Lapierre Aircode
Aero bikes are all the rage and, like Pinarello, Lapierre have this year added a wind-cheating machine to their range, with the Aircode at the disposal of FDJ.fr riders.
The Aircode is the machine on which Nacer Bouhanni has claimed three stage wins at the Giro d’Italia – you can see his bike here – but it’s likely to be the Frenchman’s compatriot, Arnaud Demare (who also rides the Aircode and was involved in the testing of the new frame), who will lead the team’s sprint charge at the Tour.
Bunch sprints can be won by a hair’s width so it’s little surprise Bouhanni and Demare, two rising stars in French cycling, go in search of every extra watt in the equipment they choose to use. Lapierre say the Aircode delivers that advantage with heavily sculpted tube profiles influenced by wind tunnel data gained from tests of Lapeirre’s Aerostorm time trial bike.
The Aircode’s Kammtail-shaped downtube is paired with an aero-profiled seattube, while the integrated seatclamp is also designed to cheat the wind. The headtube has also been slimmed down to reduce the frontal area, while the top of the headtube sits below the top of the toptube to semi-integrate the stem.
Stiffness is also vital in the mega-watt dash for the line and the Aircode is based around designer Remi Gribaudo’s ‘power box’ concept, where the lower section of the frame is intended for stiffness and the upper for comfort.
The Aircode is likely to hit the shops in July, when television viewers watching La Grande Boucle will be able to walk in to their local Lapierre dealer to see the Aircode for themselves, and while Bouhanni and Demare have been acquainting themselves with the bike since January, the biggest date – the Tour de France – is still to come.
