Innehållsförteckning för Issue 50 från Cyclist Australia

Welcome, readers, to the 50th issue of Cyclist Australia/NZ. It’s a milestone we’re incredibly proud of here at the Cyclist office, particularly after a tough few months at this Our big plans for issue 50 don’t end there. The pro season is back once again, and after time last year when, like most of the world, we all faced a high level of uncertainty about what the future might hold. We’re proud to say we kept pedalling, and we couldn’t have done it without you, our readers and subscribers, not to mention our many commercial supporters. From everyone at Cyclist, a massive thank you! When planning our Big Ride for issue 50, we’re not afraid to admit we got a little nostalgic. We launched Cyclist all the way back in…

As Beyoncé once famously told the world, if you like it then you should have put a lid on it. Or perhaps we’re paraphrasing. Who can be sure? Either way, we agree with the sentiment, which is that helmets are very important. If you’re in the market for a fresh brain bucket – or, alternatively, if you simply want to apply the old N+1 theory to what’s above you as well as what’s below you – then you’re in luck. Here, we’ve gathered four of the latest releases from top-name brands including Lazer, Specialized, MET and Kask for your consideration, complete with lovely pictures and all. Lazer Sphere MIPS RRP $250, lazersport.com/au Lazer’s latest sits neatly in the middle of the range, being neither its lightest nor its most aero…

Polar Verity Sense $129, polar.com Polar is widely regarded as the company that brought heart rate monitoring technology into the sporting mainstream. As it enters its 44th year, Polar continues to strive to create best-in-class technology that is accurate, reliable and unobtrusive. The Verity Sense is these three things. It’s an optical heart rate monitor that you can wear on your wrist, forearm or temple (attached to a swimming goggle strap) and send data back to the Polar Flow app on your phone, or any ANT+ or Bluetooth device. The unit and strap weighs about 20 grams, so as a cyclist, you can set, forget and enjoy your ride without worrying about heart rate dropouts. Campagnolo Cycling Cap – Giro Edition In countdown to the 2021 Giro d’Italia, which runs…

Cyclist: You’ve been at Bicycle Network since 2007. Since you began, how have you seen the cycling landscape change in Australia? Craig Richards: Fifteen years ago our cities had great off-road paths, but on-road there was little more than painted white lines. There’s now a growing network of separated places to ride. While the change has been slow, recently, as a positive to come out of the terrible COVID crisis, we’ve seen five years’ construction in 12 months. The other big change is the thirst to climb. Many more riders have wanted to find their limits and that has meant finding hills to climb. Just from my observation, there are a lot more expensive bikes at the coffee shop than back in 2007. Cyc: Our readers may know Bicycle Network…

It’s not the sexiest brand in the market but I’m pretty certain it would be impossible to find a more complete bike for the money Any bike-buying decision is a battle between the heart and the head. The heart says you should go for an Italian brand with oodles of heritage. The heart says you need the same bike as ridden by that guy who won the Tour de France. The heart says you should go for a futuristic bike with blade-like tubes and hi-tech integrated thingamajigs, like Batman would ride. That cape though, hardly aero. But your head? The Giant Defy is the bike your head would choose. Like most riders I’m very susceptible to romantic notions of Grand Tours and the rich history of the sport, and a…

Sometimes you forget how good you’ve really got it. What prompted this reflection? Well, when I found out the destination for the Big Ride in Cyclist Magazine’s 50th issue would be right on Sydney’s doorstep, on some very familiar roads, I can’t exactly say I was jumping out of my skin with anticipation of the unknown. As a Sydney cyclist, I know the Royal National Park (RNP) like the back of my hand, and after a lot of time spent at home in 2020, I must admit I was hoping for somewhere a bit more unfamiliar and exotic. Still, duty called, and with a commission to return to the location of the Big Ride that appeared on these very pages way back in issue #1, I was hardly going to…

Legend has it that Swiss-French rider Pierre Brambilla lay his bike on his bed and slept on the floor every time he’d had a bad race during his post-War career. ‘That no doubt didn’t improve his physical fitness, but his mental health came out of it restored,’ writes Paul Fournel in his collection of philosophical essays, Need For the Bike. ‘Certain racers couldn’t care less about their machines so long as it goes. They don’t even know which gears they set out with in the morning. They delegate the love of their bike to their mechanics.’ I’m definitely in this camp. I resent having to even clean my bike, so there’s no chance of it ever getting a night under my doona. It’s not that I hate it, I just…

