Cyclist Magazine

It’s good to have the Classics back where they belong – in the cold and wet. Happy as I was to see any pro cycling at all last year, there was something wrong with cobbled races taking place in balmy sunshine. Thanks to Covid, the reshuffled 2020 sea

Passoni is known for blending heritage with modernity, and there is perhaps no better example of that in its current range than the new Cicloprato. ‘Back in the late 1980s we started making very light mountain bike frames for pros who wanted to keep

It’s a serious wedge of cash, but the Barrage Cargo is a serious backpack – the sort that would survive a war zone as well as year-round commuting. It’s completely waterproof for a start, made from the same fabrics the SAS probably uses for bed sheet

Corima’s latest wheels are allshow, but if the French brand is to be believed they pack in enough technological wizardry to be all-go as well. For starters they’re handmade in France, as all Corima’s wheels have been for more than 30 years, and are a

After almost 40 years of making sports eyewear, Rudy Project has gone back to its very first design as inspiration for its latest release. The Spinshields take their cue from the brand’s original Performance sunglasses from 1986. They include the sam

As well as having incredibly large brains, manta rays glide effortlessly smoothly thanks to their drag-minimising shape. In an attempt to emulate its fishy namesake, the latest version of the Met Manta aero road helmet features a ‘NACA’ vent on the c

Speedplay founder Richard Bryne is said to have a personal collection of more than 300 pairs of bicycle pedals, none of which look anything like the ones he designed and created in the late 1980s. Often referred to as ‘lollipop pedals’, Speedplay lau

The great sport of cycling has a history of adopting technology from one genre and applying it to another, and in recent years the trend in road cycling has been to look to mountain bikes for developmental inspiration. Rim brakes are being superceded

Can you imagine popping into your local bike shop, pulling a guitar pedal out of your bag and asking if they might please sell you that bike over there but only if it’s painted the exact same colour as this pedal please? The shop assistant would frow

£129.99, buy.myzone.org Turns out furloughed BA pilots are superb decorators. They made a lovely job of the landing. Also turns out you don’t need anything more than this belt to track fitness. The MZ-3 records up to 16 hours of data (heart rate and

Given that most of us have travelled barely more than a few kilometres from our own homes over the past year, it was no real surprise that everyone got very excited about the return of pro cycling to our screens. There’s nothing like some sumptuous a

When her professional racing licence arrived in the post at her Brittany home in January, Audrey Cordon-Ragot might have been forgiven for punching the air in triumph. The French road race champion, who rides for Trek-Segafredo, had been making the c

Ashmei describes its Signature kit as ‘super compressive race fit’. It’s not wrong. The original Signature bibs were among the most form-fitting, comfy-all-over bibshorts we’ve ever ridden in, and that was four years ago. For 2021 Ashmei has retained

Switchboard: +44 (0)20 3890 3890 Advertising: +44 (0)20 3890 3801 Subscriptions: 0330 333 9492 subscriptions@cyclist.co.uk Emails: firstname_lastname@dennis.co.uk Cyclist, Dennis Publishing, 31-32 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP Web: cyclist.co.uk Emai

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 sett

Cyclist: You were there the day [QuickStep sprinter] Fabio Jakobsen experienced his horror crash at last year’s Tour of Poland. How did you feel? Brian Holm: When I saw Fabio crash, I thought we wouldn’t see him again. I was there in the team car and

Average power is quite a simple concept: it’s your total physical output divided by the time you rode for. Your output is measured in kilojoules and your time in seconds, so if you expend 2,000kJ on a three-hour ride then 2,000 divided by 10,800 (sec

Cold water is credited with a number of performance benefits – but which ones actually stand up to scrutiny? A peer review entitled Cold Water Immersion: Kill or Cure? grades each ‘benefit’ of cold water immersion (CWI) from one to four stars, with o

Cycling has its esoteric words – quacking* anyone? – but nothing compared to Royal Navy jackspeak. Something’s good? It’s hoofing. You’re perturbed? You’re threaders. Someone’s spinning a dit? You’re getting told a story. Someone’s black catted you?

