Innehållsförteckning för Issue 72 från Cyclist Australia

Changing the recipe

The typical lifecycle of a high-end bike these days tends to be around three to four years, but the Pinarello Dogma F has traditionally been revised at a significantly faster rate. That means there have been plenty of updates in the platform’s 22-year history. ‘We were a formation partner of Ineos Grenadiers – then Team Sky – and the team needs a new bike every two years,’ says Pinarello CEO Fausto Pinarello. ‘Our starting point for new projects is always to ask, “What does the team need?” For example, they’ve always said they don’t want to change bikes mid-race, and we knew we could build a well-rounded race machine, so we shunned the trend for separate race categories. ‘Now other brands are recombining their lightweight and aero bikes, coming back…

Team players No6: The communicator

Success at a Grand Tour is a mixed blessing. Yes, it injects confidence into a team while directing the cycling world’s gaze to sponsor-saturated apparel. And yes, victory equals opportunity. But that opportunity comes at a cost, namely insufficient hours in the digital day. ‘There’s a definite need to have tech breaks,’ says Julia Dowd, social media co-ordinator at EF Education-EasyPost. ‘There are so many different platforms, so many different outlets, and they can be all-consuming. But that’s the job – engage the audience and drive awareness.’ Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok… It’s all fair game for a social media co-ordinator. Increase your reach, grow the fanbase, lure in potential commercial partners to fund a team where the business model means over 90% of income is through sponsorship. It’s…

Inflammatory words

When I wrote my book, The Midlife Cyclist, the word inflammation appeared in almost every chapter. I became concerned its overuse was starting to diminish its importance. In early drafts, I made the point that just as Inuit people have many words for snow, so clinicians and research academics need a whole raft of separate terms for the incidence and effects of inflammation. I forget why this reference never made it to the final draft. It probably should have. I recently spoke to the person that, to date, has offered me the best explanation of inflammation yet, by focusing on the concept of ‘physiological disharmony’. Dr Paul Dawson is a friend, client, midlife cyclist and notably a hugely experienced consultant anaesthetist – gold dust for people like me. Anaesthetists spend…

Changing attitudes to altitude

Thirty-three days. That was all the time Tadej Pogačar had this year between sealing his Giro d’Italia victory and the start of the Tour de France. In that time he spent three weeks at Isola 2000 in the French Alps. As has become commonplace, Pogačar sought out high altitude in the hunt for a competitive edge, but the thinking and strategies behind altitude training are evolving all the time. It’s no longer enough to simply spend a lot of time at the top of a mountain… Benefits to the blood Iñigo Mujika is one of the world’s leading applied physiologists, with a PhD in the biology of muscular exercise and another in sports science. Away from academia, he was head of training at the Euskaltel-Euskadi pro team (version one) and…

Light is the crown

‘Well for sure it’s flattering, but I don’t know,’ says Tadej Pogačar. ‘You always have people arguing over it, but you cannot look over a whole century of cycling to measure who is the greatest of all time. Times change.’ And how they have. Until 2024, cycling had only ever seen two Triple Crowns and talk of a third seemed ridiculous. It’s not that Eddy Merckx (1974) or Stephen Roche (1987) were somehow better than today’s best, they say, it’s that racing is so different now. Teams and riders pour everything into almost single-race seasons, making for a highly competitive, highly specialist landscape in which the generalist champion is banished. Climber, time-triallist, Classics rider, sprinter. Pick one. Then came Pogačar. In May, the UAE Team Emirates rider won the Giro…

Enve Fray

Having previously been known predominantly as a maker of fancy carbon wheels, Enve entered the world of complete bikes in 2021 with the Custom Road, which offered a high-end carbon frame with bespoke geometry for people with fat wallets. This was followed by the slightly more accessible Melee, a similar road-going bike using mildly different construction and stock frame sizes. Last year, the gravel-focused Mog was the third bike to join the team, and the Fray now completes the quartet. All four share a similar aesthetic, with slim and slightly dropped seatstays married to broader down tubes found across the range. The sinuous tube shapes found on the earlier bikes are also repeated in the interests of aerodynamics. The Fray comes as a chassis kit that includes the frame, fork,…

Garmin Edge 1050

Garmin’s new flagship head unit, the Edge 1050, has a huge display, enhanced processing power and an array of new features on top of some old favourites. The result is that it is loaded with plenty of genuinely useful tools, but these come at a price and at the expense of runtime thanks to the removal of its 1040 predecessor’s solar panels. The 1050 is a similar size to the 1040, but is 28g heavier at 161g, and I was surprised at how hefty it feels to hold. That gives a sense of build quality, although it may put off those looking to trim weight from their bike, as will the repositioned mounting interface, which isn’t compatible with many out-front mounts. The bulk of the face is taken up by…

