When we first started the Beyond the Bike series, I thought I would be writing a lot more of these articles. But, so far, Ive only written about tacos. I thought it was a good one, and it was fun to write and hopefully just as fun to read. But I really want to try harder to write more of these. After all, we all have lives off the bike, and theres a lot to share about that part of our lives that might also relate to yours.Well, today I wanted to introduce you to a unique and, I think, really neat instant coffee product. Im sure youve seen it around; in fact, we even covered it when it came out last year. Im talking about NoNormal, an instant coffee that comes in a tube that you squeeze out like toothpaste.(Photos / Ron Frazelle)Its been an excellent addition to my camp kit and my #coffeeoutside kit, as it strikes a great balance between running a minimalist coffee kit and producing great coffee. It doesnt have to be one or the other anymore.My #coffeeoutside kit is dialed with NoNormalWho is NoNormal?NoNormal was co-founded by lifelong friends Alexander and Philippe. They enjoy spending their free time outdoors, hiking, camping, and facing the challenges that nature offers. They like to say, There is No Normal adventure. NoNormal grew from those shared experiences and the realization that most coffee solutions when youre off-grid dont deliver.So, they moved forward to create something better.NoNormal CoffeeNoNormal has claimed to be the worlds first coffee paste. And I believe this to be true. I havent researched it, but Im pretty confident thats an accurate statement.Anywho, NoNormal sent over some coffee tubes for me to try out. They sent over two tubes of the Classic Black and one of the Sweet Black flavor. These tubes are relatively small and super portable.The lil tubes fit just about anywhere, even in my small coffee bag. You need zero special gear or refrigeration to use this coffee paste. No mess either; there are no filter pods or cleaning out your French Press each time you make coffee. NoNormal calls this coffee freedom I like that.My small coffee bag both tubes fit, no problem. The coffee is shelf-stable for up to 15 months from the time of production. The best before date is stamped on the tube fold. It does not need to be refrigerated after opening. The tube itself is made from 100% recycled aluminum and is infinitely recyclable. For all of the coffee lovers out there, lets take a quick look at the details for each flavor.Classic BlackRetail: $39.80 (two tubes = 60 cups)30 Cups per tube35 mg caffeine per servingSwiss MadeThis flavor uses 100% Arabica coffee sourced from Colombia and is processed/produced in Switzerland. Its a dark roast, so it tastes like a fresh brew from your Moka Pot. The Classic Black is made with 20x concentrated Arabica coffee, micro-ground coffee beans, and natural emulsifiers. And it has zero sugar. Sweet Black (my fave)Retail: $39.80 (two tubes = 40 cups)20 Cups per tube45 mg caffeine per servingSustainable Energy (no crash)Swiss MadeThe Sweet Black flavor is the flavor Ive used the most over the past several months. I like it so much that sometimes I even use it while at home. I add a lil half and half with some raw sugar, and it tastes great! Basically, like the Classic Black but with a hint of sugar. Think Moka Pot in its intensity, but with a subtle hint of sweetness.The Sweet Black flavor is made with 20x concentrated Arabica coffee, micro-ground coffee beans, beet root sugar, and natural emulsifiers. The Sweet Black doesnt yield as many cups per tube as the Classic Black. The reason being you double the amount of coffee you use to make a cup (1 full teaspoon as opposed to 1/2 teaspoon).Nutritional FactsSweet BlackClassic BlackHow to Use itIts literally only three steps for either flavor. Step One: Squeeze the coffee onto your spoonStep Two: Add hot or cold waterAnd, Step Three: Stir for a few secondsSweet Black for the WinI liked the Classic Black flavor, but loved the Sweet Black. It is really good straight up, with nothing added. It smells great after waking up on a cold desert morning as the sun rises. Its so easy to use and has helped make both my overlanding coffee kit and my #coffeeoutside kit a super manageable size.I mean, both of those kits were already pretty small, but now I dont really need to carry my Stanley All-in-One for #coffeeoutside sessions anymore. I still carry it for my overlanding camp kit, but I dont use the French press part; I just use the pot to boil water.The coffee can easily be used for other things besides making a delicious cup o joe. NoNormal says to go ahead and try it on chocolate and fruit, and use it in recipes. Ive tried the Sweet Black on some chocolate, and it was pretty delicious. You can check out NoNormals blog for recipes using the coffee.I would recommend NoNormal coffee to any coffee lover out there. Its a great idea that is well executed. Its not cheap, but Id argue that its worth it.Shhhh, Hold on Heres a Secret!Im going to tell you the real reason you need to try this coffee. Freakin vanilla Ice cream! Yeah. A lil squeeze of the Classic Black into a few scoops of vanilla bean ice cream. Stop it! Thats all I need to say Its a game-changer, bro.Hit the link below and give it a try; you wont regret it.NoNormal.com

Stage 4 of the Tour de Pologne has been neutralized following a mass crash. Many riders fell on the wet roads heading towards Karpacz, forcing race organizers into stopping the race due to the need for ambulances. The Polish race is one that in recent years has had several very serious accidents. I...

