- At GCN we are very lucky to get to show you guys
some of the most exclusive pro cycling tech
that's on show at races like the Giro,
but some of it, it's a little bit harder to spot,
so here's a quick look
at some of the more subtle and less notable bits of tech
that we spotted at the 2017 Giro d'Italia.
(ambient music)
Stage one of the 2017 Giro was
a bit of a surprise victory it's safe to say,
for Lukas Postlberger of Bora-Hansgrohe,
looked like he was gonna go and lead out his teammate,
Sam Bennett which he did,
so admirably that he actually got a huge gap on the bunch,
and went on to solo and take the victory.
It was actually very very nice to see,
really cool stage win.
And to celebrate his stage win, his Bora-Hansgrohe Team,
got the pink bar tape, they've got the pink bottle cages,
and the mechanics are actually rocking pink socks as well.
And the price for, I think the most different
position on the bike here at the Giro d'Italia
goes to Zhandos Bizhigitov of the Astana Team.
He is clearly a very tall chap.
He's got an extender on the head tube
of his Argon A-Team bike.
He's then got 20mm of spacer,
and he's got the stem angled up,
just to get his desired position.
And the head tube on the bike is massive to start with,
and there is, safe to say,
a lot of seat post sticking out too.
Shows that, not every pro cyclist
goes for a super slam position.
What is important is getting the position
that fits and works for you.
French brand Corima actually came out
with a bunch of new wheels,
it was signed off by the UCI at the start of the 2017.
These one's on this Astana Team bike,
are the 47 MCC S plus wheels.
They got a couple a stickers on the wheels
that say magnet, so I'm guessing that might mean
they have a built in magnet into the wheels
for speedos and stuff like that.
And they are very minimalistic.
This one has just 12 carbon spokes in the front wheel.
Cool, I quite like it.
The Dimension Data Team are sponsored by Ceramic Speed,
we can see they've got Ceramic Speed
bottom bracket-bearings in across the board,
but the only rider with the Ceramic Speed
rear mech cage and jockey wheels that we can see,
is Nathan Haas.
Those are huge, the theory is that the bigger jockey wheels
actually increase efficiency
and thus help you to move forward faster,
but they definitely look very very different
to the Shimano Dura-Ace ones,
and I think very cool.
Most of the custom paint jobs that you see on pro bikes
are pretty overt, pretty out there.
But, this one is very subtle and very cool.
This is Daniel Teklehaimanot's Eritrean Champion Cervelo.
I really like, just how subtle it is.
And I like the colours.
Behind me is Adam Yates' Scott Addict.
And if you look very closely at the bottom bracket,
crank cap, that is quite a lot different
from the standard Dura-Ace one.
It's got a bolt through it,
and those are actually custom made for the team.
And that is where they put in the lead fishing weights,
I believe, to weigh the bikes down
when they're below the UCI weight limit.
We're at the Giro ahead of one of the hilliest stages
early on in the race, so it makes sense,
they're gonna make his bike as light as possible,
also because Yates is one of perhaps,
the slightly shorter riders in the peloton,
it means his bike's smaller and therefore lighter.
It's always quite cool
to see subtle bits of tech like that, I really like it.
Quite interesting one here,
and also quite difficult one to spot,
is the AG2R team spare bikes,
they're actually pretty well, fully equipped
with Shimano Ultegra, save the Dura-Ace chainsets,
they've got Ultegra shifters, mechs, and brakes so on.
A tyre brand you don't see too often
in the World Tour peloton is TUFO,
but they're here with the Gazprom Team at the Giro.
These are pretty interesting, they're quite narrow,
by current standards, they're 23 not 25,
and also, they're pretty hard.
So they've got a recommended pressure of eight to 15 bar,
which is 115 to 220 p.s.i., which again,
many riders are probably riding 100 to 110 maybe maximum,
and they actually probably are that hard,
very accurate flick test.
Yup, 115, possibly, maybe more.
Although this isn't strictly bike tech,
the UCI commissars are actually here,
already before the start
just checking over every teams' bikes with their tablets
or iPads, I don't know which one it is,
to check for any signs of hidden motors.
It's quite cool to see they're still doing this
at every race because of course,
the last thing that anyone wants to happen is
to have one of those mechanical doping positives again.
A pretty cool thing that the Cannondale-Drapac Team do
is that most of their riders ride 130 BCD cranks,
which means that they can't fit the compact chainrings,
like 34's or 36's that we might be used to seeing,
so many of them ride 38 tooth in a ring,
which is the smallest chain that you can get
on a 130 BCD, which is the previous Shimano standard
up until a few years ago.
And it just means that they've got a slightly easier gear
for the slightly steeper hills here at the Giro.
We'd really like to hear the really subtle ways
that you make your bike go faster too,
so let us know your tech hacks down in the comments.
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