WINNER Orbea Terra

› A gravel master that isn’t compromised by road work

It’s hard to pick a winner from such a disparate bunch. Pitting steel, titanium and carbon against each other is one thing, but throw in all-road, gravel, endurance, race and aero and it’s a wider mix than most.

Ironbridge’s steel chassis is fivestar, and its handling impressive, but there are some niggles in the drivetrain and brake performance, and those flashy components add to the price, but sadly not to the ride experience.

Thompson’s race-bred Capella can only have come from the tight street races that are the signature of the company’s Belgian heartland. If you like your bikes sharp and explosively quick, the Capella is a compelling choice.

Holland’s Pilot adds to a growing world of titanium disc-equipped road bikes. With a beautiful frame and ride to match, this slice of rarefied metal is worth consideration if you can swallow the price.

Evo2Max was the big surprise, an unknown quantity and with a lot of aero design work the Nebular had the hallmarks of a worrying machine. The fact that it rides so nicely and is priced so keenly is great.

Chapter 2 only launched its first bike on July 1 this year, and we were the first magazine to get our hands on a test bike. The Tere is so on the money for a state-of-the-art road bike. It’s beautifully finished, great fun to ride and, in this spec, pretty flawless in its performance.

That leaves Orbea’s Terra. Offroad it feels as nimble as a pro-level ’cross bike, on long gravel drives it’s accomplished in its cushioning, but on the road it feels endurance bikefast and endurance event-ready. We’d be more than happy to switch out the gravel tyres for a set of Conti GP4000S IIs or Schwalbe S-Ones and run the Terra on a hilly 100-miler.