- The Giro d'Italia kicks off today
with an eight kilometer
individual time trial
around Bologna,
which has a serious sting in the tail,
a two kilometer, very steep climb
to the Basilica di San Luca.
- Yeah, it'll be interesting to see
if that decisive climb at the end
affects the tech choices that the riders
and teams make for the time trial.
But I think we need to go
in search of some tech, Dan,
and just see what else we can find.
So you go that way, I'll go this way.
(laughs)
(upbeat music)
The award for the coolest team car
at the 2019 Giro d'Italia goes to
Bahrain Merida.
Because they've got a McLaren 270S Coupé.
Where as all the other teams, well,
they basically have Škodas, yep.
So they're going to be using this
in the opening time trial
of this year's race.
And to do that, they've got a modified,
custom SeaSucker roof rack on the top.
So Vincenzo Nibali's spare
bikes are going to go on here.
And they've even painted it gold
to match with the team
colors, which is really cool.
Now this is an incredibly powerful car,
and at the back we've got a
3.8 liter V8 twin-turbo engine,
nought to 60 in about 3.1 seconds.
And it has 562 break horsepower.
Now if you're wondering,
one horsepower is about 735 watts,
meaning that, with some quick maths,
I can tell you this car
has about 425,000 watts,
almost as many as Chris Opie.
Now, the reason why the team have this car
is because they're partnered with McLaren.
But that partnership extends beyond
just having the best team cars,
which they clearly do.
It's also because McLaren
wants to provide the team
with its engineering
and analytical expertise
to help further it.
But this is only the beginning, really,
of that relationship.
So it'll be really interesting
to see how that develops in the future.
McLaren is quite
established in cycling now,
you may remember Mark
Cavendish's S-Works Venge bikes
from a few years ago.
But you might not know
that it goes back as 2008,
when British cycling were at Beijing,
they were behind a lot of the success.
(sighs)
I've got to go, sorry.
- We're fairly used to seeing team Sky,
now team Ineos, with custom
3D printed aero bars.
Slightly rarer in other
teams but this bike
of Victor Campenaerts' has
some on called speed bars.
They are prohibitively
expensive even for pro-teams,
apparently 3000€ is the retail value,
if you at home want to get yourself some.
Custom molded to your hand and forearm
so you have complete support
all the way down here,
making it more comfortable,
but also more aero.
The claims are that these
will save you 10 watts
at 50ks per hour when there's no wind.
And they'll save you 23 watts
at a 10 degree Eurla angle,
Which is a lot.
- Victor Campenaerts isn't the only one
with a custom cockpit on his TT bike.
Vincenzo Nibali's got one as well,
although his is made from carbon fiber
and it looks very nice indeed.
But it's got these cool
little holes in the front
where his shifters go on
his bar-ends, very neat.
And he's got some skateboard
tape on his base bar as well.
Now, also, like Campenaerts he's running
a clincher tire at the front,
and a tubular tire at the back.
Both have latex inner-tubes
for decreased rolling resistance,
and the front one is a
23mm Grand Prix TT tire
from Continental, but it's a prototype one
with the 111 designation
on the front, there.
On the back, it is a Podium TT.
Once again, that climb at
the end of the time trial
is affecting the gears
choice the riders are making
for the opening time trial.
And Nibali has gone for
a 54/42 tooth chain set at the front.
Although there's no fooling me,
that's actually a 39
tooth inner chain ring.
They've swapped it out,
I know because I counted it.
And on the back he's actually,
well he's got a 30 tooth
cassette tape as well
which we've seen quite a lot of the riders
are going for the 30 tooth cassette
instead of the sort of
normal 28 tooth cassette
that you'd go for on a flat TT.
- It's quite interesting
looking at the different grips
that riders use on their time trial bikes.
Many, as you would have
seen on videos gone by,
have used skateboard grip tape
which is almost like a sandpaper.
Something a little bit
different though here
from Jos van Emden who
has, what appears to be,
an old latex inner-tube
that's been cut off
and wrapped around the
bar extensions, here.
Which does happen to very nicely match
the celest of the Bianchi time trial bike.
- The amount of integration on
modern time trial bikes now,
is, well, it's astounding
compared to what it was
even just a few years ago.
And I really love this
Seatpost clamp bolt cover
that we've got here.
So this just pops off and gives you access
to the Seatpost clamp, but
also reveals another slot.
