If 2020 was the yr when our world modified with the pandemic, 2021 has been a yr during which we have begun to get used to dwelling with the coronavirus … these previous 12 months have been much less disruptive, however the rise of the Omicron variant could present a sting within the tail. In the meantime, the world of biking has pedalled on, with some good – and bad – tendencies in the course of the yr from a tech, racing and information level of view. Here’s our round-up of some that caught our eye.
It has been a superb yr for … gravel bikes
Gravel bikes have gone from being The Next Big Thing in biking to The Current Big Thing in biking over the previous couple of years, and 2021 has seen main bike launches from the likes of Giant, Canyon, Orbea, and Ribble.
We’ve additionally seen stablemates SRAM, Zipp and RockShox unveil an entire vary of new XPLR gravel bike parts comprising wheels, derailleurs, cassettes, a suspension fork and a dropper seatpost.
Unfortunately, none of this may cease gloomy bores telling you that your gravel bike is principally the identical because the hardtail mountain bike they owned within the Nineties. Yaaaaawn!
It has been a bad yr for … getting maintain of the bike you need
Shortages? Oh yeah, we’ve had shortages. Interruptions to the availability chain brought on by Covid-19 added to elevated demand brought on by, um, Covid-19 have led to a shortage of bikes and parts which started in 2020, continued into 2021, and is more likely to proceed all through 2022.
Britain’s bike scarcity, half 1: what’s occurring, when will provides return, and how will you enhance your probabilities of bagging the bike you need?
Check out our suggestions for getting your palms on the bike you need.
It has been a superb yr for … flogging previous stuff on eBay
If you’ve gotten a storage full of previous bikes and parts you don’t want anymore, now’s a superb time to get rid because of the explanations outlined above – bike outlets can’t sustain with demand so that you would possibly as properly step in and have a bit of a clearout on the similar time.
Components are in such brief provide that Specialized Concept Store was promoting a 2022 Specialized Allez Elite outfitted with a SRAM Rival 11-speed groupset from 2014.
It has been a bad yr for … rim brakes
Rim brakes aren’t going to vanish any time quickly however disc brakes have change into ever extra dominant in 2021.
Pic: Alex Broadway-SWpix.com
Very few professional riders have been utilizing rim brakes, and 18 of the 21 phases of the Tour de France have been gained by riders on disc brake bikes. Ineos Grenadiers lastly switched to disc brakes in September, the ultimate WorldTour group to take action.
It’s common for brand spanking new street bikes to be launched as disc solely. There’s no rim brake model of the up to date Cervelo R5, for instance.
Is this all as a result of the bike business needs to drive you onto disc brakes? Hmm… no. You can file that argument underneath ‘handled’.
Does the bike business actually need to drive you on to disc brakes?
It has been a superb yr for … indoor coaching
Who’da thunk 5 years in the past that turbo coaching would change into one of the busiest sectors in biking?
In 2021, Elite unveiled its Rizer indoor gradient simulator (above) to assist replicate the outside expertise…
…Muoverti launched the TiltBike – “the first indoor bike that feels like real cycling”, apparently – and, on the cheaper finish of the market, there are ever extra rocker plates out there.
Indoor coaching app Zwift continued to develop in 2021 (above), Hustle City, the ‘world’s first open world good coach sport’, launched (beneath) and Wahoo unveiled its new SYSTM indoor coaching platform.
It’s all occurring indoors for the time being, and there is not any signal of the expansion slowing.
It has been a bad yr for … the Canyon Aeroad
Canyon launched the brand new Aeroad in October 2020 and it rode superbly. However, long run customers have been quickly complaining of extreme put on on the level the place the seatpost met the seat tube, and then in early March 2021 the aero cockpit snapped underneath Mathieu van der Poel whereas racing Le Samyn and Canyon issued a ‘stop ride’ discover. Ouch!
Some of Canyon’s professional riders have been utilizing a brand new handlebar by the point the Tour de France got here round however this complete episode was one thing the model may actually have achieved with out.
It has been a superb yr for … the Canyon Aeroad
On the flip facet, regardless of all of the above, the Canyon Aeroad has been ridden to some huge wins this yr together with two stage wins within the Tour de France the place Mathieu van der Poel took the general lead early on.
It has been a bad yr for … the Dragons’ Den dragons
Okay, the Dragons’ Den dragons aren’t brief of a bob or two – they’re hardly on the breadline – however they might have had much more within the financial institution in the event that they hadn’t responded with a collective “I’m out” when introduced with the Hornit bicycle horn in 2015. The model – which can be behind the Clug Pro bike rack – introduced final month that it has reached over £3 million in world gross sales.
It has been a superb yr for … e-bike gross sales
This time final yr our sister web site ebiketips reported that e-bike (electrical bike) gross sales had greater than doubled in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic and {that a} pound in each 5 spent on bicycles between January and October 2020 was spent on e-bikes.
This yr, Halfords stated it had skilled a 140 per cent rise in gross sales of e-bikes and e-scooters in comparison with final yr. E-bikes have actually hit the massive time.
