It’s at the Tour de France that you’ll spot the most new kit and equipment, but spend a bit of time digging around at the Giro d’Italia and you’ll spot a few little gems as well. These include custom paint jobs, kit that’s being tested by riders ahead of a launch at the Tour, and even the odd new bike. There is also the usual selection of interesting tech on show, from odd uses of grip tape to the choice of unbranded wheels.
CyclingTips’ roving reporter Dave Everett spend some time at the team hotels before the start of the Giro to see what he could find.
My first port of call was Tinkoff-Saxo. The team is in Italy with one goal — to take the overall win with Alberto Contador. Team owner Oleg Tinkov is renowned for getting out on the bike and training with the team and it was Tinkov’s training bike that had pride of place in the carpark where the mechanics were working.
The new frame with a fresh one-of-a-kind paint job stood out among the standard team-issue Tarmac and Venge frames from Specialized, the fluoro camo design resembling the team’s winter training kit. Talking with a few of the guys from Specialized I was told it was a rush job at company HQ in California to get the frame ready in time for the start of the Giro.
Several items on Tinkov’s hastily built bike were not team sponsored kit. We were informed that the proper sponsored components were due for delivery and would be added to the already expensive build-up.
I’ll aim to get a full bike shot when Specialized and Tinkov give us the nod that it’s to the team sponsor’s liking.
Alberto Contador is the only rider actually on the team to have a bike with a custom paint job. His Tarmac has already had a few outings at smaller races but the predominately white bike was on show for all in the team car park.
The build is quite interesting with Contador opting for mechanical Dura Ace as apposed to the Di2 electronic version. Weight-saving seems to be the reason here as other noticeable adaptations had been made to lighten the bike, including the lightweight and slick-shifting Alligator outer cables.
Contador’s bike in all its clean and glossy glory. Note that he is using mechanical Dura-Ace as opposed to Di2.
Lightning bolts grace the seat stays of Contador’s Specialised Tarmac.
Alligator cables are fitted to reduce weight.
New rubber bungs hide the bolt holes for the seat clamp.
Contador’s bike has a few neat little logo’s scattered over his frame. It’s all in the details.
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Still at Tinkoff I spoke with Danish rider Chris Juul-Jensen about his new all black shoes. Chris apparently has problems with fitting and pressure on the outside of his feet. Specialized have relieved his problem after working out that the third-tier Audax model shoe would allow him greater comfort. Chris seemed pretty happy with them.
Tinkoff-Saxo and Etixx-Quick-Step use Roval wheels on their road bikes but both opt for FSA’s Vision time trial wheels. More precisely, Tinkoff-Saxo uses Vision’s tri-spoke wheels at the front and unbranded Lightweight Autobahn disc wheels for the rear.
Vision’s tri-spoke Metron wheel was present on all Tinkoff-Saxo bikes.
Lightweight is renowned for not officially sponsoring teams — most of the time teams have to purchase these products themselves. The only team to have been sponsored by Lightweight was the German Milram team. This Lightweight wheel might be unbranded but the carbon layup gives it away.
Etixx-Quick-Step riders were using various Vision wheels for their TT bikes, including multiple depths of Metron clinchers up to the wavy-looking disc wheel.
Tinkoff-Saxo aren’t alone in using Lightweight’s super pricey disc wheels — BMC clearly had several sitting against the team mechanic’s truck waiting to be placed in the team bikes for the team time trial. BMC had placed large black decals over the very distinctive carbon layup. They obviously didn’t want to upset team wheel sponsor Shimano too much.
BMC had a well disguised fleet of Lightweight Autobahn disc wheels lined up and ready for action on their TT bikes. Shimano is the team’s wheel sponsor.
Tinkoff-Saxo and BMC were both using a selection of Specialized’s Turbo tyres. If rumours are to be believed they are amazing on the road but get chewed up quickly when used on a turbo trainer.
Etixx-Quick-Step uses Specialized Turbo tyres on Vision Metron wheels on their TT rigs. For their road bikes they use Specialized Roval wheels. They were one of the only teams we spotted running tyres and tubes instead of tubulars for their TT bikes.
Skateboard-style grip tape was seen on many of the TT bikes handlebars in place of regular tape. Rigoberto Uran was one of many to do this. Most riders that opted for the this tape only had it on their bars but several had carried it through to the extensions as well.
Bumping in to Steve Smith of Sportful at the Tinkoff-Saxo hotel lead to a little inside information. Contador spent plenty of time in a Milan wind tunnel over winter, testing and helping to refine the cut and materials of an all new Sportful skinsuit. Contador is apparently a hard man to please with kit — if he finds something he believes in and has had success with, it takes something special to persuade him to use a newer version. It’s clear that the numbers from the Sportful wind tunnel test have shown a clear advantage over the older skinsuit.
Giant-Alpecin had their new time trial helmet drying in the Italian sunshine when we visited. A chat to the mechanics revealed that it is still a work in progress — certain areas have to be modified including sharp ends of the plastic shell which need small rubber lips placed on them to allow the helmet to pass UCI standards testing. As you might expect, the lid is extremely light.
