The August bank holiday truncated this week but that hasn’t stopped us from churning out a boatload of content on every working day since.
With the Vuelta in full flow, pro racing coverage has dominated the publishing schedule. Staff writer Ewan Wilson looked at the winners of losers of the race’s first week, but we’ve also been flying the flag for our home race, the Tour of Britain, which starts early next week.
Be sure to check out our information-packed guide to the race, as well as who we think the favourites are, the climbs that might just decide the fortunes of those favourites, and five standout moments from recent editions of the race.
Tech-wise, it’s been an uncharacteristically quiet one, with only comparative look at Specialized’s gravel bikes going online. I’m doing my best to make up for the dearth of product content now though – take a look below at the latest kit to arrive with Cyclist. It’s a pretty tidy line-up.
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Garmin Edge 1050
Bucking the ‘more of everything’ trend – battery life, performance features, screen size – of recent Edge 10 units, the new 1050 actually takes Garmin’s flagship computer series in a different direction.
‘As a result, the Edge 1040 Solar remains in our range,’ says Richard Robinson, Garmin UK’s senior product manager. ‘That is for cyclists that value head units with maximum battery life for long adventures, whereas the Edge 1050 introduces a brighter and richer LCD display.
Garmin claims a battery life of up to 45 hours for the 1040 Solar, thanks to its built-in solar panels. In contrast, the 1050 is said to offer 20 hours, but Robinson promises it has a host of new features that make it a compelling option if both performance and practical features are of more value than raw runtime.
‘It has a built-in speaker that now provides proper prompts rather than beeps, and it can act as a bell, to alert other road and path users. Crucially, the 1050 has contactless payment capabilities through Garmin Pay – no more digging through jersey pockets for your phone at the cafe,’ he says.
The vivid and responsive new screen should enrich the device’s course creator function, which will build routes depending on a preferred riding surface, and social interaction is facilitated as well – when linked to a phone, the 1050 offers in-ride messaging in its Group Rides app, providing live locations of riding buddies. The potential of this feature to increase safety looks to have been well exploited by Garmin, as the 1050 will alert Group Ride members of incidents, as well as pick up user-generated alerts for road hazards such as potholes.
DT Swiss GRC 1100 Dicut 50 wheels
DT Swiss was one of the first to take aerodynamic efficiency seriously in the gravel wheel category back 2019 with its original GRC design. Now that many competitors have launched rival models and the niche has developed significantly, DT Swiss has renovated the GRCs, and expanded the line to four wheelsets. There is a lightweight version with a shallow rim and this, the go-fast variant, both offered at two different price points.
The GRC 50 is the spiritual successor to that 2019 design, as it too seeks to make the gravel rider faster. DT Swiss says the rim profile works best with 40mm tyres, using a 24mm internal width paired with a 36.5mm external width.
The brand achieves such a big differential by making the rim wall convex in profile. Apparently, this bulbous shaping improves both the passage of air across the rim and the wheels’ stability in crosswinds.
DT Swiss once again leveraged its now extensive relationship with aerodynamicists SwissSide to develop the profile. It claims that in the wind tunnel, at 37.5kmh, the GRCs save around 2-4 watts and exhibit lower side force behaviours over rival models such as Enve’s SES 4.5, Zipp’s 353 NSW and Hunt’s 42 Limitless Gravel.
The advantages are slight, but made more interesting in context of DT’s choice to reintroduce hooked rims. It bucks the trend of brands going hookless, a reason for which is said to be better aerodynamics. DT says its testing contradicts that notion, and it considers hooked rims safer anyway.
The re-addition of hooks takes away any tyre compatibility issues as well, so performance aside, the new GRCs could be an attractive option to gravel racers for that reason alone.
Bollé Icarus sunglasses
In an age where cycling sunglasses seem only to be getting bigger, Bollé’s Icarus sunglasses make a good case for a conservative design. They weigh just 24g, which is a good 30% lighter than many more expensive rivals, and their slimmer lens stands little chance of interfering with the lower edge of the rider’s helmet. However, being frameless they should still offer an uninterrupted field of view.
This particular version of the Icarus model uses Bollé’s ‘Phantom’ photochromic lens technology, promising a reactive tint that provides optimal clarity regardless of the light conditions.
Trek RSL Knit shoes
The RSL Knit and RSL shoes help spearhead the synonymous rebrand of Trek’s soft goods, which were traditionally under the name of Bontrager, the components arm of its business.
In the RSL Knits, Trek couldn’t ask for a more striking way to convey the change. As if the black/gold colour option wasn’t bold enough, the shoes’ construction is pretty out-there as well, in an attempt to maximise ventilation and comfort.
Attached to a heavily perforated carbon sole is a knitted upper, which differs from similar rivals by focussing purely on providing stretch, rather than support (others try for a bit of both in their woven uppers). Trek says this ensures sock-like comfort, and relies on the dual Boa closures fixing an exoskeleton of structural material around the upper for security. Helping in that regard is the wraparound, suede heel cup.
Trek says the regular RSLs share the same fit and sole as the Knits, but use a more traditional TPU upper. Trek combats the reduced stretch in this upper by building in perforations it dubs MetNet zones, which allows the upper to conform to feet more readily, as well as helping ventilation.
In a win for the environment, both shoes use insoles made using Rise by Bloom, which is a naturally derived EVA foam alternative created using algae.
- Buy the Trek RSL Knit shoes from trekbikes.com (£399.99)
