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Giro Tech 2013: Team Sky's Pinarellos, Lotto Bellisol Ridleys, and Garmin Cervélo bike tech from stage 14

A look at the bikes, wheel and gearing choices as riders faced the first high mountain stage of the Giro

With Stage 14 of this year’s Giro d’Italia being the first to send the peloton into the Alps, finishing on the brutal climb to the summit of the Jaffrau, some of the riders resorted to different equipment to help tackle the 14% gradients and freezing weather which was forecast and materialised.

The Lotto Belisol team were all riding the Ridley Helium frame, as opposed to the Noah FAST, all equipped with Campagnolo wheels and Record EPS groupset. For this stage every rider was running 11/29 cassettes and 53/39 chainrings. Not all were using the Ridley branded SRM power meter cranks.

Only Brian Bulgac and Frederik Willems were on deep section Bora wheels, perhaps hinting to their role in the early part of the race, the rest of the team chose the lower profile Hyperion rims. The Bora’s aerodynamic properties have less effect when tackling steep gradients.

Team Sky’s Shimano wheels are clad with Veloflex Carbon tubulars, with a new set for Uran.

As with Lotto, two of the bikes, belonging to Zandio and Siutsou, were rolling on deeper section C35 wheels.

Over at Garmin-Sharp the entire team were running Mavic’s Cosmic Carbone 50mm wheels on their various Cervelo frames. Those frames varied from Tom Danielson and Christian Vandevelde’s RCAs to David Millar’s S5, unusual for such a stage, though still no heavier than the 6.8kg minimum weight restriction. The rest of the team were on R5s. All of the American team started the stage using a 12/29 cassette with 53/39 chainrings, the only exception to this being Millar, who habitually uses a 36 tooth inner ring.

Again proving a rule, Alex Dowsett was one of the two Movistar riders to ride deep section wheels, this time Campagnolo Boras.

Though notably Juan Jose Cobo was the only rider we saw on alloy rims.

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8 comments

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Super Domestique | 10 years ago
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Any news on what bikes Sky will ride next year?

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David Arthur @d... | 10 years ago
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We saw some of the San Marco Ass Saver mudguards at Milan San Remo http://road.cc/content/review/80248-san-marco-ass-saver-mudguard , not seen any since though

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Zermattjohn | 10 years ago
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I'd have thought the minor weight/aero difference was offset by the comfort/lack of extra weight of water weighing down your kit?

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Super Domestique | 10 years ago
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Lars Boom (iirc) did run one of those mini splash guards that fit under the saddle at Milan - San Remo.

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Zermattjohn | 10 years ago
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With the conditions being so cr@p do riders ever put mudguards on? There are some that weigh pretty much nothing and it would make the whole experience so much less miserable, esp if you're smack in the middle of the bunch getting sprayed from all directions for 200km. My hunch is either the riders/teams/sponsors dont like them because it detracts from the whole MTFU image, or is it UCI?

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mustard replied to Zermattjohn | 10 years ago
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Zermattjohn wrote:

do riders ever put mudguards on? ... either the riders/teams/sponsors dont like them because it detracts from the whole MTFU image, or is it UCI?

Traditional mudguards aren't allowed in races due to their propensity to become sharp pointy things in a crash.

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seabass89 replied to mustard | 10 years ago
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mustard wrote:
Zermattjohn wrote:

do riders ever put mudguards on? ... either the riders/teams/sponsors dont like them because it detracts from the whole MTFU image, or is it UCI?

Traditional mudguards aren't allowed in races due to their propensity to become sharp pointy things in a crash.

I think also they may give an aerodynamic advantage. That's why wheel covers are not allowed in Formula 1 (or any other open wheel raching)

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Super Domestique | 10 years ago
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Nice bikes.

Loving those C35's - but then I am biased!

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