It’s Saturday, and the sun is well and truly not out. At least, it’s not visible here in Yorkshire. But the good news is that Tech of the Week is back, and we’re ready for you to catch up on all things road cycling tech-related. We’ll start with some very serious reporting live from a quaint cafe near to the start line of the Critérium du Dauphiné, which is more of an observation than tech news…
Team Cofidis riders take advantage of extra cog for first time since official unveiling of overhauled 13-speed Super Record groupset (well some of them, anyway)
Campagnolo’s thumb shifter is back, hooray! Team Cofidis riders and members of the public with at least £3,900 to spend on it will likely have been impressed by the news that the Italian brand has re-introduced its unique paddle design and added an extra gear for its new Super Record 13-speed groupset, the release announced earlier this week. Cofidis riders have likely had access to the new tech for a while now, as there were spy shots at a couple of races including the Giro d’Italia before the official unveiling.
Some Cofidis riders, that is… because in the car park of a hotel deep in the French countryside, your boys Dan and Jack were making the annual road.cc pilgrimage to the Critérium du Dauphiné to take pictures of bikes and hassle mechanics, when we spotted not everyone had been given the 13-speed upgrade.
It appears that the new groupset has only been reserved for star riders like two-time Tour de France stage winner Dylan Teuns and home favourite Benjamin Thomas, while the bikes of less decorated squad members were still adorned with the rusty old 12-speed stuff.
With resources tight at smaller teams and Campagnolo a smaller brand nowadays than the likes of Shimano and SRAM, it’s not necessarily a surprise that new groupsets couldn’t be provided to all riders, and it’s happened with previous generations of Campag releases. You would hope that Cofidis can get all the bikes upgraded in time for the Tour de France, where Campag will surely want its latest and greatest tech on display at the world’s biggest bike race.
If there is still a limited amount of 13-speed to go round, the likes of 24-year-old Brit Oliver Knight might have to pull a result out at the Dauphiné if he’s got any chance of being next in line for a bike upgrade…
A mysterious unreleased Trek gravel bike with full suspension breaks cover
Ultra specialist Justinas Leveika has this week shared numerous snaps and videos from the Trans Balkans Race that appear to show a Trek gravel bike with full suspension. Trek doesn’t officially offer one of those at the time of writing, so we can only assume it’s something new, exciting and unreleased, that is guaranteed to generate ‘it’s just a mountain bike tho’ comments.
Whatever your opinion of gravel bikes with full suspension, it certainly didn’t harm Leveika’s performance as he stormed to victory in the race in a time of 4 days, 8 hours and 39 mins, more than two hours ahead of his nearest rival Benedek Borsos.
Trek’s Checkpoint and Checkmate gravel bikes were only overhauled last year, so it’s safe to assume this is a brand new model designed to cope with harsher terrain. Leveika is running some seriously chunky tyres, meaning the tyre clearance is likely larger than Trek’s existing gravel bike, and of course the full suspension should add more comfort and versatility for arduous multi-day rides.
We’ll be keeping an eye out here and on off.road.cc for more info in the coming weeks.
Save 6.4 watts with Giant’s new time trial helmet
Don’t scoff, 6.4 watts is plenty and could be the difference between you finally getting that Strava crown for the local segment on the run up to the big Tesco. Jokes aside, the new helmet looks relatively…normal for a time trial helmet. Which we’re fans of.
The Rivet Mips has been CFD and wind tunnel tested according to Giant, which has allowed the brand to produce a helmet that could save riders 6.4 watts compared to the previous model. It uses a Fidlock buckle, comes with a detachable visor and stock will be arriving in the UK later this summer, with a price tag of £269.99.
Is this the most extreme front end in the pro peloton?
Also spotted at an obscure hotel car park in rural France was this front end on the Cube Litening C:68X aero of Intermarché–Wanty’s Dries De Pooter. Enough to make your back hurt just looking at it. Things don’t get more comfortable looking from the front either.
Then again, comfort isn’t the goal and if the young Belgian likes it (and more to the point, can go faster on it) then that’s all that matters, we suppose. Maybe don’t try it at home… or maybe do. To do so you’ll need a set of 34cm bars, then simply angle them so your hands have to drop off a cliff face to reach the hoods.
De Pooter’s mechanic was telling us the only person with a more extreme set-up on the team is Taco van der Hoorn who also loves his 34cm bars and could go narrower. Crikey.
