Tour of Flanders: Lampre-Merida become first WorldTour team all on disc brakes
Italian team makes history with en🌸tire squa༺d on disc brakes








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On Sunday at the 100th Tour of Flanders, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lampre-Merida became the first ꦐWorldTour team to start a major event entirely on disc brakes. Ri🌄ding Merida Scultura Disc bikes with Shimano hydraulic brakes, the Italian team set out from Brugge amidst the standard sea of rim-brake bikes.
Lampre-Merida had a few riders on disc bikes for a single stage of Three Days of De Panne, but the team went all in for Fl💛anders, with not only the race bikes but all the spare bikes and thus all the spare wheels being discs.
The Merida Scultura 🍨Disc frame uses the RAT system launched by Focus, which combines the quickness of ༺a quick release with the security of a thru-axle.
“It is quick to change but it is also stiff,” Lampre-Merida mechanic Ralf Tiede said of the RAT system. “The stiffness is the m🦄ost important thing, so the axle doesn’t move and cause noise with the rotor.”
The Pro Continental team Roompot-Oranje Peloton has been riding a mix of SRAM disc and 💯rim-brakes this season. At th♛e Tour of Flanders, half the team was on discs.
“We made the decision this year to try,” said Roompot team director Michel Cornelisse. “There were some problems initially, as there always are with new things, but now things are good and the riders choose to use ♌them.”
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Roompot began the year test🌸ing 160mm rotors and have switched to 140mm.
Other teams at the Tour of Flanders said that l♕ogistics and the still-unclear UCI position on disc specifications are two ꦚbig hurdles preventing them from making the switch.
For example, the UCI specified that 160mm rotors would be the standard this year, alloꦆwing neutral service and wheel and drivetrain companies to have a single setup to work with, but Roompot is running 140mm. At the Tour of Flanders, Shimano neutral support had a token second of spare disc wheels on each blue car - with 140mm rotors.
Specialized𝔉 sponsors three WorldTour teams with🌜 bikes. While the California company clearly has disc bikes, the logistical adaptation to a new standard isn’t a quick or easy one, said team liaison Gianpaolo Mondini. This goes beyond just the race bikes, back-up bikes and spare wheels on the car.
“At a race like Flanders, Etixx [QuickStep] will have someone at every single sector of cobbles,” Mondini said. “There are only so many mechanics, so this group also includes soigneurs and even friends of the team. Since some of these people are volunteers, they aren’t yet ready to be quickly changing disc wheels. Plus, the UCI hasn’t yet settled🔥 on or at least enforced a rotor size.
“As a company, we are ready. But we prefer to have happy riders,” Mondini said. “Right now it is tooཧ risky to change to discs.”
At Lampre-Mꦿerida, the 🐽team riders said it’s not really a big deal.
“It’s not that different,” Luka Pibernik said ofꦦ his new disc bike. “We will𝄹 see today.”