Dirk De Wolf and Tom Boonen’s Colnago-bashing Wielerclub Wattage podcast, in which De Wolf claimed there was a 2kph difference between the Italian brand’s new V4Rs bike and the best competitor WorldTour bikes, made the biggest headlines when Colnago struck back. Rather than waving a white flag, Colnago instead waved its white paper: “Here is our data. Where is yours?”
The exchange served to reinforce the position of the white paper in today’s bike industry. Namely, if you are going to make particular claims you’d better be able to back them up with data.
Boonen climbed down and apologised, despite being invited to Cambiago for a “public conversation”.
“I was hoping to be able to ride with Tom,” says Colnago’s head of R&D Davide Fumagalli. “I always admired him for the way he raced.”
However, Fumagalli is less impressed with the 2kph claim, actually made by De Wolf, not Boonen, he emphasises.
“If you ride a bike and you say ‘I don’t like it, this one’s too stiff, not stiff enough, too heavy, too light’ that’s fair enough. But if you say ‘this bike is 2kph slower than that one’ you have to prove it.”
According to Fumagalli, a white paper is not a tool to communicate the new bike – the white paper actually is the new bike. It is the collection of the information about the bike, “an open share of information”.
However, for the onlooker enjoying the spat, it’s slightly disappointing that Colnago’s white paper doesn’t prove for its part that the V4Rs is faster than the bikes De Wolf mentioned (the Cervélo S5 and R5, Pinarello Dogma F and Specialized Tarmac SL7). Why not?
Bu hikaye Cycling Weekly dergisinin April 13, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Cycling Weekly dergisinin April 13, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Shorter TT bike
A British shop brand that backed two of the greats of time trialling
Gut health
A gastroenterologist's advice on limiting gut distress and improving your microbiome
7 THINGS I LEARNED FROM BREAKING MY FACE
When a crash left CW's Tom Davidson with a titanium plate in his cheek, his perspective on cycling started to change. Here's what he took away from the saga
Syncros Capital SL Aero wheels
Owen Rogers reviews bling carbon wheels with a price tag to match
SRAM Red AXS
SRAM improves shift quality and tackles braking woes of old in its latest road bike groupset, reports Joe Baker
CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?
Cancelled races, folded teams, bankrupters, Britain's domestic road racing scene appears organis to be in tatters. But is the outlook really as dire as it seems? Charlie Graham-Dixon investigates
AMERICA'S GREAT AGAIN*
*But can it last? The US finally has a clutch of star riders again, but is its top-level success built on solid foundations
THE HUB
All the news you might have missed from the last seven days
Lifeplus-Wahoo aim for pro ranks
Continental squad hopes to mark 10-year anniversary with ProTeam status
Matt Holmes kickstarts comeback with Lincoln win
Former Lotto-Soudal rider returns from retirement with victory at big domestic fixture