Tour time trial tech: A look at the time trial bikes used in the Tour de France by Contador, Evans and Basso

The WAY-integrated front end of Evan's bike allows his preferred super-low bar position.

Saturday’s climactic time trial at the Tour de France didn’t create a huge GC shakeup. But it did provide only the second opportunity of the race for teams and riders to air out their slippery TT bikes.

Three weeks ago in Rotterdam, we checked out the time trial bikes of early overall favorites Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, and Ivan Basso. None appeared to have any deep, dark, speed secrets, but the bikes were fun to look at nonetheless. Note that the actual setup for the stage 20 time trial might have varied in terms of wheels or other details. But the frames and components were set up for the prologue as in the photos and presumably remained that way the rest of the race.

Cadel Evans’s BMC timemachine TT01

The BMC timemachine TT01 is not a new platform from the Swiss company, but it’s withstood the test of time, so to speak. It’s been available from BMC since 2004, but team liaison Stefano Cattai said, “We adapt it every year.” And with Cadel Evans taking leadership on its eponymous racing team, BMC had to make notable concessions to accommodate his favored position.

Evans rides an extremely low time trial position. He turned heads on the Lotto squad last year with his customized Canyon Speedmax CF. The TT bike was more or less normal, with the dramatic exception of a window-style cutout in the head tube through which the stem was installed. The head tube window allowed the stem to be installed halfway down the steerer tube. It made for an unbelievably low base bar position, at least 8-10cm below where the stem would normally mount above the head tube.

So on Evans’s BMC TT bike, the fork, stem, handlebar, and aero extensions are all made in one piece, with the stem extending forward of the head tube about halfway between the top of the head tube and the fork crown. It must have been a very exacting carbon molding process, because there’s no visible adjustability to the stem height, bar tilt angle, reach, or any other parameters you’d expect.

Cattai reminded us that all the stock TT01 time trial bikes share the same front triangle, but there’s plenty of fore/aft and height adjustability in the seatpost. And to accommodate different size riders at the front of the bike, BMC offers three different size stems, each of which is adjustable (within limits) for height and reach.

Alberto Contador’s Specialized Shiv

2010 Tour de France tech: Alberto Contador's Specialized Shiv

The Shiv platform from Specialized has seen plenty of success. Alberto Contador put his to good use to retain yellow in the Tour. His bike sponsor Specialized made a few adaptations to his TT bike to help ensure his victory.

For starters, like Evans, he required a special stem. But in Contador’s case, it was for the sake of a higher position rather than a lower one. “It gives him another 2cm over the standard Shiv,” explained Specialized’s Nic Simms. Evidently Contador likes to have the bullhorn base bar positioned at the same level as the drops of the standard road bars on his road bike. This higher-than-typical position is good for sprinting out of the saddle and climbing. And if the results are any indication, Contador’s aero performance wasn’t overly compromised by the raised position.

In other Shiv news, Simms says that Contador’s bike is a new size for the company, a 48cm. The platform will be offered for 2011 in a full run of five sizes total. In the smaller sizes, the top tube bumps up to meet the stem, as seen on Contador’s bike.