We first learned about DRIFT Shoes at Sea Otter earlier this year when the brand made its debut before the official launch of the ARC a few weeks later. While the DRIFT brand may be new, its actually a relaunch of DZR shoes, which was founded all the way back in 2010. Just recently, DRIFT launched its second model, the Minna, with a name and silhouette that carries over from one of DZRs most popular models.Like the ARC, the Minna is SPD-compatible, has a fully waterproof construction, and a casual aesthetic. Unlike the ARC, the Minna has a more streamlined, lower-profile silhouette, and an arguably even more laid-back style. As DRIFT puts it: The new Minna strikes a deliberate balance between a relaxed, comfortable fit and a sleek, slimmed-down profile. Lets check it out.The Minna is the second model in DRIFTs technical casual footwear lineup.DRIFT Minna DetailsWith the textile, leather, and suede upper materials and the decidedly casual style, the Minna doesnt exactly look all that technical. But dont let the looks fool you. DRIFT assures us that these shoes were developed and athlete-tested in the often wet weather and terrain of British Columbia. As such, they have a waterproof lining and are claimed to be fully waterproof to fend off everything from puddle splashes to steady rain.We wanted to design something that feels effortless the moment you put it on, and doesnt result in swamp foot if you ride in the rain-sprinkled forests, said Shane Rattazzi, DRIFT Co-founder and CEO. The Minna respects our heritage in the SPD-compatible sneaker category with modern textile and suede blends to offer a more relaxed, versatile fit for everyday progression on and off the mountain.The casual look continues with lace closure and lace retainer flap. Same with the gum rubber outsoles, although the tread has reportedly been designed to provide grip on everything from pedals and rocks to city streets. Of course, the soles of the clipless-compatible Minna shoes also feature a recessed cleat mount area with a two-bolt cleat interface. Inside, a composite shank adds rigidity and support for your pedaling efforts and hard landings alike. A reinforced toe box adds protection from rock strikes.Style-wise, the Minna has a low-profile silhouette and a decidedly old-school casual sneaker kinda vibe. In that regard, I think they look fairly similar to the Five Ten Sleuth DLX 2. They certainly dont give away the fact that theyre mountain bike shoes, and look like they could easily transition to other pre- and post-ride activities without being out of place.The Minna shoes come in Noir Black, Navy, Army (green), and Bone White, all of which have a gum rubber sole. The Minna is a unisex model and is available in whole US mens sizes between 5 and 12 or womens 6 to 13.Pricing and AvailabilityThe new DRIFT Minna shoes retail for $189 USD and are available now through the brands website.drift-sports.com

