Over the last few days, we have been pouring over our pictures that are still coming in from the Cyclocross World Championships in Tabor. One item that struck us was the changing nature of bike tech on podiums in comparison to years past.
We have looked at the technology behind the riders that have what it takes to compete for the podium, and analyzed the top four bikes in each category, from the Junior, U23, Women's Elite, and Men's Elite Races. In the slides below, we'll present some of the most common parts that helped the riders find the podium (or barely miss it), and we'll also point out some of the noticeable outliers.
Although we didn't incorporate the riders who placed out of the top four of each race into our statistics, we'll show you a few unique products that we found. Don't miss our full bike profile on Mathieu van der Poel's Stevens Super Prestige Disc cyclocross bikes of the BKCP Powerplus cyclocross team.
While we included many categories, we opted to save tire selection for a separate post for multiple reasons. In many cases, riders were changing their tire selection mid-ride: Eli Iserbyt and Logan Owen, for example, both reported their mistake of start-line tread selection after their race. As such, a breakdown of tire usage is not only unwieldy, but the reported statistics would be misleading. Stay tuned for our look at some notable tire choices at the 2015 Cyclocross World Championship.
One Big, “Giant” Draw for Frames
Here’s a quick look at the breakdown of bicycle manufactures with riders in the top 16: Ridley: four, Giant: four, Stevens: two, Colnago: one, Specialized: one, Moots: one, Zannata: one and Look: one.
No company had more than one winner, with Ridley, Giant (Liv), Specialized and Stevens each having a rider stand atop a podium. To make it even more interesting, only Ridley and Giant (Liv) were able to send two riders up on the same podium, with Liv taking first and third in the Women’s Race, and Ridley gathering second and third in the Junior Race.
Technically speaking, since Giant and Liv are trying to define themselves as separate entities in the marketing world, they would only take two bikes apiece, but we can make an exception and give them a share in the win with Ridley.
As far as honorable mentions for outside the top 16 are concerned, Brannan Fix’s Boo RS-X deserves a look, although he is not the first rider to bring a bamboo bike to the world championships.
Giant presented Lars van der Haar’s TCX advanced with Di2. Because this was the first winning disc-brake bike at a World Cup, it gave legitimacy to the idea that discs could rock at races in Europe. © Christopher Langer
