Prototype wheels and saddles, cunning fixes and an arachnid
Team Sky's Pinarello Bolide comes with these specific electronic shifters and brake levers built in to the bars, leaving the team mechanics to strip the standard Di2 components of their workings and reattach to the bike - not a job for your average home mechanic!
Team Sky's Pinarello Bolide comes with these specific electronic shifters and brake levers built in to the bars, leaving the team mechanics to strip the standard Di2 components of their workings and reattach to the bike - not a job for your average home mechanic! - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Direct drive turbo trainers have caught on amongst many of the World Tour teams. Sky use the Wahoo Fitness Kickr - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Presumably Bernie Eisel was filming the new Jaguar F-Type TT chase car behind him - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Preparing BMC's TM01 machines and keeping their top tube flags theme going for the time trial - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Three bikes, three flags, three very unique setups - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
There were almost as many variants of TT saddle on display as riders. This new Fizik Ares has grippy dots on the forward section - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Fizik's TT specific Tritone appeared on a few rigs - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Sky's TT warm up cheat sheet for their riders was taped to the side of the bus in the warm up area - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Alongside it were details for the day's schedule and following cars for each rider - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Three of Sky's Pinarello Bolides had a new tri spoke PRO front wheel. Sky only have 7 of them, and they're so new, they were unsure of the wheel's name - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The new rim is considerably wider than that of the trispoke HED wheels Sky have use up until now, and we'd say it's similar in width to Zipp's Firecrest. Sky's mechanics had to trim the brake pads down to fit. - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Each of the wheels had a hand written number common among prototype equipment - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Geraint Thomas uses some very lengthy arm rests and a pair of single button Di2 shifters that operate the rear mech only - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The ultra clean lines of the Bolide's cockpit are at odds with the hand cut rubber used for the arm rests - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Richie Porte was using a prototype Fizik TT saddle on both of his TT race bikes - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The prototype saddle is based on the Tritone, with the same outline, but a much shallower central channel - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Geraint Thomas's Stages badged Garmin head unit and a blacked out K-Edge TT bar clamp - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
AG2R's GC contenders Bardet and Peraud would be attacking the long time trial on the Focus Izalco Chrono - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
This machine featured a Bryton badged SRM head unit, Profile TT bars and Campagnolo Record EPS TT shifters - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Christophe Riblon's spare bike was last year's Focus Chrono - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Team Giant Shimano were all equipped with the Giant Trinity, and running old 5-arm Dura-Ace cranks - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
A well-used PRO Aerofuel TT saddle on one of Giant Shimano's machines - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The front brake noodle on the Trinity takes a slightly awkward route, and the wrapped-up Di2 cables sit extremely close to the front tyre - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
This Europcar Colnage K-Zero doesn't have the tidiest cockpit arrangement - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
But it does feature Campagnolo's fantastic Bora Ultra carbon TT crank - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
A rusty seat-clamp bolt; Ernesto wouldn't approve - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The underside of Michele Scarponi's Specialized Sitero TT saddle - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The top view shows the stubby, wide-nosed shape - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Scarponi's spare Shiv was quite unusual with a Corima 4-spoke rear wheel, and 3-spoke front - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
A very neat setup on Trek Factory Racing's Gregory Rast's Speed Concept, with a single riser supporting the proprietary TT extensions - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
An equally successful positioning of the Di2 control box behind the riser - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Garmin Sharp warmed up on their every day race bikes rather than their P5s - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The team use Shimano Di2, but on the P5 time trial bikes, they run Magura's RT8TT hydraulic rim brakes which don't incorporate electric shifters. So the team mechanics stick the shifting buttons from Shimano's TT brake/shift levers to the inside of the Magura brake levers - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
This lever has sticky foam pads bonding the shifter in place - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Whereas this lever looks to have something like epoxy resin fixing the shifter - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
A very neat Di2 cable run, control box mount, Garmin mount, and presumably the electrical tape is wrapped around the TT extension tightening nuts to save them from scratching when tightening with a wrench - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Garmin's Vector pedals were back in use for the TT, here fitted to a Rotor 3D crank and Q Rings - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Super tight front tyre clearance and the Magura brake help the P5's aerodynamics - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
This Arundel bottle cage shows the remains of some sticky foam that was still on some other bikes to help with bottle retention - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Katusha's mechanics are amongst the most creative, here fitting an SRM mount designed for round bars to a home made clamp - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Joaquin Rodriguez ran a standard but very clean looking Canyon Speedmax CF with a Mavic Comete disc and CXR80 front wheel - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Rodriguez's saddle was a Selle Italia Kronos with carbon tail - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The Mavic CXR80 wheel is designed to have clip in fairings that fill the gap between tyre and rim, but since these are banned by the UCI, the Katusha mechanics fill the space with black mastic instead - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Another neat SRM fix accomplished by shaping the mount to fit, and using a single bolt in to the handlebar - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The net result is a very smooth looking cockpit, only mildly spoiled by the Di2 control on the inside of the extension - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Joaquin Rodriguez even has a personalised name plate on the back of his Selle Italia Kronos - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
All of the teams have their ways of trying to keep warming up riders as cool as possible, FDJ go for the large fans approach - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Elite's Turbo Muin direct drive turbo trainer is FDJ's warm up tool - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
This Omega Pharma-Quickstep rider has chosen to have grip tape on the flats as well as the usual hand holds, and surely the only way of fitting a Garmin to that mount is by loosening and rotating it first. - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Time trial stage winner Tony Martin's Specialized Shiv TT makes the most of his World TT Champion status - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The S-Works crank includes a Quark power meter and monstrous 58 tooth outer chain ring. That's a long cage SRAM Red rear mech too - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Martin's grip tape has been very carefully applied to the hand holds, which is useful to cope with his power output - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Specialized Turbo Cotton 24c "for the connoisseur". Or, for the sponsored rider - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Anything Katusha's mechanics can do… Fine use of a Specialized bar end plug too, even if it is inverted - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Martin's cockpit setup shows his narrow arm placing and older mechanical shifters, rather than SRAM's return to centre model - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Martin's customised Specialized saddle has grippy material cut in to the surface. It must suit Tony Martin's phenomenal ability, but it looks like it'd soon wear out an expensive lycra skinsuit - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
The World Champion's Shiv is no ordinary time trial machine, with an 11-32 WiFli cassette fitted along with the long cage Red rear derailleur - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Lampre-Merida's riders have the Warp TT machine, and apart from Chris Horner's pink-tipped fork, more uniformity than many team's TT rigs - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Spare Rotor TT-sized chain rings and Shimano rear cassettes anyone? - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
Chris Horner's Vision TT extensions, Prologo tape and Dura-Ace Di2 shifters. We're not sure if the spider is UCI-legal though… - Robin Wilmott / Immediate Media
With just one time trial in the 2014 Tour de France, the teams had only one opportunity to debut and show off their latest speed bikes and kit. We visited each of the 22 teams before to bring you the best of what’s new, exciting and ingenious in the world of time trialing.
In part one of our TT gallery, we look at prototype wheels and saddles, some cunning fixes, and an arachnid passenger…
Robin Wilmott is a freelance writer and bike tester. He began road cycling in 1988 and, with mountain bikes in their infancy, mixed experimental off-road adventures with club time trials and road races. Cyclocross soon became a winter staple and has remained Robin's favourite form of competition. Robin has always loved the technical aspect of building and maintaining bikes, and several years working in a bike shop only amplified that. Robin was a technical writer for BikeRadar for nearly a decade, and has tested hundreds of bikes and products for the site. He has also written extensively for Cycling Plus, Velonews and Cyclingnews.
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