The first individual time trial in this year’s Tour de France took place on Wednesday 9 July which, as expected, led to a shakeup in the General Classification. That shakeup involved Tadej Pogacar (of course) who limited his losses to emphatic stage winner Remco Evenepoel to put himself in the yellow jersey, with arch rival Jonas Vingegaard now trailing by over a minute. Here’s the Colnago TT1 that Tadej Pogacar used to great effect today in his search of a fourth yellow jersey.
There are two individual time trials in this year’s Tour de France: the 33km (20.5 miles) TT around Caen that happened today, and then Stage 13, which is just 10.9km (6.8 miles) in length but up a 1st category climb (Peyragudes in the Pyrenees). It’ll be interesting to see what bikes and setups are used for that one.
There were two individual time trials in last year’s Tour de France, too. Tadej Pogacar finished second in one and won the other on his way to the overall victory.
We had a quick look around Pogacar’s Colnago TT1 before the race started in Lille at the weekend.
Naturally, Colnago claims that the TT1 is the fastest time trial frame in the WorldTour. You’d expect nothing else, would you? As you can see, the TT1 uses a bayonet fork to reduce the frontal impact of the frame, and a monocoque carbon fibre base bar.
Colnago has gone for a very short head tube to keep the frontal area small, and Pogacar has aero extensions that angle upwards to provide him with a ride position that’s aero while still being able to deliver maximum power.
Although those aero extensions are labelled ‘Enve’, these look like they’ve been made especially for Pogacar. Don’t let that Richard Mille logo throw you off the scent, by the way. That’s the name of the watch brand that sponsors UAE Team Emirates XRG, nothing to do with any of the components.
Pogacar’s Wahoo Elemnt Bolt GPS sits on a mount right between his hands. He can shift gear both from the extensions and from the base bar. He has the upshift button on one side and the downshift button on the other (there’s no need for front shift buttons because this is a 1x setup)
The top tube of the Colnago TT1 is horizontal, as are the seatstays along half of their length before kinking down towards the dropouts.
The TT1 is designed exclusively for electronic groupsets, UAE Team Emirates XRG being one of the many World Tour teams that use Shimano Dura-Ace Di2.
One noticeable exception to the Dura-Ace theme is the chainring from Carbon-Ti
: carbon fibre with aluminium alloy teeth.
Speaking of teeth, this is a massive 62T single chainring (there’s no front derailleur; the chain is held in place by a K-Edge 1x Race Chain Guide
The idea of such a large chainring is efficiency. Incredible athlete though he is, Pogacar isn’t going to spend a whole lot of time (if any) turning a 62 x 11 gear. The idea is to allow him to use the larger sprockets at the rear and have a straighter, more efficient chain line with reduced articulation.
post that Pogacar was using last year, but we can’t be certain. We guess – and it is a guess – the idea is to save weight.
and these are certainly branded Enve, but that doesn’t mean they are. The deepest Enve wheels that appear on the UCI’s approved list
have a rim height of 71mm. The front wheel here, which UAE riders have used a lot in the past, looks much deeper than that, so it’s either new and awaiting a formal release or a rebadged model from another brand.
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