Depending on the race, you’re either going to see Mavic’s yellow cars and bikes, or these blue Shimano Neutral Support cars with Pinarello Dogma road bikes on them. For the 2018 Giro d’Italia, Shimano’s vehicles carried a full range of frame sizes, with a mix of rim and disc brake bikes. All, of course, were running top-level brand new Dura-Ace Di2, Dura-Ace wheels and (mostly) PRO cockpits.
The bikes are Pinarello Dogma F10 and F10 Disc, both the latest top level road racing bikes from the Italian brand.
Up front are allow PRO bars and stems with PRO handlebar tape.
Seatposts were PRO, also, but the saddles were Selle Italia’s top of the line SP-01 Kit Carbonio Superflow saddles, which have a nearly full length center relief channel running all the way out through a split tail. The carbon fiber shell wraps to create a leaf spring design to improve comfort. It’s a $390 production saddle based off the prototype concepts we saw at Taipei Cycle Show in 2017, though with a less glossy finish on the bottom and slight tweaks to the rail connections on the back.
The groups were full Dura-Ace, with the bikes we checked running a universal 52-36 chainring combo. Some bikes had Dura-Ace SPD pedals, others had Speedplay or Look. The goal with these bikes is to get a rider back on course as quickly as possible when their team car is too far away, so having a variety of the most commonly used pedals makes sense.
Disc brakes FTW.
It’s not just the pros that get Shimano’s attention. In the US, they’re present at 50+ events per year to offer technical support, quick fixes and more. Follow their Multi-Service team on Twitter, and check the schedule here.
