At this years Olympics in Paris, the road cycling will take place outside and divided into two kinds of events at the Olympic Games: the road race and the individual time trial. Road cycling is one of the original Olympic events, having been included in the first modern Olympiad in 1896 in Athens. However, it was excluded from the next three Olympiads, only to reappear at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm with the time trial.
In this years road race two of the favourites are Lotte Kopecky, for the Women, and Julian Alaphilippe, for the men. Both riders use Specialized S-Works bikes which use carbon fibre throughout.
However back in 2007 Cinelli built the world’s first stainless steel racing bicycle frame, the XCR. Weighing just over a kilo and offering exceptional ride quality, the frame marked the return of steel to high-level competitive racing. Cinelli later collaborated with Rapha to create a limited edition version of this frame.
Reynolds Technology also developed a stainless steel tubing for frames in 2005 with its Reynolds 953. 953 is crafted from a specially developed maraging stainless steel alloy that can achieve a tensile strength exceeding 2000 MPa, compared to 853's 1400 MPa, providing an excellent strength-to-weight ratio.
We’d finish with a great stainless steel cycling joke… but we don’t want to pedal the same jokes as everyone else.