Microshift Sword

In an industry that continues to push limits on innovation, performance and (dare I say it) bank accounts, it’s refreshing for a company to specialise in doing the simple things well – and at an accessible price point. Microshift has been making components out of Taiwan since 1999. It’s long been known as a distant relative of Shimano – cheaper with the same cable pull ratios – which you’ll see on entry-level mountain bikes and kids’ bikes. However, in recent years it has come into the road market (although you’ll need to look for it to know it’s out there) and now, Microshift has entered the gravel world with Sword. Sword comes in a range of offerings: 10-speed or 9-speed, 1x, 2x, or 1x with a dropper post. The 10-speed…

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1 min

New gear

Bontrager Paradigm Pro 30 wheels $1,899.98, trekbikes.com/au Gravel tyres are trending ever wider, with pros now winning races on 50mm widths. Reflecting this pump up in volume, Bontrager has released its new Paradigm Pro 30 wheels. They boast an internal rim width of 29mm, which is wide even by gravel standards. ‘As riders use wider tyres, rims need to be adjusted for proper fit and function,’ says Matias Lauryssens, Trek’s wheelworks product manager. ‘Wider rim/tyre combos provide better traction, control and, to a point, better rolling resistance. The “con” is the added weight, but in many cases the benefits of extra width outweigh the penalty.’ Lauryssens says that once the move to even wider tyres had become clear, releasing the Paradigm Pro 30 was an easy decision because Bontrager already had…

Homespun truths

Adapt or die: a choice that was faced by many small businesses during the pandemic. The cafe down the road started running a delivery service, your personal trainer decided to host their sessions over Zoom, and, if you’re from Sardinia, your local independent bike brand stopped procuring carbon frames from China and began making them itself. That’s how Fabio Putzolu started Ichnu Cycles. When Covid-19 made operating his original brand, Fabike, impossible due to the resulting supply chain issues, he decided that the only way to ensure he could continue to make bicycles was to start crafting them on home turf instead. ‘Everything at Fabike was 100 per cent designed by me, but it was produced in Asia,’ says Putzolu. ‘After the crisis of the pandemic, I wanted to be…

A ride for the people

It’s not often you’re able to pen a love letter to your home roads. Visitors bemoan the cutting wind, despise the ninja-like squalls of rain, and despair at the dead streets. But those elements, they’re a feature, not a bugbear. This is the Surf Coast, in all its rough-cut beauty. You can count the traffic lights on one hand, and the windless days on the other. Roll out on the ‘wrong’ day and you’ll barely see the waves through the mist and rain. Or get roasted by the sun, wishing you’d spent less time in its company. Even with all that, there’s no place I ride that feels more like an old pair of slippers. A two-hour slog into the wind – with a return in half the time. Check…

19 min

Classic Climbs San Bernardino Pass

The concept of ‘nostalgia’ is attributed to 17th century Swiss medical student Johannes Hofer, who combined the Greek words for ‘homecoming’ and ‘pain’ or ‘ache’. Less familiar is the related notion of mal du suisse – the Swiss illness – a diagnosis given to Helvetian mercenaries laid low physically by a deep longing for their mountainous homeland. The idea of homesickness as a medical affliction has fallen out of favour but, when confronted by the landscape of the Swiss Alps, it’s not hard to imagine how it might shape an identity or form an integral part of the national psyche. The mountains are awesome in the truest sense of the word – they inspire awe – because they exist on such a mind-altering scale. To cyclists, they hold their own…

6 min

A tale of two races

This one-day race is unmistakably Tuscan, from its eponymous white gravel roads to the finale in medieval Siena’s central square ‘Fear? There’s always fear,’ says Diego Ulissi. ‘Fear is part of the DNA of every bike racer. The important thing is managing it.’ The fear is heightened at Strade Bianche on its treacherous gravel sectors. Fear of the unknown: crashes, punctures and mechanical problems. If you’re a Tuscan, there’s also the fear of performing poorly in front of your family, friends and fan club. An instant Classic since its first running in 2007, this March one-day race is unmistakably Tuscan, from its eponymous white gravel roads to the cypress trees and finale in medieval Siena’s shell-shaped central square, the Piazza del Campo. But it means even more than stunning scenery…

11 min

The passing of the peloton

To paraphrase the henpecked proprietor of TV’s most infamous hotel, Fawlty Towers, as he reflected on his life: ‘Zoom! What was that? That was the cycling season, mate. Oh, that was quick, do I get another? Sorry mate, that’s your lot.’ The peloton has passed, leaving in its wake a furrow of displaced air and dying echoes. ‘Fractured air pours back bird song,’ wrote poet Carolyn A Yates in Peloton Passing. Girls in summer dresses have stopped jumping up and down waving at helicopters. Children are being lowered from parents’ shoulders. Deck chairs are being folded. TV channels are being changed. Memories are being processed. ‘Is that really the last time we’ll see Thomas De Gendt?’… ‘Kasia smiled at me!’… ‘The Vuelta was definitely the best Grand Tour of the…

