EF Diaries - Equipment Chat · Roadman Cycling (Not Done Yet)

EF Diaries - Equipment Chat

Some equipment chat today. Nothing massively insightful but I said I’d share it anyways. This post won’t be for everyone so I am just highlighting that now in case you are bored stuff reading through this. I hope that Malte enjoys it though 🙏😭

Wheels are the Vision Metrons in the 45 and 60mm options. Internal 23, external 32. Steel spokes. Not the lightest or the fastest but they aren’t a disadvantage - some teams on Shimano wheels or DT Swiss or swissside for example 🤢 Picnic and FDJ can be thrown in here too. Even Rovals are not my cup of tea - too narrow unless you are on very smooth roads. I’m quite picky on wheels as you can see but Vision gets a pass which is good. Theres no mainstream world tour wheel brand which gets a gold star from me - you need to go to Panda Podium for that.

Bahrain which is another Vision sponsored team are using the gravel wheels for the Belgian classics which are a nice bit wider. They’re using 32mm front and rear which would sit quite nicely so I’m hoping that the EF guys get to use them too for the Belgian classics in particular - big gains. Otherwise they are going using the Vittoria Corsa TT tyres in a 30mm as their standard race tyre.

The training bike has a 52 x 39 (sram) chainring and for races they’ll have the option of 54 x 41. Not sure about 1 x options yet but hopefully they have them. I completely disagree with 1 by for road unless you have deep pockets where you have multiple bikes or live in Florida or something. But for pros the aero and weight gains are definitely worth it. They’ll probably use the gravel groupset too for some early season classics but we haven’t heard about this yet.

They have a guy who is the aero/equipment expert so riders can message him as much as they like to theorise some potential equipment decisions for particular races. No two races are the same so it does make sense to tinker around with different wheels, tyres, gear ratios, skinsuits and so on depending on the course. I can imagine that Malte would regularly avail of this service 🤑🤑

The frame is the unreleased cannondale lab71 but I am not sure it cannondale are dropping a new system six (their aero road bike) this year too. I would love them to. Every little helps so it would be really nice to have the option of a chunked out aero bike for the fast days. A lot of fast races on the calendar so it would be cool to have a full aero option. But they mightn’t even release one this year - I am hoping that they we may see one at the Dauphine in June however. Or the tour of Rhone Alpes or whatever they have changed that too - quite annoying to change the name of that race.

Poc helmets again this year. They released 2 new helmets last year and they are actually a lot more different than I first thought. The really vented climbing one is stupidly light and you wouldn’t even notice it on your head - I am assuming that it’s pretty safe in order to pass the safety checks but yeah it’s featherweight. The medium vented looking one (Cytal I think it’s called) is a lot less vented than the previous version too. It’s a lot less mushroomy in its shape and more flat so I assume it’s a bit faster. Not sure if the UCI ended up banning the Procen helmet - the tt looking road helmet that they were sometimes wearing over the last 2 years. Theres been no word about it but to be honest the feedback was that they are stupidly hot and can only be used in very cool, early spring weather. And your hearing is really impaired as the ears are covered by the helmet so it’s not that safe too. I’m kind of hoping that it is banned to be honest. Would rather not be starting a race with equipment that is increasing the risk of crashing.

Assos is the kit sponsor and all the riders can essentially send back their kit for modifications if they want something to be tightened or loosed or if they want a different size altogether. It’s a little perk of being a pro and every little helps - even if it’s just for comfort to help you breathe a little better while still being aero. Aero socks, overshoes and gloves all look pretty legit so it’s good to have nice options for these pieces. Roadsuits and skinsuits are really slick too.

Also they have close contact with all of their sponsors. Like there was a small issue with wahoo a few days ago and the riders gave the feedback to a staff member and they sent on the feedback to wahoo. Wahoo literally began working on the issue immediately and got it sorted. It’s really good to have that level of relationship with the brand so they can improve the products for the customers. The pros give really critical feedback so it’s a great way for these brands to improve - most of the wahoo staff are working 9-5 I assume but their team of testers are essentially the pros - they can’t pay staff to train all day long to see if they find issues with the products so it just makes sense to get their sponsored pros to do that for them. I highly recommend wahoo to be honest - really good company and are always known for trying to improve. Garmin are a lot more stagnant in the cycling world in my opinion over the last decade.

The team doesn’t have a shoe sponsor which I am a big fan of. Shoes are a really personal thing so it’s good that riders can choose. Most people will ask their agent to get in touch with a few different companies depending on what they want. Caoimhe has just been sent a load of Bonts to try which seem really nice. A lot of riders dont get paid by a shoe sponsor but they get as many pairs as they need for free so it’s not a bad gig. The likes of Pogacar is getting the paid a fortune by DMT I am sure but your average world tour pro isnt.

Most riders have it in their team contracts that they cannot be sponsored by a couple of the big brands. Eg a sram sponsored team are strictly prohibited to use shimano shoes. The other big one is specialized - most teams who don’t have shoe sponsors are not allowed to use specialized shoes. I assume that theres a couple of reasons behind this. Specialized is such a massive brand and the biggest rival for most of these other bike/shoes/helmet brands. So even though EF are sponsored by Cannondale it’s probably the case that Cannondale don’t want riders using specialized shoes. It’s just too big of a rival company. The same goes for POC with their helmets v specialized helmets and so on. Generally riders are free to use every other shoe brand.

Pidcock was always using unbranded specialized shoes - he has always had a big relationship with specialized and wore them on Ineos so there must have been a big deal done there on that. That would have been a massive no no for any other rider but I assume that a lot of cash was thrown around for that to happen - from specialized to Pidcock and from specialized to Ineos (despite not being a team sponsor at all). I think pidcock is using specialized shoes on Q36 too so different teams will have different approaches - but because that team is delighted to have him on their team they are probably far more likely to make concessions on something like that compared to a big world tour team. I find all that quite interesting to be honest. Would be cool to have some figures on how much these deals are worth for the big guns.

If you are in the market for any shoes, helmets, bikes, computer etc then feel free to choose some of these brands. We’ve had a really good experience so far with EF so it would be nice to help give back to the sponsors who keep the show on the road. If you were looking at a few different brands and it didn’t matter which one you choose then it would be greatly appreciated if you could support an EF brand. Would mean a lot to us.

Hope you enjoyed the read. Bit more nerdy this post but sure look.

Cheers,

Matthew

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