It has been a bad yr for … Tour de France GC contenders apart from Tadej Pogacar
Pic A.S.O., Charly Lopez
What can they do? When the quickest climber can be successful time trials, everybody else has an enormous drawback. Tadej Pogacar gained the Tour de France for a second time this yr regardless of being solely 22 years previous on the time. The 2020 race might need gone right down to the wire however Pogacar held the race lead for a fortnight in 2021 and the victory by no means appeared unsure. He gained the Mountains and Young Rider classifications for good measure.
Strange issues occur in racing however it’s laborious to see a future during which Pogacar would not win a hatful extra Tours.
It has been a superb yr for … sustainability
Actually, let’s qualify that. It has been a superb yr for folks within the bike business speaking about sustainability. Whether the business turns into extra sustainable consequently stays to be seen.
How inexperienced are your bike tyres? What the massive manufacturers are doing, and what YOU can do to assist
Alpkit stated in February that it remodeled 2,000 repairs to merchandise final yr, discovered a brand new house for 3 tonnes of gear, and that 98% of orders have been despatched utilizing plastic-free packaging whereas Trek launched its first Sustainability Report outlining 10 steps to lighten its footprint again in July. Those steps embrace decreasing air freight and company journey and utilizing extra recycled, recyclable or refurbished supplies.
It has been a bad yr for … cable-operated shifting
Don’t get us unsuitable, the overwhelming majority of bikes have cable-operated shifting and that is going to be the case for an extended, very long time, however in relation to main launches, digital shifting has had an enormous yr.
Shimano’s new top-tier Dura-Ace 9200 and second-level Ultegra 8100 groupsets are each Di2 (digital shifting) solely.
Read our Shimano Dura-Ace 9200 groupset overview right here
SRAM’s new Rival eTap AXS groupset is digital too.
Check out our overview of the SRAM Rival eTap AXS groupset
That stated, Shimano’s subsequent huge groupset launch will most likely be third tier 105 and whether or not this may go digital or keep mechanical stays to be seen.
It has been a superb yr for… Strava
Strava says that it now has 95 million customers worldwide, up from 73 million a yr in the past. That’s a 30% enhance.
It additionally says that 17% of the UK inhabitants are actually “active users”. That’s about one in six. Sounds nuts, however that is the declare.
It has been a bad yr for… bike theft
We’ve lined scummy toerags in horrible garments utilizing angle grinders to chop by means of bike locks just a few occasions this yr, together with one gang who have been caught on video exterior Surrey Quays purchasing centre in Rotherhithe, south-east London.
Thieves use angle grinder to steal Trek bike locked exterior busy purchasing centre
On the opposite hand, we additionally reported on the Hiplok D1000 D-lock which is claimed to be the ‘world’s first actually moveable bike lock to withstand angle-grinder assaults’.
It has been a superb yr for… ladies’s well being
The Cyclists’ Alliance (TCA) this yr partnered with Supersapiens, who produces on-the-go blood glucose monitoring for simpler power administration, for a brand new initiative referred to as ‘The Cyclists’ Alliance Duty of Care Framework’ to make sure that feminine skilled athletes are empowered and nurtured, each bodily and mentally
Wearable tech model Whoop additionally established the inaugural Women’s Performance Collective (WPC) that commits to pursuing analysis and product growth initiatives that particularly profit ladies. There’s nonetheless an extended method to go however a minimum of the analysis is on course …
It’s been a bad yr for … German Olympic coaches
Rumours in November have been that biking may change horse-riding within the Modern Pentathlon on the Paris Olympic Games in 2024 after a high-profile incident at Tokyo this summer time during which gold medal contender Annika Schleu was left in tears when the horse randomly assigned to her determined it wasn’t having any of it – incomes itself punches from German group coach, Kim Raisner, who was despatched house from Japan.
Raisner, nevertheless, wasn’t the primary coach on the Games to be dispatched again to Germany – that doubtful honour fell to Patrick Meisner, who in the course of the males’s particular person time trial was heard by way of a TV microphone urging rider Nikias Arndt to “catch the camel drivers” – a reference to the 2 riders, Azzedine Lagab of Algeria and Eritrea’s Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier, who had handed by means of the feed zone moments earlier than. “Mr Moster violated the Olympic values,” stated the president of Germany’s nationwide Olympic committee because the coach headed again to Europe.
It’s been a superb yr for … campaigners for Highway Code adjustments
The finish of subsequent month sees a quantity of adjustments made to the Highway Code which have lengthy been referred to as for by energetic journey and street security campaigners – though as we reported earlier this week, there are considerations that many motorists will likely be unaware of them and the federal government is being urged to run an consciousness marketing campaign on the revised guidelines within the New Year.
> Highway Code adjustments: ‘What about cyclists, or do the rules not apply to them?’
The forthcoming adjustments embrace the introduction of a Hierarchy of Road Users aimed toward defending probably the most susceptible, a really useful passing distance of 1.5 metres when overtaking cyclists, and clarification that it’s completely authorized for cyclists to journey two abreast – and certainly in some conditions could also be preferable on security grounds.
