Watching the women’s peloton and races grow considerably in visibility and professionalism has been a delight over the past few years. You haven’t needed to have been around the sport all that long to have been in the period of cycling’s history when the women’s side of the sport didn’t get the credit, coverage, and sponsorship it deserved. It was treated like some oddity.
Arguably, it’s only the past 5-7 years where things have seriously started to improve. If you want some insight into that part of recent history, I highly recommend reading Nicole Cook’s biography. It’s an eye-opener. Plus, for all aspiring racing cyclists, it offers an insight into how to race like a true champion.
Thankfully, for the most part, those times are behind us, to the point where some of the televised women’s races get higher viewership than the men’s. But does this increased position in the sport mean that the sponsors supply the equipment they deserve — i.e., the best of the best?
Over the past few years, I’ve attended a few women’s races, and the one that is always on my calendar is the Itzulia Women, the savage three-day stage race held in the Basque Country. Every year while at the race, I take the time to check the tech being used, and every past year, there have been some questionable offerings on team bikes, usually the smaller Pro teams and Continental squads.
Everything from rim brakes (I know, shock horror), mismatched wheels, heavy winter training tires, to mechanical groupsets — all serviceable equipment and good quality for its intended use, but not exactly designed for the rigors of a professional racing season. When added up and pitted against what most of the WorldTour squads race on, it makes for, shall we call it, marginal losses.
In this video, I delve into what trends I spotted at this year’s race and whether equipment across the board has improved. Are there still setups that retail for a quarter of one of the top women’s or men’s WorldTour bikes?
Unreleased wheels
But I also spotted something new. Last year at Itzulia Women, the Canyon-SRAM team were racing on the then unreleased Red AXS groupset; it was the first outing for what would soon be released. This year, the team are at it again with SRAM’s sister wheel brand Zipp. Spotted on all the team bikes in the pits, ready for the day’s action, was a new set of Zipp wheels. As I expected, the mechanics were tight-lipped, very tight-lipped! So we can only speculate what these are and when we can see them out in the wild and ready for purchase. Let’s delve in.
The rim profile looks slightly different to what Zipp already offers, and from simply “eyeballing” them, the depth would suggest that they could be either an addition or a replacement to the 303 range, if only I had a tape measure with me. That dimpling pattern is more prominent on these than the current NSW range, which I presume these must be. Why would you put the team on anything else? Width-wise, it was impossible to tell, but when compared to, for instance, the Hunt range, they certainly seem narrower. Plus, from how the Schwable 30mm Pro One tires blew up on them, ballooning rather than flowing into the side wall would suggest the internal width isn’t overly wide. I guess these are designed to ideally pair with a 28mm tire. Hubs and spokes seemed the same as what is currently in use, as did the lacing pattern. Either way, we will have to wait to find out what exactly these are.
Ok, on with the video.
Cheers,
Dave
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