The final five

Bike of the Year 2022

With our section winners chosen, senior tech ed Warren heads to Wales with a trusted team of riders to decide the overall champion. Which bike will win this year’s award?

Words Warren Rossiter Photography Russell Burton

The Contenders

Boardman ADV 8.9 £1,150

Merida Scultura Team £7,750

Liv Langma Advanced 1+ Disc £3,149

Cannondale Synapse Carbon LTD RLE £6,750

Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0 £4,999

WE’RE ON OUR way to picturesque Llyn Brianne in Carmarthenshire for a day in the Welsh hills and the mood in the van is full of expectation of a lot of pedalling and a lot of debate to see which of our quintet of section winners will take the overall top spot. This is, of course, the annual culmination of hours of logistics and testing of many bikes by many people, and the anticipation and sense of responsibility is palpable.

Today’s team includes: Katherine Moore, our women’s cycling expert and big road and gravel mile eater; Rob Moxon, our featherweight art editor who likes nothing more than getting uphill and smashing it back down; and Nicola Lovell, road-cycling fanatic and experienced Cycling Plus contributor. Sadly absent is CP’s senior art editor Steve Gotobed, who managed to sprain his ankle loading test bikes into the van, which means I have an unexpected opportunity to cement my views on some of the bikes.

• 

• 

Boardman bargain

For the first couple of hours, Rob takes the lightweight Merida (£7,750; winner of the Performance bike category), I take the fully loaded Cannondale Synapse (£6,750; Endurance winner), Katherine takes our women’s bike of 2022, the Liv Langma (£3,149), and Nicola jumps on the Boardman ADV8.9 (£1,150), which had come out top in the budget section.

After the first few kilometres of road that then turns into a lightly gravelled surface which doesn’t phase either the Merida or Liv, Nicola admits that she can be a bit of a brand snob when it comes to bikes like the Boardman (her own bike is a much pricier S-Works Tarmac). We talk about the Boardman’s price, compared to the competition, and its level of equipment, and she’s impressed, telling me that not only do the GRX drivetrain and brakes work well, she also likes how the bike feels.

We head onto some rougher stuff, leaving the full-on roadies on tarmac, so that Nicola can try the ADV on more technical terrain and I can cement in my mind just how capable and versatile the Synapse is. We both come away impressed.

Boardman sets a high bar in the budget bikes category with the alloy ADV. The bike is so good and such good value that it’s no surprise that this brand won the overall Bike of the Year crown last year, with its SLR 9.4 AXS Disc Carbon (£2,700).

Speed machine

I spend the next block of riding gauging Rob’s opinion of the Merida Scultura Team.

It’s a bike I rode extensively on launch and the one that BikeRadar’s Simon von Bromley had come away most impressed with from our section testing, earning it our ‘Performance Bike of the Year’ title.

Rob loves the lightness of the Merida and the long, low riding position built for speed.

• 

• 

• 

Then we crest the climb and head down through the twists and turns of the Carmarthenshire roads. At the bottom, Rob tells me he’s impressed with just how composed the Merida feels but also how comfortable the ride is for a bike that’s also very stiff and very responsive. It handles rougher roads and even the occasional cattle grid with relative calm.

Rob compares it favourably to the SuperSix Evo from Cannondale, the winner of Bike of the Year back in 2020 and the bike he rode on our week’s testing in the Canaries that spring. He then laments that a superbike like the Scultura with tour-proven wheels, the new Shimano Dura-ace Di2 groupset, a Dura-Ace power meter and carbon everything will have a five-figure price tag.

It surprises him, however, when I reveal that the Scultura’s price tag is £7,750. It’s obviously still a huge amount of money, but a comparatively equipped machine from any of the big tour-proven rivals such as Cannondale, Trek, Colnago, Pinarello or Specialized would set you back the thick end of four thousand pounds more.

Liv it up

Katherine’s been waxing lyrical about Liv’s Langma ever since she wrote about the premium (£9,999, 6.5kg, Sram Red AXSequipped) Advanced SL Disc superbike for us last summer. For Bike of the Year, however, we agreed to choose something relatively more affordable.

• 

• 

• 

The Langma Advanced Disc 1+ shares the same design as the flagship bikes but with advanced-grade carbon composite as opposed to the premium Advanced SL carbon. At £3,149 with a full Shimano Ultegra groupset and carbon wheels, on paper it’s something of a bargain.

