Innehållsförteckning för Issue 75 från Cyclist Australia

This is truly a golden age of cycling. We have just been graced with one of the best Spring Classics seasons of all time, headlined by two riders with already incredible and seemingly limitless palmarès. Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel won each of the four Monuments to kick off 2025 between them, and did so in a fashion that would turn any sports enthusiast into a cycling fan. Their determination, panache and love of racing have been a joy to watch throughout spring (ahem… autumn), and their respect and sportsmanship has been on another level. If you missed any races, I recommend Flanders and Roubaix as great starting points (chef’s kiss). I also recommend our outstanding Spring Classics gallery starting on page 96. Speaking of taking things to…

Back in his riding days, Adam Hansen was known for taking a particularly studious and progressive approach to his fit and equipment setup. He made his own super-light shoes – essentially carbon fibre slippers with cleats – ran his saddle slammed forward, his bars narrow and his front end low. In hindsight, these fit traits were ahead of their time. Another idiosyncrasy could be found at his cranks, which were unusually long at 180mm. Hansen believed that because this increased torque, it increased power. You can hardly argue it was a bad move considering his stellar career, to this day holding the record for the most consecutive Grand Tours ridden (20). But it may have been even better if Hansen had gone the other way. Although he was generating more…

There are no rubbish bikes in Mallorca. If you were ever slightly suspicious as to whether companies actually sold their five-digit hero bikes – and indeed to whom, and where they got ridden – your answer is on this island. And yet for the most part, the riders who come here tend to tick off the same two climbs, Sa Calobra and Cap de Formentor, before packing their bike bag onto the next flight home. Don’t get me wrong, those climbs are stunning with a capital S-bend, so much so that if you only had a single cycling day left on earth you might well choose one of them to ride. But I’ve been assured that if I do have a little more time on both island and mortal coil,…

A lot of Nitto’s business still comes from keirin but it’s also big in the European fixie scene and, in Japan, touring Nitto Component manufacturer, Fukushima Nitto is over 100 years old now, founded in 1923, but unlike European brands there isn’t this romantic vibe about it. There is a traditional artisan crafts scene in Japan but the reality is it’s much more functional and the true value isn’t so much in the products but in the labour and toil, which the Japanese call monozukuri – literally to ‘make’ (zukuri) ‘things’ (mono). Even in an office, the customary exchange between workers at the end of the day is gokurosama, meaning ‘thank you for your effort’. Monozukuri is a kind of spirit of work ethic. So at Nitto the employees need…

Sometimes it’s possible to be too far ahead of the curve. You could argue that was the case with 3T’s first road bike, the Strada, in 2017. Its design was based around wider tyres and 1x gearing in a bid to improve aerodynamics while streamlining maintenance and upping comfort, but it bumped up against insufficient component choice and entrenched opinions on what a road bike should be. ‘There were not the groupsets to support the frameset,’ says Andrea Bortolin, 3T’s product manager. ‘The jumps on an 11-speed cassette were too big for racers. Now it’s a different story. Pro riders understand the benefits of wider tyres in races, not only for comfort but for speed.’ Five years on, with pros routinely sporting 30mm+ tyres and 1x groupsets, 3T has largely…

Cyclist: Who were your sporting idols growing up? Tim Declercq: My first was Johan Museeuw [see page 116]. One of my first memories of the sport was seeing him smashing up Tenbosse in the Tour of Flanders. I was also a big fan of Jan Ullrich. Those were my two idols. It was a different time in cycling; I’m very happy that it changed a lot. Cyc: When did you decide that you wanted to be a professional cyclist? TD: I was always one of the better ones in my age group, but my parents said it’s important to have a degree so I started studying and enjoyed being a student. I had severe Epstein-Barr virus during my last year as a junior, so actually I just did cycling as a hobby,…

The Classics are changing. To have a high mountain climber who routinely wins Grand Tours now also winning Monuments is something we haven’t seen since the days of Bernard Hinault. But does that change anything for the photographers responsible for documenting the titanic one-day battles of our time? ‘I feel it’s a great time to be photographing these races because these guys – Van der Poel, Pogačar, they’re superstars,’ says Harry Talbot, a cycling photographer who’s been at every Monument and Classic this year. ‘And I get the opportunity to photograph them at the front of races. Races open up earlier than they used to, giving us a bigger window to shoot.’ Indeed, the rivalry between Pog and MVDP is a big reason the sport is soaring, and the quality…

Parlee is renowned for its bespoke framesets. American-made tube-to-tube models such as the Z-Zero have built its reputation for robust, high-quality designs that ride superbly. Yet, while not as widely recognised, stock models are just as integral to the lineup. ‘We’ve offered stock alongside our custom options for more than 17 years,’ says Tom Rodi, Parlee’s product manager. What is new, however, is the provenance of Parlee’s stock models. Traditionally they’ve been made in the Far East, just like many of Parlee’s competitors’ are, but the brand’s new all-road bike, the Ouray (pronounced yur-ray) and its gravel counterpart, the Taos, are made in Portugal. ‘It’s been a tumultuous few years. Bob sadly passed away last year, and that was after a rocky time commercially as well. But things settled down…

