3 July, 2024
The beauty of precision
The most romantic ones believe that data-driven cycling will kill true cycling. How many hours, which turn into months, which add up to years, have been filled with arguments, extending that Sunday stop painting the table with empty coffee cups.
However, there is a discipline where precision is beauty, where there is no inspiration but dedication, where one does not race by instinct but with adoration for pure perfection.
When the rider is on the start ramp of a time trial, at the moment of highest concentration, there is no way to guess what goes through his head. But he must know, and he does know, that nothing of what will take him to the finish line has been left to fate.
In a grand tour, if there is one day where equipment and technology are the absolute protagonists, even more than the rest of the days, that is the time trial stage. The helmet, the clothing, the gearing, the bicycle play fundamental roles against the clock.
The Orbea Ordu that the Lotto-Dstny riders will use in this Tour de France is not at all a stranger, it has starred in great moments: cycling championships, triathlons, and grand tours. Now it comes to La Grande Boucle, and we have prepared it thoroughly.
After months of extensive work, in this last phase of planning, we traveled to the Zolder velodrome with part of the Lotto-Dstny team, lead by one of their directors, the former profesional cyclist and Performance Manager: Nikolas Maes. Nikolas knows well that every tiny detail counts and that, if the bike’s ergonomics do not
adapt to the rider, the lightness, stiffness or aerodynamics are useless. Thus, one of the many facets we focused on at the Belgian velodrome was leveraging the great range of adaptability and numerous adjustment possibilities of Ordu.
Just a few days later, we found ourselves at the start of the Tour de Suisse. The inaugural stage of the last major event before the French tour was going to be key to checking if all the meticulous previous work had made us ready for the big moment and, also, to make the final adjustments (if, in the pursuit of perfection, any adjustment ever truly becomes the final one).
Every data point counts, every millimeter, every millisecond, every watt. 11.5% drag reduction, 72º fork angle, 5 extra watts. Don’t numbers have an extraordinary beauty?
This Friday, we will have no clue what goes through the minds of the eight great riders of Lotto-Dstny. However, we know that they will know, until their last breath at the finish line, that their Orbea Ordu is precise, sublime and perfect.
