Innehållsförteckning för Issue 43 från Cyclist Australia

Since our launch back in 2013, the festive season has always been filled with boundless enthusiasm for the season to come. The much-needed break over December and January allows us to take a breather, get in some long summer rides and switch off from the world of magazine production. It has been a very different summer this year. And while the impact on most of our personal lives has been limited to a few postponed criteriums, a couple of detoured bunch rides and a few sessions missed due to city smoke ‚ others have not been so lucky. Here at Cyclist, we love the opportunity to ride in new locations and share the stories that come from those destinations, and it’s heart breaking to see a beloved location impacted or…

$349, selleitalia.com And the award for the longest saddle name goes to… which is ironic, because Selle Italia’s new SLR Boost is actually its shortest road saddle, knocking 25mm off the nose of the regular SLR to measure 248mm in length. Short saddles, which allow more pelvic rotation for more aggressive ride positions, aren’t new, but this is the lightest in class at 122g. It comes in two widths, 130mm and 145mm, and a more padded women’s version ($250, 198g) is available, as are two other rail choices: titanium ($299, 158g) and manganese ($179, 208g).…

Taken during last year’s Tourde Beechworth, this particular shot was far from planned. The group had stopped to shed some layers after reaching the top of a smooth dirt climb when Dave Musgrove(in shot) started clambering up the adjacent hillside. In full cyclocross – or maybe I should say motocross – style, Dave dropped into a six-inch rut that weaved its way down to the group down below. Much to the cheers of the bunch, Dave made it look easy; the shot was anything but. I wasn’t ready at all. I’d only just caught up when I noticed the commotion and rushed to throw my bike against a tree. Scurrying over to get a clean view, I swung the camera around and, with no time to adjust the settings (they…

The original Domane redefined the endurance road sector. Trek’s innovative IsoSpeed concept – a pivoting decoupler that isolates seat tube flex from the rest of the frame to offer more vertical compliance without impairing rigidity elsewhere – broke new ground on its release in 2012. The resulting marriage of outstanding comfort and race-level performance helped Fabian Cancellara win the punishing Strade Bianche race on the bike’s first professional outing. In 2016, Trek brought adjustability to the rear IsoSpeed and employed a similar ‘decoupling’ ideology to the head tube to temper impacts up front, too. Again it received high praise, including in my own review in issue 23. This third generation 2020 version, then, has a lot to live up to. New directions ‘We’ve really seen big changes in the way…

In recent times, the arrival of new top-end bikes has followed a remarkably consistent theme. Regardless of the brand, the flagship race platform gets disc brakes, dropped seatstays, integrated cables, wide tyre clearance and aero tube profiling. In that respect, Scott’s new Addict RC is no different. ‘It’s because there are certain features that just perform best,’ says Scott’s Janosch Wintermantel. ‘Lower seatstays are more aero and provide better compliance. Discs offer superior braking performance compared to rim brakes. It’s no surprise other companies have reached the same conclusions. The industry is just getting closer, given current materials and techniques, to the best way a road race bike can be built.’ That isn’t to say the new Addict RC is just Scott keeping up with the Joneses. ‘The room in…

$2,199, trekbikes.com/au The widespread uptake of disc brakes has sent wheel manufacturers scuttling back to their drawing boards to reconsider how best to design wheels for modern riding. One of the outcomes is that wheel rims are getting wider, with the slight weight penalty being more than compensated by improvements in stiffness and aerodynamics. Bontrager has fully embraced this school of thought with its new Aeolus Pro V3 TLR wheels. Their 25mm inner width is wider than most rims’ external width from just a couple of years ago, and externally they measure a considerable 32mm. The company says this means the wheels pair nicely with 28-30mm tubeless road tyres and also have the width to adequately support high volume gravel tyres. Wider tyres with the suitable support of wide rim…

Some rides last long in the memory for their sheer brutality: massive vert, ridiculous distance, or often a combination of the two. Others do so because of a certain ‘epic’ factor – whether it be bad weather, jaw-dropping scenery, or gnarly terrain. This isn’t one of those rides. As cyclists, we’re always looking to the extremes: going further, higher, for longer. A whole raft of events and challenges are on offer for those looking to push their body to its limits: there’s Everesting, the Taiwan KOM Challenge, Dirty Kanza, and ultra-long-distance events like the Race to the Rock. Even the theme of this feature, ‘Big Ride’, implies a real challenge. I came to a conclusion: this is a truly enjoyable circuit, notable for a certain ‘goldilocks’ quality But what if…

10:30am: ‘Can she go one better?’ ‘And doesn’t that sound familiar? Doesn’t that hit too close to home?’ As the Australian team bus pulls into Bradford, northern England, there are no hints of nervousness among the nation’s best female riders. The biggest race of the season is barely an hour away, and Amanda Spratt is among the favourites to secure the hallowed rainbow jersey, but the Australians are rocking out to Missy Higgins’ dulcet tones. ‘And so that I do remember, to never go that far, could you leave me with a scar,’ the riders sing in unison. By the end of that Saturday in September, there would be scars aplenty. But as the Australians head for the start of the 150km route set to determine the 2019 World Champion,…

