Tour tech 2010: Yellow is the new SRAM Red

Never ones to miss a trick, SRAM yesterday unveiled a new ultra-limited edition of their top end Red groupset… in yellow. And when we say ultra-limited edition we really mean it – for the time being.

Only three riders will have it at the start of the Tour, the three SRAM-equipped previous winners riding: Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre. Oscar Periero also has a set, but he didn't Astana's starting line up. Oh, and it's one set each too; Armstrong only had yellow Red on his best bike, he'll just have to make do with plain old Red on the spare. 

Should any other SRAM rider make it in to yellow during the course of the race they'll get a set too… which seems to be dropping the qualification criteria considerably if you ask us. On the other hand though, they would appear to have spare set knocking about as the black Madone we shot it on would seem to testify.

In terms of function, nothing has changed here; it’s a finish thing. Essentially, everything is anodized black with large yellow logos and graphics. Even the inner surface of the biggest sprocket of the cassette is black! And it looks the business, we must say.

Customer customisation is very much the name of the game among bike makers at the top end these days and SRAM are simply taking things to the next level with kit like this showing what they can do. Expect to see some more colour coded limited editions too, there's know reason they couldn't do a green set of Red for the points jersey winner, and in the two time winner of that jersey, Thor Hushovd they've got a contender. No reason either why they couldn't do colour coded versions for any other SRAM equipped jersey winners. It's almost a shame the Tour doesn't give a jersey to the Lantern Rouge which would have opened up the possibility of SRAM producing a limited edition red version of Red.

Luckily, if you want to get your hands on a set of yellow Red (this is just getting confusing) you don’t have to win the Tour de France or even just lead it, but you will have to wait a while. It’ll be available as a limited edition – probably in the autumn for a few months although that, like the pricing, has yet to be confirmed.