We first spotted these new tyres way back in December last year, where they were insufficiently blurred out in some Jumbo-Visma promo shots of the team’s new equipment. Since then we’ve been speculating about them, with more info added as we saw them in actual competition use, but now the official line is out. The new Vittoria Corsa Pro, and Pro Control tyres (that we haven’t seen until now) are the usual mix of faster and more grippy, but also with better puncture resistance.
These are the most well-adopted set of tyres amongst the World Tour peloton, and with so many of us amateurs trying to emulate what the pros do there’s a strong chance that you’ll consider stumping up the sizeable wedge of cash to get rolling on a set, so let’s dive in and see if these look to have what it takes to join the ranks of the best road bike tyres on the market.
Same materials, new construction
The outgoing Corsa was constructed in the same manner as almost all other ‘traditional’ cotton-cased tyres (see the Challenge Gravel Grinder or Getaway for a larger example), in that the rubber tread is physically bonded onto the cotton casing. With the new Corsa Pro and Pro Control, Vittoria instead incorporates the 320tpi casing into the overall construction during the vulcanisation of the rubber tread itself, effectively creating a seamless, glueless bond. This not only looks to rectify a major criticism that consumers often have with cotton tyres, in that over time the tread can lift away from the casing at the edges. If you’re curious about what TPI is and why it matters we have an explainer for that.
Aesthetics and longevity aside, this glue layer is less supple than the rubber and cotton that it is sticking together, and as such is claimed to have a detrimental impact on the overall suppleness of the tyre. As such, removing it improves the ability of the tyre to deform, thus apparently making it faster. Also the edges of the tread, where it meets the cotton, now feature a smoother join that is claimed to offer secondary aerodynamic benefits too, though this would only be over the outgoing model as competitor tyres that aren’t cotton wouldn’t suffer from the issue in the first place. As you may have gathered from the spy shots, these are, as nearly all top-end tyres are now, tubeless ready, though will still come in a tubular…
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