A flood of emails over the last few days announces new shirts and new colors for the Tour de France. Bicycles and helmets, even shoesBut on the eve of a first stage that will be decided by a sprint with probable wind and the first time trial that on Wednesday will shake up the standings, the meeting with Castelli to talk about the materials of the Soudal-Quick Step it seemed very tempting. On the one hand Tim Merlier, European champion and sprinter with a shot at the first yellow jersey. On the other hand Remco Evenepoel, world time trial champion who could make his Tour a first impression in Caen.
The word a Koen Pelgrim, responsible for performance in the Belgian team, and Steve Smith, brand manager of Castelli, in a sort of transversal duet with respect to the studies, the needs of the athletes and the solutions found.
«I think many of you – says Steve Smith – have expressed a certain interest in knowing what happens behind the scenesWe actually spent a lot of time here (he says showing a photo, ed.), in the wind tunnel at the Polytechnic University of Milan. That's why we'll try to show you some of the necessary work to prepare for major goals such as the Tour de France for Tim Merlier and Remco Evenepoel. No big secret really, other than discovering the process we go through with our riders and what we do in terms of developing faster bodies."
Every detail counts
The knowledge that the first stage of the Tour will be a sprint and the fact that the yellow jersey is Merlier's great dream has pushed the team to invest in every detail. It's true that so far the Belgian has won his sprints by a wide margin, but the higher the level, the more the differences become smaller.
«Every detail can make the difference – explains Smith – and we had the idea that a sprint bodysuit should be specific and different from a time trial one. So we started testing it, to see if it was possible to get an aerodynamic gain. So we tried to work in the wind tunnel so that it would allow us to think about the sprint positionIt's not easy. The time trial position tends to always remain the same, while in the sprint you move much more. The same measurement has more critical issues, because the position is never constantThe way airflow moves around the body is completely different than in any other position. So the fabrics we use should be specifically developed for this."
Test before the Sanremo
Fabrics are also chosen based on speed. A fast outfit for 40 km/h will probably not be as fast at 70. For this reason, tests were carried out at 60 km/h and then at 70 and also with the rider standing on the bicycle and Merlier was very good at holding the position for the entire time required for the measurement..
«Even while standing – explains Koen Pelgrim – we obtained a certain repeatability of the data, even if obviously there was much more noise. I was a little afraid before taking the test that standing would make too much of a difference.But the results have actually been surprisingly consistent. Tim is very composed even in the sprint. He is relatively short, his back is almost completely flat and his head is between his shoulders.He doesn't stick out into the wind. His arms tend to stick out a little, and that creates a pretty specific airflow for him, which wouldn't be exactly the same for another sprinter. So we went back and We looked at the theoretical airflow around this location and prepared 11 new prototypes to test.Sanremo was just a few days away, immediately after the Paris-Nice was blocked. We went to the Politecnico di Milano and we put everything in the wind tunnel. That positioning worked and we were able to repeat both the sitting and standing positions."
Merlier's stability
The data that emerged shows that when Merlier gets up to 70 kilometers per hour, his CDA decreases: this means that he is actually more aerodynamic standing than sittingThe data surprised Pelrgim, who works with Merlier and the explanation is entrusted to the materials themselves.
"We had 11 new prototypes and some things that were somewhat innovative," explains Steve Smith, "and we thought they would show some significant improvements. But what emerged at the end of the day was that The San Remo 8S suit, which Tim has been using all year and is the team's road suit, has proven to be the fastestA road bodysuit has to be designed for extremely high speeds. And so, even though we designed it for around 60 miles per hour, we found that it's still the fastest we have for 70 miles per hour. A lot of it comes from that shoulder fabric, similar to what you've seen in other teams, but really this is CastelliWe've tested all the fabrics on the market and created our own exclusive one, which is giving excellent results. Another area where we've found significant gains is a new shoe cover different from the standard one used by the team, which works very well at high speed."
Evenepoel, few adjustments
We then move on to the Evenepoel chapter and the first surprise is getting to know the mannequin used to carry out the tests on it. During the recovery period from the shoulder injury, Remco was unable to hold the time trial position and his… stunt double was called to work overtime.
«Evenepoel – explains Smith – has won every time trial since he returned. So we made some very slight changes to the body and leg tissues., resulting in a decrease of approximately 2% in aerodynamic resistance, which translates into about 1/2 kilometer per hour when at full speed. When we get to the first time trial of the Tour on Wednesday, we hope they bring a big profit margin."
«We all know – echoes Pelgrim – that If Remco is at his best level, he is very difficult to beat, even if the rivals will be very tough. So it was nice to find some small improvements. We also know that we've already worked so hard with him in the wind tunnel tests, we're talking about almost 26 hours in the last yearWe also worked on the track, fine-tuning almost every little thing we could find, so it was difficult to do even better."
The new visor
No new positions, in short: the latest changes date back to last winter. Among these, the redesign of the helmet visor whose tip, if it was in the ideal position, touched his hands, limiting the movements of his head.
«So we tried one that was a little shorter and a little more refined – explains Pelgrim – which improved the position of his head. It also works well for airflow around him and through the helmet, so cutting off the entire visor isn't the ultimate solution. We cut it into its current shape, which turned out to be very quick.».
From Ganna to Remco
Steve Smith cites the funny fact. When in 2022 Castelli he arrived at Soudal, with Ganna's great results behind him. They were convinced that everything would go well for Evenepoel too, but they were wrong..
“We thought we had a pretty fast setup and we brought it back to Remco,” explains Steve Smith, “but nothing was working. It was a real lesson in humility to have to go back to basics. We realized that Remco is almost unique in his aerodynamics.With his head so low, his helmet and hands really act as a fairing for the rest of his body. So the outfit is a little different. We went back to the beginning and looked for things that worked for him.. And we discovered that what works well for him, doesn't work well with other riders on the team."
The last note also concerns Remco, who In the time trial he will not use the same body as Caen, then the rumba of the Tour takes over againTomorrow, the results of technological research into clothing will also collide in the sprint for the first yellow jersey. And it's nice to think that in all of this, there's still so much Made in Italy.
