(loud percussion)
- [Blonde Man] I'm here at the Tour de France
to see how one of the biggest companies in cycling,
Shimano, supports its sponsored teams in time trials.
Now, Shimano currently sponsors seven teams
in the world tour here at the Tour de France.
They are Bora,
Mitchelton Scott,
FDJ,
Quick-Step,
Jumbo Visma,
Sunweb and
INEOS.
(chillhop music)
- Now, some of you may be wondering,
"What about those other teams that use Shimano?"
Like, Bahrain Merida or
EF-- Education First, or Astana.
Well, those teams do use Shimano, but they're not
technically sponsored by them.
The ones that are, are the ones that I listed.
Now before I go and show you the time trial tech
that Shimano helps its teams with,
make sure you subscribe to GCN
if you haven't already and also remember
to click the little bell icon
'cause it helps the channel out and gives
you a notification when we upload new content.
(chillhop music)
I've got a superb example for you here of
a Shimano sponsored time trial bike used
for the Tour de France.
This is the Pinarello Bolide of Geraint Thomas,
the reigning Tour de France Champion.
It doesn't get much cooler than this.
Now the obvious thing that stands out about this bike
apart from the time trial frame is
the wheels and they come from
Shimano's subsidiary, PRO.
Now, we have a disk wheel at the back
and a very distinctive tri-spoke at the front.
The reason why they use the disk wheel is because
it offers lower drag than a normal spoked wheel.
It doesn't have all the spokes
that can catch the wind and effectively slosh around.
But, the reason why they don't use the disk
on the front as well, is because
it is too aerodynamically unstable.
That big disk makes you faster, but it
acts like a big sail.
Which means, if you were to have it on the front wheel,
where, is the pivot of the steering, it would effectively--
if there a gust-- it could knock the steering off
and potentially cause the rider to crash or at least
knock them off course.
So, instead we have the tri-spoke from PRO
which is very aerodynamic wheel,
but there's other wheels offered from Shimano as well.
So we have the Shimano C60 and
the shallower Shimano C40.
And the wheel that the rider will use in the front
is very much down to personal preference
and also the conditions.
So on very windy days, you can expect the riders to use
a shallower wheel like the C40 or perhaps,
sometimes lighter riders as well, they prefer
a shallower wheel, as well.
Another piece of really cool kit
that Shimano supplies to the PRO team are
specialist chain sets.
I love these.
I think they are really, really cool.
So, look at the size of the chain set
that's on Geraint Thomas' time trial bike.
It's an absolute whopper.
I mean, you could eat your dinner off that,
it's such a big dinner plate.
It's a 58-46.
Now, most of us mortals, when we ride bikes,
we have about a 50-34 compact chain set
or maybe a 52-36, but that chain ring is huge
So Geraint Thomas is obviously very, very strong
as are many of the pros and
so they do push bigger chain rings, but
they're not generally using the 58
with the 11 tooth tiny cog at the back.
They generally ride it in the middle of the block
and the advantage of having a bigger chain ring
is that it offers a a better chain line
and also bigger chain rings create less friction
within the drivetrain.
And the reason for this is that the chain
travels through less tight angles.
And if you use smaller chain rings,
well that's less efficient.
That's less mechanically efficient because
there's more friction in all the little joints
in the chain as it bends more
through all the tighter angles.
And by saving this small amount of friction
in the drivetrain,
they can save a few watts when the driver is pedaling.
And this is only a small amount of power.
Something in the region of, you know,
three to five watts,
but when the winning margins are so small in time trials,
this can be significant.
This can be the difference between winning or losing.
The other cool thing about these chain sets is
that the inner chain ring and the outer chain ring
are matched together in a set.
So here we have the 58-46.
And the reason for that is because,
if you have too big a gap between the chain links,
you can't mix and match them.
For example, you can't have a 58 and pair it with a 34,
because the gap is then too big and
you could potentially drop the chain
when you change between the two.
And so you have really, really intricate and
really careful ramping.
The shaping of these teeth is deliberate
and matches up with the shaping on this inner chain ring,
so that when you change, shifts
(pop)
perfectly.
And while we are talking about the drivetrain,
we need to talk about the cassette
because there are different options available there, too.
And, now, Geraint Thomas has opted on this occasion
for an 11-30 cassette.
Now that offers the biggest range available.
But, Shimano also does 11-28 and 11-25 cassettes.
Now, the choice of the cassette that's fitted
depends on rider preference, but
also the specific stage or course profile
of the time trial they'll be riding.
Now, flatter courses riders might opt for an 11-25.
And the reason for that is because it's a
closer ratio to cassette which means
that the jumps between each gear are smaller.
Which means you can kind of fine tune and
just have, like, smoother gears and
really fine tune your cadence
and your gear choice.
