A new Vittoria road tyre has been spotted on Team Jumbo-Visma’s 2023 bikes, which were revealed on social media today.
The tyre appears to be named the Vittoria Corsa Pro, meaning it is likely an addition to Vittoria’s high-end Corsa range of road tyres.
Although the tyre looks as if it uses classic cotton sidewalls, there appears to be a tubeless valve nut on the valve stem, indicating this is a tubeless tyre.
This would be a first for Vittoria, because its tubeless road tyres have previously not been available with tan sidewalls (much to the chagrin of cycling fashionistas everywhere).
What can we expect from the Vittoria Corsa Pro?
Road bike tyre tech has come on in leaps and bounds recently, with tubeless tyres being a key tech trend at the 2022 Tour de France.
As teams abandon tubular tyres and wheels, tyre manufacturers have kicked off a technological arms race, vying to make the lightest, fastest and most durable tubeless system.
The Continental GP5000 S TR, for example, has proven fast enough to take a win at the World Time Trial Championships in 2021, yet also durable enough to win on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix in 2022.
We expect the Vittoria Corsa Pro to be an update to the Corsa TLR G2.0 – Vittoria’s current high-end tubeless road tyre – and a direct competitor to the likes of the GP5000 S TR.
Though the Corsa TLR G2.0 has been praised unanimously for its excellent ride feel and grip, independent tests have consistently shown it now lags slightly behind the best tubeless road tyres in terms of rolling resistance.
Given Vittoria’s experience with the Corsa Speed TLR, which is widely regarded as one of the fastest time trial-specific tyres currently available, we expect the Corsa Pro to be more competitive in this area.
Could there also be an update to the Corsa Speed in 2023? Continental released the GP5000 TT TDF earlier this year, claiming it is its "fastest ever" tyre, so perhaps Vittoria will be keen to respond there too.
As reigning Tour de France champions, Team Jumbo-Visma will be undoubtedly keen to exploit every marginal gain possible, and tyres are a key component in this.
The possibly cotton sidewalls seem to indicate Vittoria is sticking with unvulcanised cotton tyres for its high-end tyres.
This is little surprise because Vittoria has long claimed that unvulcanised cotton tyres, particularly those with high thread counts (TPI), offer improved suppleness and lower rolling resistance compared to vulcanised tyres.
For example, Vittoria launched the Corsa N.EXT TLR earlier this year, but because it uses a vulcanised casing, it's pitched as more of an “everyday performance” tyre, rather than an option for professional racers.
When will the Vittoria Corsa Pro be available?
We contacted Vittoria asking for more details on the Vittoria Corsa Pro tubeless tyres, but had not received a response at the time of writing.
Winter training camps are often used to familiarise WorldTour professional riders and teams with new bikes, new kit and to test prototypes. We recently spotted Movistar Team testing prototype SRAM Red shifters at their training camp in Alicante, for example.
It is therefore possible these tyres are not yet in their final production form, although the Vittoria branding and model naming do suggest otherwise.
As always, we’ll keep our noses close to the ground and will update this article if we learn anything more.