Campagnolo has been on a journey in recent years. Having dropped out of the WorldTour briefly in 2024, the Italian brand returned this year to adorn the Look bikes of Cofidis. And while the launch of the Super Record Wireless groupset recovered some of the electronic shifting ground seized by Sram and Shimano, there is still the sense that its groupsets are trailing its American and Japanese rivals. Fortunately for Campagnolo, its wheel business has not had to weather the same kind of turbulence, and it has recently released the revamped Shamal to sit just below its premium race-going wheelset, the WTO Bora Ultra. ‘Shamal wheels were the first to feature a high-profile aerodynamic design, which in 1992 was groundbreaking,’ says Federico Gardin, Campagnolo’s head of product and marketing. In…

Three generations does not a dynasty make, but after less than a decade and just three iterations, the Basso Diamante SV has come to the end of the line. Its replacement, titled simply SV (the initials standing for sempre veloce, which means ‘always fast’ in Italian), incorporates the racy and aero elements of its predecessor while falling into line with some more versatile design trends. It will sit alongside the Diamante, Basso’s lightweight climber’s bike, and the all-road Astra. According to the brand, the SV melds elements from both racing and all-road bikes, a hybrid Basso has been able to design because of – not in spite of – its absence from the WorldTour. Product manager Leonardo Basso, whose father Alcide started Basso Bikes, says the foundation of the SV’s…

As guerilla marketing goes, Cannondale could hardly have asked for better when Port Macquarie’s Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost) used the new, as-yet-unreleased Synapse to ride the circumference of Australia in October 2024. He covered 14,200km in a little over 30 days, smashing the fastest known time for the ride by more than a week. With the Synapse’s reputation built around its ability to help riders cover big distances in comfort, Morton’s average of 450km a day did that no harm whatsoever. While this superhuman feat was rightly the headline, Morton’s choice of bike set internet forums buzzing. What people were arguing about was not whether the bike was a new Synapse – that much was evident – but whether the bike included the SmartSense system of lights and radar its…

‘It’s not a bike for introverts,’ says Curve co-owner Ryan ‘Rhino’ Flinn. ‘You’re going to get a lot of attention riding this thing. “That’s not a normal bike, is it?” is something you’ll hear a lot of.’ The hugely oversized wheels of the Titanosaur ensure that it is anything but normal, but there is method in the madness behind the Melbourne brand’s behemoth. ‘We originally designed it as an outback tourer about six years ago,’ says Flinn. ‘The Australian Outback is known for its horrendously corrugated terrain, which regular wheels – even 29ers with three-inch tyres – struggle to contend with. Our thinking was simple: big wheels roll better. ‘Imagine approaching a gutter on a scooter with tiny little wheels,’ Flinn continues. ‘You wouldn’t stand a chance. The angle of…

At the end of last year, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe announced they were pulling out of the Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible (MPCC, or Movement for Credible Cycling). In a statement, the team said, ‘We are ending our membership after 12 years. In that time, many of the MPCC’s demands have become WADA/UCI rules. This shows how important our involvement has been during this time. Now we can move on to new challenges.’ The team’s withdrawal reduced the MPCC’s men’s WorldTour membership to just seven out of 18 teams. Some, including Ineos Grenadiers, have never been members. But why? In a sport still bearing scars from decades of doping scandals, why not sign up to a voluntary anti-doping body? Like many aspects of elite performance, it’s a grey area… Born out of…

The climb up to Dinner Plain from Omeo may fly under the radar when compared with the nearby higher profile climbs of Mount Hotham, Falls Creek and Mount Buffalo, but for those who take on the Great Alpine Road, the reward is a road less travelled, rich in history and breathtaking country. More of an undulating adventure than a straightforward climb, the 43km route makes its way from lush farming valleys through historic cattle stations up to the alpine woodlands of the High Country, accumulating over 1,400m of climbing before arriving at Dinner Plain Alpine Village. The 43km route makes its way from lush farming valleys through historic cattle stations and up to alpine woodlands Omeo – with a population just over 400 – is a sleepy, historic gold rush…

The flight to Billund in the west of Denmark is a short one, the kind where it feels like no sooner have you gone up than you’re on your way back down. We’ve flown from Australia via London, and such a quick transfer makes the contrast between the sometimes grubby bustle of the England capital and the serene cleanliness of Denmark’s rural west especially stark. A sense of calm percolates through the place. Everything from car journeys to restaurant menus is well ordered and precise. It isn’t hard to see why the area gave rise to the creation of Lego, which originated in Billund in 1932. Or CeramicSpeed, a bearing and components company that has developed a reputation for quality and performance in the cycling world and beyond. Considering it…

Creating a cycling jacket that can repel rain and block wind while remaining light, stretchy, packable and breathable is a difficult trick to pull off. Until now, it has required a dark kind of magic to achieve this level of performance – dark enough that the PFAS-laden fabrics involved are now being phased out. ‘From a moral, ecological and legal point of view, we needed to change,’ says Fergus Niland, Santini’s creative director. ‘Even though we aren’t a colossal global entity like a Patagonia or an Adidas, at least we can say, “We did this.”’ Not that Santini or any other manufacturer really had a choice. It will soon be illegal to produce garments that contain PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals. Cut from a different cloth Fabricated with Polartec’s Power Shield RPM…