At the 2015 CrossVegas World Cup, Laura Verdonschot, ended up finishing 35th on a Wilier Triestina cyclocross bike. Wilier Triestina has recently released its 2016 Cross Disc Carbon models for the public, but with one catch: currently, they are only available in Continental Europe, priced at 2900 Euros for the Force 1 model and just under 4000 Euros for the Ultegra Di2 model.
Wilier Triestina is hardly a young brand, and the company was founded over 100 years ago in 1906, and is now based in Northern Italy at Rossano Veneto. The company certainly built up its accolades over the years, famously including being ridden by Marco Pantani in 1997. They have been making cantilever cyclocross bikes for years, and are now looking to jump into the disc foray.
Laura Verdonschot's Wilier Triestina at the World Cup CrossVegas. © Cyclocross Magazine
As of early October, Laura Verdonschot is ranked 37th in the world, and had spent last season primarily focusing on World Cup events rather than filling up her schedule with series races such as the BPost Bank Trofee, and finished up with a seventh place finish in the Belgian National Championship race.
Verdonschot didn't ride her personal Wilier Triestina until days before the CrossVegas World Cup, and her full cockpit was the same that comes on the Force 1 stock model, although she swapped her seatpost and wheels out for Zipp Speed Weaponry components, with the latter being 303 Firecrest tubular disc wheels. Much like Sanne Cant's Stevens Super Prestige, Verdonschot equipped her bike with Dugast Pipistrello tires to minimize rolling resistance.
As we saw at the 2015 World Championship back in January, the cantilever brake is no longer the powerhouse it once was in Europe two years prior. Although the young Belgians, Cant and Wout van Aert (with his Colnago Cross Prestige), use cantilevers, plenty of others on the podium used disc brakes, including Sven Nys with his Trek Boone and Katerina Nash with her Orbea.
For photos and detailed specs of the Wilier, use the slider below.
More info: wilier.com
Dugast Pipistrellos are a popular choice for Europeans during training and power courses like CrossVegas. © Cyclocross Magazine
