An all-new tyre has been spotted at the Tour de France, using some unusual tread pattern and with an apparent aero benefit.
Spotted on the Van Rysel bikes of Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale at the Teams Presentation in Florence, Italy, the team's SwissSide wheels were wrapped in a tyre with no demarcation besides the words 'Continental Aero 111' and 'Aerodynamics by SwissSide'.
Not all bikes were fitted with them, and interestingly, they were only used on the front wheels, rather than in pairs. A mixture of GP5000 S TR and GP5000 TT TR tyres were used at the rear.
Given the front wheel is the first thing to hit the air when travelling, it is the area of greatest significance concerning how much of a difference a reduction in drag can make. Any air that hits the rear wheel has already hit the seat tube (and before that, the down tube and the front wheel), so the air is already turbulent, whereas the airflow hitting the front wheel is laminar.
The tyre has an unusual tread pattern that, put simply, looks as though someone has taken a chisel to the tyre and taken chunks out of the tread at regular intervals on either shoulder. It's a significant difference from the intricate tread pattern found on the existing GP5000 tyres.
We know from the Enve SES Road Tyre that a well-designed tread pattern can offer an aero benefit. As air flows around the tyre, that tread adds turbulence that keeps the airflow attached. Instead of pushing the air away leaving the rest of the wheel in the wake of dirty, turbulent air, it helps the air stay attached long enough to flow into the rim surface of the front wheel.
We can only assume that the same tactic is being employed here, and given the team is only using it at the front, it's likely that this tyre is designed specifically as a front tyre. However, we're not ruling out the possibility that the difference made to the rear might not be big enough to warrant the change. Bearing in mind that this is a team that gets its tyres for free, it's probably sitting on a stockpile of the GP5000 models, while the new Aero tyre is likely scarce.
While the Critérium du Dauphiné is the common launchpad for new bikes, giving teams and riders a chance to get used to a new bike before bringing it to the biggest race in the world, the Tour de France is a regular launchpad for the smaller items. Having spent a couple of days in Florence so far, bouncing from team hotel to team hotel, we've spotted a handful of new things.
There have been countless new paint jobs, such as Mark Cavendish's new Wilier Filante and of course the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe bike, but we've also seen new computer mounts, helmets and more, which we'll put into a huge tech gallery in the coming days.
New tyres is perhaps a risky move in a race where the first stage finishes with a twisty descent, but we're sure the team has been testing them in training over recent weeks, if not longer.