Restrap re-designs its entire bar bag range
Strap in folks, because the team at Yorkshire-based Restrap have revamped their bar bag range. The brand is big amongst bikepackers, with many choosing Restrap as their bike bag company of choice. So what’s new?
Restrap has updated the Rolltop Canister Bag, the Holster Bar Bag, Holster Bar Bag Plus, and the two Race Bar Bags designed for both drop bars and flat bars. Each bag has been redesigned with durability and usefulness in mind. You can see the full range of Restrap’s bar bags on their website.
Stop press: Pro Cycling Manager is back… and there are now more realistic puddles on the roads for your gaming pleasure
The much loved cycling computer game Pro Cycling Manager is back for its 25 edition, a new year, new riders to lead, new races to be won, and new puddles to be splashed.
That’s right, one of the big updates for 2025 is the weather, which now apparently includes an “improved representation” of rain, ground puddles and reflections, and “promises a whole new experience under the weather”.
Addicts of Football Manager beware. You might have been able to kick the habit of scouting far-flung leagues for an 18-year-old Brazilian wonderkid, but download this and you’ll be back to your old habits, checking the spreadsheet to work out the best upcoming Conti rider from Belgian to support your leader at the Giro. Download it from Steam at your own risk.
World Cup-winning former footballer André Schürrle takes delivery of a pressie from Canyon ahead of Challenge Roth long distance triathlon
The former Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and, erm, Fulham footballer (sorry Dan) André Schürrle will be taking on the Challenge Roth long-course triathlon on 6th July, so it’s only right that the German should partner with a German bike brand for the German race.
The 34-year-old World Cup winner thanked Canyon for building him up the “absolute machine”, a Canyon Speedmax with whooshy DT Swiss wheels, full hydration and TT bar set-up and Shimano Di2 shifting. Maybe don’t tell him that Canyon weren’t willing to stretch to Dura-Ace though, pretty sure that’s an Ultegra crank…
In case you missed it:
- Is Shimano about to make shifting your bike’s gears a thing of the past? Q’Auto Di2 automatic shifting launches for mechanical gravel, urban and trekking bikes
- Campagnolo launches overhauled Super Record, the world’s first 2×13-speed, wireless road cycling groupset… and the iconic thumb shifter is back
- Fairlight gets another perfect 10 and Halfords impresses with its super secure £50 lock: road.cc Recommends updated with 11 great products
- Rapha’s new Trail Finale range is built especially for top-level gravity athletes
- 100+Nm is the new norm: Mahle’s first mid-drive motor gets 105Nm of torque and 850W of peak power
- “It’s a huge, crushing wave of relief”: David Millar says CHPT3’s revival was “unexpected” as cycling clothing brand rescued by Factor CEO after “gutting failure” of liquidation
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
5 thoughts on “Campagnolo 13-speed gets first official WorldTour outing (but only if you’re good enough)… plus an unreleased Trek full-sus gravel bike, super extreme front ends + more”
Trek must be complicit in the
Trek must be complicit in the release of the photos of that bike, it clearly looks like someone has made sure they brush the mud off the logo, so it’s visible
It’s in the ‘splatter shadow’
It’s in the ‘splatter shadow’ of the down tube bag – you can see the line of splatter continuing up on to the frame triangle bag. If someone was cleaning it off to reveal the logo they wouldn’t have bothered also cleaning the bit between the logo and the bottom bracket.
Daddy Feebs wrote:
Trek are one of Leveika’s sponsors so I doubt he would require instructions from head office to get him to ensure that the bike name is on display in photographs.
13 speeds: yeah, that’ll make
13 speeds: yeah, that’ll make it faster. Extract money from the gullible faster that is, not the bike.
eburtthebike wrote:
I don’t race and never have so maybe it’s different for those who do, but I’ve always ridden race bikes: my first top-end race bike, forty years ago, had Shimano 600 (precursor to Ultegra) six speed, so twelve gears in total. Now I have twenty-four gears on one bike and twenty-two on another, and whilst I really appreciate the extra capacity of modern derailleurs – 34 on the back is heaven – I can’t say the bigger gaps required by a lower number of rear sprockets have ever bothered me, I can just up or reduce my cadence as necessary. Certainly not worth God knows how many thousands of extra pounds for one extra cog.