Cyclist
Cyclist magazine issue 158: on sale now!
Cyclist magazine Issue 158, December 2024, is on sale now. Subscribe to Cyclist here or buy issue 158 at the Cyclist Shop
In case you missed it, Tadej Pogačar is very good at cycling. Even by his already quite ridiculous standards, the man has been in a class of his own in 2024, whether tackling early Spring classics, back-to-back Grand Tours at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France or hunting the rainbow bands in national colours at the World Championships.
Inevitably, plenty of words have been devoted in recent months to quantifying and qualifying the magnitude of Pogačar’s dominance. Will he go on to eventually surpass Mark Cavendish’s Tour stage win record? Is he better than Merckx? Can we even now talk of him in the same breath as the acknowledged greats across all types of sport? Michael Jordan? Mohammed Ali? Tiger Woods? Lionel Messi? Look hard enough and you’ll no doubt find breathless efforts to contrast and compare all of them. And that’s fine – everyone’s entitled to their opinion, after all.
What’s arguably more interesting, however, is getting some kind of sense of how these sporting greats actually tick. We all know what people are saying about him, but how does someone like Pogačar see himself, and those around him? How does he deal with all the praise, and the pressure? And what makes him so bloody good in the first place?
That’s what makes our profile of the man himself in the December 2024 issue of Cyclist so compelling. It’s a look beyond the hype and the hyperbole, an actual sit-down with the actual human being, with no yellow jersey or race win on the line, a first-hand account of how one of the best cyclists to ever turn a set of pedals approaches his craft and navigates life both in and out of the spotlight.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an issue of Cyclist without a Big Ride as its centrepiece, and our December issue takes us to the Italian Dolomites to take on the double act of the Passo di Gavia and Passo di Mortirolo, the latter of which Pogačar will know all about having scaled it on his way to victory on Stage 15 of this year’s Giro d’Italia.
Safe to say our own ascent of this storied climb was at a much more leisurely pace, but it gave us a chance to soak up some of the region’s heritage and capture its grandeur in photographic form, two things we’ll bet Tadej didn’t manage to achieve back in May.
Our Classic Climb, meanwhile, is a tribute to the Cap de Formentor, a bucket list climb at the northwestern point of the island of Mallorca that may not be difficult but represents a rite of passage for any road cyclist nonetheless.
We also hit the heights much closer to home by ascending Scotland’s highest road in our UK Ride, with an impending storm and the inspiration of visiting a forgotten hero from cycling’s past to keep us motivated.
It’s a bumper issue for bikes too. Aside from our visit to the Taiwanese factory of Giant, the world’s biggest bike producer, we take a closer look at the latest generation of Pinarello Dogma F and focus some much-deserved attention on the Buffalo S2, a simple machine that’s built for utility but has the power to change lives across the globe.
And as usual we put a selection of the latest bikes and gear through their paces, with reviews of Trek’s Madone Gen 8, Canyon’s Aeroad CFR and Ribble’s Allroad SL R, as well as tests of Sram’s Red XPLR AXS groupset and the Garmin Edge 1050 bike computer.
Get your issue at the Cyclist Shop or get a Cyclist magazine subscription to have every issue delivered free, straight to your door.
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A one-year Cyclist membership comes with a free gift and costs £75.95 if you choose the direct debit option, which will automatically renew, or £87.95 without direct debit.
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