Innehållsförteckning för Issue 56 från Cyclist Australia

The StageTwo is built to carry your valuable steeds securely and in style. It fits most bikes, including road, mountain, fat-tyre, hybrid, women’s-specific, kids’ bikes, e-bikes and more up to 27kg each, and accommodates a wheelbase up to 52”. The stadium seating tiered architecture increases ground clearance and minimises issues with bike spacing, while the offset tray design further minimises bike-to-bike interference and maximises functionality. Meanwhile, the tool-free locking SpeedKnob 2.0 makes installation and removal easy, and the forward-facing remote tilt lever means fast access to the rear of your vehicles. Integrated locking cables, combined with the ability to add your own lock, provides additional security. Also worth noting is that it’s suitable for off-road and RV/camper use, and is rated to 16kg per bike.…

Rejoice! The racing is back, and it has been a dramatic start to the 2022 season. Anyone tuning in for the Opening Weekend at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad would be forgiven for thinking nothing had changed in the hierarchy, what with both Wout van Aert and Annemiek van Vleuten running riot. All the more so if they managed to catch up with the first WorldTour race of the year, where Tadej Pogačar kept his sponsors happy by winning the UAE Tour in style thanks to two mountaintop triumphs. With his big rival Mathieu van der Poel sidelined, Van Aert romped home in his first race of the season at Omloop, teed up by new Jumbo-Visma teammate Tiesj Benoot, back in possession of the mojo he lost at Team DSM. Remco Evenepoel…

Bont Cycling kindly kitted us out in pairs of their carbon-soled cross-country race slippers. Nick and Tash wore the Riot MTB+, and I sported a pair of the Vaypor Gs. While it wasn’t my first experience with Bont shoes – I had a pair while pursuing a B-grade criterium racing career a few years earlier – I had forgotten just how stiff the carbon soles are. Despite the uber-efficient pedalling platform, they remained comfy throughout the day and largely went unnoticed on the bike – serious praise for a new pair of shoes. It’s only while getting around off the bike – including ordering a beer at the pub afterwards – that I’m reminded I’m wearing nearly the same shoes that Sir Bradley Wiggins made famous at the Tour de…

On Sunday, the day after our Goldfields Big Ride, the crew took on the Castlemaine to Maldon Rail Trail, finishing up with a golden ticket aboard the Goldfields Railway steam train – first-class, of course! (Though we’re not sure what they made of our muddy footwear.) Running alongside the railway and darting in and out of the surrounding forest, the Castlemaine to Maldon Rail Trail is a great option for a more relaxed day of riding, which we needed after our big day on Saturday. At 18km each way, the trail is moderately downhill when travelling from Maldon, a town known for its 19th century architecture and a number of excellent cafes and hotels. If you’re there on a day when the train is running, we thoroughly recommend riding out…

‘I watts per kilo, or have a strict diet. She simply just like riding my bike,’ says Fiona Kolbinger, 26-year-old German ultra-racer and surgeon in training. Cyclist is asking her about her training plan, but it turns out there isn’t one. She doesn’t follow any specific program, let alone ride with a power meter, calculate her understands what does and doesn’t work for her. ‘It’s all about knowing yourself, your body and what you are doing,’ she says. ‘Long-distance cycling and being a surgeon have many things in common. You need to be able to work long hours, concentrate and make reliable decisions on not much sleep. You need to be able to go without food for a while and then be able to eat large amounts in one go.…

If bikes revolve around weight and stiffness, espresso machines concern temperature and pressure. Take the Rocket R58, here lovingly painted by framebuilder Dario Pegoretti. It weighs 29kg and that’s largely due to the material – boilers are brass, chassis and casing steel. It’s all designed to get hot and stay hot, because consistent heat is crucial, say baristas. The R58’s brew boiler comes preset at 105°C, so by the time water flows through the group head it’s at 92°C. But brew temperature is subjective and so here it’s programmable via a digital controller (or in the case of the R58’s successor, an app). So too is steam temperature, because that’s the other thing: like all high-end machines, Rockets have twin boilers. After all, you don’t want your espresso losing its…

Distance Day one 89km Day two 127km Total ascent Day one 3,490m Day two 4,780m To download this route, scan the QR code. The route follows the ‘two person relay’ option of the upcoming Gravel Tour du Mont Blanc. Starting in Megève, an off-road climb to Col de Véry is followed by a road descent to Beaufort and a climb of the Cormet de Roselend. A huge gravel climb takes you into Italy via the Col de la Seigne and a descent to Cormayeur for an overnight stop. Day two starts with a gravel climb to the Grand Col Ferret on the Swiss border. A series of ups and downs around the canton of Valais is followed by crossing back into France and a lumpy return via Chamonix and the…

Italian custom builder Sarto used to be the quality bike maker that no one had heard of. For decades the company made frames by hand at its factory near Venice, but for many of those years the names on the down tubes were mainly of other brands – some of them among the biggest and most respected of the Italian bike marques. Thus while Sarto’s high-quality frames were being appreciated around the world, its house brand went virtually unnoticed. Not anymore, though. Sarto stopped contract manufacturing two years ago to focus on building only its own custom bikes, and the rewards of that extra focus are starting to show. Traditional values, modern materials The Seta is Sarto’s most versatile bike, promising a balance of top-level performance features with plenty of…

