As the Tinkoff-Saxo riders gather on Sicily for the second winter training camp, it’s time to unveil the official bike that will carry them throughout the 2015-season. During today’s presentation of the team, Tinkoff-Saxo revealed the new and complete bike setup building upon four high-caliber Specialized frames – the ultra responsive and versatile Tarmac, the stiff and aerodynamic Venge, the fast-paced TT-thoroughbred Shiv and the vibration damping cobbled classic bike Roubaix.
The bikes feature a revised color scheme of black and 2015 neon yellow to match the kit.
During the off-season, the technical staff of Tinkoff-Saxo has worked systematically to find the best components on the market in order to build a leading bike in both speed, handling and comfort. With full attention to the feedback and wishes of the team riders, we’re excited to present, what we believe is the ultimate setup currently available.
For the majority of the Grand Tour stages, the team will ride a 2015 Specialized S-Works Tarmac or Venge mounted with 40mm Roval carbon wheels and CPC nano-structural saddles from Prologo.
“We’re happy to have, a few months ago, re-confirmed our engagement with Specialized, which allow us to use the fantastic bikes like the ones we’re presenting. We believe the team has the best equipment, which allow our riders to perform at the highest level in order to obtain the best results. All four bikes, Tarmac, Venge, Shiv and Roubaix, are winning bikes in all the terrains they were created for. Our team was able to contribute with victories, some quite important, which now make part of the history of these bikes… it’s our will to make this history bigger in 2015”, says Ricardo Scheidecker, Technical Director at Tinkoff-Saxo.
Frame
With its speed and quick reaction in handling, Tinkoff-Saxo will undoubtedly opt for the Specialized S-Works Tarmac during a great variety of the races and stages of 2015. The carbon frame offers superior stiffness with a bit of flexibility ensuring absolute control on descents and the trademark climbing abilities. The Tarmac has been fully redesigned during the 2014 season with one of the biggest changes being the Rider-First Engineered concept.
The frame of the Tarmac has been individually engineered and designed, which means that it’s the only bike where every size has been developed independently based on performance targets derived from real world data. Specialized’s new approach is, among others, fuelled by feedback from WorldTour riders such as Alberto Contador.
For high-speed races, Tinkoff-Saxo will make the switch to the S-Works Venge, while the Shiv is reserved for time trials. Exclusively for the cobbled classics, Specialized will provide the team with the Roubaix.
Wheels
Tinkoff-Saxo will continue to mount the bikes with 40 or 60mm Roval wheels by Specialized. The wheels offer a responsive and aggressive ride quality that compliments the handling skills of the frames. For the riders of Tinkoff-Saxo it was especially important that the team provided the stiffest wheels on the market to make for fast cornering speeds and improved acceleration.
Saddle
Tinkoff-Saxo has once again chosen Prologo as provider of saddles. As one of the three crucial contact points between rider and bike, the riders will select a saddle from the CPC-range featuring a sticky top layer of 3D Polyma microfibers that increase grip and work as shock absorbers.
Pedals
Look continues to supply Tinkoff-Saxo with pedals from their KÉO range known for their large and wide pedaling surface and low weight of just 110g per pedal. For high-speed stages and time trials, the riders will use the KÉO BLADE, which features an integrated carbon plate for improved aerodynamics.
Bearings
All bearings will continue to be delivered by the highly skilled CeramicSpeed – and with good reason. Hidden inside the crucial parts of the bike, CeramicSpeed bearings saves 6-8 watts at race speed compared to standard bearings. On a 40k time trial at 48 km/h their bearings shaves of 32 seconds.
The 2015 bike setup also includes power meters by leading manufacturer SRM, bottle cages from Tacx, low rolling-resistance tires from Specialized’s turbo range and maintenance products from Morgan Blue.
