Colnago has officially launched the TT2 time trial bike that Tadej Pogačar was racing on in April at the Tour de Romandie.
The TT2 was first spotted as an unknown prototype back in February. Colnago itself then gave us information on it in the run-up to Romandie, and now the official launch is here.
The Tour de France will soon begin, the race opening with a team time trial in Barcelona, with another individual time trial later in the race. The new bike will see action on both those important stages.
Before that though, Pogačar (and his teammates) will ride the ITT at the Tour de Suisse on Saturday aboard the TT2 after laying waste to the race on its opening day with a highly impressive long-range solo attack.
The TT2 is available as a ‘frame kit’ from late September. The kit includes: frame (available in XS, S, M, L), fork, seatpost, base bar, aero bottle system and cage, bearings / small parts, etc.
The TT2 has clearance for up to 30mm tyres, is UDH hanger friendly, uses a BSA 68 bottom bracket standard, and can accommodate up to a 70 tooth chainring.
Prices are: $7,500 / £6,499 / €7,040.
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Lighter and faster
Major headlines around the TT2 have focused on the bike’s lower weight; Colnago claims it’s 550 grams lighter as a frame kit compared to the Colnago TT1, the brand’s TT machine up to this point.
A small, ready-to-paint frame weighs 985 grams, and a frame kit weight is 2240 grams. The fork is also much lighter, 393 grams against 530 grams for the TT1 fork.
A half kilo saving on a top-level road machine would be very difficult to achieve without compromise. It seems Colnago has found a way to drop this healthy chunk of weight from the TT rig with its added frame real estate whilst still ‘preserving the stiffness, strength and aerodynamic efficiency required’.
In short, it sounds like the TT2 will result in a 550-odd-gram lighter bike, but it’s now faster and more stable, with an updated geometry that makes it more user-friendly and more suited to modern time trial courses that appear to be moving away from the long, straight drag strips of old.
Colnago says the TT2 has ‘simplified structural junctions’, a revised carbon layup strategy and a new fork concept. As is the norm with high-end bike design, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel testing were used in the development of the bike.
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The front end of the bike has received key attention to reduce frontal area. There’s a narrower handlebar that measures 36cm centre-to-centre, a new fork and a slimmer 32mm-wide head tube. Front-end performance is very important aerodynamically, and this has clearly been a concern for the TT2.
The rear of the bike has also received attention. The seatstays are wider around the rear wheel to improve airflow, and more smoothly integrated into the seat tube; it looks far less eye-catching and angular than the TT1 design.
Elsewhere, the bottom bracket, seatpost and fork, as mentioned, are all new and more high-modulus carbon fibre has been used across the frame.
The brand claims a two-watt saving compared to the TT1 across ‘a weighted range of real whirlwind conditions,’ and confirms aerodynamic drag is lower than the TT1.
Colnago also cites stability as a key concern for the TT2, and the frame has new shallower tube profiles specifically to provide more predictable ‘airflow behaviour across a range of yaw angles’. Colnago makes the case that fewer steering corrections let riders maintain their aero position more effectively.
Various pro riders have crashed on TT bikes in training, most recently Wout van Aert; perhaps a more stable all-round bike will help riders when training and competing.
Geometry has also been updated. The XS size is new, and stack/reach numbers have been altered. Stack height now grows as reach increases, whereas it flatlined before in larger sizes. Colnago says this change reduces the need for extreme spacer configurations, i.e riders would add multiple spacers to the handlebar configuration to achieve their desired position.
The seat tube angle has gotten steeper, and the bottom bracket drop has been lowered to facilitate ‘aggressive forward rider positions’.
A magnetic aero bottle
;An integrated aero bottle is also included with the TT2, and it’s an ‘aerodynamic component of the bike’. Colnago says the bottle and cage have the thinnest and longest permitted profile to reduce aero drag overall.
The cage uses Fidlock magnetic Twist fasteners to make bottle access easier and faster in an event.
Notably, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG team will not use the stock water bottle due to a sponsorship agreement with Elite, instead using an Elite aero bottle with a custom Colnago bottle cage system.
The biggest race of the year approaches, given the way he continues to ride, the fact that the world champion now has a lighter, faster bike to use for time trials will surely only bolster his chances when July rolls around.