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Bianchi, as the oldest bike brand in the world, would be resolutely about road riding and nothing else. Yet the Italian brand’s range is surprisingly diverse. If you could see beneath the mud splatters you’d notice that Wout van Aert’s 2020 race-winning cyclocross bike was a Bianchi, and the company has a comprehensive range of cross-country mountain bikes too. Bianchi is no stranger to going beyond the tarmac, but until now it hasn’t properly ventured off-road with a dedicated carbon gravel frame. The new Arcadex addresses that. ‘We started studying the gravel world back in 2016 and released the aluminium-framed Bianchi Allroad,’ says Bianchi’s Claudio Masnata. ‘Back then we were the first to deliver a gravel bike with a dropper seatpost.’ It was a…

Wahoo Elemnt Rival watch RRP $599.95, fesports.com.au Apparently there are people out there who run and swim as well as cycle, and to accommodate these peculiar folk Wahoo has created the Elemnt Rival. This smartwatch can connect to a Wahoo Elemnt bike computer to show extra data including heart rate, calories burned and cumulative metrics if you’re doing a multisport event, and the watch will go into sleep mode while you’re riding. You can also use it to control Kickr equipment and log your indoor training on Strava, giving you the chance to have a complete set of interconnected Wahoo tech. The Rival’s 30.4mm display sits under a rugged Gorilla Glass lens and ceramic bezel, and can show a whopping 64 colours to help maintain clarity under different lights. The…

There’s nothing like some sumptuous aerial camera shots to remind us where we can’t visit, even if the season curtain-raiser, the Grand Prix Cycliste La Marseillaise, appeared to have been shot through a sepia-drenched potato. Once the technical glitches were resolved, fans began to wonder why they had never heard of this race before, followed by why they had never heard of the winner, AG2R-Citroën’s Aurélien Paret-Peintre. The cancellations of the Tour Down Under and Vuelta a San Juan meant this obscure early-season race in southern France was suddenly in the spotlight, reflecting the shift from the global to the parochial brought on by the pandemic. Next up was the Étoile de Bessèges, where Filippo Ganna reproduced his Giro form in miniature with a breakaway victory of unparalleled power on…

It’s a fractured world we’re living in. Post-truth. Alternative facts. Every statement or position feels less and less likely to be embraced scientifically and investigated logically – rather, it’s more akin to sticking one’s head above the parapet with the expectation it’ll be knocked off. So when, midway through the demonstration of Partington’s destructive testing protocols by CEO Jason Steinwedel, I stopped to ask, ‘Have I got this right? These wheels will not – cannot – come out of true?’ ‘Yes, that’s correct,’ he replies. I found myself conflicted. Could this be accurate? Was I sitting in the office of a Geelong company – and a brand whose genesis and growth I had followed just a stone’s throw from where I lived – witnessing what was, for want of a…

I have ridden 250km sportives on aero bikes, and 160km gran fondos on custom tube-to-tube bikes, and commute thousands of kilometres a year on a piece of aluminium from the early 2000s, and ultimately I have found them all palatable. But they are not endurance bikes, says the industry. And I guess the industry is right, since the aero bike needed wider tyres, the custom bike warranted kid gloves and my commuter? Well that just requires wings, prayers and the odd new bottom bracket. Endurance bikes exist because they come predisposed to long miles and crap surfaces. You don’t have to hold their hand as you walk into a shop to buy their first 11-32t cassette. So after much deliberating I plumped for the BMC Roadmachine. For me, BMC has…

There was at least one thing we agreed on here, quite by accident, and that’s the existential question of endurance bikes. Do they exist? How are they different from – in Sam’s words – that encroaching threat of lightweight bikes and gravel bikes, which seem to be drifting inexorably towards each other, despite starting poles apart. But there’s a difference, at least for now, because try as they might there is no bike from any other category that can match what these bikes do, and that’s to make fast comfortable. It’s to make robust lightweight. It’s to make the classically highly strung racer truly hardy. And it’s the Cannondale Synapse that trumps them all, receiving one first place and two second-place votes in our proportional representation voting system. But before…