Mckenzie Sampsons daughter was two or three when he was developing Harmonic Riff, his first kit for the Canyon-SRAM womens WorldTour team.She would sit on his lap while he worked and play with the colours. When the first fabric swatches arrived, she would wrap them around her shoulders like a cape and run through the house. Later, the team sent her an extra-extra-small jersey, which she wore while they watched the races together."Thats my team, thats my team," she would say whenever Canyon-SRAM appeared on the screen.For Sampson, the moment became a grounding point through the late nights and endless revisions."This is what I'm designing for," Sampson says. "Seeing that [jersey] on her and her excitementit's so powerful to have."To the viewer, a cycling kit flashing by at 50 kilometres an hour can register as little more than colour, logos and a quick means of identifying one team from another. To Sampson, an apparel designer who has spent 17 years designing kits, a good jersey should do far more.It should tell a story.At this years Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the Canyon-SRAM story is being told in white, pink, blue, orange and green. The teams switch-out kit takes Sampsons Luminous designa graphic inspired by light refracting through coloured glassand places it on a bright white base, with a We Femmes wordmark stretched across the chest, back and sleeves.The design carries two stories at once.The first is a decade of Canyon-SRAM, which entered the peloton in 2016 as a womens programme in its own right rather than an extension of a mens team. The second looks beyond the professional peloton. We Femmes is built around a global invitation: those who already ride should bring along a woman who does not. It's Canyon's promise to bring at least 1,000 women a year to free rides and events over the next decade.On the jersey, with its bold colours and font, that phrase feels more like a statement: we, women, belong here. Sampson is quick to point out that the Tour-specific wordmark isn't his design, but he does very much approve of its attitude."The wordmark wasnt actually done by me, but I kind of dig it," he says. "Its a little punk rock, and womens cycling is a little punk rock, you know?"A story, built in layers(Image credit: Canyon-SRAM)The white switchout kit has had little trouble being seen. After six stages, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney sits third overall, 1:17 behind yellow jersey Marlen Reusser (Movistar). The 2024 champion is chasing a fifth consecutive podium and a second overall title.Asked whether he is biased because he designed the kit she wears, Sampson laughed."Im going to say yes, definitely," he says. "But I think its a mix of her as a rider, her as a person, and shes an incredible style icon of cycling."Long before a kit reaches a riders shoulders, however, it has to survive a much slower and less glamorous process: trend research, story concepts and discarded designs; technical fabrics and print tests; sponsor requirements and rider fittings; and the awkward geometry of turning a flat graphic into something that works both standing still and moving at race speed.To that end, Sampson considers himself a product designer first. His primary experience is in performance clothing; the graphics often arrive near the end, the last little bit that turns a functioning garment into something people notice.These days, riders at the highest level receive garments that were specifically tailored to them, rather than the more generic sizes available to consumers. It is an easily overlooked but significant marker of just how far womens cycling has professionalised. But for the designer, that creates another challenge: the artwork must remain coherent even as the cut and proportions change from one rider to another.And the jersey is only one piece. Between racewear, helmets, accessories and off-the-bike clothing, Sampson says a complete collection can contain as many as 65 individual pieces.The 2024 "Harmonic Riff" kit form CANYON-SRAM (Image credit: Canyon-SRAM)In this story:(Image credit: McKenzie Sampson)McKenzie Sampson, an apparel designer who has spent 17 years designing kits, including some of the fan-favourite Canyon-SRAM kits.The process starts with the team: its riders, their energy and the limits imposed by sponsors and brand colours."I've been really fortunate to be a part of some of the most interesting teams, I think, within Specialized and with Canyon," Sampson says. "The teams themselves have really been the key factors in allowing those designs to come forth. Canyon specifically has been an interesting point where [the design] just needs to be bright and bold and powerful and have a certain level of energy that the riders emit."A cyclist himself, Sampson understands how a kit should fit and move. His inspiration, though, comes from far beyond road racing. He grew up around skateboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding, then designed kits for his University of Oregon team before landing roles at Adidas and Specialized. His later work includes Boels-Dolmans, Pete Stetina, Canyon's off-road programmes and Canyon-SRAM.His inspirations might come from fashion forecasting, skate and snowboard graphics as well as the world around him. He gathers textures, colour treatments and visual elements, then begins building in layers: gradients, graphic elements, branding and the story intended to hold it all together.A team might settle on a concept in three or four attempts, or run through 10, 20 or even 100. Sampson filters them to two or three options, presented from "mild to wild."Luminous began with coloured light refracting through the stained glass of a Gaud cathedral in Spain. Harmonic Riff began with music, translating sound, rhythm and vibration into undulating gradients."I like to build a story around the design, Sampson says, giving it a little more meaning and a little more depth than just being cool for cools sake. The more depth and story and meaning you can put behind your design, the better."The white switchout kit has had little trouble being seen. After six stages, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney sits third overall, 1:17 behind yellow jersey Marlen Reusser (Movistar). The 2024 champion is chasing a fifth consecutive podium and a second overall title. (Image credit: Getty Images)The white Tour kit was a hit from the start. It was designed first and impressed when the initial swatches were printed, but the darker blue-purple version felt like a stronger option for year-round."There was something unique about the darker blue kit that just felt interesting and powerful and like a really strong starting point," Sampson says.White was saved for the Tour, where its lighter base also serves a practical purpose in the summer heat."Keeping the riders cool is always a huge factor," Sampson says. "Its not just the meshes, but also the colours included."Canyon-SRAMs kits have historically been a fan favourite, and Sampson says he loves seeing the kits out in the wild. But he also knows they can be divisive. Graphics in general are polarising, he said. Whether you love them or hate them, theyre always going to be polarising.The final result is never the designers decision alone. Teams, sponsors, manufacturers, materials and performance requirements all have an impact. As Sampson put it, laughing: "If the design sucks, its probably not always the designers fault."

Tadej Pogacar is the best cyclist in professional cycling at the time being, and because of this, the leverage he has over his team perhaps surpasses that of any other rider in the peloton. However he admits that in 2028 he already has his eyes on the Olympic Games, but will have to convince the tea...

The Fantasy Vuelta a Espaa 2026 is your chance to put your cycling knowledge to the ultimate test. Build your dream team, follow every stage with extra excitement and compete against cycling fans from around the world for a guaranteed prize pool of $5,750 / 5,000 / 4,300. This year's Vuelta a Esp...

Fabio Jakobsen's disappointing spell with Team Picnic PostNL has officially come to an end. After just two and a half seasons together, the Dutch sprinter and the team agreed to terminate his contract early, with sports director Rudi Kemna admitting that neither side managed to achieve the success t...

