- This is the BMC Timemachine 01
of Australian time trialling ace, Rohan Dennis.
This year he has stormed to victory
on no less than five occasions on this machine,
three times at individual time trials
and two times as the winning member
of a team time trial formation.
Now, he's riding a medium-large frame here
and as you can see, the bars at the front there
and the extensions are not all that low.
We'll talk about the stack height there
a little bit later on,
but one of the things I want to point out to you first
is the junction box there at the front.
The idea behind this is that it gives
a ratio between the brake levers
and the brakes themselves at the wheel.
So, for example, every centimetre or so
that you pull the brake lever on here,
there is about a centimetre and a half
of movement at the brakes themselves
and that allows, of course, more clearance by the rims,
there's less chance of wheel rub, et cetera,
which can be a problem with some time trial bikes.
Then, there's another junction box at the back
by the seat post here and this is not actually
one that Rohan or any of the team will be using
because this is where triathletes generally
put their seat post, so you can get into
a much more forward position.
One of the other interesting parts about the bike for me
is the position Rohan has got on it.
It's a medium-large frame, but as you can see,
there's not that much of drop from the saddle there
to the bar extensions just here.
Now, there's actually former team mates of mine
from my Flanders days called Jurgen Landry
who is the mechanic here at the Vuelta a Espana
and he told me that they put a bar
between the two axles here on the frame and the forks
and they measure up from that bar
directly to the bar extensions in the arm rest here
and Rohan's position is 64 centimetres
from that point down to that line just over here.
What I do really like about this bike
is how clean it looks.
I mean, you can barely see any cables,
you can't see the brakes.
In fact, the only cables you can see are there
at the rear mech coming out of the frame
and also a very tiny bit here.
This is actually a slight modification
that mechanics have used.
A couple of old inner tubes they slip
over the top of this stack height just here
to keep the cables all very nice and neat
and, of course, aerodynamic as well.
And the other modification that you see
on quite a few time trial bikes is this,
sandpaper for extra grip on the bar extensions.
Let us take a look at some of the finishing kit.
The group set is the full Shimano Dura Ace DI2 9070.
He's got 11 up through to 28 cassette
and 44 by 56 tooth chain rings up there
on the SRM Shimano Power Meter at the front.
The bar extensions come from 3T
and he's opted for that slight S-bend style model,
which does differ from some of his teammates
here at the Vuelta,
and on top here, he's got a Fi'zi:k Ares
TT-specific saddle with some extra grip.
And, as you can see, it's slightly shorter
than most models that you'll get for road racing.
Now, I've been talking again to Jurgen
about the dimensions of the bike and the position.
His saddle height is about 78 centimetres
from the centre of the bottom bracket
to roughly where he sits.
Now, they are, again, governed by UCI regulations
for measurements, so the saddle has to be
at least five centimetres behind the bottom bracket
when measured from a vertical point of view.
The other measurement they have to be within
is 80 centimetres from the centre of the bottom bracket
measured forwards to the tip of
the bar extensions, there, the TT bars.
The wheels are from Shimano's subsidiary, PRO.
This is their latest model, the Textreme Disc Wheel here
and tri-spoke there at the front, of course, tubulars.
The tubulars that are on them are the Vittoria Speed
25 millimetre tyre, which are fairly standard.
At the front wheel, by the valve,
you can see a rubber ring, like a sticky one.
That's quite a clever way of stopping
the valve from rattling,
which, again, can be a problem with carbon wheels.
And on the other side of the disc wheel here,
have a look, there you can see a miniature magnet,
which they have stuck onto the disc wheel
for the SRM Speed Sensor to pick up.
A very nice-looking machine indeed.
Thanks for BMC for letting us have a look at it.
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A couple more videos for you to watch right now.
In the top corner up there,
you can have a look at how a triathlon pro bike differs,
that is Alistair Brownlee's team Scott Bike.
And just down there, is the Vuelta a España GCN preview.