Less common than Shimano and SRAM, Campagnolo  Italian groupsets are adored by the minority that use them. Starting with Veloce, the next step up is Campagnolo  Athena, then Chorus, followed by Record and then the Super Record.

Campagnolo  (affectionately known as Campag) offer “Ergopower” shifters – they have a gear lever behind the brake lever, and a small button on the inside of the hood. One of the unique properties of Campag shifters is that you can move through more than one gear on the rear cassette at a time, by holding the lever or button down for longer.

The left hand shifter is your friend when you want to move the front derailleur, making big differences to the resistance. Pressing the lever moves the chain into a bigger chainring, offering more resistance, whilst pressing the button moves it into a smaller chainring for climbing.

The right hand lever moves between cogs on the rear cassette. Pushing the lever will move the chain into a bigger cog, which is easier to pedal, whilst pressing the button will move you into the smaller cogs, which are harder to pedal.

Your gears are really helpful for climbing, riding in the wind, sprinting and more – so get using them effectively and they’ll make your life much easier, or your riding much faster.