The Langma is, in effect, a women’s version of the veritable Giant TCR (Liv and Giant are sibling brands), with the same lightweight and aero approach. Katherine, it turns out, isn’t disappointed with this less-expensive version. In fact, she tells me she’s just as impressed with the Langma as she was with the superbike option.

Why? The Langma, she says, offers the perfect blend of speed and comfort, and she has been more than happy taking it on epic days out. It’s not often you hear that about race bikes. She then adds that it’s the first performance bike she’s tested that has made her want to change from her beloved Colnago C60. If a ‘modestly’ equipped bike can make you want to give up a handcrafted and much-revered-in-its-day Italian superbike, then it’s got to be something pretty special.

Radar love

While I’m riding along on the Cannondale Synapse in our group, everyone comments on the vocal warnings coming from the Garmin head unit as the Synapse’s inbuilt rear radar notifies me of cars approaching from the rear. Or on these quiet Welsh lanes, anyone trying to get the jump on me as we sprint towards the camera.

I explain how the tech uses Garmin’s Varia system and can detect approaching vehicles from up to 140 metres behind me.

On a vertical strip of the Garmin screen, the rider is represented at the top and approaching vehicles travel up the screen, with the colour changing from green to red depending on the speed they’re approaching at. It also gives you an audible beeping warning (which you can turn off).

Far from being a gimmick, it’s practical on the road, especially when you want to turn right and have to move to the middle of the road. You can keep your eyes ahead to make sure there’s no oncoming traffic without having to look over your shoulder to check on anything approaching from the rear. It’s both safer and faster, in my experience, now I have full faith in Garmin’s Varia system.

Lunch and learn

We stop for lunch and continue to debate the merits of the bikes. I then get the fifth test bike, the Giant Revolt Advanced Pro (Gravel category winner, £4,999) set up for our afternoon adventures.

Carbs loaded and bikes checked, we head out again. Nicola swaps onto the Synapse.

She isn’t convinced by all of the Cannondale’s tech, though she loves the integrated lights and single central battery as we all admit to having a drawer at home full of lights with missing brackets, bands and adaptors.

Having to attach lights to a bike can be a faff, and then they often get in the way, rattle, and move. We can all also see the benefit of having a single battery, and therefore a single item to charge, too.

Cannondale’s SmartSense system, which includes the radar and lights, may not be perfect (having the longer run times and tuneability of the international lights rather than the fixed beam of StVZOcompliant models fitted would be a start).

I for one, however, can’t wait to see what the next-generation versions of SmartSense will bring to the table.

Nicola is definitely impressed with the Synapse’s ride. Being a racer at heart and owner of a pro-tour worthy S-Works Tarmac, she tells me she didn’t expect to find the Synapse as exciting as it is. She’s impressed with the way it accelerates and with how quick it feels to turn, all layered with the smoothest of rides, in no doubt helped by 30mm tubeless tyres.

With the adventure gearing (48/31, 11-34), Nicola and I expected to be spinning out trying to stay apace with Katherine and Rob’s race machines, but we both think that the gearing is enough. The emphasis on lighter, closer gearing mean we can spin on the steeper climbs when Katherine and Rob are forced to stand up and grind out plenty of torque. The Giant Revolt shares the exact same gearing as the Synapse and we both feel completely at home on the road with the set-up.

It still has the sweet-spot shape of a Synapse that makes it very much an endurance bike, but with the handling and sporty position to keep up with the raciest of bikes. It’s the inclusion of practical rideenhancing tech such as the lights, radar, speed sensor and single battery plus further practicalities such as proper mudguard points, extra bosses and ample tyre clearance that set it apart from the crowd.

I really like what Cannondale is doing with the Synapse and Smartsense. It’s a clever move to create bikes not just with the goal of being raced, as previous iterations have been, but to make a bike for real-world riders just like us. The American company has set a lot of trends in the past and I hope the Synapse shows others the way forward in making high-performance bikes that are more accessible to those who aren’t primarily racing.

Do it all

While Nicola is on the Synapse, I put the Giant Revolt advanced Pro 0 through its paces. Gravel is very much the zeitgeist of road riding right now, and it can be a contentious issue for roadies steadfastly stuck in their ways about what defines a road bike.

