This is an early-period Jack Taylor ‘Road Path’ bike, a popular genre of sporting machine in the 1940s and ’50s that, in a very loose sense, combined track-inspired frames with road-going components.

The term ‘path’ was analogous to ‘track’, whether wooden boards, concrete, asphalt or grass, but these bikes were actually more popular for short-distance time trials and hill climbs.

Jack Taylor is a fascinating brand. It began in a garden shed in the 1930s as a bike-building hobby for teenage Jack, from where it evolved into a lifelong vocation for him and his two brothers, Norman and Ken.

Norman became a master with the brazing torch, Jack was responsible for paint and finish, while Ken built wheels and assembled the finished machines.

The siblings were obsessive about building bikes the ‘proper way’, earning them a global reputation for producing faultless-quality machines. Every painstaking step of the build was completed manually – the seamless fillet brazing, the exquisite box lining, even hand-drilling the rims for spokes.

“This particular bike features a distinctive curved seat tube,” remarks current owner Richard Hoddinott of vintage specialists The Velo Pages. “This will have reduced the wheelbase for sharper handling and also serves as an eye-catching signature detail. The frame has track ends and round-bladed forks, but the crown is factory drilled for a front brake. It’s a lovely, original example of one of the Taylor brothers’ rarer models.”

Ultimately, the trio’s fierce adherence to traditional values was the brand’s undoing. Throughout the 1980s, the brothers continued to produce five bikes a week, but by then they were all well into old age. The doors closed on their lifelong adventure in 1990, and with no worthy heir to carry on their legacy, the brand’s story ended with them.

Tom Boonen, Classics demi-god and all-round Belgian superstar, is at Specialized's California HQ, and he's not a happy man. It's 2006 and the Paris-Roubaix/Tour of Flanders double defending champ is at the height of his powers. He needs a stiffer bike, though. The Specialized Tarmac SL isn't cutting it.

"It was quite an uncomfortable situation," recounts Specialized's leader of brand voice Ben Capron. "We had done every test we knew of stiffness and weight, and we'd tested the Time bike they had [been riding before]. [When Boonen saw] the stiffness data with his own eyes, he waved it away and said, 'I don't care about that'. He was standing there [on the bike], and said, 'When I'm in the saddle and I'm winding up for a sprint,' – and he wiggled his butt – ‘the bike flexes like this. It's too flexible. I can't wind up for my sprint’."

It was a salient lesson for the team at Specialized, who managed to develop a brand new test and a brand new rear end – to satisfy Boonen's rear end. They called it the SL2, and it changed Boonen's mind comprehensively. "This is the best bike I've ever ridden," he told Capron, who remembers: "That season, he won everything. It was a great testimony."

The Tarmac is now on its 10th iteration – nine SL models, plus the original 2003 offering, fashioned from the brand's E5 aluminium. That original bike was, by all accounts, a harsh machine to ride. While Specialized's own history books call the first carbon SL "a blank canvas that we could begin to channel our… design ideas into," they hail the SL2 as “the first Tarmac that was both comfortable to ride and formidable to race.”

It was a watershed moment for the Tarmac. A coming of age. But it hadn't been so long before that it was just a twinkle in a Specialized designer's eye. In fact it nearly didn't happen at all.

"At a certain point in the mid to late-Nineties, the road business was single-digit for us," Capron says. “We literally sat in a room, and said, ‘Should we just get out of the road business altogether?’ We contemplated that question, and then a teammate who's not with us anymore slammed his fist on the table and said, 'No, we're going to go all-in, and one day we're going to win the Tour de France'. And it was so ridiculous that we all laughed out loud. And then the room got really quiet, and you could just feel the commitment in the room."

The pro peloton beckons

Specialized's first road goal, even before the Tarmac was officially launched, was to enter the pro peloton. The brand’s mountain bike image could have held it back, but in 2000 it was taken on by the Festina team, who weren't exactly flavour of the month following a major dope scandal 18 months previously. "We sponsored Festina because other teams, frankly, didn't want to touch a mountain bike brand," Capron says. "But Festina had a bit of a black eye, as you know. So we were able to get into the peloton that way."

The team's German sprinter Marcel Wüst got things up and running with a Tour de France stage victory that July. Initially its riders used M4 aluminium bikes, though, and it wasn't until 2003 that the first Tarmacs appeared. Specialized began sponsoring Quick-Step–Innergetic at the end of 2005, which was when things really took off for the Tarmac – helped by Boonen's theatrics. It was, says Capron, "an exponential leap."

Incredibly, for a company that was barely scratching the surface with road bikes a decade before, Specialized appeared to have fulfilled its boardroom dream in 2010, when Alberto Contador won the Tour on the SL3, the successor to Tom Boonen’s stiffened-up special (he was subsequently stripped of the title). The real thing came in 2014, when Vincenzo Nibali won on the Tarmac, and then it became the first bike to win three consecutive World Championships under Peter Sagan in 2015-2017, plus Anna van der Breggen the following year.

'You've got that flow'

Over the years the bike has become not just a favourite with WorldTour pros, but with riders of all levels. Multiple UK hill-climb champion Andrew Feather is one rider who has chosen the bike for his campaign this year. He calls it "the bee’s knees". It's fast and light, he says, but that's almost a given; what really makes it stand out over previous rides is the comfort factor.

"It's really comfortable to ride, and a big aspect [of its success] is that comfort," Feather says. "You're not bouncing along, instead you've just got that flow." The way the Tarmac is built has also allowed Feather to size down, which has helped him "to feel closer and more connected to the road.” “It just feels really nice,” he adds. “That's what this bike had over different brands.”

The Tarmac's most recent iteration is the SL9, which has already earned its wings at the highest level – ridden to World Championship victory in Montreal by Demi Vollering. All the more appropriate given she was the rider that inspired its design, after she lost the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2024 by just four seconds.

We realised we were developing our bikes in the wind tunnel with two bottles on," says global programme manager Koes De Boer. "Whereas in these breakaway moments, these riders actually race with one bottle. So we looked into what we need to change in the shape of the frame to actually make her faster."

Always innovating

The resulting bike was the S-Works Tarmac SL9, released this summer to great fanfare. It is, says Specialized, "the fastest road bike ever made", with a tweaked, more aerodynamic front end which, presumably, is fastest with a single bottle. Not that the Tarmac story is likely to end there. As De Boer says, "We are always thinking about the next new product. So if people ask, are you busy with the SL10? I say, if we weren't, it would be a shame, because it would mean we were not innovating anymore." The question is, who will be the next pro rider whose performance demands the bike take its next big step?

Evolution: from E5 to SL9

2003: The first Tarmac, the E5, launches with an aluminium main triangle, carbon seatstays and a carbon fork. It’s fast, but harsh.

2006: The Tarmac SL arrives as Specialized’s first full-carbon frame.

2008: Spurred on by Tom Boonen’s complaints about flex, Specialized develops a new stiffness test and creates the SL2, the first Tarmac that is both comfortable and race-ready.

2010: The SL3 wins the Tour on its debut with Alberto Contador, who is later stripped of the title.

2011: The SL4 follows just a year after the SL3.

2014: A new Tarmac, later known as the SL5, introduces Rider-First Engineered, with each frame size engineered independently. It also brings the first disc-brake Tarmac. Vincenzo Nibali wins the Tour on it.

2017: The SL6 brings a dedicated disc-brake frame.

2020: With the SL7, the aero Venge is dropped and the Tarmac becomes Specialized’s one race bike.

2023: The SL8 refines the aero shaping further.

2026: Specialized launches the SL9, calling it “the fastest road bike ever made.” Demi Vollering wins the Worlds on it in Montreal.

The owner's view: Mike Hughes

Londoner Mike Hughes, 40, has been a dedicated Specialized Tarmac owner for almost his entire five-year road riding journey.

As a mountain-biking youngster, Specialized was the brand Mike Hughes always lusted after, but it wasn't until he switched to skinny tyres that he actually owned one. He traded in a cheaper bike after just three months on the road. "I ended up with a Tarmac, though it was far too expensive to justify. But the idea was that it would be the last bike I needed."

That bike was an SL7, and his Strava feed tells the story of that bike switch, says Hughes, with his time on the bike quickly ramping up, "because I enjoyed it more and more". "The Tarmac just feels incredible. It just gives you loads of confidence. It's nice and nimble, but also there's the aesthetic side of it as well. It's a pride-and-joy piece, and you enjoy riding it because it looks nice," he adds.

Hughes graduated to an SL8 after his SL7 was damaged, and says he felt the newer bike had a stiffer front end and BB, with more comfort at the rear. He has done numerous big rides abroad on his Tarmacs, including the Mallorca 312 – not without risk, as he recently discovered when his SL8 was damaged on a flight. Guess what he's replacing it with? "I've been looking at the SL9, and [considering] paying a little bit more," he says. "I just can't think of another bike that fits the bill so well. With the Tarmac you don't worry that you've bought the wrong bike or made the wrong compromises because it does everything well."

'Specialized did well across the board with this one': the mechanic's view

We spoke to mechanic Kyle Imisson at Guildford's Bike Bros store, who has worked on a range of Tarmacs, from base model bikes to building up SL8 framesets.

What's the Tarmac like to work on?
They're pretty simple, to be honest. Obviously a lot of them are running [Shimano] Di2 or [SRAM] AXS, so the gear cabling is not even there. But the brake cables are really nicely run through the frame. They're really nice to work on.

Are there any fast-wearing parts, or those that are difficult to find?
There’s nothing that really wears faster or that’s difficult to source. Specialized did well across the board with this one – to some extent, it does depend on the rider, though.

Would you buy one yourself?
I’d love to say yes, but I’m not actually a roadie. If I was, I’d definitely eye them up, they’re a really nice bike.

What's the best-value Tarmac?
That’s a tough one. I think you do pay a bit more for the Specialized name in general, but I think all the Tarmacs are pretty good for the money. In terms of groupsets alone, the Shimano 105 Di2 is great value – you’ve got pretty much everything that Ultegra and Dura-Ace offers.

If you were buying used, which version would you go for?
If money was no object, it’d have to be the SL8. It’s such a nice-looking bike.

Italian bike brand Bianchi has entered into a restructuring process, and has until May 2027 to renegotiate its debts, or it may face insolvency, according to reports.

A report this week by Escape Collective found that Bianchi has struggled through years of financial losses since the Covid pandemic. The company’s latest full accounts, published at the end of 2024, show it owed over €100m, of which €64.3m to banks.

According to Escape, Bianchi made a formal request on 30 September for composizione negoziata della crisi (CNC) – translated as ‘a negotiated settlement of a business crisis’ – a voluntary process designed to help companies resolve financial difficulties and avoid insolvency. The process lasts for 180 days, but may be extended to 240 days, giving Bianchi a deadline of 28 May 2027.

Distress signals sounded last week when it was announced the brand's sponsorship of the WorldTour team Bahrain Victorious was ending after just one year.

The company, owned by the Swedish-based Grimaldi Industri since 1997, has changed leadership four times since 2021.

Escape's report says the business was profitable before Covid, reaching revenues of €5.2m in 2021, but suffered losses in the wake of the pandemic, as oversupply and price slashing dogged the industry. Bianchi's losses fell to €7.7m in 2024.

That same year, Bianchi opened a new headquarters and factory in Treviglio, 30km east of Milan. The company has continued to launch new bikes, including the Infinito endurance road bike in March this year and performance-driven Specialissima in June.

Bianchi’s interim CEO Tony Grimaldi told Escape his company has fallen victim to “investing a lot in too many areas at the same time”.

“We have been too ambitious in too many segments, and the bicycle industry is so tough. You cannot do everything everywhere, especially when we know that the market is oversupplied,” he said.

The release of the company’s 2025 accounts has been delayed while the company restructures.

Through the CNC process, Bianchi has asked for protection from its creditors as it renegotiates the terms of its debts.

"When you go into it [the CNC], you do it because you are convinced you can restructure and that you have a plan," Grimaldi said. He also reassured: "In our core business, Bianchi has strong credibility. And we have good products."

Bianchi was founded in 1885 and is one of the oldest bicycle manufacturers in the world. It has supplied bikes to WorldTour teams Jumbo-Visma, Arkéa-Samsic, BikeExchange and Bahrain Victorious in the last decade.

Contacted for comment by Cycling Weekly, Bianchi provided the following statement: "Through its Italian operating company, F.I.V.E. Bianchi S.p.A., Bianchi has initiated a negotiated restructuring process under the Italian CNC framework. The aim is to place the company's financial position on a sustainable footing following several challenging years for Bianchi and the wider bicycle industry.

"The process is being conducted under the company's existing management, and Bianchi continues to operate. It remains committed to its dealers and customers, including deliveries, applicable warranty obligations and after-sales service, and continues to work with its key suppliers.

"Bianchi is concentrating its resources on its core strengths: Racing, Gravel and Performance bicycles. The first new products resulting from this focus will be introduced in early 2027."

Who do you think is the best in the world right now? The winner of our 2026 International Rider of the Year award will be decided by you, the Cycling Weekly reader. Simply click the name of the rider you want to see crowned in our poll below.

Six riders have made the shortlist, all of whom have had exceptional seasons, even by their own, very high standards. Demi Vollering and Tadej Pogačar dominated, but this award isn't simply about the number of wins a rider chalked up.

Other riders stepped up to the top of the sport in 2026, riding at a level they hadn't reached before. Not just winning, but recording a season of results that saw them progress to a higher standard

If you need reminding of what these riders achieved, simply scroll down to read a short summary of their season, and why we selected them.

Voting closes on 15 November, and the results will be revealed in the 3 December edition of Cycling Weekly

Demi Vollering

Despite being the de-facto race favourite every time she pinned on a number, Demi Vollering still had two major events missing from her palmares. The first of which, the Giro d'Italia was firmly in her sights even before the season started; the date change meant the Dutchwoman was confident in targeting that and the Tour de France. The second was the World Championships road race. Both were ticked off in a year where she proved almost unbeatable. Even if she didn't dominate every race she was in, she won with an assuredness that is befitting of her status in the peloton. Her list of wins this season is nothing short of exceptional

Major results: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France Femmes, World Championship road race, Tour of Flanders, Fleche Wallonne Femmes, Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, European Championships road race
UCI ranking: 1

Remco Evenepoel

The Belgian's move to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe set the wheels in motion for his best season yet. Second place at the Tour de France, along with a TT and summit finish stage win, made up for last year's disappointment, but what really impresses is his consistency. Third places at Flanders and Liège sandwiched his Amstel Gold win and more victories came after the Tour. It says alot that his 'worst' one-day result was 12. Unfortunately that was at the World Championships where he started as the favourite.

Major results: World Championships ITT, Amstel Gold Race, Tour of Valencia, European Championships road race, Tour de France 2nd,
UCI ranking: 2

Tadej Pogačar

A fifth Tour de France win meant the Slovenian joined the Tour greats this year, while the rest of his results have everyone saying what we've long thought, that he is already the greatest of all time. Of all the races he started this year, he 'failed' to win two. At Paris-Roubaix he was beaten in a sprint by Wout van Aert and at the Vuelta he was taken out by a rock in the road. On every other day, he was unbeatable.

Major results: Tour de France, Tour de Suisse, Tour de Romandie, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tour of Flanders, Milan - San Remo, Strade Bianche
UCI ranking: 1

Marlen Reusser

The Swiss rider's record in time trialling this year was almost 100%. The one that got away being a mountain TT at the Giro, where she was second to Anna van der Breggen. Her performances against the clock landed her world and European titles and a GC win at the Tour de Suisse. 14th at the Tour de France doesn't tell the whole story; she spent three days in yellow, only falling off the podium on the final stage

Major results: World Championship individual time trial, European Championship individual time trial, Tour de Suisse, Dwars door Vlaanderen
UCI ranking: 8

Paul Seixas

Few riders have made as big an impact in their first full year as a pro rider as Frenchman Paul Seixas did. The 19-year-old won on his second day of racing, then again on his sixth, eighth and ninth. He also finished his season with a win, the biggest one of the year, at Il Lombardia. On his Tour de France debut, he placed fourth amid all the hype as the country has a rider who almost seems destined to end their win drought.

Major results: Il Lombardia, Flèche Wallone, Itzulia Basque Country, Faun-Ardèche Classic, 2nd Strade Bianche, 2nd Liège-Bastogne-Liège
UCI ranking: 3

Lorena Wiebes

No rider finished the season with as many '1s' against their name as sprinter Lorena Wiebes. SD Worx Protime's leader won 25 times this season. 30 if you include points classifications which she topped in five of the six stage races she started this year. The Tour of Poland didn't have a points classification, but it's a moot point as she won all three stages and the GC. Top sprinters, male or female, are expected to win, but this year's win count was on another level.

Major results: In Flanders Fields, Tour of Poland, Copenhagen Sprint, Tour de France Femmes x2 stages and green jersey, Tour of Britain Women x4 stages, Tour of Chongming Island
UCI ranking: 5

The winners of a combined 29 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes stages will grace the stage at Rouleur Live next week, as part of the annual London event.

Across three days at the Truman Brewery in East London – Thursday 12, Friday 13 and Saturday 14 November – some of the biggest names in cycling will appear on stage as many of the biggest brands will display their latest bikes and products.

The opening night will be headlined by 2024 TdFF winner Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, ahead of her big move to Lidl-Trek. She'll appear on stage with husband Taylor Phinney who returned to the US track team this year in his bid to earn a place in the team pursuit for the 2028 LA Olympics.

The pair will be followed on stage by former world champion Mathieu van der Poel, a rare appearance in the UK, and the first time the Dutchman has appeared at Rouluer Live.

Sir Bradley Wiggins and his son Ben, who has just signed for Jayco AlUla's WorldTour team, will also be on stage on the Thursday. TV's Orla Chennaoui is present, along with EF Education-Oatly's multi-talent Axelle Dubau-Prévot, gravel rider Freddy Ovett, and Team Amani's Xaverine Nirere. T

Friday's day session sees more Classics stars, with former world champion Lotte Kopecky headlining alongside Danish powerhouse Mads Pedersen. They will be joined by the legendary Fabian Cancellara in London, once king of Roubaix and Flanders, now running Tudor Pro Cycling.

Also appearing will be Unbound winner turned WorldTour pro Rosa Klöser and WorldTour pro turned gravel specialist Lukas Pöstlberger, Axel Merckx, another ultra-rider in Quinda Verheul, and breakaway expert Ben Healy. TNT Sports pundit and former pro Hannah Walker is also in attendance, along with British champion Fred Wright.

The final day, Saturday, is full of stars too, including the GOAT Marianne Vos, and Italian veteran Matteo Trentin. World champion triathlete Lucy Charles-Barclay will be present, along with star sprinter Fabio Jakobsen, Unibet Rose Rockets team boss Bas Tietema and gravel racers Carolin Schiff and Maddy Nutt. The Lanterne Rouge Podcast will also be in London.

Those are just the headlines, with Matt Stephens, Sofiane Sehili, Johan Museeuw, Josh Giddings, Elynor Bäckstedt and Ned Boulting along the cycling big names appearing at the show.

With so many luminaries of the sport and world of cycling appearing, it should be an interesting few days. It does not end with the talks, however, with dozens of brands, companies and other organisations exhibiting at the show.

