- Vincenzo Nibali, an absolute legend
of the sport of cycling, and here at the Giro d'Italia,
he is lighting up the 2019 race, a race he has won
on two occasions back in 2013 and 2016.
But what is the bike of choice that he could take
to victory here in Italy?
And it is the Merida Scultura.
(air whooshing) (metal zinging)
Let's start off with the frame.
Look at it for a start.
This is a fully custom paint job with gold, red, black,
this beautiful red flash down the downtube,
and it's also covered in sponsor stickers.
As we all know, Vincenzo Nibali spends a lot of time
at the front of a race on camera, so the sponsors
have really decorated this bike with FSA here,
Merida, Continental, Bahrain, Merida, Merida.
It's just covered in logos, but also,
one really interesting thing is he's got his Vincenzo Nibali
with his Italian flag on the back here,
like a number plate, if you will.
♪ Next time ♪
(perky electronic music)
♪ Next time ♪
- Onto the wheels, then.
He's got some Fulcrum 40T limited edition carbon rims,
super light for the mountains, and mounted onto them,
he's got some Continental tubular Pro limited tubs.
Seems like a lot of the World Tour pros use these,
and Vincenzo Nibali's no exception.
He's also got some Fulcrum carbon hubs in there.
Vincenzo's opted for the rim brake version.
Now that we can only assume it's for lightweight
because we`are going to the mountains.
We got the Garvey and Motorola tomorrow,
a lot of climbing, so lightweight is going to be
absolutely paramount.
Moving up the bike then, we hit the 41 name sticker.
Vincenzo Nibali's ride, number 41 this race,
and the mechanics have put that on nicely,
secured it to the seat post there.
He's opted for a Shimano Dura Ace Di2 groupset,
as you can see here, and also at the back here
on the rear derailleur.
So the gears Vincenzo's opted for for tomorrow's stage
is a 53/38 and on the back he's going for 11-30.
And one thing I will add is I gave those cranks a spin
before the chain was on and they are silky smooth.
I am telling you, silky smooth.
Mounted on to this bike, he has gone for an SRM PowerMeter.
SRM are known for being super accurate with their numbers,
just what Nibali needs.
So mounted onto the SRM PowerMeter,
he's got a custom SRM power crank at 172.5 onto pedals.
Pedals are a really personal thing,
and Vincenzo's opted for the Dura Ace Shimano R9100 SPD Sls.
Moving up from, he's opted for a one carbon spacer,
so he's not totally slammed, and mounted on to that,
he's gone for a 120 FSA custom stem
with his Nibali shark stickers coming in.
And attached to the stem,
he's gone for a 42 width carbon FSA bars
on to those he's got his SRM head unit mount,
in the middle of the handlebars
here you'll notice these little nobs.
These are the sprint shifters so
when he's sprinting and he's in the
hooks it that aerodynamic position he's
able to change gear nicely and quickly
and easily the mechanics have also done
an incredible job on making this front
end incredibly simple aerodynamic
and clean so they're taped up all the wires
and cables and made them into route into
the frame nice and easily it looks
really good actually that front end.
Fitted to these bars he's gone from Pro logo
handlebar tape which actually are quite nice
and cushiony also the pro logo label here
and that is for extra bit of TV time.
So moving over from the handlebars we go straight
onto the saddle, now this is a non branded one,
with carbon rails.
Sitting on an FSA Kforce Carbon seat post
and you'll notice this black box here now that is
the quark power box so to keep all the data
or transmit all the data to the TV crews
(upbeat music)
You will notice some of you eagle-eyed
viewers out there that he's got an SRM
speed sensor here mounted to the front
fork but he hasn't got the magnet on
this wheel so I'm guessing he's racing
on a different pair of wheels tomorrow
also to note on these wheels he's got a
small little valve so they haven't gone
for the extra long valve extenders
like you see on most wheels
or most carbon rims.
instead they've gone for the really
small ones so I guess they don't rattle
but it's a nice little touch that it'll keep
it nice clean and simple.
So just spinning the bike round to show you this,
this is the Vincenzo Nibali custom crank arm
and look at that, the Italian flag with his
shark of course that is, he is nicknamed The Shark
so that works perfectly
but I think that's really smart I have to say
probably my favorite feature of the bike
over on the back here he's got the chip here
and that is for the timing of the race
so to keep it really accurate when
he goes over those timing mats
at the finish of every stage.
Onto the bottle cages though
and he's got elite, carbon bottle cages
super lightweight and if you look really closely
he's even got some tape wrapped around
the outer rim of the bottle cage to make
sure those bottles just don't bounce out
because the last thing you want to do
is have a bottle bounce out in the middle
of a long stage especially like the one tomorrow.
(upbeat music)
Now I haven't forgotten one thing you
want to hear is that free-hub soundcheck
so I will not disappoint.
I'm going to get absolutely soaking doing this
but I'll do it for you.
Wow.
I mean that's going to go on forever.
There you have it our close look
at Vincenzo Nibali's Merida Scultura.
Is this going to be the bike
that is going to take him
to the third victory here at the Giro d'Italia?
I mean we'll have to see.
I've certainly liked looking at this bike
and if you have to
then make sure you give it a big thumbs up
and for more Giro content,
Why don't you click on Vincenzo's bike?
Right I better get an umbrella because I am soaking.