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.

At the Cyclocross European Championships in Pont-Chateau near Nantes in France Mathieu van der Poel won the sprint from a chase group on his STEVENS Super Prestige to win the Silver Medal. The new – surprising – European Champion is Toon van Aerts from Belgium. His compatriot Wout van Aert comes in third.

At the end of the season Team Vorarlberg rises up to a challenge that can also be regarded as an award for the so far outstanding season: The participation in the prestigious Tour of Hainan stage race in China ranked by the UCI in the highest category 2.HC.

The battle continues: Just like in the first run of the Super Prestige-Series a thrilling duel between Mathieu van der Poel of Team Beobank-Corendon and current World Champion Wout van Aert was the dominating story of the race in Zonhoven – with the same outcome: In the final lap Dutch Champion van der Poel counters the attack by van Aert and crosses the finish line first.

Hydraulic disc brakes have clearly established themselves in cyclocross since UCI gave its approval in 2010; this is demonstrated not only in the increasing demand but also in the fact that a growing number of top athletes opt for discs. In the past season for example this was the case with Sanne Cant: In November 2015 she won the European Championships still on her Super Prestige.