I believe the Revolt is the bike that should change the minds of naysayers if they ride it. It’s light, at just 8.33kg for the large size and that’s with 40mm-wide gravel tyres. It’s lighter than the Synapse, only 400g heavier than the (small) sized Langma, in fact only the featherweight Merida has any significant weight advantage over it (1.23kg), though that’s in a smaller size too.

The lack of mass, especially in the 1,398g wheelset, makes the Revolt such a fabulous all-rounder. I did criticise the Maxxis tyres for their lack of grip in wet, muddy conditions when I tested it in winter, but that’s not really a surprise. Today, however, after a very warm April spell, I’m pleased to report that they’re fantastic on hardpacked dirt, and the low tread of the midsection meant I never feel hamstrung riding at the same pace as the rest of the team on fast tarmac spells.

Weight is one thing, but the Revolt is just so comfortable with everything you throw at it. On the road, it’s road-bike fast, to the point where I switch in a set of road wheels with 28mm tyres to see how the bike feels and, aside from a little more relaxed handling from the slacker head angle, the Revolt doesn’t feel a million miles away from the sublimely balanced handling of the Synapse.

When it comes to off road, though, the Revolt is simply stunning. The lightness of the complete bike means it dances across rutted, harsh surfaces. It’s nimble enough to give me the confidence to throw it into proper mountain-bike singletrack and technically challenging descents on scarily loose surfaces too.

I love the compliance the D-Fuse post and bar add. I also love the fact that Giant has adapted the seat tube to be able to take a standard seatpost, so you could run a dropper post when you want to get really off road (or even really low and aero on road like the victorious Matej Mohorič in this year’s Milan–San Remo).

Post-ride analysis

After our day’s riding and analysing, it’s time to agonise over what we know by now will be a very difficult decision to choose our overall winner as we sit with drinks and cakes in Llyn Brianne dam’s car park.

All of the final five this year are more than worthy winners in what’s been a challenging time for bikes and the bike industry, we surmise. Even in these times of unprecedented pressures on supply and pricing, we’ve found bikes that still impressed us on the road and offered decent value for money.

Boardman is the undisputed master of value for money, and none more so than with the ADV8.9. If you’re looking for a great-value, go-anywhere machine as your first serious dropped-bar bike, we can safely say you need look no further. Or if you’re a long-time rider wanting to dip your toes into the world of gravel riding, this offers all you need to get adventurous.

The Merida Scultura is everything a proper cutting-edge race bike should be.

Light, devastatingly fast, and with an equipment specification that wouldn’t be out of place sprinting for the line on the Champs Elysees come July – and all at a price that no other superbike can match.

• 

• 

Cannondale’s new Synapse, meanwhile, has taken the endurance bike and turned it on its head. It’s as sporty as a Synapse should be, but brings increased comfort, practicality and even safety to riders looking to challenge themselves by doing the toughest of road rides on it.

Liv’s Langma Advanced 1+ Disc has successfully distilled the World Tour climbers’ machine into a package a fraction of the price, but one that’s retained all of the charm. It’s as swift uphill as it is composed coming back down and, with contact points designed specifically for women, it left us in no doubt why Liv remains the pinnacle of women’s-specific bike design.

That leaves the Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0. Usually when you think of a bike being versatile, you assume it must have compromises. The Revolt, however, simply doesn’t. Its handling off road is stunning, it’s nimble yet composed, handles rough surfaces with ease and its low weight and light wheels make it a gravel-climbing dream. If you want to explore the roughest of routes, it even allows you to switch the rear dropout into a long position, extending tyre clearance to accommodate massive 53mm tyres, which is a great touch.

The 2x GRX drivetrain may not be down with the 1x afficionados (of which I’m one), but it helps make this bike feel so at home on road and trail. Close gear progression makes for smoother cadences and allowed me to keep in step with roadie riding companions on rolling roads. Plus, the Shimano GRX Di2 electronic gears mean the shifts are superb, swift and smooth, plus you get the epic Servowave assisted braking that’s found its way onto Shimano’s flagship road group (including the Merida, no less).

The Revolt advanced Pro 0 is that rare breed of bike that is focused on its prime design objective yet isn’t so narrowly focused as to become a chore on any ride.

It’s quite simply a jack of all trades, and a master of them, too.

Verdict

The Cycling Plus Bike of the Year 2022 is the Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0