Anne-Marije Rook's 2024 Gear of the Year: from the best brakes on the market to great earbuds and a statement t-shirt

As I sat down to name my favourite products for 2024, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the journeys they’ve been a part of. This year has been filled with memorable rides: from a 120-mile epic, where climbing Mt. Ventoux was just the midpoint, to a trek across Morocco. There were also plenty of adventures had at home, from a spontaneous solo bikepacking overnighter to a rare chance to pedal up one of Portland’s busiest roads, temporarily transformed into a serene, car-free zone after a winter storm. And, of course, a couple of idyllic Pacific Northwest days capped off with a quick dip into a mountain lake.

For years, gravel and adventure riding have been my mainstay, but in 2024, I rediscovered my love for the road: the rhythm of the miles ticking by, the reward of a climb conquered, the changing scenery, and the simplicity of rolling out without debating tyre choices or packing extra gear for self-sufficiency in remote areas. There’s a special allure to the straightforwardness of road cycling that I’d lost touch with, in part, due to a few too many bad encounters with cars while riding.

This renewed love for the road is reflected in my top picks for the year. I’m still of the mindset that the best rides include the roads less travelled, and thus some of these products are perfectly at home on the dirt as well. Still, even the gravel wheelset listed below has seen more pavements than dirt, which is just a reflection of where the bike took me this year.

The all-new SRAM Red AXS Levers & Brakes

When SRAM launched its latest top-tier road groupset this May –named SRAM Red AXS– the standout upgrade was the complete overhaul of its brake and shift levers. They received a total ergonomic and aesthetic makeover, complete with a repositioned hydraulic brake master cylinder, improved hood angle and new hood-based bonus buttons.

The hoods are now leaner and elongated, with a top profile about half as tall as before, marking an end to those bulbous hood shapes.

The brake callipers also received a significant update, featuring a lighter, all-aluminium body. Inside, the pistons have been repositioned higher in the calliper, allowing braking force to be applied closer to the rotor’s edge for improved efficiency.

The result? A sleeker design paired with intuitive and easy-to-reach shifting and smoother, more powerful braking. Those of us here at Cycling Weekly who have had the pleasure of using them all agree: they're simply fantastic. I honestly think they are the best road brakes on the market currently.

I was, therefore, stoked to see that these levers and callipers were carried over into the newest gravel groupset, the Red XPLR AXS groupset, as well. That groupset launched in August, and its other highlights include a 13-speed drivetrain, a bigger gear range, significant weight savings and a UDH-only rear mech.

Hunt’s 40 Carbon Gravel Racer Dynamo Wheelset

Fast? Lightweight? Quick to accelerate? Responsive? Aero? Check, check, check, check, and check. But let me tell you why the 40 CGR wheels hold a special place in my heart.

My first encounter with the 40 CGR wheelset was during the gruelling 350-mile Unbound XL gravel race in 2023. Hunt loaned me a set, complete with a Schmidt SON 28 dynamo hub in the front – a custom-built then.

A dynamo hub is an electromagnetic induction generator that converts the kinetic energy from the spinning wheel into electricity to power lights and other devices. The Schmidt SON28 hub is widely considered to be among the best thanks to its low resistance, high efficiency and ability to put out decent power even at low and moderate moving speeds. With a long night and day of racing ahead, I opted for dynamo lights so I wouldn’t have to worry about batteries.

While the hub adds 430 grams to the otherwise lightweight wheel, it was worth the peace of mind of never running out of light and the bonus ability to charge my other electronics as well.

The Hunt 40 Carbon Gravel Race wheelset is a race-focused, ETRTO-complaint hookless gravel wheelset featuring a 40mm aero profile, 25mm internal width, and, sans dynamo hub, weigh1431 grams for the set — not bad for a $1399 wheelset.

The rear wheel is laced to the brand's Sprint SL hub with rapid 7.5-degree engagement, which spins up quickly and aids in the general responsiveness of the wheels. The wheelset is definitely made to go fast and I was happy to have them in the all-out race pace of the first 45 minutes of that Unbound XL. Yet, I didn't find them overly stiff, either, which is a good thing. Even after 350 miles, my lower back never complained.

Those 28 hours of riding and hiking through unforgiving conditions were the ultimate gear test, and the start of a beautiful relationship. The wheels have been my trusty companions on countless miles since, on- and off-road. They’re now my dedicated bikepacking and long-distance wheels as well as my daily drivers in the winter when daylight is scarce.

Fast, comfortable and indestructible, they’ve proven their worth time and again. Hunt started offering this dynamo hub-equipped wheelset as a standalone product only a few months ago, available now directly from the Hunt website for $1799.

Pirelli P Zero Race TLR RS road tyres

With so many good tyres already on the market, it’s rare for a road tyre to stand out these days, but Pirelli’s new flagship tyres do.