Solstice Entry-level road shoe, $129.99 Aimed at riders looking for a simple, inexpensive and long-lasting pair of clip-in shoes, the Solstice is a quality road bike shoe that offers efficiency without sacrificing fit, comfort or compatibility. Evoke Entry-level MTB shoe, $199.99 The Evoke is comparable to the Circuit shoe (see below), but for dirt and gravel. Featuring a Tachyon rubber sole, it’s a great option for both new riders and long-time, long-distance shredders who are after a comfortable and reliable off-road shoe at a decent price point. Circuit Mid-range road, $219.99 The new Circuit looks better than ever and is sure to land well with road riders. An efficient, full-feature road shoe with a roomy design, it’s a great option for everyone from first-timers to racers on a budget. Foray…

I don’t know about you, but when I think of DT Swiss, the first thing that pops into my head are hubs, and for good reason. DT Swiss hubs are just about bomb and idiot-proof, which is why you’ll also find them strung into Roval and Bontrager wheels, both with and without the DT Swiss Badge. But when the ARC 1100s were revamped last year, they caught my attention for reasons other than the hubs. Designed in collaboration with aero expert Swiss Side, DT Swiss took its aero optimisation beyond merely looking at rim shape, and aimed to make every single component on the wheel faster and more stable in the wind tunnel. The most apparent change to the casual observer is the width. DT Swiss has pushed the inner…

By the time you read this, plenty of Aussies will have contested plenty of stunning classics in Belgium, Italy, northern France and the Ardennes. But the beauty of print is you can be whisked back to review some poignant moments you may have overlooked or forgotten as the season progresses. Aussies are often at the pointy end of the year’s first Monument, Milan-San Remo, and 2021 was no different. Caleb Ewan finished a heartbreaking second for the second time in his career, and Michael Matthews was sixth. The pair were in a group that fell just short of catching winner Jasper Stuyven. Oh, what could have been! Back in February, there was a race an Aussie was guaranteed to win: the Australian National Road Race Championships. Pushed back from its…

The peloton of the Tour de France is approaching the Alpine town of Bourg d’Oisans. It’s late afternoon on Friday 4th July 1952 and the 88 riders that will finish the race’s 10th stage have been on the road for nearly eight hours and 252km since setting out from the Swiss city of Lausanne. Much of the racing has been underwhelming. It’s hot and the riders are in no mood to extend themselves, so have instead conserved as much energy as possible. They have stopped at fountains to fill their bottles and have gladly ridden through the spray of hosepipes held aloft by roadside spectators. Now, though, it’s time for the real action to start. The first summit finish in Tour history is only some 14km away, lying at the…

In Australia you’d count yourself lucky to find a servo with a stocked pie warmer and a $1 coffee machine. The average service station in Italy, on the other hand, is a culinary delight. Espresso is deliciously rich, arancini are made on-site and there are little tables to stand around and read the paper. People stop there for the food itself, not as an add-on to the petrol. I can recommend stopping at any of the dozens of such service stations en route from Marco Polo Airport in Venice to the Dolomites in the north of Italy. I can also recommend taking the route that passes through the town of Agordo – so picturesque it might be walled with giant postcards, and a superb spot to grab another coffee. That…

The Min.D opened up new avenues and in so doing made riding a road bike a pleasure once again My choice for best endurance bike is the Open Min.D, a bike that has reinvigorated a category that in recent years has ceded more and more ground to its neighbours. Lightweight race bikes are encroaching on one side, their disc brakes and tyre clearances now providing much of the control and comfort endurance bikes once boasted uniquely. Gravel bikes are muscling in on the other, their frames now as lightweight and efficient as many endurance bikes but also offering the capacity to explore terrain that endurance bikes cannot. With those two categories calling into question the need for endurance road bikes at all, several brands now find themselves relying on complicated…

A bike that comes painted up in WorldTour team colours needs to deliver the performance to match, and for the most part the Merida Reacto Team-E lives up to its colourful billing. In truth, the paintjob on this bike most closely matches last year’s Bahrain McLaren team colours. Since then, the team has morphed into Bahrain Victorious and the orange jerseys have changed to be mostly red. Still, the orange paintjob is attractive without being garish, and you’ll simply be going too fast for anyone to notice the now outdated ‘Bahrain McLaren’ written along the top tube. (Of course, we’d expect an updated colour scheme if and when the next batch of Team-E’s arrive in Australia.) Speedy by design The Reacto has always been Merida’s pure aero road bike, and…