Innehållsförteckning för Issue 44 från Cyclist Australia

As we write this welcome note, the world is changing rapidly as a result of COVID-19. At Cyclist, though, it’s business as usual for now, despite a flurry of cancelled events in Australia and around the world and a level of uncertainty few of us have faced in our lifetime. In true cyclist fashion, we'll push on – even if the world’s metaphorical gradient is getting a little steeper. On this very page in our previous issue, we wrote about the impact of Australia’s devastating summer of bushfires. It seems like so long ago now, but for many Australians the impact remains a stark reality of their everyday lives. This was on full display at the Santos Tour Down Under earlier this year, as the peloton made its way through…

$499, pro-bikegear.com Owing to the complex torsional forces that act on a stem, it’s often the case that an aluminium stem can have a better stiffness-to-weight ratio than a carbon one, but Pro aims to tip the scales back in the favour of carbon with its latest Vibe. It looks pretty bulky, but Pro says the shape is necessary to make it super-stiff while keeping the walls very thin to save weight – a 110mm stem weighs 125g. Aerodynamic claims are also made, chiefly because of its slimline ‘puzzle’ clamp system. This has been updated from previous iterations and is now reversible, so that the stem’s 8° angle can be run in either a positive or negative orientation.…

The Tour de France isn’t all sunflowers and blue skies. When it rains at Le Tour, it le pours! Stage 15 finished in Foix with the summit of Prat d’Albis. The organisation chartered a couple of mini-buses to take the media to the summit. The weather forecast looked dubious, so I packed into the bus everything required to keep myself and my camera equipment dry. I had kept an eye on the road from the bus window on the way up and spotted my location. As I walked down the road from the bus parking, the sky progressively became darker and there was no shelter when heavy rain began to fall. My Olympus camera gear is weather-sealed, but it’s still not a great idea to get everything totally saturated. A…

It seemed fitting to bring the bike Specialized named after the Queen of the Classics back to its homeland. This new version of the Roubaix is very different from its predecessors, however. The second-generation Future Shock (2.0) is now hydraulically damped and adjustable via a dial on the stem cap. It provides a more refined ride feel up front with the added benefit that its firmest setting is practically a lock-out. It was superb on the cobbles, providing comfort but, perhaps even more importantly, improving control and stability. The new Pavé seatpost also adds comfort at the rear, as well as helping to keep the bike well balanced. Specialized will say this bike is much more than just a cobble-slayer, but its aptitude over the hallowed stones is still mightily…

It’s not every day you take temporary ownership of an $11k Jaegher to bash over Belgium’s cobbled roads, but on this bike my inexperience was never called into question. Jaegher has been producing bespoke custom steel frames since the 1930s and has more recently risen back to prominence with rides by ultra endurance cyclist Kristof Allegaert. This particular frameset fits 28mm tyres comfortably with room to spare and is coupled with discs and hand-built SWS wheels. The most noticeable factor is the quietness of the ride. Literally and figuratively, the jars and jolts of the cobbles and rough surfaces were smoothed out, with no noticeable cable rattle. I’ve always had steel bike envy but been cautious of the performance statistics compared to carbon. This had me converted. Stepping aside from…

It was while cycling in the Adelaide Hills, through a corridor of razed trees and land and by an abandoned burnt-out home, that the devastation of the summer bushfires became real. Yes, like so many, I had been shocked beyond belief by the video and photos of fires that struck so many areas of Australia, from NSW to Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, including Kangaroo Island. Yes, first-hand accounts of firefighters, families and media who spent so many days and weeks at the front line of such tragedy hit hard. And yes, the smoke haze that swept across my home city of Sydney brought a tinge of reality to the extent of such a crisis of which the impact will likely be felt for many months - if not…

Download and follow this route at strava.com/routes/22432791. Head south along the Route de Gavarnie and steadily climb through the valley towards Gedre. Turn left after 12km and head upwards until the road runs out at 2,069m above sea level. Make a U-turn, throw on a vest for the descent and at the bottom intersection merge left and ride south-west towards the tourist town of Gavarnie. Ride through town, turn right and then a sharp right onto the D923. The climb of Col des Tentes rises a little higher than Troumouse, and its views are equally magnificent. Reach the top, take a breather and savour the long downhill run home. Scan this code to download the route…

120TPI $69, $170TPI $89, maxxis.com Maxxis is a big name in mountain bike tyres, but until now the brand hasn’t really garnered the same reputation for its road rubber. The High Road tyre aims to change that. It uses an all-new compound called Hypr, which Maxxis says significantly improves performance over its previous top-tier tyre, the Padrone. Maxxis claims High Road offers 23% better grip in wet weather and 16% less rolling resistance, as well as being lighter and having better puncture protection.…

The skies outside are heavy. The rain hasn’t yet arrived but it’s as inevitable as the beating we’re about to take on the cobbled roads made famous by the Queen of the Classics: Paris-Roubaix. As I stir my coffee and peer out the window I can see a large blue tarpaulin covering a damaged section of barn roof across the street, flapping violently in the wind. Its rope tethers are winning the battle to secure it for now, but I wonder how long they will hold out given the forecast suggests gusts of over 60kmh today. Were this any other Big Ride, we might have taken a rain check. After all, tomorrow’s forecast looks considerably more amenable. But here, waiting to do battle with the iconic pavé of Roubaix, the…

