Mazzola: “They (Pro Tour teams) are all on tubulars. We know it because either directly (under Vittoria) or indirectly (private label) we supply a lot of them. Since almost all of them (Pro Tour teams) ride on tubulars, they use latex inner tubes. Some tire manufacturers claims that the team use clinchers, but this is a pure marketing move. In fact they put the wheels with the clinchers on the car - but on the bikes used by the riders they have tubulars.”
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As for clinchers, Teutenberg showed me a very lightweight and supple, 120tpi vulcanized clincher tire called the Schwalbe Evolution that he says Gerolsteiner uses frequently. He showed me a slick, which he says gets double the wear of a treaded tire. He says that the Evolution weighs only 210 grams with the tube! It was light - that much I could tell holding it in my hand - but I don’t walk around with a digital scale, so I can’t verify the weight.
Teutenberg says the team has tested the tire against top-quality tubulars, using an SRM power meter, and its lower rolling resistance saves the rider 10 watts.
They make it sound like they are using rebranded Tufos on Gerolsteiner and that they used a SRM to measure rolling resistance and it was lower with whatever tire Gerolsteiner is now using.
Yes, that is what they make it SOUND like. Notice he said “here is a tire,” not here is Levi Leipheimer’s bike with said tire on it… It’s like the same BS about Disco riding Hutchinson tubulars… Or the Gerolsteiner bikes being “Specialized.” It’s marketing BS. Nothing more, nothing less. You think Lance would give up 10 watts? No way…
Sounds like the way production car tires claims have “race proven technology” behind their design.
I wonder if any of these tubs the pros are on are available to general public? They’re probably designed to last only one race?
They are sort of available to the public. Vittoria, Veloflex and Dugast do all of the pros’ non-sponsored tires that I have heard of so you can just buy some of them.
Schwalbe has indeed made some tires with very low rolling resistance – some of the best clinchers tested. Hence their popularity with the HPV crowd, who are very fastidious about these things (perhaps more than pro road racers).
The TT bikes are Walser. Not a big secret. But they still have the Specialized logo all over them. Their regular bikes are, as far as I know, actually Specialized.