Finessing fast

‘The new Aeroad was defined by pro rider feedback,’ says Canyon’s lead engineer Lukas Birr. ‘The overall theme was to be the fastest bike, which it already is. On the geometry, the pros were content. We weren’t going to touch anything that wasn’t requested.’ In other words, Canyon’s new Aeroad, which the brand claims is the fastest bike in the pro peloton, has had a touch-up rather than a total makeover, and the claimed performance improvements – in line with the easy-to-miss changes to tube profiles and widths – are slight. Canyon claims an average 2.5-watt advantage over a Cervélo S5 at 45kmh, while improvements over the previous Aeroad hover between the negligible and 3-watt mark, depending on yaw angle. According to Birr the new Aeroad frames are now around…

The transfers that will shape next season

Marc Hirschi to Tudor Pro Cycling Eyebrows were raised when Julian Alaphilippe joined Tudor from Soudal-Quick-Step but we all saw what happened with Peter Sagan and Niki Terpstra at TotalEnergies. Someone who should provide the Swiss team far more bang for their franc is the forgotten man of Swiss cycling. Initially eclipsed by Tadej Pogačar’s brilliance at UAE, Hirschi notched nine wins this year, including five on the bounce after the Olympics, and he currently sits at number six on the UCI rider points tally, ahead of Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič. What a steal he could prove. Ben O’Connor to Jayco-AlUla It felt like it was only a matter of time before the Aussie came home. Rather than the cantankerous O’Connor who toiled on Netflix at last year’s Tour,…

In it for the long haul

In this age of hyper-refined design technology and intense sporting competition, it’s easy to lose sight of a bike’s most fundamental function: enhancing mobility. An organisation where that has always been top priority is World Bicycle Relief, which has been using bicycles to improve access to education, healthcare and economic opportunities since its inception in 2005. The non-profit social enterprise has distributed more than 830,000 bikes to rural communities all over the globe, many of which have been under the Buffalo Bicycle name. A Buffalo bike is the antithesis of many models that grace the pages of Cyclist. It’s sturdy steel rather than svelte carbon; it uses simple, easy-to-replace parts instead of complex, proprietary ones; it’s designed to carry heavy loads over long distances and to do that for many…

Homeward bound

‘I went back to Jim Ochowicz and asked for a one-month contract for 2015. I’d prepare the same, as if for a full season, race the TDU – and then bow out in my own race’ One of Australia’s greatest ever cyclists, and without a doubt the most decorated. The only Australian winner of the Tour de France, the UCI World Championships Road Race, and Tirreno-Adriatico. The victor in what is still cited as one of the most gruelling stages of a Grand Tour, the gravel Strade Bianche Stage 7 of the 2010 Giro d’Italia. A competitor in every sense of the word who once half-jokingly threatened to cut off the head of a journalist at the Tour who stepped on his dog. A TikTok-era anti-hero ahead of his time.…

A ride through time

The Middle Eastern country of Jordan may be less than half the size of Victoria, but it’s a place where stories seep out of every crack. Whether you want to see Biblical sites such as Mount Nebo and Madaba, the archaeological marvels of Petra and Quseir’Amra, or just where they filmed Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Jordan’s history and beauty make it a must-visit destination. And best of all, you can take your bike with you. Cyclist gets a taste of Jordan’s unique charm over three breathtaking rides. Our first ride starts in the north of the country, two hours outside the capital Amman in a hilltop town called Umm Qais, home to the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Gadara. My cycling guide is Aref, a man…

9 min

Volcanic activity

I ride past solidified rivers of lava and dark pine trees into a kaleidoscope of colour. My gravel tyres shimmy over blazing rust-red dirt and dust the shade of white-hot pumice. I pass strange, sea-green boulders and black orbs of rock that glisten like the island’s night skies. And all around me the yellow flowers of Codeso del Pico and Teide Flixweed drench this alien world in a buttery glow. Many cyclists visit Tenerife, but without gravel tyres they will never get to see this remote, psychedelic dreamscape. Thanks to its volcanic geology and isolated geography, Tenerife is a laboratory for volcanologists, a museum for geologists, a pristine paradise for astronomers, a testing ground for Nasa astronauts and a film set for Hollywood movies. But the largest of the Canary…

Zipp 303 XPLR SW

As gravel moves from niche to mainstream, it’s getting more competitive and average speeds are increasing. ‘Take Unbound,’ says David Morse, Zipp’s wheel category manager. ‘The winning speeds have been around 32kmh in recent years.’ Morse explains that aerodynamics now have a crucial role in performance, but most gravel wheels, being generally no wider than 25mm internally, don’t have the width to create a smooth transition from rubber to rim when paired with gravel tyres. ‘The cross-section of the rim-tyre pairing looks more like a light bulb, with the tyre ballooning out wider than the rim,’ he says. Zipp saw this as a chance to widen the rim of its new 303 XPLR SW wheels dramatically, pushing it out to 32mm internally and 40mm externally. In combination with a 54mm…