Mathieu van der Poel was well on the way to becoming 2017 cyclocross World Champion when after the first half of the race a tire defect thwarted him significantly. Wout van Aert who he had just escaped from took the chance and broke away by all in all 44 seconds and after all superiorly defended his World Champion title. Mathieu van der Poel finishes as runner-up, more than one minute ahead of third-place winner Kevin Pauwels.

What is luxury in a bike? Perfect ride characteristics for the intended application, and of course, perfect fit for the rider. Be it in the comfortable, all-round carefree City Boulevard or the fast, minimalistic City Flight: The belt drive from Gates complements these STEVENS models perfectly and delivers an extra helping of luxury to every-day urban cycling – just like the name Luxe suggests. The Gates drive belt is well-proven multiple times with its silent operation, almost zero maintenance and the fact that it doesn’t require lubrication.

The editors extensively rode the entry-level model of the new carbon fully series over marathons courses and trails. Beside the STEVENS Jura Carbon the Jura Carbon XT, das Jura Carbon XT Di2 as well as the Jura Carbon Team belong to the new full-suspension family. The entry-level model offers the same frame geometry as its bigger brothers but uses an aluminium rear triangle instead of a carbon one.

The editors’ concerns that the STEVENS P-Carpo Tour was a cumbersome heavyweight to be carried up the stairs from the cellar where the test bikes are kept were immediately dissolved with lifting the bike by the offset seat tube: ”The bike can be carried very well (...) since it’s very well-balanced,” is one of the first impressions about this sporty city cross bike.

E-cycling is in flux E-Mountainbike claims in its test report about the ten most exciting e-mountain bikes for 2017. Power-assisted bikes with their new developments are now well-received by society and have become the technological ”avant-garde of mountain bike sports”. This is contributed by the Shimano Steps E8000 motor like it is installed in the tested STEVENS E-Whaka+ ES.

To prepare for the World Cup race in Koksijde on Sunday, which then was cancelled due to heavy storm, the riders of Beobank-Corendon and ERA-Circus took part in the fifth run of the Toi Toi Cup in Slany, Czech Republic on Thursday and in the Soudal Classics Race in Hasselt, Belgium on Saturday.

”Experienced testers meet excited cyclists” – was the obvious motto of MountainBIKE Magazine’s readers’ test at the Bike Festival in Brixen. In September MBM’s editors had recruited random passers-by to test-ride a couple of brand-new 2017 e-mountain bikes to complement their professional verdict. One of these bikes was STEVENS’ new E-Whaka+ ES.

STEVENS new e-fully E-Sledge+ ES [Link] was very much liked by the testers of ElektroRad magazine. This was not only - but to a great extend - due to the also new Shimano Steps E8000 motor. In ”boost mode” the E-Sledge+ ES felt like it was flying up the hill.