So this is a clever little idea.
If you wanted to adjust
the fit of this bike
and have the saddle further
over the bottom bracket,
then you could actually
take the Seatpost out
and slot it in there, very neat.
Right, I know you're going
to want to know the weight.
Now I don't have scales here right now,
but we just weighed it in
the truck with the mechanics
and it came out at just a
touch over nine kilograms.
Which might sound heavy,
but it's pretty competitive,
and pretty standard for a time trial bike
in a full race-build mode.
And you've got to remember
that aero trumps weight.
Now, for the for the freehub sound check,
and I think it's going
to be a good one this,
Enve hubs don't normally disappoint.
Let's go.
Oh!
- Come to Deceuninck-Quick-Step's
hotel now,
they're of course using Specialized Shiv
time trial bikes.
Nothing particularly of note here.
We have heard a small rumor that
there is a brand new
time trial bike about.
But of course the teams are keeping that
up under wraps for the moment.
But what has struck me is the
variation, firstly in armrest.
So some are going for this very open,
fairly wide design like this.
Others are going for a very narrow,
almost, well, like a bucket
seat in a sports car,
your elbows not going to be
moving much in those things.
There's also a big variation
in the type of grips
that people are using
at the ends of the bars,
we've already seen Jos van Emdem's
using those old inner-tubes.
Well here, we've got this cotton stuff
which comes from TSA.
We've also got some people that have opted
for that kind of skateboard gripper tape,
and some, like Viviani, who
have gone completely naked.
Meanwhile, here at Katusha, Marco Haller
and most of his teammates have opted
for a kind of foam sleave as the grip
at the end of their bar extensions.
Hope you're all finding this as riveting
and gripping as I am.
What's also of note here
on the Caynon SpeedMax time trial bike
that they're using, is the fact that
they are sponsored by SRAM,
and therefore they are
using the brand new surround
red AXS 1x groupset.
So at the moment for the time trial
he's opted for a 50
tooth front chain ring,
and on that 12 speed cassette,
goes from 10 up to 33.
Now I've just checked online and 50 by 33
is roughly the equivalent of 39 by 26.
And they're of course
a lot stronger than me,
but I still don't think
they're going to spinning
up the San Luca climb in the time trial
with that particular gearing.
Also of note is the fact
that they are using clinchers
on the tires here, it says
25mm Continental Grand Prix TT,
but, well, the zip disk and
zip front wheel are so wide;
it looks way fatter than a 25 to me.
- Now with regards to stage
one, it finished up a climb
and so we've got some
unusual gearing selections
on this bike.
At the back we've got an 11/32 cassette,
now that's unusual because,
well, it's all tegral
there isn't a Dura Ace 11/32.
And apparently Dura Ace
isn't supposed to work
with a 32 cassette, but it clearly does
because they've made it work here.
And the way they've done that,
is they've wound in the B limit screw.
And at the front we've got
some unusual gearing as well.
So behind this solid chain ring,
which is solid for aerodynamic reasons,
we have a 38 tooth inner ring,
so a 56 with 38.
Which is quite unusual, and
not normally recommended
for use because you have a big drop off,
a big cliff, between the two gears.
Which means there's an
added risk of dropping
your chain when you change at the front.
So the EF riders have
actually gone out today
and reckoned the time trial course
with this setup to check that it's okay
and to check that they can
do that crucial gear change
for the climb, and not drop their chain.
And all good, I'm told
that it is working okay,
and they feel confident,
and they're going to go with this setup.
Because that climb is going to be tough
so they're definitely not
going to be in the 56,
and they want to be able to spin
whilst still staying
in that aero position.
- Well if you haven't ready figured out
why we leave John and
Ollie to do all the tech,
you probably realize now.
But I did do my best to
find some decent tech.
- You did good, man.
- Thank you.
Before we finish the video,
you may have noticed were
sporting some rather nice
Italian themed t-shirts today.
They are available over at
shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com
the link to which you'll
find fairly shortly .
This is the country tee,
and that one, of course,
is the GCN Italia tee.
- Yeah, mines got a bit of pizza on it.
But we hope you've enjoyed this video,
and if you have then
please give it a thumbs up
and subscribe to GCN
if you haven't already.
And, well, for another video click on Dan
for his time trial preview
from stage one of the Giro.
- We dodged a bullet there, mate.
(laughs)