But the downside to an 11-25 is that,
if there's a hill in the course,
you don't have that bigger 28 or 30 tooth gear
for getting up the hill.
(chillhop music)
Come over to group Groupama-FDJ to have a look
at their time trial equipment.
Now, they're a really good example because,
Groupama-FDJ were a team that would quiver
and have nightmares at the prospect of a team time trial.
They'd often lose a lot of time to their rivals
but they've turned it around and
they did this by, well, by looking at their training,
but also their equipment.
So, let's have a look.
(chillhop music)
- From your perspective as a mechanic working on bikes
such as this which have incredible amounts
of integration, how is life different when
you are using an electronic group set like DI-2
compared to the traditional cable group sets from--
you know mechanical group sets, from older days.
- [Jurgen] I think we are a little bit spoiled
because we have all the nice equipment
and especially the DI-2 because
as you can see we want to have everything inside.
With the mechanical group set that's
probably a little bit easy to have such a clean set-up.
For us, for aerodynamics, DI-2 is what you need.
- [Blonde Man] And so, I know as well, on the front
that's quite an interesting, well it's quite unusual.
What's going on with the shifters
on the tri-bar extensions of Stephan's bike?
- [Jurgen] Well, it started in the beginning
of the season, you know, where we did the fitting
with Stephan
and he really wanted something, you know,
like really specific set-up of the bike
and we decided
that we wanted to use the sprint shifters
which is maybe sounds a little bit strange,
but the sprint shifter you can use
just by connecting to the normal brake shifter.
- [Blonde Man] And I guess it's also useful
that you can shift both in the base bar
and on the tri-bars as well
whereas on mechanical group sets--
- [Jurgen] Exactly, exactly. That's what--
You have to be in the arrow position to shift.
That's very important but if you come to a turn,
or like a short hill or something,
you have to be able to react immediately.
It's all about seconds and that's how you do it
with DI-2.
(chillhop music)
- [Blonde Man] To change gear and brake on a time trial bike
uses different shifters and the reason for this
is that the time trial shifters are designed to be smaller,
and more aerodynamic and,
well, they're ergonomically different because
they are in a different position.
Completely different orientation to a normal road bike
and so Shimano makes special ones.
So you can see here that the Dura-Ace time trial louvers
that go in the base bar with their smaller levers
and also these buttons on the extensions.
Which means you can change gear both in
the base bar and on the extensions.
And the cool thing here of the Groupama-FDJ team crook is
we have examples of three different types.
So on Rudy Molard's bike, he's got
the previous generation extension shifters.
Then on Stefan Kung's bike, he's actually got a hat.
This is really cool.
He's got some sprint shifters on the end of his bar ends.
And they work exactly the same way
and that's one of the beauties of Dura-Ace,
is the wires can simply be routed
into the junction box and, well, it works.
And then, moving back here onto
one of the other riders bikes we've got
the latest model of extension shifters
on the end here with these simple buttons.
Very nice.
One of the cool things about Shimano DI-2
being electronic is that you can actually program it.
And that's actually easier to do than you might think.
Theres's an E-tube app which you can get
on your phone or tablet.
And using that you can connect it to the group set
and you can do a number of things such as
you can program what the functions of specific buttons are.
So, normally you'd have the standard set-up
of this button shifts down and this button shifts up.
But, you can switch it round if you wanted to or
you could even make these buttons
control the front de railer if you really wanted to.
But it's cool to have that customization for the riders.
You can also tune the gears with the system as well.
So, for example, certain gear combinations
aren't as efficient as others.
You can set the system to avoid these for you automatically.
So, for example, the big chain ring at the front
and when that is paired with big sprocket at the back,
that's a cross chain and it's a sub-optimal gear
and it creates a lot of additional drivetrain friction
and isn't very efficient and so
you can set the system so that
you can never enter that gear
which is kind of useful.
And, finally, a really important piece of tech
that Shimano provides is its power meter.
Now, this is also found on the road bikes
that the sponsored team will use,
but in time trials, power meters are
hugely important.
Many riders ride to power now because it allows them
to gage and pace their effort very effectively
and not go out too hard.
And going out too hard could mean
you blow up and hemorrhage time before you even get to
the finish and, well, lose.
I hope you have enjoyed this behind the scenes look at
how Shimano provides specialist equipment
to help support its teams in time trials
and if you have, then please give it a thumbs up
and share it with your friends.
And to see how Shimano helps support teams
in the Cobbled Classics with specialists bits and pieces,
then you can click over here.
I really love the time trial tech.
I'm a bit of a time trial nerd.
And in case you'd like to buy one of these brilliant
France-themed GCN T-shirts, well got them for sale
in the GCN Shop.
You're in luck.
So, click down here.