Tickets are available from rouleur.cc.

Last month, my brother-in-law was knocked off his bike and seriously injured. As a regular commuter, this shocked me, and almost put me off riding again.

However, I know what the data says: cycling is statistically a safe activity; the benefits of regular cycling far outweigh any risks.

I decided to put my energy into working towards positive change. I got myself a helmet camera and began reporting incidents to the police.

Cyclists who record their rides aren't always popular. YouTuber Cycling Mikey – real name Mike van Erp – described himself as "marmite" to Cycling Weekly, but his reason for reporting is simple: "I just like to think that with the power of one I’m trying to change a little bit of road safety," he told The Guardian in 2022.

Before beginning my new short film endeavour, I wanted to be sure that my reporting would be useful, productive, and would have a positive impact, so I spoke to police, campaigners, and regular reporters, to collect their tips.

1) Your recording, and reporting, has a positive impact

Senior Policy Officer at the London Cycling Campaign, Tom Bogdanowicz, told me: "We strongly support camera reporting, which helps deter close passing by drivers, phone use while driving and other offences."

Operation Snap – Op Snap for short – is a UK police initiative which allows the public to upload and report footage of driving offences. Each UK force has its own process.

West Midlands Police uploads a report of its submissions and resulting action each month, and Bogdanowicz told me, "The West Midlands police are the gold standard when it comes to promoting and enforcing on public-supplied camera footage – and their results are hard to argue.

"[Their] approach shows that a supportive force, clear instructions to reporters and efficient follow-up leads to more enforcement and deterrence – and that means fewer people killed or injured on our roads."

2) You need to capture the incident, the registration number; and duration matters

West Midlands Police provided clear criteria for useful uploads; "it needs to be footage showing the incident, and where the Vehicle Registration Number of the vehicle involved is identifiable. The footage should include the entire incident and, wherever possible, one minute before and after the offence. The footage should not be any longer than 10 minutes in duration."

While working on this article, I reported a close pass to Dorset Police via its Operation Snap website. I found that Dorset Police says you must upload "at least two minutes of unedited footage, both before and after the reported incident," to have a chance of prosecution.

3) Equipment makes all the difference

Danny Brothwell is the chair of Bike Worcester, he’s personally made 800 submissions to Operation Snap. Bike Worcester received funding from the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner to buy 16 Drift Ghost XL cameras for cyclists. Brothwell values their incident-saving feature: "If someone close-passes you, you press the button, and it saves to the card 10 seconds before and 10 seconds afterwards." He says it "really minimises review time and editing time."

Brothwell recommends good image quality, especially for riding in the dark, along with long battery life and an easy-to-operate setup. His own camera can struggle on unlit stretches of his commute. Crucially, riders must check their own force's footage requirements: Brothwell's short saved clips would not meet Dorset Police's stated two-minute-before-and-after requirement.

For cyclists considering helmet-mounted rather than handlebar-mounted cameras, the same practical test applies: can the footage clearly show the incident and identify the vehicle?

Cycling Weekly has a guide to the best helmet and bike cameras here, the DJI Osmo Nano taking the award for best overall. Cameras that mount on the rear of the bike are useful too, and Garmin's Varia Rearview 820 won in that department.

Key advice is to look for cameras that offer a 'Loop Recording' setting, that will passively record as you ride, constantly overwriting until you select 'archive', eg in the event of an incident. You want the 'archive' button to be instinctive, and one-press so you can use it correctly when adrenaline is high.

4) Keep the original footage

You should keep the original footage safe until the prosecution is complete.

Brothwell says he keeps the footage as Operation Snap requests. "The three times I've been to court, they've all been 12 months after the event – almost to the day," he recalls. He stores the files on a hard drive. His experience is a useful warning not to assume that six months is always long enough: follow the relevant force's instructions and preserve the original while a case remains live.

6) Pause before posting on social media

Don’t share footage on social media if you want to prosecute.

Dorset Police explicitly state you should take down any social media footage before reporting the incident. West Midlands Police also state, "it is very important that you do not post footage elsewhere prior to and while any action is being taken by the police or courts."

Brothwell avoids publishing footage that he has submitted to the police. "I think it's sensible," he says, because sharing it "may impact any proceedings." He has published some clips when writing about his experiences at magistrates' court, but he keeps live cases off social media.

7) Your statement is core to the report

Brothwell admits his early submissions sometimes contained little more than the words "close pass." After police feedback, he changed his approach: "They gave me some feedback in one of the meetings to say, 'Look, if this does go to court, that's not good enough. Can you do a proper statement?'"

He now uses a fuller statement template, adapting it to the incident and estimating the passing distance. He has given evidence in magistrates' court three times, where he says prosecutors and defendants questioned him and the footage was played repeatedly. The written account should therefore explain what happened rather than leaving the video to speak for itself.

4) Be aware that prosecution rates will vary, but your reporting always has value

West Midlands Police stated, "we take everything on a case-by-case basis, and we’d encourage people to submit footage if they believe an offence has been committed so that it can be properly assessed."

Brothwell says most of his submissions involved close passes, but he has also reported red-light offences, occasional mobile-phone use and vehicles obstructing crossings or school zigzags; he cautions that not every Highway Code contravention is necessarily suitable for an Operation Snap report.

Brothwell describes Operation Snap as a "postcode lottery", arguing that forces differ in how they handle reports and communicate outcomes. He is working on his own, yet to be published, research comparing forces.

However, his overall aim is not punishment: "I've got no interest in people getting fined. I just want people to acknowledge that driving isn't good enough. They need to chill out, slow down, and share the road appropriately." That's a goal all road users can share.

The Big Ride Challenge is all about inspiring people to ride their bikes. At the start of the year we ask people to set themselves one of the four mileage targets from 500 to 5,000 miles. Below is a list of everyone who has contacted us and sent proof* of their 2026 mileage. When you reach your target, email us on cycling@futurenet.com and we'll add you to the list below.

There is still two months to go until the end of the year, and plenty of riding waiting to be done. Each year lots of people complete their challenge on December 31. Some might say that's leaving it late, we say it's perfect timing!

You can join the Big Ride Challenge at any time during the year; all previously ridden miles from January 1st count toward the total.

*Proof of a mileage is a screengrab of a your chosen ride logging site (Strava, Garmin, etc), or a picture of a filled out 2026 CW mileage chart

The Mini - 2026 finishers

If you've just started out on your cycling journey, this is the challenge for you; 500 miles in one year

>>> Download your finisher's certificate here

The Midi - 2026 finishers

If you've ridden 1,000 miles in 2026, you've completed The Midi!

>>>Download your finisher's certificate here

Andrew Killington
Justin Payne
Martin Wray

The Maxi - 2026 finishers

The challenge for those riding 2,500 miles in a year.

>>> Download your finisher's certificate here

Brent Baga - Completed on August 7
Graham Nix - Completed on August 18
John McCabe
Alex Latimer
Matthew Wallace
Chris Breese

CW5000 - 2026 finishers

The original challenge, launched in 2020 - ride 5,000 miles in a calendar year.

>> Download your CW5000 finisher's certificate here

Giles Cudmore - Completed on March 29
Justin Lomas - Completed on April 28
Michael Padwick - Completed on May 9
Robert Dalzell - Completed on May 25
Dave Cox - Completed on June 21
Costin Murray - Completed on July 26
Terry Knappett - Completed on August 2
Leslie Reissner - Completed on August 11
Katherine White - Completed on August 19
Bryn Thomas - Completed on August 25
Mark Swanson - Completed on August 29, seventh year running
Andy Hopper - Completed on September 28
Gordon Reid - Completed on September 28
Ron Bradley - Completed on September 29
Andrew Baylis - Complete on October 12, sixth year running
David Oakes - Completed on October 13, seventh year running
Ian Long - Completed on October 16
Ian Miller - Completed on October 18
Ian Smith - Completed on October 18, seventh year running
Nigel Hale - Completed on October 26
Peter Thompson - Completed on October 30
Alex Graham - Completed the CW5000 seven years running
Chris Ronan
Mark Gilbert
Kev Palmer
Jeannette Burgoyne
Robert Moody
Darryn Mitchell
Andy Cartlidge
Hugh Mulligan
Oliver Dyson
Martin Power
Mary Boothroyd - Completed the CW5000 seven years running
Gary Boothroyd - Completed the CW5000 seven years running
Tim Banks
Myatt Geoffrey
Rory Leiper
Colin Whitehouse - Completed the CW5000 fours years running
Rob Phillips
Chris Baird
Ivan Dawes
Piers Newson-Smith
Martin Holmes
Jose Goncalves
Les Buist - Completed the CW5000 seven years running

Previous years......

• 2025 Finishers List
• 2024 Finishers List
• 2023 Finishers List
• 2022 Finishers List
• 2021 Finishers List
• 2020 Finishers List

As I write this, Tadej Pogačar’s odds to win next year's Tour de France stand at 1/4. The sobering thing about that is it looks about right. It’s not the shortest-ever odds for a Tour win. But that was Pogačar too, ahead of the 2025 race.

The 2026 odds were similarly short, but had drifted out a fraction after the Giro d'Italia, where Jonas Vingegaard looked like Pogačar normally looks at the Tour. But I suspect that Vingegaard only looks like Pogačar when the actual Pogačar isn’t available for direct comparison.

For some reason, this overwhelming domination seems to be getting people down. “It’s going to be so predictable,” they say. Or, “It is wrong that every time I see his cheerful little face I want bad things to happen to him?” (A random sample from two of my friends, one of whom is a pro bike rider.)

If that’s the way you feel, I have a few suggestions that may help.

It’s worth contemplating for a moment just how good Pogačar is. Pro riders are very good at what they do. Cycling is a demanding, dangerous, random sport. Everyone, absolutely everyone, who makes any sort of a career as pro is talented, deeply committed, and very lucky. If you’ve ever tried to go toe-to-toe with a WorldTour rider, you’ll know how good they are.

And Pogačar can do to them what they can do to us. He can make them feel just as defeated, inadequate, and disappointed. There’s something pleasingly democratic about that.

It would also, I think, be fair to say that before a lot of Tours, perhaps even most Tours, we’ve heard the same story. There is often an overwhelming favourite because the Tour has always had eras of repeat winners. And at least Pogačar is a slightly interesting favourite.

He puts his reputation and his safety on the line at the classics. He rides with the panache that we all said we wanted – he attacks wildly early, or he falls off and bounces up again to win with a bloodied jersey.

He even has cute little tufts of hair sticking through his helmet vents. If you’d been offered the chance to design your ideal Tour winner during the Sky winning-by-numbers era, you’d have designed Pog. But now we have him? Bit boring, isn’t it?

If you think a Pogačar Tour lacks edge-of-seat moments, let me take you back even further than Sky, to the first Tours I watched in the 1990s, when Miguel Indurain crushed the little people in the (long, long) time trials and simply rode tempo up the climbs. Other than Chris Boardman’s win in the prologue, you could use tapes of the 1994 Tour as a general anaesthetic.

Most important of all, the thing about cycling as a spectator experience is contrast. It’s not pure excitement. It’s not scripted to be entertainment from flag to line. For the most part we’ve resisted the temptation to dick about with the rules to create artificial drama.

So, remember that someday Pogačar will fail. I don’t necessarily mean that as something to celebrate, per se. But when it comes, look at it this way; it’s as if every time he wins and you go, “Uh. Same old,” you ratchet a little more tension into a spring.

When one day someone rides away and leaves him gasping on an Alpine pass, all of that pent-up energy will come tumbling out. For years afterwards we’ll ask each other, “Where were you when Pogačar finally cracked?” It will define the 2020s. (Or maybe the 2030s. Or 2040s.)

And anyway, if the overwhelming favourite wasn’t Pogačar, it would be Jonas Vingegaard, and we’d be saying all the same things about him. There’s always a favourite, it’s always going to be boring, right up to the day it suddenly isn’t.

If you’re suffering under the misapprehension that your bike isn’t fit to tackle the untamed gravel of the Home Counties without the latest 1x13 electronic groupset, complete with dinnerplate-esque 10t/46t cassette, this Viking expedition bike is the antidote. Turns out, all you need for the very worst terrain is iron-clad resolve, legs of steel and one fixed gear.

This impressive expedition bike was built for Bernard Heath, an equally remarkable adventurer, who, together with Rough-Stuff Fellowship (RSF) members Dick Phillips, Raymond Bottomley, and Ron Bartle, made the first unsupported two-wheeled crossing of Iceland's interior in 1958.

They cycled identical Viking steel fixies uniquely adapted for the task; the most obvious modification being the girder-like rack brace that’s brazed directly to the seat tube.

“You could jump on that rack, it’s so strong,” says current owner Richard Hoddinott of vintage specialists The Velo Pages. “The whole bike is incredibly beefy. The front dropouts are clearly quite agricultural but built for punishment.

Similarly, the bottom bracket features a modified tandem shell for increased strength. The bikes had to be tough; they carried everything, including a rubber dinghy for river crossings.”

The adaptations were a wise precaution. The four RSF riders, all in their twenties, were taking on the Sprengisandur (roughly translated: ‘ride a horse to death’), an ancient 260-mile pass that lies between three central Icelandic ice caps.

If the lava fields were daunting – a seemingly endless rotation of boulders, scree slopes and knee-deep, soft grit – the numerous, broad, icy river crossings were downright hazardous.

Reading their expedition notes, it’s remarkable how rudimentary much of their kit was. The defining adjective is ‘stout’ – stout rope, stout cycling shoes and, of course, stout bikes. Bernard Heath went on to found the Mountain Bothies Association – a legacy for which every walker, climber, and bikepacker remains in his debt.

Until this summer, Alice Lethbridge could count on one hand the number of times she rode outdoors in the previous 18 months, and still have two fingers left over.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to ride her bike on the roads – quite the opposite, actually – her body just wouldn’t let her.

The 41-year-old, a former 100-mile and 12-hour British time trial record holder, was competing in the East Cleveland Classic in spring 2024 when she showed the first symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition that compresses the arteries between her ribs and collarbone, and left her with numb hands and nausea.

“I just couldn’t be in the bunch,” she tells Cycling Weekly. “It was making me feel very dizzy turning my head outside... I started to feel like maybe I was going to vomit.”

Later that summer, her hands got so worryingly cold she decided to see a doctor. The diagnosis took almost a year, but the realisation she had to stop riding outdoors was immediate. Lethbridge turned instead to her indoor trainer, and, in the face of adversity, spun her way into her “fittest ever” shape.

“I could ride on a trainer because you don’t have to turn your head to look over your shoulder,” she explains.

“I kept thinking it was going to be short term, then the treatment just kept getting delayed, so I said to myself, ‘Why don’t you just focus on indoor racing for now?’ I guess I flipped it: I prioritised indoor racing, and then saw if the outdoor racing could happen.”

Fortunately, Lethbridge, a biology teacher by trade, was no stranger to racing indoors. She joined Zwift in the lockdown of 2020, and within two years, made her debut for Great Britain at the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships.

Dogged by the symptoms of her condition, she began training up to 20 hours a week during the school holidays, or 10-12 in term time. Often she'd wake up at 5am to complete a turbo session before work.

“Last summer, I would say, I was at my fittest ever, which was incredibly frustrating to be stuck indoors and not be able to race outdoors with it,” she says.

“I switched to become a bit smarter with the training, and look for different ways to keep endurance decent without doing the traditional long weekend rides.”

For Lethbridge, that included higher intensity intervals, and joining group rides on Zwift and MyWhoosh with the FemmeCycle Collab community she helped expand. “I needed to find something that acted as a substitute for being with a team outside,” she says. “That’s what has kept me really motivated throughout all this time being stuck indoors.”

The racing, too, proved a huge success. Thanks to her consistency, Lethbridge was able to raise enough prize money on MyWhoosh to put towards physio treatment for her condition, something she now describes as “a massively welcome bonus”.

As for longer-term treatment, however, that's still up in the air. Lethbridge was able to return to outdoor riding this summer thanks to a round of botox injections that paralysed the affected muscles. “Unfortunately it’s worn off now, so I’m back indoors,” she says.

The doctors have suggested trying a second round of injections, something they have never prescribed before. If it all goes to plan, Lethbridge is hopeful she’ll be back on the roads for longer, enjoying the breeze, the sun, and the outdoor racing with which she first fell in love. “But I’ll still use the indoor training because it’s just so much more efficient around work,” she says.

Lethbridge's advice to anyone struggling to find the motivation to ride indoors is simple: join a team. “Not being around club mates regularly or racing team-mates is the biggest challenge for me,” she says.

“If you’ve signed up and said, ‘Yeah I’m going to race with the team in this event,’ it’s the same as telling your friends, ‘I’m going to turn up for the ride outside’.

In fact, she adds, “It’s even easier than racing outdoors – you just click a link and you’re in.”

A car driver who left his vehicle and violently threw a cyclist to the ground after an altercation in Edinburgh two years ago, a "violent and unprovoked attack" that resulted the bike rider sustaining a fractured skull and bleed on the brain, has avoided a prison sentence.

Disturbing footage of Joseph Hedley, 39, grabbing 34-year-old cyclist Iain Brow by the throat and physically assaulting him in Edinburgh's Cowgate area on 20 September 2024 was widely shared on social media, resulting in a police appeal and a public outcry. This eventually led to Hedley turning himself in.

In an earlier hearing – during which Hedley admitted assaulting the victim to his severe injury, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life – Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that Brown lost consciousness in the immediate aftermath of the attack, and he had to be rushed to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

During this week's hearing, as reported on the BBC and elsewhere, Fiscal Depute Peter Finnon explained that the cyclist had suffered serious injuries – including an acute bleed on the brain, a traumatic brain injury and a fractured skull – and that the medics who attended the scene and treated him described his injuries to be "very much to the potential of danger to Mr Brown's life".

Speaking to STV journalists after the hearing, Hedley claimed to be sorry for actions, but then shrugged his shoulders and said: “He was blocking my way so I had to move him.” He subsequently added: “I didn’t leave him for dead. He was kicking off."

“You broke his skull and drove away,” the reporter says, to which Hedley simply replied: “Yeah but that doesn’t matter.”

The defendant's lawyer, Calum Turner, said Hedley had "not intended" to inflict serious injury on the cyclist, and that he had not driven since the incident. It was claimed that Brown had shouted at the and shone a bike light into the car, causing Hedley's partner, who was in the passenger seat, to suffer a "seizure".

When handing down the sentence, Sheriff Fergus Thomson told the defendant he had inflicted "significant injuries", and explained that he was avoiding a custodial sentence "by the narrowest of margins".

Instead Hedley received a two-year supervision order, and he will also be tagged and given a 12-month overnight home curfew, meaning he can't leave his place of residence between 7pm and 7am for the next year.

Faith Currie, Procurator Fiscal for Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders, said: "This was a violent, sustained and unprovoked assault on an innocent member of the public who suffered serious injuries.

"The actions of Joseph Hedley were horrific and shocking and could easily have had more devastating consequences."

