First dropped at our consideration by the ever-observant Cycling Spy, it seems Belgium’s Wout van Aert is testing an unorthodox time trial bike setup involving stable disc wheels each entrance and rear. This ought to have aero benefits, mirroring the setup most frequently seen on observe bikes. With only some days till the beginning of the Paris Olympics, and a gold medal on the road, the multidisciplinary rider is clearly trying to eke out any benefit over his rivals in an effort to safe a medal.
Van Aert’s Cervelo P5, a motorbike that has just lately been up to date with some minor tweaks to the seat cluster together with wider tyre clearance, has been stripped again to uncooked carbon nearly solely so as to save weight – paint over a complete bike can typically run into the tons of of grams – which is much more of an element when operating a stable entrance wheel.
The time trial course for the Paris Olympics is kind of solely pan-flat, although twisty in locations. The added inertia of the entrance wheel might make it extra difficult to manoeuvre, and will definitely make the entrance finish really feel stiffer, nevertheless it’s doubtless the positive factors are well-studied and definitely worth the trade-off within the workforce’s eyes.
The wheelset in query is the Reserve Infinity Disc Turbulent Aero, a wheelset designed particularly for Visma-Lease A Bike, however to our information, it’s but for use by the workforce. It prices $4899, so maybe is barely rolled out for particular events. Van Aert curiously has his rear valve uncovered within the photographs we’ve seen, so he could also be experimenting with tyre strain for the course to completely optimise his setup. According to the Reserve Wheels web site, “Wind tunnel checks present a unfavourable drag coefficient of the entrance disc, which implies after you have the wheel rolling, it is truly pulling the bike and rider ahead.”
As ever, it pays to dig by means of the feedback on Instagram, and a remark from a consumer stating that “I‘m gonna be upset if Tarling doesn’t rock up with this set-up” has been appreciated by none aside from Dan Bigham, maybe hinting that Van Aert may not be the one rider we see with a double-disc setup for the massive race.
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