Biking is a sport of custom. Nearly all of riders have a tendency to stay inside unstated boundaries, leaving the occasional maverick to push these norms. Victor Campenaerts is unquestionably somebody who makes a behavior of pushing these boundaries.
For Opening Weekend, Cyclingnews understands the Belgian shall be utilizing a wild setup, which includes a Categorised rear hub paired with an unlimited 1x entrance chainring, extraordinarily slender bars, turned-in hoods, and huge tyres. Something that he sees as helpful to efficiency is on the desk, no matter whether or not it’s going to get some humorous appears to be like within the bunch.
A picture captured on the staff’s recon trip in Belgium on Wednesday confirms our beliefs, too.
Solid your thoughts again; it wasn’t so way back that skinsuits in a street stage have been borderline unthinkable, and tyres above 23mm can be saved just for Paris-Roubaix. Campenaerts has been a pioneer of skinsuits previously, in addition to main the pack by way of adopting slender bars and having the hoods turned in, one thing we have now seen extra lately being adopted on Tadej Pogacar’s bike and Remco Evenepoel’s bike to call only a few.
Final 12 months we noticed him go for a 58T chainring for Dwars door Vlaanderen, permitting for some downhill assaults whereas his rivals span out, however this 12 months it appears he is gone greater once more. Whereas we will not depend the tooth within the photos right here, Cyclingnews has seen the Belgian trialling a 62T chainring, solely two tooth smaller than that used on Ganna’s Hour Document bike.
The chainring appears to be like to return from Alugear (opens in new tab), and is the most important that the model manufactures.
Sure, it is an unlimited gear, however that is not the tip of the story. It seems that this season the Belgian is opting to run a Categorised rear hub, the primary time we have seen it in competitors since Uno-X trialled it on the Tour de Hongrie final 12 months. The Categorised Powershift provides two-speed hub gearing in a 1:1 and 1:0.686 ratio, which means Campenaerts is successfully operating a 62/42.5 double setup, however with some great benefits of a extra aero 1x system, the effectivity positive factors of bigger chainrings by way of drivetrain resistance, and a decrease danger of chain drop because of the Okay-Edge chain catcher. Campanaert’s latest Instagram story confirms that his chain is waxed too, utilizing Molten Speedwax.
Slim bars with hoods turned in aren’t groundbreaking anymore, although are nonetheless very a lot in proof on the previous hour file holder’s bike.
What’s uncommon is his alternative of tyres; these are the brand new Vittoria Corsa Execs, arrange tubeless. Thus far, so regular, proper? We have seen these new tyres within the peloton already. We’ve not seen anybody utilizing them in these widths although. Whereas it might change on race day, it is understood Campenaerts will run a 32mm rear and 30mm entrance setup. If you need a protected guess you’d put your cash on that being the widest within the peloton when the flag drops.
Elsewhere on the bike, spec alternative stays largely commonplace. The Ridley Noah Quick body is identical disc-brake aero body that the Belgian staff has been using since 2020. DT Swiss wheels got here on board similtaneously Shimano at first of 2022, and as such, it is anticipated he’ll use the DT Swiss Arc 1100 Di-Minimize wheels of their 60mm depth, as proven right here. It is unlikely the staff has too many wheels laced up with Categorised hubs, so we do not count on him to swap to the deeper 80mm wheels come the weekend. Shimano’s top-tier groupset – Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 – will present the shifting and braking, and the left-hand shifter, which might in any other case management the entrance derailleur, is appropriate with the add-on Categorised Bluetooth transmitter, which replaces the left bar-end plug.
Naturally, his bars are one-piece aero bars with cables hidden completely from the wind, and if teammate Caleb Ewan’s bike is something to go by, it will come courtesy of Ridley, whose Kanzo bar is appropriate with numerous fashions within the vary.