If your indoor training journey began this side of the indoor cycling cyber revolution, consider yourself extremely lucky. Nothing less than 'revolution' can do justice to the change from the old ways to the new. From counting bricks on the garage wall to connecting in real-time with thousand-strong cyber-pelotons made up of many nationalities, in onscreen worlds offering every watts, leaderboards, segment PRs and a dinosaur around every other corner. Forget boredom – this is pretty much sensory overload.

One thing though - if your adventures in indoor training began post-2015, you did miss out on the character building experience that means anyone who's swung a leg over a noisy, standalone old-school trainer gets to feel nothing but gratitude every time they fire up Zwift, MyWhoosh, or Rouvy.

My indoor training experience actually began outdoors, on a set of Tacx rollers. At that point they were pretty much the most widely available indoor training device, owned by a lot of club cyclists. Aged 18, and a relative newbie to road cycling as a hobby, this was such a novel idea, being able to complete a ride while not actually going anywhere. I'd rigged them up so I could steady myself on the window ledge as I mounted up, which seemed to work pretty well. The training effect was limited, the boredom mitigated by the fact that if I'd drifted off for more than a few seconds, a faceplant onto the concrete was likely to be the result. The experience was also enlivened considerably by the fact that whenever I went to steady myself on the brick ledge I got an electric shock from the static build-up.

Needless to say, when my mate Neil became the proud owner of a brand spanking new indoor trainer, I was probably more excited than he was to try it out.

Rewind to the very early Nineties, and there we both were in his garage, admiring it as if we'd stumbled across a trove of Babylonian treasure. Of the two of us, Neil always led the way when it came to new cycling tech (and often on the bike too). He had a cycle-computer first. And an alloy-framed bike, and now he had an indoor trainer. We took it in turns to spend a few exhilarating minutes each, riding as hard as we could, before swapping back over to let the other one rejoin the fun.

My indoor riding journey had begun.

It didn't last long. My rollers got bruléed in a car fire and I never felt compelled to replace them. Meanwhile, and to the surprise of no one reading this, the novelty of Neil's turbo trainer wore off for both of us, just as quickly as it had appeared. There ensued a hiatus of seven years or so during which college, cheap student union booze and bands confined training – and any thoughts of doing so indoors – to 'bubbling under' status.

And then I started working at Cycling Weekly.

Training, and racing was soon back on the agenda, and paying for coaching from a pre-Doctor Hutch era Michael Hutchinson quickly followed that. A predilection for outlandish interval sessions in his coaching plans, as well as his own apparent imperviousness to pain and boredom during sessions of up to several hours on the trainer was impelling and inspiring in turns. And so it was, almost inevitably, that I found myself in Cycling Weekly's old workshop, during lunch hours, or after work, on a noisy old trainer, cracking out 2 x 15min of 10/20sec on-off intervals – or whatever other deliciousness the doc had in store that week.

Nothing good comes easy, so they say – and believe me, the fitness gains that came from these sessions was won hard in the old-school. This was 2002. Music streaming and podcasts were not a thing, let alone Zwift and the like. You stared at the wall, three feet in front of you, and as for audio accompaniment well, that would be the laboured whoosh-and-whine of a trainer that had all the natural fluidity of a first-timer in the Cooper's Hill Cheese Roll.

Even back then, if you were lucky you did at least have a few numbers to watch to keep your brain from imploding while all this was going on. The trainer I used displayed time, and watts – although the latter was likely no more accurate than pulling a number out of the air and multiplying it by your gran's most recent shopping bill. A crude cable pull controlled resistance.

And that was about the way things remained for the next decade or so, albeit with minor improvements in trainer ride feel, and the introduction of MP3 players and the ipod, both of which could prove useful in an indoor training scenario, and helped keep sweat away from your Sony Discman.

The last trainer I had before going Zwift featured fluid resistance and a gel roller for 'realistic road feel and quiet operation'. In reality my family had to turn the TV up even if I was using it out in the garage. While annoying for them, they could at least seek solace in the idea that I was fighting off deep physical discomfort and mental anguish with strategies that included counting all the slats in the garage door, or inspecting every brick in turn.

Which brings us, inevitably, to the advent of Zwift. It had been around for a few years before I came to it. Although working in cycling media I well remember the excitement that it had caused in the office when it was launched. The excitement, and the novelty, was reminiscent of the scene in Neil's garage all those years ago, as we crowded round to see videos of 'in-game' action.

Thanks to the wonders of Strava, I can reveal that my first ride in the virtual world took place on Sunday 9 September 2018 and was called 'That so-called Zwift'. It took me up Fox Hill in London and back. I obviously thought it was OK, because after three weeks of all-indoor riding I ended up performing an FTP test – and even that didn't seem to put me off.

Those early days hardly turned me into the kind of Zwift-banger who puts in 20 hours a week on the platform, but it's always been there. And it's served different purposes – protection from the weather of course, but also a super-accessible way to race and, after a particularly unpleasant dalliance with sciatica, a useful rehabilitation tool. New courses and worlds keep things interesting, as does the community feel – one of the platform's key strengths, I would say.

I've tried other platforms too. I loved the IRL scenery and the video-realistic elements of Rouvy, while RGT and its Magic Roads were a fun concept but didn't really deliver in reality, at least for me.

Whichever platform, though, the best smart trainers and virtual platforms are a total paradigm shift from the old school. These days those 10/20second interval sessions would still be just as physically hard – although thankfully I have limited call for them these days – but all the numbers, the colours, the other riders and, yes, the dinosaurs of online riding are distracting enough to make things significantly less soul-crushing.

As an old-school old git who would happily waffle on about the good old days of steel frames and polished groupsets ad infinitum given the chance, I have nothing but respect for you if you're still doing it the old-fashioned way, labouring away on a dumb trainer, counting the bricks on the wall. There's an easier, funner way though, and I'd highly recommend a little potter into the virtual cycling world to see what you're missing.

One word of warning though – once you've seen it, you're never going back.

Cleaner, greener, more prosperous – that seems to have been the rallying cry trumpeted from supporters of the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street in central London, which came into place on Monday.

But at the same time as diverting the noise and the fumes of heavy traffic, the project has also cut off a major active transport route, with cyclists among those who are no longer allowed to use the famous shopping thoroughfare.

Mainstream media spent much of Monday highlighting this with reports of bike riders ignoring the new pedestrians-only designation.

Charity London Cycling Campaign said in a statement that it was wholly supportive of low-traffic streets for the West End, but new cycle routes needed to be provided in tandem.

"LCC is supportive of the new pedestrianised Oxford Street," the charity said. "We welcome the move to reclaim West End space from motor vehicles and make the nation’s iconic high street far better. And it shouldn’t stop here, making the whole of the West end low traffic should be the ultimate goal.

"However, this issue brings to light the fact that Westminster Council have not acted quickly enough to bring in high-quality parallel cycle routes. Traffic counts show that thousands of people had been cycling along Oxford Street daily, and those riders need safe alternative routes urgently."

LCC also has a form on its website allowing supporters to send a message directly to Westminster Council to ask for new cycling routes to be installed, allowing riders to circumnavigate the newly pedestrianised street.

While parts of the street are still open to vehicles, a key kilometre-long stretch between Great Portland Street and Orchard Street is now pedestrian-only. Delivery and service vehicles will still be able to use the stretch between midnight and 7am, but mobility scooters are the only other wheeled vehicle to be able to use it.

Oxford Street's pedestrianisation plans have long been talked about and has had false starts before, but after a supportive consultation last year, this time they have gone through. What follows now will be new seats, planting and the installation of public squares that could be used as event spaces.

First, a disclaimer. Cycling is brilliant, it makes everyone happy, it makes me happy, it is the solution to all of life’s problems both for the individual and the community as a whole.

That said and understood, I have an observation to make. Occasionally cycling makes me feel emotions that are just the tiniest bit negative.

I frequently feel guilty that I’m not doing more riding. Especially, I feel bad that I’m not having long-distance adventures. I should be attacking the North Coast 500 record, or bike packing from London to Istanbul, or doing the Transcontinental Race. The world seems full of riders doing these things.

It seems to have become the new normal for ambitious riders, for riders with my abilities, even for riders my age, and I’m out of step with it. I don’t even have the get-out that I don’t want to do these things – I’d love to. Which makes me feel all the more inadequate that I don’t.

I feel guilty too about the fact I don’t ride gravel races. I don’t even own a gravel bike, despite the fact that I can’t remember the last time the marketing departments banded together and tried so hard to make me buy something. I haven’t submitted because there isn’t really anywhere to ride one local to me.

When I make that excuse to gravel evangelists (or “gravangelists” – now you have the word for these people you’ll find lots of chances to use it) they tell me I should be driving to places where there is decent gravel riding – the nearest suggested location is about a four-hour round trip. Should I really be doing that? Wouldn’t that just make me guilty for another reason?

Sometimes the guilt over the fact I’m not living my best cycling life edges into envy that other people are. It’s hard not to look at the great times people are having in various parts of the cycling world and not wish you were there too – catching a ferry on the Trans Alba race, or thundering through gravel in the American Mid-West.

When it comes to fuelling envy, it’s all about social media for me. It’s one thing to read a report on an ultra race; it’s another to see hour-by-hour updates from someone about how their ride is going. Because inevitably it looks great. Even if it’s actually going terribly, by the time it’s on Instagram it’s become a really positive, adventurous sort of terrible. “That looks horrendous,” you think. “God, I wish it was me.”

I even get envious of people doing fairly normal things. A friend recently posted a selfie with a highland cow from a gate on a lane about 10 miles from my house. “Oh, how wish I was doing something like that,” I thought, despite the fact I’d ridden down the self-same lane past the self-same cow less than 24 hours earlier. The only difference was that I hadn’t stopped to make 16 attempts to line up a photo with it.

And here’s the final problem. I don’t really put stuff on social media very often these days, and very rarely about my own riding. So I feel bad about the fact I’m not doing that. And not least because if I was, perhaps other people would be envious of me.

I mean, it would depend on how much everyone else wished they were plodding around the same half-dozen training routes with a cantankerous riding buddy, or riding e-races against a selection of cheats from six continents. But given the things other people do that make me feel bad, there’s a good chance someone somewhere would look at a photo of my mate Bernard blowing on his tea at the café and just clench a little inwardly.

Peter Grandiek toasted his 95th birthday this week by shattering the Hour Record in his 95-99 age category.

The Dutchman, who has lived most of his life in New Zealand, completed more than 91 laps of his home velodrome in Invercargill on Wednesday for a distance of 22.948km. He beat the previous benchmark – 20.151km, set by New Zealander Reg Rye in 2019 – by almost 3km.

“I was expecting to do a little bit more,” Grandiek told Cycling Weekly. “Something went wrong with my seat, because I was sitting far too far forward. I thought I was going to slip off. It’s never happened before, but these things happen sometimes.

“What helped me was that they put the lap recorder on, so I could see how many laps I was getting. The previous record, the guy rode 80 laps. I probably gave a sigh of relief when I got to the 80 laps and still had about 10 minutes to go. That was pretty good. You just concentrate on going forward.”

Grandiek once held the 80-84 record 11 years ago, but was bettered three weeks later by then 81-year-old Briton Walter Fowler.

Asked what motivated him to attempt the Hour Record again in his mid-90s, he said he simply “thought it might be something I might be capable of”.

“I’m twice a week at the velodrome, and I don’t always really push myself. But I seemed to be quite comfortable being able to do over 20[kph], so I thought, ‘Well, why not have a go?’,” he said.

“I talk to people who are probably 40 years younger than me, and they think they’re old, and they say, ‘Oh, I can’t do this. I can’t do that.’ It’s a matter sometimes of mind over matter. You’ve got to challenge yourself.”

In order for his record to be official with the UCI, Grandiek had to undergo anti-doping testing following his effort. He said he drank three large bottles of water “to help things come along”, but found his celebrations thwarted as the process drew on longer than the record itself.

“I got into the doping control room, and it took ages,” he laughed. “They’ve got to have a certain volume [of urine], and it took hours. We finished [the record] just after 7pm, and I didn’t get home until quarter past 10.”

Born and raised in a province north of Amsterdam, Grandiek emigrated to New Zealand on a six-week passenger ship in the early 1950s, when he was 22. He worked on the railways in the South Island, before becoming a house painter and later ran a deer farm.

It was only in 2007, then in his mid-70s, that he took up cycling. “That’s after I finished all my sporting activities, because I played rugby, I was running, ran some half marathons, and that got too hard on the bones,” he said.

When he was 78, he had a sudden heart attack, and had to have triple bypass surgery. Almost two decades on, he says, he continues to do “contrary things to what the cardiologist would tell you – I’ve basically always ignored their advice and did what I wanted to do.”

It’s in that vein that Grandiek plans to keep challenging himself on the bike. Typically he has spent his birthday doing charity rides; his Hour Record was in support of a local hospice, Hospice South.

The benchmark in the next age category, 100-104, is 26.925km, held since 2014 by Frenchman Robert Marchand. Might Grandiek now target that? “You can only do these things if you’re capable,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that as you get older, you slow down. I’ve lost speed compared to 10 years ago. You can’t help that. It’s a natural thing,” he continued.

“As soon as I got off the bike on Wednesday night, people said, ‘What are you going to do next year?’ and I said, ‘I’ll come up with something.’ I’ve done it for the last 10 years.”

Grandiek's 95-99 Hour Record is still subject to ratification by the UCI.

Donations can be made directly to Hospice South via the charity's website.

This weekend, in the middle of the night – at 2am in the blurry bit between Saturday evening night and Sunday morning – Britain will lurch back in time by 60 minutes. This is great news for Sabbath slumberers (extra hour in bed) and early-bird cycle commuters, who might make it to work in some semblance of daylight for the next few weeks, but it does herald the beginning of the dark half of the year.

And while that definitely doesn’t mean you should let your bike get dusty, it does necessitate some wardrobe and routine changes if you want to keep cycling through winter in comfort and safety.

Have a glow up

First up, if you haven’t already done so, this weekend is the perfect time to locate your bike lights, front and back (plus all the cables and paraphernalia that go with them) and make sure they’re fully charged up, and that the fittings and fixtures on the frame of your bike are all still in good nick (and actually correspond with the lights). If you can, go with a couple of combos. When riding roads in winter, you basically can’t have too many lights and reflectors.

Go up a gear

Bright and reflective clothing is also highly recommended, of course, but the best winter cycling jackets don’t have to make you look like a lollypop lady or road worker, there are plenty of good-looking garments out there with less garish reflective elements that are still highly visible.

Warmth, breathability and waterproofing are obviously key factors to think about as well. Besides an outer jacket that will protect you from the elements and help you be seen, go for some decent thermal underlayers, invest in some good gloves if you haven’t got a pair, and consider a neck tube of some sort.

Your choice of shoes is critical at this time, too – riding in the dark is one thing, but cycling with wet and cold feet will make the experience utterly miserable. Cycling shoes notoriously let toes get cold, partly because of their rigidity, and while donning warm socks and using overshoes will help, you can’t beat a proper pair of winter shoes, with higher cuffs, increased insulation and breathable waterproof membranes all combining to keep you more comfortable.

While we’re at it, you’re not going to be able to keep all this clobber clean and pristine over the winter, but fitting some mudguards to your bike will significantly reduce the amount of filth that gets thrown up on to your clothes and shoes, which means they will last longer and retain their reflective capability better.

Re tyre early

No matter what kind of bike you’re riding, the turning of the seasons can be a good prompt to bust out some new rubber, in this case winter tyres. Riders on gravel bikes will be well aware of the benefit of extra traction during the winter, but when you’re cycling a hybrid commuter or road bike – or an e-bike for that matter – some fresh tread can make a big difference to your confidence on increasingly mucky and slippery road surfaces. In diminishing light staying the right way up is all the more important, too, with other road users’ visibility and reaction times also being impacted by low light.

Puddles and darkness combine to conceal all sorts of puncture threats, on roads and trails, and even the best tyres can only offer so much protection, so be sure to keep new tubes and tools in your biking backpack or frame bags. Or, of course, you could consider going tubeless.

Cannondale is to close its US headquarters and move to Europe, as part of a restructuring at the American brand by its owners, Pon.Bike, with layoffs expected.

Announced on Wednesday, the news means the historic HQ in Wilton, Connecticut, will close by mid-2027, with a new satellite office opening on the West Coast of the US to handle North American retail and owner support.

In a press release, the brand said: "Over the next six months, Cannondale will adopt a new sales model in North America." As for the West Coast office: "A dedicated commercial, retailer and rider support team will be based there, providing Cannondale expertise and services to retailers and riders across North America."

Cannondale's global HQ is to move to Woudenberg in the Netherlands, currently its European base, with R&D and engineering in Freiburg, Germany. Pon, which also owns Cervélo and Santa Cruz, is based in Amsterdam.

According to reporting by Escape Collective, as many as 143 people in jobs in Wilton and working remotely could be laid off, with the roles ranging from engineering to vice presidents.

A spokesperson for the brand said: "As part of these broader organisational changes, global functions currently based in Wilton will transition to join existing teams in Europe over a period extending into 2027. Woudenberg will serve as Cannondale’s global headquarters, bringing together global leadership, Brand & Marketing, Product Management, and other central functions.

"We are actively working through what these transition plans mean for individual roles and responsibilities at the Wilton office."

A source close to the US staff told Cycling Weekly that it was the end of an era for the brand.

"This is an incredibly sad day for all the people impacted by this decision, and this draws a line under the Cannondale that we knew and loved," they said. "It'll be a third wheel brand in the sales toolbox of the PON USA sales team from here, as Santa Cruz and Cervelo will no doubt be the main focus."

Cannondale was founded in 1971 by Joe Montgomery, Murdoch MacGregor and Ron Davis in Connecticut. The brand is known not only for some of the most iconic road and off-road bikes, including the original ST-500, Six13, SuperSix Evo, SystemSix, CAAD, SM-500 and Scalpel mountain bike, Topstone, and SuperX gravel bike, but also for a slew of technical innovations.

Wednesday's press release said: "For more than five decades, Connecticut has been instrumental in shaping Cannondale into one of cycling’s most influential brands. Cannondale is deeply grateful to the team members whose passion, creativity, and commitment built this incredible foundation. The innovative spirit they fostered remains a core part of Cannondale’s DNA as the brand proudly carries its legacy into this next chapter of growth and rider-focused innovation."

No one seems to know the true origin of the famous quote: "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics". Mark Twain attributed it to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli – the American novelist was almost certainly wrong, but that doesn’t stop all kinds of people and publications who should know better from bandying it about with erroneous accreditation.

And this kind of proves the underlying truth in the sagacious saying: you can’t unquestionably believe anything, let alone everything, you read or hear. Eighty three percent of statistics are made up. Spin and fake news have been around forever, and even if a set of figures looks legit, the order in which they’re presented bends the light that reflects back off them.

Anyway, did you see British newspaper The Times this week? In a piece under a nice calm, not-at-all-sensationalist headline – 'Do police in your area let reckless cyclists ride roughshod?' – the paper proceeds to allege that most police forces around Britain don't tell law-breaking bikers off anymore, let alone fine or prosecute them.