It’s been a bad yr for … ‘whataboutery’ fans
No dialogue of poor driving on-line is full with out somebody piping up, “What about cyclists … ” however they actually went into overdrive when the approaching Highway Code adjustments have been flagged up within the mainstream media, and our personal inbox started to refill with correspondence from individuals who, it appears affordable to imagine, will not be precisely our core readership.
In response, we set out one after the other some of the frequent myths held about cyclists’ use of the street, on the subject of what the present guidelines are and how these will change come the top of January. Of course, it’s most likely an excessive amount of to imagine that individuals who have a beef with these of us on bikes will truly take the time to learn and digest what we wrote, however we dwell in hope.
> Highway Code adjustments: ‘What about cyclists, or do the rules not apply to them?’
It’s been a superb yr for … site visitors police on social media
Traffic police are on the sharp finish of street security – day in, day out, they see the carnage brought on by poor driving, with a median of 5 folks a day killed on Britain’s roads and dozens extra critically injured, and some police accounts on Twitter are very energetic in dispelling myths about what the legislation is relating to cyclists.
Among probably the most energetic of these is the Surrey Police Roads Traffic Policing account, which frequently steps in to coach motorists claiming, for instance, that cyclists should journey in single file – and which simply this month gave celeb solicitor Nick ‘Mr Loophole’ Freeman a correct education on the topic after he posted a video to Twitter bemoaning a gaggle of cyclists using two abreast forward of the car he was travelling in on a winding nation street the place, even when that they had been in single file, there would have been no alternative to overhaul them safely.
Took this video(from passenger seat) on 60mph street. Forced to journey in line of site visitors at 20mph as a consequence of obstruction brought on by cyclists forward using 3 abreast. Anonymous and biking with impunity. Law ought to be modified to drive them to drop into single file when autos behind pic.twitter.com/u3Qt9mRTQu
— Nick Freeman (@TheMrLoophole) December 1, 2021
They additionally had some phrases of knowledge to share in regards to the spin that the lawyer – who acquired his nickname by means of his means to get motorists acquitted of driving-related offences, usually on technicalities – gave on street site visitors casualty figures displaying that there had been an increase within the quantity of cyclists killed whereas using on rural A roads in 2020.
No they shouldn’t Nick.
Drivers ought to drive their one tonne car extra fastidiously and cease killing 5 folks day by day.To use your opinion in a special analogy, ought to youngsters in American faculties put on bullet proof jackets in case of a mass taking pictures?
— Roads Policing Unit (RPU) – Surrey Police – UK (@SurreyRoadCops) December 1, 2021
It’s been a bad yr for … Mr Loophole
Those posts from Surrey Police got here as Freeman was making his last push on the petition he had spent half the yr selling each by means of social channels and by means of nationwide and regional media, together with the Telegraph and the BBC – each of which, of course, have large attain.
Posted on the Parliament web site again in June, the petition referred to as for cyclists to be licensed, amongst different issues, and it squeezed over the ten,000-signature threshold at which the federal government was obliged to offer a response contained in the final 24 hours – though when that response got here, the federal government was clear that it had no plans to behave on his recommendations.
> Government confirms it has “no plans” to make cyclists put on identification numbers because it rejects ‘Mr Loophole’ petition
It’s been a superb yr for … Mark Cavendish
Until this summer time, Mark Cavendish’s final stage win on the Tour de France had come manner again in 2016 and since then his profession had been dogged by sickness and damage – to the extent that though match, he was not chosen for the 2019 or 2020 editions of the race by his respective groups on the time, Dimension Data and Bahrain McLaren.
Even every week earlier than this yr’s race, it appeared that Sam Bennett, winner of the factors competitors in 2020, can be Deceuninck-Quick Step’s sprinter on the Tour de France, however an damage (and falling out with group supervisor Patrick Lefevere) meant that it was Cavendish – who had appeared destined to perpetually be caught on 30 stage wins, 4 behind Eddy Merckx’s all-time report – who acquired the place as an alternative, and it was a chance he seized with each palms.
Picture ASO/Pauline Ballet
By the top of the race, he had joined the Belgian on 34 wins, lacking out on the outright report as Wout van Aert outsprinted him on the Champs-Elysees – performances that helped him safe a one-year extension to his contract that can see him again within the peloton in 2022.
It’s been a bad yr for … Mark Cavendish
The finish of the yr although introduced two low factors for the Manxman. First, there was his horrific crash on the Ghent Six in late November, which resulted in him sustaining a punctured lung and damaged ribs – all underneath the eyes of his household, who have been watching from the stands.
He had barely been launched from hospital and returned house to Essex when there was an much more traumatic episode for him, his spouse and youngsters as armed intruders broke into his house and in a violent theft during which he was overwhelmed in entrance of his household, made off with two super-expensive Richard Mille watches, in addition to a Louis Vuitton suitcase. Police have subsequently made one arrest.