Tour of Flanders tech: 170mm stems, silicon on tyres, lots of tubeless
It’s Sunday of Flemish “Holy week” and that means the Tour of Flanders is upon us. As the teams descended on Antwerpen (Flemish for Antwerp) for the start of “De Ronde”, we roamed the buses and mix zones in the hunt for Tour of Flanders tech. While in no way the race-specific tech nirvana that is Paris-Roubaix, riders and teams do make some adaptions for the second monument of the season.
The Wolfpack has a lot to answer for. Tubulars live to race another day, at least on Kelland O’Brien’s bike. Michael Matthews is racing on an unidentified saddle presumably from Cadex. It is unclear if this is simply a perforated cover or a 3D offering from Giant’s components brand.Carbon rails presumably keep the weight down.Just in case, Matthews has a thru-axle tool taped under the saddle for quicker wheel removal. Speaking of wheels, Matthews was one of the Team Bike Exchange riders to choose Cadex 42 Tubeless wheelset paired to Vittoria Corsa Control tyres.A closer look at Tim Wellans forearm paddingIt really is quite tall. Lotto-Soudal staff seemed keen to keep Victor Campanaerts bike out of sight. But we found it hiding between team cars. As you might expect Victor’s bike is head to toe aero including the 62mm deep DT Swiss ARC 1100 Dicut wheelset. Campenaerts is one of the outside favourites for Flanders, and coped some flack at Dwars Door Vlaanderen for using a 58tooth chainring to attack the descents.The 58 tooth was relegated to the reserve bike for De Ronde. Campenaerts instead opted for a 56 tooth chainring. Inward levers to help with adopting aero positions post UCI puppy paws ban. Interestingly, Campenaerts had Continental’s GP5000 S TR tubeless No dropper post for this monument, Matej Mohoric was back on his aero bike. The Roval-equipped teams are all running the recently spotted tubeless setup and tyres on the Roval Rapide CLX wheelsets. Quickstep raced with black sidewalls. While Bora-Hansgrohe went for the classic look with tan sidewalls. And seemingly 30 mm wide tyres. 30 mm wide tyres at Roubaix was unheard of just a few years ago, now we are seeing increasingly wide tyres at almost every race and Flanders is no different. Up until quite recently, most teams ran 25 mm tires at Flanders. A closer look at the tread pattern on the new S-Works tyres. Team TotalEnergies raced on the same setup. The hot patch gives little indication of what the new tyre will be named.Many teams are still racing with the Shimano R9100-P crankset with the new R9200 12 speed groupset. Including Ineos Grenadiers…Team BikeExchangeLotto-SoudalBut Van der Poel and the entire Alpecin-Fenix team get the new R9200-P power meter crankset. MVDP is racing on an all white Canyon Aeroad, while the rest of the team bikes get a splash of blue on the head tube or, in the case of Silvan Dillier, a big splash of red for his time in the Swiss national champions jersey.MVDP is racing on tubeless. Specifically 28 mm Vittoria Corsa Controls.No narrow bars or angled levers for MVDP, the Dutch superstar simply batters aero drag into submission. A look at MVDP’s schedule for the day. Interestingly, note the name at the bottom, Alpecin seemingly print out course details specific to each rider.Matteo Trentin goes even more traditional with his handlebar setup. Not only does Trentin opt for wider bars than have become popular of late, but he also prefers alloy two-piece setups with traditional shaped drops and 70° Deda Team stem. Team UAE mechanics have had to get creative with a 3D printer in the absence of the carbon one-piece cockpit with integrated cable routing.Keeping it traditional, Trentin sticks with tubular, while others on Team UAE have switched to tubeless. Terpstra is another rider who prefers the traditional drop bars rarely available in carbon one-piece cockpits. The traditional drop bars offer plenty of drop in the drops, but Terpstra drops the drops to a whole new level with a humungous drop from saddle to bars. Note also the saddle slid entirely forward.The Team TotalEnergies two tone red frames might not match the white and blue kit, but they do look great. Jonas Rutsch is 1.97m tall and his stem isn’t much shorter. At 170mm long this custom offering from FSA must be the longest in the peloton.Iphone (other phones are available) for comparison.Rutsch is working off a different script to MVDP.Some pre race-day tech now. We spotted Jumbo-Visma riders are racing in Lazer’s new Vento KinetiCore helmet with a KineticCore promoting design.KinetiCore incorporates rotational protection directly into the EPS foam liner inside the helmet. The Vento is said to be “2.3% more aerodynamic”, but also “29% lighter… and 5.4% cooler” than Lazer’s outgoing Bullet 2.0 helmet.Jumbo-Visma is painting its tyre sidewalls with silicon to smooth the transition from tyre to rim for improved aerodynamics. The silicon fills the gap between the rim and tyre. Jumbo-Visma are also racing on the as of yet unannounced new S5 from Cervelo. Some Jumbo-Visma are racing with the R9200-P crankset, while others like Christophe Laporte are on the R9100-P. The new 54 chainrings on the R9200 groupset. Bigger chainrings are now common place in the peloton.Interesting cable routing on the new R9200 front derailleur and S5 frame. Jumbo-Visma mechanics have also taped the Di2 wire on every bike. No comment as to why. Jumbo-Visma mechanics have this “Speed brake roller” for bedding in new disc brake pads on the spot. The motor driven rollers are controlled with a foot remote and drive the wheel. The mechanic applies the brakes to bed in the pads. Read More