Intrepid journalists at the paper have discovered, by lodging freedom of information requests to police forces in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, that the number of fixed-penalty notices for misdemeanours such as running red lights or riding on the pavement have gone down in the last year. This is everywhere except in the City of London (where the force have their own cycle squad), despite the number of cyclists and cycling trips purportedly going up. As ever, riders of electric bikes are the target of the most ire, but there isn’t a huge amount of distinction going on.

I’m not going to lie, there are some interesting stats in there, and the stories and quotes from entities representing vulnerable people – especially those who are blind or partially sighted – about the horrors of crossing the road when you’re not sure if a bike (or any vehicle for that matter) is going to stop when it should, are compelling.

We would never condone cyclists running reds, bombing along pavements or any other selfish and entitled behaviour. It’s wrong, and we call it out regularly. And we also applaud decent policing initiatives when they’re announced, as they were by the aforementioned City of London’s cycling squad last week, with the launch of an campaign aimed at properly educating errant cyclists.

But, neither are we going to sit here and accept that cyclists are the real problem when it comes to safety on the road. Because that is miles from the truth, no matter how you want to spin it.

The various police forces named in The Times report have not individually responded to the implication that they are 'letting reckless cyclists ride roughshod' over their patch, and neither have they come back to us when we reached out for comment, but it’s no secret that resources are stretched thin, and have to be allocated to areas of highest priority.

As a City of London Police spokesperson told Cycling Weekly last week, “Even with a dedicated cycling team, we know we’re not going to fine our way out of this, so we’re looking for innovative ways to bring about behavioural change and make an actual difference.”

So perhaps, like their colleagues in the Square Mile, police elsewhere in the country are trialling new methods of law enforcement or measures that encourage behavioural change other than persisting with ineffectual penalty notices. Or maybe they have concluded they need to address other issues altogether.

Because, buried right at the bottom of The Times piece is another set of statistics and figures that put a different slant on this story. They come from Adam Tranter, a former cycling and walking commissioner for the West Midlands, who points out that: "The reality is that the biggest danger to pedestrians is overwhelmingly drivers of motor vehicles. On average, more pedestrians are killed each year by cows than by cyclists."

"By comparison, in 2025 alone, 364 pedestrians were killed and 5,960 seriously injured, almost all of them hit by drivers of motor vehicles. In an ideal world, everyone would follow the rules of the road but with limited policing resources and competing priorities, if you want to improve road safety, it does not make sense to focus much police attention on cycling behaviour."

If my morning last Sunday were a movie, it would open with a shot of me, heaving over my handlebars, at the top of a steep, forested hill. The image would blur and pulse in time to my sharp breaths, before a slow pan down to the bike between my legs: a £200 Decathlon single-speed. There’d then be a close-up on my pained face. Freeze frame. Yep, that’s me, I’d interject as the narrator. You’re probably wondering how I got here.

Before I tell you the story, let me preface it by stressing I never intended to race a hill climb on a single-speed bike. “What about your road bike?” you might be wondering. A good question, to which there is a simple, albeit sombre answer: my road bike met a deadly fate this July when, strapped to a car roof rack, it was snapped into three pieces by the metal height restriction bar of a car park (I promise I’ll write that warning tale another time).

The plan on Sunday was to borrow my brother’s road bike. He and I had ridden a couple of hill climbs together before. If you’ve ever scrolled down this website as far as my author bio, you might know that my proudest result is 28th out of 40. I’m no racer, but I like taking part.

So when a friend suggested I sign up to East London Vélo’s event and sling myself up Mott Street in Epping Forest – an almost one-kilometre climb that scales a modest 67m – I said I was game, provided my brother raced too and lent me his bike.

That plan ran smoothly, until we reached the sign-on. My brother gave me his bike to test ride while we waited to collect our bib numbers from the boot of a car beside the pub. Within 10 pedal strokes, I slashed his back tyre on a shard of glass and sealant sprayed all over my calves.

I scrambled to help him patch the tubeless rubber – a task we were improvising off the cuff – but by the time it was fixed, I had already decided my road bike curse was too strong. How could I risk someone else’s bike? As we'd soon find out, the start order made a swap impossible in any case; setting off just six minutes apart, there would be no time for one of us to get up and down to pass over the bike. My only option was to race with one gear. “What's the ratio?” another entrant asked me. The wrong one, I said.

I thought about going home. I figured the least I could do was stay and cheer. I’d ridden the best part of an hour to get to the start, surely I should make that count for something? Then my stingy nature kicked in. Entry to the competition had cost me £5. As long as I had two wheels that spun, I was going to get my money’s worth.

I appreciate hill climbs are fertile turf for tech-savvy cyclists, so, for them, this was my ‘set-up’: a navy blue Decathlon ELOPS 500 city bike, steel frame, aluminium rims, circa 12kg all-in. I’d be surprised if the winner’s bike weighed much more than half that.

I bought this bike as a cheap runaround to get to and from friends’ houses, the pub, or the barber. Occasionally, I’ll lug it over to big Tesco. But I wouldn’t dare challenge it to any incline greater than 5%, for fear my thighs would burst like watermelons in a microwave. I certainly wouldn’t take it anywhere near Mott Street – average gradient 6.7%, max almost 15%.

Fortunately, I reassured myself, I’d fitted clipless pedals for the ride out, so I’d have some strength in the upstroke. But it was time to be realistic. In the face of such Alpine slopes, my goal quickly shifted from clocking a decent time to simply reaching the top at all. Could I make it?

At least 20 people began their efforts before me. I cheered them off with an “Up! Up! Up!”, then took my place in the queue and gawped at another man’s S-Works bike. He could probably have bought 50 of mine for the price of his – not that the fleet would be much use.

When my turn came to start, a kind event organiser offered to give me a push. “Please,” I said, “and if you could keep pushing all the way, that’d be great.” He laughed. Presumably he thought I was joking.

Thirty seconds until lift-off. I clip in. 10 seconds. Five, four, three, two, go. I stand up on the pedals and thrust my hips towards the bars for momentum. The last thing I hear is the voice of my brother, the day’s second-last entrant, willing me on from the start line, before I sweep round to the left, up a ramp, and rise into the forest.

Immediately, it’s a grind. My brain starts to wander to the worst case scenario. “What will you do if the chain snaps?” I guess I’ll get off and run. “In those shoes? They’re worth more than the bike.” I’m afraid I don’t have an option.

I reach the halfway point, a welcome plateau, and my minute-man comes sailing over my right shoulder. The sluggishness of my RPM is comical in comparison. He looks weightless. I feel like I’m towing a three-seater sofa.

Just as my spirits start to fade, a marshal – a guardian angel – tells me I’m almost there. I know the climb, and know there’s another 200-odd-meter ramp, but I appreciate the sentiment, and rise out of the saddle again to prove that, despite my speed, I really am trying my hardest.

The finish line is usually signalled by a roar at hill-climbs competitions. I hear the noise swell from the other finishers as they spot me in my neon pink jersey (how could they miss me?) and I kick ahead, as hard as I can, surging towards the crowd and gathering speed. My mouth opens involuntarily. I don’t have the energy to close it.

Where, oh please, where is the finish line? I glance down and spot a dark blue mark across the road. As I lurch across it, I let out a moan that makes me sound like a birthing cow. There’s applause. Someone calls out my bib number. The timekeeper then scribbles down the reading on his stopwatch. And five metres up the road, legs frail and throbbing, I’m bent double, acting out the opening scene of the movie.

The closing scene, perhaps, is what comes a few minutes later, when I turn to my friends and punch the air. No, I wasn’t in the running for the medals – my time of four minutes and 10 seconds placed me second last, ahead of a gentleman more than twice my age. The winner managed 2:01 – but I had accomplished something, scaled the unscalable, and that was worth celebrating.

A few hours later, my friend sent me some photos he took at the finish. I didn’t see the winner cross the line, but I’d be surprised if his face looked as pain-stricken as mine. I think I may have been prouder of my performance than he was of his.

The bond I have with my steel runaround has now deepened. Cycling Weekly’s photographer Richard Butcher once told me, “The best camera is the one you have with you”, and I suppose that’s also true of bikes. I may not have set a new PB, but Sunday’s hill climb was a reminder that racing isn’t just for the fastest. There’s joy in not taking yourself too seriously – I had more fun on the single-speed than I’d ever had with gears.

That said, let this be clear: I hope I never have to race on it again.

Garmin has quietly unveiled three new models in its bike computer lineup, and a new addition to its smart indoor trainer Tacx range.

The headline grabber is the new flagship Garmin Edge 1060 bike computer, replacing the top-tier Garmin Edge 1050. The new Edge 1060 introduces an onboard microphone and speaker alongside a host of additional features, including intelligent navigation, improved battery life, and its signature high-resolution display.

Elsewhere, the Explore 3 series caters to touring and recreational riders who prioritise straightforward navigation over deep performance metrics, with an Explore 3 Plus variant borrowing the 1060's voice and audio features.

Perfectly timed for indoor riding season, Garmin’s Tacx division has released the Nēra smart trainer, which offers the preinstalled Zwift Cog and Click virtual shifting system. The Nēra also brings all-new multidirectional movement, with built-in motion pods designed directly into the unit for what they claim will be a comfortable and realistic ride.

All the new Garmin devices are available now via Garmin, and below you'll find more information and the all-important prices.

Garmin Edge 1060

Taking over the top spot in Garmin’s computer lineup, the new Edge 1060 builds on the Edge 1050 with key hardware and navigation upgrades. It also becomes the most expensive bike computer on the market with a launch price of $799.99/£699.99, surpassing the 1050, generally by $100/£100.

The headline addition is hands-free voice control. Powered by an integrated microphone and speaker, riders can trigger actions simply by saying "OK Garmin," keeping hands safely on the handlebars. The unit also integrates with the Garmin Messenger app to send and play audio messages on the go.

Route planning gets a boost with real-time road closure alerts, interactive route previews, and a "free flow routing" mode designed to prioritise uninterrupted paths with minimal stops.

It also offers a customisable home screen and emergency reverse charging. Battery life ranges from 20 hours under heavy load to 60 hours in battery saver mode, the same as the 1050.

There's no solar charging seen on other Garmin devices because the Edge 1060 uses a bright liquid crystal display panel (inherited from the Edge 1050 and can't utilise the Garmin solar-harvesting Power Glass.

Garmin Edge Explore 3 and Edge Explore 3 Plus 

Expanding its bike computer lineup, Garmin has unveiled the Edge Explore 3 and Edge Explore 3 Plus. Succeeding the popular Edge Explore 2, Garmin says the new units are designed to be easy-to-use GPS cycling computers.

The two new siblings are physically the same size, with the Plus benefiting from additional internal hardware.

The main addition to the higher-spec Explore 3 Plus is the hands-free voice control, thanks to a newly added onboard microphone and speaker—mirroring the tech on the Edge 1060. Both units receive boosted navigation capabilities, including pin-drop navigation, live road hazard warnings, "free flow routing" to avoid frequent stops, and interactive previews for upcoming points of interest.

Under heavy use, the standard Explore 3 delivers up to 16 hours of battery life, while the feature-rich Plus model offers 14 hours; both extend to an impressive 48 hours in battery saver mode.

Elsewhere, the feature list includes Garmin Coach training plans, live tracking, incident detection, e-bike and smartwatch connectivity, and real-time carbon footprint metrics.

Pricing for the Garmin Edge Explore 3 is $399.99/£349.99, and the Garmin Edge Explore 3 Plus is $499.99/£429.99.

Tacx Nēra Smart Trainer

Garmin who own Tacx has expanded its indoor cycling ecosystem with the launch of the Tacx Nēra, which is claimed to be a performance smart trainer positioned alongside the premium Tacx Neo 3M and Tacx Neo 2T models.

The unit is ride-ready right out of the box, offered with either a preinstalled cassette or as a Zwift Ready configuration complete with the Zwift Cog and Click for virtual shifting.

Built to handle heavy efforts, the Nēra supports sprint efforts up to 2,200 watts, simulates gradients up to 20%, and maintains an impressive power and cadence accuracy within 1%.

All new integrated motion pods deliver multidirectional movement—covering forward, backwards, and side-to-side motion—for what they say is a comfortable and immersive ride feel. Connectivity is equally robust, featuring built-in Wi-Fi for fast virtual racing on Zwift or ROUVY, as well as native syncing with compatible Edge computers and the best Garmin smartwatches.

The Nēra is also compatible with the Tacx Alpine hill climb and steering simulator, and can be collapsed and carried with foldable legs and a built-in carry handle.

Pricing for the standard Tacx Nēra and the Tacx Nēra with Cog and Click is $999.99/£859.99.

The Tour de France 2027 opening ceremony and team presentation in Edinburgh ahead of the British Grand Départ will be a paid-for, ticketed event, the race organisers have announced.

Around 9,000 tickets are expected to go on sale, with prices starting at £27.

The event, scheduled to take place from 18:30 on Wednesday 30 June, will be held on the esplanade outside Edinburgh Castle, and will involve the producers of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a bagpipes and dance show that performs every August in the city.

Tickets will go on priority pre-sale this Friday 23 October to people who subscribe to the Grand Départ GB newsletter. Visit the Le Tour GB website to sign up.

Members of British Cycling, Scottish Cycling and Beicio Cymru will then have a pre-sale window from midday the following day, Saturday 24 October.

On Monday 26 October, the pre-sale will open up to customers of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Any remaining tickets will then go on general sale at midday on Friday 30 October.

Fans without tickets will still be able to see the riders as they approach Edinburgh Castle on the Royal Mile, but will not able to access the presentation.

It is highly uncommon, though not unprecedented, for the Tour de France’s opening ceremony and team presentation to require tickets.

The event consists of all 23 teams (184 riders) riding on stage to be introduced to the crowds. Last year’s presentation took place at the foot of the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. In Lille the year before it was in the city’s Grand Place, while in Florence in 2024 it was at the Piazzale Michelangelo. All three were open free-of-charge to the public.

The last time the Tour started in the UK, however, the opening ceremony and team presentation were ticketed, with more than 10,000 people attending inside Leeds Arena.

The race will begin on Friday 1 July, two days after the opening ceremony, leaving Edinburgh for a stage finish in Carlisle. Stage two will stretch the following day from Keswick to Liverpool, and stage three from Welshpool to Cardiff.

The full route for next year’s Tour de France will be officially announced in a ceremony in Paris at 10:00 (BST) this Thursday 22 October.

Iconic, dominant, legendary – such superlatives are often overused and undeserved in the world of cycling, but in Alcyon’s case, all of them hit the mark. This remarkable bike was built in the mid-twenties, a period as momentous as it was triumphant for the French brand.

Founded in a western suburb of Paris in 1903, the brand had established its own cycling team within two years. It would ‘own’ racing well into the thirties, winning the Tour de France seven times, Paris-Roubaix nine times, Paris-Tours nine times, and the Tour of Belgium 13 times. And that’s just for starters.

When, during the 1929 Tour, the team had the audacity to work, well, as a team in the Alps – shielding star rider Maurice De Waele from attack – race founder Henri Desgrange, in a fit of fury, responded by banning commercial teams. They wouldn’t be welcomed back for thirty-one years.

“They were winning across the board,” says current owner Richard Hoddinott of vintage specialists The Velo Pages. “Alcyon represented the pinnacle of that era of racing machines, and this particular bike is the best preserved 1920s racing bike I've ever seen. It took me eight years of negotiations to buy it from a collector in the south of France. It’s completely original, right down to the tyres.”

It’s uncertain whether this is a team bike, but its survival intact is intriguing, as is its livery. Blue was always associated with the brand, inspired by the colour of the kingfisher’s plumage in the Greek myth of Alcyone and Ceyx.

Alongside talented French riders, such as the impossibly suave André Leducq, the team also signed many Belgian stars, including De Waele, Romain Maes, and Sylvère Maes. Consequently, it’s alleged that blue was chosen for the Belgian national team jersey as a tribute to Alcyon.

Back in May, Lorena Wiebes won Stage One of the Giro d’Italia Women. She did not get to enjoy it for long. Within two hours, she’d been disqualified for riding an illegal bike, and banished from both the stage and the entire race. Her bike had been under the minimum 6.8-kilogram weight limit, by 20 grams.

This whole affair made a lot of people very angry. Wiebes, her team, most of her rivals, and almost anyone watching the event. It’s hard to find anyone who really liked the outcome – it didn’t even bring much satisfaction to the race organisers or the commissaires.

If you want to grasp how little 20 g is, there’s about 10 g of air in each tyre. (That’s a sum I first did in 2008 when working out what advantage a mate of mine was going to get from a very expensive plan to fill his tyres with helium. I didn’t tell him.)

Naturally, I decided to work out how much of an advantage you get from saving 20 g on a flat sprint stage. It was 139 km long, with (are you ready?) 240 m of climbing. I ride in Cambridgeshire most of the time, and I can barely concoct a ride that flat if I try.

It turns out that if you do the maths there aren’t enough decimal places in the universe to quantify the smallness of the advantage gained on those gradients. It’s the same if you calculate the advantage in sprint acceleration. It’s a decimal point, and a whole lot of zeroes. By the time you get to a non-zero digit you’ve stopped caring.

However, there’s a problem with the outrage. That is, on this occasion, for once in their lives, the commissaries have applied the UCI’s rule exactly as written. The sanction for an underweight bike is expulsion from the race. That’s it. There was no fudging or looking the other way, even though I suspect they probably wanted to. For years we’ve asked for consistency and now we have it.

There’s even precedent for them to follow – as recently as last October they disqualified Jan-Willem van Schip from the Tour of Holland for a seatpost that hadn’t been registered with the technical committee. Absolutely no one (apart from him) minded, presumably because he’s not as famous as Wiebes.

There are many other illegal things that make a much bigger difference in a result than the nothing at all that 20 g makes. There are sticky bottles, illegal feeds, or stopping for a pee where a Belgian pensioner with binoculars might see you from the roof of their campervan. For those offences commissaires often just look the other way – one commissaire recently told me off for criticising a sticky-bottle episode because, as he put it, “If he hadn’t taken it he’d probably have been dropped from the break.” If they do take action, it’s a fine and a points deduction.

But we’d go mad if we started trying to work out sanctions on the basis of how much actual difference it made. How much did you gain from that illegal feed? How much did you use your sneaky alleged electric motor?

The issue here is simply that the rule is wrong. It’s disproportionate, and it would be very simple to change it. If a sticky bottle is a fine, then for a first-time offence of up to 200 g underweight the right punishment is maybe relegation at the finish and nothing more. For a margin of over 200 g, maybe relegation and a time penalty big enough to dent a GC hope.

Honestly, getting disqualified from a whole Grand Tour should probably require that when you arrive at the bike check, the bike is bobbing above your head on a string like a balloon.

"I don't have six fingers, I swear," endurance coach and Isle of Wight local Joe Staunton joked. Behind him, the harvest moon hung globular and magnificent against a pastel sunset, the sea crashing against the beach below us.

The joke plays on a stereotype that has long burdened the island. Forget its luscious blue vistas and sun-drenched soils, and it's easy to poke fun at the small island hanging off the English coast – but its islanders are determined to paint its image anew.

The Isle of Wight is famous for a few things: it was the Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson's favourite place, it's home to some of the last red squirrels in the UK, and in 2010 the idyllic waters of Freshwater Bay became the scene of a £56 million cocaine bust.