Founded in Texas in 2013, Kogel has quickly become an alternative high-end brand for those who want to delve beyond stock set-ups. Its signature components are bottom brackets and jockey wheels, which feature its industry-leading ceramic bearings. Turning its attention to adding friction to a bike rather than removing it may seem like a vast change of direction for Kogel, but the new Kratos and Bia brake pads use a ceramic coating to assist with heat dissipation, so there’s a consistent ceramic narrative. The Kratos pads are for wet and intense braking environments; the Bia pads are a softer compound, better for dry conditions. (Kratos is the personification of strength in Greek mythology and Bia is the personification of force.) Pads are available for SRAM and Shimano’s road and mountain…

Cyclist: Matt, you’ve been at Shimano Australia since 1996. Which part, or product, has changed the game the most for road riders in the past three decades? Matt Bazzano: That’s a long time – but reflecting, time has passed very quickly! Standouts are definitely STI, then Di2 – the biggest standout. More recently, disc brakes and now our STEPs (e-bike) development to adapt existing models (EP8) to road (mostly gravel) bikes. Cyc: Where’s the future of road cycling from a tech perspective? How can bikes and components get better? MB: Even better braking and quicker shifting, though what we have now is very good using the current innovation and technology. And also incorporating e-bike technology to enhance and prolong our riding experience. Cyc: Will 105 ever go electronic? MB: [smiling] We’re…

O’Keefe Rail Trail (Bendigo–Heathcote) Bike: Gravel, hard tail MTB, hybrid Show me a bike rider who doesn’t love a rail trail and I’ll show you a liar. Traversing 49km from Bendigo to Heathcote, the O’Keefe Rail Trail has something for everyone. Rail trails are known for their even surface, gentle hills and gradual bends and this ride is no different. It charts a relatively straight course from town to town and gains 253 metres in elevation – it’s not flat, but any trained cyclist could tick off the miles without too much effort. The scenic trail can be used as an out and back for someone looking for a smooth and safe ride to train on, a family outing, or part of a bigger adventure that would take in some…

‘Yeehaw!’ Gaby dispatches a whoop of delight that echoes around the valley before she clips in and sets off in hot pursuit. Not far ahead is François, whose bonkers brainchild this ride is, and the enigmatic Nicolas, endurance rider extraordinaire. As the trio drops out of sight, I’m left to consider how I have come to find myself staring down a frighteningly steep Alpine footpath that might generously be described as a goat track, but only if we are talking about adrenaline junkie goats. We’re in Italy, I think, but it could be France. The border is around here somewhere but in this rugged landscape there are no signs or border posts. When Cyclist’s editor emailed me a month or so earlier, offering a big – very big – autumnal…

I wasn’t meant to be on this bike. The Felt I was planning to ride suffered catastrophic damage during transit, but luckily for me, the people behind the Gravel Tour de Mont Blanc are also the owners of bike brand Wish One. It isn’t a name many people outside of France will be familiar with, partly because it was only launched in 2018, and partly because it has a very local feel. The founders, Maxime Poisson and François-Xavier Blanc, wanted to keep their environmental impact as low as possible, so the bikes are created in France using sustainable materials such as steel and alloy. This SUB is the brand’s all-road/gravel bike, made from Columbus Spirit steel tubing. Its geometry is fairly road bike-ish, making it great for speed over rough…

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a massive fan of racing time trials, riding TT bikes, and talking about TT bikes. So, naturally, I jumped at the chance to test the new generation of one of the world’s most revered time trial bikes: Trek’s Speed Concept. First impression in taking possession: it’s light. I ride my TT bike a lot. Frequently it’s hefted into and out of the boot of my car. Knowing the weight gains that have accompanied disc brake bikes, I was honestly surprised it was as light as it was. Not just light, this thing looks aero. We’re at a point where optimisation is the name of the game, and it’s impossible to spot an exposed wire on the SLR 9, let alone a screw. Hats off,…

Lazer recently announced its KinetiCore safety technology, which it says is the new benchmark for lightweight, protective helmets. The technology is centred on built-in rotational=impact protection. What is rotational impact? Well, imagine you’ve stopped safely on a mountainous trail. A small rock dislodges from above and it’s heading towards you. If that rock were to strike you in the head, linear impact protection would reduce this high-impact force. Rotational impact, on the other hand, is likely to happen if you crash while moving and hit your head at an angle. Essentially, linear is the base level of protection, but for the best possible safety, a combination of both linear and rotational protection is required to improve the overall level of impact absorption. In recent times, rotational protection meant adding materials…

