Proceeds from the food went back to the Republic of Whangamomona. And of course, the afternoon’s entertainment wasn’t complete until after the shear-a-sheep, eat-a-pie and drink-a-beer competition.…

It’s around the 20 kilometre mark that I realise what I’ve gotten myself into. Since rolling out from our hotel in Jugiong over an hour ago, there literally hasn’t been a single metre of flat road – unless you count the 2km stretch from our hotel to the start of the first climb – and I’m already through my first bottle with the day still yet to truly heat up. We’ve just dealt with a long stretch of gravel, and although we’re now back on tarmac, the real killer around here seems to be the gradient; when we’re not descending, we’re climbing up punchy hills that nudge their way into the double digits easily. I’m enjoying the hurt, and even more so the sense of discovery of these treasures Chatting…

Do you remember the Citroën CX, that 1970s car that would rest on its haunches when parked but would rise up on its hydropneumatic suspension when the engine started? The idea was this gave the car an ultra-smooth ride, the suspension system self-levelling regardless of load or terrain. Oddly, the CX found huge favour in horse racing circles because massive TV cameras could be mounted to the roof and the car driven alongside the track without giving shaky images. While I’d stop short at declaring the Time Alpe d’Huez 01 the Citroën CX of the modern bike world, there are elements that make me recall the car. It appears possessed of a personality that is endearingly and unmistakably French, and yet like the CX perhaps isn’t quite what it seems.…

Just when every high-end bike seems to be converging on the same style – semi-aero tube profiles, dropped seatstays, disc brakes, fully integrated cabling – along comes a brand that alleviates this often brilliant but occasionally mundane predictability. I’ve been fortunate to test some of the world’s lightest, fastest and stiffest bikes over the years, but this issue I’m already getting separation anxiety thinking about having to return the Prova Speciale to its maker, Mark Hester. Down Under engineering Melbourne-based Mark Hester cultivated a long CV in automotive engineering before launching Prova three years ago. As well as founder and owner, Hester is also Prova’s lead designer and fabricator, although he does have a little help from some robotic friends, a 3D printing company in New Zealand and another in…