But it's also a great place to explore by bike. The perimeter ride is already popular, with visitors circling the route along its undulating white coastal cliffs over the course of a day, and last year DJ Pete Tong and cycling commentator Orla Chennaoui brought luxury bike holiday LeBlanq to the island.

While Staunton is neither a Caulkhead (a born-and-bred islander) nor a DFL ("Down from London"), he's passionate about the place he's decided to call home. He took me, round-the-world record-breakers Amy and Kyle Hudson, influencer Paris Wood and her partner Ben McCullough on a ride that showcased his favourite parts of the island.

Starting in Freshwater, on the western edge of the island, we began a steady ascent over the Compton Bay cliffs before ploughing along six kilometres of undulating Military Road. From there we were rolling, the momentum gained from short, sharp climbs carrying us to Newchurch for coffee and cake at Pedallers Café.

We made a few more spontaneous stops, too. The nostalgia of the miniature village hooked all five of our party, as did the waft of garlic as we passed the island's famous farm. The Isle of Wight is the sunniest place in the UK, with over 2,000 hours of sunlight a year, and the islanders make the most of it: they distil mermaid gin infused with homegrown citrus fruits and export their tomato harvests across the country. This summer alone, 10 million sweetcorn cobs were ferried to the mainland, and the garlic grown here is the best in the country – though the chilli garlic relish is not for the faint-hearted.

Onwards we cycled into the heart of the island, each of us imbued with the bulb's distinctive whiff. Here crows circled above open fields as we snaked through quiet, hedge-lined country lanes. Though relatively flat, the island still harbours some stinging ascents, and Staunton peppered them throughout the 97km route. The first came before our lunch stop at the Spyglass Inn – 160 metres of elevation over five kilometres – with another 170m kicker straight after.

It was around this point that I hit a wall. Ill-equipped for a day out with social media influencers on lovely bikes, my flat-pedalled old gravel bike was a poor match for the island hills – my lack of fitness didn't help, either. I made a sorry companion for Staunton, who has worked with national champions during his time as an endurance coach, but he stuck with me, chivvying me along with stories of growing up on the island.

Over half of the Isle of Wight is protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, he told me, home to rare species of butterflies and wildflowers found only in England's chalk soils. The scenery regularly stopped us in our tracks, with the slow-eroding cliff faces overlooking the blue-green expanse of the English Channel. The island loses between one and three metres of coastline a year to erosion, but each retreat exposes new treasures. One palaeontologist crowned the Isle of Wight the most diverse location for dinosaur bones in the country, and it's even got a dinosaur of its own: the "white rock spinosaurid", an enormous carnivore that roamed the land over 125 million years ago.

As we made our way back towards the Albion Hotel for a post-ride dip in the sea and dinner at The Red Lion (butternut gnocchi for me, please!), I found myself elated, despite my screaming legs.

The pace of life here is slow. Even if you find yourself out on a big bike ride, the energy on the island feels rejuvenating. Jenna, a DFL who settled on the island eight years ago, remembers spotting her painter and decorator down at the beach when he was supposed to be painting her kitchen – there was a really good swell, apparently. I met another woman on an early-morning swim, both of us dodging breaking waves. She moved to the island over a decade ago after a career spent around the world. Now she joins a group of friends every morning for a swim – many of whom I saw litter-picking at a silent beachfront disco the night before.

One of our group asked Staunton what "the point" of the Isle of Wight was. I kind of understood what she was getting at: it's just a dislodged piece of old England, right? After a weekend of eating well, sea swimming and cycling across the island, whatever preconceived notions I had of island life changed. There is real community here – I was shown its unique blend of culinary culture, quiet country roads and punchy climbs by a rider genuinely passionate about his home. There's no better advertisement than that.

The good thing is for many of us living in the south of England, the island is surprisingly accessible. You can travel by train in an hour and thirty minutes from London and cycle straight from the ferry port – you can even drive there from Bristol in 2 hours. You can visit a garlic farm boasting produce as left-field as garlic ice cream, go for a sauna and a dip in the sea or complete the 65-mile perimeter ride and be home in time for tea. Plus, there are dinosaurs everywhere.

We were guests of The Albion Hotel in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, who kindly hosted our stay.

Wightlink operates ferry services to the Isle of Wight. Find out more at wightlink.co.uk.

The UCI has cancelled the 2026 Urban Cycling World Championships in Saudi Arabia after missile strikes on the country's capital.

The Worlds were scheduled to take place from 3 to 7 November, but cycling's governing body was under pressure to take action after the Houthi attack on Riyadh's international airport on Saturday, which killed 13 and left 300 injured.

The specific circumstances were not referenced in the UCI's statement, but just alluded to as "recent developments in the region". 2026 was the second year in a row that the Urban Worlds were to take place in Riyadh, which sees riders compete for rainbow jerseys in trials and BMX Freestyle. Last year Great Britain won two medals, including gold for Charlie Rolls in the men's elite 26" trials event.

Australia and Austria had already withdrawn from the Worlds, and other sporting events had already been postponed, including the PIF Saudi International in golf.

"The decision follows consultation with athletes, staff and the selection panel, with the athletes fully informed and supportive of the decision," an AusCycling statement this week read.

"It reflects the escalating regional conflict, the loss of life and the Australian Government’s updated Smartraveller advice."

"The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the Saudi Cycling Federation announce that the 2026 UCI Urban Cycling World Championships, scheduled to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 3 to 7 November, will not proceed," a UCI spokesperson said on Friday. "The event was set to bring together the world’s best riders in trials and BMX Freestyle (Park and Flatland).

"The decision follows a joint assessment of recent developments in the region and their impact on the logistical organisation of the Championships.

"The UCI regrets having to take this decision and expresses its appreciation to the Saudi Cycling Federation for their support and cooperation throughout preparations for the event. It also thanks the athletes, teams and National Federations for their understanding.

"The Saudi Cycling Federation reaffirms its commitment to developing cycling in the Kingdom and strengthening its partnership with the UCI. These efforts aim to support the growth of the sport, broaden participation and continue attracting major international cycling events to Saudi Arabia in the years ahead.

"The UCI will communicate shortly on the sporting consequences of this announcement."

By the early 1980s, Motobécane was one of France’s old guard. Like its compatriots Peugeot, Gitane, and Mercier, its bikes were still winning numerous races, but its glory days were numbered.

None of these iconic brands survived the decade, driven to extinction by overseas competition and the incoming tide of new-fangled carbon fibre. French component manufacturers Simplex, Huret, Mafac, and Maillard suffered a similar fate, heralding the end of a Grand French Era for cycling brands.

Fortunately, such strife was too distant in the future to trouble Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke, as he won prologue after prologue for La Redoute–Motobécane between 1980 and 1983. This large yet lithe beauty, a size 60cm ’81 model, was his ride midway through his stint with the team.

“It’s so wonderfully Gallic,” says current owner Richard Hoddinott of vintage specialists The Velo Pages. “Just as there’s an expectation for Italian bikes to feature Campag, almost every peripheral component on this Motobécane is French – the elegant 53t Stronglight chainset, the Simplex mechs and shifters, the Sachs Maillard 6-speed cassette, the Maillard 700 hubs and the Mavic Super Champion rims. Only the Cinelli cockpit, Selle Italia saddle and Weinmann 400 brakes are sourced from further afield.”

Motobécane was renowned for its frame finishes, and this bike does not disappoint. The deep blue flam metallic paintwork, the chromed forks – note the seamless Cinelli microfusion crown – and the rear triangle sparkle as if they’ve been dusted with diamonds.

After retiring from racing, Vandenbroucke built a successful career as a directeur sportif for Lotto, where he faced the heartbreaking challenge of coaching his troubled nephew, Frank Vandenbroucke. The French cycling industry fought back too, with brands such as Look, Lapierre and Van Rysel now commonplace in the pro peloton.

As of this week, cyclists caught going through red lights in the City of London could find themselves facing a snap decision: pay a £50 on-the-spot fine, or stand in a ‘sin bin’ and watch a short two-minute video, designed to make them reflect on their actions.

It’s a no-brainer. No one in their right mind would pony up fifty notes when they could spend two-minutes watching a little cautionary movie, surely? (It takes longer than that for the officer to fill out the paperwork for the fine). And, predictably, every single one of the 70 velo-villains nabbed by the City of London Police force for hopping the lights on Wednesday, when the new initiative was first rolled out, went for the video option.

But what does this video show, and will it be effective in reducing behaviour that the police say has become endemic on the capital’s streets?

Well, I’ve seen it. And I’ll never jump a light again.

To be honest, I’m a pretty well-behaved cyclist these days anyway (of course I am, I work for Cycling Weekly), and I also now live in a place where both traffic lights and police officers are few and far between. But there was a time when I lived in London and worked as a bike courier, and I’d routinely go through dozens of red lights every day.

It is, in essence, a selfish act to run a red light, and we all know it's a bad thing to do. You’re basically saying that your time is more important than everyone else’s. And this alternative punishment is very much of the ‘we’re not angry with you, we’re just disappointed’ school of disciplinary psychology, which tends to be much more effective.

"We issue cyclists fixed penalty notices for going through red lights in the city on a daily basis," explains Sergeant Stuart Ford, Cycle Team lead at City of London Police. "Riders running reds is one of our biggest complaints, from residents, people visiting and working in the city. We have to act on what they're saying. And it is a bit of a nightmare out there for pedestrians and vulnerable road users.

"Between 8 and 9 in the morning, in the city, we get 20,000 cyclists come through. We're only a small team, there's only ten of us, if we're all out in the morning, we might issue 20 tickets. That's nothing. That's not going to get the message out there.

"So I came up with this 3E approach, which is engage with people, educate them, and enforce the law. The whole point is I want to get some sort of behavioural change. A lot of cyclists are very good and they abide by the laws of the road, but some don’t. Rather than issuing tickets all the time, I wanted to come up with something else, where we give them an opportunity to watch a safety video and give them a bit of a warning if you like."

Sergeant Ford says he doesn’t especially love the term 'sin bin', and prefers to call it a "cycle time out zone". Riders who agree to watch the video stand on a five-by-two-metre mat with a picture of a bike on it, surrounded by a police logo, and watch the short film.

"I've been a cyclist my whole life," says Ford. "I've got four or five road bikes at home myself. It's what I do. I like bikes. So I'm coming from a good place. I don't want to be penalising people that want to do the right thing getting on their bikes. I just want people to abide by the law."

The video shows the potential consequences of your selfish actions on others, in this case people with sight impairment, some of whom describe frightening encounters with pedal-powered light jumpers. It’s filmed in a way that encourages empathy with these people, and for good measure, one of them invokes the physical and mental damage that could be done to their guide dog – which is a complete clincher – and what that would mean for their freedom.

You’d have to be monster if having this perspective thrust in your face didn’t make you stop and think, or in this case, think and stop. Watching the video, I found myself regretting all those red-light indiscretions of years gone by. I never ran over any assistance labradors (seriously, I didn’t – don’t write in), but it could have happened loads of times.

There are counterpoints to be made, about drivers’ behaviour, but it’s hard to argue with the basic premiss of Ford's thinking, and most cycling-oriented orientated organisations are in agreement.

"Cyclists are not really the issue of safety on the roads, that's more cars and driving and speeding, so it's kind of fiddling whilst Rome burns on safety grounds," says Tom Fyans from the London Cycling Campaign. “But we are broadly supportive. We think it's an innovative way of getting through to cyclists that they've got responsibilities on the road to keep people safe other than themselves.

"There are more bikes than cars now in the City of London, so the situation is a little different there to elsewhere. And if it gets cyclist respecting red lights a bit more and thinking about how to stay safe on the road, and keep others safe, that's a good thing."

There is another part of the video, for those perhaps lacking in empathy, which isn’t for media or general public consumption, that shows real footage of a bike rider going through a red light, getting knocked off her bike, and then talking about the life-long consequences of that rash decision. I’ve not seen that yet bit, and I don’t intend to – I’ll just stop at the red lights from now on.

Vin Denson, who died on Wednesday 14 October aged 90, was the last survivor of the pioneering generation of British professional cyclists who established themselves at the highest level of European road racing during the 1950s and 1960s.

Alongside Brian Robinson, Tom Simpson and Barry Hoban, Denson helped open doors for the generations of British cyclists who followed. Born in Chester, he developed his strength in the fiercely competitive world of British time trialling, track and road racing before crossing the Channel to pursue his ambitions.

Denson became one of professional cycling's most respected domestiques, riding for two of the sport's greatest champions, Rik Van Looy and Jacques Anquetil.

His finest years came with Anquetil's Ford France team in 1965 and 1966. "It was like being with Manchester United," Denson recalled. The riders were treated as celebrities, once attending a reception with Prince Rainier and Princess Grace in Monaco.

But behind the glamour lay extraordinary hard work.

In May 1965, Denson played a crucial role in one of cycling's greatest feats. Anquetil won the mountainous Critérium du Dauphiné, then travelled overnight to Bordeaux to contest the 584-kilometre Bordeaux-Paris classic, starting at one o'clock the following morning.

Denson and Jean Stablinski were entrusted with shepherding their exhausted leader through the night.

"Jacques was riding so close to me his shoulder would occasionally brush mine," Denson recalled. "To help him I pushed him for long stretches." At one point Anquetil leaned against Denson, apparently falling asleep while still riding. Somehow, he recovered and completed his historic double.

The following year Denson made history himself, becoming the first British rider to win a stage of the Giro d'Italia. Riding for Ford France, he escaped on the mountainous ninth stage from Naples to Campobasso, dropping his breakaway companions and battling alone to victory.

It was a landmark achievement for British cycling, and proof that Denson was far more than a willing workhorse. He also won the 1965 Tour of Luxembourg.

The death of his close friend Tom Simpson during the 1967 Tour de France affected Denson profoundly. He eventually retired from professional racing in 1969.

Strong, loyal, immensely capable and full of wonderful stories, Vin belonged to an era when British cyclists had to fight for every opportunity abroad.

With his passing, the final link to that remarkable pioneering generation has gone.

Cycling Weekly's thoughts are with Denson's friends and family.

British Cycling and the Great Britain Cycling Team have implemented an action plan "focused on leadership, development, feedback and wellbeing" after a rider and staff survey revealed that some thought parts had a "toxic" culture.

According to a report in The Times on Wednesday, an independent survey, funded by UK Sport and conducted by a company called the Happiness Index, uncovered a fall in morale among its elite riders, and an alleged lack of accountability in the GBCT's senior leadership.

A spokesperson for British Cycling said that the wellbeing of its staff was "fundamental to everything we do", and said that an action plan was being implemented to address concerns.

This is not the first time that the culture at BC has been criticised, with a 2017 report into the GBCT saying that a "culture of fear" existed.

Separately, this week, British track sprinter Matthew Richardson was withdrawn last-minute from this week's UCI Track World Championships amid reports of serious misconduct, also revealed in The Times.

As part of the survey conducted most recently, athletes and staff were asked for three words to describe the culture of their World Class Programme; "driven" was most-used by athletes, but that was quickly followed by "toxic". Other words included "cold", "unconcerned", "distant", "unclear" and "restrictive".

According to The Times, the Happiness Index calculated saw a satisfaction score of -42 for male riders and -31 for female riders, the scale running from -100 to +100. The male and female staff scores were -4 and -5, respectively, all of which was a dramatic drop from the last time it was taken.

"The wellbeing of our staff and riders is fundamental to everything we do at British Cycling," a BC spokesperson said.

"The Culture Feedback Survey, which has been the subject of recent reports, is independently run to provide a valuable tool to help us learn and improve. The majority of team members say they love their jobs and overall favourability has increased, ranking ‘very good’ in the latest study.

"However, it is important to recognise others want to see improvements, and we are committed to listening and acting on this.

"As a result, the Great Britain Cycling Team has developed an action plan that is being implemented alongside wider work across British Cycling, focused on leadership, development, feedback and wellbeing. UK Sport is aware and supportive of the action we are taking."

The action plan is also focusing on "psychological safety, empowerment, and colleague experience", The Times reported.

A spokesman for UK Sport said: "It is critical to us that the sports we invest in have a safe, healthy and high-performing culture where athlete voice is included in decision-making. That is why the sports we work with undertake periodic, independent surveys of their athletes and staff within performance programmes to form one part of the assessment of the culture within those environments.

"We have engaged with British Cycling on the findings of their most recent culture survey and are aware of the action plan that they are already implementing to address some of the themes it raised.

"We will continue to work with British Cycling as they embed this plan and ensure their performance culture is of the highest possible standard."

Early nights, a sensible diet and long hours in the saddle required, anyone who has raced a bike knows that it's no easy sport to dedicate yourself to. But there's another hurdle too – one that affects some more than others: cost.

For seven years, US wheel manufacturer Boyd Cycling has been refurbing and donating customers' unwanted wheels to young riders – and now, in conjunction with the Kent Cyclopark Charity, it's bringing that philanthropic strategy to UK shores.

The strategy operates annually throughout each October, and acts as a kind of part-exchange deal, with those donating wheels benefiting too: those who trade in their old wheels, either in a Boyd retailer or online, receive a 20% discount when buying new Boyd wheels.

Boyd Cycling says customers can trade in any wheelset, irrespective of brand, or model. The company will then service as required before donating to young cyclists. Those trading in their wheels will have them assessed for suitability and serviceability in the first instance, and Cyclopark will then carry out any work that needs doing before passing them on to young riders.

The riders benefiting from the wheels will mostly be those patronising Cyclopark in the U12 up to U23 categories, across both cyclo-cross and road racing disciplines.

Cyclopark and its accompanying charity provides a mostly self-funded space for riders of all ages to race and ride at Gravesend, Kent. As well as the road circuit itself, the venue features a cafe, BMX pump track and MTB trails, and six fitness studios.

Cyclopark's CEO Jonny Hamp said in a statement: “Every day we see the difference cycling can make in young people's lives here at Cyclopark Charity. It’s about much more than riding a bike. It’s building confidence, making friendships, developing new skills and feeling part of a community. We know that the cost of equipment can be a real barrier, especially for young riders.

“That’s why we’re really pleased to be working with Boyd Cycling on this fantastic initiative. By giving quality equipment a second life, we’re helping to create opportunities for the next generation of cyclists, ensuring that enthusiasm and potential, rather than financial circumstances, determine how far they can go."

There’s a two-word phrase Jarrad Smith picks out to describe MAAP’s cycling kit: “affordable luxury."

“It’s not outlandish like a Louis Vuitton handbag, like five grand or something,” the brand's co-founder says. “But it’s a product that can bring you joy, get you exercising, get you involved in the community.”

Smith is sitting on an enormous, custom-made, neon green sofa in MAAP’s new London store. The floor beneath him is paved with cobblestones – a nod to the store’s location in the backstreets of Soho – and light is shimmering from the metal walls. Opened this month, this is the 11th of what the Australian brand likes to call a ‘LaB’, a hub that stands for ‘Life around Bikes’, which hosts ride-outs, events, serves coffee, and, crucially, sells cycling apparel.

The jerseys on the rails carry price tags from £130 to £235, the bib shorts from £195 to £265. It’s not the most expensive kit on the market – some brands ask for more than £300 for their bib shorts – but it’s certainly not far off.

“I feel like people are willing to pay slightly more for a more premium product,” Smith says.

“Just recently we launched the new Pro Air jersey, and it’s my favourite jersey, and it’s probably one of our most expensive jerseys. But the performance of it, and the fit, and the way the fabrics work, and the way it performs, it’s just reassuring that when you wear it, you feel really good in it, and I think you’re happy to pay for that because it’s just so rewarding.”

MAAP’s business results seem to prove Smith's theory; although he doesn’t go into details, he says the company is profitable, and has always been a “very high-growth brand”.

Some of its competitors in the same market, however, have found the going to have gotten tough. Rapha, for example, whose Soho clubhouse is only a few minutes’ walk from MAAP’s new LaB, recently revealed annual operating losses of £21.2m.

In a press release shared with Cycling Weekly, Rapha stated its “numbers reflect deliberate decisions to invest in our brand, product quality, cycling communities and customer experiences,” calling these “choices that will strengthen the business over time.”

For some customers, the losses were a comeuppance for what they believed was prohibitively priced products. But Rapha is generally cheaper than MAAP. How does Smith justify criticism about the cost of his jerseys and bibs? “It depends who’s saying it,” he says.

“If we weren’t selling them, I wouldn’t make them. They’re probably potentially not our customer, or it’s a bit out of reach and they don’t want to spend that much, or they don’t appreciate the aesthetic of it as well.

“We’re not putting a price tag on our products because of the MAAP logo on there. It’s the cost to make it: the design team, the fabrics we select, sustainable fabrics. To make one jersey, there are four fabrics on it, and it’s expensive. Most of the fabrics are coming from Italian mills and the best lycras in the world.”

Smith also points to the comfort of the clothing. “Especially with a bib,” he says. “When you get more serious and you’re riding more and more, that comfort in the saddle is probably the most important part of the ride.

“I think if you’re new to cycling and you’re a bit nervous to spend so much, you might start [with a cheap, entry-level brand]. But once they’ve tried our bibs, people are like, ‘Ah I appreciate it. I get it. It’s so much more comfortable. Now I can ride more.’”

Smith founded MAAP 12 years ago in his garage with his business partner, Oliver Cousins. Inspired by surf and skate fashion, the pair set out to make a high-end product that people around the world would love – affordable luxury, as Smith would call it. Today, they have stores in cities like Shanghai, Los Angeles, and Berlin.

Opening in London, though, seemed to push against the tide. This summer, a similar showroom in King’s Cross, VIA Atelier, shuttered its doors with a notice citing overdue rent payments. It was just one example in a wider trend of bike shops closing across the country.

Did MAAP have any concerns about opening against this backdrop? “When we were first looking into it, it was still Covid, all the retail was shut, and we were coming in all guns blazing then,” Smith says. “I don’t think the market was any worse than it was at that point because these shops were literally all boarded up.

“Within the cycling industry, yes, some of them are shutting down and whatnot, but for us, business is going well and everything’s been very positive.”

The LaBs are all part of the company’s expansion. This February, MAAP hired its first CEO, Ian Elliott, who was formerly the head of marketing. “As we’ve grown, we’ve had to learn to run a bigger business,” says Smith.

“The challenge, I think, is just making sure we’re continuing to innovate – new products, new ways of doing things with fabrics – and also finding new partnerships and keeping it relevant.”

One thing Smith is excited about going forward is MAAP’s growing off-bike range, which now includes a £415 puffer jacket, launched last Thursday.

Likewise, he says sponsoring the Australian WorldTour team Jayco AlUla, which MAAP has done for the past two seasons, has been “awesome – it’s like a dream come true”.

“I think what’s critical about it is validating our performance and product. Probably early on, people thought we were just a bit more of a fashion-y brand, but we actually were rooted in performance. We just try to make it look aesthetically pleasing in our style.”

The Jayco-AlUla deal is due to run up at the end of 2027, though there are options to renew. For Smith, it’s important that his brand is represented at the highest level of the sport. “It’d be like playing tennis without having someone at Wimbledon or the Australian Open,” he says.

It's that same thinking that has led him to opening 11 stores around the world; a bold strategy, some might say, particularly in a saturated market and against a global shift towards online shopping, but Smith is confident it’s the right one.

“We’re quite astute to making sure all our ducks are in a row, and we sort of don’t focus on other brands and other businesses,” he says. “We’re always very busy focusing on our own trajectory.”

The Tour of Auvergne-Rhône Alps is still one of my favourite races. It may have changed its name from the easier-to-remember Critérium du Dauphiné, but in another aspect it hasn’t changed at all. It is the New Bike Race, when all the new stuff appears before the Tour de France.

Or at least, it sort of appears. Nothing gets formally announced or launched; it gets leaked. And like any leak, it first and foremost serves the interests of the leaker.

The new S-Works SL9, for example, was not paraded for the press, but was photographed with a telephoto lens by Cyclingnews journo Will Jones while he was hiding in a bush. Which was very enterprising of him.

On the other hand, it’s hard not to feel that if the team really wanted to keep it a secret they might not have brought it to the centre of the biggest concentration of bike-tech reporters in the world and left it leaning against the mechanics’ truck. Granted it was the “non-public” side of the truck, but still. MI6 would find things to criticise.

There was a bike from Cube, which was presented at a photo-call, with no information whatsoever offered about it. There was an Orbea, which was presented in a little more detail, but with weird hand-painted camouflage squiggles to apparently try to disguise its exact shape. And the new Van Rysel was “spotted” on a team car roof-rack without so much as a paper bag over it.

Other popular ways to tease new bikes include the classic, “Rider gives away new team bike in careless social media post!” where half a bike is visible in the background of a post about, let’s say, the rider’s dog. Despite it accidentally giving away a “secret”, this post is never deleted. Same with YouTube videos.

All I can say is, how well the marketing departments know me. If you introduce me to a new bike by means of a press-release, lots of good photos, maybe a white paper on the technology that’s gone into it, with some aero-testing numbers and a full spec, well, I probably won’t be that excited. I can see exactly what it is and what it does, and in the end, it’s just a bike.

On the other hand, show me a blurry image of a bike apparently snatched on an iPhone, and within seconds I’m fully zoomed in trying to spot the alleged differences from the maker’s earlier bikes. “A curved seat tube, you say? Re-profiled head-tube? Let me see…. ooooh! That’s lovely!” Or show me only half a bike with a dog in the way. Then tell me it’s not yet commercially available, and don’t tell me the price.

Moments later you’ll find me in my bike-store looking at the very lovely bikes I already own and love muttering, “Stupid straight seat-tube. If that was curved I bet that would reduce the turbulence flowing onto the back wheel. And that old head-tube, that must be costing at least five watts.”

It’s the same sort of fog-of-ignorance upgrade-it mindset that savvy bike-shop owners take advantage of when, instead of helping a customer to find the right bike for them at the right price, they leave them alone with their own thoughts, their credit card, and some minimal information. That way the customer persuades him or herself that they need features and specs no responsible salesperson would try to sell them.

The only thing that saves me is the quantity of new stuff. So many new bikes at once, along with so many new wheelsets, new tyres, and new helmets. It just produces a paralysis of indecision. I want it all so badly that I can’t prioritise.

One day the bike trade is going to work this out, of course, and just leak one single, beautiful product. When they do, I’ll basically be a salmon, flapping on their hook.

This week Belgian manufacturer Ridley broke cover with a new lightweight climbing bike, the 6.2kg Falcn RS 2.0. In doing so, it also poo-pooed – a phrase you don't hear often – the 'one bike to rule them all' philosophy, with its aero but relatively heavy Fast 2.0, which sidles in next to the Falcn in the Ridley stable for a lethal two-pronged approach to top-tier racing.

Now, the one-bike philosophy exists on at least two levels. There's the example presented by Ridley – suitable for taking on different courses at the highest levels of elite racing. And then there's the example that exists in your shed and mine (apologies, of course, if you're a WorldTour pro reading this. It happens).

The idea that us 'normal' cyclists (call us club riders, weekend warriors, amateurs – we can take it) might only have to spend money on one single bike holds enduring and widespread appeal. Something you could commute on, race on, ride tracks and trails on. It would take up less space; it would involve less faff; and it would certainly involve not having to shell out multiple times over for something that does pretty much the same as all the other things, but not quite. If that makes sense.

The fabled one-bike is held up as a two-wheeled Holy Grail but, leaving aside the question of whether such a machine actually exists, do any of us really want it? After all, just imagine that, this Christmas, you're gifted such a machine. It sings, it dances, it plays the bloody bagpipes… and you never need to buy another. Is that cause for celebration? No, of course it isn't.

Here's the reason: one of the fun things about being a bike rider is buying bikes. And then buying stuff for those bikes. And then, once you're done with that, it's imagining what bikes and what stuff you'll be buying as soon as you get even the flimsiest excuse to do so. The n+1 equation dictates that. It's also at diametrically opposed odds with the one-bike theory, and it's definitely the funnest of the two.

Admittedly, back up in the elite ranks, the bike industry has been making a pretty good fist of the one-bike strategy. In 2020, for example, Specialized did away with its aero Venge – remember that? – instead bolstering the aero capabilities of its Tarmac to essentially take the place of both. Victories in the Tour de France Femmes and the World Championships would testify that it's doing OK.

This one-bike approach has been echoed across the industry in recent years, with Cannondale doing the same with its SuperSix Evo, and Trek with the Madone Gen 8. There are, however, rumblings that suggest another about-turn could be on the cards in the industry more broadly, and we could see manufacturers follow Ridley's approach in future.

It's worth pointing out that 'do-it-all' is pretty subjective and means different things to different riders. Some of us might not ride off-road at all, so that capability is unnecessary. Some commute by bike, some don't… the list of specifics goes on.

Whatever your cycling repertoire, though, there is one machine that can do most things, from long road rides to off-roading, commuting and cyclo-cross racing – that would be the gravel bike. But it's probably best not to admit that, not to yourself, and definitely not to anyone else. After all, one bike only – where's the fun in that?

Over a thousand Van Rysel GRVL AF bikes have urgently been recalled by Decathlon America, because of concerns around the front wheel lock nut becoming loose and undoing over time.

Although no accidents or injuries have so far been reported as result of this fault on the extremely popular bike, the identified flaw could create a potentially dangerous situation for riders, "posing a crash hazard", as stated on the US government's Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) website, creating a "risk of serious injury or death".

The recall involves around 1,150 individual bikes across the highly versatile and reasonably priced family, designed for gravel riding, road cycling, commuting to work and more extensive multi-day bikepacking adventures.

According to Decathlon's recall: "Front lock nut on the bicycle fork may loosen during use, which can lead to a loss of steering control or component detachment, posing a fall and crash hazard to riders."

The specific models involved are the following: the word brown CN FR (model number 8911304), apex beige CN FR (8911305), sword pink CN FR (8911308), and GRVL AF GRX black (8929130).

The impacted bikes, which retail for anywhere between $1,400 and $2,300, were all sold in sizes extra-small, small, medium, large and extra-large through REI Co-op outlets in the United States, between March of 2025 and August of this year.

Each of the named bike models can easily be identified by name, and also through the Van Rysel Product ID (which begins with the number 5 and can be located on the barcode sticker on the frame near the bottom bracket of the bike).

It's important to note that only Van Rysel bikes with the Product IDs/ SKUs mentioned on the official CPSC webpage are affected, and riders with other models do not need to be concerned, or to take any action.

Decathlon America are asking people with the bikes involved to take them along to their nearest REI Co-op outlet, where their bike will be inspected and repair of the fork assembly is being offered if required, obviously all free of charge. Anyone who is unable to visit an REI location is advised to contact Decathlon customer service for assistance.

A British police force has been criticised for posting misleading information on the legality of e-bikes.

In a now-deleted post on Facebook, the Tewkesbury Neighbourhood Policing team, part of the Gloucestershire Constabulary, wrote that "privately owned e-bikes require road tax, vehicle insurance, and a valid MOT".

Appearing to confuse e-bikes, which are pedal-assisted and limited to 15.5mph, with e-motorbikes, which are not, the policing team were appealing for information regarding a report of dangerous riding in Brockworth, Gloucestershire.

The post continued: "Anyone breaking the law risks a £300 fixed penalty notice, six points on a driving licence, and your illegal electric bike or scooter being seized and destroyed."

Duncan Dollimore, from British cycling advocacy group and charity Cycling UK, said that the police needed to "stop this confusing narrative and understand the difference" between e-bikes and e-motorbikes.

"The statement from Tewkesbury Neighbourhood Policing team confuses legal e-bikes and e-motorbikes, when in reality they are different means of transport, with different laws applying to them," Dollimore said. "We need the police to stop this confusing narrative and understand the difference, as these misconceptions continue to cause issues to people who are genuine legal e-bike riders. To be considered an e-bike, you need to pedal for the motor to assist, and it needs to cut out at 15.5mph, otherwise it’s an e-motorbike. E-bikes do not require tax, insurance or an MOT, but e-motorbikes do.

"E-bikes can make a huge difference to people’s lives, particularly for older people, those new to cycling or with mobility issues, and police forces across the country need to be better trained to make sure they know the difference. That starts with clear, national procedures for police forces to properly assess whether a bike is an e-bike or an e-motorbike."

E-bikes, legally "electrically assisted pedal cycles" are pedal-assisted, limited to 15.5mph, and have a continuous rated power output of no more than 250 watts. If it does not comply with these, the bike is not legally an EAPC and does need to be registered, taxed and insured.

A spokesperson for Gloucestershire police said: "In recent days we issued an appeal which included some incorrect information in relation to e-bikes. Once this was brought to our attention, we removed the article from our online sites.

"For more information on the rules of riding an electrically assisted pedal cycle, visit: Riding an electric bike: the rules - GOV.UK."

This enigmatic Claud Butler track bike is a period puzzle that only begins to reveal a version of its truth when associated with its likely rider, the colourful Jack Heid. On first inspection, the bike resembles a 1939 Champion Path model, with its period-correct oversized Chater-Lee bottom bracket and cast lugs. However, a closer look reveals a distinctive 1948 ‘Olympic rings’ head tube badge.

There’s no mistaking the livery, which boldly screams ‘USA!’ as only the Stars and Stripes can. Consider that Claud Butler had a close relationship with talented New Yorker Heid around this period, and pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place.

Disenchanted with the East Coast racing scene, Heid flew to London for the 1948 Olympics, where he immediately became obsessed with European competition. Over the next few years, he successfully raced as an amateur across Belgium, France, England, and Scandinavia; unheard of for an American at the time.

Despite minor celebrity status – the English media dubbed him the Yankee Clipper – his existence was, at least initially, hand-to-mouth, surviving on his winnings and the illicit proceeds of smuggling watches and bike parts into England from continental Europe. Did Claud Butler give this bike to a cash-strapped, opportunistic Heid?

“There are tantalising clues,” says current owner Richard Hoddinott of vintage specialists The Velo Pages. “The numbering on the BB suggests 1949, then there’s the head tube badge and the bold US livery. I believe this is a pre-war frame possibly refurbished in 1949 for the World Championships in Denmark, or a ’49 frame that’s been built with older parts due to post-war shortages.

Heid won bronze in the amateur sprint at the World Championships and continued racing successfully in Europe for several years, eventually earning a comfortable living. He returned to the US with his Belgian wife, Julia, in 1951. He died in 1987 and was inducted in the US Bicycling Hall of Fame two years later.

Soudal Quick-Step rider Dylan van Baarle was injured in a serious incident "involving a car" during a training ride in the Netherlands, which left the 34-year-old Dutchman with a broken wrist and put an abrupt end to his season.

Although the road riding calendar has all but come to a close, the timing of the crash is particularly unfortunate, given that van Baarle is due to get married in less than two weeks. However, his fiancée, fellow pro rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, took to social media to say that that the situation could have been far worse, and thanking Soudal Quick-Step for their actions after the incident.

"He took a hard blow to the head,” said 2025 Tour de France Femmes winner Ferrand-Prévot. “The helmet definitely saved his life… He also has a broken arm, and the surgery will take place tomorrow – thanks to Soudal Quick-Step for arranging it so quickly."

The collision took place on Wednesday, and according to reports, vVn Baarle, a former Paris-Roubaix winner who has endured an injury and accident strewn few years – having fractured his hand and scapula in 2023, broken his collarbone twice (in 2024 and 2025), and also busting his hip in 2024 – took a "big impact".

"Dylan van Baarle was involved in a road traffic accident involving a car, during training today in Tiel, Netherlands," a statement on the Soudal Quick-Step website confirmed. "Following the incident Dylan was taken to hospital where he underwent a CT scan, which has fortunately revealed no damage to his skull and spine. He did however sustain a fracture to his wrist, which will require surgery and mean an end to his season."

Van Baarle is due to marry his partner, and former Tour de France Femmes winner, Ferrand-Prévot, who rides for Visma–Lease a Bike, later this month, and it was the Frenchwoman who broke the news, saying: “Dylan was involved in a car accident this morning while he was training. He was taken to the hospital immediately.”

"I'm very, very grateful that it all turned out reasonably well," she continued. "I’m going to sleep alone for a few nights, but I think that’s part of the tradition leading up to the big wedding day."

I always enjoy the walk or jog to Parkrun. As you near the arena, such as it is, whether it is an actual park, or a seafront, or beside a motorway, over a bridge, as I did once. Once you’ve done the hard work of getting out of bed and making it to the designated place, you get to enjoy the anticipation in the air. People of all ages and abilities, semi-professional runners and people attempting their first ever 5km, all converge on the same spot, ready for the 9am start. It’s hugely successful, because the barriers to entry are so low: you need a pair of trainers, to be registered – which is free – and to complete a 5km at your speed. There is little danger, little cost, and few causes for apprehension. It’s little wonder that around 400,000 people take part each week.

Even then, it took me five years between signing up to Parkrun and actually embarking on one. I’ve now done 36, which is more reflective of my priorities on a Saturday morning than anything else, but it took me a while to not be intimidated by the event with little to no barriers. It took moving city, joining a run club and meeting like-minded people to encourage me to actually take part.

I was reflecting on all this when I went to watch my first ever cyclo-cross race in person last weekend. It was a local event, Round One of the Western Cyclo-Cross League in Cheltenham, England. Not to take part, no I’m not ready to do that, but to support my friends Rosalie and Laura in their first-ever race. There was the familiar trudge to a park, sadly with fewer people, but still a bit of a buzz. I can’t believe it took me this long to go to a race. The atmosphere was friendly, and reassuringly unintimidating, and it was great to see a range of ages and abilities race, from the semi-elite group at the front , to the much bigger group in the middle, having fun and taking part in their own battles. Just like Parkrun, there were those aiming for the win, or at least challenging for it, and then those using it as type two fun.

Cheering on the race, with the help of a continental lager – it is a CX race after all – I was taken by just how fun and friendly it looked, with a few of the competitors even thanking us for the support as they went round. It was far from the intimidating event that it could have been, that the world of road racing certainly seems to me, hill-climbing is similarly open. People just turn up with a bike they are prepared to ride off-road on, pay the fee (which in this case was £25), learn the course, and race for under an hour. The risks are low, especially the muddier it is. There are no open roads, no cars, it’s fun, and unless you’re battling at the front, it’s unlikely to be overly competitive. At least that’s how it seemed to me. There are technical bits, but nothing insurmountable, especially at the beginning of the season; then the worse the weather gets, the more the chaos mounts too.

