 Fast in a time trial… |
3T’s return to professional cycle racing has been an outstanding success. Team CSC Saxo Bank, who equipped their race bikes with 3T components for the 2008 season enjoyed an outstanding Tour de France with Carlos Sastre taking the overall race winner’s Yellow Jersey after an epic climb of the Alpe d’Huez and then, in the time trial, successfully defending his lead against pre-race favourite Cadel Evans.
CSC’s race bikes have standard components from the 3T 2008 catalogue: ERGOSUM handlebars, ARX stems and, on the time-trial bikes, the FUNDA aero fork and the slender and elegant VENTUS aerobar.
It was the VENTUS aerobar that first caught CSC Saxo Bank boss Bjarne Riis’s eye and led to the team sponsorship in late 2007. He
described the all-carbon-composite aerofoil bar, designed with experience of Formula 1 race cars, as ‘fantastic’. Wind-tunnel tests in California, in which VENTUS was swapped in for the previous bar, showed significant time savings, up to 80 seconds better over a 40-kilometre course.
World time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara utilized VENTUS to devastating effect in early-season racing, and it was the VENTUS-FUNDA front end that his team mate Carlos Sastre rode on the Tour’s penultimate stage to retain the Yellow Jersey.
3T components are available in the UK through Jim Walker.
