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TECH NEWS

You can be the first to own the new Colnago Prototipo… but it’ll cost you – plus more tech news from SRAM, Pirelli, Brompton, Apidura and more

Unique version of model Tadej Pogacar rode in the Tour de France is up for auction, plus all of the rest of the week's bike tech news

We've got everything from a record-breaking Brompton to yellow gloop from Pirelli in the latest Tech of the Week, but we're kicking off with the opportunity to buy the first – and probably the last – Colnago Prototipo to go on sale to the public.

You can be the first to buy the new Colnago Prototipo… but it’ll cost you

You can be the first to buy a Colnago Prototipo, the bike ridden by Tadej Pogacar and other members of UAE Team Emirates during the 2022 Tour de France, but you’re going to have to dig deep. The current bid for this Colnago Prototipo x TdF unique edition – “the official bicycle of the Tour de France” – is €16,500 (£13,800) and it’ll almost certainly rise much higher.

2022 Colnago Prototipo x TdF - 1.jpeg

Tadej Pogacar was first spotted on the Prototipo – which is the Italian word for ‘prototype’ – while training at the end of May before riding it to three stage wins in the Tour de France.

> Check out the bikes ridden to every 2022 Tour de France stage victory

It features aero tube shapes, fully internal cable routing, a slightly sunken bottle cage mount area on the down tube, and a slim head tube, and it’s designed to be an improvement on the existing Colnago V3Rs.

> Pogacar's mystery Tour de France recon bike revealed to be Colnago Prototipo 

2022 Colnago Prototipo x TdF - 2.jpeg

Colnago says, “After the initial development, the testing phase has been conducted with the help of the riders of UAE Team Emirates. They have been using this frame in their races and have provided crucial feedback.”

The Prototipo tag is temporary, of course.

“We are not going to sell any prototype to the public,” says Colnago’s Gabriele Sirtori. “Therefore, when the Prototipo project meets its final stage of development, we will present the result to the public with a different name.

2022 Colnago Prototipo x TdF - 3.jpeg

“This means that the Prototipo that we are auctioning will be the first and (likely) the last Prototipo ever sold as new to the public, the others being those used by the riders of UAE Team Emirates.”

Colnago and Tour de France organiser ASO held a contest inviting cycling fans to design the paint scheme for this one-off bike and the design shown here, from Giovanni Ropolo, was selected as the winner.

2022 Colnago Prototipo x TdF - 1 (1).jpeg

The frame is a 485 sloping size (Colnago’s sizing system is unusual; go to www.colnago.com to get an idea) built up with a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, Dura-Ace C50 wheels, and Colnago’s CC.01 integrated handlebar/stem.

The auction closes on Saturday, 20th August 2022 at 2pm UK time (BST).

Find out more here 

Show your love for Wout

2022 Love Velo Wout! T-shirt - 1

If you want to show your admiration for Tour de France Green Jersey winner and all-round cycling superstar Wout van Aert – or any other Wout, come to that – Velo Love is doing these pop art T-shirts at £25 a, um, pop. 

Find out more here 

Pirelli launches tubeless sealant range… and it’s very, very  yellow

Pirelli has launched a new range of tubeless sealants that are as yellow as a cowardly lemon (apologies, it has been a long week). There's road-specific P Zero, Cinturato for gravel, and Scorpion for mountain bike use. These are the same names that Pirelli uses for its tyre ranges, logically enough.

2022 Pirelli tubeless sealant - 1

Pirelli says that the P Zero (60ml, £7.99) is “a dedicated formulation to work better with high inflation pressures typical of road racing use”.

2022 Pirelli tubeless sealant - 1 (1)

Cinturato (60ml, £7.99) and Scorpion (240ml, £12.99 up to 5l, £124.99) are the same ammonia and latex-free formulation, it’s just that they come in different sized bottles. 

We’ve requested samples for review.

Find out more here 

Lands’ End to John o’ Groats in 83 hours… on this Brompton

Last month, James Stannard set the fastest known time from Land’s End to John o’ Groats on a Brompton: 83 hours. Here’s the bike he rode.

It’s definitely a sponsor-led video – James works for Brompton – but it’s still really interesting.

State Bicycle Co teams up with beer brand Corona

2022 State Bicycle Co x Corona - 6.jpeg

Like bikes? Like beer? This is your lucky day because now you can combine your interests thanks to a new collection from the US brand State Bicycle Co and Corona, the Mexican beer producer.

2022 State Bicycle Co x Corona - 1.jpeg

The collab includes a co-branded Klunker bike ($420, around £348), handlebar bag ($39.99, around £33), tech-T ($59.99, around £50), jersey ($69.99, around £58), and bib shorts ($79.99, around £66).

2022 State Bicycle Co x Corona - 5.jpeg

The bike comes with a steel frame and fork and a coaster brake (you’d need a second brake for it to be road legal in the UK).

2022 State Bicycle Co x Corona - 4.jpeg

State Bicycle Co already offers Grateful Dead and Wu-Tang Clan versions of its Klunker.

The Corona items will only be offered on State Bicycle Co’s US site.

Find out more here

Apidura’s new Interactive Sizing Tool helps you find the perfect frame pack fit

London-based bike luggage brand Apidura has launched a new digital tool designed “to help bikepackers achieve a custom fit without the complexity and lead time associated with custom bags.”

2022 Apidura Interactive Sizing Tool - 2

You upload a photo of your bike to the Frame Pack Sizing section of Apidura’s website, scale the photo using the rear wheel, and then virtually fit as many frame packs as you like. Packs will be displayed at real size compared to the bike.

This new Interactive Sizing Tool sits alongside Apidura’s Kit Grid library and setup guides to help you get the right bags for you and the riding you do.

2022 Apidura Interactive Sizing Tool - 3

“Our hope is that this innovative new tool will not only make it less confusing, faster, and easier for bikepackers to find frame packs that fit but will also help reduce returns (and re-orders) associated with poorly fitting packs, reducing our environmental footprint,” says Apidura.

Find out more here  

SRAM’s vid explains gravel gearing

SRAM has produced a video to explain the range of gravel gear setups available to you, depending on the riding you do.

It covers only SRAM – there’s no Shimano GRX or Campagnolo Ekar in here – but it’s a handy guide to various options.

In case you missed it earlier in the week...

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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2 comments

Avatar
Zorrillaj | 1 year ago
1 like

That nice Colnago should be white now.
Probably lost half it's value

Avatar
mdavidford replied to Zorrillaj | 1 year ago
1 like

Maybe once you remove all that hazard tape that appears to have been wrapped around it, it'll turn out to be white underneath.

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