Cyclist Australia

Back in May, I attended my cousin’s wedding. It was her third attempt in a little over 12 months. The first was scheduled for April 2020; that, of course, had to be cancelled due to the original COVID-19 lockdown. They rescheduled for mid-January, on

All the stuff that makes you glad to be a cyclist It’s one of the world’s most instantly recognisable album covers. The Clash’s London Calling shows bassist Paul Simonon about to smash his guitar during a gig at The Palladium in New York. The photo h

Pearl Izumi says the Air jersey is the ‘lightest, most breathable’ jersey it has ever produced. The key feature underpinning that claim is the jersey’s thermo-welded seams. Pearl says that conventional seams can chafe in hot conditions as well as hol

If you have Campagnolo on your bike, you need these wheels. The Bora model has been Campag’s flagship wheel since 1994 and, in recent years, the WTO (wind tunnel optimised) takes the suite to the next level. Like every new wheel, these are stiffer, l

Northwave’s Extreme GT2 shoes bring the XFrame 2 construction of the Italian brand’s top-tier Extreme Pro shoes to a more accessible price point. The upper is entwined with precisely placed fabric tape, criss-crossing the shoe like a spider’s web to

Sceptics were quick to say wireless electronic shifting would never be reliable when Sram first launched eTap back in August 2015, but any misgivings over its dependability have long since been put to bed. The platform has proven itself beyond doubt,

Wahoo acquired popular alternative pedal brand Speedplay in September 2019. To even the most casual cycling tech fan, this could only mean one thing: a Wahoo power meter using Speedplay’s pedal design was imminent. Fast forward 18 months and Wahoo an

Cyclist: As you know, we’re big fans of Partington at Cyclist for myriad reasons. What do you think makes your wheels stand out? Jon Partington: Right now, from a quantitative point of view, we are confident that the R-Series wheelset has the highest

Simple to operate, stable at speed and with all the sleekness, versatility and durability you’ve come to expend from Thule, the FastRide and premium TopRide are the renowned Swedish brand’s newest fork-mounted roof bike racks offering fast and easy t

If there’s one thing Bontrager does well it’s… well, everything. Your knicks and jerseys, your handlebars, your stem, your lights, your helmet and shoes, your pump, your tools, your saddle, your tyres, your tubes and your wheels can all carry the Bon

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 superseded

‘The rougher the surface, the more difference it makes. More than two-thirds of US roads are unpaved, and our paved infrastructure is deteriorating, which I’m sure you have to deal with [in Australia] too,’ says Medaglia. ‘Many riders are choosing to

The view from inside the peloton In the men’s Ronde – and many other races besides – didn’t the Danes do well? Last year, Slovenia joined Colombia and Great Britain as a new world cycling powerhouse, but they were all partially eclipsed in the past t

It has been a massive couple of months of European racing, as cycling’s traditional calendar returned after the chaos that was 2020. The only major omission from routine was the Paris-Roubaix, which the men will hopefully contest on 3 October. The wo

The first time many people can remember seeing the ‘super-tuck’ position was at the World Championships in Florence in 2013. The 19-year-old Slovenian, Matej Mohori?, announced himself not only by winning the U23 road race one year after winning the

Henri Desgrange, the founder of the Tour de France, was not known for sympathising with the travails of those who rode his race. This was a man who famously decried the invention of the derailleur, describing it as something for the elderly and not a

Get stronger, get faster In cycling there are more tales spun about ‘solving’ cramp than at the bar of an old wives’ convention. In the days before stick-on race numbers, pros would pull out safety pins from jerseys and thrust them into the offending

Struggling to fulfil your training obligations? What you need is a Ulysses pact: a deal with your future self. It’s a term coined after the hero of Homer’s Odyssey, who wanted to hear the Sirens’ bewitching song but knew it would send him temporarily

If you think about becoming a better cyclist you might have a wish list that includes a featherweight bike, an aero helmet or a power meter. But the humble foam roller is one far less glamorous piece of kit that can help prevent injury and so help yo

