Cyclist June 2021

One of the beauties of our sport is the chance for everyday cyclists to perform on the same arenas as the professionals. It’s not like football fans can have a kickabout on the turf at Wembley. Any cyclist can pit themself against the cobbles of Roubaix or the 21 hairpins of Alpe d’Huez. We can tick off all the most famous climbs – the Tourmalet, the Galibier, the Stelvio, Mont Ventoux – and imagine what it must be like to scale those peaks in the midst of a Grand Tour, crowds lining the roads and helicopters buzzing overhead. We may not be able to do it at the same speed as the pros, and no one is scrawling our names in chalk across the road, but it’s still exciting to know that…

All the stuff that makes you glad to be a cyclist Dom Mason is a man with more than two decades of experience in bike design, having started his eponymous brand in 2015 after a long stint with Kinesis. ‘I had some very specific ideas around building high-end four-season road bikes that I wanted to pursue,’ he says. ‘Disc brake groupsets and wheels were just starting to come good, plus Columbus was doing fantastic things with steel tubing. I saw the potential in the material and the components to bring to life concepts I was sure would be popular.’ While Mason says he took some flak initially for turning his back on features such as rim brakes – ‘We are called Mason Progressive Cycles; I’d never make a rim brake bike’ – time…

As the possibility of pedalling in the heat somewhere overseas creeps ever closer, the British rider would do well to consider a new airy outfit for when the time comes. Enter Pearl Izumi with its Pro kit. The brand says the Air jersey is the ‘lightest, most breathable’ jersey it has ever produced. The key feature underpinning that claim is the jersey’s thermo-welded seams. Pearl says that conventional seams can chafe in hot conditions as well as hold moisture so, to address that, the only stitching on the entire jersey is to separate the three rear pockets. The front of the jersey is made from a stretch weave fabric to let air in while the back uses a knit mesh to let heat out, and both areas use a Coldblack treatment to…

Northwave’s new Extreme GT2 shoes bring the X-Frame 2 construction of the Italian brand’s toptier Extreme Pro shoes to a more accessible price point. The benefits, says Northwave, include the ‘snuggest fit’ to ensure optimum power transfer through to the pedals. The upper is entwined with precisely placed fabric tape, which criss-crosses the shoe like a spider’s web to provide anchor points for the brand’s SLW2 closure system. Notably, the cables are made from Dyneema fibre instead of steel and follow a particularly sinuous routing pattern, which Northwave says helps the shoe better conform to a rider’s foot. While the top part is all about comfort, the bottom is all about stiffness thanks to the Anatomical Arch Support carbon sole, which Northwave says is one of the stiffest it makes. The brand…

Rotor’s modular chainset is ostensibly the most versatile on the market – different spindles, chainrings, spiders and cranks can all be mixed and matched to suit a rider’s particular needs. Now Rotor customers have an extra crank arm option to choose from, as the Spanish brand has rendered its Aldhu cranks in carbon for the first time. The switch from aluminium to carbon fibre apparently saves 100g, despite being up to 36% stiffer. Outfitted similarly, a Rotor chainset using the new Aldhu carbon cranks is claimed to save 90g over Shimano’s Dura-Ace offering.…

Poc says its lightest ever helmet, the Ventral Lite, is built for climbing and riding in hot conditions. It takes inspiration from Poc’s original helmet, the Octal, and uses the template from the Ventral Air, except in this case a new, lower-density EPS foam has been subbed in. The outer shell and liner have been redesigned for improved structural integrity while being slimmed down, and a new minimalist adjustment system and lightweight straps ensure no grams are wasted. Poc claims the overall weight for a size medium is below 200g. Meanwhile the brand has also raised the stakes in the oversized sunglasses arms race with the new Devour. Their immense lens size maximises peripheral vision and protection from UV rays. The lens also features Clarity technology that Poc says sharpens greens and…