Coming soon… the road.cc Recommends Awards 2025/26: we’ll reveal the very best bikes, components and accessories
Clear your diary because it’s that time of year again: the road.cc Recommends Awards are back. Kicking off on Wednesday, 7th January 2026, this is our annual deep dive into the best bikes, components, accessories and clothing from everything we’ve reviewed over the past year. And yes, that’s a lot of kit.
If you’re new around here, road.cc Recommends is where we stash the truly exceptional stuff. We review hundreds of products every year, but only the best performers earn a spot in road.cc Recommends, and we add a few new ones once a month.
For our annual awards, though, we take things up another notch. Our review team heads back into the road.cc Recommends vault and starts asking tricky questions: which products truly rose above the rest? Which ones still shine with the benefit of hindsight? And which ones would we spend our own hard-earned cash on?
Whether you’re shopping for a new bike or just a bar bag, a saddle or shoes, a groupset or grips, we’ll guide you to the top choices.
For components, accessories, and clothing, we’ll highlight our favourites from the past 12 months and present three different types of awards:
- Bargain Buy This award is given to products that provide the best value for money in their category.
- Money No Object We take the price out of the equation for this one; it’s all about performance.
- Editor’s Choice This award goes to products that offer the best combination of performance and value for money.
These aren’t handed out lightly. We debate. We revisit. We change our minds. We debate again. Scores matter, but so does context in a fast-moving market.
We structure things a little differently with bikes, counting down the best models in various categories. Getting a full test team to agree on bike rankings is difficult. It takes time and patience. Eventually, though, we get there.
What’s coming, and when
Here’s the full schedule so you know exactly what to expect:
Wednesday 7th January road.cc Recommends Accessories of the Year 2025/26
Thursday, 8th January road.cc Recommends Clothing of the Year 2025/26
Friday, 9th January road.cc Recommends Components of the Year 2025/26
Monday, 12th January road.cc Recommends Tyres of the Year 2025/26
Tuesday, 13th January road.cc Recommends Wheels of the Year 2025/26
Wednesday, 14th January road.cc Recommends Bargain Buys of the Year 2025/26
Thursday, 15th January road.cc Recommends Bikes of the Year 2025/26: Electric bikes
Friday, 16th January road.cc Recommends Bikes of the Year 2025/26: Commuting bikes
Monday, 19th January road.cc Recommends Bikes of the Year 2025/26: Gravel and adventure bikes
Tuesday, 20th January road.cc Recommends Bikes of the Year 2025/26: All-road bikes
Wednesday, 21st January road.cc Recommends Bikes of the Year 2025/26: Road bikes
Stay tuned. It all starts on Wednesday.
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