Primoz Roglic has come under heavy criticism following his ride on stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie, after conceding over two minutes to his general classification rivals in what many viewed as a tactically baffling display. The reaction came from Eurosport.dk commentators Thomas Bay and Anders Lund...

Designed for race days or personal bests, the Revelate Designs FKT Series is for riders who want the lightest possible gear. The Alaskan brand just added an updated Pitchfork Aerobar System and new Ultra Shrew Seat Bag to the lineup, and you can check them both out here...The post Revelate Designs FKT Series, Updated Pitchfork, and New Ultra Shrew appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

More 'standards' in my experience means more expense and less accessibility

Geraint Thomas has become the latest high-profile figure to weigh in on the increasingly heated debate around Paul Seixas and a potential Tour de France debut, backing the French teenager to start this summer while warning against placing overall expectations on his shoulders. Speaking on his Watts...

Our Reader's Rig of the week comes from Tunitas Creative founder Jessica in San Francisco, who shares the lovingly built Rivendell Sam Hillborne that she plans to continue riding forever. Get to know Jessica and check out her one-of-a-kind Bay Area cruiser here...The post Readers Rig: Jessicas Rivendell Sam Hillborne appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

Rider's union calls for more TV coverage, defined income streams for teams and calendar changes

One of the cyclists fractured his spine in the crash, video of which has since gone viral online, as the driver allegedly responsible was arrested and charged with assault, aggressive driving, and close passing

This weeks Debrief features Revel's return to the UK, fresh tires from Soma and Rene Herse, Brooks England's open house, a couple of collaborative releases, Caletti's Framebuilder Summit, a question about upcycling, two events to follow live, and more. Find it all hereThe post Friday Debrief: Dark Realm Socks, Sunliner for Sale, a Captivating Cargo Bike, All-Black Rene Herse Tires, and More appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

