I loved Owen Mulholland's writing for decades, but one contention from the Thevenet bike article hasn't aged well. He said that a front derailer cable run under the BB without a cable housing would "inevitably" cut a hole through the shell. If so, shouldn't he be able to show a bike where that actually happened? Personally I doubt it has ever happened, not even once, in all the millions of bikes rigged that way.

His other complaint, about the Simplex DT shifters, is similarly unfounded. He complains about a lack of wingnuts to adjust the lever tension, seemingly unaware that on those retro-friction evers, the screw merely mounts it, doesn't adjust the tension. The tension is set by the wind of the clutch spring and how tightly it rubs against the inner hub. No one would ever tighten or loosen that screw during a race.

It's true Simplex retro-frictions aren't as reliable as some plain-friction types. The clutch spring breaks depressingly often, but I'm not aware of any evidence this ever happened to a pro racer during a race. It seems to happen decades later to C&V nuts (like me). They're still regarded by lots of us as the best-working levers ever, until the clutch breaks. And that part is replaceable, and available for sale even today.

Maybe he was grasping for something negative to say about this near-perfect bike, to appear fair and balanced?

I like how he says the Mafac centerpulls are the best brake available, at the tme of his writing. Hot take — Let the arguments commence!