Their have been some rumours in belgian press and on Cyclingnews.com about Tom Boonen being on a new and reinforced bike last weekend. Roues Artisanales was able to meet the world champion, his mechanics and look at his bike for several races last week. Where he was on a Time VXRS Ulteam bike in Milan-San Remo, Boonen prefers a Time VXR on in the Flemish races. |
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Boonens VXRS Ulteam, as used in Milan-San Remo:
picture thanks to Alba from Bicidacorsa.com
Both Boonen and his mechanic confirmed he has not yet recieved any new material. However some people at Campagnolo will study on his complaints about gearing problems.
The function of Boonens gears is checked extentively before every race.
Every bolt needs to be checked.
As every QuickStep-Innergetic rider he uses a dog fang, to prevent the chain from falling next to the small inner chainring. Names of riders are written on the down tube.
Another interesting point on the QuickStep bikes are the saddles. QuickStep switched to Selle Italia ones this year. However, Boonen is still on a Selle San Marco Regal. Steven De Jongh on his turn is on a nice disguised Selle San Marco Concor, pretending to be a Selle Italia Flite (compare to a real Flite saddle behind De Jonghs bike); the Dutch rider did the covering himself.