THE FINAL FIVE BIKE OF THE YEAR 2022
• WE'RE ON OUR way to picturesque Llyn Brianne in Carmarthenshire for a day in the Welsh hills and the mood in the van is full of expectation of a lot of pedalling and a lot of debate to see which of our quintet of section winners will take the overall top spot. This is, of course, the annual culmination of hours of logistics and testing of many bikes by many people, and the anticipation and sense of responsibility is palpable.
Today’s team includes: Katherine Moore, our women’s cycling expert and big road and gravel mile eater; Rob Moxon, our featherweight art editor who likes nothing more than getting uphill and smashing it back down; and Nicola Lovell, road-cycling fanatic and experienced Cycling Plus contributor. Sadly absent is CP’s senior art editor Steve Gotobed, who managed to sprain his ankle loading test bikes into the van, which means I have an unexpected opportunity to cement my views on some of the bikes.
Boardman bargain
For the first couple of hours, Rob takes the lightweight Merida (£7,750; winner of the Performance bike category, see p51), I take the fully loaded Cannondale Synapse (£6,750; Endurance winner, see p68), Katherine takes our women’s bike of 2022, the Liv Langma (£3,149, see p44), and Nicola jumps on the Boardman ADV8.9 (£1,150, see p38), which had come out top in the budget section.
After the first few kilometres of road that then turns into a lightly gravelled surface which doesn’t phase either the Merida or