The streets are ablaze with the blue and yellow of Astana, and from every shop window grins the face of Michele Scarponi, the Eagle of Filottrano. Hanging either side of the archway into the town centre are giant images of the rider. Balloons adorn the driveways of houses as we leave behind Scarponi’s old birth town on a ride through his native Marche region on Italy’s eastern coast. Dedications line the streets: ‘Scarpa – we’re with you’, ‘Michele – always in our thoughts’, ‘The Eagle was born here… Michi continues to fly’, ‘Grazie capitano’. It’s the most poignant and uplifting start to any sportive I’ve done. ‘He was a talented cyclist but clearly an extremely popular family man and his reputation was well known’ Cycling’s Peter Pan In April 2017,…

Bob Parlee started his bike building business 20 years ago with a maiden voyage aboard his own handbuilt carbon Z1 frame. It was a 30-mile ride from his workshop to his house, and the bike hadn’t previously been tested in real riding conditions. ‘By the time I got home, I really felt like I had done it,’ he recalls fondly. ‘The bike just felt phenomenal.’ Bob Parlee’s handbuilt approach to carbon set him apart from the crowd in luxury custom bikes, and the Parlee Z-Zero remains one of the most expensive and coveted frames on the market. ‘The only “real” material out there is carbon,’ Parlee said at the time, arguing that steel was not best for custom bikes, because only with carbon fibre could a builder customise each individual…

$149, met-helmets.com The Met Trenta 3K Carbon helmet was released to celebrate the Italian brand’s 30th anniversary. It boasted an innovative construction method whereby a carbon fibre skeleton was imbedded in the EPS foam liner. That produced some impressive claimed performance – it was designed to reduce weight and bulk while improving safety – but also generated an equally impressive pricetag. The Vinci is Met’s attempt to bring down the cost of the Trenta’s performance. It even bests the Trenta in one area too – it’s the first of Met’s performance road helmets to include the slip-plane safety technology Mips. Carrying over the Trenta’s carbon skeleton wasn’t economically viable but the Vinci still features a low profile and an enviable weight – at 265g it doesn’t cede much more than…

$400 (approx), gorewear.com The most revolutionary fabric for wet weather protection has always had one major drawback. Being naturally dark grey it couldn’t be printed on, so Gore-Tex ShakeDry jackets have historically done no favours for riders when it comes to visibility in murky conditions. Until now. Thanks to a ‘new digital printing technology’, Gore is at last able to print onto the fabric in a broad spectrum of colours. Romance, a niche kit brand from Britain, bagged the coup of being invited to design the first colourful ShakeDry jacket, and has gone all out with this funky tie-dye number. Only 200 of these particular jackets are being made, but it will only be a matter of time before every brand with a ShakeDry jacket is able to offer printed…

There are more than 100 people in professional cycling who could do Dave Brailsford’s job and do it equally as well. If you can buy all the talent, the rest of it becomes an exercise in administration.’ Jonathan Vaughters seems tired. Stage 12 of last year’s Tour de France has not long finished in Bagnères-de-Bigorre, and Vaughters and Cyclist are at the team’s pitstop for the evening, Le Rex Hotel in Tarbes, southwest France. The Colorado-born manager of the distinctively pinkclad EF Education First pro team has been on the publicity trail for his new autobiography, One Way Ticket: Nine Lives On Two Wheels. We’ve discussed a number of topics during which he has been relaxed and eloquent, but when we get onto the subject of how professional cycling is…

The banner strung tautly between two buildings declares ‘Port de Balès: 19km de bonheur’ with a small abstract picture of some cyclists next to it. Even those optimistic sorts who blithely mix colours with whites in a 40-degree wash might question this assertion. I mean, I’ve been known to enjoy a bit of climbing and invariably get a warm glow of satisfaction when cresting a summit, but the notion that this Pyrenean climb will provide an entire 19km of happiness seems a touch unlikely. Then you set off from Mauléon-Barousse and, for the first few kilometres, a suspicion creeps over you that just maybe this will be unremittingly pleasant, because the gradient is almost non-existent. The single-lane road, the D925, meanders along the valley floor to the village of Ferrère…

Never ride for longer than you have slept. That’s how the adage goes, so when my alarm’s mocking tones chime at 4:50am, I calculate I have a solid four hours 40 minutes to ride from the small town of Mariquita in Colombia to the even smaller town of Letras, 80.7km away. Easy. Except for one thing: Mariquita lies at 468m above sea level, and Letras is 3,650m above sea level. The journey from one to the other has an aggregate ascent of 3,791m. Luckily I have a secret weapon with me: Ben Hitchins. Ben is a British expat who bikepacked around Colombia some years ago and loved the country’s joie de cycling vivre so much he moved out here to start bike travel company PiCO. As such, Ben is well…

With a stomach full of irresistible French crepes and salted caramel sauce, I slowly make the 2km journey from the Sheraton Deva Resort to Megarando Race HQ at Poe Beach. Overnight rain has begun to ease, but the sun is yet to show itself. Today is the second and final day of the Shell Pacific Megarando in New Caledonia and there are three distances on offer: 30km, 45km and 60km. Primed for the 30km event I have time to look around the trade tents and watch the 60km and 45km waves roll out before I’m called up to the line. Like cattle in a herding pen, we’re eventually mustered into the Mega Cool start chute and settled, awaiting our rider briefing. As if aimed at me, the Race Director holds…