The Critérium du Dauphiné has lengthy been thought to be the essential last rehearsal earlier than biking’s greatest stage occasion, the Tour de France. Nevertheless, the Dauphiné’s significance extends far past testing the principle GC contenders – it’s equally necessary for showcasing the newest in bike know-how, and hinting at what shoppers might even be using by the top of the 12 months.
Each manufacturers and groups intention to equip riders with essentially the most superior equipment their sponsors provide on the Tour de France, making the Dauphiné the perfect stage for testing new, usually unreleased, bike tech in anger earlier than the season’s peak. The 2024 version is not any exception, with Pinarello, Trek, and Canyon teasing what look to be new bikes, all emphasizing a formulation that appears set to dominate the following period of motorcycle design.
Trek joins the one race bike ethos
Trek’s ‘Madone/Emonda’ has been hiding in plain website on the Tour de France heat up race
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Maybe essentially the most prominently displayed, and store floor-ready bike of our record is Lidl-Trek’s new race machine. The brand new bike, which appears to be branded as a Madone alternative (although, with a refined Émonda underlay in latest photographs), has gone on a crash weight-reduction plan for the reason that Madone SLR’s launch in 2022, and we expect it showcases how improved supplies science data is inflicting a shift in bike design.
The brand new mannequin options slimmed-down tube shapes, together with a discount in depth on the head tube, down tube, and fork blades in comparison with the Madone SLR.
The brand new bike clearly nonetheless makes use of the Iso-Circulate
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The brand new bike seems to converge options seen on climbing bikes (like, the Émonda) with the aerodynamic options of the present Madone SLR, such because the reportedly watt saving Iso-Circulate seatpost and built-in aero cockpit. Beforehand, smaller tube shapes might need compromised stiffness, however engineers seem to have overcome this challenge. Mads Pedersen, recognized for his highly effective pedaling, received stage one of many Dauphiné on the brand new Madone, suggesting that the brand new bike is nice sufficient for sprinters and climbers alike.
This follows within the footsteps of Specialised, who ditched its ‘all-out-aero’ Venge with the introduction of the Tarmac SL7 a few years in the past.
Canyon Aeroad stays true to the identify
Canyon’s new bike has been seen inside the peloton on the Dauphine
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Canyon appears to be persevering with a two bike technique, nevertheless nonetheless takes inspiration from the identical design philosophy.
The German model has been teasing what appears to be an Aeroad CFR alternative over the previous couple of weeks, with photographs first arising on social media of Mathieu van der Poel utilizing what a brand new handlebar. System One even acquired concerned too, with Valteri Bottas being seen aboard the brand new aero bike on the Monaco Grand Prix. Subsequently, the bike has been used for the primary time in anger on the Dauphine by the Alpecin Dequininck squad.
It is a case of iteration moderately than revelation for the potential new Aeroad, which shares an analogous silhouette to the present technology bike, however there are some intriguing aero upgrades on the entrance finish within the form of a revised cockpit and head tube space.
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It seems that Canyon has put quite a lot of effort into smoothing the airflow between the headtube and downtube, which a way more rounded headtube-downtube interface. The headtube appears like it might have turn out to be barely narrower too, although that is tough to see from preliminary photographs.
Like its rivals, Canyon’s new race bike does look to have misplaced some weight in direction of the rear of the chassis, although not the identical crash weight-reduction plan seen by the possible new Madone. Each the seat stays, and the seat put up have contracted, and though tough to verify, we expect it is doubtless the brand new seatpost takes benefit of the UCI’s new ruling on seat put up measurement.
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The pattern of aero up entrance, weight saving on the again might make for some barely unusual aesthetic balances, however technically, it makes excellent sense.
Once I spoke with outstanding aero business skilled Simon Sensible a number of months in the past, he confirmed that the final consensus remains to be that “round 70%” is a practical ballpark determine of how a lot drag is attributable to the rider. Which means by the point the wind has had an opportunity to hit your legs and arms, bike aerodynamics performs a much smaller half within the bikes total effectivity, making it a chief goal for manufacturers to concentrate on saving weight, and bettering stiffness with little detriment to system effectivity.
Pinarello hit house on stiffness with new Dogma F
Pinarello too has taken an analogous strategy to the competitors, with what seems to be its new race bike, which we noticed on an altitude coaching camp final week. An early adopter of the one-bike-fits-all philosophy, Pinarello has additional optimized aerodynamics with its newest mannequin, a direct alternative for the Dogma F. The bike includes a deeper head tube, narrower fork blades, and a extra refined head tube-to-downtube transition – following the identical design philosophy because the likely-new Canyon Aeroad.
Photographs from Ineos’ coaching camp confirmed them using what seemed like a brand new bike
(Picture credit score: Ajona Díaz Spínola)
Probably the most putting characteristic, nevertheless, is the big backside bracket on the Dogma F, being ridden by Ineos, which confirms my suspicions that stiffness would possibly nicely turn out to be the brand new aero in years to return. In spite of everything, once you evaluate silhoettes, modern-day race bikes are trying more and more comparable annually as manufacturers battle the ever fixed legal guidelines of physics within the pursuit of aero features.
Maurizio Bellin, Chief of Operations at Pinarello beforehand defined to me how this might form the way forward for bike growth.
“There aren’t any large gaps when it comes to aerodynamics [among bikes at the top of the industry],” explains Bellin, “and that brings us to the final frontier of growth – the final step of innovation, which is stiffness.”
Bellin attributed this innovation to improved carbon fiber manufacturing methods, which is smart since it’s unlikely Pinarello would launch a considerably heavier bike than the present mannequin.
So what does this imply for the Tour de France, and the broader business as an entire?
Effectively it is actually solely optimistic. Big developments in computational modelling is permitting producers to drastically enhance carbon layup, which reduces weight whereas sustaining straight-line pace. Personally, I believe there may be an argument to be made that this might enhance racing, too. Because the efficiency hole narrows between bikes, so does any benefit for a given rider or crew, which ought to in idea make racing much more leg dependant.
As for the remainder of us, the outlook is equally optimistic. Bikes proceed to get higher, and significantly because the know-how trickles down, we’re left with sooner, stiffer, but in addition extra comfy bikes than ever – even when the one bike matches all ethos does make it more durable to justify your N+1 buy…