The differences between Parkrun and a CX race are stark, of course. At the latter you do need a bike, you have to pay, and it feels a lot more hidden away; something you would only take part in if you met the right person, or were encouraged by a club. The equipment, especially, is a huge barrier to entry – I don’t have a gravel bike, so I’m out immediately. However, as we are several years into the gravel boom right now, you might have one, and I would encourage you to at least look into taking part in your local race. It’s easier said than done, obviously, but what’s the worst that could happen?

Organisers, locally and nationally, with the help of British Cycling, could do with a bit of a marketing revolution, to show that anyone can do it. I didn’t realise you could just turn up on the day and take part, so some clarity on the rules would certainly help, especially if you’re not part of a traditional cycling club that might push out info on this sort of thing. My friend Rosalie was hooked; she’s already done her second event. If we could harness this across the country, then maybe we could get loads more people hooked on racing. All I need now is a bike.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

British bike brand Ridgeback has recalled three of its hybrid and commuter models due to reported defects in the tyres.

The company has asked customers to “immediately” stop riding any of their Comet, Motion or Speed models sold since 2020, which could be affected.

“The tyres on affected bicycles may have manufacturing defects along the tread pattern which could lead to a failure of the tyre posing a fall hazard,” Ridgeback said in a statement.

The brand also shared images of the issue, which show the middle of the tyre’s tread bursting open. According to Ridgeback, this occurs when the defective tyres are inflated to the recommended pressure printed on the sidewall.

It is uncertain how many customers in total the recall affects. A safety notice was published on the UK Government’s Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) website earlier this month with a ‘medium’ risk level.

“The product presents a risk of injuries as the tyres may fail while the bicycle is in use. This could cause the rider to lose control and fall,” the OPSS notice said.

Philippa Wheeler, a product safety solicitor at law firm Leigh Day, warned tyre failures can lead to “serious and life-changing injuries”.

"While recalls can be unsettling for consumers, prompt action to address potential safety defects is an important safeguard,” Wheeler said.

“Customers have a right to expect that the products they purchase are safe and free from defects, and effective recall processes play a vital role when products fall short of those standards."

Across the three recalled bike models, Ridgeback has listed 54 affected product item numbers, all with the prefix ‘RB21’, pertaining to different frame sizes and colourways. The full list can be found on Ridgeback’s recall notice.

The brand has asked any customers who fear they might be affected to “please stop riding your bicycle immediately”, and contact their local Ridgeback dealer. Any defective tyres will be replaced.

“We recognise that many of you will rely on your bicycle as a primary mode of transportation. Ensuring that you are safe and back on your Ridgeback as swiftly as possible is our utmost priority,” the brand said.

“We’d like to apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for choosing Ridgeback.”

The Stages SB200 earned its name because the Stages team believes it is “10 times better” than its predecessor, the SB20.

The SB200 is Stages’ first indoor smart bike since the SB20 was released in 2019, and it's seen updates in several areas, from aesthetics to a new display screen and an updated Stages app.

The SB200 product development team said that the focus was on creating a bike which would suit a wide range of riders, from the recreational fitness buff to the pro-level rider.

“You can just get on this bike and ride,” says Pat Warner, vice president of research and development at Stages. “We want people to ride bikes, and the SB200 allows everyone to simply get on and ride.”

The bike maintains its existing quiet drivetrain – as noted in the 4.5/5 star review it received from CW's digital editor – but key updates include dropping a whopping 25kg (55lbs) from the previously hefty frame and adding an integrated display screen.

What’s new?

The SB200 adds new features, reportedly without sacrificing quality and functionality.

One of the most notable changes is the fully built bike's weight. The SB20 weighed about 62.5kg (138lbs), while the SB200 shaves off 25kg (55lbs) and weighs 37.5kg (82lbs).

Most of the weight savings came from the frame and the flywheel. The Stages team stressed that heavier flywheels, which mean more inertia, are a thing of the past.

Stages prefers to describe “max output” as a function of how well the bike handles torque.

The Stages team cited pushing 400w at 40rpm to demonstrate the SB200's high resistance and torque-handling capability; if a rider pushed those watts at that rpm, the bike would still be responsive and usable.

However, depending on cadence, the SB200 has a max wattage of about 2,500 watts.

Speaking of cadence and output, those two metrics can be greatly influenced by crank length. The SB20 allowed for an adjustable crank length via a clubbed crank arm with four different holes for changeable crank lengths.

The SB200 improves on the “clubbed” crank arm design with a patent-pending, sleek crank-length adjustment system using flippable brackets that slide into place at the end of the crank arm. The bracket orientations correspond to four crank lengths: 165mm, 170mm, 172mm, and 175mm.

The adjustable crank brackets and all other adjustable parts of the bike – seatpost and handlebar height and handlebar fore/aft – are all controlled with one eight mm Allen bolt. The hex key for the Allen bolt is built into the rear seat stay and clips in and out via a magnet.

Additionally, the front and rear of the SB200 got major upgrades from the SB20.

The front features a unique semi-circle design meant to encourage movement like the real road. The SB20 had a rigid, straight front end that created a more rigid ride, and if that’s your preferred riding style, you can purchase the Rigid Ride front end and swap out the curved option on the SB200.

The rear of the SB200 now features two plush rubber feet to create a gentle side-to-side motion while riding, easing low back strain and once again fostering that “real world” feel.

The SB200 also has two wheels at the rear, replacing the pair at the front of the SB20. The Stages team says putting the wheels in the back makes more sense, since most of the bike’s weight is toward the rear.

Key specifications

The last visible hardware change is that the SB200 adds a small display screen beneath its phone and iPad holders (the iPad holder is fully removable).

The display screen lets a rider “just get on this bike and ride.” When not synced with a third-party training app, the display shows workout stats that the everyday fitness buff is interested in: cadence, calories, control mode (erg vs. simulation), distance, gear, heart rate (with connected heart rate monitor), power, profile, speed, time, and firmware update status.

With a third-party indoor training apps such as TrainingPeaks Virtual, Zwift, MyWhoosh, or Rouvy involved, the display screen will sync with the app’s stats and reflect your power, rpm, and more as reported in the third-party app.

The Stages app also got a makeover in the SB200 process.

Riders can now sync workouts from TrainingPeaks into the app, or choose from about 40 pre-programmed workouts in Stages’ small but growing free workout library.

Real-world feel meets real-world shifting

Stages notes that a lot of thought went into improving the SB200's shifting experience. The shifters operate like a standard road bike, with noticeable tactile feedback as you move through your drivetrain of choice. You can shift one gear at a time with the shifter closest to you, or jump five gears in either direction with the second shifter.

When you reach the end of the cassette you’ve chosen, an audible “beep” will let you know.

Plus, there are eight total buttons – four on the inside of each hood – that are fully programmable and control the built-in display as well as features of virtual riding apps.

The SB200 gives riders multiple drivetrain options, all customisable in the Stages app.

A rider can choose SRAM or Shimano 1X and 2X cassettes with a variety of gearing options right in the free app.

The real “secret sauce” of the Stages SB line, though, is its Dream Drive. Dream Drive is a fully customisable 1x system with up to 30 gears (from easiest to hardest gear).

You can get extremely specific with your gear configuration, creating “half gears” not available on a real-world cassette. If you want, you could create a Dream Drive with only five gears, creating huge torque jumps between gears.

If you’re training for a specific terrain or course, Dream Drive is one way to hone your efforts, especially if you upload a GPX file to TrainingPeaks Virtual and then adjust Dream Drive to match the ride profile's demands.

Stages SB200 - first ride impressions

My first ride on the SB200 lasted about two hours and included everything from low-cadence, high-power efforts to crit-style virtual racing on the TrainingPeaks Virtual platform.

Before the ride began, though, I was pleased with how easy the bike was to adjust. The built-in Allen key at the rear seat stay was easy to pop in and out, and all changeable aspects only took a few minutes to adjust in total.

The SB200 doesn't offer saddle fore/aft adjustment.

Additionally, you can put on your own saddle if you want. I thought that the Stages-designed saddle that comes with the bike was comfortable enough, but the standard cinched rail design means you could swap in your preferred seat.

Once I got my fit dialed in, I started to ride. I was immediately struck by how realistic the bike felt, from tactile shifting to just the right amount of movement to be road-like.

The shifters’ tactile feedback was noticeable, but not overly so. I switched between a SRAM 2X 12-speed setup and Dream Drive; you can switch between drivetrains mid-ride using the buttons inside the hoods or via the Stages Cycling app.

The bike's curved front, combined with the SB200's spongy rear feet, provides just the right amount of movement as you pedal. The gentle side-to-side motion mimics riding on the road accurately without ever feeling unstable, even during standing efforts.

A huge plus is that, thanks to the poly V-belt drive, the bike is whisper-quiet.

I also appreciated the narrower handlebars. Stages says they opted for a narrower handlebar design on the SB200 to reflect the style many are choosing on their road bikes today. I thought it was nice to have narrower handlebars, as I have had countless experiences with stationary bikes offering absurdly wide handlebars, which makes for an uncomfortable ride.

What I found difficult to get the hang of were the buttons inside each shifter. The buttons control things like avatar movement in TrainingPeaks Virtual (the only platform that syncs with the SB200’s hardware without a third-party app or modification) and navigating within virtual cycling platforms.

With practice, I’m sure I’d get the hang of the buttons, but memorizing the functions of eight total buttons right off the bat and syncing my thumbs to remember where each button is was quite the mental exercise.

Despite some challenges wrapping my mind-body connection around the buttons, the rest of the ride was smooth, quiet, and realistic.

The SB200 is now available directly from Stages at $2,399.

If only this bike could talk. It’s clearly an Eddy Merckx team bike from the late Molteni era; almost certainly from 1972. What an incredible year that was for Merckx.

He achieved a Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double, won three Monuments (Milan-San Remo, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Il Lombardia), and secured other victories, including La Flèche Wallonne, the Trofeo Baracchi and the hour record in Mexico City.

This wasn’t his bike; the frame is far too small, but it’s exciting to suppose that it might have been ridden alongside him, and ultimately behind him, by a supportive teammate on the stage-defining slopes of the Col d'Izoard and the Passo dello Stelvio.

“There’s a unique quality to this bike,” says current owner Richard Hoddinott of vintage specialists The Velo Pages. “The handling is very purposeful, it’s special. The build is top-notch too, Campagnolo throughout, with Cinelli bars and stem, and a Unicanitor saddle. I particularly love the patina, the worn 531 decals and the large, characterful Nuovo Record chainring that’s been drilled in a slightly haphazard fashion.”

Merckx employed Belgian entrepreneur Fernand Kessels to supply Molteni Team bikes in the early seventies, along with a number from both Colnago and De Rosa. Kessels was more at home behind a desk than behind brazing goggles, so he commissioned various high-end frame builders, including Marcel van der Este.

Tantalisingly, there’s a note painted on the underside of the bottom bracket that reads ‘K V.D. ELST’. Does the K stand for Kessels, and the rest of the script indicate van der Este? A misspelling seems unlikely, but it’s possible. Or perhaps it identifies the shop or rider the bike was intended for after the team had finished with it. We’ll never know.

I was out for a ride with my friend Bernard last week. We were about an hour in, on a hot afternoon, when he pulled over, took out an Allen key and dropped his saddle by a few millimetres.

“It’s a hot day,” he said, as if that amounted to an explanation.

I probed deeper.

“I like to put my saddle down a little on a hot day. It feels right,” he said.

If I’m honest, I’d been hoping for some bucket-of-blue-steam nonsense about the bike having expanded in the heat, something I could possibly mock in print. But if he wants to do it because it feels right, well, who am I to argue?

Bernard has strong opinions on the whole world of bike-fit and bike-fitting. “Bike fit,” he likes to declare, “is a myth.” He especially likes saying it to riders who’ve had a professional bike fit.

And it’s true that in Bernard’s bike-riding youth, and even in mine just about, bike fit didn’t really exist as a specialism. Although if you went to a bespoke frame builder (the common premium option until carbon fibre took over), the frame builder would usually have some sort of home-brew system for working out frame geometry from body dimensions. (Luckily, the systems were adaptable enough that if your bike came out of the building-jig looking totally different, as it usually did, that would be just fine too.)

He still prefers to ignore all that. “If it looks right, it is right,” has always been his guiding principle. This means that you take what’s more or less average among people you want to be like, and authoritatively declare it to be correct. It only recently struck me that this is exactly how ChatGPT works.

When pressed for more details about what looks right, it turns out he has a whole range of rules-of-thumb. There is a formula for saddle height above the bottom bracket axle, which is 0.833 multiplied by your inside leg. Your bars are in the right place when, “if you bend your elbows a bit, not as much as if you’re driving a breakaway, more as if you’re trying to make your reflection in a shop window look a bit less embarrassing,” the top of the bars obscures your view of the front hub.

Your saddle should be “level” unless you’re “a triathlete, time triallist or some other sort of weirdo”, and the tip of the saddle should be, “60-65 mm behind the bottom bracket, unless you’re a triathlete, time triallist, or some other sort of weirdo.” Your cranks will be, “170 mm, unless you’re a Gen-Z fashion victim, in which case they’ll be 155 mm until you bloody grow up a bit.”

That’s bike-fit by Bernard. The thing is, I reckon his system is not a million miles out. If you used it, it would do. It helps that humans are adaptable. A few millimetres one way or another doesn’t make much difference to most of us – we can accommodate it.

There are some things Bernard’s system misses. You could work out your preferred saddle by trial and error, but the errors these days are getting towards £200 a go, so it’s useful to find a shortcut. And many people really benefit from detailed fitting around cleat positions and angles, and insoles to prevent knee issues.

And he’s right that you should never be afraid to tinker. You can always change it back. Eddy Merckx used to not infrequently stop mid-race and change his saddle height – he always carried a little spanner just in case. It amuses me that in this respect, if in absolutely no other, my friend Bernard resembles the greatest rider of all time.

Although Merckx probably never looked at his reflection in a shop window and felt embarrassed.

Seemingly cut from a completely different cloth to every other elite cyclist in the modern era, former WorldTour-rider Lachlan Morton has always ridden a unique path, combining wins at major events such as Unbound with original endurance challenges and extreme record-setting rides, often raising funds for charities such as World Bicycle Relief.

But this week, talking to Cycling Weekly after winning the 3-Peaks Cyclo-cross race in Yorkshire, the Australian dropped a bombshell, revealing that he is about to leave EF Education-EasyPost, the team he has been part of since 2019, and that something new is looming on his horizon.

“The 3-Peaks was like my last time pinning on a number with EF,” he told CW. “It was a cool place to do it.”

When we spoke, he couldn’t reveal his exact plans (more about that below), but did give us a little teaser. “I'm doing an endurance ride, starting next Monday. I can't say exactly what it is, but it'll be a long multi-day ride here in the U.S. And then yeah, that will be it.

“I'll still be riding, just not in the pink anymore.”

Even when he was a WorldTour rider, competing in Grand Tours including the Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia, Morton rode in a range of rough and tough off-road races around the world through EF Education First's alternative calendar.

It was during this period that he was exposed to some very British events, including the GBduro (a race he won in 2019) and the 3-Peaks, a challenge Morton didn't win in either of his first two attempts, in 2019 and 2025, but which kept calling him back.

"It's just one of those races that gets under your skin, so I've been back a few times since," he explained. "Every time you do it you learn more, and you realise things you could do differently or better, and that rings true even when you win.”

Morton became completely captivated with British bike racing culture, which led to him doing his last race in the distinctive pink livery of EF Education-EasyPost right here in England.

“I love the UK scene,” he says. “People get very passionate about very specific disciplines and events, and the history of those events and disciplines. And it feels like everything grows from a strong local place, and branches out from there, from club runs and the local racing scene. And experience is passed down from older riders to riders just getting into it.

“This is something I find fascinating, and it's similar to the environment I grew up in – except the British go way harder for the niche element, like hill climbing, and get really passionate. And I think that's very cool.”

Despite his success and popularity, Morton, who now lives in California, has maintained his easy-going Australian attitude to life, and he evidently enjoys the fact that even people with celebrity status in world cycling don’t get special treatment at local bike races in the UK.

“I like that it’s a scene you have to prove yourself in,” he says. “There's always a healthy amount of banter, or people hanging sh*t on you. When you turn up, you really have to earn your spot there. It's like a funny but rewarding thing to go through.

“And it's also a beautiful place to just go and ride. That's always my struggle, going over for the 3-Peaks. I just want to go and do all the riding I can around Yorkshire, because it's so beautiful. I end up riding more than I should before the race.”

Keen-eyed spectators at the 3-Peaks might have noticed Morton had a slightly less hirsute look than we've become used to, with a neatly trimmed 'tache and beard, but he denies that this is part of his new direction.

"My wife drops hints every now and then - she prefers me clean shaven, so every now and then I have a reset… I'm in the reset phase," he explains. "I'll be back to my shaggy-looking self in a couple weeks time. That's how it tends to go. Same with my hair I like grow it until it annoys me and then it just shave off and start again.

So at least we know he's not going corporate. And Morton promises that, whatever his future holds, he’ll be coming back to defend his 3-Peaks crown. “It's not a matter of 'I've done it now', because it's just such a great event,” he tells me. “I'd love to go back as many times as possible.”

And he has no shortage of plans for future adventures, all over the planet. “I'd really love to ride in Pakistan,” he says. “I've been looking at northern Pakistan, where the terrain looks like it lends itself to really crazy adventures.

“Papua New Guinea would be a cool place to go and see on bike. And then in South America I really want to go to Ecuador.”

Right now, though, it seems the Wild West of America is where he is heading for his next adventure.

Update: Morton races the Pony Express

Since we spoke to him, Morton has revealed that his very last adventure with EF Education-EasyPost will be a multi-day ride across the American West along the route of the legendary 19th-century postal service, the Pony Express.

Starting on 5 October, he will attempt to ride the 1,966-mile (3,164km) route faster than the horsemen who carried mail from St. Joseph in Missouri to Sacramento in California, passing through Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada en route.

Founded in 1860, the horsemen of the Pony Express service were tasked with delivering mail across the decidedly untamed West in 10 days or less. It was an extremely perilous journey and the service only last 18 months, after which time it was replaced by the telegraph, but the heroism of the riders made it a legendary part of the American story.

The fastest time was set in 1861, when Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address (which is credited with helping to persuade California to remain in the Union as the Civil War simmered) was carried across the distance in seven days and 17 hours, with horses being changed every 10 miles (16km) and riders changing every 75 to 100 miles (120 to 160km).

Can Morton do it quicker?

He plans to travel light, resupplying and switching bikes from a truck, also carrying his brother Gus, who will be filming the trip.

"The idea is to mimic how they used to switch out horses," says the Australian adventurer. "I'll be swapping between a gravel bike, a road bike, and a mountain bike depending on the terrain. The route I've put together tries to get as close to the original as I could. I'm excited because it'll use all the different disciplines I've raced."

