With the 2023 WorldTour now underway we discussed the trend for teams to race on yet-to-be released tech, putting a few of the products under the microscope.
We also delve into the good, the bad and the ugly of this year’s team kits as well as debating the possible demise of Campagnolo on the professional stage.
Our Bike of the Month is one you’ll also be seeing plenty of on TV this year; the new Trek Madone. The aero superbike, which cuts a pretty unique silhouette, is being ridden by the Trek-Segafredo men’s and women’s team in 2023.
Competition
For this month’s Garmin Giveaway, we’ve got the Garmin Varia RCT715. It houses a 1080p camera and shoots at 30fps so you’ll be sure to catch any close passes and reg plates while you’re out on the road.
It’ll be absolutely fine in the rain as it can survive being submerged up to a meter for 30 minutes. It also features Automatic Incident Capture that ensures it continues recording “before, during, and after” an accident.
To be in with a chance of winning, simply click this link or fill in the form below. We’ll get in contact with the lucky winner by the end of this month. If you don’t end up being the lucky one – don’t worry, we’ll be running it again next month.
Unreleased WorldTour tech
(Image credit: Specialized)
The start of the new racing calendar offers bike manufacturers an invaluable opportunity to test unreleased products in the heat of battle. It also gives us a chance to try to spot this new tech in the wild.
However, due to exhaustive race coverage and social media posts it’s becoming less of a challenge. Last season we all had a good look at the new Cervélo S5 before it was released thanks to the success of the Jumbo-Visma riders who were putting the updated aero bike through its paces. And this year we’ve already seen the still unnamed Look bike being ridden by the Cofidis team rack up a couple of wins.
Specialized sponsors a number of WorldTour teams and are using them to trial products under the ‘Project Black’ banner. Details remain pretty vague but essentially it’s about riders delivering feedback on a range of pre-production bits and pieces.
So what have we seen to date? Well, there’s a new 3D-printed Mirror saddle and some new Roval aero bars that have already seen plenty of action, ridden by two of the world’s best sprinters Fabio Jakobsen and Sam Bennett, both who’ve secured early season wins with the new integrated cockpit in play. Then there’s…