Specialized launched its brand new Cotton TLR race tyres this week, putting months of speculation to an end regarding what the new tyres might be, after we initially spotted them at the Dauphiné last year. Several teams also used the tyres at Opening Weekend, which created a fresh wave of curiosity and speculation on the new rubber.
In a nutshell, the new tyres bring the brand’s cotton tyre performance to a tubeless-friendly version and in new, larger 30 and 32mm sizes.
After speaking with Bigham, it sounds like the team and Specialized are putting lots of effort into tyre development, as Bigham explained.
“We’re working very closely with Specialized on tyre research, and then by extension of that, tyre development,” he said.
“Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe are very aligned with this approach, and alongside the Specialized tyre team and factory, we’ve been focusing in on truly understanding tyres. I know that sounds like a funny thing to say, but tyres are a complex component that, in general, are poorly understood.”
Specialized has a tyre production factory in Germany, which is the facility Bigham referred to. Small batches of tyres can be made for teams, which could help speed up testing and prototyping.
“Our testing is multifaceted, with testing across different rigs and environments, with the end goal of fully characterising a tyre to feed that information into our simulation tools to assess the performance impacts. This enables us to objectively assess the different performance impacts of a tyre,” he explained.
This quote is interesting and perhaps points to Bigham and his team working to build out a collection of data on when certain tyres may be most suitable to particular racing conditions.
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