The mountains of the Giro d’Italia are a long way from Ventoux and Alpe d’Huez. More so than a map or a calendar might suggest. The Tour de France’s greatest climbs are hot to the touch under July’s sun, crowded with tourists, awash with colour and the buzz of the summer holidays. Even people with no interest in cycling know about the Tour and it’s easy to entertain yourself with the atmosphere, the views and some food and a cool beer on a balmy afternoon under blue skies. You don’t care if it takes the riders all day to get up that climb. There’s no rush. La vie est belle. Northern Italy in May is a different prospect altogether. It can often be cold and grey, and even though you…

The latest Cervélo S5 turned heads during its launch. Those bars, prodding out like a double-pronged fork, ruffled a few traditionalist feathers on first look, but 12 months on its function has trumped any questions around the aesthetics. The S5 is a proven WorldTour winner with Team Sunweb; closer to home, the men’s Australian Track Team, aiming for gold in Tokyo, have been building their endurance across the summer aboard the speed machine. This particular S5 features a full Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset with a couple of small changes from the original specification including an upgraded power meter crankset and a change to the tubeless-compatible C24 9100 tubeless-compatible wheels.…

The sun is not yet arrived and I am tucked in my bivy in the pre-dawn golden hour, halfway between awake and asleep. My mind is clear, or maybe a bit fuzzy from last night’s merriment around the fire. The air is fresh and the sounds and smells of a morning in the bush are carrying through. It’s immersive; I’m alive and present in this moment. This sounds a bit like a new-age meditation tape, but it’s not. This is my safari story. There is a reason why senses are sharper and clearer when immersed in nature. Studies suggest that time spent in nature actually makes us more intelligent. We are more creative, better at solving problems, and also have longer attention spans after time spent in the wilderness. This…

On the morning of April 14, 1991, Motorola’s sports director, Jim Ochowicz, sat in front of his team in a small hotel bedroom in Compiègne with a map and a list of instructions. It was the team’s first Classics campaign and Ochowicz was keen to impress the cycling world. The previous autumn he had worked hard to secure a new title sponsor for his 7-Eleven outfit after the owner of the convenience stores brand, Southland Corporation, had been declared bankrupt. Ochowicz had been a matter of weeks from giving up and releasing all his riders when he mentioned his dilemma to fellow former racer John Vande Velde. Vande Velde had contacts at Motorola, an organisation where fortunes were booming thanks to the growing mobile market. Three weeks later Ochowicz had…

Download this route at strava.com/routes/23766721. There are too many turns and unnamed roads on this ride to describe it in detail, so the best way to follow in our wheel-tracks is to download the GPX link above. Roughly, starting from Mons-en-Pévèle, head north to Mérignies and Pont-à-Marq. Then head north-east to Ennevelin and east around the outskirts of Templeuve, before going north again to Cysoing. Make a loop around Bourghelles, Wannehain, Camphin-en-Pévèle, the Carrefour de l’Arbre and Gruson, then back to Cysoing via Bouvines. Follow a southeasterly trajectory for around 40km via Nomain, Aix and Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, then head towards Arenberg. After the Arenberg Forest, take the D40 to Wallers then head west through Hornaing before north to Warlaing, Tilloy-lez-Marchiennes and Beuvry-la-Forêt. Continue on to Orchies and then west to Bersée.…

For the entire morning it’s nothing but winding lanes through lush pastures, green rolling fields, story-book villages, warm sunshine and a breath of wind, with the odd molehill looming in the distance. This is not the winter thaw of frozen paddocks and bare trees of De Ronde and Gent-Wevelgem. The conditions are idyllic… until the bump on the horizon gets a little closer and the slick pavement gives way to century-old cobbles. This is why we’re here. We’re in Flanders: beautiful, alluring, and illusive. But there’s a little more to it. Let’s start with the language. Once you leave the bustle of Brussels, the road signs change from French to Dutch. Confusing clusters of vowels with the odd consonant thrown in; it’s like an unsolved word jumble. When you hear…

Rather like a single chapter in a book, it might seem slightly wrong to consider the Koppenberg in isolation. It’s probably the most famous Flemish cobbled climb (although you could spend many nights and get through a lot of La Chouffe beer debating that) but in some ways it owes much of that to its Belgian brethren. Other chapters such as the Paterberg, Taaienberg, Eikenberg, Oude Kwaremont and Kapelmuur are all needed to make up the full, fantastic story of the Ronde van Vlaanderen – the Tour of Flanders. And yet it’s also fun to inspect and dissect the nuances of a single inclined stretch of cobbles, and this particular hill near Oudenaarde is somehow representative of all that’s tough, yet tantalisingly attractive, about the climbs that captivate the cycling…

The day starts in Luz-Saint-Sauveur, just one of the many Pyrenean hubs and our base for the day. The streets are bustling with cyclists and, in keeping with the theme, we’re readying ourselves for a big day of climbing. Cycling shops seem to be on every second corner – for last-minute supplies and post-flight tune-ups – but a souvenir bidon is the only necessary bit of kit we need to collect. Luz has over half a dozen real ascents (two of which we’ll tackle today) within pedalling distance, but hop over the eastern range and you’ll find yourself in Saint-Lary-Soulan, featured in Cyclist #42. The only thing standing in the way is that little climb called the Col du Tourmalet. These two Pyrenean valleys aren’t day-trip sorts of places –…