BIKE Magazine

April is the month when cycling stops hinting at itself and starts telling the truth.
There is no easing into spring in this sport. April arrives with cobbles, climbs, dust, bad weather, broken plans, perfect plans, and the quiet certainty that whatever shape you arrived in, the bike is about to refine it. It is cycling’s richest, cruellest, most gloriously uncompromising month and that spirit runs through every page of this issue.
On the road, April is where legends are tested and reputations are either confirmed or quietly unstitched. From Dwars door Vlaanderen to Flanders, Roubaix, the Ardennes crescendo and the stage race interludes that knit it all together, this is the month where skill, nerve and timing matter just as much as power. It’s also the moment when women’s racing stands shoulder to shoulder with the men’s calendar, not as a sideshow, but as a parallel headline act. The depth, tension and clarity of the women’s classics now feel essential to the rhythm of April, not optional.
That idea of cycling revealing itself most clearly under pressure carries through our Cape Epic coverage. There are races that test fitness, and there are races that test character. The Cape Epic does both, then keeps going. What struck us about the 2026 edition was not just the closeness of the men’s race or the authority of the women’s, but the way the event continues to strip riders back to decision making, partnership, composure and honesty. Tyres fail. Plans fracture. Bodies protest. The bike doesn’t care who you are; it only responds to what you do next. That’s why the Epic still matters.
Elsewhere, this issue moves between worlds with the same curiosity. From the Garmin Varia RearVue 820, a piece of technology designed to bring a measure of calm to hostile roads, to quieter ideas of riding, vineyard lanes in Vaud, gravel tracks through forest shade, lakeside loops that remind us cycling doesn’t always have to hurt to be meaningful.