Nat Bromhead
The weeks between the finish of the Giro d’Itallia and start of the Tour de France are always the busiest time of the year in the cycling world, but this past couple of weeks and the next few coming up are particularly frenetic. As they say in the classics, ‘it’s all happening!’
With the Dauphine currently underway and Tour de France starting in Florence in just 3-weeks, new releases have been coming thick and fast. And with the world’s biggest bike industry trade show Eurobike taking place in early July this year, then the Olympics and Tour de France Femmes taking us through to August 18, cycling fans have an absolute smorgasbord of entertainment coming up.
New product releases – official and otherwise – have started with the latest Trek Domane spotted at the Dauphine, new Pinarello Dogma soon to be revealed and numerous others including bikes from Willier & Factor hitting the headlines.
Here are a couple of recent highlights from the ever-fluid bike industry.
New Fulcrum ‘Sharq’ Wheels
Italian wheel brand Fulcrum have this week launched an eye-catching new all-road wheelset. Reminiscent of Zipp 454’s and Princeton Carbonworks wheels, Fulcrum’s ‘Sharq’ wheelset is intended for road, gravel and all surface in between.
With its unique two wave profile, the wheels are 47mm deep at the spokes and around 42mm between. They have a 25mm internal width, weigh 1440 gr, and look pretty darn cool. The wheels were used in last weekend’s Unbound with Mattia De Marchi riding them to 5th place.
A New Trek Madone … Or Is It?
As mentioned above, the LIDL-Trek team have been racing what seems to be a new lighter looking Madone. Not a lot is known about the bike but it does have a very impressive team paint job. More soon.
Pinarello’s Finest
And the Ineos team have been racing what looks very much like the latest model Dogma with a slightly revised frame, notably different headtube and (apparently) changes to the forks, bottom bracket and rear triangle.
We’re flying to Italy for the official launch and will have more details coming soon.
New Bianchi Mega Factory
Still in Italy, and this week Bianchi opened their impressive new factory in the town of Treviglio.
In what’s sure to be the world’s biggest celeste coloured building, the new production line can create 500 new bikes per shift!
At the gala opening company owner Salvatore Grimaldi said “despite the challenges the bicycle industry is currently facing, today we are inaugurating one of the most advanced manufacturing plants in the world.”
“The new plant also represents a symbol of resilience. We have invested not only in a factory, but in our new home — this is a sign of the enormous confidence we have in our people, our brand, and our products. The future of Bianchi starts here,” Grimaldi concluded.
2024 Eurobike Show
Eurobike, the world’s biggest annual cycling industry trade show is on a little earlier in July this year.
The huge show is now held in Frankfurt’s ginormous Messe trade halls, with the doors open solely to bike industry reps on July 3-5 and to the public on the weekend of July 6/7.
If you’ll be in Germany at this time we’d highly recommend a visit to the show, it’s absolutely eye opening! More info at www.eurobike.com
