Race Tech: Tour de France, July 6, 2007

Boonen aiming for top step in London

By James Huang in London, England

Boonen's new TT bike certainly looks the part	A narrow down tube
…but this is what is required	Campagnolo's bar-end shifters
Boonen will use his tried-and-true	A pair of 54/44T chainrings
The rear wheel is closely profiled	Cables are run internally.
Rear brake is tucked behind and below	Campagnolo Record components
Boonen's custom-finished Selle San Marco saddle.	If all else failed

With the start to this year's Tour de France less than two days away, the peloton already finds itself without Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), who undoubtedly would have injected a load of excitement into the first week's likely sprint finishes. To make matters even more dramatic, one of Petacchi's most potent sprint finish rivals, Tom Boonen (Quickstep-Innergetic), almost found himself without a ride for this Saturday's opening time trial courtesy of a few UCI officials.

Boonen hopes to carry the maillot jaune into his home country as the TdF crosses the English Channel into Belgium for Stage 2 and much of that goal will rest on an outstanding performance in Saturday's opening Prologue through the streets of London. To assist 'Tornado Tom' in that endeavor, team bicycle sponsor Specialized provided him with its brand-new Transition time trial machine, which was formally unveiled just last week at the company's global product launch in Spain.

Specialized frame designers were quick to point out during the press event that the radical dimensions of the new Transition just barely satisfied UCI requirements, saying that "[its] designers and engineers pushed right up to the legal limit in an effort to give riders the maximum aerodynamic advantage possible."

As it turns out, Specialized may still have pushed that envelope a bit too far as a swarm of UCI officials were seen carefully scrutinizing the bike in the pit area outside the team hotel as Quickstep-Innergetic staff nervously looked on. Luckily for Boonen (not to mention Specialized and the rest of the team), the UCI did eventually approve use of the Transition for Saturday's start, albeit begrudgingly if our information is correct. We weren't able to obtain an official UCI statement as far as what its major objection was, but rumor had it that it wasn't even related to the frame tubes themselves per se, which was apparently what Specialized had most concerned itself with. Rather, it supposedly had more to do with the range of adjustment allowed by the bike's rear-facing horizontal dropouts and its effect on the distance between the rear wheel and the seat tube.

Be that as it may, Boonen has averted disaster this time around, but the rumors in the pits suggested that the technically over-involved UCI was still wielding its meddling stick in regards to poorly worded minutia, seemingly with reckless abandon (and we still don't understand why the 6.8kg minimum weight restriction has yet to be lifted or modified). If those rumors are true, the UCI was apparently considering declaring 'modified' dropouts as unlawful modifications to stock safety features, and confusion over aero bar extension positioning had at least one team searching for clarification over the rules in fear of disqualification.

Regardless, at least one thing is for certain: the teams and riders already have enough to worry about without having to wonder whether or not filing the lawyer tabs from their forks will force a last-minute scramble for more equipment.

Photography

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Images by James Huang/Cyclingnews.com

• Boonen's new TT bike certainly looks the part , but almost wasn't going to be allowed to the start house on Saturday.
• A narrow down tube flares into the full width of the bottom bracket shell.
• Quickstep-Innergetic team mechanics insist that Boonen will race on Saturday using Specialized's Roval Rapide Star Carbon front wheel.
• This is a far cry from the long stem and deep drop bars that we're accustomed to seeing on the front of Boonen's bikes..
• …but this is what is required if 'Tornado Tom' hopes to put in a good time on Saturday.
• Campagnolo's bar-end shifters handle the duties up front.
• Vision's knife-edged brake levers offer up little wind resistance.
• The proprietary Specialized brake is said to offer a cleaner path through the air than a traditional dual-pivot caliper.
• Boonen will use his tried-and-true Campy Record Ultra-Torque crankset.
• A pair of 54/44T chainrings ought to do the trick on the flat prologue course.
• Look continues to provide Boonen with its chrome-moly spindled Keo pedals.
• The Transition stays take a nearly parallel path back towards the rear of the bike, then take a dramatic turn towards the dropout.
• The rear wheel is closely profiled by the seat tube.
• Cables are run internally.
• Boonen's Vision integrated TT bar and stem were heavily filed at the rear.
• Boonen's desired position required the rearmost setting on the Transition post.
• Rear brake is tucked behind and below the bottom bracket shell.
• Campagnolo Record components fill out the drivetrain.
• Unless the wind is howling out of control , rear disc wheels are sure to be the standard on Saturday.
• The Fulcrum rear disc incorporates familiar Campagnolo hub internals.
• Boonen's custom-finished Selle San Marco saddle.
• The prologue course is only 7.9km long so we're not sure why this is even on here!
• UCI officials carefully scrutinize Boonen's new machine…
• …while team officials nervously look on.
• If all else failed , at least Boonen still has yet another Tarmac SL2 to ride, resplendent in the World Champion and Belgian national colors.

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