Cycling News & Blog Articles

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Nerd Alert podcast: Things that shouldn’t break 

Modern bikes are marvellous creations, forever pushing engineering boundaries with a continued focus on lighter, faster, and sleeker. However, that raises a big question: is the bicycle industry flying a little close to the sun when it comes to safety?

It’s exactly this concern that this week’s Nerd Alert deep dive episode covers. Join James and Dave as they speak with world-renowned carbon fibre repair, testing, and inspection expert Raoul Luescher of Melbourne-based Luescher Teknik.

The conversation covers existing test standards related to forks, the perceived gaps in those standards, where the industry could (and should) do more, and some helpful hints for safety checking what’s arguably the most critical part of your bike.

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CyclingTips Podcast: How many pineapple pizzas out of five?

The first Aussie winner of the Giro d’Italia, an Ineos that didn’t get what it was coming for, and a superstar who embraced memehood. The crew sit down to discuss (and rate) this year’s Giro.

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Freewheeling: Does a hat trick count if no one could watch it?

Loren, Amy and Tilda discuss the two unseen stages of RideLondon as well as the final (downtown) London circuit. Meanwhile, over in Germany, the LOTTO Thüringen Tour featured dominant performances by Team BikeExchange-Jayco and provided live coverage of all six stages.

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CyclingTips Podcast: The Giro's perfect final weekend

We’ve reached the final weekend of the Giro d’Italia, just one big mountain stage and one time trial to go. Only three seconds separate the top two. Does it get any better?

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From the Top: Building Rocket Espresso

Rocket Espresso is not a cycling brand per se, but it’s arguably the best-known coffee brand within the orbit of our own little cycling world. 

Most cyclists have an appreciation for the sort of beautiful, mechanical, craftsmanship that Rocket does so wonderfully. It’s easy to see why the brand connects so strongly with cyclists.

New Zealander Andrew Meo is the co-founder of Rocket Espresso and it’s no coincidence that the brand found its way into cycling. Andrew is a lifelong avid cyclist and  his passion for coffee didn’t come until a bit later in his life …

I hope you enjoy the tale of Andrew’s remarkable journey across the globe that lifted coffee machines to a whole new level.

Thank you to Malcolm Bloedel for producing this episode and Ashley de Neef for composing the music.

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CyclingTips Podcast: The mountains are here

Saturday’s thrilling Giro stage can teach us lessons about creating chaos and excitement in the middle of Grand Tours. Caley, Ronan, Kit, and Shoddy sit down to talk through the weekend’s racing, plus look ahead at the mountainous final week.

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Freewheeling: Vuelta a Burgos offered daily opportunities for "new" names

This week Tilda joins Loren, Amy, and Gracie to chat about the Vuelta a Burgos, where some familiar names who haven’t won yet notched impressive victories. Coming up we’ve got two stage races in the U.K., but neither will have the UCI’s minimum live coverage. Should they be kicked out of the WorldTour in 2023?

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CyclingTips Podcast: Girmay makes history

It was a thrilling week of racing at the Giro d’Italia, from a historic stage win for Biniam Girmay to breakaway victory to the first Italian stage win. It came with surprises too, not least of which was a cork straight to Girmay’s eye. Caley, Ronan, Jonny, and Shoddy break it all down.

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Nerd Alert podcast: A little honesty goes a long way 

It’s time for another Nerd Alert podcast group show. This week the original cast of James Huang, Dave Rome, and Caley Fretz get together to chat about the latest in cycling tech.

Roval has finally cleared the air on why its earlier Rapide CLX and Alpinist CLX wheels weren’t tubeless-compatible when they launched in 2020, and while the final outcome is positive, it would’ve been nice if it hadn’t also come with a healthy dose of obfuscation for the past two years.

We also give Wilco Kelderman a lesson in how bikes work, speculate about Campagnolo’s mysterious new wheels spotted at the Giro, discuss some new hardware developments at Zwift (or lack thereof, as the case may be), and reveal why you shouldn’t wash your bike like Peter Sagan. 

And we finish with the always-present Ask a Mechanic segment.

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Freewheeling: WWT stage race season is underway at Itzulia Women

The ladies of Freewheeling get together to chat about Itzulia Women, the opening three-day stage race of the Women’s WorldTour season. SD Worx showed up with only four riders but was hands down the winningest team of the weekend. Still, a few teams look to be gaining some momentum.

There were a few significant takeaways before we look to the next stage race Volta a Burgos on Thursday.