"You start on the plains, essentially, coming across Kansas, then across the basin through Wyoming, into Utah," explains Morton. "The real crux is the Nevada section — the stretch from Salt Lake City across to Carson City – because it's incredibly remote and very exposed. There's a lot that could go wrong there, and you're very much on your own. That's probably the hardest part.

"Then you cross the Sierra Nevada on the southern side of Lake Tahoe and drop through the foothills, which I know well because I live out there now, and finish in Sacramento.”

Want a job? Know how to fix a bike? Then you might be in luck.

A brand new report suggests that Europe is suffering from a dearth of bike mechanics, with 105,000 new ones needed by 2032 to meet demand and prevent people abandoning their bikes.

Published by NextGen Mechanics initiative and European Cycling Industries (ECI), the report says the shortage is already reportedly changing how people travel. It also draws on Shimano's State of the Nation 2026 survey of 25,000 respondents, which found that 212 million people across Europe experience barriers to maintaining their bikes. Of those, 121 million cycle less as a result, and 7.6 million have stopped cycling altogether.

There's already a shortage with 45,000 needed right now to meet current demand, the report says, with the additional numbers needed as the market continues to expand thanks to e-bikes, leasing and fleet models such as London's Lime bikes.

The report comprises a map illustrating levels of accessibility to mechanics across Europe. The Netherlands leads the way, with only 34.92% of cyclists reporting barriers to maintaining their bikes, and the UK is also among the least troubled countries in this respect; 40.92% of people, however, respondents still reported issues with getting their bikes repaired. Perhaps more surprisingly, that number was significantly higher again among French and Italian riders. Eastern European riders experienced the most difficulty, with 55% of Romanian and Turkish riders reporting issues.

Director of the Association of Cycle Traders and Cytech, Jonathan Harrison, was a significant contributor to the report, and he told Cycling Weekly he hoped it would help to improve the perception of what a bike mechanic does – both in the eyes of the public and those in the role or considering it – and make it a more attractive career. At the moment, he said, mechanics often saw the job as a stop-gap with too few prospects for good pay and progress.

"We're hoping that this project will be the start of work to raise the level of professionalism as a mechanic," he said, "[and that] the perception of a bike service and repair will raise in value, and therefore the wages of mechanics will follow and subsequently more people will consider it as a career."

Mechanics not only deserved to be paid more, he added, but because working on bikes was becoming increasingly technical, the job itself deserved a perception shift.

Not only, that, he said, but it was also, on paper, safe from AI. Always a plus: "It's really hands-on… it's a really skilled job, and people overlook that a bit," he added. "I personally always take my bike to a mechanic because they sort it out, and if I tried to do it, I'd make a mess of it. But yeah, hopefully it'll be a safe job from AI.

"We've got to try and change it, because actually technology on the bicycle now is not that simple anymore. We've got e-bikes, electrical systems, software, diagnostics… you know, really complex components, hydraulics. You know it's so much more complicated now to work on a bike than it was, say, 30 years ago," he told CW.

Giving the example of fleet bikes such as those available for public hire on city streets, Harrison pointed out that they required many mechanics, without whom, potential bike riders would end up back in their cars.

"People would go back to public transport; public transport gets overcrowded; they jump back in their cars. They do all these things. We're trying to work towards a better, clearer, cleaner cycling ecosystem," he said.

There was one strand of good news underlying the shortfall of mechanics, Harrison added, which was that the rate of bike shop closures had fallen significantly, and that new ones were starting to open – bringing with them, of course, demand for new mechanics.

Henry Silvester of Silvester Bros. cycles in Farnborough, Hants (UK), said he'd yet to see the report but that the figures did not surprise him.

"We've got growth in that sector of the business in that people now don't do their own repairs," he said. "A lot of them now will come to cycle shops for pretty much 90% of bike repairs."

The jobs his workshop would often carry out included puncture repairs, inflating tyres, adjusting handlebars, and fitting grips, he told Cycling Weekly. Not because bike owners would necessarily be unable to do it themselves, he said, but because they just don't have the time.

"Bikes are getting more technical – that definitely is one reason. But I also think people are busy in their lives now, and you know both parents or both people are working in a family. There's less spare time for jobs like that to be completed. So I think a lot of the time they just pop it into the shop. It's a service. A bit like getting their boiler checked every year, or getting their car looked at or MOT'd. It's another extension of those."

The future is, in theory, promising for mechanics, estimated Silvester. With so much work coming in and jobs becoming ever more technical, salaries should increase. Like many such things, though, it's likely to take time.

"All of this will help the industry," he said. "But I think it is just something that is going to take a bit of time to sort of get rolling, really."

As well as being pretty much AI-proof, the often-humble LBS workshop remains a huge part of the bricks and mortar industry, and feels as though it's likely to remain so for some time.

As Silvester says: "The workshops have helped keep local bike shops running really. Without a workshop, if you had to just rely on bicycle sales or P&A [parts and accessories] sales, you'd be in trouble."

Cycling Weekly can today reveal that ultra-endurance cyclist Dr Sarah Ruggins is planning a new expedition and world record attempt, Project Atlas, during which she will attempt to pedal around the planet faster than anyone has previously done.

The current Guinness World Record for circumnavigating the globe by bicycle is held by Mark Beaumont, who completed his epic journey in 2017, cycling 18,032 miles from Greenwich to Greenwich in a time of 78 days, 14 hours, and 40 minutes.

The British adventurer remains the only person to have achieved the big loop in less than 80 days, after Alaskan ultra-cyclist Lael Wilcox abandoned her attempt to best Beaumont’s time earlier this year, bailing after 14 days because she was suffering from heat exhaustion in the midst of a brutal heatwave that was scorching a large part of the planet.

Wilcox does still hold the women’s round-the-world record – 108 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes – which she set in 2024, but Ruggins has the outright record firmly in her sights, and believes she can shave three full days from Beaumont’s benchmark, completing the 29,000km (18,000-mile) challenge in just 75 days.

To achieve this, the Canadian-born adventurer – who plans to set off from Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia, close to her family’s home, on 4 May 2027 – will need to ride an average of 400 km (250 miles) per day.

When you learn that Ruggins, who spent a decade recovering from a rare autoimmune condition in her teens, couldn’t even ride a bike just three years ago, you could be forgiven for doubting her ability to achieve this. But she has form.

The 38-year-old, who appears on the cover of the current edition of Cycling Weekly and features large in our article about Fastest Known Times (FKTs), already holds two outright records, one for riding LEJOGLE (Land’s End–John O’Groats-Land’s End) in five days, 11 hours and 14 minutes in 2025, and another for cycling 6042km (3754 miles) south-to-north across the European Continent in 13 days, 20 hours and 27 minutes earlier this year.

Both times are considerably quicker than anyone else, male or female, has ever achieved, before or since. “I look for challenging routes, where the fastest known times are held by men, and I look for routes that whose records have been challenged multiple times, and people have failed,” Ruggins told Cycling Weekly. The round-the -planet record, the ultimate FKT, certainly ticks all those boxes.

"We've been cooking this up for three years," she says. "When we did LEJOGLE we took a country, and when we did the European record, we took a continent, and so now we're taking the world.

“Our three-year trilogy was always country, continent, world. And the reason we did it that way is because I'm new to cycling. I got my first bike in 2023. And from there I’ve built the team. I've built my riding competencies, and so as we learn to work together, and as our skills developed together, so too, did the complexities of challenges we want to take on.”

Beaumont certainly doesn’t doubt Ruggins' ability, nor the seriousness of her attempt to beat his decade-old time. “Mark texted me back in June and said: ‘You're going to be the one to break my world record,’” she reveals. “He has been a mentor and a friend to me for several years. Mark opened many doors for me in this industry and he's one of the people who has actually given me the belief that this is possible.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, Ruggins is keen not to present her new expedition as an all-out assault on her mentor’s biggest achievement. “I'm not saying I want to beat Mark Beaumont,” she tells me. “I just want to see if a person can go around the world in 75 days.”

Although it’s inevitable that people will portray her Project ATLAS ride as a race against the existing fastest time, in one important sense they’re not directly comparable, because Ruggins is taking a very different route to the one Beaumont followed.

"Mark had the benefit of going around the world in 2017, when there was far less geopolitical disruption than now," she says. "He crossed through Russia down into China, and obviously, we can't do that. So, my route will also be quite different from Mark's. We're starting from a blank sheet of paper.

“We're bound by the exact same rules that that he was, but obviously we can't go through Russia. We can't pass east across Europe through Ukraine or Iran to get to the Stans. And every flight I take means I will have to increase my mileage every day versus his pace. So we have to be quite clever, and therefore the route is still under construction, but we will announce it in a few months.”

Cycling Weekly will report on the route and other elements of the expedition as they evolve, so watch this space.

You may have heard about Spain's new cycling rules, which come into force this Thursday (1 October). For the country's cyclists, they're a mixed but mostly positive bag which, assuming the drivers of Spain and its island territories take note, should theoretically mean that the nation's bike riders will be just a little bit safer.

The new regulations include welcome, tougher new rules for car drivers overtaking cyclists, more flexibility for riders out on the road, and – less popular with some, perhaps – tighter rules on wearing helmets. If you're planning on a bit of spring sunshine in Majorca next year, take note.

The Spanish government's state gazette says: "[The New] Bicycle regulations have several objectives: firstly, to promote cycling as a healthy and sustainable mode of transportation that helps reduce urban pollution, and… encourage greater bicycle use in the city. Secondly, the regulations introduce measures that enhance the safety of cyclists, who are vulnerable road users."

A quick run-down of the most salient points includes the removal of all previous exemptions regarding the wearing of helmets. Currently, riders can forgo helmet use on long climbs, in extreme heat, and for medical reasons, but the new General Traffic Regulations call these "no longer justifiable". So, if you get caught out on Sa Calobra next March with your helmet hanging from your bars, that'll be a €200 fine.

Anyone under-16, or who rides a bike for their job, must use a helmet at all times and on all roads, while over-16s are only obligated to do so on intra-urban (rural) roads.

The most welcome rule changes are likely to be the ones pertaining to drivers overtaking riders. They must still give the rider 1.5m space while overtaking, but must now slow to 20kph below the speed limit on rural roads as they do so; as well as hang back "at least" five metres from the rider until they choose to make the manoeuvre.

The gazette says: "When overtaking pedestrians, animals, animal-drawn vehicles, mopeds, personal mobility vehicles, cyclists or groups of cyclists, the overtaking driver must take special care with the manoeuvre, in order to avoid creating any dangerous situation for them."

Cyclists are also encouraged to take the primary position and ride in the centre of the lane. This makes the cyclist more visible to drivers, makes their movements more predictable, and discourages risky overtakes. Urban one-way roads with speed limits of 30kph or less could also see cyclists allowed to travel both ways, subject to signage.

All good for the cyclists of Spain – and those visiting any time soon, which could include a fair few readers and plenty of WorldTour pros. But what's in it for the rest of us? Sadly, probably nothing immediately. But give it time. There is more than one political and philosophical theory postulating that when things improve in one country, they are eventually likely to improve in its neighbour in a similar way.

Importantly, the rest of Europe is witnessing its neighbour taking progressive strides – strides which don't involve wholesale replanning of town infrastructure, but simple guidelines. We probably shouldn't kid ourselves that Spain's doing this so that the local group ride can have a more untroubled crack at setting a new PR for its usual course. Instead, this is about wider issues: reducing road deaths and pollution – important issues on (almost) any nation's 'To Do' list.

It could take time, but we have already seen the UK adopt measures grounded in the cycletopia of Europe's most bike-friendly cities. The Dutch reach, for example, or the hierarchy of road users, which puts the onus on the drivers of bigger, heavier vehicles to look out for those who are more vulnerable.

In North America, Portland, Oregon and Montréal have introduced Dutch-inspired intersections, while Minneapolis has experimented with them too.

Progress like this advances incredibly slowly, and for us in the UK or the US, the new regs are not a signal to attach tassles to bar-ends and throw a party. Even for Spain's riders, introducing new traffic laws is one thing, but educating drivers and then ensuring they adhere to them are separate challenges. Similar issues exist in the UK, where it remains largely down to cyclists with cameras to report overtaking transgressions by motorists, despite clear Highway Code guidelines.

What the new rules are though, is another strike of the hammer in just one of the nails in the coffin of the unfettered dominance of motor vehicles on our roads. Bit by bit, regulation by regulation, we're getting there.

The rollout of the long-awaited next-generation Shimano Dura-Ace R9300 groupset appears to be gathering momentum, with Mathieu van der Poel using the unreleased components at the World Championships road race in Montréal on Sunday.

The Dutchman had been spotted riding it during the course reconnaissance on Wednesday as well, and must have deemed it race-worthy on a course that has seen a lot of dropped chains and mechanicals over the past week.

The tell-tale features of the new groupset are the protruding shift buttons on the inside of the hoods, and, if you're able to get close enough to count the rings of the cassette, the 13-speed drivetrain.

The prototype groupset was previously spotted at the Vuelta a España, and at the Tour de Luxembourg, where Van der Poel escaped on a 174 km solo to win stage 5.

Uncertainty remains over whether Shimano riders are running full production-ready groupsets or if there are still tweaks to be made before the commercial product is released.

Van De Poel has been riding the Dura-Ace R9370 carbon spoked wheels for well over a year, and a leaked DT Swiss specification sheet back in August confirmed that the new groupset will use a new freehub body standard to accommodate a smaller 13th cog. The big question still remains: will the new groupset be fully wireless?

Riders spotted on the new R9300 are all clearly running the new shifters, with their renewed ergonomics and satellite shifting buttons. But the rear derailleur has a visible wire, which appears to be a refined R9200 design rather than a road adaptation of the brand's fully wireless GRX gravel groupsets.

Many unknowns remain about the new R9300 Dura-Ace groupset, and both Shimano and its sponsored teams remain tight-lipped. However, its appearance at a race as high-profile as the UCI World Championships suggests that whatever parts are in use are unlikely to be mere prototypes.

Riders of Van De Poel’s calibre, who have a legitimate shot at the rainbow bands, wouldn't be taking the risk of using unproven components. The Dutchman was already burned by prototype tech early in the season at Paris-Roubaix, when he punctured twice on the Arenberg and was left unable to ride teammate Jasper Philipsen's bike due to incompatibility with the new Shimano SPD-SLR cleats.

Dura Ace has traditionally launched in the summer, aligning with the season's biggest race, the Tour de France. With Il Lombardia on October 10, the only elite men's race left this season, a full commercial release now looks unlikely until early 2027.

I arranged a ride recently with a couple of friends, who then suggested that we all join another local ride that I didn’t know. I said yes, on the basis that however old you are, you’re still supposed to pretend to like meeting new people and putting yourself in a position where their almost certain incompetence can cause you serious injury.

In the end I more-or-less enjoyed it. Small groups that ride together a lot usually end up behaving like they’ve been married for years – you know each other, you know the routes, there are few surprises. And a new group can remind you how nice that is.

“Left,” shouted someone in the new outfit as we approached a junction. Then, “No, right, sorry… No, left… Sorry the GPS has reset itself, can we stop for a moment?” We went right, which was wrong, so in an attempt to get back on track we took a route through a housing estate that eventually led to an impassable muddy trail.

It’s important to accept that all group rides that have not yet achieved married status need to have officers. This one was our navigator. On a bigger, more formal ride, it’s a role fulfilled by the ride-leader. The most outstanding characteristic of the navigator / ride-leader is being bad at navigation.

This is because they’re anxious about it, and they’re anxious about it because they are the sort of conscientious person who volunteered to be in charge, planned a route, uploaded it to a GPS that they don’t know how to work, and made wild promises about being able to find the café. They don’t want to mess all of this up.

Another reason they’re anxious is that they will be at all times undermined by the other chief officer, the sergeant major. This is a self-appointed role. The sergeant major likes to provide instructions. “Change at the front, w*nkers!” “Stop bloody pointing to tiny potholes! Only point at things that you can’t effing ride over!” “Why are you shouting ‘car up’? We’ve just as much right to be here as he does – he can bloody wait.” And so on. It’s a constant stream of slightly too-aggressive instructions.

Luckily, the mortal enemy of the sergeant major is the wrecker. Sometimes he (it’s normally a he) is an innocent who just wants a better work out. Sometimes it’s someone who should know better. But the key is they go to the front on every hill and hit it. Any chance they get, they go to the front and hit it.

They want to ride hard, but they do not want to go on a hard ride – they want to ride hard on a steady ride. They are totally immune to the sergeant major, which is why they’re tolerated by everyone else.

There are other ride regulars, even if they’re not yet officers. My favourite is the gifted beginner. Not every ride has one. At their best they’re like a man called Dan who turned up a couple of times to a fast group ride I used to go on, riding a cheap aluminium hybrid from Halfords. In the run-in to the first hill of the route everyone who hadn’t ridden with him before would queue up to patronisingly tell him not to worry when he got dropped, we’d wait for him.

Cometh the hill, Dan would unleash about 650 watts and steam off toward the summit like he was being pulled by a ski-lift. It was brilliant. (He was very talented, but gave up cycling after a couple of months – I’ve often wondered what he might have done if he’d stayed.)

Me? I’m the quiet one. The one who just gets on with the ride. Although I have a suspicion that if you think you’re the quiet one, you’re probably the wrecker.

Not many track bikes can claim associations with Manchester, Milan and Osaka, but this Keirin racing machine, built by Yoshiaki Nagasawa for Mancunian pro Matt Crampton in 2009, does. Crampton, a contemporary of Sir Chris Hoy, has a trophy cabinet bulging from numerous Commonwealth Games and European Track Championships.

Still, it was winning the Japanese Keirin Association Race in Manchester in 2008 that led to an invitation to join the Japan Keirin School in Izu, Japan.

Part training academy, part spiritual retreat, wholly disciplinarian, the school is as intense as the racing scene, which exists solely to generate 1.328 trillion yen (£6,481m) in annual gambling revenue. Keirin is big business in Japan; a contact sport far removed from the sanitised Olympic and UCI versions.

Hoy and Crampton raced Keirin frequently in Japan during the late 2000s. Both pros maintain that nothing honed their track skills for international competition more than belting around an outdoor asphalt track in all weathers with a group of eight fiercely competitive Japanese riders.

“Crampton may have been new to the scene, but he knew how to choose a bike,” says current owner Richard Hoddinott of vintage specialists The Velo Pages. “Nagasawa is a legendary Keirin frame builder who served a lengthy apprenticeship with Ugo De Rosa in 1970s Milan.”

Back in Osaka, Nagasawa applied his learned skills to Keirin bikes, which, to ensure fair play for those having a flutter, must be near identical. The frames have to be steel, and all components must be approved by the Nihon Jitensha Shinkōkai (NJS), the sport’s governing body. The NJS seldom changes its standards, so the bikes have barely changed since the 1970s, bar contemporary drive chain components.

The sport’s restrictive standards may seem at odds with creativity, yet Nagasawa can work magic with lengths of Japanese Tange chromoly steel tubing and a brazing torch like few others. Note the heart on the forks, a tribute to the late, great Ugo.