Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) is hoping for a few more stage wins aboard his trusty Giant Propel Advanced - James Huang/Future Publishing
While stock Giant Propel Advanced's come with molded carbon fiber brake arms, team bikes instead go with machined aluminum calipers from Fouriers - James Huang/Future Publishing
Semi-anatomic drop bars and Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 (with supplemental sprint shift buttons, of course) for Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) - James Huang/Future Publishing
Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) likely extracts more benefit from this extra-stiff PRO carbon stem than most - James Huang/Future Publishing
Even sprinters are getting into the 25mm tire game - James Huang/Future Publishing
Giant-Shimano riders were evenly split between Giant's aero Propel Advanced and more traditional TCR Advanced SL models - James Huang/Future Publishing
Lotto-Belisol riders used a mix of Ridley Noah FAST aero bikes and more traditional Helium models - James Huang/Future Publishing
Adam Hansen's (Lotto-Belisol) bike is generally quite easy to spot given his unique position - James Huang/Future Publishing
Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) runs his saddle slammed forward (on a blacked-out Thomson seatpost) and lots of bar drop for a hyper-aggressive position - James Huang/Future Publishing
Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) uses unusually narrow bars, saying it's not only more aerodynamic but also helps him squeeze through holes in bunch sprints - James Huang/Future Publishing
The Campagnolo Super Record EPS front derailleur is backed up with a K-Edge chain catcher. The charge port for the internally housed battery is situated on the seat tube just below the bottle cage - James Huang/Future Publishing
While many riders are starting to move to wider tires, Lotto-Belisol sprinter Adam Hansen stuck with 22mm tubulars at the start of stage 2 - James Huang/Future Publishing
A supplemental clamp is in place to keep the seatpost from slipping inside the frame on Adam Hansen's (Lotto-Belisol) Ridley Helium - James Huang/Future Publishing
Trek Factory Racing set off from Belfast on a mix of Trek Madones and Domanes - James Huang/Future Publishing
With Trek's new Madone-like geometry variant for the team-spec Domane, riders have less of a reason to stick with the usual Madone for road stages - James Huang/Future Publishing
Neat number holders for the Trek Factory Racing team - James Huang/Future Publishing
Trek BAT cages are lightweight and hold bottles tightly - James Huang/Future Publishing
SRAM's mid-length WiFli rear derailleurs make the mechanics' lives a little easier since they don't have to change anything else when riders want to use bigger cassettes - James Huang/Future Publishing
Cannondale's brilliantly simple method for transporting team bikes underneath the bus - James Huang/Future Publishing
Ivan Basso's (Cannondale) Cannondale SuperSix EVO - James Huang/Future Publishing
Ivan Basso (Cannondale) prefers a traditional-bend FSA aluminum bar clamped in a 140mm-long stem - James Huang/Future Publishing
A short section of segmented aluminum housing makes for a smoother bend as the brake line enters the frame - James Huang/Future Publishing
Ivan Basso's (Cannondale) Cannondale Hollowgram SiSL2 crankarms are augmented by an SRM power meter - James Huang/Future Publishing
Fi'zi:k provides Ivan Basso (Cannondale) with a unique Arione saddle with an unmarked cover and what looks to be a custom padding profile. The sides of the seatpost clamp are smoothed over with electrical tape - James Huang/Future Publishing
Small rubber o-rings help keep the housing from rubbing paint off of the frame - James Huang/Future Publishing
The Cannondale team really wants to make sure its riders' transponders don't fall off - James Huang/Future Publishing
We've spotted lots of riders and teams shoehorn Campagnolo pads into non-Campagnolo brake calipers - James Huang/Future Publishing
Domenico Pozzovivo's (Ag2r-La Mondiale) Focus Izalco Max before the start of stage 2 - James Huang/Future Publishing
Interestingly, Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r-La Mondiale) runs his fi'zi:k Arione saddle with a slight upward tilt - James Huang/Future Publishing
Omega Pharma-Quick Step's new Specialized S-Works Tarmac - James Huang/Future Publishing
Tinkoff-Saxo's fleet of new Specialized S-Works Tarmacs lined up and at the ready before the start of stage 2 - James Huang/Future Publishing
Prologo provides the Tinkoff-Saxo team with color coordinated saddles - James Huang/Future Publishing
Lampre-Merida's Merida Reacto Evo aero road machines are certainly hard to miss - James Huang/Future Publishing
While the Merida Reacto Evo frameset itself likely doesn't transfer many bumps, the flex built into the seatposts looks to give riders a little relief on rough roads - James Huang/Future Publishing
More wider-profile tires, this time on the bikes of Lampre-Merida. Mounting them to correspondingly wider rims would be a better match, though - James Huang/Future Publishing
Lampre-Merida is using Power2Max power meters - James Huang/Future Publishing
Whereas it's fairly rare to see scraped-up mechanical derailleurs on riders' bikes, it isn't entirely uncommon to see electronic ones with battle scars since they're so expensive to replace - James Huang/Future Publishing
Garmin-Sharp riders are mostly on the Cervélo S3 aero model but the R5 is still an available option - James Huang/Future Publishing
Tyler Farrar's (Garmin-Sharp) Cervélo S3 - James Huang/Future Publishing
Rebadged Veloflex tubulars are glued to Mavic Cosmic CXR 60 carbon wheels on Tyler Farrar's (Garmin-Sharp) Cervélo S3 - James Huang/Future Publishing
Team Sky's Pinarello Dogma 65.1 Think2 machines - James Huang/Future Publishing
The Colombia team were mostly on Wilier Triestina's lightweight Zero.7 - James Huang/Future Publishing
Canyon sponsors both the Katusha team shown here and the Movistar squad. The latter's title sponsor has tighter restrictions on how the bikes look, though, so generally speaking you'll only see custom painted Canyons in the Katusha camp - James Huang/Future Publishing
Two custom painted Canyon Aeroad CFs sit atop the Katusha team car - James Huang/Future Publishing
This is a pretty standard payload for a team car that will be in the race that day - James Huang/Future Publishing
Specialized sponsors three teams in this year's Giro d'Italia. This S-Works Tarmac belongs to the Astana squad - James Huang/Future Publishing
The Campagnolo Super Record RS group is functionally nearly identical to the standard Super Record package except with a few tweaks to beef up the front shifting performance under load - James Huang/Future Publishing
Rain - at some point - is a virtual certainty in Northern Ireland so this Astana rider wanted to be prepared instead of having to wait for the team car - James Huang/Future Publishing
Yukiya Arashiro's (Europcar) custom painted Colnago celebrates his status as Japanese national road champion - James Huang/Future Publishing
Bigger riders were less intimidated by the wicked crosswinds that were expected on Northern Ireland's coastal roads - James Huang/Future Publishing
Belkin riders used Bianchi Oltre XR2 rigs across the board - James Huang/Future Publishing
Belkin is using Pioneer's latest-generation power meters - James Huang/Future Publishing
Saddle preference is not something to trivialize for the pros. If a rider insists on using one that isn't sponsor-correct, that wish is often granted - James Huang/Future Publishing
BMC riders used a mix of Impec and SLR01 chassis - James Huang/Future Publishing
Aerodynamic bikes may be all the rage in the road bike market these days but you'd hardly know it by looking at the bikes used by riders starting stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia. Of the 22 teams on hand, only about half a dozen were primarily on aero rigs while another two or three fielded a mixed group. Nearly everyone else were on nominally round-tubed machines.
Several factors seemed to play a role in this decision. Many teams here are sponsored by companies that don't yet make an aero model, plus the second half of the route along the coastal edge of Northern Ireland was expected to include some potentially wicked crosswinds (that never really materialized) where deep profile tubes could have proved tough to handle. Monday's logistically complicated transfer to southern Italy also had some teams bringing a somewhat abbreviated range of equipment for the first few days of the race.
Adam hansen's (lotto-belisol) bike is generally quite easy to spot given his unique position: - James Huang/Future Publishing
Lotto-Belisol strongman Adam Hansen went with a non-aero Ridley Helium while many of his teammates went with the theoretically speedier Noah FAST
Even squads with easy access to aero bikes didn't use them, such as Astana, BMC, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, and Tinkoff-Saxo. Mind you, three of those are sponsored by Specialized, who recently launched a new Tarmac model and may have wanted a little more attention paid that way.
Most teams certainly still opted for aero wheels, though, but section depths mostly hovered at a modest 30-50mm or so. We noticed plenty of 25mm-wide tubular tyres, too, even from teams that don't have a wide-profile rim to match. Even stage winner Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) used 25mm-wide Vittoria tubulars on his Giant Propel Advanced machine.
Marcel kittel (giant-shimano) is hoping for a few more stage wins aboard his trusty giant propel advanced:
Stage winner Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) went full aero
Aerodynamic drawbacks or not to the mismatch, it seems that more than a few racers may have been prompted by the perpetually threatening weather to go the conservative route in terms of grip.
James Huang is BikeRadar's former technical editor. After leaving BikeRadar in 2016, he worked at CyclingTips and Escape Collective. He now runs the Substack cycling publication N-1 Bikes.
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