Giant-Alpecin is using Giant’s new range of helmets for 2015 after several years with Uvex. The new TT lid has had to have a few modifications to the sharp plastic edges to allow it to pass UCI testing. Rubber ends have been wrapped around the bottom of the plastic fairing.
Also spotted at the Giant-Alpecin camp was a singular new Pro disc wheel. It differed from Pro’s current TT disc wheels in that it was much wider and wasn’t flat across its surface. So much so that it had deep scratch marks around the non-drive side where it had clearly rubbed against either the chain or seatstays.
The mechanics may have let slip that Giant is working on a new TT frame that the wheel is more suited to. This is something we very well may see come July and the Tour de France.
Shimano’s component and wheel line Pro had a new disc wheel being tested by the team. It’s wider than the older model, so much so that it had scuff marks where it rubbed against the frame of the team’s TT bikes. Rumours abound that it’s in testing for a new Giant TT frame that we will see at this year’s Tour de France.
It may not be classed as bike tech but it’s still worth a mention as it got a giggle out of us. Giant-Alpecin has a slushy machine on tour with them, the team bottles stored close to the Slush Puppy dispenser. With no riders about it looked to have been in heavy use by the team mechanics.
Over at the Ag2r-La Mondiale camp, one rider was on the SRAM wireless electronic groupset. Chatting with representatives from SRAM at the team hotel lead to very little information about how far it is from being released to the public. They are keeping very, very tight-lipped about the much-hyped addition to the ever-growing electronic shifting market.
There is no visible difference in the shifters or rear and front mech compared to what we saw at the Tour of Flanders last month. To us the finish is close to what you’d expect from a production version of a top-tier groupset.
On-bike camera footage is being used this year by the race organiser, TV broadcasters and in TV highlights packages. Many teams have two riders kitted out with cameras; one with a forward-facing camera, one with a rear-facing camera.
The majority of the cameras spotted are from Shimano but Cannondale-Garmin was obviously using the Garmin Virb camera. Their mount was a modified PRO and Virb mix. It looked a lot bulkier than the simple Pro version.
With the Giro’s broadcast partners using on-bike footage in highlights packages, we are seeing teams with multiple mounts on their bikes. Garmin had modified a Pro/Shimano clamp to allow a Garmin Virb camera mount to be used.
Over at the Cannondale-Garmin hotel the majority of team bikes were being washed so I managed to get a quick look at the inside of the team mechanics’ truck. A quick poke around revealed a work and storage place that many budding mechanics would kill for. Check the accompanying video to see what they store in the draws and the sheer number of wheels they have to carry.
The FDJ.fr mechanics were kind enough to dig out the new Lapierre Xelius SL Ultimate for us. Team leader Alexandre Geniez is using it throughout the race. It’s a pretty striking bike and an update on the old Xelius. The main talking point will be the junction between the seat tube, top tube and chain stays, or to be more precise the lack of junction.
The seat stays bypass the seat tube by wrapping around it then joining directly on the top tube. A gap of approximately 5mm separates the chain stays from the seat tube.
As with many of the mechanics, they were not up for giving much information (more than their job is worth I’m guessing). The limited info I got though was that it’s a bike that has been in development for over a year and is significantly lighter and stiffer in the bottom bracket and head tube than the older model. From the looks of the seat tube it should also allow some amount of flex for added comfort.
FDJ.fr had a team leader on the new Lapierre Xeius SL Ultimate. A whole new bike from the French company. No solid information was available when asking the mechanics but it is considerably lighter than the older model.
Tidy cable routing clearly allows for both electronic and mechanical routing.
You can clearly make out a good 5mm of gap between the seat tube and seat stays.
The seat stays/ top tube and seat tube have a very interesting triple triangle-type join to them. The seat stays do not even join the seat tube at all, by bypassing and joining the top tube.
Other interesting tidbits
- Tom Boonen was aboard his custom S-Works Venge. He’s had this paint scheme a little while now.
- Tornado-inspired graphics are seen on the forks and seat tube. Roval wheels, an unbranded Zipp stem, Shimano Di2 and Specialized kit finishes the build.
- Phillipe Gilbert has been using a new Volta saddle from Fizik this season. It is reminiscent of saddles like the Selle San Marco Concor.
- Possibily the smallest time trial bike at the race goes to AG2r-La Mondiale rider Carlos Betancur.
- The numbers on the top tube relate to each rider’s SRM unit. These bikes were being built by the mechanics when we visited. Without this information each rider would be seeing other riders’ power information.
- The Tacx aero bottle with its dimple pattern was on many of the Tinkoff-Saxo team bikes.
- Every millimetre matters. Several of the teams including LottoNL-Jumbo (seen here) use a specialist measuring jig.
- Katusha had the Shimano shoe fitting vacuum on board. This is used to get a perfect mould for a rider’s custom-fitted shoe.
- At a quick glance this toolbox could quite easily be mistaken for something quite different.
- To keep a bike in top working order you need good tools. I noticed that many of the teams seemed to be using the Unior brand.
