Cyclist

When, a couple of years ago, we produced our list of the Top 100 Classic Climbs (still available to view at cyclist.co.uk), the undisputed number one was the Passo dello Stelvio – or simply ‘the Stelvio’. It truly has everything. It has the location, tucked as it is amid the grandeur of the Eastern Alps on the border between Italy and Switzerland. It has the stats, measuring 24.1km in length (from its eastern side) at an average of 8% gradient and rising to 2,757m. It has the hairpins – 48 of them in all, carved like coiled spaghetti into the mountainside and held in place by magnificent stone walls. It also has the history, being the place where Fausto Coppi cemented his legend with a blistering attack on its slopes when the…

The Allez name has a fine heritage. It has long been the moniker of Specialized’s entry-level race bike, introducing riders to the brand and the joys of cycling more generally. Yet back in 1981, the Allez held a much loftier position as Specialized’s performance race bike. A lot has changed in three decades – for one thing, Allez bikes are aluminium, not steel – but whether it’s a Tarmac, Venge or Roubaix, every dropbar Specialized since owes a debt to that original Allez. No wonder the rejuvenated Allez Sprint has become an iconic design all over again. ‘Since we introduced it in 2015, the Sprint has become part of crit racing culture thanks to its aero properties, stiffness and aggressive geometry,’ says the company’s road product manager Cam Piper. Specialized says the Allez…

Can you hear that noise? That’s the sound of the high mountains calling to you. They have probably been wondering where you’ve been hiding for the past couple of years, so you owe it to them – and yourself – to pay them a visit this summer. And if Castelli has anything to say about it, the kit you’ll be wearing when you hit the lower slopes is its new Superleggera 2 jersey and Free Aero RC bibshorts. The Superleggera name translates as ‘super-light’ and, at a claimed 102g for a size large, it certainly is that. That’s thanks to a new material called Oltre that also features fine horizontal stripes that add stretch and breathability. The cut is slim without being a full-on, asphyxiating race-fit, so remains comfortable for long days…

Tempo’ means time in Italian, and the Fizik Tempo Decos is a shoe that may well stand the ticking of the clock. Weighing a claimed 228g in size 42, the Decos shoes borrow technology from Fizik’s range-topping Vento Stabilita Carbon, but use a simpler design which Fizik says lowers manufacturing costs. Simple doesn’t have to mean inferior in design terms, however, and the Decos is similarly clean and slick like its more expensive stablemates, with minimal patterning and subtle perforations to the upper, as well as plenty of different colour options. The shoes use Fizik’s R2 carbon fibre sole with a stiffness index rating of 10, which as we know is the highest of all the numbers pertaining to sole stiffness unless you are Specialized. The upper is made from a polyurethane laminate-mesh…

Bryton’s Rider S500 is the latest challenger to enter the hotly contested £250 bike computer bracket. In terms of hardware, battery life is impressive at a claimed 24 hours (continuous GPS recording time); the screen is a generous-for-its-size 2.4-inch colour touchscreen with ambient light sensor; and the whole thing weighs just 87g. Functionality highlights include turn-by-turn mapping, online search-by-voice capabilities (when paired to a smartphone) to make finding mid-ride cafes that much easier, plus a neat ‘Climb Challenge’, where upcoming climbs are displayed in profile with height, length, ascent and gradients in colour-coded segments.…

It’s hard to innovate in the world of bike helmets, but Lazer has done its utmost with its latest flagship aero lid, the Vento. It’s claimed to be more aerodynamic and better vented than the Lazer Bullet 2.0 it replaces, and it weighs 90g less at a claimed 290g for a size medium and uses 24% less plastic. However, arguably the Vento’s biggest stride forward is its proprietary safety technology, KinetiCore, which aims to decrease the rotational forces acting on a rider’s cranium in the event of a crash. In this, KinetiCore is similar to Mips, but the way it works is quite different. Unlike Mips’ slip-plane liner, KinetiCore uses a series of EPS blocks that line the underside of the helmet shell. These blocks are designed to deform, allowing the…