Made in partnership with the Lidl Trek WorldTour team, the all-new P Zero Race TLR RS sits at the very top of the brand's offerings, unseating the P Zero Race TLR when it comes to pure performance.

Pirelli claims the P Zero Race TLR RS tyre is the brand’s fastest and highest-performing model yet, but perhaps more importantly, it’s also safer than its predecessor thanks to a new bead design. In 2023, Pirelli issued a voluntary product recall for the P Zero Race TLR after reports of an insecure bead retention with certain rim, tyre, and pressure combinations. The newest model promises better air retention and broader rim compatibility –hookless included.

I’ve clocked well over a thousand miles on the tyres, and during that time I’ve been impressed with how well the tires hold air. Additionally, the tubeless setup was a complete breeze and the ride quality is remarkably comfortable for a race model. They’re noticeably smoother than competitors like the Continental GP5000 or Vittoria Corsa Pro, and have also impressed with wet-weather grip and flat protection.

Durability is not a quality that’s prioritised in race-made tyres but I’ve been impressed with the model’s durability. I realise I’m jinxing myself writing this, but I’ve yet to puncture them!

At $99/ £84.99 a pop, the P Zero Race TLR RS’s are pricey but prove their worth, delivering top-tier performance with an unexpectedly refined ride quality.

Shimano S-PHYRE SH-RC903 PWR shoes

The only part of that model name worth remembering is the PWR. These shoes are made for PoWeR-full efforts: track racing, time trials and sprints. Or, in my case, throwing down at Fleche PDX, a silly hill climbing challenge that tackles some of the steepest climbs to be found Southwest of Portland for some 2540 meters of elevation gain in just 80 kilometres.

The shoes carry a 12-out-of-12 sole stiffness rating, and that’s only part of the package. Everything about this shoe was made more rigid – from the heel cup to the midsole wrapping and even the shoe’s upper, which is embedded with a thin, pliable plastic reinforcement layer.

Given the all-around rigidity, I expected these shoes to be a bit of a compromise when it came to wear comfort. But once broken in, the shoe impressed not only in efficiency and stability but also with its second-skin comfort – in part thanks to the single dial BOA Li2 closure mechanism, which provides even tension across the top and middle of the foot.

In short, they’re snug yet breathable, incredibly stiff yet comfortable. And that colourway! Star-eyes emoji worth.

Bose Ultra Open earbuds

These earbuds were an accidental find – a gift for media at Camp Strava this summer. Bose is renowned for its high-quality audio products, but what intrigued me about these earbuds most was their unique clip-on design.

Clipped around the cartilage of the outer ear, they act like tiny speakers, delivering sound directly to your ears while keeping them open to the world around you. They’ve proven to be pleasant to wear, even for long periods at a time, and offer very good sound quality. At close to 7 hours of non-stop playing time, the battery life rivals that of the popular AirPods, too.

Using earbuds while biking is always a controversial topic, and I agree that staying aware of your surroundings –whether you’re biking, driving or walking– is essential. These earbuds allow you to remain aware while also enjoying a good audiobook. More than that, they do so with more comfort and better sound quality than the bone-conduction headphones I’ve tried.

Everyone Watches Women’s Sports shirt

2024 was an incredible year for women’s sports. Simone Biles cemented her status as the undeniable GOAT of gymnastics with a golden comeback at the Olympics. Caitlin Clark and her peers electrified the game of basketball, drawing record-breaking crowds in and outside the arenas. And Jasmin Paris made history as the first woman ever to finish the notorious Barkley Marathons—a gruelling 100-mile, 60-hour trail race.

Cycling was no less thrilling. Lael Wilcox shattered the women’s around-the-world record, covering an astounding 18,125 miles in just 108 days. Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma delivered a nail-biting showdown in the Tour de France Femmes, with the smallest margin of victory in Tour de France history. Meanwhile, Marianne Vos claimed her 14th rainbow jersey at the UCI Gravel World Championships—just months after securing her 250th career win at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

Across every sport, women shattered records and finally garnered the global attention they’ve long deserved. As someone who’s spent much of her career championing women’s sports and voices, I couldn’t be more excited by how far we’ve come.

That’s why the message on this T-shirt, created by Togethxr, resonates so deeply with me— a powerful rebuttal to the dismissing refrain of “no one cares about women’s sports” that I was given all too often

Thus, I wore that tee proudly as I jostled for an inch of space in the media scrum at the finish of Unbound Gravel, where the women’s race ended in an absolutely thrilling nine-up sprint. I wore it on the mountain summit of Alpe d’Huez, watching the jumbotron as a live stream—broadcast to 190 countries worldwide—captured Vollering and Niewiadoma’s fierce fight for every single second in the yellow jersey race. And I wore it again in the Utah desert, surrounded by thousands who’d made the trek to witness, with bated breath, as women took mountain biking to its extremes in a historic first Red Bull Rampage women’s event.

This year, everyone watched women’s sports.