Shortly before the Tour de France: New road bikes from BMC, Factor and Ridley

BMC: Successor to the Timemachine Road?

The most spectacular prototype at the "Dauphiné" comes from BMC and could replace the five-year-old Timemachine Road in the future. The current aero bike of the French team AG2R is still pretty fast with 210 watts in the TOUR test, but has been overtaken by several models in recent months. It seems that the Swiss want to change this. Or how else should we interpret the effective advertising "Create Speed" lettering on the down tube?

The potential successor, which former champion Greg van Avermaet (Belgium/38) and climbing specialist Ben O'Connor (Australia/27) rode for the first time a few weeks before the Tour de France, already looks fast at first glance. By cancelling the 3:1 rule that prescribes the dimensions of the tube cross-sections, the head tube in particular has grown in length compared to the current Timemachine Road. This results in a more aerodynamically favourable profile, which, like the Kammtail profiles of the down tube and seat tube, should favour aero performance.

The fork is a real eye-catcher: as you can see in the pictures, even a wide gravel tyre would probably fit through the extremely wide bars. Of course, the new BMC is not designed for this. Instead, the special design is apparently intended to direct the airflow more smoothly around the racing machine - and thus make it faster.

In addition to the prototype, which is labelled as such by the UCI, Team AG2R also celebrated its first victory at the Tour of the Dauphiné. Campagnolo's new Super Record Wireless their race debut. The traditional Italian company presented the top gear group shortly before the start of the week-long stage race.

Ridley: New all-rounder?

Ridley also provided the Lotto-Dstny team with a new, previously unreleased bike. In contrast to the BMC, the prototype is more ordinary and could be an addition to the Belgian team's existing equipment. So far, the World Tour relegated team has mainly used the aero-optimised Noah Fast and the lightweight Helium SLX. The model spotted at the Dauphiné Tour, with which young pro Maxim van Gils (Belgium/23) sprinted to fifth place at the start, could cover both categories in the future.

Ridley would not be the first manufacturer to take this path. Specialized has been leading the way for years with the S-Works Tarmac SL7, while Giant also presented a versatile all-rounder last year with the Propel Advanced, which masters the balancing act of aerodynamics and weight. Colnago also provides superstar Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia/24) with "just" a racing machine in the form of the V4Rs.

The prototype is almost certainly faster than the Helium, although its frameset has hardly any aero features worth mentioning. Compared to the Noah Fast, which required 212 watts at 45 km/h in the TOUR test, the tube shapes are much rounder, which means that the novelty is likely to lose speed. But is it light? It remains to be seen when Ridley will officially lift the curtain.

Factor: Easy mountain bike for ex-Tour de France winner Froome?

Although Israel-Premier Tech will not be at the start of the Dauphiné, the team in the person of climbing specialist Dylan Teuns (Belgium/31) has recently fuelled the rumour mill about a new Factor model. A photo is circulating online showing Teuns during a training ride in the mountains on an unreleased racer from the British manufacturer. A successor to the O2 VAM?

As you can see from the picture, Factor has probably slimmed down the lightweight model compared to the current O2. Not an easy task, as the top-of-the-range Bergrad is already only just over the UCI weight limit. In the TOUR test laboratory, the frameset also achieved a record-breaking weight of 1160 grams. The top tube and seat stays of the unpublished Factor in particular have an extremely filigree design, and all carbon tubes are reduced to the essentials.

The days leading up to the start of the Tour de France on the Atlantic coast of northern Spain are likely to remain exciting. Perhaps other manufacturers will come out of the woodwork and put their prototypes to the acid test in racing before the big material show at the Tour de France.

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