Three team bikes for 2012. First is Vacansoleil-DCM with a Bianchi Oltre frame. There’s a mix of FSA and Shimano components along with Fast Forward wheels. The team had been using Ridley with SRAM.
Taste is personal but if the Dutch team’s bike has a jumble of parts, I find there are too many colours on the frame too. Especially since the celeste colour of a Bianchi is part of the sport’s heritage. But I’ll wait to see the version in the sunlight, pro mechanics always make a bike look good. Note that if Bianchi is Italian by name and heritage, it belongs to a Swedish company which also owns the Gitane and Cycles Peugeot brands.
Next up is the Greenedge team bike for 2012, with the photo snapped by Sebastian Langeveld, winner of a vintage edition of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in March. The frame is a Scott Foil, fully equipped with Shimano Dura-Ace, including pedals, wheels and the components are by Pro, a subsidiary of the Japanese firm. The black and white finish with a small amount of green hints that the team jersey will be equally discreet.
Finally a picture below of the Garmin-Cervélo team’s new ride via Remco de Groot. No surprise with the Cervélo S5 frame but the team has switched from SRAM back to Shimano. You can see the Rotor chainset and this will be used in conjunction with the new Garmin power measurement system inside the pedals. I believe the team is bulk-buying its groupsets from the US distributor because Shimano is not a sponsor. Mavic remain a wheel sponsor.
Perhaps the biggest revelation in the photo is the name on the frame. Thomas Dekker is trying to make a comeback from a doping ban and has been riding with the development team. Now it seems he will be unveiled as a new signing for the team at this evening’s presentation of the Garmin-Cervélo squad in 2012.
A caveat, these are sneak peak photos and specifications and colours could change.
Mavic is sponsoring the Cervélo team. On their site, the bikes are displayed with 3T wheels and on the stores they are sold with Fulcrum. Go figure.
Is it common for a team such as Garmin to not have a component sponsor? I guess some teams forego a wheel sponsor, but why would a top team not secure a components sponsor?
@Robbo I think Shimano specifies that component sponsored teams must use the full line of components, including wheels. If you already have a wheel sponsor or don’t want to ride Shimano hoops….
Actually Shimano (at least until recently, but most likely still does) require its sponsored teams to use a full suite of their components – including wheels and preferably pedals as well. Notice those “PROtotype” PRO-wheels HTC & Sky have been using? A clever way to get around Shimano’s shortcomings in the wheel set wardrobe.
Back when they rode Cervélos CSC bought Dura-Ace components from the Danish Shimano distributor Egedesø, reportedly because they wanted to cherry pick the other components without Big S pulling the strings.
Vacansoleil will most likely be buying their Shimano-stuff too, but my guess this might be subsidized by FSA. I bet the brakes, chain, and the TT-shifters will be FSA too, might even be a FSA front dérailleur on that ride too.
FSA has been working on a complete group set for a couple of years, pretty much all that is missing is a rear dérailleur and a set of brake lever/shifters.
I’m guessing SRAM no longer providing components is linked to them now owning Quarq and Garmin-Cervelo being a platform/high profile exposure to push the new Garmin pedal based powermeter?
Good spot with Dekker.
Peter Lütken has a good reply on the components and the use of other sponsors (Garmin pedals, Mavic wheels, Rotor cranks/chainrings) is another factor.
Several teams buy their groupsets but it is not like they order 50 groupsets over the internet. Deals are done and they might get a certain number of groups for free, then pay something for the next few groupsets and so on. Plus at the end of the season they sell the bikes and can even turn a modest profit, in theory at least.
Other than some anecdotal evidence on Dekker what is the point of this post? I ask because there is nothing particularly newsworthy or informative nor is it along the lines of your normal reporting.
and Dekker is already on the team? His PR and the other one’s speeeeeel made it sound like it would take a whole lot of while and plenty of repenting before he would be even considered good to go. Hmmmm. Are we the fans being duped again?
@Gillis – In contrast to your view of the post I found a number of interesting elements to it. Most notably the comments around Shimano and its ‘rules’ for sponsored teams.
I do wonder how that is applied in the cyclocross world where until this year Shimano didnt have a top-level canti brake and so riders used other brands (usually TRP) and were often also sponsored by them. I’ve noted that some riders have moved over to the new shimano brakes, but others havent (Albert/BKCP and Nys i believe).
I’d be surprised if some of that group that ‘always wins’ according to INRNG (i joke!) have to now pay for the groupsets.
Plus the reminder that Bianchi isnt as italian as it reputation claims is always good.
More on the Shimano move,in VN they say riders were requesting it:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/11/news/garmin-cervelo-switches-to-shimano_198126
@gillis: I liked this piece, I had not seen any of the news here. It fits with the kind of detail I come here to read.
@ Gillis
It’s a blog.