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CyclingTips Podcast: Shows of strength and signs of trouble at the Giro

In this week’s episode: The first real GC day, a glorious Thomas De Gendt breakaway, and Mathieu van der Poel’s tactical nous (or lack thereof) highlighted a week of racing at the Giro d’Italia. Caley, Ronan, Amy, and Shoddy are back to discuss it all and look ahead to the sprint days to come. 

Plus, Shoddy reports in from Itzulia Women and Amy explains why Demi Vollering has been simply unbeatable. 

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CyclingTips Podcast: Jumbo's redemption and scrutinizing a sprint

In today’s episode: The Giro is back on the Italian mainland and the sprinters have had their first opportunities. Caley, Ronan, Dane, and Kit break down two excellent sprints then discuss a wild stage 7, Trek’s tactics, and what might happen this weekend on Blockhaus.

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Nerd Alert podcast: The future of helmet safety?

Welcome back to the Nerd Alert podcast! This week we have a deep dive episode about something that’ll likely bring positive change to the helmets we all wear.  

Our guest is Peter Haldin, the Chief Science Officer and a Co-Founder of MIPS. However, in this interview, Peter is wearing another hat (helmet?) and speaks about his role as the Convener of the Working Group 11 (WG11).

In short, WG11 is working to bring rotational-based testing to helmet safety standards, and the goal is to help reduce the number of brain injuries suffered from cycling crashes. 

Where things get a little confusing is that the likes of Rudy Project and Kask have already started promoting that their helmets meet WG11 test standards. This episode clarifies what this working group is, what the testing involves, and what the future of helmet safety may look like.

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Freewheeling: Canyon//SRAM changing development pathways

This week we take you on a deep dive into Canyon//SRAM’s Generation team. Abby spoke with Canyon//SRAM’s Team Manager Ronny Lauke and Christine Kalkschmid, the team’s Diversity and Inclusion expert and Amy caught up with one of the team’s young talents Llori Sharpe.

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Nerd Alert podcast: To lug or not to lug? That is the question

Whew, do the Nerds have a lot to talk about this week!

In many ways, Colnago’s new C68 flagship road bike still flies the same flag as previous C-series machines. It’s still made in Italy, it’s still made of a whole bunch of smaller sections of carbon fiber that are glued together, it’s still crazy expensive. But now it’s a lot more modern looking, most of those bond joints are now concealed under paint, and yet Colnago is still pitching it as a more distinct choice. It’s shaping up so far to be a mighty impressive bike on the road, but is it still special enough to be a real C?

The Nerds also discuss the merits and filling all the various nooks and crannies of your bike with repair items, we ask — yet again — why disc brake mounts are almost never properly faced (when they really need to be), and we ponder the future direction of Wahoo Fitness with its recent acquisition and layoffs.

And of course, what Nerd Alert group show would be complete without a round of Ask a Mechanic? We tackle this one without Caley, but that’s ok; none of the repairs involved hammers, anyway.

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CyclingTips Podcast: The Giro d'Italia preview episode

The Giro d’Italia kicks off on Friday from Budapest and in this special preview episode Caley Fretz, Dane Cash, and Jonny Long get together to discuss the route, the favorites, who might surprise and more.

You can join the CT Podcast Giro fantasy league here.

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Freewheeling Podcast: A Spring Classics season to remember

The ladies chat about their favourite moments, riders and teams from the Spring Classics and look ahead to many many stage races to come. For some more key takeaways check out the article on CyclingTips.com.

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Nerd Alert podcast: Recycling carbon fiber is no longer a pipe dream

The topic of sustainability and carbon fiber has long been a black eye on the bike industry, but one company in Tennessee — called Carbon Fiber Recycling, of all things — is seemingly turning that around. Old broken frames? Random components? Scrap uncured pre-preg? It’s all good, according to CFR: just stick it all in its magic machine, and usable raw material comes out the other end.

Best of all, the process is supposedly quite economical for everyone involved, there’s almost no waste product produced, and the company has plans to ramp things up big-time. Sounds too good to be true? Maybe it is. But maybe it isn’t.

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CyclingTips Podcast: Wait, are the Spring Classics really over?

This week on the CyclingTips podcast we discuss the final two one-days of the men’s and women’s Spring Classics: Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Flèche Wallonne. Plus, the Tour de Romandie is this week and we are a little over a week from the first Grand Tour of the year.

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Freewheeling Podcast: When the first attack doesn't stick, go again!

Abby, Amy, and new Freewheeling member Tilda Price chat about the final two one-days of the Spring: Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Flèche Wallonne.

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