Cyclist UK – Issue 172 March 2026 – Cyclist UK (1)

On Stage 16 Vietto’s team leader, Antonin Magne, broke a wheel and so took Vietto’s wheel, leaving him at the roadside. A photographer took a picture of Vietto sitting despondently in tears with his wheel-less bike, which became one of the enduring images of the Tour. The image earned Vietto the adoration of the French public and spawned the myth of the debutant who abandoned his own chances of a Tour victory for his team leader.

After the final stage, while Magne collected the yellow jersey, banners in the crowd declared Vietto ‘the moral winner of the Tour’. The truth was a bit more prosaic. Vietto never had any real chance of winning the GC, being an hour down on the race leader, and he still won that year’s King of the Mountains classification.

He was also notoriously rude about Magne and went on to become a tyrannical team leader in his own right. Legend has it that when Vietto lost a toe to sepsis in 1947 he forced his domestique, Apo Lazaridès, to cut off one of his own toes as well, with his only justification being, ‘Because I say so.’ Still, the truth should never get in the way of a good story, so a stone memorial to Vietto stands at the top of the Col de Braus, in the region where he was born.

A little further down the climb, a metal sculpture shows Vietto as he was in that photo – still sitting by the roadside waiting for a wheel. Left: The views back down the Col de Braus are worth the effort of climbing it Below: Picking up speed on the descent to Lucéram Bottom: Pausing at the memorial to French cyclist René Vietto, a controversial but beloved figure in his homeland My ego won’t let me be the first to crack, so I grind on to the top France Big Ride March 2026 65 Like this kit?

Go to cyclisttrackdays.com for more info and details of participating bikes. For tickets scan the QR code Date: Sunday 21st June 2026 Venue: Herne Hill Velodrome, South London Price: £18 for the whole day (£12 for Cyclist magazine subscribers) March 2026 5 Leadout Factor One …………………………………………….. 14 New gear ……………………………………………….. 19 Wilier Rave SLR ID2 …………………………….. 26 Me and my bike: Gregario ………………….. 28 Interview: Mattias Skjelmose …………….. 32 Team history: Wiggle ………………………….. 35 Race comment: UAE’s challengers …..

38 Tech: UDH explained …………………………… 40 UK climb: Honister Pass ……………………… 42 Must haves …………………………………………….. 48 Issue 172 March 2026 Tested Ridley Noah Fast 3.0…………………………..110 Northwave Celsius XT Arctic GTX ….115 Canyon Grizl CF …………………………………..118 Shimano GRX RX827 ………………………….122 Lapierre Crosshill CF ………………………….126 Features Big Ride: France ……………………..52 Cyclist heads to the millionaire’s playground of Nice only to head out of it again in search of iconic climbs Profile: Remco Evenepoel ………..68 A new team means a new challenge for the man who would be king: beating Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de France Insight: Pro retirement ……………76 Life after cycling can mean depression, addiction and financial woe for retired cyclists, so what can be done to help?

Classic Climbs: Passo Campolongo …………………82 A legend of the Dolomites that has played host to some of cycling’s greats Bike history: BMC Teammachine …………………92 A bike that has been at the head of the peloton – and the technology race – for more than 20 years Audax: GranGaunche Gravel …….98 Four riders share their stories of an 800km adventure across the remotest reaches of the Canary Islands For details on all the kit featured in this issue, go to cyclist.co.uk/172gear or scan the QR code 20 52 118 6 March 2026 I t’s a little-known fact that Albert Einstein developed his theory of relativity while doing high-intensity intervals on his turbo trainer.

As he was digging in for a minute at 400 watts, the physicist noticed that time seemed to slow down, such that the hand on his watch passed glacially slowly from one second to the next, whereas his recovery minute seemed to be over in a fl ash. As the sweat splashed onto his top tube, he realised that time is not a fi xed concept but fl exes in accordance with the laws of the universe and 20-minute Zwift sessions.

If you’re not convinced this story is entirely true, just wait until it has had time to slosh around the internet for a while, where it will be scraped by AI before being repackaged and returned as fact. Which is exactly what happened with a recent article on Cyclist’s website.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: cc5df5d09edd02da
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 74,254,674 bytes (70.815 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 2087528195
• Pages: 133
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 167.98 minutes
• Total Words: 33,596
• Total Characters: 199,903
• Average Words per Page: 252.6
• Average Characters per Page: 1503.03

Most Frequent Words

bike (138), it’s (110), march (104), one (102), says (82), gravel (80), tour (80), road (79), ride (68), bikes (67), race (65), new (61), team (61), riders (57), cyclist (55), also (55), teammachine (54), like (54), pro (51), cycling (51), climb (48), time (48), tube (48), now (46), way (45), riding (44), france (43), around (43), long (43), back (43), make (43), get (40), frame (40), first (40), design (39), top (38), end (36), much (36), well (35), day (34), really (34), made (34), right (34), stage (34), rider (33), carbon (33), world (33), com (32), slr (32), good (32), aero (32), fast (31), col (31), part (30), without (30), weight (30), derailleur (30), years (29), racing (29), left (29), win (29), i’m (29), speed (28), year (28), big (27), still (27), two (27), going (27), best (26), grx (26), next (26), you’re (26), things (26), between (26), little (26), different (26), shimano (25), head (25), climbs (25), bmc (25), far (25), range (25), last (25), think (25), even (25), evenepoel (24), udh (24), means (24), front (24), full (24), life (23), campolongo (23), lead (23), better (23), many (22), cockpit (22), that’s (22), makes (22), nice (21), gear (21).

PDF Download