CYCLIST SHOP

You can’t count on Britain to bring you sunshine but you can rely on Italy to conjure incredible climbs, and this month we’ve unearthed a corker – the Passo dello Spluga on the Italian-Swiss border, 30km of toiling tarmac peaking at over 2,000m. And then? Then the only way is down.

Cyclist 118 is another jam-packed issue of riding, and along with the Splugen we traverse the Atlantic Islands’ highest peak, the volcano of Mount Teide, and the south of England’s most dangerous roads, as Marcus tackles his penultimate day of JOGLE: the Scenic Route (clue: it concerns drivers on mobile phones and a hedge).
Richard Moore tells it like it is about the World Champs in Belgium (another clue: it might be boring to look at but the racing with be frenetic); our resident WorldTour DS, Cherie Pridham, gives us the skinny on transfers and sponsorship deals; and we visit Sven Cycles, a framebuilder doing things a little bit differently down in Dorset. On test is the Bianchi Specialissima, Felt’s latest gravel bike and Vielo’s newest adventure machine. Oh, and none-other than Tom Ritchey himself explains how he accidentally invented gravel riding, and shows us his famous moustache.