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TECH NEWS
cervelo t5gb 2.jpgWill Team GB’s new Cervélo track bike be ready in time for Rio Olympics?
Last month Team GB unveiled the brand new Cervélo T5GB track bike that it’ll race at the upcoming Rio Olympics, but will the new bike be ready in time?
The Daily Mail reports claims that there have been teething problems with the new bike and apparently “British cycling stars are sweating on whether their £10,000 state-of-the-art track bikes will be fit for purpose in time for the Rio Olympics next month.”
- Cervélo launches T5GB Olympic track bike + video
Problems apparently centre around a lack of frame stiffness to deal with the huge power the sprinters produce, resulting in flexing frames during all-out efforts.
Bradley Wiggins has reportedly complained that the carbon extension handlebars are too flexy, while Jason Kenny has found the frame flexing during his 2,000-watt efforts during a spring.
Along with a lack of stiffness, the weight has been called into question. Track bikes adhere to the same 6.8kg weight limit as road bikes but the original paint job added an extra, and unnecessary, 400g to the overall weight. Believe it or not, some colours are heavier so the paint job is a critical part of the bike.
Cervélo is addressing the issues, as you'd imagine they would be, and working on an updated version of the T5GB bike that will be stiffer and has a lighter paint job. It’s far from ideal publicity for the Canadian bicycle brand that has been signed up as the equipment supplier to Team GB until 2020.
- Team GB to ride Cervélo bikes through Tokyo 2020
Team GB isn’t likely to leave anything to chance with its famous fastidious attention to detail which netted a huge medal haul at London 2012. The competition is closing in with the advantages previously enjoyed by Team GB narrowing during every Olympic cycle.
We wouldn’t put it past having something special up its sleeves, and apparently, it has developed a new skin suit that is“understood to make a significant difference to the speed they can achieve on the track.”
The Daily Mail doesn’t provide its sources. British Cycling told us:
"The original aim of the Cervelo-British Cycling partnership was to produce a bike for Tokyo and progress has been so swift that we are four years ahead of schedule. Both Cervelo and British Cycling are committed to continuous improvement so work will continue through this summer, over the next cycle and up to the start line in Tokyo. Our riders will have the best possible equipment to enable them to produce their best in Rio.”
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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8 comments
Am I the only person who read the title as "Win Team GB’s new Cervélo track bike"
Next time.
Loathe to agree with a Daily Heil comment, but the suggestion that all teams should be on the same equipment did appeal to me. I do think the Olympics should be different to other events in that it should be the ultimate in level playing field competition, with the highest level of testing and scrutiny.
Companies could submit their bikes for testing in the run up and a council could pick the one most favoured. Or maybe it could be like road racing, just take an already available off the shelf track bike and paint them all in country colours.
The spendyness of Olympics goes against everything I think sport should stand for.
So put all atheltes in the same cleats?
Make the equestrians ride the same horse?
Standardise the Javelins?
Make the golfists use the same clubs?
I could go on but I'm bored already
Athletes don't wear cleats, but spike lengths are standard. And they all have to wear the team kit of their national team sponsors rather than their own sponsors version.
I struggle with equestrianism as a sport at all, as I do with all judge scored sports.
Javelins are also standard.
The equivalent actually would be making all the golfers use the same make and model of clubs, and the same balls, and yes I would support that. Anyway after the fiasco of golf at Rio it will very likely be out of the Olympics again fairly sharpish.
Back to the original point though. Why on earth is anyone changing to a completely new bike with 5 weeks to go? Surely you need time to adapt to your equipment and that is months rather than weeks in a sport where the tehcnical margins are so small?
Don't go on, because that list is woeful. If you can't draw sensible lines then that says more about you that the concept of having standardised equipment.
Equestrianism shouldn't be in the Olympics in the first place as far as I'm concerned any way.
..."Will Team GB's mind games be effective by the start of the Rio Olympics"?
After all, remember the "perfectly round wheels"... Has Jason Kenny really waited till now to decide the frame has too much flex? As for Wiggins, surely he has enough loose change down the back of the sofa to buy himself a decent set of bars?
Pretty sure he already has a pretty nice customised set of 3D printed titanium ones from his hour bike. There was much discussion at the time over whether that was a breach of the rules about all the parts being commercially available, and the answer was that they are commercially available to anyone who has the spare £4,000(?) to get laser-measured and pay for a set.
Yes.