2010 Race Bikes

Recently there has been quite a few Pro teams training in this area near Valencia, many teams have based themselves at the seaside town of Calpe.

So we were lucky enough to be able to go down and have a look at the bikes and take some photos of this season’s team bikes.

The Specialized bikes of Team Astana, Eddy Merckx of Quick-Step and the Trek bikes that the new Lance Armstrong team; Radio Shack.

First the Eddy Merckx bikes are very new, the Merckx brand has been around for some time, but the company has recently been taken over by a new management team and they have released new frame designs. Quick-Step team leader; Tom Boonen was very pleased with his made to measure bike that he received within a month.

The Quick-Step team rode Specialized for the last few years, but Specialized are going with Alberto Contador’s Astana team this year after they had been using Trek for the two years before that. Trek is staying with Lance Armstrong, but then they have been hand in hand for many years during his best results.

All the bikes we saw were not surprisingly; carbon and the Specialized and the Trek were running on the SRAM Red Group sets where as the Eddy Merckx is kitted out with Campagnolo Super Record.

Wheels were from Bontrager on the Trek’s, Fast Forward for the Eddy Merckx and the Specialized were shod with ZIPP. There was a mixture of alloy and carbon rims, but this could have been the rider’s personal choice.

The only time trial bikes we saw were from Trek, there were two different models, the more normal TTX with a normal brake set up and then there was the hidden brake version that had been used last season and was going to be available to more team riders this season.

The aero brakes are inside the front forks and hidden inside the bottom bracket area and work like a cantilever system, the TTX has normal SRAM callipers.

The Specialized road bike looks fairly normal with its mainly round tubes, the Trek and the Eddy Merckx frames are a mixture of tube shapes, but if you asked me to choose one of them; I can’t as they are all top class and I would imagine that they ride perfectly as they are the bikes of the top professionals.

Here is our selection of bike photos for your enjoyment, we hope you like them?