Eddy Merckx once said, ‘The race is won by the rider who can suffer the most.’ It’s hard to argue against 525 professional victories including all the Grand Tours and Monuments, but was Merckx right? Does the key to success lie in how well we can cop

+ FREE CRANKALICIOUS WASH, PROTECT AND LUBE SET • 3 issues of Cyclist for £5 • Free Crankalicious welcome gift (RRP £34) • Free delivery of every issue • Save up to £53 a year on your subscription • Exclusive collectable subscriber-only covers ORDER

Oudenaarde is the kind of place you can find anywhere in Flanders – a mix of olden-day charm and industrial bustle. A large square dominated by a gothic town hall faces off against blocky apartments and a swing bridge over the Schelde river. It is in

To download this route go to cyclist.co.uk/112flanders or scan the QR code. Oudenaarde is so well appointed you can just point your bike out the hotel door and ride, but if you need some inspiration the most complete resource can be found at cyclingi

‘If you’d told me at the start of last year that I’d finish the season number one, I wouldn’t have believed it. And now I’m prepping for our “Hell of the North”. I seriously thought I’d be retired by now. Thank God I didn’t make that decision.’ Lizzi

A quick hop across the Channel either by ferry or tunnel leaves you with a 90-minute drive on the E40 to Oudenaarde. If you take the Eurostar or fly to Brussels you can take a connection from Brussels-Midi train station straight to the town, or hire

Imagine this: you’re riding up the Col d’Izoard in the Alps. From Guillestre in the south it’s a long slog of 31km; the average gradient is reasonable at around 4% but still you’re thankful when you arrive at the summit. Except when you get there you

Spring is a time of reawakening. The flowers bloom, the trees blossom, woodland creatures emerge from their burrows and cyclists leave the safety of their turbos to venture out onto the tarmac again. Those hardier souls who have ridden outdoors throu

‘It’s hard to choose so few images from so many years and races,’ says Graham Watson. Given that he has been photographing bike racing for more than 40 years, the number of races Watson has documented is nearly impossible to fathom. He attended his f

The soft vibration of my watch tells me it’s time to get up. I could do without the 5am start, yet I know in less than an hour I need to be pedalling. It’s not so much the 200km that concerns me, although I’m by no means taking that lightly, but rath

powered by To download this route go to komoot.com/tour/225713220 or scan the QR code. Follow the A66 alongside Bassenthwaite Lake until the turning for Thornthwaite. Follow this road to the B5289, which leads to Brackenthwaite. Turn left and follow

Much like an army, a cyclist marches on his or her stomach. Given the magnitude of my trip, nutrition was always going to be an integral part, and NamedSport has a huge range of products to fuel every situation, both on and off the bike. The Italian

Riding from one end of Britain to the other is a major undertaking, and Cyclist had help from a number of sources. Firstly, thanks to komoot (komoot.com) for help with creating a route that takes in many of the best parts of the country for riding a

Photography Mike Massaro, James Carnegie ■

Abike 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 Ba

Ugo De Rosa once built Eddy Merckx more than 50 frames in a year, including five in one week as The Cannibal prepared for Paris-Roubaix. Famously fastidious, Merckx obsessed over every tiny detail of his bikes, and it was De Rosa he trusted for the b

Bontrager Starvos WaveCel helmet, £99.99 trekbikes.com Oakley Jawbreaker sunglasses, £178 oakley.com Peloton de Paris Recon jersey, £108.16 pelotondeparis.cc Peloton de Paris River armwarmers, £30.24 pelotondeparis.cc Peloton de Paris Sprinteur bibsh

Open mould. It used to be a dirty phrase because it meant carbon product X came out of a mould that anyone could access, and hence it tended to be lower quality. Closed mould, by contrast, meant exclusive. Exclusive meant money, and money meant high

Four past winners of Paris-Roubaix walk into a bar. ‘It was bullshit,’ says 1981 winner Bernard Hinault. Two-times winner Sean Kelly says, ‘It’s a horrible race to ride but the most beautiful one to win.’ John Degenkolb, who won in 2015, adds, ‘It wa

Named after the Greek god of war, the Ares is first and foremost a sprinter’s shoe. Developed alongside the S-Works 7 shoe, Specialized took advantage of Deceuninck-QuickStep’s production line of talent to diagnose and fix the problems that come with