Focus Izalco Pro

Superlight pro-tour-level design at an a ordable price

Y E A R L AUNCHED "# $ "

When Cycling Plus !rst hit the newsstands in 1992, German bikes were a rare sight in Britain, perhaps with the exception of the occasional beaten-up Rudi Altig or Kalkho" still kicking around. But in the last few decades, the likes of Canyon, Cube, Rose and Focus – the latter founded in 1993 by cyclo-cross champion Mike Kluge – have blazed a Teutonic trail. And in 2012, the Focus Izalco Pro 3 scored !ve stars and took our Bike of the Year title.

This bike displayed many of the features that have become de rigueur in recent design. It had a lightweight 1kg frame – contributing to a sub-8kg overall weight – with a tapered head tube, a hugely oversized bottom-bracket shell, and the usual combination of skinny seatstays for comfort and beefy chainstays for power transfer. The compact chainset and wideranging cassette are also features that are now standard, though 1x set-ups are gaining ground. The 24mm tyres were also slightly wider than the 23mm rubber that had long been standard. Rather than Shimano, dominant then just as it is now, this Izalco Pro came with a SRAM groupset. As we commented at the time, SRAM’s secondstring Force groupset was lighter than Ultegra, performing arguably just as well, plus it was better at braking.

The Izalco Pro had some sti" competition in 2012, but we found it composed and rigid under power, its swift and con!dent handling the best around. But what really gave it the edge (up against Cannondale’s SuperSix and Trek’s 3.5 Madone) was its all-round, jack-of-all-trades prowess.