The point? You seem to have confused this blog for a journalistic entity with a charter and all that crap. Crap that is very handy and admirable if you happen to be a journalist, I admit. Sure, the lines are blurred between blogger and journalist at times, but oh well.
He writes what he wants about what he wants. Mostly, because he figures others will be interested too.
Read the ‘About’ tab, third paragraph.
http://inrng.com/about/
I figure the point is he wanted to post it. That’s good enough. Questioning why he’s posting about new pro team bikes on a site dedicated to pro cycling is just provocative.
Was that the point of your comment?
Gillis: because I felt like it! If I want to write about the reproductive life of the platypus tomorrow, I I can. But given the blog is about pro cycling I thought it would be worth sharing some photos of pro team bikes that were doing the rounds on Twitter with a wider audience. Plus if you want to know, the act of writing about a subject makes me look into the detail and remember things better, eg the changing components.
Surely there can’t be too much black and white on the greenedge kit, otherwise people might think they’re a kiwi team!
I always like to see the new bikes for the season, so GRAZIE! Same with new kits, etc. For some reason I like to know which team is using what though in the end it’s the LEGS and BRAINS that win races. Interesting bits on the SRAM controversy. I admire their World Bicycle Relief program – they’re one of the charities we support but my limited experience with their products has not been super. Of course being Campagnolo fans and lucky enough to have them as an official supplier it’s no surprise..but from my bike shop daze we looked at GripShift as pretty much cheap junk. SRAM bought Sachs/Sedis along the way to making a complete component group but I can’t get too excited about Asian-made stuff that, at the upper-end costs as much as Made-in-Italy stuff. The profit margins on those groups must be fantastic and I believe SRAM’s going to (already has?) offer an IPO. Wall Street probably loves ’em. Will they make a pile o’dough, then sell the whole works or run it into bankruptcy to cash out? They could be at the point of thinking their next move must be a huge investment into electronic groups to be competitive…so maybe get out on top (profit-wise) rather than plow all that loot into development? The whole thing seems to be a marketing exercise vs passion/engineering, especially when you realize (as written over on VN) how many think the stuff is US-made and how it taps into American patriotism, all while being made in the low-wage countries. BigTex has a piece of it I think so that might be part of it as well. I agree that race teams will use pretty much anything if they get paid, unless it’s so bad it costs them races by failing or enough riders and/or mechanics complain about it. But PAYING for another brand vs taking the free stuff plus the payment is a pretty big deal – someone must really dislike the SRAM stuff or they pissed off someone in the team somehow.
I like seeing this stuff too!
I actually like the Bianchi, I suspect that in the flesh the celeste on the frame and wheels will make the blue much less prominent.
The Greenedge bike is a LOT less green than I expected. Surely the real things will be more like these : http://www.scott-sports.com/us_en/news/bike/2974/the_greenedge_scott_foil_and_plasma_3_release
but none of the off the peg paint jobs have the white detailing under the toptube. Hmm, maybe all-white bikes are too hard to keep clean?
And why do Garmin have the rainbow stripes on their bottles? are they Thors old ones from last year now only used in training?
just as TimB I noticed the new black Scott Foil of team GreenEdge, and I remember the white version launched a few weeks ago.
Let’s see, I would prefer the white version
It was just a comment, I wasn’t trying to provoke anyone. Although apparently skin is a little thin around here. Like I originally stated: I didn’t find this post particularly newsworthy or informative.
-I can look at the pictures and see what the parts are without anyone telling me what the specs are.
-Inrng rarely has dabbled into the tech side of things
-I hold Inrng to a higher standard and I felt this was short of his usual work.
If he wants to write about it, fine, its his place to do it. I don’t read every post either, but I did read this one and thought it felt like filler.
Gillis: I was only joking about the platypus bit. I seem to remember you disliked my piece on the construction process of a carbon frame. Like I say, writing about these things helps me to understand them better. And if you can spot Garmin have moved to Shimano, others hadn’t and as DR points about above, Velonews did a whole article on this subject alone. But thanks for holding me to some higher standard.
I really like the Bianchi’s colour scheme. I think their turquoise has been overdone in the past, and the new palette is refreshing. The blue and white accents in particular work elegantly with the base colour, and together it puts me in mind of a sunny day on the ocean. They could stand to lose a couple of decals, that’s all, but they’re not a Litespeed-scale offender in that regard.
I think Inrg should do more posts giving us a sneak inner view of the world of pro cycling – I find tidbits like those in this post (Shimano’s policy on sponsorship, for example) very interesting. It is very interesting to get behind-the-scenes view of how things work in the pro cycling world. Far more interesting than soap-box diatribes about doping, for example (where everyone has their opinion already).
MOAR!
Will Ridleybe sponsoring a pro tour team in 2012?
Will Ridley be sponsoring a pro tour team in 2012?
Yes, Lotto-Belisol.