Settling down for pizza and a beer the night before our ride, there’s a weird sense of ‘home’ at Beechworth’s Bridge Road Brewers. At the time of writing I live in Richmond, Melbourne. About 200m from Bridge Road. The Richmond one. I had no idea why

Baggies are the name of the game in this terrain, and it came as a pleasant surprise that Endura has options – good options – in the gravel apparel space. I’ve admired their cutting-edge skinsuits for years; basically the polar opposite of this type

Follow our route at ridewithgps.com/routes/35298714 or scan the QR code. It’s a big old loop west out of town then clockwise around (turning north) up to Chiltern. Head east past Mount Little Pilot then tucking back west, south west down (and up) Mou

Almost the elephant in the room, all this talk of how the price branding of the bike doesn’t matter when it comes to having a great time on gravel (it really doesn’t) only for me to be rocking a custom Baum Cycles Orbis X, SRAM Force AXS groupset and

Access to Beechworth from Melbourne is best via car. While there’s a V/Line bus from Wangaratta, we could not speak to capacity for bikes. Of course, you could always ride up. It’s a massive day to pull off (ideally you’d do it in summer, with more s

Greg LeMond has possibly the most complete CV in cycling. Three-time Tour de France champion, two-time road race World Champion. The only American to have won the yellow jersey (officially), the first non-European Tour winner and the only man to have

Start South of Andalsnes Road 63 (The Troll Road) Mountain range Romsdalsalpene (Romsdal Alps) Region Rauma Municipality Country Norway Visitors to my home frequently find their gaze drawn to a large framed print adorning my living room wall. The ima

What was the first road bike you ever owned? Turn over the page and we’ve given you a space to draw it and five lines underneath to describe it. Ask a responsible adult to cut out the page and send it in a stamped self-addressed envelope to Cyclist M

Before we continue, let’s take a moment to recognise again the incredible Pinarello Dogma. Its first Tour de France victory was less than auspicious – Oscar Pereiro was awarded the 2006 title after Floyd Landis was retrospectively stripped – but sinc

As we sent this issue of Cyclist to print, we had just finished watching Stage 14 of the 2021 Giro d’Italia, which saw the peloton attempt to conquer the fearsome Monte Zoncolan from the town of Sutrio. You wouldn’t have spotted it on the telly, but

Comeglians sits like a button on a Chesterfield sofa, pinned to the valley floor as if tethering the mountains rising biliously at its sides. There are quite a lot of towns like Comeglians in the Carnic Alps, little more than footnotes to the provinc

To download this route go to komoot.com/tour/343287349 or scan the QR code. Starting in Comeglians, head out of town through the cobbled tunnel, signed at its entrance Monte Crostis. These are recurring signs for cyclists so follow them for 15km thro

There are three ways up Monte Zoncolan. The ‘classic’ ascent averages 11.5% over 10.5km from Ovaro to the west, and is usually how the climb appears in the Giro d’Italia. However this year’s peloton approached from Sutrio to the east, a longer 13.5km

There’s something about a FiftyOne that always makes me think that, for the right customer, it will prove a brilliant investment. First, because it is fully bespoke it fits like the proverbial glove, but second, because it is round-tubed it won’t dat

Venice Marco Polo is the best airport to access the region. From there it’s a two-hour drive to Arta Terme via the faster toll roads – expect to pay around €15 ($23) each way – but we’d recommend going cross-country for a more scenic passage. The Gra

Merida’s eSilex is a bit like your mate who is the perfect multi-day backpacking companion. The one who’s always up for an adventure and will even take on some of the weight from your pack when you get a stitch – and who always remembers to pack the

Lapierre’s new Aircode DRS doesn’t look like a typical aero bike. Its 7.6kg is not considered featherweight by modern standards, and where are the hugely extended tube depths we’re used to? The lack of a sleek proprietary cockpit assembly is notable,

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

Ernest Hemingway – war veteran, big game hunter, deep sea fisherman, bullfight aficionado and Nobel Prizewinning author – was also a cycling fan. The hero of his first novel, Fiesta (The Sun Also Rises), is Jake Barnes, an injured war veteran partial