Prior to the arrival of the latest Classic Cycle Testcycle (CCT), Id been spending a lot of time on my recent gratuitous used bicycle purchase:This is partly because the most recent acquisition generally gets the most attention, and partly because its a fun and fast bike, and and easy to keep handy for when I want to squeeze in a quick ride. (I try to only keep one bicycle at a time in my actual living quarters, and for practical purposes a light, smallish bike works well it that regard. Its like keeping an umbrella by the front door that you can easily grab on the way out.)Anyway, I mention this bike because at some point a commenter asked (and Im far too lazy to go back and find the actual comment) what the point was of putting a crabon fork on a metal bike, or something to that effect. Well, the simple answer to that is the crabon fork is not only lighter, but its less work for the builder. But for a longer answer Id like to quote from the Book of Farbman, Vol. 3:Thus saith the Farb:This resonates with me, but admittedly Im biased:More objectively, theres a fork for every bike. Its like pasta sauce out of the jar: it could be perfect, or it could ruin the meal. It all depends on what youre eating and whos doing the cooking.Also, even if most of us can be happy eating sauce from the jar 99% of the time, its important for humanity that somebody out there remembers how to make it from scratch.Speaking of ships sailing, that horn you hear in the distance is the SS Every Single American Bicycle Company preparing to leave port and disappear over the horizon forever:X-LAB may sound like one of those clubs where people take lots of drugs and dance for 36 hours straight, but its actually a bike:And boy are companies like Specialized and Trek screwed:To put that in perspective, I found comps from both Specialized and Trek: two of the largest bike brands in the world. The closest comparisons I found were theSpecialized Diverge 4 Expertat $6,499 MSRP and theTrek Checkpoint SL 7 AXS Gen 3, also at $6,499 MSRP.This means the GT8 is literallyless than half the priceof comparable bikes from major brands, and it weighs less, too.Were not just talking a few hundred dollars in savings, like you might get by buying from Giant instead of Specialized. Were talking literallyhalfthe price for a bike you might soon be able to purchase from your local dealer, or can buy online with free shipping (which you wont get frombrands like Specialized). The amount of savings from consolidating all of the bike industrys moving parts under one roof is insane.If the game is to give customers the lightest, most electronic, and most crabon-fibrous bicycle, what do they offer anymore that justifies the premium? X-LAB is even selling their bikes through local shops:Beginning with a dealer model was a very intentional choice for X-LAB. Its an important part of the strategy, only because of what we want to do, said Pan. Well take some market share from established brands, certainly, but its not enough to scale the business in the way that it needs to scale, which means that we have to figure out how to make ourselves relevant to new riders out there [] discovering cycling for the first time. To do that, you really need to involve the shops, because thats just such a critical touch point for a lot of the folks that are newer to the sport.But hey, things change. For example, back in 2011 (holy crap is this blog old and tired!) I wrote about Larry Olmsted:Olmsted was high as a dancer at X-LAB off the recent purchase of a custom Seven, and he wanted you to know why its impossible to find cycling fulfillment on a stock bicycle:The other day I was riding with a guy who had a Serotta, one of the top companies for custom bikes, and he told me how he went to a fancy bike shop and they told him that due to his size and shape, no off the rack bike would fit him well. He naturally assumed they were scamming him into buying a high-priced custom, so he spent the next two years going from shop to shop, unable to find anyone who could offer to sell him a bike that fit, riding a painful compromise the whole time, before biting the bullet and investing in the Serotta, which he now wishes he had bought two years earlier.Even Richard Sachs, the Karl Farbman of Bicycles, doesnt claim his bikes will make you faster or better, but Olmsted and his friends with their fancy custom bicycles all knew better:In a recent interview with Mens Journal Magazine, Sachs said, My bikes arent going to make you a faster or better rider. I dont know if that is true or not, but I know my Seven, and my friends Sevens and Serottas and Penguins have made them faster, if not better, riders, because they are lighter and optimize efficiency while better comfort on longer rides reduces fatigue.After all, how can you make a decent bicycle out of that crappy steel stuff?The other problem with the small custom shops is that for the most part they only work in metal, and many only in steel, because titanium (better than steel) requires more specialized equipment (especially for welding) and carbon fiber (better for some applications, like time trial and aero triathlon bikes) even more so, while the bigger companies offer the full choice of materials.Well, here we are 15 years later (holy crap this blog is old and tired!) and Olmsted is still at itand like everyone else hes moved on to gravel:I read this expecting to be outraged, but this description of the gravel phenomenon iswell, perfectly fine for a non-cycling publication:Historically you could ride pretty much any bike on pretty much any terrain, and lots of people did. But then came mountain bikes with shock absorber suspensions designed for really going off road, for riding rugged and technical trails with no roads at all, which became extremely popular and turned the industry and public onto the entire idea of cycling beyond road cycling. Gravel has filled a middle ground between these and spawned a new generation of bikes that are designed for unpaved roads but work just fine on pavement, and are closer to road bikes than mountain bikes, but with elements of both.Also, hes quite happy on his [insert needle-scraping-across-record sound]Surly Straggler?The road bike industry has largely moved away from steel and into higher-tech materials such as carbon fiber, and more precious metals such as titanium, but steel frames have always had fans, and three big selling points is that they are strong, less expensive and they do not fatigue over time which many lighter materials do. So, last year I decided to try aSurly Straggler, which delivers a lot of gravel performance and comfort at a very reasonable price, with three levels from $1,359-$2,699. I have been extremely happy and thoroughly enjoyed it to date, but Ive only ridden a handful of other gravel brands, so at the end of the day Id recommend visiting your local shops, asking how their brands compare, and doing a little research. Then it is time for you to try gravel grinding.This I did not expect. Maybe some people really do become wiser with age.I wish I was one of them.

The Traka is Europes premiere gravel event. Taking place in Girona, Spain on gravel roads across five race distances, it lures some of the biggest names in pro cycling and presents an opportunity for cycling brands to show off their latest wares. We headed to this years edition, which runs from 29 April to 3 May, and spied four new gravel bikes. Heres everything you need to know, in brief: Canyon Grail CFR: The unreleased Canyon Grail appears to be a more aggressive version of the go-fast gravel bike, which is influenced by the latest Endurace CFR. The bike also sees tyre clearance increase significantly from 42mm to at least 53mm. Factor Sarana: Canadian Rob Britton took to the Traka 560 aboard the new Factor Sarana. Designed with input from the 2025 Unbound XL winner, the Sarana combines a 40mm suspension fork with aerofoil tubes. Britton used the new Black Inc Forty Six gravel wheelset, wrapped in 2.1in Schwalbe Thunder Burts. Factor prototype: Alongside the Sarana, there is a Factor prototype at the Traka, which takes inspiration from the One aero bike. The prototype has a similar wide-splaying fork to Factors radical road bike, even if the design is less extreme. Ridley RS2: Another unreleased bike at the Traka that leans into aero optimisation is the Ridley RS2. It has a deep head tube, similar to the latest Noah aero bike, and a seat tube that hugs the rear tyre. But the bike still has clearance for massive 57mm tyres. Schwalbe ThunderBurt 2.1in tyre on Simon von Bromley's Kinesis GX Race gravel bike Simon von Bromley / Our Media Are wide gravel tyres a trend to embrace? Simon von Bromley argues you shouldn't buy a gravel bike with less than 50mm of clearance.