July 11, 2023
All the details behind the Canadian rider’s Tour de France machine
Michael Woods made Israel-Premier Tech’s Tour de France when he took a victory on stage nine ahead on the iconic Puy de Dôme climb, catching Movistar’s Matteo Jorgenson on the final slopes to cross the line alone. His ascent of the Puy was well-measured – Woods timed his effort to perfection to ensure he still had enough left in the tank to produce that impressive final turn of speed when it really mattered. He did so aboard Factor’s Ostro Vam, a bike that is said to be the brand’s ‘everything bike’, made to go fast uphill, downhill and on the flat.
Interestingly, Factor has just released its Ostro O2 Vam, billed as “the world’s fastest climbing bike with unrivalled lightness and aero”. The brand explained that the O2 Vam had been developed in conjunction with the riders on Israel-Premier Tech, so many would have expected Woods to be riding it in this year’s Tour. His reasons for sticking to the older model aren’t clear, but it could be that he wanted to keep a bike he is familiar with and has spent more time on for comfort reasons. The Ostro Vam that Woods was riding has frame profiles derived from NACA airfoil shapes, with aggressive truncation. This can be seen clearly in the fork, for example, where Factor has placed a channel under the fork crown which is supposed to stop stagnant air stalling behind it, giving the bike additional aerodynamic advantages. The curved seatstays should also lower drag in the rear triangle.
Woods’ bike specifically had a relatively high stack height compared to some of the low, more aerodynamic positions that are often seen in today’s peloton. This is likely to increase his comfort on the long climbs that the Canadian rider excels on. The bike is painted in a plain black colour with silver decals and Mike Woods had his name sticker neatly on the top of the seat tube. The bottle cages are the super lightweight Elite T-Race Carbon bottle.
Woods was not using the standard seat post used by most of his teammates, instead using a Darimo T1 Loop Aero seat post, perhaps in order to save weight and also increase comfort. The brand’s website states that the seat post is made of carbon fibre using bidirectional and unidirectional fabrics to achieve the optimum combination of…