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The spring classics are here – and the road.cc Podcast is hitting the road. Or the narrow, treacherously cobbled and ridiculously steep Flemish lane, to be exact.
Yes, this spring we’ve set ourselves the somewhat lofty aim of traversing every part of Belgium and northern France during the classics season, covering every town centre, rural lane, cobbled berg, bus-filled car park, and stretch of brutal pavé.
We’ll be soaking up the unique atmosphere, sounds, and culture of the best period of the entire cycling year, in one of the sport’s true heartlands, where bike racing seeps into everyday life, and (hopefully) giving you some behind-the-scenes insight into the classics and their stars – starting with Opening Weekend, where holy places were visited, unholy amounts of beers were consumed, and where new saviours were born.

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In this spontaneous edition of the road.cc Podcast, Ryan is joined by Jack Sexty, Mat Brett and Stu Kerton to discuss Shimano's surprising revamp of its popular fourth tier Tiagra groupset.

The reason this is so surprising to us is not just because we were left to surmise that the groupset would eventually be phased out - it's because we were all but told this would be the case in a presentation distributed to the media shortly before the launch of Shimano CUES, the company's range of 9-, 10- and 11-speed components aimed at more recreational riders and commuting.

In that presentation, Shimano said its 'mid-tier' road and mountain bike groupsets (below 105 and SLX level) would be unified under the CUES brand, which surely meant Tiagra, Sora and Claris would be chopped... but now we've been told that's not what was being said, and Shimano never explicitly said Tiagra would be phased out. Could have fooled us!

Shimano also introduced a mechanical, 12-speed Shimano 105 groupset when it said that wouldn't happen following the launch of 105 Di2 in 2022... so, is all this flip-flopping and U-turning a worrying sign for the world's largest manufacturer of bicycle components, or is it a good thing that a company of Shimano's size can improvise and give the people what they're asking for? The road.cc tech nerds dig into the details based off what they know so far.

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