Sure, the Vuelta a España is serving up a fascinating battle, as it does every year, thanks to being a mix of the pinnacle of some rider's season, and a last chance saloon for grand tour riders who had other duties at the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia. Jumbo-Visma rocked up with three leaders, and at the time of writing are leading the race with Sepp Kuss, and Soudal-Quickstep are bravely fighting to try and wrestle the red jersey for themselves with Remco Evenepoel, at once a time trial specialist, classics prodigy, week-long stage racer and grand tour specialist.
With this as a backdrop it's easy to miss the new tech that has, as usual, flown slightly under the radar. The Tour de France, and the races leading up to it like the Critérium du Dauphiné, tend to hoover up the lion's share of the new tech releases, as it's the shining beacon in the sports calendar and so ensures maximum coverage. The problem is that there are so many new releases it all becomes a bit of a noisy landscape, so some brands sensibly opt to trickle new things into the final grand tour of the year. At the Vuelta, we've spotted, amongst other things, a brand new Bianchi between the legs of Arkea-Samsic's Kévin Vauquelin, a fresh new lack-of-paint paintjob for Remco Evenepoel's new Specialized Tarmac SL8, and a number of pros opting for classic round bars despite the aero drawbacks.
The talk of the town is this new Bianchi that seems to be following the trend of all-rounder race bikes, rather than being a climbing or aero specific option
The front end looks to be sculpted like an aero bike, with the forks flowing into the headtube to shape the wind
The upward kink in the toptube follows a similar design language to the aero Oltre RC, but with a more severe angle
A zero-degree stem, rather than one with a negative angle so as to appear horizontal, is unusual still. It could be that the bike comes with a relatively short head tube to make the frame weight lower.
At the rear end, much like the new Specialized Tarmac SL8, the stays are tiny to save weight
It wouldn't be a Bianchi without some flashes of the trademark Celeste green
The Arkea mechanics decided against wrapping the bars to the built in ridge, cutting the tape off perpendicular instead
The section of butyl inner tube isn't part of the design - That's just to hold a race transponder chip. It does seem high up on the fork leg compared to what is the norm
The head tube is subtly shaped with a slightly bulbous upper section, presumably to guide the air around the top tube
"Special Operations". No, this isn't being ridden by member of the S.A.S., it's just a top end, unreleased frameset
Adding further ammo to the theory that the bike will have a small headtube is the 20mm spacer stack under the stem, which is very unusual for the pro peloton
Seeing a normal stem and round bars on a top end, new race bike is rather unusual, and, from a consumer bike fit standpoint, cause for celebration
Saddles though are a personal choice. This Selle Italia model may not appear on consumer models
Given the profile of Remco Evenepoel it's actually unusual NOT to see him on a custom bike. Be it a red leader's bike for the Vuelta last year, two separate world champions white paint jobs on his old Tarmac SL7... and now this muscle car inspired Tarmac SL8
Shimano Dura-Ace, with a short section of inner tube to secure the cable to reduce the risk of it snagging in a crash
A mirrored chequerboard pattern at the seat tube junction area is reminiscent of old American custom muscle cars
The minimal bar tape, from Supacaz in this case, provides comfort. Evenepoel isn't using the tops all that much...
Atop a chromed seat post sits a Specialized Power Pro Mirror saddle. Atop that sits Remco Evenepoel (not pictured)
We can't see the chainring size for definite, but Evenepoel usually opts for a 54/40t arrangement
R E, so he doesn't forget his initials when signing autographs
The forward-protruding nose cone, or 'Speed Sniffer' if you're Specialized, is an aero trick seen on other bikes too like the Pinarello Dogma F and the F framesets, as well as the new Bianchi above
If it doesn't have a UCI sticker it can't be raced. Even prototypes have to have one, but approved framesets all have a code assigned to them for cross-referencing
A few neat flashes of colour denote the Belgian flag in a minimalist way. He is Belgian champion after all
The new Roval Rapide cockpit, but with the ever more common sight of inwardly turned hoods
Seatposts are getting narrower too in an effort to carve through the air more effectively
The UCI this year also implemented an equipment register, with RFID chips being placed on frames that can be scanned by the comissaires
Despite the LAB71 paint on the EF team bikes, the 'S6HM' UCI code shows that they are still in fact using the second-tier SuperSix HiMod framesets
This Astana team bike has custom gold disc rotor lock rings
Up front too they sit next to a subtle Italian flag on the fork leg
Despite having the option to use integrated, more aerodynamic cockpits we still see many pros opt for traditional round bars and standard stems, albeit with inwardly pointed hoods
It may be due to supply issues, or ergonomics and being really picky with their individual setups; with a one-piece system you can only change the hood position
The fleet of Team Ineos' Pinarello Dogma F bikes look relatively normal, if such a thing exists for one of the sport's biggest teams
On closer inspection we can see that the are using £1,000 Tactic hubs
They didn't feature on every bike, but naturally those that did came with a front and rear set
The branding on the Princeton Carbonworks wheels is subtle, and easily missed if you arent looking for it. The wavy profile of the rims is more of a giveaway
Alta, from altitude; a climbing wheelset
Continentals GP5000 tubeless-ready Time Trial tyres are preferred by the team even in road stages. They used them at Strade Bianche earlier this year without any punctures. The team is sponsored by Muc-Off, so naturally use the brand's tubeless valves and (we presume) the sealant too
As we covered in a separate story, placing the race transponder inside of the Dogma's Fork Flap saves 'less than a Watt'. It all adds up though, especially over a three week race
- A closer look at Ineos Grenadiers' duct-tape aero transponder hack
- Dan Bigham reveals details behind the hack
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