We're here for another extra tech news with Caley Fretz from Velo news. Caley, when we
spoke last it was down in Southern Italy, we were on flat roads talking aerodynamic road bikes
and aerodynamic TT bikes. Now here we are in the mountains, what are the changes that people
have made to their bikes for this? Well a team like Blanco sitting behind us are going
to be on a completely different frame, they're moving from their aero Propel to their TCR.
There are also going to be changes in gearing, changes in wheels and tyres. It's basically
to move weight away from rotating points and into elsewhere on the frame. They are going to
look for a little more stiffness to hit that 6.8kg UCI weight limit as close as possible.
It's actually quite hard for a team to get to the 6.8kg, a lot of bikes tend to
be about 7.2, 7.3. How much weight are they saving on a climbing frame like a
TCR to a Propel? The frame itself is probably going to be a couple of hundred grammes, it
depends on the manufacturer how close those two are going to be. The big thing is ride
quality, a lot of the guys are going to go for the wider, stiffer frames for the mountain
stages where the aerodynamics isn't as important.
We spoke last time at length about 25mm tyres because teams were adopting this for aerodynamic
advantages, but now we're in the mountains, as we said, aerodynamics aren't the issue.
Do you think teams will be back on 23s?
Yeah, the 25s was a result of Shimano's recommendation, their C50 rim is a wide rim, it works quite well
aerodynamically with the 25mm tyre, there is not a lot of aerodynamic downside to running
a bigger tyre so they may as well run the bigger one on the flat stages - slightly lower rolling resistance,
more comfort. In the mountains, they're looking for low weight, they're trying
to decrease weight particularly at the outer edge of those wheels and decrease inertia.
So they're going to run 23s, they are a little bit lighter, they're running a narrower rim,
for example the Blanco guys are going to be running Shimano C35s or even C24s, which is quite
a narrow rim, it matches up better with the 23mm tyre.
In terms of weight savings, then, for a 23 over a 25 we're looking at what? 30, 40 grammes
per tyre? Yeah, again it is going to depend on the tyre, but that's usually a pretty good guess.
A pretty marginal gain there. Very marginal gain, a lot of this is marginal gains, but
they do everything that they can. If you add up stuff like that over the course of the entire Telegraphe
and the entire Galibier, it's not so marginal anymore.
Can we talk about clothing now, as well? The riders have been battered with horrific weather
and there's this trend for unmarked Castelli Gabba jerseys. What do you think the change
is there between non-waterproof shells? Yeah, it's a visual difference, even from a couple of
years ago, when guys would pull out the rain capes, those old-school rubber, plastic...they
were horrible! I'm sure you've used them, I've used them, they were terrible, you're a sweat box inside
that thing. But in the last year or so, Castelli came out with the Gabba, there's a couple of
other manufacturers that have jumped on that train as well, it's a Gore product so any
manufacturer can make their own version. Vermarc is making one, and there's a couple here that
say 'prototype' on the back - I can't really tell if they are just a re-badged Castelli or actually something
new. It's a massive improvement for the riders because it's a much more versatile piece of clothing
that allows much more breathability, it's still going to keep the rain out, it's much
more aerodynamic. Castelli were saying the difference between a traditional rain cape
and their Gabba jersey is something in the order of like 15% in drag difference between
those two items.
Something that was occurring to me though: pro bike racers have been contending with
terrible weather for decades and decades, and the clothing has been getting better and better.
But we still see stages cancelled or ammended due to poor weather, and we still see riders
getting to the finish in pieces because they are so cold. Given the improvements
in technology, why are we not seeing guys able to cope with the weather - have they
just got softer? Maybe, don't say that too loud right here! No, I think cold is cold.
If you look at Hampsten on the Gavia back in the day - wool clothes, short-fingered
gloves and all that stuff. I think that was probably downright dangerous. I think these guys now, with the stuff
they have available to them - much safer. At the end of the day, though, they are still
on road bikes, 23 or 25mm tyres, you can't make them ride in the snow too much, they will
just crash, regardless of how much clothing they have available to them. The other thing
is that they are not going to wear all of it, so at the start of the stage on Sunday,
right before the rest day, a lot of guys were bundled up at the start wearing everything
they have - their Gabba jersey and their long tights, big gloves and all that stuff. By
half the stage, they've ditched all that stuff, it's in the car. Then they hit the Galibier
and it starts getting really cold up there, but all of the stuff is back in the car and
they can't get their gear back. Sometimes having it available to them is irrelevant because
they don't have it on anyway. Rumours that teams are going to be bringing
cyclocross bikes to next year's Giro aren't confirmed, but it seems likely that they may(!)
I don't know what to say to that!
Caley, thanks very much for joining us. For more of Caley's insights,remember to head
over to Velonews.com.