When I joined Cyclingnews back in 2019, the chance to use new, fancy and modern cycling tech was the thing that excited me most: Enve wheels, Dura-Ace groupsets, Pinarello bikes, and S-Works shoes. Pinch me, surely this can't be real.
But as time went on, and the fancy tech continued to arrive and depart like the tide, the excitement slowed, replaced by a sense of pragmatism. These bikes are cool, but at £10,000+, they're out of reach for most of our audience.
Nowadays, newfound excitement comes in unearthing excellent products that are so cheap that everyone can benefit from them. One such example is the Camelbak Podium water bottle.
And right now, given it can be found with 42% off in the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days sale - I'm stocking up on more.
Camelbak Podium deals - UK
Camelbak Podium deals - USA
In an age where the world - well, TikTok - is going crazy for Stanley Cups, I'm here to tell you there's a better option.
In the Autumn of 2019, I attended a Rapha launch event and among the swag that is inevitably given away at such events were two, pink, RCC-branded Camelbak Podium bottles. I didn't think much of them at the time, but these bottles quickly became the most appreciated piece of cycling tech at my disposal. Five years on (almost to the day), they're still here, and still get almost daily use.
The RCC branding has worn down thanks to regular trips through the dishwasher, their Stabilo pink colour faded to a more rustic finish, but these bottles have battled on through.
Better still, even after all these years, they work exactly as intended.
I know the functionality of a bottle isn't complicated, so to praise one for holding water feels a bit like praising a cat for meowing, but you'll be surprised just how often they fail due to poor tolerances between the bottle and the lid, or a valve that simply forgets what its job was.
The realisation that the water bottle in your rucksack has leaked is one that we've all experienced at some point in our lives, but since owning the Camelbak Podium and its twist-lock cap, it has become a thing of the past. I would genuinely place a full Camelbak Podium into the main compartment of a rucksack with a laptop, and trust it completely.
Despite having been through hundreds of cycles of near-boiling-hot water, the shape remains unaffected, the screwtop lid has never leaked, and it continues to fare better at water retention than my kitchen roof of late. The twist-lock cap, which can be disassembled on some variants for cleaning, is as watertight as the day it arrived.
But perhaps most importantly of all, despite having been left half-full of energy drink mix on my bike for days at a time on multiple occasions, water still tastes like water.
Given how long these bottles have lasted, the above price represents a cost of £1.49 per year, and they're still going strong so that's only going to continue improving.
I've since bought two additional bottles, the Podium Chill with added insulation, and my wife bought her own after she stole mine and realised how good they are.
They even make the Podium Dirt, which pairs the same great functionality with an added cap to keep the filth from the roads and trails from living on the valve and in turn finding its way into your mouth. Read Will's recent tale of bacterial misfortune if you're of strong stomach and want to know why these are a good idea.
I do own other bottles too, such as the Elite Fly which I use for more competitive endeavours due to their lower weight and higher flow rate, but for everyday use, the Podium deserves its name and sits on the top step every time.