‘Gravel racing at a crossroads’ is too tempting a headline, even if the very idea of road infrastructure – intersections, roundabouts, rules and the rest of it – might jar with a purist’s definition of gravel racing and the appeal of riding on gravel roads. Yet the idea of a crossroads does seem apt in describing where gravel riding might be heading. The culture that has grown up around it is laidback, nonconformist and alternative, the emphasis more on the joy and the challenge of taking part than on the singular goal of winning. But over the last couple of years the scene has taken off to such an extent that it has become big business. The cycling industry is increasingly banking on gravel. Even traditional companies such as Campagnolo…

It’s been raining for three days as I drive up the Calder Highway towards Castlemaine. The bike on the roof is accompanied by mild apprehension stemming from Melbourne’s recent weather. Predictably unpredictable, the spring weather has been difficult to manage. Our window to get this ride in was small, slotting in between the opening-up of regional Victoria post-COVID-19 lockdown #317 and the arrival of Central Victoria’s summer heat. Turns out, we need not have worried about the heat. As I arrive in town late on Friday evening, I shiver in a down jacket, and wonder if it’s snowing in the mountains. It is. One of the many challenges of the last couple of years has been catching up with friends and family in other parts of the country, or even…

Marc Madiot said after one stage, ‘I think the sight of a woman on a racing bike is ugly’ Paris, Sunday 22 July 1984. A jubilant American, Marianne Martin, stands next to an equally elated Frenchman, Laurent Fignon, on the podium of the Champs-Élysées, each holding their trophies aloft. Alongside them are the then Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, and newly elected French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, both keen to soak up the adulation of the crowds celebrating a momentous occasion – the first joint crowning of the men’s and women’s winners of the Tour de France. ‘It was fabulous; my name had been written on the street,’ Martin recalls. ‘The funny thing was that I was holding the trophy and the base was so large I was afraid I…

To say that Teide is on the island of Tenerife is perhaps a misnomer. Teide is the island of Tenerife – a massive volcano that rose out of the sea a few million years ago, and which is still active today. With a summit at 3,715m it’s the highest point in Spain, and no matter where you stand on Tenerife, if you face inland you’ll be looking up at the third-highest volcano in the world (measured from the ocean floor, as they are). That’s assuming you can see the mountain at all. Being so big, Teide generates its own climate so is often obscured by a ring of cloud. For the tourists enjoying a pint of Stella in one of the many pubs along the coastline, Teide is merely a…

Geraint Thomas is making coffee on Instagram. By his own admission the latte art needs some work, but at least the equipment appears fitting. Sitting on G’s countertop is a serious-looking contraption of mirrored steel and shiny pipes, a telltale ‘R’ on its left-hand knob. It’s the R58 model, because as Alex Dowsett once tweeted, ‘Are you even a pro cyclist unless you own a chrome Rocket Espresso machine?’ Of course Dowsett was being tongue in cheek, but only a bit. Check a pro’s social media feed over breakfast and you’re all but guaranteed to see a Rocket machine in the background. Cavendish, Alaphilippe, Matthews, Niewiadoma… the list goes on. Yet apparently, unlike with their kit, these pros are coughing up their own hard-earned cash to own one. Which begs…

Mont Blanc is a special mountain, but it’s not obvious why. Sure, at 4,809m it’s the highest mountain in western Europe, but it isn’t the highest in all of Europe (that honour technically belongs to 5,642m Mount Elbrus in Russia), and by global standards it’s a bit of a molehill. Mount Everest, at 8,849m, is almost twice the height, and Mont Blanc would need to add a whopping 2,410m to its height before it even made the list of the 100 highest mountains in the world. As it turns out, the secret to Mont Blanc’s magic may be found by crunching two alternate metrics: topographic prominence and topographic isolation. Topographic prominence is a measure of height, and tells us how far below its summit is the start of the closest…

TRAVEL Getting to the start is remarkably easy. From Paristake the TGV-Lyria to Geneva (3h 5min, from €29e/w), or fly to Geneva. Transfers to Megève are readily available in the form of private taxis or shuttles, taking about an hour door-to-door. ACCOMMODATION Both Megève and Courmayeur are well served for hotels. Before the start of the ride we stayed in the Novotel Megève Mont-Blanc (all.accor.com), which was big, comfortable, reasonably priced and right in the middle of town. On the following night we stayed at the Hotel Vallée Blanche (hotelvalleeblanche.com), a couple of miles outside Courmayeur. This rustic hotel is cosy, and perfectly set up to cater for skiers in the winter and cyclists in the summer. THANKS Many thanks to François Xavier-Blanc of Wish One for organising… well, everything,…

Over the last couple of decades Campagnolo has made a point of being the first of the three main groupset manufacturers to add an extra sprocket to its cassettes. It was the first to 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12-speed, and with the release of Ekar in 2020, it was the first to 13-speed. Ekar is something of a double-whammy of firsts because it is also the Italian brand’s first gravel-specific groupset. Apart from a brief foray into a then-emerging mountain bike scene 30 years ago, Campagnolo groupsets have stuck exclusively to road shifting duties. As a result it has been at risk of losing territory to the ever-increasing scale of Shimano and the innovation of Sram, which makes Ekar an important launch for the brand on several levels. Aside…