Just over a week after equalling the all-time record with his fifth Tour de France victory, Tadej Pogacar has officially returned to training. The Slovenian has resumed serious preparations for the Vuelta a Espaa, balancing demanding road rides with gravel adventures before beginning his bid to com...

Soudal - QuickStep have completed their first signing for the 2027 season, securing versatile German rider Tim Torn Teutenberg on a two-year contract. The 24-year-old will leave Lidl-Trek at the end of 2026, bringing his sprinting speed and classics potential to the Belgian squad. Teutenberg has spe...

The landscape is unforgiving on Mont Ventoux. Lunar and barren, the road gives onto an open expanse, bending upwards to the transmitter tower at the summit, where the wind either whistles or howls. Its here, on these slopes, where the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will climb on its queen stage this Friday, on what is set to be a decisive day in the battle for the yellow jersey. Its definitely a very iconic climb, said Canyon-Srams Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, the races winner in 2024, currently third overall. I dont believe anyone will be waiting until the final kilometres to make the action or the decisive move. I think, from watching the guys race, we can all expect a hard start and then survival to the top. Rising to almost 2,000m, Mont Ventoux the Giant of Provence has until now only offered victory to men at the Tour; Eddy Merckx (1970) and Marco Pantani (2000) will spring to mind for long-term fans, while more recent stage winners include Chris Froome (2013), Wout van Aert (2021) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (2025). Tour de France Femmes race director Marion Rousse chose to include the Ventoux in her race because she believes its the most spectacular climb in world cycling. She's ridden it five times herself, in fact, and said she hadn't even considered whether some might find it too hard. We dont plan the race based on whether the women are able to climb it, Rousse said ahead of the race. For me, theyre able to climb anything. Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) was a teenager when she first rode to the summit of the Ventoux in 2016. At the time, the Dutchwoman was plotting a career in speed skating, and had travelled to the south of France for a camp with her team-mates. One of the trainers went every summer to Mont Ventoux with his bike, Vollering explained, and at one point he thought to bring his training group with him.Its where it all started for me. It was the first ever climb I did. The feeling of riding a climb for the first time is quite special, especially because I knew back then already that I was quite good at it. I really enjoyed it, and I really hope I can enjoy it again on the stage itself. (Image credit: Future)For Alice Towers, EF Education-Oatlys former British champion, the prospect of Mont Ventoux is both exciting and intimidating. Ive done my research, watching past races and looking on VeloViewer, and Im expecting the worst, she said.Though Towers has never ridden the Ventoux before, she has scaled the Alto de LAngliru, the steep, Asturian mountain thought to be among the toughest in Europe, which closed this year's Vuelta Femenina. It was insane. [Ventoux] cant be worse than that, she said. [Before the race] everyone was like, It should be banned from cycling. And I was like, Ah yeah, alright, lets see. Then when I was going up the climb, I was doing about 20rpm. Im not even exaggerating. I was in the gruppetto, and I was getting pushes from people. The gruppetto, the small group of riders at the rear of the race, will anticipate a similarly challenging day on stage seven of the Tour. If the leaders break the climbing record, as Niewiadoma and Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) have pledged they will, then there could be a race for some riders to finish within the time limit, set at an extra 20% of the stage winners time. Im just trying to get mentally prepared, said Kiara Lylyk, a Canadian sprinter who rides for French ProTeam Mayenne Monbana My Pie. Its a pretty long day, and a lot of climbing 3,500m or so so well see. I think youve just got to take it as it is in the stage and fight to the end. Alongside Lylyk, Liv AlUla Jaycos Ruby Roseman-Gannon is also expecting to be trailing at the back. Its going to be an amazing stage to watch, she said. I wish I had a [TV] screen in the gruppetto. A post shared by Justine Ghekiere (@ghekierejustine)A photo posted by on While only a handful of this edition's starters have actually raced up the climb 12 of them took part in the short-lived Mont Ventoux Dnivel Challenge in 2022 some carried out their own recons in the weeks before the Tour. One of them was Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal), for whom the Ventoux now holds a special place in her heart; this June, Ghekiere asked her girlfriend to marry her at the summit of the mountain. I was planning to do a recon, and a lot of pieces fell together that day [to propose], so I thought, Why not?, she said. One of the things my girlfriend always said to me was, If you ask me on top of a mountain, [Ill say yes]'... I think Ill have a lot of good memories and emotions in the stage. On Friday afternoon, Ghekieres fiance, as well as Lylyks parents, will be among the tens of thousands gathered on the mountain to see a history-making moment: the Tour de France Femmes first arrival on Mont Ventoux. Its going to be brutal, said Marlen Reusser (Movistar), the rider with the honour of wearing the yellow jersey on the day. Who will be leading the race by the end remains a mystery. But the occasion, and the suspense it has fostered, have already made it a stage to be savoured. A post shared by Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@letourfemmes)A photo posted by on