Choosing a new road bike: prologue
I’m choosing a new road bike, and I’m documenting the whole process here. This text is a prologue to the entire series. I describe my cycling background, my cycling goals, what I’ve been riding so far, and my plans for the coming season.
How long I’ve been cycling and why
Why cycling, of all things? Sometime just after turning thirty, my life began to settle down. After years of travelling around the world, I found myself at home with a one-year-old child, a stable job, and – rather than parties – I was more interested in self-development and sporting activities. It was also around that time that I began to take a greater interest in the Tour de France and the then-rising stars Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard.
Leaving aside the period up to about the age of 17, when I used to cycle to school and around town, I bought my first road bike in the autumn of 2023; however, I had shoulder surgery in October of that year, so I’ve effectively been cycling since February/March 2024. For the first few years, I practically skipped the winter months, and it wasn’t until the turn of 2025/2026 that I started spending roughly 1.5–3 hours a week on an exercise bike at the gym.
Annual mileage
My total mileage isn’t anything to write home about (data from Strava):
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2024: 3,345 km
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2025: 2,582.2 km + an estimated 200 km on the exercise bike at the end of the year
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2026: 3,173 km to date + an estimated 200 km on the exercise machine at the start of the year
Ideally, I’d like to cover somewhere between 6,000 and 8,000 kilometres a year, or more, but I haven’t managed it. Life, family, work…
I’m getting a home trainer for this winter and I want to take my winter training more seriously; I believe this will bring me one step closer to that goal.
What are my goals?
The aim is to have fun, stay fit, stay healthy and, after all, I’m competitive by nature and enjoy testing my performance against others in various hobby and amateur races. I’ve only taken part in a very limited number of races:
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a local hill climb race to Babiny (Litoměřice), organised by CK Slavoj Terezín in 2026
The latter race forms part of the Českolipský Road Cup, and after the hill climb, I decided that next season I’d try to take part in as many of its events as possible. There are around 15 of these races; they are smaller, local events in northern Bohemia, and their accessibility is key for me.
At the same time, I’ve already registered for L’Etape Czech Republic by Tour de France for 2027, the medium route (100 km), and I can well imagine taking part in Road Classics Pálava again or other races from the RC series.
How I ride
I prefer a more competitive style of riding; I enjoy speed, rhythm and flow. Of course, my performance depends primarily on my training load (see annual mileage), my sporting history (I’ve always been active, but for many years I also used to get high on that green herb and loved to party) and my age (almost 36), but I’d venture to say that, given the circumstances mentioned above, I’m in decent shape, at least when compared to those around me.
I have no weight issues, I’m healthy, and I think I have a good physique for cycling and endurance sports in general. Although I’m quite tall – 197 cm – with a weight of ~83 kg and decent strength endurance, I’m able to ‘keep going’. I’m certainly not a natural climber.
However, after three years, my enthusiasm for cycling hasn’t waned; on the contrary, I’m taking it more and more seriously.
What I’ve been riding so far
Sometime during the 2023 summer holidays, I came to the decision that I needed to ride a bike with drop handlebars. So, in September, I bought the latest Author Aura XR 5 model at a discount. It cost me around 29,000 (down from the original 40).
It’s a gravel bike with an aluminium frame and a carbon fork, fully fitted with Shimano GRX 400 components and a 2x10 gear system.
I didn’t really know much about gravel bikes back then, but from what my mates had told me and what I’d read online, I came to the conclusion that it would be just the thing for me. A bike you can ride competitively, but also on rough roads – it can even handle a bit of off-road terrain!
How I was wrong about gravel bikes
After three years of riding, I now know that I don’t enjoy off-road riding on a bike with drop handlebars, and the proverbial last straw was the Gravel Blinduro race. It was a great experience, mind you, but after this two-day race with timed sections on forest tracks and over tree roots, I simply knew that this wasn’t for me. A smooth gravel track might be okay – even so, I spend 95 per cent of my time on roads; it’s only occasionally that circumstances take me onto some gravel or cobbles – nothing that a road bike couldn’t handle from time to time.
As I mentioned at the start, I enjoy speed, rhythmic fluidity and performance. Off-road terrain is more technical, requires more skill, and for me it’s more of a struggle. If I could go back three years in time and knew what I know now, I’d buy a road bike straight away.
More about this bike, the modifications I’ve made to it, and a comparison with the first road bike I tested will follow in the next instalment.