CYCLIST SHOP

4,700m climbing in 157km? Yes, that’ll be this month’s Big Ride, a huge undertaking in the mountains of the western Pyrenees, where one rider’s unchartered territory is another’s brutally steep tranquillity. It’s a similar story in our Classic Climb, a leg-shredding route up the Col de Petit-Saint-Bernard, and our exhausting-just-reading-about-it look into the outfit behind the Belgium’s biggest races, Flanders Classics. 

We take a deep-dive look at whether Cavendish will end up going to the Tour this year, faced with stiff opposition from teammate Fabio Jakobsen, while Ineos Grenadiers’ sports director, ex-pro and breakaway specialist Steve Cummings, gives us a behind the scenes insight into running one of the world’s biggest cycling teams. Test bikes come thick and fast from Cannondale Synapse, Condor’s stainless-steel wunderkind and an Italian full-blood Officine Mattio, and resident writer Emma Cole gives us the skinny on our Lyrca-tight clothing’s eco-credentials as she looks at the sustainability of cycling kit.