It's easier to get on the bike through winter when there's a ride you're looking forward to on the calendar. Perhaps you want to finish your first sportive, return to a mountain event with better legs or finally enter the gran fondo you've been discussing for years. Choosing that target means looking beyond the finish-line photos to the preparation, cost and time involved. Here's how to choose an event that suits your riding and your life, with eight ideas for 2027 and ways to prepare on ROUVY.

You're a few hours into a long ride or trainer session when you start to notice something you'd rather not. Things have gone numb 'down there'. Maybe you stand on the pedals a bit, shift around and the feeling starts to come back. But if it keeps happening, you might be dealing with cyclist syndrome.

You can put plenty of miles into your legs and still find that a day in the Dolomites asks a little more of them. There is the climbing, of course, but also the early start, the long descents and the business of remembering to eat while admiring where you are. The 40th Maratona dles Dolomites takes place on 4 July 2027, with three routes starting in La Villa and finishing in Corvara. Its longest course covers 138 kilometres and 4,230 metres of ascent, including Passo Giau. Getting a few things sorted beforehand means you can spend more of the day enjoying the ride.

A triathlon is an endurance race combining three sports: swimming, cycling and running, completed in that order as one continuous event. Participants move between disciplines through two transitions, with the clock running from the start of the swim to the finish of the run.

Every year a wave of ROUVY employees disappears off to IRONMAN events around the world, and roughly half the team has finished a full distance or a 70.3. So we asked the person with the most finish lines behind him for everything he knows.

Winter has a habit of turning a planned recovery week into three weeks of “I’ll get back on the bike tomorrow”. Poor weather, shorter daylight hours and a dip in motivation can all make consistent riding more difficult, which is where detraining starts to creep in. The good news is that fitness doesn’t disappear all at once, and maintaining it requires much less work than building it in the first place. Understand what fades first and you can cut your winter training substantially without giving away months of hard-earned fitness.

So you've bought a new bike, or you're in the market for your next two-wheeled companion. Shifting your old bike frees up space and cash for your next purchase, and while some of us would like to hang on to every bike we've ever owned, this isn't practical – eventually you'll need to let go of the old to make way for the new.

The Great World Adventure continues with cycling in Morocco, moving from the High Atlas and the Sahara towards the Atlantic coast. The second Morocco Long-Term Challenge stage follows the coastal road towards Taghazout. We also look back at the route team's four days of filming with local guide Rashid and the places included across the Long-Term, Easy and Hard Challenges. Not everything made it into the film, including ancient trade roads, desert stables and Aït Benhaddou, a filming location seen in Gladiator and Game of Thrones.

I trip over the rowing machine in my office just about every day. At the moment, it's sporting a backpack, hoodie and my distressed burgundy baseball cap. It requires no setup – just have a seat, grab the handle, and it's go time. Somehow, I still tend to favour my indoor trainer, even though it takes a bit longer to get ready to ride.