Line up at any cyclo-cross race, or tune in to watch one, and the start line is focused on one thing and one thing only: tyres. While road tech has a swirling nebula of advancements, cyclo-cross, while it has for sure seen its fair share of tech leaps, is really a game of tyres; they make more difference to performance than any other component. Cotton-cased tyres are the name of the game, and in the pro ranks outside of North America, you’ll only really see riders using tyres from FMB, Dugast, and Challenge. The latter supplies tubular race tyres to current world champion Tom Pidcock, and clincher tyres to the rest of us and is probably the biggest supplier of cotton tyres to the general public.
The cyclo-cross vs gravel debate has been well and truly laid to rest, but as a brand renowned for making tyres for fast off-road use, it isn’t a huge surprise to see Challenge expanding its range of gravel tyres, originally confined to the Gravel Grinder, a plumped out version of its Chicane dry weather cyclo-cross offering. The range has expanded, and I’ve been putting some miles atop a set of its new 40mm Getaways. Do we need to expand our list of the best gravel tyres to include them?
Design and aesthetics
Challenge’s ‘open tubulars’ (clinchers, to you and I) are constructed differently from a standard vulcanised rubber tyre. A cotton band is sewn into a loop with a bead inserted at the edge, and the actual rubber tread is then glued on afterwards. This is how all fancy race tyres used to be made, and what many modern tan-wall tyres that you find on the best gravel bikes try to ape from an aesthetic standpoint, but these are the real deal.
The casing is incredibly pliable at 270 threads per inch, and feels as you’d expect for rubber-impregnated fabric. It’s not quite as supple as the 300TPI of the brand’s CX offerings, and is double thickness in the sidewalls, presumably to add a little more puncture protection and support in cornering. If you’ve never purchased a set of Challenge tyres before, getting them out of the box is a little surprising as they lie absolutely flat like a ribbon, which does make mounting a bit more of a task.
The tread in the case of the Getaways is clearly an option attuned to dryer conditions. The central belt comprises tightly spaced, arrow-shaped knobs that more or…
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