If you’re in the market for a new aero road bike but have been putting off the decision to see what new bikes might arrive before the Tour de France, your patience has been rewarded. We’ve seen the Cannondale SystemSix and Specialized Venge, now it’s the turn of Italian company Wilier.
A couple of years ago Wilier launched the Cento10Air to celebrate its 110th birthday, and this week it has just launched its successor, the Cento10Pro. It’s an evolution of that previous bike rather than a radical redesign, with a focus on improving frame stiffness and offering disc brakes.
I know you lot love a good stat, so how about a claimed 6% increase in torsional stiffness compared to the previous Cento10Air road bike? That’s the leading claim by Wilier, which it boldly claims is “a never seen stiffness and reactivity.”
The new Cento10Pro is available with either rim or disc brakes, the Italian company is leaving you to make the choice, unlike Cannondale and Specialized who have each stuck their flags firmly to the disc brake pole.
The Cento10Pro does have a very similar looking frame to the bike it replaces, so we can presume of the changes have happened underneath the paintwork and in the carbon fibre construction.
We say presumably because we didn’t get invited to the launch and we’ve not been sent a press kit, so we’re very much taking this all off the Wilier website. It’s not ideal.
The profiles for the frame and fork are designed to NACA standards with truncated tails allowing Wilier to save weight and increase stiffness whilst maintaining optimum aerodynamics.
Wilier has used the common flat mount interface and 12mm thru-axles for the disc brake version, with 160mm rotor size compatibility at the front and 140mm at the back. Tyre clearance increases to 30mm, a clear benefit over the rim brake version if you’re into your fat tyres.
Integration was a key part of the previous bike, and it continues with the new model. It has developed its own Alabarda one-piece carbon handlebar that routes the cables and brake hoses directly into the frame via a specially designed head tube and steerer tube.
The Cento10Pro Disc and the standard frameset will set you back €3,800. Add a Dura-Ace Di2 groupset and you’re looking at €10,300, SRAM Red eTap with Mavic Cosmic Pro Carbon UST wheels for €9,100, or at the other end of the range, a SRAM Force 22 groupset will set you back €4,750.
More info at www.wilier.com
David has worked on the road.cc tech team since July 2012. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds.