At the Critérium du Dauphiné, Stage 5's mountainous profile had riders reaching for bigger cassettes and lighter weight wheels with shallower profiles. Team Sky captain Bradley Wiggins went a step further with at least two sets of custom-built wheels.
Fitted to his main Pinarello Dogma 2 was a set of Chris King R45 hubs — something we've not seen before at this level of road racing — laced two-cross to a set of shallow-profile carbon tubular rims, which weren't marked but looked to be from Enve Composites.
One of his spare bikes, on the other, went even more exotic with a Tune Mig 45 front hub and Mag 150 rear hub, both laced to HED S3 carbon tubular rims. As the names suggest, claimed weights for the front and rear hubs are an incredible 45g and 150g, respectively, owing to carbon fiber axles and carbon fiber reinforced spoke flanges. Given what we've seen on Wiggins' bikes in the past, ceramic bearings are likely included as well.
Wiggins' third bike was fitted with Shimano's new wide-profile Dura-Ace carbon tubular wheels.
Check out the gallery at right for 16 shots of Wiggo’s set-up, plus a wide variety of detailed looks at other ProTeam gear.
Wiggins' Pinarello Dogma with a Shimano 'prototype' bottom bracket