- There's some amazing new Aero Tech here
at the Tour de France.
And one of my favourites is right here.
We're gonna kick things off for the new Orbea Orca Aero.
Completely new in fact.
It's gonna be launched on
stage three of the Tour de France.
But the Cofidis riders are giving us a little bit
of a sneak peek before then.
Now one of the coolest bits about this bike is that
it is rumoured to be the first one to take advantage
of the fact that the UCI no longer have
their 3:1 tube ratio.
So that's where a tube can't be more than
three times deeper than it is wide.
But now that rule is gone.
Now can you guess which bits we're gonna look at?
Well firstly,
look closely at the fork blades.
So, they are an awful lot thinner
and very, very wide indeed.
But then these chain stays here,
I don't think I've ever seen bigger chain stays before.
They're absolutely massive.
And that obviously isn't going to be purely
down to aerodynamics.
It's about stiffness.
And Orbea said that when they set out to create this bike,
number one priority was aerodynamics.
But then secondly, they wanted a super, super stiff bike.
And having just spoken to the Cofidis mechanic,
the riders all have big grins on their faces.
Sounds like they've achieved that.
- This bike right here is possibly going to be the
first Aero bike with disc brakes to be raced
in a road stage at the Tour de France.
The Team Sunweb mechanics have been good enough
to let me sneak it away into a quiet corner here.
It is the new Giant Propel Disc.
Release date as yet unknown.
It does have its UCI approved sticker,
because it's being used in a UCI race.
They've worked on improving the aerodynamics,
presumably because it's a new model of Giant's Aero Bike.
I literally know nothing about this bike yet.
It's got an integrated stem,
which looks very stiff and very aerodynamic;
Two priorities for a rider like Matthews,
who is a sprinter.
He's gone for deep section Shimano wheels,
we've kept the aerodynamic seat post profile
from the previous version of the Propel,
and yet with integrated disc brakes.
and the disc brakes I presume must be incredibly aero too.
Very cool.
If we're talking Aero Tech, of course we have to
talk about TT bikes as well as road bikes.
And something that many time trials prefer,
I don't know if strictly this is aero tech,
is clincher tyres.
So they'll have a clincher with a latex and a tube,
so it's a super light setup.
Edvald Boasson Hagen right here
is epitomising that with
his disc wheel and his
Continental Grand Prix TT 23 millimetre clincher
tyre at the rear.
- Now this isn't necessarily super aero,
but given that it is on a Cannondale Super Slice
time trial bike, it's definitely going to
have a mention because
it's got disc brakes.
Now there's not many disc brake
time trial bikes kicking around.
And in fact,
when Bettiol rides this on the time trial stage
and the first stage of the Tour de France he becomes
the first rider in history to use disc brakes
in the Tour de France, so there you go.
The Cannondale Super Slice Disc.
It's gonna make a little bit of history.
- Just before this year's Tour de France,
a whole load of new bikes were announced,
including this one right here.
So the more aerodynamically minded members of
the Bahrain-Merida team such as Yukiya Arashiro
have now gone for the latest version of the Merida Reacto;
Something that we saw undercover at the Giro,
actually they still have a model undercover here,
but here it is in team colours:
navy, red, and gold.
You can see some of the new features include
a slightly refined top tube shape
to make it more aerodynamic, more seamless if you will.
There's some more going on with the seat post
and things like that.
It's a cool new upgrade,
looks very, very nice.
- Now this isn't an out-and-out aero bike.
The aero bike in Colnago's range is actually
behind us on the work stand.
That's the Colnago Concept, but this,
the V2R, is brand new.
Now it's the replacement for the V1R, surprise surprise,
and it's not a complete re-design, rather a tweaking.
So for example, the tyre clearance has been boosted to 28s,
we've got a now-integrated seat post clamp there,
and we've also got something I really like,
which is the revised cable routing.
So there's like a port at the front for your cable.
That's a really, really neat solution.
Now unlike Colnago's classic carbon frames,
which are made out of lugged construction,
so that's where you get tubes that are then glued
into lugs at all these junctions here,
this one is a monocoque.
So a normal tile of carbon frame, you might say.
And it makes it really light. Just 835 grammes
for the frame set.
Now it might not be an out-and-out aero bike but
it is lighter than your average aero bike.
The frame weighs about 835 grammes so pretty
featherweight really by aerodynamic standards.
There we go then, a quick trip through some of the
aero highlights at the Tour de France.
Stay tuned because undoubtedly more will be unveiled
as the race goes on.
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