- As you know, I absolutely love my bikes and my bike tech.
And I'm lucky enough to be here
at the Santos tour down under,
where every single world tour team is.
So that means that these grubby little hands
and these eyes can check out
all the bikes in their glory.
And I'm going to run through five
of my favorite bikes for 2020.
Come on!
Oh, and that one behind me, that's not included.
(upbeat music)
The 2020 bikes of Bahrain McLaren
formerly known as Bahrain Merida look superb.
I just love the color scheme.
At first, many of us had slight raised eyebrows,
but I think they carried it off on a bike design
to make it look super, in my honest opinion.
The blue colorway, that's apparently a spark
of inspiration and they've carried it all the way through
from the jersey sleeve, through to the inside
of the forks, and also some detailing
on the saddle rails there too.
Of course, it's decked out
with a full Shimano Dura-Ace D-I2 disc group set.
Interestingly as well, on the chainstay
on the left hand side,
there are some little grooves there.
That's actually kind of a heat-shrink if you like.
The number of photographers here hoping for a scoop
that this is a McLaren bike.
That means it must be something
to do with aerodynamics and wind.
Nah, it's not.
Just helps cool down the disc brakes.
But I think the bike itself, it just does something for me.
These colors, they're not meant to work but they do.
I'm sure you agree.
Or don't you?
Let me know in the comments.
(upbeat music)
A bike that I really like in the World Tour this year
has to be the different Cannondales, actually,
of EF, Education First.
The reason being, the team have kind of got this identity
and they're rolling with it.
They're sticking with it,
and everything seems to work around that.
So, within cycling, they kind of,
the relaxed team are the cool dudes from California,
and the color scheme on the bikes works in that way, too.
We've got this sort of
a blue-y purple-y color, almost with a bit
of gray in there, too.
I can't really describe it.
Those of you who follow GCNTech104,
well I'm not very good
when it comes to colors or painting of bikes,
but the mechanics here, they've done a really good job
of actually color coordinating
everything to look absolutely perfect.
From the way the head tube decals has been applied,
on both the SuperSix EVO and the SystemSix
to make both of them look very similar at first glance.
Obviously, once you get to the back of the bike
they look completely different.
But we've got finishing touches on this bike
that I really like, too.
Including the derailleur hanger,
which I talked about last year,
something which is slightly different to a stock model
because it's got a built in chain catcher on there.
And there's also in a pretty cool purple-y anodized color.
We've also got pink details on the Tacx water bottle cages.
And then finally, on the paritimax chain set,
it's Power Meter, sorry on the chain sets,
we've got these really interesting decals on there, too.
I do like attention to detail like that.
This is why this bike is worthy of its inclusion,
in my opinion.
(ambient music)
One of the hottest bikes, in my opinion,
in the World Tour this year
has to be the De Rosa's of the Cofidis team.
They've made a welcome return back to the Peloton.
It's been a while, actually,
since they've been at that real top level.
In fact, I think I have to cast my mind back
to probably Gewiss-Ballan,
or something like that I think,
they were the last team to use De Rosa.
And, well, they're a real strictly Italian affair.
I mean Ugo De Rosa, the company's founder,
he taught Eddie Merckx how to build bikes
so what more can we say about him?
But the bikes themselves are decked out
in almost all Italian components,
other than two bits in particular.
So we've got Campagnolo super record EPS group set,
so we've got Selle Italia saddles on there.
This bike here, of Elia Viviani, he's got a custom SLR boost
I think it is on there.
Uh, we've got full chrome wheels,
of course that is part of the Campagnolo brand,
and they spin silky smooth.
This brake group set, as well, from Campagnolo,
something which I almost never expected them to do,
because they're such a traditional company.
Although, they were one of the first companies
to actually integrate the cables within the handlebar tape
so they weren't coming out the sides
of the levers when it came to brifters
that some people like to call them.
Uh, now the only non-Italian components on these bikes
are the pedals, and guess what the other one is.
The tires.
Michelin.
So the pedals are Look, tires from Michelin,
and I just think the bikes look really classy.
They're not over the top with stickers or decals
or anything like that,
they just look really, really nice.
I'm a big fan of them.
(ambient music)
Another bike I think is really cool
in the World Tour this year, the bikes of Factor.
So, Israel start up nation.
They've got a few different bikes on offer.
They've got the VAM, this one here,
they've got the 02, and also the One.
So the rider's really do have quite a few
different bikes to choose from.
And the reason I actually really like it
is the fact that the sponsors of the team,
I mean they've gone away from traditional things.
You know, most teams when they ride Shimano, for instance,
then the the disc rotors are Shimano,
the pads are Shimano,
the chain is Shimano,
the rear derailleur is Shimano.
But this squad have mixed things up a little bit.
So they've got SwissStop rotors, SwissStop pads,
we've got a KMC gold chain,
which I love because it's bling.
Got ceramic-speed oversized pulley wheels system,
and having spoken to the riders,
they seem so happy with the set up.
Remember, it is a team which is advanced up a league,
so it's gone up a division if you like, into the World Tour.
And they just tend to be listening to the riders
from what I've been hearing.
So you can expect anything to be coming in the future.
Guys like André Greipel, Alex Dowsett,
have been pros for years and years.
They're super happy there.
And just looking around at the environment within the team,
and the bikes, I love it.
I love a bit of bike tech.
Especially when it's not been in the World Tour
for a couple of seasons.
(ambient music)
- Wilier Triestina, another welcome return
in my opinion to the World Tour.
This year sponsoring the Astana squad,
and a funny little story actually,
while I visited the Wilier factory for DCN
back in 2019 probably around September October time,
I saw one of these frames painted up there on a rack.
And I said to, said to the guy who was showing me around
"I really like the color of that, it reminds me of Astana."
He asked us not to film it, because well,
there hadn't been the names yet,
they were going to be sponsoring the squad.
But I think the colorway of this bike
is absolutely stunning,
and the mere fact that they've done it
with the handlebars as well, as integrated unit here
from Wilier as well, it's something that just blows my mind,
because I think so many bikes these days tend
to look the same.
I mean we tend to see a lot of drop seat stays on bikes,
but the color is what often makes them stand out
and catch our eyes.
But something which I really like
about what Astana are doing with their bikes
is the fact that they're not using all
of the really, really mainstream components.
Corima wheels, once a pretty common choice,
but these days you don't really see them that often.
French brand, who did make some wheels for some pretty
big brands as well back in the day,
they are on these bikes and they've been using them
for a number of years.
We've also got ceramic speed components on there too,
so you've got some bearings chucked in here and there
and also an oversized pulley wheel system.
It's things like this I really like.
And also the mechanics said that
bikes like this, they look absolutely beautiful
fully integrated.
But, to work them, it's not quite so simple.
And I can really relate to that.
But, the good thing about this bike is
they've got split headset spacers.
So when it does come to re-hosing and re-cabling up bikes,
it's not quite as much of a headache
as it is for some brands out there.
And speaking about non-mainstream components,
the tires come from Wolf Pack,
which is a very, very small German brand.
I don't know how many staff there is there,
but I reckon it's probably only a handful.
So these are race tubulars,
and having spoken to a number of other mechanics,
they reckon that these things are as grippy
as they come in the wet,
and the riders on these tires can corner twice
as fast as anyone else.
I don't know how true that is,
it might be a slight exaggeration there,
but everyone else seems to be a big fan of these, too.
There we go, some of my favorite bikes
of the 2020 World Tour.
Let me know though, did I make any mistakes
by putting those bikes in there?
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