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Giro d'Italia tech, May 23, 2005
Giro specials unveiled
Tim Maloney takes a quick look at two special machines in use at the Giro.
Lele Sella's Ceramiche Panaria-Navigare Colnago Extreme
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Ernesto Colnago always likes to wheel out something special at the Giro and as the race hit the mountains over the weekend, this year was no exception.
For this year's Giro Ernesto Colnago prepared a special lightweight prototype called "Extreme-C" for a few special athletes. Ernesto told Cyclingnews, "this is a prototype model that we are still testing at the Giro d'Italia and plan to introduce at the Milano Bicycle show next September."
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Colnago's Extreme-C is an evolution of a special lightweight version of his C50 HP model used at last year's Tour de France by Rabobank riders Rasmussen, Leipheimer and Boogerd. Made in Italy from special high-modulus carbon fibre sourced from Ferrari supplier ATR.
Despite being the lightest Colnago frame ever, it's also one of the most conventional-looking carbon fiber frames we've seen in a while, with round tubes and lugs. Rather than use the star-shaped Master type carbon fibre tubing of the C50, Colnago used round tubing like his C50 TDF proto, but then mated this to a lighter rear triangle. The Extreme-C will reportedly only be offered in sloping sizes; pocket powerhouse Sella rides a 48cm sloping frame.
Marco Velo's Fassa Bortolo Pinarello Montello TT bike
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Once a top time trialist with three Italian TT titles to his credit, Marco Velo is now a key element in Fassa Bortolo's lead out train for super-sprinter Ale Petacchi. For 2005, Fassa has Pinarello's newest version of the Montello time trial bike. While aerodynamics is still paramount in time trialing, there's no such thing as a totally flat road, so shedding weight is becoming a concern for time trial bike designers too, and Velo's Pinarello has weight saving in mind.
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When we saw Fausto Pinarello at the Giro d'Italia, we asked him about his new TT model. "We introduced this new version of the Montello last year at the Milano bike show," said Pinarello. "We worked to make it more aerodynamic and this Montello is 10 percent lighter than the previous version."
Equipped with Dedaelementi's new AeroBlack Zerogradi carbon fibre TT handlebars, the weight of the new Montello TT bike is around 8kg.
